Plunder
The afterglow of the sun slowly dispersed on the surface of the sea, making it look like a rippling golden scale. By sunset, the battle was already winding up.
It couldn’t be really be called a battle.The elites of the Merfolk Pirates as well as the adult merfolk had all died in the earlier naval battle, and the only ones left were old, young, or female. Even without many pirates under his command Leylin’s raid had been successful.
Once the sun had set completely, Leylin stood on the balcony of the two-floored house that had belonged to the pirate captain. He was watching the tiny spots of flames flickering in the port. Large-scaled arson would have completely destroyed the place, so Leylin had forbidden it before they completely looted it.
Robin Hood’s face was flushed with excitement. He stood in the room with Isabel who did not participate in the plunder, reporting the results of the battle to Leylin. Leylin could tell that the spoils were quite decent just by looking at his face. A smile arose on his face as Robin Hood finished his report.
“Boss, we’ve struck gold!” Robin Hood had already grown to resemble a pirate more and more, or perhaps he had just stopped repressing his true nature, “Just the loot from the warehouse could fill half the ship; there’s massive quantities of sugar, silk, and even pottery and woodwork!”
“We also found this inside the villa,” Isabel added as she kicked open a black trunk next to Leylin’s feet.
The wooden lid was covered in floral patterns, and a golden radiance poured out of the chest when it was opened. Robin Hood’s eyes filled with greed, but he quickly suppressed it.
“That fellow hid his treasures very well, it took a lot of effort to find this,” Isabel’s eyes were also sparkling like little stars, as if she had also completely fallen in love with piracy.
This was just like what Leylin had read in one of the ancient tomes in this world: ‘Gold! What a beautiful and adorable little thing. It can turn a coward into a warrior and evil to good. It can make rivers flow upstream, and such a tiny thing can send a damned soul to heaven!’
Even the churches needed wealth, and their requirement was massive at that. They needed it to influence their believers, and expand the scope of their power. This was especially true of Waukeen’s, which hoarded more money than dragons. They stuck their hands in every source they could find to earn more money.
Inside the wooden trunk were stacks of gold, alongside a few precious gems which almost blinded Robin Hood. Isabel was more resistant to the allure, perhaps because she was a noblewoman. She still remained rational in the face of the riches.
“There are a total of 782 kronas, and each one weighs 18 grams. That’s at least 1500 pieces of Dambrath gold! Adding on the precious gems, this entire trunk is worth over 2000 gold…”
Leylin picked up a single gold krona, which was heavier than the gold coins he was used to. The decorative designs on them as well as the portrait were completely different to those of the Dambrath Kingdom’s coinage. “Mm. There’s no need to exchange the kronas, they can still be used on the continent.”
In the World of Gods, any organisation that was a duchy or greater in authority could issue its own coins, and this created many different metal currencies. But the church of the Goddess of Wealth was always dedicated to normalising their own gold coin, the krona. They wanted it to replace all other coins, becoming an official standard. Still, due to the secret resistance of many gods, they had never been successful. The gods believed such a thing would bring Waukeen many followers, so it would only be odd if they supported it.
Even though this was the situation, it was the Goddess of Wealth issuing these coins. All the churches serving her would vouch for them, so it was still the strongest currency circulating in the entire World of Gods.
‘It looks like these pirates all hid their wealth in their homes,’ Leylin thought of the captives he had— If he had directly murdered Steve in his home, and dug out his buried treasures, he would have certainly gained as many benefits as he had now. It was a pity that he didn’t have the time back then that he did now.
“Putting the treasure aside, what about the people and the slaves?” With this funding, Leylin had the confidence to build a profitable industry centered at Faulen Island. The most important thing now was to be able to obtain enough human resources.
“Our force was too small to blockade the port immediately. Many of the islanders managed to escape…” Robin Hood’s expression grew ugly when he mentioned this point. “We’ve managed to capture 90 people by now, most of them elderly, women, or children. There was also some retired pirate trash.”
