Chapter 36

Chapter 36, The Pirate King’s Sophistry (1)

Cagliari, the port city where Pirate King Luca had his main base.

Although it belonged to the Odoacer Empire, the city was located on an island where the central government had little influence.

Luca’s power in Cagliari was so great that even the lord of the island treated him with caution.

However, the port, which should normally have been filled with all kinds of pirate ships, was not even half full.

That was because Luca’s group had suffered heavy losses while recklessly attacking the port of Catalonia to rescue his son, Marco.

Looking down at the many empty spaces in the harbor through the window of a tavern, Luca drunkenly began to complain.

“Damn it. Why did that bastard Marco have to send assassins after some noble and cause this whole mess?”

Despite saying that, Luca had not even been able to properly scold his precious only son.

All he could do now was sigh.

His lieutenant, who had been listening, tried to comfort him.

“You need to get back on your feet now. Who could have known that the port would be crawling with knights? Forget about it.”

“I don’t like blaming other people, but who am I supposed to take my anger out on this time? Damn.”

The lieutenant thought about it.

The Marquis of Catalonia was far too powerful to hold a grudge against.

But blaming Viscount Marcel was also difficult, since he had forgiven Marco and let him live.

In the end, the lieutenant concluded that rather than seeking revenge, it would be best to continue doing what they had always done and raid wheat transport ships.

“Boss, I don’t think this is something worth worrying over. Let’s just rob the transport ships coming from the Southern Continent.”

Perhaps the lieutenant’s words encouraged him, or perhaps the alcohol finally reached his head.

Luca clenched his fist, stood up, and shouted.

“That’s right! We’re pirates! If we don’t plunder, then we aren’t pirates! Everyone, get up! Sing the pirate song!”

“Woooooo!”

The pirates who had been lying around the tavern drinking in broad daylight shouted along with Luca.

Then they all began singing together.

“We are pirates! The sea is our home! Even if we die and die again, all we do is plunder!...”

Simple and ignorant pirates.

However, they were objects of terror to merchants and troublesome pests that every nation struggled to eliminate.

Now that they had begun moving again, the sea was about to become turbulent once more.

Pirate King Luca’s fleet appeared in the waters south of Cagliari.

This sea route was about 180 kilometers wide, and transport ships traveling between the Southern and Northern Continents frequently passed through it.

As long as they avoided the navy, it was practically a gold mine for pirates.

Only a few hours after they began waiting, prey appeared.

“Three hundred and ten degrees off the port bow, range two nautical miles! Medium carrack spotted! It’s a transport ship!”

A sailor standing high on the mast shouted loudly.

Luca, who had been watching the sea from the deck of his flagship, jumped to his feet.

“All hands to battle stations! Let’s strip those bastards down to their souls!”

“Waaaaaa!”

Flag signals from the flagship quickly spread throughout the pirate fleet.

The captains of each ship shouted at their magic item operators.

“Maximum output on the acceleration magic items! Target is the transport ship ahead!”

“Raise all triangular sails! Catch as much crosswind as possible!”

Thanks to the sailors moving in perfect order, the ships quickly changed direction.

When the modified acceleration magic items increased their output, the pirate ships rapidly rushed toward the transport vessel.

Meanwhile, when the captain of the transport ship saw the pirates approaching, he tried to shake them off by turning sharply against the wind.

“Tacking! Tack!”

“Ugh, it won’t work! The sails are losing wind!”

“Captain, the pirates are catching up!”

The pirates were also veterans at handling ships.

Instead of escaping them, the transport ship was overwhelmed by the pirates’ superior performance and quickly surrounded.

“Captain, we need to raise the white flag! We can’t escape!”

“...Damn it. Those bastards really handle their ships like ghosts. Is that Pirate King Luca’s fleet?”

In the end, the transport ship raised a white flag.

Soon, grappling hooks caught onto the vessel.

Pirates crossed over using rope bridges and swarmed onto the deck, threatening the sailors.

Luca crossed over from the flagship and shouted loudly.

“Stay quiet and you’ll live! Don’t do anything stupid and get yourselves killed. Keep your heads down!”

At that moment, the slave merchant aboard the transport ship pleaded with Luca.

“Sir Pirate, why are you robbing our ship? The only thing we have is slaves.”

This was not an ordinary cargo ship.

It was a slave transport ship.

The merchant was desperately trying to explain that there was nothing valuable aboard.

However, Luca smiled wickedly.

“Hehehe. We can just take the slaves and sell them again.”

“What? Do you have a slave trader’s license?”

To prevent people from kidnapping ordinary citizens and selling them as slaves, each nation only issued slave trading licenses to merchants with reliable reputations.

Naturally, there was no reason a pirate like Luca would possess such a license.

The lieutenant beside Luca reminded him of that fact.

“Boss, because Young Master Marco got arrested, we no longer have a slave trader’s license.”

“Ah, right. Damn it!”

Previously, whenever they robbed slave ships, they handed the captured slaves to Marco.

Marco then sold them legally and turned them into money.

But after Marco was arrested, that route had disappeared.

Luca sighed.

“Damn. So now we can’t even rob slave ships?”

“No choice. We’ll have to take whatever miscellaneous goods they have.”

“Tch! Boys! Scrape up everything, down to the last coin!”

“Yes, Boss!”

After the pirates left, the slave merchant looked around the ship with a pale face.

The pirates had thoroughly cleaned the place out.

Only a small amount of food and water remained.

At least they had not taken the slaves.

He had no choice but to comfort himself with that.

One week later.

Bang!

Luca kicked the railing of another slave transport ship and shouted angrily.

