Dragon's Tale 2 (Patreon)

And just like that, a week had passed on board the pitch-black vessel which claimed to be a lawful privateer, though their tendency to send fireballs and lightning bolts to fishing boats for fun stretched the meaning of the word. And despite I was able to console myself its temporary status, I still found the experience horrible. 

It wasn’t the food -though it was barely tastier or nutritious than moldy wood- or my sleeping space -a ruined blanket in the corner of a room that was filled with twenty other men. While my living conditions were horrible, it wasn’t the first time I had to suffer physical discomfort. I had gone through worse back in my family estate. The training trips with my grandfather had been even worse, where I had to stay hungry or sleep under the rain because I failed to successfully hunt in a forest where even experienced Rangers feared to step in. When I was eleven. 

No, it was the dismissive treatment and the lack of respect I had received. 

“Clean this as well, rookie,” shouted one of the other sailors as he passed me, toppling the water-filled bucket with a kick, drenching the area that I just finished the cleaning. I bit back the spell that would have skewered him with a flaming spear, and with a sigh, resumed my task. 

I found the lack of focused intent in their casual cruelty maddening. My school days, a bastard in an institution filled with so-called noble peers, wasn’t a walk in the park, but they were a bunch of entitled brats that thought that having only three servants was a punishment, and it impacted the effectiveness of their insults. And even then, I was the only bastard in the school, which, perversely, made the situation special in some way. They were trying to break me to the best of their ability, and when I hadn’t, it meant I was the victorious party. I hadn’t noticed that then, but it had been more dismissive, there was no way I would have survived the Halls with my sense of self intact. 

“Just a few more days,” I murmured. From what I could read from the night sky, I could see that the ship was closing towards the Germanic Wildlands -a chaotic area split between free tribes and monsters- and even if they chose not to dock, I could slip in the water and swim the moment I could see the land. Just a few more days, and I would be truly free. 

“I see a boat nearby,” the lookout shouted in alarm, and just like that, everyone was alert on the deck. And for good reason. Even in the darkness of midnight, it was hard to miss a boat in such calm weather. Meaning either the lookout was sleeping, or the other ship used magic. 

I stiffened, ready to cast a spell. Magic wasn’t exactly rare, but hiding a whole boat from the sight for an extended time, especially without utterly exhausting the caster, was a difficult task. From what I had observed until now, the ship had two mages on the ship that had enough power to resist against someone that could do something like that. The gray-haired first mate whom I was yet to learn his name because everyone called him Legate, and Gorro. Whomever our surprise guest was, there was no doubting his strength. I didn’t know how I would fare something as strong, but unfortunate revealing of my true power would be a given. 

“It’s the captain,” the lookout called once again, but it was strange that his panic hadn’t abated in the slightest, nor did the crews’. They lowered their weapons, and started bustling around, trying to make themselves busy. The Captain must be a scary fellow if he managed to scare them up that easily. I moved towards a more concealed part of the deck and grabbed a mop. I was good at concealing my magical power, but there was no point in risking it against another expert. 

Soon, a small boat with a black triangle sail drifted in view, drifting over the water. When it reached the edge of the ship, it started levitating. The crew moved away in sync, suggesting that it wasn’t the first time that was happening. Casually levitating a boat was not a simple matter, another evidence of captain’s strength, especially after maintaining a field of obstruction for such a long time. He was an upper-tier mage in a minimum. A sorcerer of lower circle, even, considering the rather excessive fear the crew was displaying. 

I cowered around the corner more, trying to copy the fear the weaker members of the crew were displaying. Getting noticed by someone that strong was not good news, especially in the middle of his ship, where he had the support of over a hundred strong crew. 

While playing the scared deckhand, I started examining the boat, which finally landed on the deck. It was a beautiful one, sleek, made from a dark wood I didn’t recognize, filled with carefully-drawn runes, some to enhance its speed on the water while the others enhanced its durability. It even had a few runes to enhance its floating capabilities, but not enough to remove the impressiveness of the magical achievement. 

