Chapter 143: The Navy Admiral

“Battle……!”

I was about to swing Hector Punisher in a stylish arc but helplessly lowered my arm.

Our goal was to get captured by Billigert and infiltrate his base.

There was no point in smashing these guys right now.

We had to be taken like any ordinary merchant ship.

Of course, we still needed to put on a convincing act to remove suspicion.

“Let’s pretend to flee with everything we’ve got. Turn the ship!”

“Yes!”

I checked the wind direction.

Fortunately, we had a favorable tailwind that let us pick up speed.

But the same conditions applied to the pirates.

Billigert’s ship closed in at a terrifying speed.

“Kehehehe! Stop right there, you lunchbox bastards!”

“I’ll rip out your guts and feed them to the fish!”

“What? Those are some harsh words. How about just throwing them whole to the sharks?”

“Either way they’ll get eaten, so what’s the difference?”

“True. Charge!”

The pirates shouted insane nonsense as they rapidly narrowed the distance.

Whirr! Clang! Thud!

Grappling hooks flew over and latched onto the stern one after another.

“Heave!”

“Ho!”

“Heave!”

“Ho!”

Interest Method

“Let’s gooo!”

With multiple people pulling hard, the gap soon became close enough to jump across.

Planks were quickly laid down, and the pirates swarmed over like a tidal wave.

Clang! Clang!

“Uwaaaah! W-we surrender!”

“Here’s my sword!”

The knights on deck raised both hands high without even fighting a few rounds.

I also showed my empty palms without any real resistance.

We displayed zero intention of fighting.

The pirates looked puzzled.

“It’s easier than I expected. Didn’t they usually put up more of a fight before?”

“Maybe they learned their lesson? No matter how much they struggle, the result won’t change.”

“Ah! That makes sense. After getting beaten every time, they probably realized resistance is pointless.”

“Let’s check the hold first.”

“Right.”

Fortunately, they did not seem overly suspicious.

Moreover, we had prepared bait to paralyze their thinking.

The pirates who opened the hold broke into wide smiles and looked at each other.

“There’s paper, cloth, and even ceramics! The intel that they were heading to Jude was correct.”

“Khhuhuhu! Jackpot. Too bad this is probably their last voyage.”

The pirate captain turned to me with a sly grin.

Several teeth were missing and he looked filthy from not washing in a long time—his appearance was utterly repulsive.

Well, they could not dock at normal ports, so finding fresh water must have been extremely difficult.

It was only natural they were unhygienic.

But suddenly the pirate captain’s expression changed drastically.

He had spotted the white and red object sprawled across the deck.

“What the hell is that?”

“Doesn’t it look just like a Nautilus shell?”

“You’re telling me they could kill a monster that huge? No, why would something like that lose to the likes of us?”

“Yeah?”

Suspicious eyes scanned me from head to toe.

It was a look that asked what on earth that was.

I stammered as if terrified.

“W-we just picked it up while passing by. It looked like it died of old age and was floating on the surface.”

“Ah?”

The pirate captain finally relaxed his face and laughed even harder.

He seemed overjoyed at obtaining even the Nautilus byproducts.

“Kwahahaha! What a stroke of luck! Turn around immediately. Lock these guys in the cabins.”

“Yes!”

We were captured by Billigert’s pirate ship as planned.

The pirates’ treatment of prisoners was utterly miserable.

Unless one was a noble, they were treated no better than slaves.

Of course, if a large ransom could be paid, the story would be different.

But we needed to reach deep inside Billigert’s base, so being sold as ordinary slaves was far more advantageous.

However, once the actual situation hit, my thoughts shifted a little.

“Ah, maybe I should have just offered to pay a ransom? These bastards are worse than I thought.”

Throughout the journey back to the base, we were not given even a drop of water.

The veteran helmsman explained the reason.

“They are probably trying to exhaust our strength before we arrive. Sailors can be extremely brutal.”

“But we still need to stay alive.”

“Male slaves aren’t worth much. The ship itself and the cargo in the hold are far more valuable. They probably wouldn’t care much even if we died.”

“A miserable reality.”

The Schultz merchant fleet employees who had been captured before must have suffered the same treatment.

Of course, we had prepared for this situation.

Since the only place to lock up prisoners was the cabins, we had hidden emergency food and weapons in various spots beforehand.

The pirates would be expecting weak, frail prisoners, but twenty perfectly healthy knights were about to burst out.

After sailing for several more days, I finally felt the ship come to a stop.

“Are you all ready?”

“Yes.”

“Follow the plan. Focus on fortifying our position as much as possible.”

“Understood.”

Thud! Thud!

Footsteps sounded outside, and the door was thrown wide open.

“Come out, you filthy pigs……”

Slash!

The pirate who had shouted triumphantly could no longer move his mouth.

A knight hiding by the entrance had slit his throat in one clean motion.

The next pirate who tried to enter was startled and turned, but he could not escape.

