Chapter 258
Chapter 258
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 259
Chapter Title: The Diamond's Arrival
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“Urk...!”
Late to react, Rampang gritted her teeth through the pain and began to draw on her strength for a counterattack. But before she could, a shadow shot forward ahead of her.
Boom!
With the crash of the captain's quarters exploding, a figure blocked Rampang's path.
His hand moved fluidly, redirecting the incoming slash back toward the Nightmare.
“!”
Whoom!
The galleon that had loosed the arrow-like slash at the redirected strike shattered on impact and sank beneath the waves.
“Sister, you alright?”
“...You're late, priestess.”
A familiar voice, one so welcome it warmed her heart, rang out.
“Sorry. Take a breather. I told you I'd handle that one, didn't I?”
A smile tugged at her lips involuntarily, but the words that came out were curt.
“Late as hell and still talking big.”
“I'll make it up to you, big time.”
The young man exuded an aura not of rugged mountain stone, but compressed like adamantine.
Jerome von Carviot.
Having finally completed his training, he had arrived on the battlefield.
“You...”
Jerome radiated an aura like a masterfully cut diamond.
Feeling it, focus slowly returned to Balak's previously hazy eyes.
That unyielding energy, his appearance. The ornate gauntlets he wielded.
It's him.
He knew at first sight.
Once branded a wastrel—or even a worm—of the Shield Family.
Now hailed as Ikenia's rising hero for dismantling the Empire's schemes one by one.
He'd expected the boy, inheritor of Heavenly Shield Bacchus's blood, to have some skill worthy of his lineage. But...
The aura pouring from this whelp before him wasn't merely "impressive." It was...
Screeeech!
Joy bloomed across Balak's rigid face.
“This... this changes everything.”
What the kid had been up to until now didn't matter.
On raw might, they were outnumbered.
But in overall forces, they held overwhelming superiority.
A stalemate, then.
And now, the perfect rival he'd long awaited restored meaning to his strategy. That strategy had turned what should have been a stalemate into a disadvantage for his grand fleet.
So.
So.
So.
Finally, he was in "danger." There was only one way to turn this around.
His "might" was the "key" to unlocking it all.
Causality had twisted, but the situation he'd craved had arrived.
“Haha, hahahahaha!!!”
Clang! Clang!
Balak's mad laughter boomed, rippling the surrounding sea.
Whoosh!
Mid-laugh, without warning, Balak swung his greatsword downward like a bell clapper.
“!”
Jerome deflected the absurd, boundless surge of power to the side.
Krunch!
The deflected energy pulverized three navy and pirate galleons into dust, leaving a long wake beneath the waves before fading.
A indiscriminate, monstrous blow.
Feeling a faint tremble in the arm that had redirected it, Jerome's expression hardened.
This guy...
Pure destructive power might even rival Father's.
If I'd fought him at my past life's level, I'd have been smashed in seconds.
Shame washed over him for once thinking his old realm would suffice against Balak.
This monster was no such pushover.
“Focus, whelp.”
Slash!
Balak's parched, deathly expression had twisted into a ferocious grin, like a wrathful demon.
“From this moment, I won't forgive a single lapse in attention.”
The murderous aura emanating from him made the title Pirate King feel earned.
“It's been ages since I felt this thrill. Keep it going as long as you can.”
Thump! Thump!
Balak's once-still heart began to pound fiercely.
Weapons like chains, whips, or flexible swords are far harder to master than standard blades or blunt instruments.
They enable wildly unpredictable attacks, but low skill risks self-injury.
Rare on the continent for that reason.
But once mastered, the wielder forces the foe to grapple with their erratic nature.
Especially with a massive sickle at the end.
As Saladin faced now.
A ship's deck was cluttered: cleaning tools, incendiary shots, cannons.
The rolling sea added endless variables underfoot.
Clang!
Yet Pardal's chain, tipped with a giant sickle, snaked toward Saladin's throat like a massive serpent, ignoring the chaos.
“Hmph!”
Saladin's fingers danced; Nene shifted rear, Mimi front.
Both now solid mithril, unmoved by most impacts.
Still, Mimi's iron-packed frame edged out in melee durability.
As the giant sickle flew, Mimi crossed arms to block.
Shing! Crunch!
Pardal's sickle pierced the deck below Mimi's feet and vanished.
“!”
Spotting it, Saladin leaped back.
Splinter!
The sickle burst from where Saladin had stood a second ago.
A split-second delay, and it'd have gutted him.
Shing!
The deck-splitting sickle lunged again at the retreating Saladin, alive as a viper.
Its speed outpaced any living snake.
Slash!
It grazed Saladin's side before whipping back.
“...Tch!”
Blood dripped from the sickle's tip, staining red.
“Heh, not bad. First to last this long against my Great Serpent Sickle.”
Clank!
Coiled like a serpent, Pardal's weapon reformed into its massive sickle shape.
Swish!
Standing amid the wrecked Olivia navy ship, Pardal scanned around.
“Hm? Hey, you. Looks like they ditched you. Navy's all fled, leaving you behind.”
The Iron Maiden pirates that had pressed the Olivia navy now encircled Saladin and Pardal's ship.
Clank! Clank!
As Pardal's fight stalled, hooks latched onto the rails; pirates swarmed aboard, kneeling before him.