Then a man, dressed in grays and blacks, stepped onto the deck. He was a tall man, with a noble bearing, his cloak hiding his face. A mysterious figure, and presumed by the fearful gazes of the crew, the Captain. Some would focus on his determined steps. Others would focus their attention examining the rune-covered blade on his waist, a masterwork of magic and skill, or the spry crossbow on his back. Some might even focus on the expensiveness of his clothes. My attention was on the rope he was holding… 

But it was nothing compared to the surprise I would have next. He tugged the rope, forcing a girl to step onto the deck as well. I gasped in shock, but luckily it went unnoticed among the other surprised reactions. 

It wasn’t the great beauty of the prisoner that surprised me, though she was indeed beautiful, with a lithe body with curves at interesting places, her blonde hair as bright as gold. Nor her clothes, rich and elaborate despite their rough state, indicating a recent combat encounter. It wasn’t the pair of runic bracelets around her wrists cutting her magic flow, leaving her effectively helpless. No, it was her face that surprised me, because I recognized her from school. Lillian, heiress of the house of Malone, one of the top three students of the graduates the Halls had processed this year. 

“It’s just my luck,” I murmured even as I watched the captain dragged her along with himself, cutting through the crew without a concern… That, more than anything, indicated the strength of the hold the captain had maintained over the crew. Without absolute control, he wouldn’t dare to display such a beauty to a bunch of wild pirates. As he walked, the first mate and Gorro quickly met with him. They had a quick talk, and the captain passed Lillian’s rope to his first mate before turning towards the rest of the crew. “This girl is going to be a virgin sacrifice,” he explained in a calm tone, barely more than a casual speaking volume. Still, with the absolute silence that covered the dock, it was heard by everyone. “And if someone dares to jeopardize that…” he added, then walked back to his small boat, not even bothering to complete his threat. And from the faces the crew was making, it was clear that he hadn’t needed to. 

As the captain’s boat floated toward the surface of the water, I was cursing my luck. Finding one of my classmates imprisoned for on the same pirate ship I had been conscripted to while trying to escape could only happen to me. And to make things worse, she was going to be sacrificed in a ritual. Those kind of rituals were not unheard of, but they were restricted to captives and heinous criminals, even daring to sacrifice a slave had huge repercussions. I wouldn’t even want to imagine the punishment for daring to kidnap and sacrifice a noble heiress; yet the captain -who clearly was not a fool- dared to communicate that for a full ship of people. 

There was something horrible afoot. 

The best option was for me to steal a lifeboat during the night, and get away from those crazy pirates as much as possible. But even as I contemplated that, I knew that it wouldn’t be the option it would take. I was a selfish prick, but not enough to actually abandon a classmate to such a horrible fate, no matter how much I disliked her smug attitude. Lillian had been one of the worst people I had to deal with during the school, constantly mocking and insulting in the hopes of trying to make me drop off. Still, these schoolyard scuffles were not enough reason to leave her to such a fate. 

I needed to save her and leave the ship. And I needed to do that before that scary captain returned; no need to start a fight with a man with an unknown level of power. 

For the rest of the day, I had done my best to prepare the components of my escape; which had been rather easy because these pirates weren’t expecting to be infiltrated by a mage of my skill level. First, I had etched a few explosive runes to the sails, then embedded several animation charms on two lifeboats, with enough power to push them several miles. And some sleeping powder to the evening chow completed the deal. When the midnight hit, the ship was covered with unnatural silence. 

Not one to take unnecessary risks, I pulled a cloak of shadows around myself -a darkness based spell to increase one’s ability to stay hidden. Then, I sneaked towards the captain’s cabin, which was working as an impromptu prison, and walked towards the two guards. Their discipline was impressive. Even in the middle of the ship, they were alert, their eyes scaling the deck carefully. 

Unfortunately for them, wrapped in darkness, the cloak of shadows was too hard to notice. The first one only noticed when the knife already passed through his throat, spraying blood. The second guard opened his mouth, but I had an air blade already conjured, so before a whimper could escape his mouth, he fell on the floor, gasping for a breath that would never come. Even as he connected to the floor, I turned my attention to the door, letting my magic flow to break through the enhancements. 

It took me two minutes to unlock the door. Two precious minutes that left my heart thumping in excitement. When I finally opened the door, Lillian was on the bed, a dark expression on her face. “Is it finally the time,” she spat angrily, darkness preventing her from noticing the bodies of the two guards, mistaking me for a guard instead. Still, it was better than her realizing my true identity. I could have gestured her to stay silent, but I doubted that she would follow it. Instead, I dashed and pressed my hands against her mouth. 

