Chapter 78: The Pirate King of Laxas (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 78: The Pirate King of Laxas (5)
The sixth island of the 7th Archipelago—the final island and the only territory of the 'Sea Wolf' pirates not yet conquered by Ladan.
Inside a massive wooden fortress situated in the heart of that island.
"……So, you’re saying we were raided?"
A man stood there, his face twisted in a grimace.
He was a man with a long vertical scar running down his face and a prosthetic right arm encrusted with jewels.
This was Tertogan, the leader of the Sea Wolf pirates. He was known as the 'Destroyer' for having reduced one of the territories of Laxas to a wasteland.
"Yes, well—given that we’ve lost all contact, that’s the only possible conclusion—"
The sailor standing before him shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting about in anxiety.
Tertogan’s scowl deepened as he spoke.
"Then who the hell attacked us?"
"……It seems likely to be that bastard Ladan."
"Tsk—"
Silence fell over the room after the sailor’s report. It lasted for a long, heavy moment.
"Hey."
"Yes……?"
"You. Come here."
"Come there? What do you……?"
"I said, get over here."
Tertogan beckoned with a finger of his prosthetic hand. Though the sailor looked uneasy, he had no choice but to slowly approach.
In the next instant.
Crunch—!
The sailor, who had been wearing a look of trepidation just a moment ago, had his head blown apart.
Blood sprayed instantly, turning the office into a gruesome mess.
With a dull thud, the headless body of the sailor collapsed to the floor.
"Goddammit—!"
Bang! Crack! Thud!
As if that wasn't enough, Tertogan grabbed the headless corpse by the collar and began to pummel it repeatedly with his fist.
The entire head, save for the lower jaw, was pulverized.
A hole was punched through the chest where the heart had been.
The right arm was torn away like a broken toy.
Slam—!!
Still unsatisfied, he slammed the motionless corpse into the floor and stomped on it.
After huffing and puffing for a while, he finally sat back down, leaving behind the corpse whose waist was bent backward at a grotesque angle.
Soon, the firmly closed office door opened, and a man entered.
"Boss."
"Get rid of this corpse."
The man gave a short nod at Tertogan’s command and tilted his head toward the door. Sailors entered and began dragging away the mangled remains.
"……How many more do we need?"
"According to that man, we’ll need at least fifteen hundred more from this point on."
"Tsk. We’ve already offered up over twenty thousand bodies. You’re saying we still need that many?"
"Yeah."
"No, that’s too slow. That bastard Ladan will be pushing in here any day now……!"
As Tertogan muttered with a scowl, the man who had entered—the vice-captain, Zelinka—hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Boss, won't it be fine regardless? We have them, so shouldn't we be able to win if we fight at sea?"
At Zelinka’s words, Tertogan stood up and walked toward the office window.
The wooden fortress was visible at a glance.
And there, the corpse that Tertogan had just killed in his fit of rage—
Crunch, munch! Snap!
—was being devoured by an inhuman monstrosity.
From a distance, their overall silhouette wasn't much different from a human's.
However, their skin was composed of green scales, unlike humans.
Their faces resembled those of deep-sea fish.
Most of all, their pupils were nothing but voids of pitch black.
It was a sight that suggested these beings were fundamentally different from humans, not just in appearance, but in essence.
"……."
Hundreds of Fishmen swarmed like hungry ghosts, their mouths stained with dark red blood as they fought to devour a single corpse.
Watching them, Tertogan thought to himself.
They are certainly strong.
He was well aware of the Fishmen's strength.
On land, it might be a different story, but if the battlefield was limited to the sea, he was confident that the Fishmen alone could easily hold back Ladan’s massive army.
The problem, however, was Ladan himself.
The great pirate who had unified the six archipelagos and the master of the 'White Moon'—he was the variable.
That guy is a monster.
Tertogan unconsciously grimaced as he recalled that time.
Back when Ladan had only conquered a single archipelago.