“What the hell is this?! Every damn ship is carrying slaves! Why haven’t we seen a single wheat transport ship?!”

This was already the fourth slave ship.

Why were only slave ships using this sea route?

None of the pirates knew the answer.

Unexpectedly, the answer came from the slave merchant whose ship they were currently robbing clean.

“Sir Pirate, wheat transport ships don’t use this route anymore.”

Luca’s eyes widened.

He grabbed the slave merchant by the collar.

“Ghk!”

“You. Explain properly.”

“Th, the Marquis of Catalonia is buying wheat from the Franche Kingdom.”

Luca released his collar before asking again.

“Why?”

“Obviously because of you pir, I mean, because of pirates. Also, Franche wheat is apparently cheaper.”

“How can it be cheaper? They would have to transport it from much farther away.”

“They load it at Marcel Port. It doesn’t even take a full day to reach Catalonia from there.”

“Marcel?”

So now I have to rob Marcel’s ships?

Luca became troubled.

Even though my son Marco tried to kill him, wasn’t the Lord of Marcel generous enough to forgive him and let him go?

It was a slight misunderstanding.

Still, from Luca’s point of view, that was how things appeared.

He called over his lieutenant and explained his worries.

“What should I do? My conscience won’t let me rob Marcel’s ships, but if I don’t rob them, we won’t have anything to live on.”

“Hmm. Some of the wheat transport ships should belong to Catalonia. The amount of wheat being transported is huge, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

“And wheat ships probably aren’t the only ones traveling between the two territories. There should also be ordinary merchant ships.”

Luca frowned and thought for a while.

Then he reached a decision.

“We raid every ship traveling between Marcel and Catalonia! But we do not touch any ship flying Marcel’s flag! Any objections?”

“None, Boss!”

Anyone who objected would probably be sent straight to the afterlife.

The pirates simply accepted the decision.

Their fear of their boss was greater than their fear of the navy.

Meanwhile, the slave merchant who had overheard everything decided that he needed to reach Catalonia as quickly as possible and report what he had heard.

Marcel Port.

I came down to the harbor after receiving a report that wheat transport ships had been attacked by pirates.

Thanks to the wheat transit trade, the harbor had finally become lively and unemployment was rapidly falling.

Then this disaster suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Captain Adrien hurried toward me the moment he saw me.

“My lord! Pirates have appeared!”

“Calm down. What are the damages?”

“Three wheat transport ships belonging to Catalonia were completely robbed.”

Damn pirates.

I could finally understand why the Marquis of Catalonia cursed pirates all the time.

“What about our losses?”

“Fortunately, none of our ships were captured. Apparently, the pirates simply let them pass.”

“Huh? Why?”

Captain Adrien did not seem to know either.

Of course, there was an obvious possibility.

The Marquis of Catalonia had tried to kill Marco, so perhaps the pirates were attacking Catalonian ships in revenge.

Meanwhile, they might be leaving Marcel ships alone because I had spared Marco’s life.

Still, it was only speculation.

“Adrien Assel! Until we know the exact reason, reduce our sailing activity.”

“Yes, my lord.”

However, I eventually learned the reason because of a rather unexpected event.

A few days later.

I had temporarily put the pirate problem aside and was fighting against a mountain of paperwork in my office when Chief of Economy Diego came to see me.

“My lord, you need to visit the port.”

“What happened?”

“Merchant ships from other territories want permission to fly Marcel’s coat of arms. They say they’re willing to pay for it.”

Apparently, my guess had been correct.

Ships flying Marcel’s flag were not being attacked by the pirates.

I laughed at Pirate King Luca’s ridiculous behavior.

At this rate, people would think I was working with the pirates.

Still, I could not allow just any ship to fly my coat of arms.

“Diego, reject them all. Only shipping companies that establish their headquarters in our territory and pay taxes here may use it.”

“So basically, you’re saying no.”

“Well, maybe one or two will actually come. They might even establish companies here.”

“The Marquis of Catalonia might dislike that.”

He meant that Catalonia, whose economy depended heavily on its trading port and slave trade, might react sensitively.

“Then reject Catalonian companies. Tell them it’s because Catalonia is a territory with which we have already promised a marriage alliance.”

“Understood. I’ll go to the port.”

However, I had no idea what Diego said to the merchants.

Requests to establish companies began pouring in.

Several merchants proposed creating joint-stock companies together.

They could separate only the ships that traveled to Marcel from their original shipping companies and register those vessels under the newly created company.

I clicked my tongue at how cleverly merchants found loopholes.

When Diego came back, I gave him another order.

“Tell the merchants that paper companies, no, companies that exist only in name, will be punished. They need actual offices and employees, and proper accounting books. If the company has no real operations, we’ll throw them out.”

“Ah! Is this what you meant when you talked about attracting companies to the territory?”

“It’s being forced by circumstances, so the effect probably won’t be huge. Still, anything coming here is better than nothing.”

“It feels a little strange that pirates are causing companies and jobs to increase.”

I shrugged.

“What does it matter? The Iberian navy will probably arrive soon anyway. Even after that happens, I doubt the companies will simply leave. They’ll already have sunk costs here, and our tax rate is relatively low.”

Diego looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“You’re amazing, my lord. How do you even think of things like this? Did you learn it in Westfalen?”

“I had a lot of trouble managing a company in the past.”

In my previous life, I had been an S-rank Hunter.

At the same time, I had also been a Guild Master.

True to South Korea’s reputation as a land full of regulations, guilds were buried under countless rules.

Because of that, I had become fairly experienced at managing an organization and company.

Well, it eventually failed.

But that was from my previous life.

Let’s forget about it.