I had already extended my right hand and summoned Hector Punisher.

Swooosh! Thud!

The warhammer that shot out from the loot pile flew like a bullet and smashed into the pirate’s head.

I hit him so hard that the speed at which he collapsed was unbelievable.

Crack!

The cabin floorboards shattered and caved in.

I charged forward immediately.

I lightly subdued the pirates who had been inspecting the loot.

Just like the first one, I delivered Hector Punisher straight to their heads.

Thud! Thwack!

“Ughhh……”

“Urk!”

It was quite a rough method, but the effect was certain.

One hit and each of them rolled their eyes back and fainted.

This way I could neutralize them without killing.

No matter how much of a pirate they were, I still felt strong reluctance to take lives directly.

Of course, the knights behind me showed no such mercy.

Slice! Stab!

“Kill them all and take the deck!”

“Come at us, you rotten bastards!”

When the commotion broke out on the anchored ship, pirates began swarming over.

The shabby dock made of connected planks was instantly packed full.

Although the enemy numbers were far greater, entering the One-Shot was extremely difficult.

The knights had completely blocked the narrow passage.

They could not set the ship on fire or sink it either.

They still hadn’t unloaded the loot yet.

There was no way they would throw away such a lucrative source of income.

I took advantage of the chaos and successfully slipped into the hideout.

After leaving the dock and looking around, I saw harsh, rugged terrain.

Jagged reefs and swirling currents.

No wonder the navy can’t reach this place.

If one did not know the geography intimately, entering here would only result in sinking.

It was truly a natural fortress.

I shook my head and moved deeper inside.

The way to seize control of a pirate den was simple.

Make it impossible for them to sail the ships and completely isolate them. Then beat them down one by one.

Suddenly I thought of Shugl and Feltron.

Those two could easily destroy the ships.

Unfortunately, this was something I had to handle myself right now.

Of course, it was not particularly difficult.

“Whoops!”

Whirr! Crack!

I simply threw Hector Punisher and smashed the rudders to pieces.

This way they would not be able to set sail until the ships were repaired.

Summon

Swooosh! Grab!

Once the warhammer that had sunk into the water returned to my hand, I repeated the dynamic motion.

Like playing a game of axe throwing.

Whirr! Crack!

After repeating it several times, dozens of ships had been reduced to nothing more than large rafts.

After finishing the job, I headed straight deeper into the hideout.

I occasionally ran into pirates, but they did not seem to find it strange.

Probably because I acted so confidently.

Well, with this many people, how could they remember every single face?

Moreover, since I was dressed like a pirate captain, they were bound to misunderstand.

The scale of the hideout was far larger than I had expected.

Just judging by the number of docks, it was even bigger than Grand Cape.

“Just how massive is this group?”

Honestly, when I first heard that the Billigert pirates were only targeting the Schultz merchant fleet, I had thought it was nothing special.

Even considering the unique nature of the sea, the conclusion had been the same.

After all, pirates were just robbers on boats.

But after seeing the hideout, my judgment changed.

This is a far larger criminal organization. I cannot treat them like ordinary bandits or mounted raiders.

Look at the prison spread out behind it.

A five-story iron-bar complex packed full of people.

There had to be at least a thousand slaves there.

Among all the criminals I had dealt with so far, the most outrageous was Skyler Sierre.

But even he was nothing more than a drop in the bucket compared to the Billigert pirate group.

And even deeper inside, an even more shocking scene unfolded.

“Here! How much for this cell? I only want the women.”

“I can’t sell them separately. These are family units.”

“What? Do they have to be sold together?”

“It’s easier to control them if you hold one family member’s life in your hands.”

“Ah! In that sense, I can accept it. Ten people for 100 goldens, how about it?”

“Sir, you chose them for their beauty, didn’t you? Those three will cost 40 goldens each.”

“Ehey! That’s expensive.”

“Family units are always priced like this.”

A live slave auction was taking place.

I unconsciously opened the character information window.

I was curious what kind of people were conducting such illegal transactions.

Name: Jamie Hagal

Status: Viscount

Position: Local Acting Lord, Merchant Leader

Relationship: None

<Personal Information> Condition: Visited the pirate group because legal slave trading has become difficult. Overall Ability: C

The Empire strictly managed slaves.

The more free citizens there were, the more taxes could be collected.

However, local lords wanted to increase the number of serfs and slaves.

They wanted labor to cultivate their fields and to reduce the taxes they had to pay to the central government.

People below serf status were not treated as human beings.

That was why underground slave trading like this was thriving.

I understood the situation, but what surprised me was something else.

An acting lord came here personally?

This place was popular enough among civilians, yet how could the navy be so incompetent?

Finding out the reason was not difficult at all.

The brown-bearded man sitting in the seat of honor, watching the slave trade.

The moment I pulled up his information, I understood immediately.

His identity was none other than…….

Navy Admiral, Nigel Bayliss.