Chapter 7: The Shelves
The next morning, Maud opened his eyes, his face full of tiredness.
He had stayed up all night organizing information and, without realizing it, had worked until dawn.
He had fallen asleep from exhaustion but woke up in less than two hours.
Fortunately, he had completed a hunt the day before; otherwise, his body couldn't have handled so much activity.
Once awake, Maud couldn't go back to sleep.
He took off the thin blanket and got out of bed.
He didn't know what job Saul would assign him.
In any case, to get settled as quickly as possible, he had already resigned himself to the role of a laborer.
He rubbed his face and opened the door to leave.
The silence in the hallway was so profound that the faint creak of the wooden floorboards under his feet sounded abnormally loud.
In the corner of the hallway, a window covered with wooden planks let in the morning sunlight, forming columns of dappled light on the floor.
Maud glanced at the other closed doors, didn't linger, and headed for the stairs.
He went down to the first floor.
The hallway to the right led directly to the shop, and the one to the left led to the living room and kitchen.
Perhaps it was early, as the shop door was not yet open.
However, Sunny was already awake and sitting at the dining table, having breakfast.
Maud quickly washed up and then went to the dining room, which was connected to the kitchen.
He was very hungry.
He could still endure it yesterday, but not today. He didn't know if it was a reaction from his body's good recovery.
Sunny looked up at Maud, who seemed hungry, and pushed a glass of milk toward a seat, gesturing for him to sit and eat.
Maud was not being polite and sat down in the chair.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a plate and a bowl with some leftover food on another empty seat, which Saul had likely left after eating.
Maud picked up the wooden mug and took a sip of milk. He frowned, tasting the peculiar flavor of raw milk.
He endured the discomfort and drank the raw milk, then took a piece of meat and ate it in a few bites, which gave him the false sensation of coming back to life.
It must be said that, although the shop seemed austere, the food was quite good.
But what most reassured Maud was the nonchalant attitude displayed by Saul and Sunny, which was very different from what he had expected from a pirate.
Furthermore, in a way, Saul was his savior.
After eating several pieces of meat, Maud slowed down.
He looked at Sunny, who had already finished eating, and remembering yesterday's note that said he couldn't go out day or night, an idea came to him.
"Sunny, what kind of place is Mad Hatter Town?"
"Didn't you go out and take a look?"
"???"
Maud's head was full of questions.
The content of yesterday's note was still fresh in his memory.
Seeing Sunny's expressionless face, Maud thought the girl might be getting revenge for how he had evaded her the day before.
Cshh!
While he was thinking, he heard the sound of Sunny pushing her chair back.
"After you eat, clean everything up and then the shop. You have half an hour."
Leaving those words, Sunny went upstairs without looking back.
Maud shook his head, finished the rest of his breakfast, and began to clean.
If his job as a laborer was just to clean, then it was too easy.
After clearing the table, Maud took the cleaning tools to the shop.
When cleaning the shelves, Maud was very careful.
After all, one of the notes Sunny had given him was that he couldn't touch the weapons for sale.
He couldn't touch them, but he could look at them.
In the shop there were three shelves. The first had swords of various styles, the second had muskets of different sizes, and the third had a mix of swords and muskets.
If he remembered correctly, Watts' bloody machete, after Saul cleaned it, had been placed on the third shelf.
Seeing that the third shelf had an overwhelming number of objects, Maud remembered Saul's movements from yesterday and began to think: "..."
'A shelf just for second-hand items?'
And the source of the products didn't need to be mentioned.
However, to be exact, with bladed weapons like swords, if there was no substantial damage, it didn't matter if they were second-hand.
His gaze moved away from the third shelf and went to the shelf with a dozen muskets.
The number wasn't large, so the shelf looked empty.
Maud looked at the muskets.
Whether on Earth or in the Hunter's World, the presence of firearms was always stronger than that of bladed weapons.
Compared to swords and other bladed weapons, Maud was more familiar with firearms.
When he was in the Hunter's World, even though his level was such that he no longer needed to depend on a pistol, he always carried one with him.
As for his skill with the weapon, he couldn't say he was an expert, but he could guarantee basic accuracy.
However, he also knew that in the world of One Piece, the presence of bladed weapons was much stronger than that of firearms.
Most of the powerful people who had reached a certain level used bladed weapons, not firearms.
But that didn't mean the limit of firearms was low. It's just that the people who could bring the "range advantage" of firearms to their full potential were scarce in the original work.
'Is Jinu's pistol here?'
Maud suddenly thought of Kid, who had come to the shop the day before.
The supposed Jinu's pistol, which Kid longed for so much, must have been of good quality.
He moved closer to carefully examine the few muskets on the shelf. Maud, who was only familiar with modern firearms, couldn't see the difference.
With his current knowledge of muskets, he couldn't distinguish between the good and the bad, much less find Jinu's pistol.
'I need to get one to use soon.'
Although the power of a musket couldn't be compared with that of a modern pistol, Maud didn't care.
As he looked longingly at the muskets on the shelf, Maud's thoughts drifted.
In the early stages of his hunting, what he needed most were simple, lethal tools like firearms.
Maud resisted the temptation to take a second-hand musket from the third shelf and cleaned the shelves efficiently.
After cleaning, he returned the cleaning tools to the storage room, and exactly half an hour had passed.
Then, Sunny came downstairs right on time and entered the shop.
Maud noticed that Sunny seemed to be in a good mood.
He didn't know that the reason Sunny was in a good mood was because she thought she wouldn't have to do those heavy and dirty tasks for a while.
If Maud didn't die young, that time would be extended indefinitely.
Under Maud's watchful eye, Sunny took a thin ruler from the counter, walked over to the shelves, and began to meticulously measure the products.
Maud felt the skin on his head crawl.
'Damn it, was she joking?'
He thought Sunny was using the ruler to see if he had touched the products.
But after watching her for a while, he realized that wasn't the case.
As he watched Sunny carefully adjust each item after measuring it, Maud felt the skin on his head crawl even more.
Not daring to disturb Sunny, Maud waited patiently to the side.
An hour later, Sunny finally finished and began the new business day.
"And Saul?"
Maud, seeing that Saul had not come down, felt a little confused.
Sunny, who was sitting at the counter, looked at him and said without expression: "Saul went to the Flower Street to exercise in the morning. He usually comes back before lunch."
"Oh, so he went to exercise."
Maud understood. It was no wonder that Saul, despite his age, was still so strong.
'Hmm?'
'Wait.'
'Wasn't there something that didn't add up?'