Normalizing the Domain (1)
My domain had only been mine for a short while, yet one thing was already clear—having a place to return to brought a surprising sense of stability.
“Welcome back, Captain. Or should I say Baron Haydam now?”
“Save the jokes, Yona. Captain is fine.”
Yona greeted me with the sharp scent of the sea clinging to her. Behind her, her crew moved with crisp efficiency, taking charge of the captured merchant ships and prisoners we had brought in.
A successful hunt. A mountain of spoils.
My sailors roared with the raw joy of victory, but their cheers grated on me. In a corner of the harbor, the domain’s residents watched us with unmistakable fear in their eyes.
To them, I was probably no different from Rubik. If anything, I might look even worse.
Almost everyone here knew my name. Until moments ago, I had been the king of pirates who returned reeking of blood.
…That fear. It’s something I’ll have to deal with eventually.
Fear worked for short-term control, but it would never become a solid foundation for a prosperous domain. If the people saw me only as a monster who might tear them apart at any moment instead of a lord who would protect them, then productivity and growth would remain an uphill battle.
I was mulling over how to change their perception when I began walking toward the castle.
“……”
A woman cut through the crowd and approached me.
“…? You—”
Of course, it was Ines.
She walked straight up to me without hesitation and reached for the bloodstain still on my cheek.
“—What are you—?”
“……”
—Swish, swish.
A soft handkerchief touched my face. She carefully, almost tenderly, wiped the blood away before speaking in a quiet voice.
“…Please don’t get hurt. I’m so glad you came back safely.”
Before I could answer, she stepped forward and slipped into my arms.
My body stiffened at the sudden embrace. We were husband and wife in name only, and until now she had always been wary and afraid of me.
When I looked down at her cautiously, she buried her face against my chest and whispered in the smallest voice.
“……Shh.”
Her eyes flicked toward the domain residents gathered at the harbor.
“…They’re watching. I need to show them that you’re not just a pirate.”
“……”
Only then did I understand. She was putting on a political performance.
The daughter of the Southern Admiral was no empty title. She instinctively knew how to win over the people.
Of course, her fingertips are trembling, her heartbeat is racing, and her face is flushed…
Outwardly she looked bold, but inside she was still terrified and embarrassed.
I chuckled softly and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“If we’re going to act, we might as well do it properly.”
“Eek…!”
I swept her up in my arms like a princess. The sailors erupted into crude cheers.
“Ooh—! Captain! Already heading straight for the bedroom after coming back?!”
“Long live Captain Haydam! Long live Haydam the Second—!”
—Crack!
“Aaaagh——!!!”
“—Shut up.”
I enjoyed the sight of Ines’s face turning bright red as I carried her toward the castle with confident strides.
“Nothing happened while I was gone, Ines?”
“…Y-Yes.”
The moment we reached the study, I summoned Old Snake Bashir. I needed to hear the results of her investigation into Ines’s constitution.
Ines sat across from me, visibly tense, but Bashir paid her no mind. She took a long drag from her pipe, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and spoke.
“…This girl is no ordinary person.”
“What do you mean, Old Snake?”
“She has talent in both civil and martial arts, and in shamanism as well. Her depth of talent is extraordinary.”
Bashir took another pull from her pipe, then nodded and continued.
“The problem is… her talent comes from absorption. She draws in all the mana around her and makes it her own. Knowledge and experience are absorbed faster than anyone else’s. It’s the kind of gift that appears once in a thousand years.”
“I don’t follow. Then why is her body so weak?”
“Obviously. Didn’t I say she absorbs everything around her? Not just pure mana or aura, but all things in heaven and earth.”
“…Ah.”
“She takes in impurities, toxins, and malevolent energy without discrimination. How could she possibly stay healthy? Perhaps the Admiral kept her locked away not for protection, but to prevent those toxins from leaking out.”
In other words, she possessed something similar to the legendary Empty Spirit Body from martial arts tales—an existence that absorbed ambient energy at an absurd rate. Simply breathing could count as training, and she could reach in months what others needed decades to achieve.
Honestly, it was hard to believe such talent existed in her. But Bashir was competent. She never spoke twice with the same mouth.
If Ines could become a shaman, she would be a strategic asset. Shamans were extremely rare, and their curses, blessings, and barriers were invaluable in both war and governance.
“…Can you raise Ines as a shaman?”
Bashir’s eyes gleamed at my question.
“Kihihi…! Of course. She’ll possess a vessel larger than any shaman before her. There is one condition, however.”
“Condition?”
“A pure source of power to fill her vessel. She needs a steady supply of aura or mana that is completely free of impurities—very pure and very strong.”
“Can I just bring her mana stones? We hauled in quite a few this time—”
Bashir cut me off immediately.
“—No, Captain Haydam. The only one here who possesses a supply source of that caliber… is you.”
“……”
“…? Me?”
“I will teach her shamanism. All you need to do is share your energy with her.”
“How?”
“You’ve done it before, haven’t you? Physical contact.”
Ines’s face flushed crimson again. She was probably remembering the time we held hands when she was still locked away in the annex, dying as a pitiful illegitimate child.
