Chapter 225

#225 Episode: Tin Knight and the Tower of Greed (5)

Captain Bill is currently the one in charge.

That is the position Trot holds right now.

It’s quite simple, really.

To keep Dorothea’s ‘cage’ operational, the owner needs to have considerable magical power, and the only reliable person who can be that powerful and is free enough to carry the cage around is her.

I wondered if it was really okay to assign a former kidnapping victim to oversee a former kidnapper, but when I casually asked Dorothea about it, she replied, “Huh? Oh, if it’s for revenge, do whatever you like. Just don’t damage the cage. Poking with a twig is fine.” Typical witch. Her standards are different from ordinary people.

Honestly, it wasn’t anything grand being a manager.

Having to carry the cage around constantly to maintain the magical power was a bit inconvenient, but once I realized that I could just tie my hair to it and stick it somewhere on my body, the difficulty dropped significantly.

So there I was, chatting with Captain Bill about various things, occasionally offering seeds or small bugs, only to get scolded with, “Do I really look like a real bird trapped in this cage? You cocooned thing!” while trying to make a shake out of the cage.

One day, Trot and Captain Bill received a summons from Dorothea, and now we are here.

“—Let’s make a deal. Skull. I’ll set you and your men free. In exchange, it would be nice if you fought for us.”

“I refuse.”

The response came back without a hint of hesitation.

Trapped in the cage, Captain Bill scoffed at Dorothea with a boring expression.

“Because you guys got rid of the West Witch, all my 99 years of effort have gone to waste. Do you think you know the hell I went through to get rid of this accursed curse and return to being human? I couldn’t even take revenge properly, and you want me to work for you like a dog? Do I look that gullible? Huh?”

“Do you realize you’re trapped with your men right now? How’s the life of a prisoner treating you?”

“Oh, will you try torturing me? Go ahead, I’m game! Not a single one of our sea men is afraid of that kind of thing!”

Trot butted in absentmindedly.

“No, but pirates can be surprisingly cowardly… selling their pride and their mates pretty easily…”

“…That’s just the riffraff! Real sea men are different!”

“It’s not just that your body’s in such a condition that you don’t really feel pain, is it?”

Captain Bill glared at Trot with a terrifying gaze, and Trot shot back as if to say, “What are you looking at?”

Watching these two bicker, Dorothea internally felt a bit surprised.

Captain Bill was an outstanding powerhouse.

His personal strength could match the Tin Knight for a while (though that might sound trivial, there are hardly any opponents who can face the Tin Knight one-on-one).

Possessing the ability to manipulate magical ships at will, commanding his crew adeptly, and being cursed with immortality that allows him to revive no matter how ruined he gets.

He was undoubtedly a figure that would classify as “vicious” by normal standards, yet Trot treated him like some neighborhood punk. It seemed the time spent together while he was left bedridden made a difference.

“Why not just cooperate neatly and be free? That way, I won’t have to carry your head around all the time.”

“This isn’t such an easy matter! When I was just a single step away from turning back into a human and everything fell apart, do you think you can understand that despair, you little punk!?”

“About that contract with the witch, was it actually legitimate?”

“What?”

Trot shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve traveled a lot and dealt with merchants since I was a child, and I know there are a lot of scammers in the world. If I were in your position and that West Witch offered me something like, ‘If you work for me for a hundred years, I’ll grant your wish,’ I would never accept that offer.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s no guarantee!”

Trot began counting off on his fingers.

“If the other party presented a fake document while claiming their research is going well, do you have the ability to discern that? Once the job is done, and they act like the deal never happened, do you have the strength to force it back? Or do you have collateral or a mediator to impose penalties? Nothing at all?”

“…….”

“Let’s switch places. Suppose you made a deal with someone, and fulfilling that contract is incredibly bothersome for you. But if you ignore the contract and act like it never happened, the other party can’t harm you. Would you honor the contract? I hope you don’t say you would. Otherwise, you’d be a navy man, not a pirate.”

“…….”

“Promises only spoken are hollow. If I were you, I’d rather negotiate better terms like ‘I’ll release you from the curse one person a year’ or ‘I’ll learn the tricks to break the curse while working as a subordinate’ instead of believing some nonsense like ‘I’ll solve it all at once in a hundred years.’ With the former, you can really gauge if they have the will and ability to do it, and with the latter, at least what you learn will stay with you.”

“…….”

“Of course, this is all just conjecture. It’s not that the West Witch didn’t have a chance to fulfill the contract faithfully. But what does that matter now? She’s dead and gone. Clinging to benefits that can’t be reversed is the mark of a third-rate merchant. Isn’t it better to start looking for new methods from now on? Hey, are you listening?”

“Hey.”

“Yes? Oh, I’m so sorry, Dorothea. Watching this guy, I got frustrated and just blurted out. I must have been a hindrance to your negotiations.”

