Chapter 238
Chapter 238
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 238
Chapter Title: Fifteen Years Ago
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Fifteen years ago.
This was back when Jerome was still just a young child with few clear memories, and when the young Pirate King Balrak was truly beginning to unleash his fury across the archipelago.
The rising star of the archipelago, Balrak, had been spotted early as a threat by Ikenia's current king, Horn van Ikenia. He ordered Braum of the Sword Family to eradicate him.
Braum, the lord of the Sword Family, responded to the king's expectations by dispatching the family's most loyal knights to the south.
They joined forces with Admiral Vidal Croit, who was hailed as the greatest admiral in Ikenia's history at the time, and set out to subjugate the archipelago.
Admiral Vidal Croit truly lived up to his reputation. Despite having far fewer troops than the young monster of the archipelago, Balrak, he smashed Balrak's Barque Pirates day after day, driving them to the brink of annihilation.
But perhaps it was because he cornered them too easily. The Sword Family knight dispatched with the fleet failed to grasp the higher complexities of naval warfare and began to mock Balrak's skills simply because of his string of defeats.
And then came the final battle. Due to the knight's sudden and clumsy bravado, the Ikenian navy gave Balrak the distance he needed to close in.
They were torn to shreds by Balrak's greatsword in the most gruesome fashion.
"Everyone except him was captured by the Barque Pirates—including me."
Delro's hand trembled around his teacup.
"One by one... right before my eyes, he slit my comrades' throats. So brutally."
When the neck of his most trusted subordinate fell, and he alone was left,
Balrak released him. And said,
-Straighten your broken spirit and come back. I want a proper fight with you, without any trash interfering.
Vidal Croit returned to naval headquarters alone, battered and broken, only to be met with the worst disgrace imaginable.
-Despite the Sword Family's earnest pleas, Vidal Croit's repeated overconfidence in his victories led to the total annihilation of the navy. All his titles and positions are hereby stripped.
That was the doing of the Sword Family knight who arrived first.
Coming from a renowned knight of a prestigious house, no one doubted it.
He was wronged. Utterly, deeply wronged. Humiliated. He could bear his own pathetic survival, but watching the honor of his comrades and subordinates—who had given everything for the kingdom—dragged through the mud was unbearable.
But there was nothing he could do. The navy's annihilation was fact, and the only survivors besides himself were the Sword Family's dispatched unit. Vidal Croit had no allies anywhere.
And that wasn't the end of it.
They had planted one of their own near headquarters, just in case he survived and returned.
"Whether I died quietly or not, it was all the same to them. Right when I was about to expose everything at the end, he showed up. Haha..."
Delro the elder wore a bitter smile. According to him, the Sword Family knight had calmly told him,
Live quietly like a dead rat. Do that, and they'd take care of the families of the fallen navy men.
The families of his comrades who'd fought by his side. For their sake, Vidal Croit—the once greatest admiral of the navy—hid his name and settled in a backwater village in Olivia, his wings clipped.
"......"
My fist clenched involuntarily at Delro's tale.
'The Sword Family had fallen this far?'
To cover their own mistakes by stripping the honor from those who'd given their lives for the kingdom. Even dogs wouldn't stoop that low.
"...Delro. No, Vidal Croit. Can I ask one thing?"
"Heh heh heh. I've already told you everything—what's left that I can't say? Ask away."
Calmer now than at the start, the trembling in Delro's hand had eased a bit as he let out a dry chuckle.
"They told you to live quietly like a rat. So why follow my orders?"
He'd hidden in Olivia for the families' livelihoods. Yet at my word, he'd taken up the navy path again. That risked cutting off their support, didn't it?
"...No one's left anymore."
"......!!"
Vidal Croit's era of glory was fifteen years ago. In other words, the pirates had rampaged unchecked for fifteen long years.
The navy families would surely have been in the...
'Southern regions.'
"Heh heh, time heals all wounds, they say. Once enough passed, I wanted to live. That's the truth."
A lie.
He must have done it to protect Olivia's villagers. Nothing else explains their disciplined response when we first showed up on the coast.
"And above all."
A glint sparked in Delro's eyes.
"I wanted to stake my remaining years on you, Baron—the man whose name shines brightly across the kingdom. I believed you could help me reclaim the meaning of my lost life."
The hero of old, broken by power and time, still had fire in his eyes.
"You asked about the pirates' strange movements? Balrak's probing me right now. To see if I've risen again. That's why I'm begging you, Baron. Help this old man crush the Cybele Pirates."
He wouldn't dodge a fight that came knocking. He'd smash it thoroughly, broadcast the result across the archipelago as his answer to Balrak. And reclaim his lost honor and name.
It was the plea of a hero who had devoted everything to his kingdom before fading away.
How could he not answer that? What kind of hero or lord would he be?
"I promise. Vidal Croit, I'll restore your name. And Balrak... just as he said, I'll prepare the stage for the ultimate showdown."
They held his old comrade Jeremiah captive and had taken over the front lines from the Neptune Pirates with the Cybele Pirates.
Opponents like that were perfect—far from lacking—as a grand offering for Delro's, no, Vidal Croit's revival.
Olivia's coast. Soldiers bustled endlessly between the neatly aligned ships.
"Gunpowder? Loaded enough?"
"Load more oil and arrows here!"
"Move it, faster! The archipelago pirates are almost on us!"