Now that same girl supposedly possessed the talent to become a shaman.
“Fine. I accept.”
I took Ines’s hand and answered in a low voice.
“……Yes. I’ll do my best not to become a burden to you.”
A strange vitality began to shine in her eyes as she looked at me. At the same time, I felt a powerful suction. My aura was being drawn into her. It was a sensation I would clearly need time to get used to.
*
Having decided that roughly one-third of my aura would be siphoned off once a day, I immediately spread out a map of Morg Bay and began rolling a pen across it.
Honestly, Morg Bay was in a dire state. The island itself was decently sized, but the population was only around two thousand. I had roughly a thousand sailors under my command and about two hundred fifty laborers captured during the privateering raid, yet the ratio of outsiders to locals was far too high.
This was a more serious problem than it first appeared. Most of my sailors were transient. They would constantly sail out for privateering operations and raids against pirates and enemy merchant ships. Roughly eighty percent of those thousand men would be absent from the domain at any given time.
If left unchecked, this could easily lead to uncontrollable riots or leave us vulnerable to foreign invasion.
So I needed a countermeasure.
“Pablo, Kael. Come in.”
At my call, Pablo—who had always handled our fleet’s finances—and Kael—who managed security and discipline—entered the room.
I pointed at specific areas on the map and gave direct orders.
“Starting today, put the prisoners we captured to work. Top priority is repairing the walls and maintaining the roads inside the domain.”
“Roads, sir? I understand the walls, but is there really a need to pave roads in such a small domain?”
I answered Kael’s question with a cynical smile.
“…Haa. This is why you sea dogs are hopeless.”
“…Aren’t you a sea dog too, Captain?”
“What?”
“C-Cancel that! It was a joke, just a joke…! Please withdraw your aura!”
“There are four simple reasons. First, the speed of logistics is money.”
“Hmm… We move everything by ship anyway, so I don’t really feel the difference.”
“That’s because we’ve never needed to settle in one place until now. Imagine constantly bringing goods into that harbor and selling them, Kael. How are you going to move cargo from the harbor to the market, or from the warehouse to the castle, without proper roads?”
“…Ah!”
“Wagon wheels get stuck in unpaved dirt roads, and while you’re struggling to drag them out, time just slips away. Even imagining it is painful.”
“…I see.”
I tapped the map and continued.
“Second, security.”
“Security? You have another reason besides logistics?”
“Let’s say an external force lands on another shore for a surprise attack, or the prisoners inside start a riot. Imagine that.”
“Umm, then we’d just call Lorens and Gidmen, and you would—”
“—What if we’re not here?”
“…Er, well, we could handle it ourselves, couldn’t we?”
“You’ve spent so much time fighting only at sea that you don’t think about land battles. If the army needs to respond immediately in such situations, the roads have to be properly maintained.”
“…Is that so?”
“Remember what those pirate islands we used to frequent looked like? They had no proper roads, and when Edoternon’s navy showed up, everything went to hell.”
“Ah, that time. Whew… Just thinking about it still gives me chills…!”
“I have no intention of repeating that stupid mistake. This domain must become completely ours.”
“…Ooh.”
“Third, hygiene.”
“No objections there, Captain. If this many outsiders suddenly arrive on the island without proper drainage or roads, an epidemic is only a matter of time.”
“Exactly, Kael.”
I answered him, then looked out the window at the domain.
“And last—visible administrative power.”
In the end, if I wanted to completely control and dominate this domain, I needed to engage in some political theater. That meant delivering visible results, much like kings and emperors throughout history built grand castles to demonstrate their authority.
“I need to plant the impression in the residents’ minds that their new lord is changing their lives for the better. Well… after Rubik, anything would be an improvement.”
“Kuhuhu… That’s true enough.”
“So I’m counting on the two of you. Pablo, you should know roughly how to maintain the roads. You’ve handled money and dealt with merchants until now, so you’ve learned something.”
“Precisely, Captain Haydam.”
“Kael, I’m leaving their supervision to you. Can you manage the laborers together with your men?”
“Of course I can! I’ll get started right away!”
“Then move out. Let’s turn this place into a proper pirate paradise.”
““Understood, Captain!””
After the two of them left, I stood alone before the map once more.
My personal goal was clear. If I only wanted to be the Southern Admiral’s dog, I wouldn’t be doing any of this. I intended to build something new—not another filthy, lawless pirate island, but the cleanest, most efficient, and most powerful pirate fortress the world had ever seen.
Morg Bay was the first step toward that grand vision. Through it, I would establish a black market where countless pirates and merchants would come and go, accumulate enormous wealth, and eventually use it as a base to seize the entire south.
Just imagining that future made me grin.
Build power here, then strike the south with it. It sounds… very plausible.
How delightful.
*
Meanwhile, at the Draund family estate…
“…Why haven’t we heard anything?”
“…I don’t know—”
“—Then find out!! That damn pirate brat took our ship and ran after we took him in?!”
They were still searching for the whereabouts of the missing Raiden—unaware that he had already fallen into Haydam’s hands.