Her eyes widened in shock, and I felt her teeth locking around my flesh. Bitch, I thought as a small yelp escaped my mouth. She looked at me smugly. “Continue that, and I might change my mind about saving you,” I warned her, and just like that, her whole expression changed. 

“S-save me,” she gasped in shock when I pulled my hand away, and repeated it in a whisper when I gestured her to be silent. “Really?!” 

I didn’t bother to answer her, just gestured to the bodies of the guards, and two pools of blood around them. She looked at me with stars in her eyes, her expression enchanting. Despite the danger of the situation, I found myself looking at her face, captured by her beauty. Back in the school, whenever she looked at me, she had a disgusted expression on her face, which reduced the impact of her beauty significantly, but now, she was no different than a legendary fairy. Even her lack of makeup, or ruined clothes failed to reduce her beauty. I had to bite my lips to distract myself before starting to speak. “Yes, I’m here to save you, but you need to follow my orders immediately, and without a protest,” I explained even as I destroyed the rope around her arms, but left the runic bracelets alone. 

“Won’t you remove these as well,” she asked, her expression enthusiastic, and a bit bloodthirsty, imagining how to take revenge on the pirates that dared to take her hostage. 

“No, these stays for now, it would create a mana burst and alert everyone without the keys,” I explained. “We need to wait until they are at least ten miles away. We can’t afford the risk.” 

Once again, she nodded obediently, no trace of her bitchy behavior could be seen. She stood up, but her legs suddenly trembled, exhaustion catching up with her. I managed to wrap my arms around her waist before she could fall on the floor, though the way she leaned against me with a sigh, giving me a brief tutorial of her curves, was an interesting surprise. It was time to leave, but before doing that, I wanted to leave one last surprise for the crew. By saving Lillian, I had already created a feud, so more damage I dealt, the better. 

With that in mind, I crouched down, about to slide a magical explosive under the bed, but when I looked, I noticed a small box there, barely bigger than my palm, covered by a weak aura of power. But the interesting part was the endless layers of concealment runes that covered the box. I didn’t know what was inside, but if it was spreading that much power despite the suppression, it had the potential to be priceless. 

Naturally, I stole it.  

After standing up, I wrapped my arm around Lillian’s waist once more before leading her out. I expanded the cloak of shadows to her. It was a rather exhausting magical trick, but it was worth it, because the cloak not only made us hard to notice by the naked eye, but also it further hid our magical presence, allowing us to avoid arcane detection methods. “Aren’t we going to take a lifeboat?” she asked, when she noticed our direction had no lifeboat. 

“No, they are the bait,” I answered. “Now, wrap tight,” I said, offering a piggyback ride. She looked apprehensive, but a warning glare was enough to make her listen. I threw a rope from the side and climbed down, relaxing only when I felt the freezing cold of the night water wrapped around. I knew it wouldn’t long before we had been noticed, so I cast a wide-range spell, one that was noticed by everyone on the ship. It would have been a horrible choice if it wasn’t for one important detail. With such an excessive spell, they had no way to determine the epicenter. 

And since it triggered all the traps I had prepared simultaneously, they hadn’t had any time to search for the source either. Two lifeboats collided against the surface with a huge splash before starting to travel with maximum speed, away from the main ship. Then, several explosion went through the ship, flickering flames brightening the sky. Meanwhile, we stayed in the water, motionless, listening as the ship exploded into chaos, a range of panicked orders making the situation even worse. 

“The prisoner has escaped! Follow the boats,” called a voice, and suddenly, a magical field covered the ship and it picked up speed despite its lack of sails. A useful spell, though I wouldn’t want to be on the place of the mages that were responsible for that particular feat. It was unbelievably exhausting, especially at the scale they were trying to apply. 

Lillian’s arms around me tightened as she struggled to resist the cold, but her ruined clothes and her exhaustion working against her. And with the ship still near, I wasn’t willing to risk casting a warming charm, comfort wasn’t as important as the survival. And as an added benefit, our wet clothes were worked even worse to limit the feeling, so I could gain an even better understanding of her curves. We watched the flame-covered ship disappeared into the horizon, following the enchanted lifeboats. 

