Chapter 37
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Pirate Ship Plundering is Legal
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Pirate Noel fled in a panic.
A silver knife raced through the air, shredding the nearby pirates. It slashed limbs and carved red lines across their bodies. Silver flashed. Blood sprayed in fountains.
The soldier battling the pirate was drenched in blood. His pupils dilated, and his body went rigid.
The bloodied knife flew indifferently toward the next pirate. The pirate screamed and ran.
The knife grazed the pirate's leg. The leg severed, and his body collapsed. Countless red lines tore through his flesh. Mangled limbs and chunks of meat spilled out.
Chaos swallowed the surroundings like a tidal wave. Terror struck without regard for friend or foe.
The fierce clash between the merchant guards and the pirates had long since halted. Instead of combat, a massacre unfolded on the deck. Lives were shredded, red wreckage scattered. The mind-shaking horror continued.
Pirate Noel sweated profusely. He charged ahead and shoved the door open roughly. He escaped the deck and dashed down the passage.
Screams followed, along with the pounding of countless footsteps. Fleeing pirates flooded the passage like an ebbing tide.
A pink-haired girl pursued them. Knives swirled around her.
The girl gestured, and the knives surged forward. Their paths shredded people. Screams echoed. Blood splattered across the entire passage.
Noel, leading the flight, staggered but barely grabbed the cabin door. With trembling hands, he turned the knob and slipped inside. The door shut, silence descended. The latch clicked into place.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed. Harsh breaths filled the room. The red massacre lingered in his vision like afterimages. The cabin was quiet, yet screams and the horrific silence that followed echoed in his ears.
A girl-shaped killer demon was reveling in murder. With drug-hazed pink eyes, she severed limbs and scattered flesh.
The brutal slaughter crushed their will to fight and birthed terror.
Noel prayed this moment was just a nightmare. He desperately, oh so desperately, hoped the presence beyond the cabin door and the footsteps halting right outside were illusions.
Then, an impact slammed the door. The wooden door splintered, the latch gave way. Wind rushed in. Killing intent swept through the cabin on the air.
Beyond the open door, the girl stared at Noel. Her pink eyes were hazy.
An indifferent gesture pointed at the cowering Noel. The knives orbiting the girl flew sharply toward him.
And when it had flown about halfway, it suddenly whined like a dead battery—hiiing~—and dropped with a clunk. The blade clattered against the floor.
Silence hung between the pirate and the girl.
The girl blinked slowly, as if intoxicated. She looked down at her mana stone knife.
"Oh nooo, out of fuel."
A moist voice rang out.
Eeeeng.
Out of mana stone fuel.
My gold ingot's worth...
Pastel felt like wailing.
Hormone buddy...
You waste so much~.
Eueue.
Earning money is my job...
Suddenly, the pirate raised both hands in surrender and dropped to his knees. Then he started babbling something.
Whoaaa.
A corpse is talking...!
Something that should be dead is alive...!
Pastel jumped in shock. She swung her sword in fright. The sword stroke swept over the kneeling pirate. His upper body sliced diagonally and collapsed. Blood spurted, soaking her pink hair.
Whoa, it's warm.
She brushed back her hair and picked up the knife. It had lost its shine, like a drained battery.
Eeeeng.
Hormone buddy for real.
This is all money, you know.
Your wasteful habits let a corpse that should've stayed dead come back to life and mess around.
Uwaaa.
Zombie.
Scaryyy.
Pastel shuddered as she left the cabin. Still in a hazy mental state, she returned to the deck to find the merchant guards had subdued the massacre's chaos.
Max, who had been commanding the guards, turned around. His body froze solid. The guards who turned with him did the same.
Gasp.
Evil Max...
Kind and good Pastel trembled at Mr. Max's wickedness.
A complicated silence flowed.
Wha?
Some intense gaze she couldn't place.
Like how they look at Craft...
#
During the extermination operation, they went through three battles.
Like a hormone buddy marking territory, chunks of pirate corpses littered all three pirate ships.
Someone had to clean up after battles ended, but Pastel, who had never lived a cleaning life—and of course, the lazy Pastel living off the demon cleaning for her—didn't care.
Pastel's mouth fell open.
Gasp.
"Really?!"
Spoils distribution time.
By unanimous vote, ownership of the three pirate ships transferred to the Marquess. The spoils—making up more than half the profit from plundering the pirate ships—passed over without protest.
It was thanks to the dark-hearted Craft Marquess personally carving up bodies to mark territory all over the pirate ships. The warning not to touch her spoils hit hard.
Everyone heartily agreed with the Marquess's will for a peaceful spoils split. Definitely not out of fear.
And absolutely not because the harsh truth—that a marquess could cover up a few murders—chilled their hearts.
Pastel, who never deeply pondered how her actions affected others and just lived selfishly, was simply moved.
