“Going back to my first question, have you seen a pirate lately, you know, captured by the Kingdom? Or anything suspicious happening in the slave industry? Lie, then I kill you. Tell me the truth, you would be rewarded, handsomely,” I chirped, and showed a sinister smile. “Don’t make me ask twice, goddammit. I’m losing my marbles here.”The man who I pointed earlier was in the middle. And that same guy replied, “Y-Yes. Of course. I-I’ll answer, just please don’t kill me!”“Maybe. We don’t have all day.”“The Kingdom’s town not far from here, Evergreen, was behind this. The secretary is here with us and was tasked to investigate this place. While they are at it, the Kingdom soldiers of Evergreen found an unliberated island not far from here. We’re merchants, so we know the place. But since we were no warriors, we let… do whatever they think is right. Since it had come to that, the Kingdom gathered all slaves they caught back at the infirmary, not far from here. If you’ve noticed, ther
While this was happening, my system alerted me about the presence of the Kingdom soldiers slowly creeping beside us. When I viewed the map, red dots circled on our figures. It was a warning. Those red markings painted on the map symbolised the enemies or the Kingdom guards, and the blue and green ones were harmful… for now. So I couldn’t help but pick up the pace. But since I was dealing with people and squeezing information, speeding things up could lead to a disaster. “Now, for my second question, mister lefty,” I said, whilst clearing my throat. “Where and when can I find you guys if we… the group I knew wants to trade items with you? We are in dire need of exchanging goods from merchants. You people are just the guys we need.”“I know that you’re siding with the merchants right now. But if the people backing me up could provide you more opportunities than living in this place, there’s no point in working with the Kingdom, right?” I continued. “I’ve seen enough while roaming aroun
Even though the Kingdom soldiers caught nothing from the three merchants, they were strictly patrolling the venue. There were a couple of traders left here and there, but I believed they were selling… or handling free items such as boozes and irons for these soldiers. These merchants were lucky. If I had to guess, these shopkeepers wanted to spark a name out of themselves or they owed the Kingdom some supplies in exchange for something - protection, the slaves, or their lives.I squeezed my way through the couple of guards and eventually arrived at the tents the merchants had told me. There was a dumpster box of some sort that concealed my presence, and the only way for these buffoons to notice me was if they had a magician with them that could sense my arcane or someone who dared pinning me behind my back. The tents looked exactly from what I had imagined. The camps in front of me were all dyed in white paint, with glass that obstructed heat and cold wind from the environment. Not to
The soldiers really did take me away as they dragged my limping body over inside a gigantic tent. I acted in front of them and begged for mercy. Good lord, I even tried crying for them, as they hauled me closer… and closer towards the camp.But my acting was horrible. If directors and Hollywood found out about my acting skills, they would probably puke, considering the amount of well-known actors they had. I had no talent for this. Even some guards snickered in annoyance, while others found my drama entertaining to their eyes. Either way, the soldier’s reactions broke my heart. And I vowed to myself I will never touch acting again, even if the world instructed me to.“We’re here.” With one word, the soldier announced to me that we were finally near the slave camp.“I see,” I answered, and nodded. “Don’t you think you could provide me food? I’m kinda hungry.”I had forgotten to eat by the time I went here to fulfill my mission. And my stomach was my witness. Grumbling sounds reached th
“Fancy meeting you here, huh?” I uttered, as the guard threw me to a cellar, not far from the entrance.I didn’t even notice until Captain Israel, the woman I had been looking for and the most important person in the pirate community, regardless if it was from Captain Blackjack or Horizons, was near the ingress. She was treated as a commoner… a slave, just like anyone else. .As soon as the guard threw me inside, he left as soon as he arrived and let the guard inside this prison be on watch. It was his job, after all. “How are you holding up? I thought you died. I don’t want to say to your friends if you have,” I chirped, and shook my head. My eyes couldn’t help but stare at Captain Israel. “With all jokes aside, it’s nice seeing you here.”“Yeah, fuck you too. I know you, Arata. You’re not the kind of person who would help someone, especially me. Your sister is out of this equation. So you the fuck sent you here? Was it Bl… her? Have you already met her? Is Hor… Is everyone alright?
Captain Israel stared for a moment at the group and counted every person she wanted to save. There were around thirty people, excluding Captain Israel and me, and every hostage… ex-hostage had no arcane inside their body or knew nothing about combat. Basically, we were screwed. So fighting was not an option, and definitely letting someone cast their spells while I copied it was impossible, not unless it would come from the enemy’s side. But if it came into clashing swords, we would most likely fail to escape this place and win the battle. However, that option was the only glimmer of hope we had. There were thirty people tailing us behind, and hiding them wasn’t going to play well. “We have to fight them. There’s only one way for us to leave this place, and that’s pushing through with everything we have.”I had already figured that thing out, and it was our last and only resort. But I never thought Captain Israel would say the same thing, considering she was an optimistic woman who w
“So, who’s on our side? The cage’s already open? Feel free to scoot yourself inside and wait for the Kingdom to fetch you… Because we will never return her to save you. Your choice.”The people got to choose who they would listen to: the Kingdom or us. These hostages were in a pickle, and they would decide their fate.Time was ticking. I told them that, as I reminded the ex-prisoners to determine which faction they should follow. After a few moments, the people finally came to a conclusion. They wanted to join our side.“Great. Well done choosing the most logical reason. Now we’ve wasted a full five minutes of our time instead of leaving this place! We only have a few minutes left before those Kingdom soldiers check this place. It’s now or never,” I announced, and glanced at Captain Israel’s side. “Any thoughts? I mean, you’ve already mentioned we have to fight them mano a mano. So what’s the plan? What’s the formation, and what’s my role in this endeavour, hm?”“The plan’s remain the
‘WHAT HAPPENED TO STICKING TOGETHER? ‘I GOT YOUR BACK, YOU GOT MINE?’ I questioned everything that was happening right now.By the time Captain Israel and I were on the same page, we immediately went out and faced the soldiers. We tried hiding through the boxes scattered everywhere, but concealing thirty people was a pipe’s dream. There was no way we could pull that off. So instead of playing hide and seek, we greeted the soldiers face to face and let them know we wanted to escape.The soldiers were at loss for words when they first saw us. But when they realised the grave of this situation and the hostages they had protected were outside, they knew exactly what was happening. It was a prison-break… sort of. And the soldiers were police officers we had to face, especially without killing them. “Who the hell is that woman?” one soldier asked.“I don’t know. Just kill them already. If we can save some slaves, that would be great. Mayor’s orders,” answered the other guy.Every soldier q