“Miss Sylvia, are you awake? I’m sighing at the thought of working again.”
“Aah. I can’t believe we have work already when it hasn’t even dawned yet… And after bossing us around for a long time yesterday!”
“That’s right. I guess the fact that they’re always recruiting doesn’t mean there’s always new people. There aren’t many people working consistently, so there’s always going to be a shortage of manpower.”

Wasn’t there a saying that earning money was the hardest thing in the world? Even so, she couldn’t take it anymore as the workforce was relentlessly exploited in such a poor working environment. Sylvia, who wanted to argue even if it wasn’t an option, roughly washed her face, brushed her teeth, and went out looking for the pot-belly with a tumultuous face.

Just then, she found the pot-belly leaning against the bow, yawning. Sylvia wriggled her eyebrows as she strode closer. He was startled and straightened up. She crossed her arms and blocked him with a resolute face.

“Pot-be… I mean, Deckmaster. I came here to talk with you. Isn’t that too much for a human? Yesterday, you ordered us to work until almost 10 p.m., and today, the day isn’t even bright yet and you want us to work again?”
“Oh-oh! Why is this person speakin’ up? Don’t ye know that the priest has t’ leave if he doesn’t like the temple? Ye can go home if ye don’t like it!”

The pot-belly looked angry for a moment, then pushed his stomach against her and made provoking remarks. By telling her to go home, didn’t he mean for her to dive into the sea?

Sylvia was stunned and speechless. When she managed to open her mouth, the pot-belly ignored her and walked past her, saying, ‘Ah, really! The problem wit’ young people these days is that they don’t know hardships!’ to himself.
She called out, ‘Excuse me!’ but looked ridiculous as he ignored her as if his ears were blocked and passed her.

‘I tried to speak to him nicely, but this won’t do. Should I use 〈Seriously Talking Nonsense〉?’

After thinking about it for a moment, Sylvia shook her head. She decided to save her skills for now because she had other options.

‘Abusing the skills can lead to side effects like last time. Let’s try the other option first, talking to the crew.’

She decided to gather the sailors when they had a break from work.

A bell rang to announce it was time to work, and the endless labor began. Sylvia, who looked around in the midst of her busyness, secretly glared at the condescending pot-belly slamming his whip on the floor. Even though they were working hard, he threatened them with a whip to make them work harder. It was really the worst.

Sylvia, who was grinding her teeth and mending the nets, fell into thought. It was a question of how much would change after the conversation with the sailors. Thinking about it quietly, 2,000 gold was not a small amount of money for the common imperial people. Seeing the sailors who were familiar with the job, it seemed like they had been working silently, only looking at the money.

Thinking, Sylvia shook her head again. It didn’t make sense to work in an environment where even a minimum rest time was not guaranteed on top of having a meal that looked like soup for pigs just because the daily pay was high. They were working at the risk of shipwrecking in a windstorm or dying in an unexpected accident in the open sea. Shouldn’t they at least be guaranteed a pleasant working environment? Judging by the look of exhaustion on the sailors’ faces, she didn’t think she was wrong.

After lunchtime, work stopped for a while because the net was torn. When she looked around, she didn’t see the pot-belly nor the captain on the deck, as well as the navigators.

‘Now is the right time to talk to the crew.’

She pretended to mend the nets and complained to the sailors working next to her. At first, they hesitated while looking at each other’s faces, but Sylvia’s serious expression told them something more honest than the badmouthing they did over drinks.

“The truth is…”
“Yes, tell me everything honestly.”

The most shocking thing she learned during their conversation was that 2,000 gold per day was actually a lie to get part-timers, and you had to peel 5,000 shrimp per day to be given up to a 2,000-gold incentive, and that the basic hourly rate was 500 gold.

She couldn’t believe that they were giving incentives on a shrimp boat. If she put a notice like this on a job site in her real life, it would go down with countless reports. Her eyes burned with rage at the deception that was worse than that of most vile part-time jobs.

‘What? 500 gold? That’s ridiculous pay for being bossed around all day in the open sea.’

“500 gold! Does it make sense for the suffering they make us go through?”

The sailors sighed as Sylvia got angry. Even though they resigned themselves, saying, ‘Young people don’t know, but we’re used to it because this is all we’ve been doing,’ they eventually said they regretted starting work on this ship.

They shed tears, saying that if they had received their pay normally like in other boats, they themselves would have at least one boat at this age, but they could not get off the ship until they were paid. As she continued to listen, the captain had failed to give the powerless sailors their salaries for more than a decade. This really wasn’t right.

‘If I don’t get the money for the few days I worked, I can take it by using my hammer on the captain’s head, but these men are so pitiful! I need to get a boat and help these people.’

Unable to bear it, Sylvia thought hard and soon came up with a good idea. She gathered the sailors in a corner and clearly voiced her opinion. To encourage their morale, which had become lethargic after being accustomed to tyranny for a long time, she also used the skill 〈Seriously Talking Nonsense〉 a little, like she was sprinkling pepper.