“We greet the Lord of the Northern Seas, Northern Spirit.”
Pirates draped in sinister crests: Iron Maidens.
“What're you lot doing here?”
“By Vice-Captain's order, we prioritized sweeping the flanking navies.”
Snort!
Pardal chuckled at the crewman's reply.
He'd felt that monstrous aura from the center too.
Not from Vice-Captain Norland's ship—their reason was obvious.
“Grace, always hogging the easy pickings. Girl's got a nose for the sweet stuff.”
“We're just here for victory in the war...”
“Yeah, yeah, got it. Good work.”
Normally, he'd slice the cheeky bastard's head clean off. But Pardal showed mercy this once.
Headaches like strategy were Norland's job.
He just needed to play with his new toy.
“Hey, wanna surrender?”
“...?”
Saladin, clutching his wound, shot Pardal an incredulous look at the sudden offer.
“Don't look shocked. These guys aren't my crew, but not yours either. Mine'll swarm soon. No point dying pointlessly, right?”
Grin!
“Started out cocky—wanted to kill you. But you held against my sickle. Surrender, and I'll give you the open vice-captain spot.”
Pardal liked Saladin: guts unbending to his killing intent and fame, silver tongue, flashy style like his own.
Too good to rot in that stale kingdom.
“...Ha! Tempting. But my answer's this.”
Saladin's hand moved; Mimi and Nene's middle fingers shot up in unison.
“Hm, serious? Fine, die then. Think it over. Last chance.”
Pardal couldn't fathom it. With that power, dying meaningless on these waves—what a waste.
“Surrender. I'll spare your life.”
“...Know why I won't join you scum?”
In the brief glance at the puppets' gestures, Saladin subtly palmed a purple orb from his pocket.
“You treat the weak like vermin.”
“Natural order. No ability, you die. Law of the wild.”
Survival of the fittest. Beasts' logic, nature's way.
“...Exactly that mindset.”
To Saladin's right, far off in the main fleet, a familiar, mature aura bloomed.
A man flashed in his mind: always charging recklessly ahead, driving himself mercilessly for others—his wild comrade.
“...We're just incompatible!”
Whoosh!
With his shout of refusal, Saladin hurled the orb at Pardal and the boarding pirates.
“!”
Pardal reflexively cleaved it in two; purple poison mist swallowed space for three galleons instantly.
“Gahack!”
“Kek... What... is...”
Thud! Thud!
Poison Bullet, embodying Martin of the Poison Blood School's essence, claimed Iron Maiden lives.
Thick fog blinded all.
“Got 'em?”
Shing!
Saladin muttered carelessly; the sickle flew at him like it awaited the cue.
“!”
Dodging to the mast and leaping up, Saladin was pursued by the chain-sickle climbing like a snake on a tree.
Krunch!
The massive mast shredded; Saladin and puppets floated midair.
Looking down, Saladin saw Pardal—veins bulging, eyes bloodshot, glaring up.
“So that's your answer?”
Lick!
Pardal licked blood from his eye, courtesy of the poison, grinning savagely.
“You'll pay dearly for spurning my goodwill.”
Kicking mast shards, Saladin dropped straight at Pardal, calm.
“Bring it.”
Click!
Saladin's hands busied again with puppet strings.
The great sea battle raging below Corantos Gorge.
The fiercest at Pirate King Balak's main force, no doubt.
But the most chaotic? Pirates' left flank.
Pew pew pew!
Clang! Clink!
Two daggers parried sharply against a rapier rivaling the late Empire's Marquess Shoph's edge.
“Martel, why?”
“The tides have turned, O'Malley. Can't you switch sides?”
O'Malley couldn't grasp Martel's calm retort. Martel betrayed them—why urge him to rethink?
After a pause, O'Malley gripped daggers reverse.
“No. Martel, traitor. Die.”
Martel adjusted too: rapier to chest, other hand behind back.
Elegant, un-pirate-like—suited her perfectly.
“No helping it, then, O'Malley.”
Charge!
The nobles of the sea rushed each other.
Shing!
Scimitar and cutlass sparked fiercely.
“Tessai, you mad bastard! Know what you're doing?”
“Shut it, ugly bitch. Never liked you. Sneaky wench.”
Tessai and Grace slashed while trading insults nonstop.
“Moron! That's why you rot on fringes. Nothing but your face, you hack!”
“Who confessed blushing to this hack?”
“Argh! Eastern Spirit's coming—you're dead meat!”
“Yeah, that's trouble.”
Shing!
Stalemate hit; Tessai glanced aside.
Gadric pirates' ships closing in.
Crap, might actually die. Baron Jerome, you backstabbing us?
As impatience crept in, Bonny's shout cut through amid Iron Maiden sweeps.
“Reinforcements incoming! Hold on a bit longer!”
“!”
Tessai's eyes shifted again. Far off, the navy fleet approached.
Too slow.
They'd arrive after Gadric's galleons. Already shorthanded—could they hold Eastern Spirit till then?
“Ugh, life's all choices. Kinda regretting now.”
Scratching his head, Tessai steeled himself contrary to words.
Captain's the consequence of our choice.
So, give it everything till the end.
Hope they hurry... Huh?
Doubt flickered in Tessai's eyes. From the approaching navy fleet, massive black shadows rose in unison.
Then shot toward the Gadric pirates.
At blistering speed.