Insistent Assistant 29 (Patreon)

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 29

-VB-

Alan Marris

Though I now knew that there was a way for me to access the Grand Line without having to use either the Red Line’s services or the Reverse Mountains’ often fatal route, I found myself having to find information on where the Marines would be escorting merchants ships across the Calm Belt.

This meant either getting to know a merchant who knew this or contacting the nearest Marine office in hopes that they knew about it.

Of course, this also didn’t stop us from regularly engaging in pirate hunting.

“GET BACK HERE!” I shouted from atop the crow’s nest at the galley that had tried to ambush my squadron.

“Fuck off!” the pirates onboard it shouted back at me.

I growled.

If it had been a sturdier-looking and bigger ship, then I would have jumped on it already. It wasn’t, however, and there were hostages there who were too close to the pirates’ blades. In particular, were the slaves who were rowing the ship.

I ran into these guys very close to the Calm Belt, and quickly realized that in regions of the seas that saw no wind, galleys were actually a viable method of transportation and war. Sure, they required a lot of people to row the ship, but it was the only non-Marine way of getting across.

But, personally, I don’t think that’s why galleys were popular with pirates in this area. See, only special Marine galleons had access to the Sea Stones that let them cross into the Calm Belt. This meant that since not all Marine ships could sail into the Calm Belt, galleys could escape the Marines simply by rowing into the Calm Belt.

Was it risky as fuck considering that Calm Belts were Sea King breeding grounds? Fuck, yes, but it was still a viable option.

Unfortunately for the fuckers who got caught out here in the South Blue, they drifted too far from the region near the Calm Belt and my ships were faster than theirs.

That was the problem with galleys. Not only did they require a shit ton of crew - and thus a shit ton of food and water - to remain viable, in any waters where the winds weren’t breezy and calm, they were always slower than sailboats.

Oh, never mind, those two issues weren’t the only problems. Galleys also could bear less weight than sailboats in general, so they also could field less cannons than sailboats. Worse, if they tried to broadside us, then they would open themselves up to being broadsided, too. Since galleys were longer, if thinner, they presented an easier target for our gunnery crews.

Our mission today was less about the bounty, actually. At our last port of call, we met with the townspeople who were desperate to bring their sons and daughters back from the pirates that raided and enslaved the young adults. Even though I had promised them that I would look, I would not have found them had it not been for the newspapers talking about recent raids in a relatively poor archipelago.

A month of traveling later, here I was, finally having found the bastards.

I really didn’t want to hurt the slaves. I was here to rescue them, and the shit condition of the galley was not ready for me to jump onto it or have Illaoi’s tentacles grab onto it, but I’ve been chasing them for the better part of the whole day. My crew was going to become tired sooner or later, and we would lose them because the fucking win was working against us.

“Illaoi,” I shouted. “Get ready to grab onto that galley with your tentacles!”

“Hoh? You are finally doing something other than staring?” Illaoi mocked from below.

“Oh, shut up, you hag! You know why I wasn’t trying to harm the boat!”

“Yes, because you wanted to rescue the pitifully weak slaves,” she drawled. “Well, I am whenever you are, Master!”

“Go!”

There was a pause before the waters to the port and starboard of the pirate galley burst up like bomb exploded on either side of the ship, and green ethereal tentacles almost as thick as the galley itself shot out of the water. Then they came down upon the ship and grabbed onto it, wrapping around the hull.

Oddly gently, too.

“Thanks!” I shouted before I drew my axes and jumped. The crow’s nest nearly exploded behind me from the force of my jump and my clothes fluttered in the wind as I arced over the distance between the ships.

I missed what I had been aiming for, the trunk of the main mast, and landed on the wooden deck. The deck blew apart underneath my feet the moment I touched ground, and sent wooden shrapnels everywhere. My left feet, which touched down first, actually punched through the deck, and I had to kick it out of the hole.

The pirates on the deck turned to me as they realized they had an enemy onboard.

“Who a-?!” the woman with an eyepatch shrieked at me while drawing her saber. I wasted no time and just bumrushed them.

When I killed them all and walked down to the lower deck to free the slaves, I found myself looking at a dozen or so pirates holding people hostage. I pointed at them. “If you don’t surrender right now, then I will make sure the Marines never get their hands on you,” I snapped at them. “I will personally ensure that every single one of bones are broken and healed. I will rip out your nails and glue them to your genitals. I will ensure that you live to become a quadriplegic wreck begging for death every day because I will be there to drag out your life to a painful end that will take years to accomplish…” I hissed, and even some of the slaves looked uncomfortable despite their exhaustion. Others looked happy as hell that the pirates were getting what they deserved. “The Marines only want to kill you or jail you. I will make you suffer if you don’t go to them willingly.”

They surrendered.

-VB-

I looked down at my freshly washed hands, feeling the skin tug on me from the sea water I had used to clean myself; using fresh water to clean myself was the height of waste in the middle of the ocean.

“What is it?”

I looked up and saw Jacob.

“Oh. Nothing. Just …”

It wasn’t nothing. I was thinking about the things I said to the pirates when I found them with hostages. More than the slaughter I had left behind on the top deck, I found myself more disturbed by the threats I made and how genuinely sincerely I had been with them.

If the pirates had killed even one slave as hostage or example, then I would have made sure to use them as examples … but also for my personal desire to see them suffer.

It made me realize that I really was changing, and didn’t know what to feel about it.

“Hmm, well, some of the slaves want to talk with you, captain. They’re claiming to be marines.”

I blinked.

Well, then.

I grinned.

“We just might have our ticket to travel across the Calm Belt.”