Chapter 316

Cariosa temporarily entrusted a group of knights and elite soldiers to me.

“I will eradicate the remaining pirates. It will take about five days. I’ll stop by the mansion on my way back.”

Tarti and Sayah Yan seemed concerned they might think differently.

“Thank you.”

I could have burned this village with a single spell, but I appreciated their concern.

Clank, clank, clank, clank.

I realized that using well-bred horses and fully armed knights would get me more rewards each time I used good horses, compared to when I only used good horses.

As I entered the village, leading Tarti, Sayah Yan, and the warriors, cheers erupted.

The villagers all rushed out and bowed their heads before my horse.

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

“Hooray!”

“Everyone, come and greet him!”

Most of the villagers were from the Eastern Kingdom, but fortunately, many of them belonged to the warrior class, so there were quite a few who could speak the languages of the Western Kingdoms, including the Empire.

“I will repay this kindness with my life.”

It was a cheer as if they were part of a liberation army.

The warriors, regardless of gender, tied their short ponytails high and adorned themselves with shoulder-embellished silks, looking very splendid.

“Thank you for saving Lady Tarti!”

Seeing their luxurious clothing getting soaked in the rain and mud, I couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

“Ah!”

Just imagining what Cariosa would say to me five days later—or rather, what she would do—made my head ache.

Tarti was a remarkably skilled pirate admiral, meaning she had done all sorts of things along the Eastern coast of the Empire.

Of course, I was familiar with using those rotten bastards, saving them because of their abilities.

Although there were degrees of difference, both Markus and I were the same, and in fact, I was the worst among them.

The number of clever ones I had given up on before my return must have added up to millions. Who would I say what to?

Always doing my best at that time was the best excuse I could give myself.

I felt sorry for deciding to use these guys knowing that Cariosa hated pirates.

“Lady Trentia. Release Tarti and Sayah Yan. Let’s go inside and talk.”

We were guided to the largest and most splendid house.

I pushed the two into the bathroom.

“First, wash up a bit. Treat your injuries too.”

As I sipped the tea the maid had brought, Tarti and Sayah Yan emerged.

Tritt, Tritt.

Tarti had smeared her whole body with herbal ointment, wearing a black and red patterned silk robe, and knelt before me on both knees.

“…….”

Even now, with the aftereffects of torture and burns, he was a handsome man with a hearty impression.

Sayah Yan was wrapped in a thick black silk robe and also knelt before me.

Having fretted in the prison, her cheeks were pale, and dark circles were under her eyes, but she still bore the neutral yet fierce beauty of her true self.

I smiled at both of them.

“You look good. Now, let’s discuss the future. Do you know why I saved you?”

I had already told Sayah Yan directly, and it seemed Tarti had caught on as well.

“Is it because you need a royal fleet…? No, is it fear?”

“That’s right. There is a governor province port owned by the royal family in the southeast, and I will be heading there. The fleet maintenance costs and warriors’ salaries will be covered by the governor province, and the royal family will provide support as well. Since I will be relocating your entire clan, think of it as a new homeland and be loyal.”

Place, military supplies, clan, loyalty.

I had accurately identified everything I desired and what they were worried about.

Tarti fell silent for a moment before bowing his head as if it would touch the floor.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Through the window behind him, I could see the massive warships entering the harbor.

It was a noble judgment to have maintained such power even after being chased from their territory.

I lowered my voice.

“Since I saved you in my name, if you cause trouble, I will take full responsibility. At that time, for the sake of my face, I’ll have no choice but to kill all of you. Don’t have any strange thoughts.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will be loyal.”

He repeatedly bowed his head.

I smiled and turned my attention to Sayah Yan.

“Tarti, you go to the southeastern port, and Sayah Yan, you will come with me to the capital. Now that we have killed a knight, it’s time for a few years of rolling.”

Sayah Yan bit her lip as if she had steeled herself, and Tarti’s face hardened.

“Your Highness, she…”

There was significant bafflement in his expression.

I felt like a cruel royal family that had separated two lovers in the story.

That was the reality, and so I raised my chin proudly.

“Tarti. I will ask explicitly. Do you think it makes sense to release a former pirate admiral who has a fleet, funding, and land freely?”

“……!”

“I saw her movements on the ship. I cannot allow someone of her skill to be at your side.”

Tarti’s hearty face twisted.

