Chapter 297

(297)

A person can become strong to save someone precious, or they can collapse and do nothing when that precious person is taken hostage.

So wouldn’t the best thing be to fall in love with someone stronger than myself?

At least Jeilliris won’t become anyone’s hostage.

Cariosa headed towards the prison area underneath the Tempesta.

As the ship was quite large, the prison area was separated by bulkheads, which was why Sayah Yan could not breach it.

There was only one entrance, and several obsidian pillars were erected to disrupt mana.

“This feels awful.”

“I feel the same.”

“Didn’t that assassin already say everything?”

“We need cross-validation. Bring them both.”

A moment later, soldiers brought Sayah Yan to the interrogation room.

She was wearing a white, stiff cotton outfit and had magic tool handcuffs that sealed her mana, and there was still venom in her gaze.

Her sun-kissed skin and piercing eyes were quite striking.

As she sat in the chair, she glared at me until the very last moment, as if she wanted to cut my throat right away.

“……”

The interrogation needed to maintain her ability to speak to be meaningful, so there were no wounds left on her body.

In other words, it meant there was no need to heal someone who didn’t need to say anything in the first place.

Sizzle, sizzle.

There was a sound like something being drawn in, and a foul smell like rotting fish wafted in the air.

I looked toward the door of the interrogation room and, with my experience from before the return, could roughly guess what kind of person was about to enter.

“Shock therapy?”

Cariosa shook her head.

“That’s what I had to endure.”

“For example?”

“I had just fortified a port against the Undersea People when I received a report that another port had been breached by pirates, resulting in 3,000 deaths and 10,000 enslaved?”

“It’s not my place to say, but oh, luminous one.”

Tarti entered the interrogation room.

Honestly, at first, I thought a corpse had come in instead of a person.

He was in no condition to walk on his own and was being supported by two soldiers.

His body was covered in horrific burn wounds, and the burnt clothing was stuck to his injuries.

Even so, he still had focus in his eyes, which only showed that a Sword Expert remains an expert even in such circumstances.

Fortunately, it seemed his mind hadn’t crumbled yet.

“Tarti?”

Sayah Yan’s eyes widened.

Expressions of shock, anger, and hatred rose sequentially on her face.

In the next moment, her black hair shot out over three meters long, soaring like a spear toward my heart.

Swoosh—!

I caught the bundle of hair with my left hand.

Crack!

I put strength into it, thinking to crush it in one go, and indeed, I heard something break, but the strands of hair that stuck out behind my pinky finger elongated like tentacles and stabbed into me again.

“Crazy.”

I felt the need to calm Sayah Yan and gestured to the soldier.

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

The man from the eastern seas had not only bravery but also good instincts; as soon as he saw my gesture, he drew a dagger and stabbed it into Tarti’s thigh.

Thud!

The Eastern pirate admiral trembled, and Sayah Yan gritted her teeth.

I raised my chin and delivered my words coldly.

“Remove her. Assassin. You’re still not back to your senses.”

“!”

“I told you, the moment you draw your sword, your lord will be hanging from the bowsprit.”

“Valenciaunos!”

“Be thankful I spared you, pirate.”

Sayah Yan gritted her teeth, and the once-lengthy hair returned to a normal length with a sound.

I lowered my voice and asked Cariosa.

“Isn’t she still wearing the mana-sealing magic tool?”

She replied with a slightly flustered expression.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is. Is it not a technique using mana? It should affect all powers and mysteries, right?”

* * *

For nobles, prestige is as important as life itself, and Cariosa almost put me in danger.

This was an occurrence that would greatly harm prestige, and it would necessitate an even greater retaliation to restore it.

Cariosa pulled out a dagger that had a serrated edge from her waist.

Sayah Yan gritted her teeth, and I stopped Cariosa.

“Let’s hear what we need to hear first, and after we finish hearing everything, we can hang.”

Since the other party is not directly related to Jeilliris and hasn’t inflicted any serious wounds on me, it wouldn’t be strange not to want to inflict pain.

Sayah Yan looked at me with an expression of surprise.

Cariosa clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction and took out a healing potion from her pocket and handed it to the soldier.

The soldier poured a little potion on Tarti’s leg where the dagger had just struck, then made him swallow about a mouthful.

“Take him to the next room. We’ll cross-validate.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

The soldiers took Tarti away, and Cariosa glared at Sayah Yan.

“I promise you this in the name of Summerlin. If you do anything like earlier again, I will consume that one in front of you. You shouldn’t think of this as just a metaphor. Nod your head if you understand.”

Sayah Yan trembled and nodded her head.

“Also your answers.”

“……Understood.”

Her voice was filled with humiliation.

Cariosa laughed sadistically.

“Then let’s first talk about the defense systems of the port.”

Many questions followed, and Sayah Yan answered diligently.

Ballista emplacements installed along the islands that corresponded to the wings of Nayt Archipelago.

The structure of the fortress and the maze-like mansion.

Prisoners beginning to be consumed by barnacles.

Even the numbers of combatants the pirates could mobilize.

“From 120,000 to 280,000, you say?”

Of course, this was the level of simply claiming that a captured slave was a soldier while only brandishing a spear, but even considering that, it was an unbelievable number.

I knew the Eastern Continent had a large population, but hearing it in numbers was definitely suffocating.

“Tarti is an admiral commanding thirty ships, and over 140 ships followed him. However, he is just one among countless pirate admirals attending the meeting. While each ship might be high quality, he isn’t precisely a pirate admiral with a vast number of ships or immense power.”

“Hah.”

“That being said, there are also pirate admirals who command a thousand ships by themselves.”

