The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort-Chapter 72: First day on a ship

"Wake up—"

"Shut up." Alan interrupted before Lucian finished speaking.

Yawning with his hand over his mouth, Alan raised himself from his bed.

It was a simple rectangular bed attached to the wooden walls of the pirate ship, nothing fancy, but enough to do the job, not that Alan cared all too much about quality, he spent the last week or so sleeping on dirt with a dragon.

Frowning, Alan looked ahead with crossed arms. "What the hell you waking me up for?"

Similarly, Lucian crossed his arms. "It’s morning."

"Is it?" Alan glanced out the circular window next to his bed.

The view of the sky wasn’t anything special, dawn was just breaking through the horizon, colouring the dark sky in bright yellow rays.

But the scenery witnessed with the ocean reflecting the sun was an entirely different experience.

Hmm, what was that? Dawn is just breaking through the horizon?

"It’s fucking sunrise." Alan growled, staring at Alan with narrowed eyes.

"Alan, for the past six years of your life, I’ve been consistently waking you up at sunrise, so why is it that everytime I do so, we repeat the same conversation—"

"Shut up!"

Thump

Alan threw a pillow into Lucian’s face.

...

Splash

Alan scooped water from the sink and threw it against his face.

Sighing, Alan continued washing his face and doing his morning routine as per usual, brushing his teeth and wearing a new set of clothes.

Six years of having to wake up at the same time, one would expect the other to have grown accustomed to such events.

But nope, Alan was just as consistent with being irritated every time Lucian woke him up, surely no one particularly enjoys being ripped from their peaceful dreams without their consent.

Well, not that Alan knew what he was dreaming, for some weird reason he never seemed to remember anything, it was just... a void.

Still being woken up was annoying, especially when it was the same idiotic face he always saw first thing after waking up.

Brushing his thoughts aside, Alan slipped his arms through the fabric of a black shirt and put his legs in black pants.

It’s the same style he’d been running with for the past two months, not that he didn’t have other clothes, he just had a lot of the same black pairs of shirts and pants.

And it was comfortable, he wore a long black button-up shirt, Alan rolled up the sleeves of his forearms up to his elbows.

Now he looked extra cool.

Finally Alan reached for his black blindfold, the same artifact he’s been using since they left the capital, and wrapped the silk around his eyes.

Obviously the artifact didn’t obstruct his vision, in fact, it enhanced it, he wore it all the time, it wasn’t an issue either, most of the time he’d even forget he was wearing a blindfold, that’s how comfortable it was.

Smiling, Alan stepped out of the bathroom door back into his room, or rather the room he shared alongside Lucian.

On the other side of the room was another simple bed connected with the wooden wall, the bed used by Lucian.

Their living quarters were separated into two rooms, one for the boys and the other for the girls, while Felix was just relaxing in some VIP-level room.

Seeing the lack of presence in the room, it seemed like Lucian had already stepped out, leaving Alan behind.

Shrugging, Alan did the same, having nothing else to do, so he walked out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

As maybe mentioned before, the ship of the Kestrel pirates wasn’t small at all, the vessel stretched far enough to contain multiple houses in it.

Walking through the empty hallways, the interior, sort of, reminded Alan of the structure of a ship he’d seen in a specific movie in his past life, a tragic love story inside of an enormous, indestructible ship, only to do the one thing it was said to be incapable of.

Soon he recognised a familiar door, it was the room the girls, Julia and Iris were residing in.

’They’ll come out soon.’ Thinking such things, Alan passed by the door, after all, the two of them also had an annoying habit of waking up at the break of dawn.

As Alan was walking by the door.

Clang Clang

He heard noises that shouldn’t be coming out of a room.

"What the hell?" Alan paused, turning to the door with a confused frown.

Ultimately he decided to investigate what was happening inside, well, he had to make sure they were alright, you know, to be a good team member.

And so, Alan pushed open the door.

Creek.

