Jolly Roger in the Mist
The night was swallowed by fog, with only moonlight spilling across the deck.
Two ships without flags drifted side by side in the center of it all, lashed together by ropes and wooden planks.
“…Hoo. Feels like it’s been a while.”
“It has, Rayden. You’ve gotten fat. Business must be booming.”
The two men exchanged casual greetings across the planks.
Rayden, captain of a merchant vessel from the Draund family, and Bella, the pirate known as the Black Widow.
After so long apart, a flicker of genuine warmth showed in their eyes.
But they were here on business. Smuggling was business. Piracy was business. Everything came down to money.
They set the pleasantries aside and got straight to it.
“So? Where’s the cargo?” Rayden asked.
Bella pried up a section of her deck and showed him.
“Sugar, spices, and mana stones. Some idiots were practically begging to get robbed.”
“Oho…!”
The sight of the glittering goods piled like a mountain made Rayden’s eyes gleam with anticipation of how much coin his employer would pay.
“Thirty percent of market value. That should be enough, Bella.”
“Are you joking? That’s way too low.”
“You know there’s nowhere left to fence this stuff, right? The Southern Admiral’s been cracking down hard lately. You’ve heard the stories.”
“Tsk.”
Bella couldn’t argue. Everyone knew how merciless the Southern Admiral had become with his vassals. Any connection to pirates meant severe punishment. Even famous pirates had been strung up alive along the southern coast for the crows to pick at.
The only reason the southern navy hadn’t been able to sail freely was thanks to the Pirate King Haydam. Bella almost felt grateful to the man she’d never even seen.
“Let’s hurry this up, Bella. We don’t know when the Admiral’s men might show.”
Rayden was anxious to raise the merchant flag and slip away safely.
Bella was about to answer with her usual cheek when—
“Oh please, you coward. Who in their right mind would sail through this fog—”
Before she could finish, the wind shifted.
A low, ominous howl rolled across the water. The very air felt different.
““…?””
The thick fog that had filled the gaps between the islands began to part left and right.
Through the opening, massive shadows emerged like ghosts.
“What the hell?”
“Why is it suddenly—”
Both men turned toward the disturbance at once.
At first they thought it was just another rocky island revealed by the current.
But as the seconds ticked by, the fog continued to peel away, and it came into view.
“—T-That’s…!”
A black flag bearing a skull pierced by an anchor.
Anyone who lived on these seas knew that flag. His flag.
“H-Haydam…! Goddamn it…!! It’s Haydam!!”
The Pirate King Haydam.
His fleet, flying the Jolly Roger, was materializing right before their eyes.
Rayden’s face went deathly pale.
That fleet was death incarnate on the water. No one in the southern seas could keep their heart steady at the sight of that flag. Rayden, who had already nearly died once before, felt it twice as keenly.
“Shit…! This is insane—”
Bella let out a strangled scream at the sight.
—Stop, and I’ll spare your lives.
The heavy voice, carried by aura, rolled across the entire sea. A final, merciless ultimatum.
But Bella didn’t wait for it to finish. She bolted for the deck and shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“All hands aboard! Weigh anchor! Get us out of here now!!”
Money laundering could go to hell. When your life was on the line, gold was worth less than rocks.
Bella’s ship began carving desperately through the waves.
Rayden, snapping out of his shock, screamed orders to turn his merchant vessel toward open water.
“D-Damn it! Run for it! Get us outside the archipelago! Catch the wind…! We have to ride the wind!!”
Haydam had already read their every move.
“Gidmen, contact Kael. Tell him to take his three ships and follow that merchant vessel. Capture it intact.”
“Yes, Captain!”
At Haydam’s command, the fleet split with perfect discipline.
Meanwhile, his flagship, Queen Marianne’s Revenge, turned toward the fastest-escaping target—Bella’s pirate ship.
*
“This fucking…! How is this even possible?!”