“No, I think that guy’s mental state is already out of whack.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Originally, I was going to persuade him a lot, but I think it’d be faster if I leave it to you. Try convincing him. If you succeed, there’ll be a hefty reward.”

As an advance payment, Dorothea waved her gloved right hand lightly.

Then, gold ingots and coins poured down from thin air.

Trot stared blankly at the mountain of gold, which he could barely see the end of, and then spoke with a serious expression.

“I’ll grind this golden skull down into gold dust just to make this deal happen.”

“Y-Yeah. Just do it appropriately.”

Exactly twelve hours later.

The trapped pirate crew of Bill was freed, and under the condition that Trot would collaborate on the curse research as Bill’s ‘temporary crew member,’ Bill’s crew joined our side.

***

Tower of Guardian, Common Workshop.

Looking at the black-hulled ship with golden sails, a wizard affiliated with the Tower of Guardian said.

“The modification work is complete. While it won’t fly freely in the sky, it has enough buoyancy to navigate across the ground without issues.”

Nodding along with the revamped golden ship, the Master of the Tower of Guardian remarked.

“That was quicker than I expected.”

“The ship already held a level of telekinetic power. It was just a matter of enhancing the existing effects, so it was quite easy.”

The technology the Tower of Guardian boasts is enchantment.

Transforming a simple sword into a flaming sword or granting ordinary people the strength of bears is their specialty—strengthening or adding functions to something that originally exists, and they certainly demonstrated that talent once again.

However, the wizards who achieved this feat looked uneasy.

“But is this really enough? An immortal pirate crew sounds truly terrifying, but in reality, it’s still just a handful.”

The battle between Guardian and Control was obviously leaning towards the Guardian’s disadvantage, and the enemies even included the Great Witch as an additional force.

The notion of supplementing the lack of power externally isn’t bad, but adding only a few dozen people didn’t seem to carry much weight.

Hearing the wizard’s opinion, the Master of the Tower gave a bitter smile.

It’s easy to say everything is fine, but honestly, even she felt at a loss on how to resolve this situation.

But.

“In this situation, there are still those who are ignited with fighting spirit. If they say they need pirates and pirate ships for this operation, I guess we have no choice but to trust them.”

***

With a *swish,* Sophia spread a map wide on the desk and said.

“Our original plan to ‘reveal the sins of the Tower of Control and have another tower judge them’ has effectively failed. If, at this rate, the Tower of Guardian is smashed by the Tower of Control, all their sins will either vanish or be rewritten to fit their narrative.”

“It would also cost us our necks. Those guys wouldn’t spare us.”

Adelheid’s expression darkened.

When you think about it, it was her fault that the party got involved in this incident.

They had been through numerous events and taken down many enemies, but this time, the scale and strength of the adversary were on a different level.

The Tower of Control itself was a formidable enemy, and on top of that, there was a fraction of the 4th Grade Witch.

Logically speaking, this would be a time to focus on fleeing rather than fighting back.

[Tin Knight has declared that the board is set!]

[Tin Knight asserts that it was the enemy who first initiated the power struggle, so we should just smash the enemies without worrying about politics!]

But the Tin Knight expressed no negative feelings about it.

Rather, he seemed to show joy as if he had finally cleared his mind.

The other colleagues felt the same way.

“Well, it’s different to attack the magical kingdom as outsiders versus getting involved in a civil war between towers.”

“They must have tried to swallow the Tower of Guardian first, but thanks to that, we have a solid backing now.”

They laughed, acknowledging that though they were outnumbered, it was something they had encountered before.

And so, Adelheid was able to smile, too.

She asked, “What can I do, or rather, what should we do?”

“Guerilla warfare.”

Dorothea replied.

“To put it bluntly, guerilla warfare would be the more accurate term. We’ll raid the territories of Control using the pirate ships, smashing their most crucial forces—mages of 3rd rank and higher.”

“Participants will be from Bill’s pirate crew, the four of us, then Gale and the White Knight. The wizards from the Tower of Guardian will keep pressure outside to ensure the enemy can’t set up a large encirclement.”

To take down the enemy’s key forces with barely even dozens of participants.

It was an absurd operation, a ridiculous objective.

But they were sincere about it.

“We’ll use the old man’s lower half that he left behind as a magical catalyst. While they may have been cursed to the point they can’t just kill him directly, at least they can determine the locations of the parties involved and their blood relatives.”

“Both the Tin Knight and the White Knight can keep moving as long as they have magical power, and if Gale shares her magical power with Dorothea, she can pass it on during the operation. So, the Tin Knight doesn’t need to return midway. However, since the Tin Knight and Dorothea will inevitably be apart, Captain Bill’s crew and Adel need to protect Dorothea in the meantime.”

We’ve secured a compass.

We’ve also secured a means of transport.

So, the rest is simple.

[Tin Knight declares that it’s time for hack and slash!]

Just run wild.