The first thing he saw in the centre of the room was Julia, who was in the middle of a one-arm handstand and wearing nothing but her pyjamas.

On her raised foot was Sparky in his human form of a little boy, sitting comfortably on her foot, while Iris was silently applauding for whatever reason.

Julia quickly noticed Alan, her crimson eyes locking onto his figure, while her lips pulled upwards into a grin or downwards? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain when someone is upside down.

"Alan!"

Thump

Alan completely shut the door.

Then, very slowly, opened it up again.

"Alan!"

Unfortunately, nothing changed.

"What the hell are you all doing?" Alan plainly asked.

"What do you think?" Julia replied, without shifting from her handstand, Sparky raised his adorable face and stared at Alan with a delighted smile.

But it didn’t do anything to help Alan understand what could have possibly led to this kind of action.

"I wouldn’t be asking if I fucking knew."

"Iris! Alan’s being racist!"

"Huh?"

"He’s racist to me!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

...

"How would that even help Sparky?" Alan muttered, leaning on the doorway.

"I don’t really know, nor does it matter if I do, I only support her when I need to." Iris replied with a shrug.

In the end Julia’s reason for doing a random handstand with Sparky chilling on her foot was apparently to help Sparky become stronger.

Well, that’s all Julia said before she rushed into the bathroom to get all dressed up for the day.

Iris, in front of Alan, was already neatly ready, wearing a simple long skirt and a scarlet ribbon tied around her eyes.

According to Iris, lately Julia had been attempting something with Sparky, something that could potentially strengthen each other?

Thinking about it, Alan could understand why Julia would be training with Sparky, after all, they both shared very similiar Affinities, Julia had her Affinity with a certain crimson variant of lighting, while Sparky was lighting itself.

Reminding himself that others in his group were still growing at a rapid pace, Alan looked at something he hadn’t for a while.

’Status.’

____________________________

[Name: Alan]

[Titles: —]

[age: 16]

[core rank: 3 (Manifest)]

[Affinity: Ethereal Ember]

[Soul weapon: —]

[Soul armour: —]

[Innate skill: Instinct, Intuition]

[Skills: Mana breath, Reaper, Gaze]

____________________________

Alan quietly sighed under his breath, this so-called ’system’ of his was much more different than the type he’d seen in fiction in his past life.

In short, it was fairly useless, not once had the ’system’ ever interacted with him or provided any help to him, acting more like a type of record, showing his progression.

But soul weapon and soul armour, it was kind of infuriating seeing those two sections being completely empty.

And titles, another section that confused him, were [Titles], because they never granted anything to Alan.

Occasionally Alan would genuinely question why there was even a special status interface that only he could see but obviously never received an answer.

’Is this thing just completely useless?’ The second Alan had that thought.

[A new Title acquired!]

The system notification popped up in his face.

"Huh?" Alan muttered, this had literally never happened before, this kind of text only appeared if he ever learnt a new skill or advanced a stage in core rank.

But a title? Why was he getting one out of the complete blue?

Confused Alan kept reading.

[New Title: Bastard]

[Bastard: You are a fucking bastard]

[Description: Everyone recognises you as a bastard, so fuck you, you piece of shit – their words, not mine.]

[Passive: Absolutely nothing.]

[Ability: Fuck you if you thought there would be something here as well.]

"What the actual fuck?"

"What’s wrong?" Iris asked.

"Nah... nothing." Alan dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hands, instantly focusing on his interface once more.

[Titles: Bastard]

Seeing the new text that wasn’t there before.

"Oh hell nah." Alan whispered, with a horribly perplexed face.

First off, his very first title he earned was completely random, out of nowhere, and ’Bastard’ of all things?

Second, why was the description so bloody specific?

Third, Passive and Ability? What were those?

Lastly, didn’t this shit just talk back to him?

Alan tried asking questions and everything but received no response, the ’system’ was just dead silent, like it always was.

Defeated, Alan could only slump his shoulders without understanding anything while he was wallowing in his confusion.

Clank

The bathroom door opened.