The senior pirates were all very enthusiastic.
Thus, the victory celebration banquet seemed to be evolving in the direction of a welcoming banquet...
"Hurry over here, little rookie! Since you've joined us, you must know how to sing! Let your senior here teach you how a pirate sings!"
A big-nosed pirate enthusiastically squeezed to the front, grabbing Lin Qi and trying to pull him towards his own seat.
"But I don't know how to sing..."
"Hey now, that's exactly why we need to teach you! Don't worry, pirate songs are very easy to remember!"
"Is it possible that... I also don't like singing..."
Lin Qi looked troubled; he had never sung in front of others before.
"Oho, you heard him too, the little rookie doesn't like singing!"
Another pirate with a full beard's eyes lit up, immediately grabbing Lin Qi's other arm.
"Since you don't like singing, and we're at a banquet right now, you should learn pirate dancing with me! How can you have a banquet without dancing to liven things up?"
As he spoke, the bearded pirate demonstrated a short sequence of dance steps on the spot.
"Nonsense! What's so great about your boring dancing? Piss off, don't stand here blocking me from bonding with the newbie!"
The big-nosed pirate glared, patting the hand with which the bearded pirate was holding Lin Qi.
He signaled him to go back wherever he came from.
"Hah? You have the nerve to say my dancing is boring? Which one of our brothers doesn't say I dance well? And I haven't even mentioned your grating voice yet!"
The bearded pirate instantly flared up, pointing and jabbing his finger towards the big-nosed pirate's face.
"That's just the brothers being too polite to tell you the truth! You dance worse than my grandmother's boots stink!"
Hearing this, the big-nosed pirate also flew into a rage.
"Heh~ ya~, looks like you don't know how tough I am! C'mon, outside, let's settle this!"
"Settle it, then! Who's afraid of who!"
The two were clearly worked up now. Releasing their grip on Lin Qi, they started pushing and shoving each other towards the outside.
"Ooh ooh ooh! Fight, fight, fight!"
The pirates watching the excitement on the side clapped their hands excitedly.
"Heheh, since you're both ignoring the newbie now, I'll take the newbie to play finger-guessing games!"
A pirate with a large gold tooth suddenly chuckled oddly, grabbed Lin Qi, and without another word, started running towards his own seat.
"You little rascal! So you had this in mind—should we deal with him first?"
The sharp-eared bearded pirate whirled his head around, saw this scene, and his anger instantly shifted.
He then turned to try and form an alliance with the big-nosed pirate.
"Deal with him first!"
The big-nosed pirate unhesitatingly chose to unite with the bearded pirate.
After reaching an agreement, the two's eyes seemed to glow. They took a running start and pounced like tigers, landing on the gold-toothed pirate who hadn't gotten far and pinning him to the ground.
"Stop! You can't do this!"
The pinned gold-toothed pirate looked terrified, clawing at the ground with his hands, trying to escape from the two's restraint.
"Heheh! You can't escape, thinking you could pluck the peach from behind our backs?"
"Not that easy!"
"No, listen, even if you've caught me, it's useless! There are so many other brothers here!"
"There are bound to be others who thought the same as me!"
To ensure his own... well-being remained intact, the gold-toothed pirate decisively sold out his other brothers.
The two realized this belatedly and turned to look.
Good grief! That Bessie fellow was already holding a small notebook and pulling Lin Qi aside, saying something to him.
Judging by his excited expression, he really seemed planning to draw inspiration from Lin Qi's experiences to write something!
"Audacious!"
"Well done, Bessie! You've got some nerve!"
The two leaped up from the gold-toothed pirate and dashed back like starving wolves that hadn't eaten for three days.
The gold-toothed pirate at the bottom also swiftly rejoined the fray after the two left.
Clearly, all the pirates really liked this little rookie Lin Qi and were eager to teach him everything they themselves enjoyed.
But well...
Lin Qi, being pulled and tugged by a large crowd, already had a face full of utter despair.
Faced with their enthusiasm, even Lin Qi was clearly having a bit of trouble handling it.
After all, everyone was welcoming him, and no one had malicious intentions. How could Lin Qi possibly use his Servant-level strength to shake them all off with a single mighty heave?
In the end, it was Drake who couldn't stand it any longer. She stepped forward, scolded her underlings, and told them to get back to whatever they were supposed to be doing.
This finally rescued Lin Qi from his misery.
—Although later, Lin Qi was still forced to sing and dance along with them for a bit.
Finally having escaped the clutches of his enthusiastic senior pirates, Lin Qi sat down in his seat and let out a sigh of relief.
This seat was also very familiar to Lin Qi; it happened to be the chair right below the hole he had made when he spiritron transferred in.