He bashed his forehead hard against the floor.

“Your Highness, please understand. She is like family to me.”

Thud.

I lifted his chin to meet my gaze.

His dark eyes trembled.

Surrounding warriors and maids whispered at the insult that was unimaginable in the East.

I spoke as the raucous Crown Prince Valenccius.

“No, Tarti. You need to understand me.”

Then I roughly pulled Sayah Yan’s hand.

“Tarti!”

“Yan!”

With a bitter, painful smile.

* * *

“So what did he say?”

“What could he say? He couldn’t say anything. The only thing he could do was understand me. He will never be persuaded, though.”

“Hmm.”

Below a mountain slightly away from the harbor, there was a hot spring with a view of the sea.

For five days, Cariosa had wandered the islands in the rain, and before returning to the mansion, we headed to that hot spring together.

The hot spring was spacious enough to accommodate dozens of people, steaming profusely, with large and small white pebbles spread on the bottom.

Thick bamboo surrounded the area, and a beach covered with white sand appeared on one side.

Splash, splash, splash.

The sound of heavy rainfall, the rustling of bamboo leaves in the wind, and the dull sound of dark blue waves rolling onto the beach created a triple chorus.

Cariosa entered the hot spring wearing her armor, and I did the same.

The sensation of hot water flowing into my clothes felt quite strange.

Since the deep part rose to my neck, we were able to immerse ourselves comfortably.

“Can you help me? Duke.”

She tried to take off her stingray leather coat.

“With pleasure, Your Majesty.”

I embraced her from behind, helping to pull off the sleek coat while she undid the thick belt.

Swish, and clang.

“With this, you place the armor on your pelvis. My armor is not plate, so without a belt, all the weight rests on my shoulders.”

“I didn’t know that.”

As Cariosa said, as soon as the belt was undone, the segmented armor drooped down.

I grabbed the shoulder part of the armor, and she naturally submerged before slipping out from underneath.

“Ah. That feels much better now.”

What remained underneath was the gambeson, a padded garment worn under metal armor, and greaves protecting her legs.

Though she could easily take them off herself, she lifted her legs toward me in the water.

Splash.

Hot water splashed onto my face.

“Take it off for me.”

“Sure.”

As I was untying the leather straps and metal buckles securing her greaves, she asked.

“Did you think I wouldn’t bleed for you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“After acknowledging you as a king, you wouldn’t try to keep me in check, would you?”

“…….”

“If you wanted, I could have sent at least a fleet anytime.”

I hesitated for a long moment before answering.

I wasn’t sure if this was an excuse or not.

I wasn’t used to receiving favors.

“I needed soldiers who could be used and discarded without guilt. Not elite troops essential for maintaining stability in the East.”

“So, you saved that pirate admiral? You knew I wanted to kill them all.”

I nodded.

“That’s right. So I saved her.”

That was all true.

I removed the greaves one after the other, leaving only the gambeson.

I loosened the strong leather strap, and she peeled off the gambeson top like shedding a thick hide.

Only then did the soaked white cotton shirt beneath become visible.

Her skin, shimmering like scales, glinted through.

Cariosa reached out with both hands to grab my head.

Her warm palms covered my ears.

Her vertically split gray eyes sparkled with a strange yet familiar shine.

“As a high noble, you must live for things that can disappear at any moment, those that are visible and countable.”

She slowly pulled me closer, and I willingly complied.

“That’s how it should be.”

“But if there are feelings that will never disappear, don’t you have to build something visible and countable for that?”

Hearing those words made me think of Jeilliris.

Everything I was building was for her.

“Is it not a belief, but rather a conviction?”

She approached slowly but paused, quickly breaking into a grin.

“Too light to be a conviction, too heavy to be an emotion. A conviction, I suppose… I’ve surely placed an unbeatable rival before myself.”

“What then?”

It was an honest smile that I had always envied, and even still envied now.

“Let’s call it an instinct. I’ve lived according to the instinct of domination and gluttony. I’ve devoured everything I wanted and now I am a king. That should be enough. And all you need to do is give me that much.”

Tsut, tsut, tsut.

I loosened the white uniform, allowing it to pull in and absorb my body.

Cariosa approached me, licking her lips.

“Yes. You are my instinct.”

Like waiting for this moment, her sharp teeth pierced into my neck, and her sharp nails scratched down my spine.

Her low voice echoed in my ear.

