Black Sail
Chapter 31: XXXI. Reach the Sky代

Chapter 31: XXXI. Reach the Sky代

"The Emperor must be a singer," Liszt said while smoking. Since the East Coast was far from the Emperor’s reach, it didn’t spook people there like in the inland areas, and one could say whatever they liked, "I admit the Emperor is powerful, but if I were to pledge allegiance to the Beima Xiaochaijin and take his place, then advance to become the King of Beima, send Shadi to seduce his daughter, and just wait for him to die of old age, then Shadi would naturally take over. After that, I kill Shadi and become the ruler of Aran. How would the Emperor deal with that?"

"What a splendid idea."

Shadi had nothing to say and rolled his eyes.

"To actually... make such a feminine gesture," Wolman was shocked and added, "Nowadays, women aren’t into the tough-guy sentimentality. They admire your androgynous vibe—you’re like a fitness trainer, rapper, ex-military drill instructor turned barbecue shop owner who doesn’t smoke traditional cigarettes and is a fan of ’Genshin Impact’."

"You’ve taken all the benefits, haven’t you? The floral language for a steel wool pad is, ’endurance and wealth.’"

Rein pitched in.

"Wait a minute!" Mika spotted a loophole, "This plan seems to not require you to be a king at all. It completely doesn’t make sense; as soon as Shadi launches an attack, the Aran Empire would simply be destroyed."

"Heh heh..."

Shadi sneered, his forehead throbbing with veins.

Liszt was deeply shocked but spoke seriously, "As a captain, I order you to go now and seduce the Emperor’s daughter. I will allocate thirty Golden Dragons from the public funds for travel expenses, skincare products, hotel charges, and a tenfold Kaioken training fee in the brothel with real experience, Black Sail just needs to wait in Heaven Port for the Emperor to die of natural causes, then we can conquer the Western Continent!"

"Shocked. Is there really such a place as a Hyperbolic Time Chamber brothel? What kind of training is that!"

Wolman was perplexed.

"I’ve already said, it’s tenfold Kaioken. Every index increases tenfold. Forget humans, even Magic Beasts... can be killed in an instant!"

That’s how Rein appraised it.

The others had already left the navigation room, showing no interest in this brainless conversation.

"The supplies for the voyage were all ordered yesterday, they will be delivered to the city in succession. The secret port does not cover delivery service. I and Swan will rent ten carts in the city later, call the sailors to help transport the goods. Get everything onto the ship, don’t be idle and turn into good-for-nothings. Once we set sail, they’ll have to work intensely."

Fen spoke, and also had Ox and the others keep an eye on things. When there was nothing to do, arranging some work for them, like practicing combat skills or learning woodworking skills from Haywood, could be more efficient in solving any problems with the ship at sea.

But on the deck, they saw several sailors looking dejected, shivering, and chanting prayers as if possessed.

"What happened?"

Ox was asking.

"They were curious about why I wore a helmet, so I showed them,"

Haywood explained innocently. His helmet only had a slit for the eyes and he had already put it back on.

"Look at them, get up and get to work,"

Morison scolded.

The next day, at noon:

Liszt had originally planned to find a channel to sell the gift from the Earl, but after thinking it over, it was better to use it to increase loyalty.

There were only about thirty sailors on the ship, not too many: a whole bottle of Wood Elf Fruit Wine for each man, and some quality tobacco. "If you guys aren’t loyal to me, who else will be?"

"Feels like a feast for the guts."

Morison said, looking at the sailors on the deck with satisfied faces. They couldn’t believe they could enjoy these luxuries in their lifetime; their emotions were complex.

"Alright, the First Officer, Brother Sha, and I are going to the banquet. We need to head into town early to prepare. Ox, I trust you with the ship." Liszt told Ox. "Society’s Brother Ox, formidable and succinct with words, with the Human Rights Card and the Supermodel Card, can be called Black Sail’s three major strengths, extremes and data freaks."

"Why don’t we have Swan accompany you? If anything unexpected happens, he can come back and report."

Ox thought Swan could be useful too. Members of the Thief Guild were all good at dirty tricks: stealing, sneaking, lock picking, cheating, assassination, and they kept a band of curse practitioners. Anything related to the vile and depraved, they were pretty much all-rounders.

Calling Swan to fight head-on might not result in many enemies put down, but sneaking into their camp at night would be hard for them to handle.