Even the sailors, who had hesitated at first, began to come out at her persuasion. Inspired by Sylvia’s words, the sailors walked viciously toward the captain’s room, holding weapons in each hand. Sylvia, holding her hammer, stood at the vanguard. Sevis also belatedly joined and followed them with a puzzled face.

Sylvia strode ahead and held the hammer high above her head.

“Let’s go! Let’s get our precious money back!”

And so, at 3 p.m., while the captain, the pot-belly, and the navigators were lazily taking their afternoon nap, a small revolution broke out on board!

After breaking through the door of the captain’s room without hesitation due to the heinous force, they found the captain and the pot-belly lying on their stomachs, unable to come to their senses despite this mess. Seeing the bottle of wine rolling around on the table, it looked like they had been drinking during the day.

“These guys haven’t come to their senses yet…”
“Huh? Look over there.”

The sailors ran over and grabbed a man. The first mate, who was entering the room after going to the bathroom, found the group and tried to run away secretly, but was grabbed by the collar. Unlike the captain and the pot-belly, he had no responsibility, but he was technically a bystander.

Sylvia secretly called him outside. The sailors and Sylvia had never steered a ship before, so it was necessary to persuade a navigator.

“What? You want me to steer the ship for you? That’s hilarious!”

As expected, he couldn’t be persuaded by speaking nicely. She had no choice but to use the 〈Seriously Talking Nonsense〉 skill to encourage his urge to steer the ship. What should she say? Sylvia trusted the power of her skill and decided to just say anything.

‘Ah, whatever.’

“Lim, lim, limborginiiiii, borborseeeeee, beep beep, it’s a transfer. Beep beep-! Your balance is insufficient.”

She said anything she could think of. Even as she spoke, she felt self-conscious about herself and closed her eyes tightly.

‘I really just said whatever. Will it work?’

Contrary to her concerns, the effect of the skill was amazing. She didn’t know from which part he had been persuaded, but he shouted that he was going to steer the ship with crazy eyes. Sylvia smiled, satisfied, but felt that this skill was scary.

‘The 〈Seriously Talking Nonsense〉 skill is more dangerous than I thought. I never thought this nonsense would work. It’s unlikely that my karma will increase when used for such a just cause.’

Fortunately, a message saying that her karma had gone up did not appear. The navigator’s persuasion was over, and when she returned triumphantly to the captain’s room, the captain and the pot-belly were kneeling on the floor, bound by a rope. On either side, sailors with angry faces were watching them.

Sylvia quietly looked down at them, and Sevis, who had approached her, told her what had happened.

He said that they woke up the captain and the pot-belly, who were passed out drunk, and tried to talk nicely to them and persuade them. When they asked them to pay all the wages and improve the working conditions, the captain and the pot-belly quietly pretended to listen. And then, at some point, the captain suddenly yelled, drew his sword, and rushed to attack the sailors.

Fortunately, Sevis stopped the captain’s sword with his long fingernails due to his animalistic senses, but it was a close call. The captain, who hesitated when the attack was blocked, was imprisoned by the angry sailors, and the pot-belly, who was next to him wondering what to do, knelt with him.

The innocent sailors did bring their weapons with them, but they tried to talk peacefully until the last moment, and the captain threw away his last chance. After listening to the conversation between Sylvia and Sevis, the tied captain began shaking and shouting.

“Sh*t, I was wondering why these guys were suddenly acting like this, and it turns out you two are the problem! If you come here to work, you should work quietly. Why are you giving the guys false hope and making such a mess!”
“False hope?”
“Yes, false hope. How dare you talk back to your employer. You guys, I’ll let you work for me, but no one else will accept you because you’re old! You don’t know your place!”

The captain shouted angrily, with a reddened face. She thought he was a man of few words because she hadn’t seen him since the first day, but he was just quiet because he was drunk. At least the pot-belly next to him had his mouth closed, perhaps because he figured out the situation, but the captain was spitting out rough words without caring at all for the angry faces of the sailors.

Sylvia’s original plan was to receive the wages in arrears from the captain, distribute them to the sailors, and give them the boat at the same time. And she was going to send the captain and pot-belly down in a lifeboat to find a way to live, and ask the navigator to take her to Treasure Island.

However, the captain, who was more shameless than she thought, made her feel angry, and her heart to show mercy disappeared.

After sending Sevis out with the crew for a moment, Sylvia used her skill to find out the password to the captain’s safe. Inside the safe were a bunch of gold coins and checks, along with the staff’s ledger.

“Everyone, come in.”

Sylvia called them back from standing outside and handed out the assets as written in the ledger. She didn’t know if the ledger was accurate, but that was the only thing that could set the standard. Fortunately, the sailors bowed and thanked her as if they were satisfied.

“Then, this ship… who should have it?”

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