Robin Hood spat out, and it was obvious that he had suffered while capturing these violent old pirates. Becoming either physically handicapped or growing senile with age, these pirates had been forced to retire. However, their ferocious and bloody nature hadn’t left them one bit.
“I hung them to the death.” Robin Hood did not dare to conceal anything in front of Leylin.
“Mm… Even if they are captives, there are many ways to distinguish them. How many of the captured ones are merfolk, how many human? How many of them were originally slaves?” Leylin clearly did not plan to pursue those problems, and he instead directly asked about his biggest concerns.
“The merfolk resisted most violently, and many of them fled. We’ve only managed to capture 19 so far, the other 71 are humans and natives. All of them seem to have been slaves.” Although he didn’t have the definite details on the numbers, what Robin Hood did have was enough to satisfy Leylin.
“Very good. There are different classes and ranks even amongst slaves. The merfolk were originally the highest class here, and now that we’ve killed their families and stripped them of their wealth we’ll have gained their enmity. They won’t put their faith in us, so just kill them all.
“As for those other humans and the native slaves, take all of them away and slowly screen them.” From his own life as a human, Leylin had deeply understood the feeling the rest had: ‘If they’re not human, they won’t think and act like us.’
On the other hand, Robin Hood didn’t think of those Merfolk Pirates as the same as him either. He immediately agreed to leave and slaughter them.
“Wait, why don’t you hand all those captive merfolk to me?” Isabel stepped out at this moment, her eyes filled with a bloodthirsty gleam.
“That’s acceptable,” Leylin nodded immediately. Demons all loved chaos and massacres, and her acts of piracy had most likely given Isabel many benefits.
Night fell, and the whole port wept after it was ravaged by the invaders. Smoke was still rising from it on the next day.
“The goods have all been transported to the Scarlet Tiger, boss!” Robin Hood respectfully reported.
“Very good, sound the bugle!” Leylin stood on the deck of the newly christened Scarlet Tiger, and issued the command with a peaceful expression on his face.
This Scarlet Tiger was the same as Black Tiger from before. Leylin had just decided to massively refit the ship, and he’d additionally decided to change its name.
He could imagine the name of this ship spreading across the entire Dambrath Sea in the future, accompanied by his cousin’s reputation in battle.
The deep bugle horn sounded, and after a night of wreaking havoc, a whole bunch of sailors with dark and heavy bags under their eyes scattered out of the islanders’ homes in twos and threes, gathering on the deck.
“Listen!” Leylin opened the treasure chest filled with gold kronas in front of the pirates, and the golden glow made their eyes light up with greed.
Yet, looking at whom the foot currently stepping on the gold coins belonged to, they immediately withdrew their greedy gazes. Over the voyage and their battles, Leylin had already used countless lives to demonstrate his savagery that exceeded theirs.
Sweeping over all the pirates with his gaze, Leylin was satisfied with the bowed heads that didn’t dare look him in the eye. Only then did he continue, “Everyone here will get three gold coins, and those who’ve killed an enemy get yet another. Professional kills will be counted separately.”
Many pirates immediately cheered at this news.
Leylin was very satisfied with this atmosphere. Just using military force to intimidate these pirates was not enough. It was necessary to demonstrate that, with him, they could snatch more things and gain more benefits. Only then would they follow him even to hell.
From now, these pirates would probably take some more initiative in battles.
After he had distributed everything, Leylin immediately issued a new command, “Set this whole place on fire! Afterwards, we sail!”
Dense black smoke quickly rose from the port as it was engulfed in raging flames. The fire quickly spread. The two pirate battleships laden with riches and slaves slowly left the port, and some of the pirates still had looks of regret on their faces.
‘The terrain and condition of the place was very good, and there was a neat foundation as well. Such a shame, it was an excellent base…’ Leylin looked on as the fire lit up the dock’s sky, but his expression did not change.
He had always planned to burn down Half-Merfolk Island. It wasn’t just the island, even the Black Tigers’ stronghold as well. These places did not belong to him, and the pirates had been subordinate to Marquis Louis. Even if he occupied this place, Leylin would perhaps soon attract the attention of the Black Skeletons and Tigersharks.