Only after the ship disappeared on the horizon, I let the cloak of shadow to fade away, because we were too far away from the detection range. As the cloak faded, Lillian turned to look at me, a worshipful expression on her face. But that expression only lasted until her eyes found my face. “Bastard!” she exclaimed in a great shock as she pushed me away, her face blurred with astonishment. “You pathetic failure. What the hell are you doing here!” 

I knew that she had gone through a horrible ordeal, and the shock of meeting with me in the middle of the sea in the middle of a pirate vessel couldn’t have help. But while I understood her concerns, that hadn’t meant that I was willing to act as a welcome mat as I did in the school. Here, I didn’t have to act anymore. So, I made sure to maintain eye contact when I spoke my next words. “Well, if you’re not satisfied with your savior, you’re free to make your way towards the shore on your own,” I said before turning my back and starting to swim. 

I managed to move several lengths before she managed to sputter in shock. “Just wait a minute! You can’t leave me here!” she exclaimed pompously, though I was happy to note there was a tone of desperation hidden underneath. It showed that, despite all of her entitlement, she knew the precariousness of her situation. 

“I can’t?” I said after I turned towards her once more, an indifferent expression on my face. “Why exactly?” 

The expression of shock on her face was positively delicious. “Because I’m the heiress, my family will reward you,” she managed to say after a moment of consideration, preemptively believing her victory. “Whether it’s money or hidden spells, I’ll make sure that you’ll get what you need.” 

“Not interested,” I said without even thinking. It wasn’t that the rewards weren’t tempting, but I needed to go back to Britanium to receive those rewards, which would put me back where I started. And I wouldn’t trust her family to protect me against my uncle. They might feel indebted to me for saving their heiress, but not enough to make an enemy out of another major family. House Scipio was not an existence easily disregarded. “What else you got?” 

“We’re classmates, and it’s the decent thing to do,” she managed to add, shocked that her previous offer got rejected. 

“We were classmates,” I corrected her. “And even then, do you remember any encounter that would make me feel indebted enough to help you.” The sudden desperation on her face was enough to tell me that she failed to come up with one. Funnily enough, I did have a couple of nice memories of her during the first year, before I established a reputation for uselessness, putting her above the batch despite her general bitchiness. “But it would be a dick move to leave you here,” I said, my tone softer, and I swam towards her. “How well can you swim?” I asked. 

Just like that, fear’s hold weakened on her. “I can move hundreds of miles before exhausting-” she started before I cut her off. 

“Without magic,” I countered.

“Without magic! Why?” she said, shocked. 

“Because, as you should remember, I don’t want to alert the pirates by removing the runic bracelets. The rush of magic you’ll create when they loosen is enough to bring them back on. Hence you need to move without magic. Even I won’t be able to use magic for the first few miles, because we don’t know how strong their detection capabilities are. Their captain is definitely not an ordinary man.” 

“No, he’s not,” she answered. “He killed twenty elite house guards singlehandedly before kidnapping me.” 

Definitely a sorcerer, I thought with a shudder even as I nodded despondently. Just my luck. While it wasn’t nice to learn that the man that I had just screwed over massively was quite a bit stronger than me, it was still better than wandering over blindly. At least, now I knew I should stay away from him to the best of my ability. “Okay, then, remove your dress and we can start swimming.” 

“How dare you,” she exclaimed even as a slap exploded on my cheek. I could have dodged it, but I let it connect, but it barely moved my head. 

When she tried to slap me a second time, however, I was quick to grab her wrist. “Enough! Are you going to throw a tantrum like a child,” I said. “You need to remove your dress, or the drag will exhaust you, and you’ll drown. And on the ship, I had used too much of my magic to waste on anything frivolous. So, you either follow my directions, or you get exhausted in the middle of the sea. Your choice,” I said with a sharp finality. 

Truth be told, the explanation I gave to her was kind of bullshit. I still had quite a bit of mana left, what I had done on the ship hadn’t even taken a quarter of my total strength. But after that slap, I was feeling vindictive, and it was a good way to mess with her.  

“Turn your back,” she ordered while grabbing the shoulder of her dress. 

I just smirked. I had no intention of turning back when faced with such an opportunity…