Chapter 49: Verbal Sparring
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: I and Elkassar
Pitch-black passage, dense smell of blood and a quiet mournful wailing. This slowly devoured away Pirate Charlie’s soul. Sheyan uncaringly allowed him to walk ahead, while he himself leisurely followed from the back. Shayen sharply noticed, the decorative engravings on the wall had both new and old, the newer ones seemed to have been engraved in the recent years. If he were to differentiate them, it seemed like they were drawn with bizarre letters forming together. Although Sheyan did not understand these letters, he could feel from his sensing a weird chilling feeling that was hard to explain! It was like… the feeling of the underworld.
The floor suddenly shook.
Gently but firm.
It could be felt, that the entire castle was actually shaking!
Sheyan halted his steps, yet Pirate Charlie immediately prone to the ground, this sort of actions made it easy to tell why he was so easily captured before. Very quickly, the second stronger vibrations appeared, Sheyan could even feel that a portion of this massive tower was collapsing. After that, a barely audible and hard to distinguish cheering could be heard, but it was clear that those were the unique cheerings of pirates. Within the darkness, a raging and chilling throbbing could be heard, most of it coming from the guards who were frenziedly pacing about.
“Over here!” Pirate Charlie snapped out of his earlier confusion, using an excited tone saying. “God, they must have defeated those damned bastards! Boss did beautifully, using his sword to stabbed the venomous heart of these cowards in the shadows. He must have infiltrated the Tortuga castle treasury as promised!”
Sheyan’s pupils contracted, infiltrating the treasury? That disunited and split up group of pirates was actually able to achieve the goal? He suddenly realized that his own plans took a sudden twist. This twist only happened because Scarface Harry volunteered himself, but Sheyan only felt he was just a slight nuisance. But now, Sheyan realized that he had been underestimating Scarface Harry all this time, the man who gave him a start by purposely losing in armwrestling.
That scenario was not counted as a defeat caused Shayan to neglect Harry’s other identity, which was the notorious chief officer of the Bell and Mug! The second in command behind captain Ammand! Someone fierce and experienced that had slaughtered thousands during 20 years in the caribbean sea!
The two continued advancing in the darkness for another 10 minutes, they then witnessed a glaring blaze from faraway. Following that 20 over pirates drenched in blood strutted around and out a corner. Although these barbaric and rough pirates looked worn-out like a beggar, their expressions were that of a king. Everyone started to sing aloud and dance about. It was clear by looking at these group of people hobbling about, they carried 4 gigantic chests, and the chests were bound with copper hoops. On the chest were decorative engravings as beautiful as the flooring, of course the twin-headed serpent emblem of the Fokke Family was indispensable as well. Sheyan’s gaze fell on the chest, the notification he got was “Sealed treasures”, and nothing else.
Sheyan just realized Scarface Harry was leading at the front of the group, clutching both his fists, his upper body was leaking with his sturdy muscles. His body was glowing with a layer of silver, like olive oil had been smeared onto it and his facial muscles twitched occasionally. The surrounding pirates gazed upon this bald man as though he was the God of war.
Naturally, Scarface Harry displayed immense strength that was compatible to his reputation, trying very hard to save a crisis. He managed to rescue these victims from the hell of a wrong mistake, wrong location and wrong battle tactics. This led to Sheyan’s plan to crumble into a mess of ruins.
Of course, take note that his plan had only suffered a huge setback, it was not yet defeated.
Sheyan had already successfully persuaded Ammand to release him to go ashore, his scheme had already successfully been laid out. There was only a twist of events, but the only difference was only in how much he would gain from it. Furthermore, defeat was a word that had been temporarily tossed out of his dictionary. When these pirates discovered two persons approaching them from within the direction, then were alarmed and immediately braced themselves, pulling out their weapons. After seeing clearly Pirate Charlie’s face they immediately gasped in shock and cheered:
“Oh! God. Guess who I just saw! It’s actually our Charlie, you damned bastard, you haven’t died yet! It’s f**king great to see you!”
The surviving pirate was no doubt Harry’s trusted aide, therefore, after a series of teasing, Charlie immediately received a warm hearted treatment from the pirates, kneading his head and all. However, Sheyan who appeared behind did not receive the same treatment. Every pirate already knew, their earlier tragedy was because of person’s mistake in judgement! They definitely would not look on Sheyan favourably, and some rough guys even brandished their swords and demanded justice for their fallen comrades.
“Bastard! You still dare to show your face in front of us?” A pirate raged out. His scoldings received the commendations of his comrades, and it seemed like they wanted to overturn the entire castle. Concealed by the uproar, Scarface Harry then stood out, his humongous physique was extremely oppressive. Sheyan could even see the veins on his temple pulsating, the beads of perspiration glowing on his bald head like the morning dew. The usually cheerful and friendly giant appearance seemed to be concealed by greyish dark thunderclouds.
Scarface Harry stared at Sheyan, his expression was like a hungry beast preying on his food. It was like he was about to burst over and behead him! This huge brute raised out his right hand, in this palm were many old fashioned bracelets. These bracelets were crafted with weird materials, some were made with grass, some cut slices from the sail cloth. They were all rough and have traces of bloodstains on them, giving a sorrowful look.
“These, belonged to the brothers who gave it to me before they died. But there are many others who did not even have the chance to pass their bracelets to me! And all this was because of your mistake! Seaman Yan! Your foolish actions has caused many of other comrades to fall to the cold floors of this damned castle. You, let down the expectations of the Great Son of the Black Sea!”
While Harry was speaking, Sheyan could see the dense bulging veins within his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and even his pupils could not be seen. It blended well with the tense atmosphere now, leaving one with a horrific taste in their mouths. Regarding the contents of that vehement howling, he had selectively disregarded it. To Sheyan, 130 hours and 29 minutes ago he had already calculated such an outcome could happen and was already prepared.
Sheyan looked at Scarface Harry without dreading, raising his own right hand and extending out his fingers he slowly spoke out.
“Regarding your criticisms I will not deny. But even a captured and bounded person, is entitled the privilege of his last words! I have only one question, Harry, I hope you answer me honestly.”
Scarface Harry’s face twitched. It was obvious his own state was not as good as it looked. However, Sheyan’s request was undoubtedly reasonable, he cannot and could not reject it. Unless he immediately acted out and killed him!
“What else do you have to say?”
Scarface Harry’s voice carried a raging explosiveness. Concurrently he took out a wine pouch, and drank from it. Although this may cause the injured part of his head to worsen, Scarface Harry did not care so much anymore.
“Since you criticise that my plan was wrong, then if it were you, what would you do before entering the castle?”
Sheyan replied in a manner that was fitting of his style, swift and aggressive like offense is the best defence! It was like a dagger to the crux of the problem! Harry raised his brows, he knew that Sheyan’s words carried a certain snare. However, his brain had been clouded by the searing pain, it was like numerous needles poking randomly through his ears, straining a huge portion of his mentality.
Yet, Sheyan’s question carried a particular relevance, because more people would have questioned themselves after experiencing a certain event. Most people would have the thought of; “If it were me, what would I do?”. The thrill of placing themselves into the shoes of others in history and trying to change events cause Scarface Harry to be engrossed and hesitant of an answer, also partly because of the pain. Yet, a few pirates started to curse and swear at Sheyan, as they personally answered his question.
“You fool, your brain is infested with worms! Obviously we will stick together and slowly search. Once those rats hidden in the dark move even a hair, we will immediately blast out their innards with our muskets! This way we would not lose half our men, those bastards will know, our blades and gunfire tastes even better than starch and the sea breeze!”