After catching his breath for a moment, Lin Qi turned his gaze back to this somewhat dilapidated, yet pirate-filled house.
The pirates were always high-spirited and followed their whims.
After being scolded by Drake and told not to harass the rookie anymore, they weren't upset at all. Instead, they happily started playing on their own.
Some were eating large mouthfuls of meat, enjoying clinking cups with others.
Some had dug out dice from who-knows-where and were gambling wildly with everyone at their table.
Quite a few had gathered in the open space in the middle of the room, happily dancing pirate dances.
The pirates watching from the sides accompanied them by slapping tables and whistling.
"He set sail in the storm, thunder, lightning, and ghostly revelry~"
"Through the waves, piercing the dawn..."
And of course, there were those singing along to the rhythm.
Taking all of this in, the anxiety and unease in Lin Qi's heart gradually faded away.
Almost unconsciously.
Lin Qi leaned on the table, propping his face with one hand, while his other hand, imitating the seniors' tune, tapped lightly on the table.
The corners of his mouth gradually lifted.
A long-lost sense of warmth filled Lin Qi's heart.
'It seems... this is what I wanted the most?'
Lin Qi thought, dazed.
After experiencing so many things.
If you were to ask Lin Qi what his wish was now, it probably wasn't something as distant and almost unattainable as defeating Goetia and saving the world.
It was more like this.
Under warm lighting, in a comfortable wooden house, surrounded by a large group of people, everyone happily chatting, laughing, bragging, joking, and roughhousing with each other...
—Actually, it didn't necessarily have to be centered around him. Just giving him a seat in the corner, letting him sit there watching their lively commotion, chiming in occasionally would be enough.
Just like now.
"I really hope this time could last a little longer..."
Lin Qi savored this hard-won warmth, his eyes gradually glazing over.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
"Yo! Time to come back to earth."
A somewhat familiar voice sounded beside him, accompanied by a pat on his shoulder.
Lin Qi's wandering thoughts were pulled back, and he discovered that a wooden cup of swirling, frothy liquor had been placed in front of him at some point.
Turning his head, he saw the owner of the voice already standing beside him.
"So? What do you think of my crew?"
Seeing Lin Qi regain his senses, Drake grinned, jerking her chin towards the direction of her crew members.
"They're all very interesting, great seniors, and... they've taken good care of me..."
The first part Lin Qi blurted out without thinking, but when it came to the end, he hesitated slightly, and his expression took on a hint of embarrassment.
After all, their way of taking care of him was a bit strange...
"Hahaha, that's good then! I told you you'd get along well with them!"
Drake laughed heartily, slapping Lin Qi on the back.
"To use your own words, I think you're a pretty interesting guy too, otherwise I wouldn't have let you join us."
"Ultimately, if you're going on an adventure, but everyone on the same ship can't stand each other, then what's the point of adventuring?"
"Might as well go home and crawl into your mother's arms!"
Lin Qi nodded in agreement.
If you're doing big things, you really need to find like-minded people with compatible personalities. If there's constant internal strife, you probably won't accomplish anything.
Let alone have a lively atmosphere like the one here.
"By the way, what's this doing here with me?"
Lin Qi suddenly picked up the cup beside his hand, looking at Drake in confusion.
"Rum, of course it's for you to drink. What else?"
Drake looked at Lin Qi as if he were an idiot.
Alcohol is for drinking, what else could it be for?
"But I don't like drinking..."
"Oh? So you're the goody-two-shoes type? Won't drink until you're of age?"
Drake looked at Lin Qi with a teasing glint in her eyes.
Hearing this, Lin Qi rolled his eyes.
"Impossible! I just simply don't like drinking. Compared to alcohol, which tastes awful, I prefer sweeter things like juice."
After saying this, Lin Qi pushed the cup slightly in Drake's direction.
Lin Qi wasn't lying; he truly felt this way.
For him, alcohol wasn't as good as a glass of plain water.
After all, who really waits strictly until a certain age to drink these days? Once the adults think you're old enough, it's up to you whether you drink or not.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever excuses you want to make. Anyway, that cup stays with you..."
Drake chuckled lightly, clearly not believing Lin Qi's explanation.
After waving her hand behind her back without turning around, she returned to her own seat.
Drake left quickly and showed no intention of looking back, leaving Lin Qi, who was holding the cup and wanting to return it to her, in a dilemma—to put it down or not.
"Sigh..."
After a brief internal struggle, Lin Qi sighed and placed the cup back in front of himself.
Looking at the liquor shimmering with a crystalline sheen under the faint light, Lin Qi shook his head.
"Anyway, I'm not drinking it. Whoever wants to drink it can have it."
...