The moment when the pirates of the six archipelagos had banded together to kill him and split the 1st Archipelago among themselves.
He remembered the horrific sight of Ladan moving freely through the water, tearing apart captains who possessed divine protection with his bare hands, and sinking dozens of ships single-handedly.
It’s still not enough.
Thus, Tertogan instinctively realized that even the Fishmen would not be enough for this fight.
At the same time, a certain voice echoed in his mind.
The voice of the man who had suddenly appeared before him when he was merely waiting for the day Ladan would kill him—the man who offered a way to kill Ladan.
‘Do you not wish for power?’
The man had promised him power that would allow him to surpass Ladan and become the conqueror of the world.
‘Offer human flesh to the Fishmen. Offer it, and keep offering it. Once you have gathered enough souls and earned their trust, you shall become a god.’
Tertogan picked up the Object the man had handed him along with those words.
He stared at the Object, which was lined with protruding teeth and emitted a faint turquoise glow.
Soon, as the Fishmen finished devouring the corpse, he watched as a green-tinted soul flowed directly into the Object.
"……."
After a long silence, he spoke to Zelinka.
"How many did you say was the minimum?"
"At least fifteen hundred."
Zelinka answered.
To that.
‘Do you not wish for power?’
Recalling the words of the man in the black holy shroud once more, Tertogan spoke.
"……There might be a way."
With that murmur, he stared out at the fortress for a long time.
"A way, indeed."
Before long, a faint trace of madness flickered in Tertogan’s eyes as he looked outside.
A green-tinted madness.
* * *
Alexion the Appraiser was someone Alon would rather not meet unless it involved a relic.
Firstly, Alexion’s personality was so abrasive that it tended to provoke Alon's murderous intent.
Secondly, he acted as a financier for various underworld groups in the slums of Laxas, making him incredibly difficult to track down.
In short, he was a man who was hard to find and a massive source of stress once found. Alon had prepared himself mentally before coming here.
He had prepared, but…….
Clang! Roll, roll, roll—
"I-I-I—I’m so sorry……!!!"
The items handed over for appraisal were Heinkel’s ring and a small sword.
Alon wore a strange expression as he watched Alexion, whose hands were trembling so violently that he dropped the 'Contract Token of the Blind One' and scrambled to pick it up.
His appearance was exactly like the illustration from the game, but his behavior was worlds apart.
Of course, Alon knew exactly why his behavior had changed so much.
……What on earth did he do?
Alon shifted his gaze slightly toward Ladan.
Ladan was watching peacefully, a bright, innocent smile on his face.
He was watching Alexion, who was shivering as he struggled to sit down and begin appraising the relics Alon had provided.
He did say he brought him here politely without doing anything.
Judging by Alexion’s reaction, that was clearly not the case. Alon maintained his bewildered expression for a while until—
"I-It’s done……!"
"……Already?"
Alon was shocked that Alexion had finished the appraisal in less than ten minutes.
Normally, he knew it took at least two hours.
"Yes, yes……!"
Alexion bowed repeatedly at Alon’s words and quickly handed the two relics back to him.
……It’s for real.
Upon receiving the relics, Alon realized that the appraisal was indeed complete, just as Alexion had said.
The relics, which had been a dull grey when he handed them over, had changed into vivid colors that anyone could recognize.
The ring Heinkel had given him had changed from grey to red.
Confirming that the deep ink-black light of the relic obtained from the Colony’s treasury was now clearly visible, Alon spoke.
"That was fast."
"You didn't just do a half-assed job, did you?"
"N-No! Absolutely not!"
Alexion shrieked in terror at Ladan’s interjection.
Seeing the poor man’s hands shaking so much, Alon spoke up.
"……The appraisal is definitely finished."
"Is that so, Brother?"
"Yeah. Let him go back."
At Alon’s word, Ladan nodded.
"Hey, take him away."
He threw out the command.
As if they had been waiting, pirates entered and began escorting Alexion out.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you for sparing my life!!!"