“I wish I could also become your instinct.”

* * *

[By the name of Crown Prince Valenccius, the Emperor’s Fully Empowered Ambassador, and the Capital’s Constable, I recognize the coronation of Cariosa Summerlin Asenorta as the legitimate king.]

[Cariosa will assume the duties of an imperial duke within the empire’s territories and only the obligations of an equal diplomatic nation in territories outside the empire.]

[Cariosa Summerlin Asenorta will develop the Graveyard Islands of the Serpent Isle’s ships and all mines in the Nayt Archipelago through a jointly created trade development company with the royal family, allocating 40% of the annual net profits to the royal family.]

[If Tarti, a noble in exile from the East, and her clan, now residing with the royal family, engage in privateering again in the Eastern seas, Cariosa may provide prior consultation and report to the royal family for the safety of her subjects, with all related expenses borne by the royal family.]

War started on paper and ended on paper.

We roamed through fire and storm, yet we could only grimace in front of a scroll of parchment over a meter long.

As Cariosa read the final document, she spoke.

“I didn’t expect you to sign this so willingly.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“If I managed to acquire a fleet with that level of risk, it would be a profitable venture. Dozens of large warships with intricately inscribed magic circuits.”

Judging by the royal fleet, it seemed she was considering creating a royal shark-proof battleship too.

She casually asked, “Is the new magic sword usable?”

“I love the Typhoon, and I like the black scales as well. No need to mention Aizen. Were you perhaps hoping to have it?”

When I mentioned ‘Typhoon,’ she displayed a peculiar expression.

Her two magic swords were ‘Fair Wind’ and ‘Storm,’ while the sword used by Aquila was ‘Typhoon.’

No matter how much of a pirate king she was, she could not have crafted such artifacts, so it was clear she had obtained them from somewhere, and it wasn’t difficult to guess where she might have originally acquired such magical items in the East.

As Cariosa plunged into her thoughts, she shook her head.

“It’s a weapon that suits you better than me. If you take it, it will ease my mind. Just use it well.”

“I will gladly do that.”

Her expression seemed to lighten strangely.

Contrary to her initial plan, she had saved many of the Eastern immigrants.

This was less an act of mercy and more because there were more mines on the island than expected.

“If I demand the serfs to act as miners, they’ll surely resent it.”

“Then perhaps it’s better to save and use the Eastern immigrants still left on the island? They likely hadn’t entertained the thought of running away since they had no ties to pirates in the first place.”

“……Did they foresee this outcome?”

The world forces harsh choices upon us, but this time it granted a bit of mercy.

The pirates crawling all over Nayt Archipelago had perished completely.

Many pirates drowned in the sea trying to navigate through the storm, their heads severed by Cariosa’s sword, and those who had barricaded themselves in forts could not hold out as the soldiers began to land in full.

“Kill them all. Breathing air is a waste for such scoundrels.”

Cariosa executed the death sentence, changing executioners ten times a day.

Dozens of heads piled up daily, and later she bound hundreds together and tossed them into the sea.

Thus, the pirates who had thrived in Nayt Archipelago for centuries were wiped out.

If there was an unexpected gain I received, it was what Seberik gave me.

“The North will always welcome warriors. Especially at the introduction from a friend.”

He gladly accepted the clans of Tennye that I sent, and he even paid for the good warriors he had sent.

He said he would send it along with the taxes due this year, so it would be good to look forward to what would come.

“In Early Spring, I’ll come and leave in summer.”

“It feels like I stayed longer than expected. Has it really only been this long?”

“You can stay longer next time. Feel free to ask about my news and, of course, you can ask about me too.”

Summer began as coastal fortifications began to rise along the eastern shore.

Cariosa sent me off with regal dignity.

This meant she had packed away all sorts of high-grade reagents, such as pearls from ‘Ikaris’ with good flight magic enchantments, the beak of an octopus guardian with transformative powers, and shell powder with illusionary powers.

Laurelai attempted to follow me but got a light smack from the Eastern knight, Jul.

“Wait! As a soul shaman, I can’t allow someone with a soul like yours to be wandering around!”

Thus, I returned once more to the capital.

I worried about how Rudi was doing.

I hoped he hadn’t gotten hurt, even in the slightest.

* * *

“The world is delightful! What’s life? Let’s run again tomorrow!”

“Hooray for Count Consecratus!”