Kapitel 45: Part 5.3
AN: Saw a pretty good Korean movie recently. Based this chapter off of it a little.
XoXoXoX
It was just after noon, and I was on the deck of the ship. Many of the men are running round doing all kinds of different tasks. Cleaning, climbing, looking around, and a few were fighting. I didn't make a fuss about them fighting as long as they cleaned up after themselves. I saw someone trip over a guy layed out on the deck and knock himself out. I know a safety hazard when I see one and I made the rule about cleaning up after fights. I'm focused on something else entirely. I stick my tounge out in concentration, tasting the back of my mask. Eww.
"The seagull goes over the mast, around the sides counterclockwise, goes around the other mast, over, under, over again, fights another seagull and loses, and... I just tied my hands in a knot somehow."
Gurry is leaning on a barrel nearby and bursts out laughing. I ignore him and instead try to untie the knot around my hands without snapping the rope again. Sure we had a lot of rope, but that wasn't a good excuse to waste rope. What if we, I don't know, needed to tie a bunch of people up or something. If we didn't have the rope to do that because I snapped it all because I was practicing tying knots it would make me look bad.
Well, worse anyways. Kuzric once told me I was really ugly, and it was a good thing I wore my mask all the time. Personally, I blame genetics. I bet one of my parents were ugly too, maybe even both.
Speaking of ugly, I look up to see a man standing awkwardly by the rail of the ship dressed in rags with a nasty burn on his head over his right eye. Every few seconds his head twitches erratically. He's all alone watching everyone run around. I see him twitch, and I can't stop myself from twitching either.
If there's one thing I hate it's awkwardness, and this guy just screams awkward when he's all by his lonesome. I see only one course of action to stop this.
I free my hands and wave at him, getting his attention.
"Hey you!" I call out.
He points at himself and I nod my head. "Yeah, I'm talking to you. Come over here."
He begins an awkward gait over to where I'm sitting. Even with me sitting cross-legged on the ground I'm as tall as he is standing up. As he gets close I notice he has a bloodstained rag wrapped partway around his head. Kinda looks like someone tried to beat his head in with a rock and his head didn't cave.
He gets within speaking distance and stops. He twitches again, and I quickly figure out that it's something he can't help. He panics for whatever reason, and does something that surprises me.
He gets on his knees and bows so low his head touches the floor.
Immediately, Gurry stops laughing about me getting my hands wrapped up. I can't take my eyes off this guy.
I speak, my voice low with what I hope sounds like confusion, "What are you doing?"
"Bowing, Captain." He replies quickly.
"Why?"
"It's my place."
I snort. "No it isn't. Now stand, you're making me feel awkward and I hate feeling awkward."
He hastily gets to his feet. I look him dead in the eyes and see how scared he is.
"What's you're name and what do you do?" I ask him.
"My name is Dolmuchi, and I used to be a butcher in the kingdom of Diz-Harmony."
I raise an eyebrow unseen behind my mask. "Oh, that means we're taking you back home. Does that make you excited Dolchi?"
"My name is... yeah. My name is Dolchi. I honestly wish we weren't going back home."
Okay. Now I'm confused. I was confused to begin with but now I'm kinda getting a tad concerned. I'm a steady guy, it takes a lot to get me concerned. This guy is sending me a lot of mixed messages though.
"Why Dolchi? Why don't you explain it to me. I saw you standing there by the railing and called you over so you wouldn't look so awkward. Talking will make everything less awkward and you can describe Diz-Harmony to me. Take a seat."
He slumps to the ground, and begins talking.
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Diz-Harmony wasn't always a kingdom. It used to be run by tribes who valued equality over everything. Long ago, one tribe grew strong and conquered all the others.
They set themselves up as the royal family, and claimed a large share of everything for themselves. The people were outraged, and the new royal family noticed their mistake and fixed it before a rebellion happened.
The law in Diz-Harmony is that every family owns land, no matter how poor they are. However, the more land a family owns the more important they are. My family owned four and a half miles of land. Normally this would make us rich, but the soil was poor. It was much too salty for anything to grow. So, my family are all butchers.
The rich look down on butchers in Diz-Harmony and see us as beasts. Monsters that do nothing but follow the orders of their betters and kill. Maybe they are right.
I lived with my Mam and my sister in our hut on the salt field. Life was rough, I couldn't make enough to support my family. My sister stole to help support us.
One day, I was delivering meat to a noble and an attendant waved me over. He asked me if I was willing to make a big score. I quickly agreed, and he led me inside theansion to talk to the Lord inside.
He offered me ten million beli to kill a girl. A whore he said, who had offended him. She had apparently desecrated a temple with her presence. I could had done a lot with ten million beli, and I quickly agreed.
I tracked the girl down, but I couldn't bring myself to kill her in the dead of night. She was heavily pregnant, and it seemed wrong. It would had been wrong.
I left and went home.
When the Lord realized I hadn't done the deed, he sent his guards to my home. They took my sister and locked me and my Mam inside the house. Then they set it on fire. I survived it, but my Mam didn't.
In a blind rage, I grabbed my butcher knifes and stormed the Lord's manor. I killed a lot of innocents in my rage. Guards, servants, and bystanders. The guards arrested me before I got to the Lord.
As they were hauling me off, I learned something horrific. My sister hadn't been taken. She was requested by the Lord. She was beautiful you see. The Lord proposed to her, and she accepted. The Lord then blamed me for killing our Mam and used the people I killed as evidence of what a monster I was, killing for money that another Lord supposedly payed me with.
My sister hates me now. I don't blame her. I am a monster. I was sentenced to Impel Down, and you know the rest.
Diz-Harmony is a land where people own the earth, and those who don't own the earth aren't even human. Like me.
XoXoXoX
I stop Dolchi. "Salt?" I ask.
He nods. "Nothing grows in salted land. To own salted land is seen as being worthless."
My mind is boiling. A roiling boil. Gurry is grinning madly over Dolchi's shoulder. The sage probably knows what I'm thinking right now.
Nothing nice. That's for sure.
I point to a bean-counter I recognize and he walks over. "Yes boss?"
"Random question. How much salt do we have?"
He rubs his chin, then gestures to several cargo ships behind us. "See those boats? Their holds are filled with nothing but salt. It's a necessity, mainly used for preserving food. That means everyone uses it, and is sold in bulk."
"So, a lot of salt?"
He nods. "Yes boss. A lot of salt."
I nod. "Good. Hearing Dolchi has made me feel a bit salty."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein