Insistent Assistant 10 (Patreon)

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 10

-VB-

Now.

I am not a fan of politics. I was decent at it in my old life, or I would not have been able to advise my cousin, who regularly came to me for help. I still hated that I had to do a lot of talking on his behalf, but I was glad that at the very least John didn’t fuck it up by doing stupid things.

So I was familiar with politics. I knew enough about it to talk to backdoor influencers and their families instead of other politicians.

So.

Now.

Umm, well, Jack Sparrow wasn’t. He wasn’t a politician. He was a manipulator, yes, and I’ve learned quite a few tricks from him in the few months that he’s been by my side now.

But he wasn’t a politician.

So when one of the nobles openly mocked him for having a prostitute as his lover (something that happened without my notice), he, uh, punched the noble in the face instead of doing his usual talking shtick to make people laugh at him.

(There was a chance that he did it deliberately in part to get me to flee the kingdom, but I didn’t.)

That’s why I was here now in the palace brig with him along with the noble who instigated the fight in a jail cell on the opposite side of the brig so as to not let Jack and the noble even see or hear each other.

“You really made a mess this time,” the king’s advisor said as he sat on the other side of the bars.

“Well, not me.”

“Yeah, yeah, not you but him who is a part of you so it is you,” he objected with a sneer before wiping his long nose with his reedy hands. “Look, he acted out and you’re responsible. End of deal.”

“... Okay. Then what’s the verdict?”

“Well, people have stated over and over again that Baron Swuartz instigated the fight, so you won’t be facing anything too strenuous.”

“But…?”

“You’ve been demoted, essentially, from an elite trainer to … a regular sergeant.”

“... But that’s not what I was hired to do.”

“I know, I know. However, punching a noble is not something you can just get away with, and so you will continue to work as an elite trainer-”

“Huh?”

“-but you’ll just be called a sergeant and given only the regular privileges of one.”

“... Oh, I see.” Essentially, it was a slap on the wrist. “What about the other guy?”

“Well, he did insult a man hired directly by the king. In essence, he indirectly insulted the king.”

I grinned, and the spindly advisor grinned with me.

“And it just so happened to be that the noble in question was a member of a group of nobles who was opposed to many good things that our king wished to do. There will be an investigation into his instigation of a king’s valued employee and savior.”

In essence, he was getting railroaded and either his allies burn political capital to save him or they leave him to rot, which meant he might give up whatever he knows about his allies to the king to save his own hide.

-VB-

The moment we got out of the jail and got my “certificate” of demotion, I immediately grabbed Jack and started shaking him.

“Why. Do. You. Make. My. Life. Hard?!”

I thought we made for a funny pair of street comedians, even if that was neither the intent nor the final goal.

Jack wobbled in my grasp as I shook him back and forth.

“Wa ba ba ba ba-”

I stopped and let him go.

This was what living with Jack Sparrow was like.

Gibbs, I respect you for having put up with this guy’s bullshit for decades.

I glanced at him and saw him pouting.

“Whatever. I guess you were defending me.”

That pout disappeared into a self-satisfied grin.

Him punching that noble, whose name I already forgot, did indeed help me.

See, it was already known that Jack Sparrow was the “second incarnation” of Thorkell, the big berserker who saved the king alongside me. People also knew that he was my power, or as most of the people in the Ilsia City were calling it, my devil fruit. That particular rumor had a lot of momentum under it because I tended to not go near the docks or the sea (because I was too busy and I didn’t care for it).

So when the noble who harassed some of my soldiers, which was how the confrontation got started, was punched by my “devil fruit” and not me, people thought that my emotions got the better of me, and the need to “protect” the soldiers expressed itself as Jack punching the noble.

This made me more likeable to the people, apparently, which also indirectly boosted the king’s reputation for hiring someone who would punch a noble for them.

Of course, I wasn’t sure if this was all calculated on Jack’s part or it was just a series of coincidences that just happened to help me. Unfortunately for me, Jack was a manipulative prick who couldn’t tell me anything straightforward, including in his own mind, and I had to guess everything when it came to him.

It was why I was letting him go easily. I didn’t like being in jail, and he made me stay in a cell for a full week.

“Want to know why I did that?”

I paused and looked at him before sighing.

“Yes, please.”

“See, I heard,” he drawled. “That a certain noble didn’t like how the kingdom limited the nobility’s ability to deal with foreign powers. It was just a rumor, you see, nothing more!”

“... And?” I glared at him as we walked away from the main street and toward my apartment.

“Well, I’ve been drinking with a few sailors lately-”

“Like you always do.”

“-and I learned that a certain noble intended to use those ships to go and do some piratey deeds.”

“... Sounds stupid but not everyone is smart. Okay, go on,” I said, intrigued by what I was hearing.

“Well, I also heard that this certain noble hadn’t done much paying for the ships and sailors he got, paying the bare minimum and not what he said he would pay. His status as a noble protected him, you know?”

“Okay, I can kind of see where this is going.”

“So what if… that certain noble was urged into visiting an eyesore, his words not mine, and then get arrested and investigated? That would leave the ships up for sale from the shipyard. Ships that I know you can buy with the money you saved.”

I stared at him before shaking my head. “No, I refuse to believe that you thought far.”

“What? Why not? I can plan ahead!”

“Says the man who got stuck in Davy Johns’ Locker.”

“Oi! That… was a thing!” he pointed a finger at me. “We don’t talk about that!”

I snorted.

“I’m serious! Besides, I got better.”

I just walked away.

“I’m serious! Look at me! I’m springy and young!”

“Pirate turned zombie turned shipless captain says what?”

“What? Wait, no, you-! ARGH!”

I chuckled at his antics. Still, I did appreciate how far he’d went (no matter how convoluted), so maybe I should do a bit of sailing like he wants to.