Such good people.
People who willingly open their wallets for starving kids.
"It's shameless, but I'll gladly accept!"
Pirate ships!
Woow.
"Shameless? The Marquess deserves them."
Mercenary Holden spoke up.
"Mr. Holden...!"
A response from the foul-mouthed one.
Gasp.
Twice the emotion.
"Thought you were some greenhouse flower, but you're the total opposite of how you look. Now I see what they mean by Craft. Nobles must see the Marquess all the time—bet they're too scared to live properly."
Max scowled.
"How dare you be rude to the Marquess."
"Eek, scary! My ankle hurts! Marquess, rein him in! He's gonna hit me!"
"Whoa! Got it! Mr. Max! Don't be like that!"
Pastel pointed at Holden.
"He's just foul-mouthed and rude in thought! It's his nature, nothing we can do!"
Such a good person.
Holden and Max both blinked blankly, then stared.
Huh?
Something on my face?
She rubbed her cheeks.
Gasp.
Clean.
Holden rubbed his arms, shuddering.
"Craft's scary. I'll watch my mouth."
They documented the spoils distribution and disbanded. The merchant airships, having finished the pirate extermination and plundering, set course for Sky Island.
Pastel left her original airship and boarded one of the pirate ships alone. It had been a corpse mess, but the kind merchant guards cleaned it spotless.
"Wheee!"
Spinning in the middle of the pirate ship deck.
My real airship.
Not some useful academy airship—my own, won fair and square.
Economic criminal Pastel became economic criminal (kinda not) Pastel!
Pffft.
Even the slight pangs of conscience vanished cleanly.
She spread her arms wide and declared proudly.
"This airship shall be operated for kind and good purposes by the Craft Merchant Group, founded for starving children!"
For real.
A declaration without a shred of lie.
"Yay!"
Pastel did the twirl-twirl dance. Shaking her arms, stepping tippy-tap.
Twirl-twirl.
Tippy-tap.
Dance with me~.
Gasp.
I dance super well.
Am I actually a super genius?
The demon in his suit appeared on deck. He approached leisurely, inspecting the mana stone knife.
『Young Craft.』
Pastel's face brightened more.
"Demon! Demon! Look at me!"
Twirl-twirl.
Tippy-tap.
Gasp.
I dance so well!
She sent an expectant gaze to the demon.
Red eyes swept over the twirling girl.
『Come to think of it, you never learned social dances. It's fine if you can't dance well. Everyone starts somewhere.』
Gasp.
Totally different review!
Pastel plopped down.
Super genius, defeated by reality's wall.
Sob.
The demon looked perplexed.
『What's wrong? Are you hurt?』
"My heart hurts..."
Despair.
Absoluuute despair.
The demon examined her more, then—accustomed to her whims—changed the subject.
『More importantly, I found the cause of the performance drop.』
Sob.
The cold adult world ignoring a loser's despair.
I'll freeze solid.
Frozen, frozen.
『Young Craft?』
"Yeees, listening."
Pastel stood up.
The demon brushed off her clothes.
『Right, listen up. The mana stone knife's usage time shortening was indeed due to a charging capacity issue.』
Plundering the pirate ship involved three long battles.
Each time the knife ran out of fuel, she recharged it with mana stones. Press it against the stone, ziiing~, and it refilled.
But that caused some inexplicable problem. Repeated discharging and charging shortened the usage time.
Demon King's legacy, broken after this much use?
Uwaaa.
My hard-earned life!
Life's too hard for Pastel...!
The demon flicked the mana stone knife with a finger. A clear ring echoed.
『Looking into it, something was filling the fuel tank instead of fuel during each battle.』
Ahh.
"Did I use it too roughly and get blood inside? Is that why it's broken?"
Hormone buddy...
『Not quite. Or... similar.』
The demon's finger touched the knife. Thick black slime oozed out from inside. In midair, it balled up.
Woow.
『Demonic energy. Just as animals consume ambient demonic energy, people unwittingly do the same to survive. The knife seems to have extracted the demonic energy from the bodies of those it killed.』
Oing.
『But it wasn't just bodily demonic energy.』
The finger pointed at the black slime. It was mixed with some murky gray.
『It's essence of being. It extracted not only their demonic energy but part of their very essence.』
Oiiing.
The demon frowned.
『A truly wicked byproduct. Can't imagine the problems or side effects.』
The demon inspected the knife.
『I need to properly examine what the previous Demon King intended with this—』
Nyam.
Chomp chomp.
The demon turned blankly.
『Why are you eating that?』
Pastel's eyes went wide.
Jelly chewed in her mouth.
Gasp.
When did it get in my mouth?
Is this poison?
Uwaaa.
Pastel, picking up random stuff to eat and facing death...!
Snap out of it, Pastel...!
Uwaaa.