“The story seems to be getting vague; I hope you are not getting any strange thoughts?”

“We are allies and in a coalition, but it’s not a relationship that close. Aquilas only represents us as the strongest pirate. Everyone keeps a secret about exactly how much strength they possess. In the first place, many of them don’t even attend the meetings and fight amongst themselves.”

“Am I right to think that even an assassin like you doesn’t know?”

“Just because I’m an assassin enables me to know this much… Tarti having a magic tool that allows him to run on water was something even Aquilas didn’t know.”

I hadn’t realized the extent to which their relations were torn apart.

“There are pirates who stayed to the west of Nayt Archipelago doing privateering against the Empire, and pirates who stayed to the east doing the same against the Eastern Continent. Although this boundary isn’t clear, either. There are many intersections.”

“Hmm.”

“Aquilias wants to gain some recognition from each kingdom, but some just want to continue with piracy. Some captains insist they need to fight the Empire to be recognized as lords of Nayt Archipelago, while others argue they should escape immediately.”

It seemed pirate factions were always in chaos internally due to power struggles.

Reflecting on it, it wasn’t particularly surprising.

Considering the outrageous actions had to be taken to gain oaths of loyalty from lords… Let’s not mention it.

I shuddered, and Cariosa grinned.

Hearing that made me realize why that guy named Nel had come earlier.

As a lord of the Nayt Archipelago, he would show planning a diplomatic mission to rally his supporters, and when that attempt is rejected, he would cry for resistance.

There was likely also an intention to eliminate those who had no intention of fighting.

Soon, that island would be swept by a tempest.

“You said there are ballistae; are they magic tools?”

“I believe they were supported by the noblemen of the Eastern Continent. They said they were extremely powerful. An admiral named Arins is in charge of them; he’s a master of the bow.”

It was not merely a faction formed by pirates alone.

The soldier who had been taking notes on the side went out to cross-validate with Tarti.

I was quite astounded at how remarkable Cariosa had been before my return.

What kind of guts did she have to confront such individuals while also defying Jeilliris?

Had the smell of blood made her lose any rational thought?

As I was reflecting on that, Cariosa chuckled.

“What are you looking at? Thinking about last night?”

“I thought about you.”

“Just thinking what’s in front of you?”

“Not those kinds of thoughts.”

I shook off my distractions and waited for the soldier to return.

“Your Excellency. There are no issues.”

The soldier returned and bowed his head.

Sayah Yan let out a sigh of relief, and Cariosa smiled grimly.

“You’ve saved your lord once again today. I’ll pour a couple of bottles of holy water for you. If there’s anything else you wish to say, feel free. Useful information is always welcome.”

Sayah Yan silently nodded, and Cariosa left the prison area.

“Valenciaunos.”

“Yes.”

“Those two seem to like each other, don’t they?”

“I don’t think so. It must be a relationship between a man and a woman.”

“Tch. Then I guess we should keep them alive for now.”

“I thought you’d hang them right away?”

That was quite surprising.

Of course, it was a relief for me.

I was secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

“Having all the lovers die at sea is bad luck.”

“……That must be a joke?”

Surely, she couldn’t be serious.

No matter how much sailors believed in superstitions, that seemed to just be superstitions on the level of saying it was bad luck to have women on board.

However, she firmly shook her head.

“There is a mystery in the sea itself. Every superstition has a reason, and sometimes the superstition itself can cause certain phenomena.”

For sailors, superstitions were not just superstitions but ruled by laws proven through experience.

“……That makes sense. The duke has indeed become much stronger at sea. Until when will you keep them alive? Honestly, it’s unsettling.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Cariosa said.

“Let’s have them hang from the landing ship, the Bowsprit.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, I nodded.

“That sounds good.”

Then I should meet them once beforehand.

* * *

I waited long enough and had heard enough.

Now it was time to take action.

Cariosa gathered the knight officers and began explaining the plan.

Of course, I was also present at that time.

“We’ll need to use landing ships when we begin to approach the Nayt Archipelago. The battlecruisers are too large to enter shallow waters.”

“The ballista emplacements will be an issue.”

“We’ll be deploying a significant number of battle magicians on the landing ships. We need to protect them as much as possible. Also, we will land knights on the islands that correspond to the wings of Nayt Archipelago.”

“Is it an execution operation?”

“Yes. We’ll capture and kill that pirate chief named Arins before deploying the landing ships.”

“I’ll join that side as well. I don’t want to just sit as a spectator.”

While it was a statement made from a desire to help, it was also made because I needed to elevate the Imperial Court’s share in this victory.

Seeing this was something Cariosa understood, she looked at me and smirked.

“Good luck, Your Excellency.”

“Thank you.”

A few pieces were placed on the large map.

“After landing, we’ll immediately transition to the siege. We’ll capture the coastal fortresses and demolish the pirate chiefs’ mansions, then use this port to deploy our army. That will be the end.”

One of the knight officers asked a question.

“What shall we do with the fleeing pirates?”

Cariosa answered very firmly.

“I have declared a prohibition in the vicinity of Nayt Archipelago. The Steel Fleet will monitor the noblemen of the Eastern Continent while the Black Dragon Fleet and White Lin Fleet will sink any fleeing ships.”

The knight officer hesitated a bit and asked.

“They may fight for their lives.”

Cariosa nodded.

“That’s why. I didn’t order either fleet to take prisoners. I will sink them all from a distance with magic.”

A chilling smile appeared on the lips of a woman who had been fighting pirates and Undersea People since she was thirteen.

“Likewise. We don’t need captives. Kill them all.”