"Do I need to say it? It’s already arranged. Haven’t you noticed there’s no one else on the ship?"

Liszt said so.

"Could it be that he sneaked in last night?"

Ox realized.

"Yeah, maybe he’s already done all the bad stuff, like peeping on the Countess bathing or some minor violations. Now he’s probably hiding in some cabinet or somewhere, just waiting to start killing tonight."

Liszt speculated, though in this different world, with its many races and diverse aesthetics, decent people might indeed be wary, but the ruthless just don’t care and get on with it – far more outrageous than anything on Earth.

"Starting a killing spree is okay; today we’ve got some good luck charms too."

Wrapped in a black cloak, Morison hid his arsenal of weapons; after all, when you’re going to someone’s house for dinner, if they see you’re armed to the teeth, you can forget about closing any deals.

Fen was speechless. Although these people were from the Thief Guild, they were far more respectable than the bunch on this ship.

An hour and a half later.

Londen City.

Next to the adventurer’s guild, there were many weapon and consumable stores.

With nothing better to do, the three of them wandered aimlessly, accompanying Morison to pick up his weapon.

Morison was examining his new equipment.

"Are you trying to become Iron Man or something?"

Liszt looked at Morison’s arm armor. His combat style was already flashy, and now he’d added a hand cannon to the mix.

Morison had some know-how with mechanisms himself, and had sketched out the design for the weapon shop owner to make. It was not unusual for adventurers to have custom equipment made to suit them.

"Crossbow arrows have limited destructive power, although this thing isn’t very accurate, but it works if you’re up close."

Morison had fitted a simple projectile launcher onto his arm armor, with five small cannon ports on the edge of a curved metal piece, and due to technical limitations, it couldn’t fire continuously but had to be reloaded after each shot – usable only once in a fight.

"But it reloads quickly and fires silently in rapid succession, which is a plus."

Morison pulled a cord on his arm armor, and the crossbow arrow launcher rotated and switched to the other side. Although he didn’t expect to penetrate iron armor, the destructive power was still considerable.

"A true master always has the heart of an apprentice."

Liszt remarked.

Brother Sha was already so twisted and still striving for self-improvement, which was really commendable.

Morison himself said he used to have a legitimate business, which was helping adventurers cheat on their qualification missions, or in other words, being a level booster, and he was handsomely rewarded each time.

Qualification missions usually involved hunting down some formidable Magic Beasts, and many adventurers felt they couldn’t manage, but still wanted to advance to Silver Level or Gold Level to get better quests, so they’d hire a proxy.

Morison was a master proxy.

Half a year ago, Liszt and Morison were scouting for a robbery, targeting the import goods of a Great Noble at a port. While loitering around a small town nearby, they met a group of adventurers worrying about such a task. Morison thought about returning to his old trade, as it wouldn’t take more than an hour and he could easily take care of it – not only earning the mission’s reward but also the eight Gold Dragons pooled by the adventurers, which added up to a considerable sum. Why not, indeed.

It took an hour to lead the way, and three seconds to deal with the problem.

It was a white terror giant ape, nearly ten meters tall, roaming through the forests. The local townsfolk feared it greatly. All the townspeople contributed a small share, while the Lord contributed a large amount, pooling up twenty-six Gold Dragons. They offered a mission at the guild, hoping someone would take care of it.

The strength of that giant ape was such that it could lift several tons of boulders and tear people apart with its hands. Without a whole Gold Level Adventure Group fighting together, it couldn’t be dealt with.

Morison alone kicked the heel of his boot, and two sharp daggers popped out from the front. He held the daggers in both hands.

What followed was an indescribably flashy attack, akin to a climber using ice axes to scale a vertical cliff, but sped up a hundred times.

He climbed the giant ape as ruthlessly as someone racing upstairs in a building, blooming sprays of blood flowers all over. The giant ape swung at Morison, only to hit itself. In less than two seconds, Morison was standing on its head, the whip blade wrapping around the neck, and with a sharp pull, the head was severed, blood spurting wildly, the beast killed instantly.

The adventurers were dumbfounded and insisted on recruiting Morison to their group.

But who in their right mind would become an adventurer? The Lord’s big shipment was still waiting to be robbed.

It’s only fair to say that everyone has their joys and sorrows, and that even beasts have their place in life.

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