Even though notorious pirates from the main islands of the archipelago were invading their waters,
there was no fear on the soldiers' faces.
It wasn't just reliance on the strength of the high lords residing in the manor.
Their eyes burned with battle fervor like this.
In the past two months, Olivia's navy had swept away nearby minor pirate bands, gaining ample real combat experience.
They were no longer the green rookies panting through basic drills two months ago.
And above all else.
Clack, clack!
A certain old man slowly ascended the platform before the fully loaded and arrayed Olivia navy.
Two months ago, when they first saw the old man, they thought he was some strange geezer.
Spouting weird unheard-of words like 'as-sei,' threatening them to run out of nowhere.
A bit later, he became the devilish old man.
He'd drilled them so mercilessly that tomorrow felt terrifying. Plenty had even tried deserting from the grueling training.
But after the first battle, the next, and the one after. With each fight, their anger and resentment toward the old man turned to trust and respect.
Undefeated.
All pirates crumbled before the old man's elusive strategies and overwhelming tactics.
And in that process, aid from the high lords in the manor had been minimal.
It was dazzling success forged purely by their own power.
And the spiritual pillar who had led them to those victories stood upon the platform.
The soldiers believed. This time too, the old man would lead them to victory.
"As-seis, you scared?"
"......"
"No answer?"
"We're not scared!!"
A thunderous response from the soldiers. But Delro, the old man, scowled fiercely.
"All of you, foreheads to the ground."
"......?"
The unexpected order left them baffled for a moment. Wasn't this the part where they were supposed to be praised?
"Gonna make me say it twice?"
"Urk!"
Questions shoved aside, they slammed their foreheads down without delay. A man whose every action had purpose—that was Delro in the soldiers' minds.
"The pirates coming this time aren't your run-of-the-mill small fry. They're the real deal, living on the main islands among the archipelago's most infamous."
They already knew. The territory had been abuzz with unease because of it.
"Unlike before, your lives as as-seis could sink to the seabed."
"...We know!"
The soldiers replied through gritted teeth, foreheads still planted. But Delro's furrowed brow didn't ease.
"No, you don't know. The ones who truly suffer when you die aren't you dead fools—it's the families you leave behind."
"......!!"
Images of his comrades' families flashed through Delro's mind.
"So fear constantly. Stay vigilant. Your sloppy overconfidence or reckless bravado—not true courage—could waste your lives. And someone else pays the price for those lives."
"......!!"
The soldiers' eyes changed, even with foreheads to the ground.
"All of you, stand."
Sensing the shift in the air, Delro spoke curtly, and the soldiers rose one by one.
The atmosphere brimmed with tension. But it was no longer fear of their first battle—it was fear of their own arrogance.
Satisfied, Delro nodded.
"Let's go. And teach those ignorant pirate bastards whose territory they dared tread so fearlessly."
"Urk!"
Rumble!
The soldiers swarmed aboard in an instant, unfurling sails in perfect unison.
Then, the sails billowed with a radiant shield emblem—and beside it, a roaring lion.
A design so splendid it made the pirates' haphazard skull flags from two months ago seem unworthy of memory.
It was the newly drawn crest of Baron Jerome von Carviot, painted through the night by royal artisans who had arrived with their technicians.
Bwooooo!
As Delro boarded the flagship last, a long horn blast echoed across the coast.
Centered on the flagship, Olivia's newly formed naval fleet set sail in unison.
Their destination: one hour from Olivia's coast.
The Dirphorus Strait.
"Vidal Croit, that was a magnificent speech."
"Delro's fine, Baron. I've already cast that name to the past."
"Haha, is that so? But the speech really was impressive. Even got my blood pumping."
As I clapped aboard the flagship, Delro waved his hand bashfully.
"Undeserved praise from a young hero like you leaves me at a loss, heh heh."
After a brief exchange of compliments, talk turned to the battle ahead.
"Alright, let's hear it. Why head to Dirphorus Strait now?"
Dwayne and Delro had drawn up the full plan for this naval battle, so even I didn't know the exact details.
"Yes, look here."
Whoosh!
A sea chart of the waters around Olivia spread across the table.
"As you see, tiny unnamed islands are scattered everywhere near Olivia's coast."
I knew that already.
That's why hiding the sirens had been so easy.
"Dirphorus Strait is where two of those islands hug close, making the channel extremely narrow. That creates incredibly swift currents."
I see. Block the fast-flowing strait and pick off the pirates whose formation breaks in the rapids, one by one.
But this plan had a massive flaw.
"Delro, it makes sense... but wouldn't that only work if the pirates knew nothing of these waters?"
These pirates had plundered the alliance's south countless times over the years. In some ways, they knew the southern seas better than the navy, who only patrolled kingdom waters.
Especially the cunning Atis—would he fail to anticipate us waiting at Dirphorus Strait?
"Haha, of course. If they have brains, they've long known the strait’s features."
Swipe!
Mid-sentence, Delro glanced at the sky. The sun was sinking westward, the heavens gradually darkening.
"...But only 'half' of it."
"Half?"
A loaded statement.
"The islands where archipelago pirates base themselves have massive tidal differences. So they always finish raids during the day to return home before low tide. Meaning they know nothing of Dirphorus Strait at 'night.'"
Gazing at the darkening sky, Delro's eyes gleamed.
"For that ignorance, not a single one walks away alive today."
Delro's eyes shone in the gloom like a beast eyeing prey.