Alexion looked so overjoyed at the fact that he could finally leave that his eyes were brimming with tears.
It was an intense reaction, as if he were returning alive from the depths of hell.
"Brother, it’s really all finished, right?"
"……Yeah. Thanks to this, I won't need to go to Laxas."
"That’s good to hear, Brother."
Alon laughed and asked Ladan, who was sitting across from him.
"By the way, did you really bring him here politely?"
"Of course. I brought him very politely. He’s probably just intimidated because of my notoriety."
Well, he is notorious, so maybe it really is just his reputation……?
Alon pondered Ladan’s words for a moment before deciding to just accept it. He then moved on to his next curiosity.
"But how did you find Alexion in just one day? He should have been hiding deep. It would have been hard to find him without taking down all the underworld thugs."
"Ah—those guys?"
"Yeah. I assume you met them."
"Well, I did meet them. But I didn't really get a chance to talk to them……"
"……? How did you find him without talking to them?"
"……."
"……You really brought him politely, right?"
"I brought Alexion politely, Brother."
Ladan fell silent for a moment at Alon’s question before answering with a wide grin.
Instinctively realizing how Ladan had 'brought' Alexion, Alon thought to himself.
……He really hasn't become one of the Five Great Sins yet, right?
He resolved that he would have to provide some extra personal care for Ladan.
* * *
Around the time Alon was having those thoughts while looking at Ladan in the archipelago.
In a mansion in the southern part of Maon—a territory belonging to the small Drua Principality, which shared a southern border with Calliban.
That place was the headquarters of 'Figule,' an organization that had colluded with the small principality to use Drua as a base, expanding its influence through prostitution and drugs made from human flesh.
Or rather, it had been their headquarters until just a moment ago.
"P-Please—spare me……!"
Darte, the boss of Figule, was a man who hadn't shed a single tear while grinding thousands of humans into drugs.
Now, his eyes were overflowing with terror and tears.
"I—I only did what I was told—please, spare—!!"
He struggled desperately to survive.
However.
Crunch—!
In the next instant, his entire body was grotesquely twisted by purple threads, and he met his end, coughing up blood.
The one who had been silently watching the corpse on the floor then looked toward the window, which offered a view of the entire mansion grounds.
The place was littered with corpses.
Corpses severed in half.
Corpses slammed into the mansion walls.
Corpses that had died without even being able to close their fear-stricken eyes.
Corpses, corpses, corpses.
And more corpses.
However, the man with purple eyes—no, Deus—who was watching the scene without the slightest emotional disturbance, spoke.
"Did you find out?"
He spoke into the empty room.
Soon, a man appeared from behind him.
"Hidan."
At Deus’s murmur, Hidan bowed his head slightly.
"As initially reported, it does not seem that this place is the headquarters for the directives."
"And the higher-ups?"
"Yuna is gathering information, but the chain of command is extremely complex, perhaps because they intended to remain hidden. It is taking time to uncover."
"……I see."
"However, I was able to identify the nobles who commissioned this work."
"Who are they?"
"Nobles of Asteria."
Silence followed Hidan's words for a moment.
"Hidan, thanks to you, I can always obtain information conveniently. It is quite helpful."
"It is nothing. If it is for the Great Moon. Yuna surely feels the same way……. All of us in the 'Blue Moon' do."
"Is that so."
Deus continued.
"What are the names of the nobles?"
"It seems there are two others besides Count Bartez and Count Briel."
"……."
"What do you intend to do? ……In my opinion, killing just the two main instigators should serve as enough of an example to ensure they never do such a thing again."
"Kill them all."
Without a single moment of hesitation.
"I am not merciful enough to let those who sought to harm the Great Moon live."
His purple eyes glowed.
"So, I will kill them all. Every single one of them, without exception."
He whispered in a chilling voice.
""Everything is for the Great Moon.""
With those final words, the two men who had signaled the downfall of Figule vanished from the spot.
And yet another organization was buried in the annals of history.