Bella was losing her mind.
Word had been that Haydam’s fleet was heading toward the central southern waters. Preparing for war with the south, or chasing some other target. Either way, no one expected him to appear in this backwater cove.
Why would one of the richest pirates alive show up here?
“Captain! Look behind us…!!”
What made it even more absurd was this:
“What the hell is that thing?!”
He was chasing her personally.
Haydam’s flagship, Queen Marianne’s Revenge. An oversized galleon clad in iron plates and bristling with eighty cannons. How could something that heavy glide across the water at such speed? It felt like a colossal sea monster bearing down on them with jaws wide open.
Bella’s heart hammered like it would burst.
“Faster! Faster!! Spread every sail we’ve got!!”
“W-We already have, Captain!!”
She had to get away. She had to escape that monstrous ship.
But Queen Marianne’s Revenge kept closing the distance, as if refusing to allow it.
“You crazy bastard…! We’re both pirates! Why are you doing this?!”
Bella snatched up the voice-amplifying artifact and shouted across the water.
“Do you even know who’s behind me?! Benjamin the Golden Tongue is backing me! Stop now and I won’t tell him about this mistake—”
Haydam’s curt reply cut through the night.
—How noisy.
The flagship’s bow cannon ports opened.
—KABOOOOOM———!!
It wasn’t a normal cannonball.
Two iron spheres connected by a chain spun through the air—chain shot.
The whirling projectile slammed straight into the main mast.
—CRRRRRACK———!!
“Aaaagh…! The mast!!”
It snapped like a twig. Speed bled away instantly. The ship that should have been riding the wind now drifted helplessly.
Queen Marianne’s Revenge continued its relentless approach.
“Y-You son of a bitch…! Why me…?! This was supposed to be my first real voyage…!!!!”
Bella collapsed in despair.
Then she saw them—familiar sails appearing from beyond the islands.
‘…Ah, yes!’
Allied pirates. Ships belonging to her superior, Benjamin the Golden Tongue. Five vessels that had been waiting nearby had sensed the crisis and come to encircle Haydam’s flagship.
“Khih, khihihit…!!!”
Bella burst into a mad laugh and glared up at Haydam standing on his deck.
No matter how fearsome Haydam was, no matter how monstrous his ship, he only had three vessels. She had five. Numbers meant everything.
“You’re finished, Haydam. Today you’ll learn how hollow your reputation really is!”
She watched the approaching allied ships with triumphant eyes.
But Bella had overlooked one crucial fact.
The pirates she knew and the man named Haydam standing before her were…
—KABOOM——!!
“…Huh?”
…very, very different.
*
“One ship sunk!”
Lorens cackled as she bounded over to report her latest kill. One of the five vessels trying to close the net had just been blasted into the depths.
They’d been offered quarter if they surrendered. Running instead was basically begging to die.
Pirates were treacherous opportunists. Mercy was a one-time offer.
“Captain, more rats just showed up.”
“I’ve said it before—pirates get one act of mercy. That’s all.”
I raised my hand without expression.
“Fire.”
The flagship swung broadside. Moments later, the starboard guns roared in unison.
—BOOM-BOOM-BOOM——CRASH———!!!
The lead pirate ship’s flank was torn open. Overwhelming, unstoppable firepower. The pirates didn’t even have time to scream before they were swept into the cold sea.
“Three ships left. What are your orders?”
At Gidmen’s report, I looked toward the remaining vessels. They had frozen in place after watching their comrades vanish beneath the waves.
Silence. Fear. Confusion.
I felt almost sorry for them.
“Next.”
If they were going to run, they should have run earlier. If they wanted to surrender, they should have raised a white flag long ago.
But they were still hesitating. How very pirate-like.
Without even glancing at the smoking gun barrels, I gave the cold order.
“Sink them all. Except the one that ran first.”
You asked if I knew who was behind you, pirate?
You’ll find out soon enough.