Chapter 25: Restraint

Chapter 25: Restraint

On the passenger ship’s lookout platform, a sharp, resonant horn sounded, piercing through the barrier woven from wind and rain and waking every passenger.

They did not even have time to dress properly. Some draped coats over themselves; some came in their sleepwear; some ran barefoot to the windows and began examining the situation outside.

Half of them soon saw the enormous three-masted sailboat that defied common sense. They saw its three pitch-black sails and the clusters of dim yellow light swaying in the deep darkness.

Combined with the howling wind, the splattering rain, and the night sky where neither the crimson moon nor the stars could be seen, many passengers felt that the other ship had sailed out from hell, carrying an indescribable terror and majesty.

The Black Emperor!

After a brief spell of daze and panic, this term surfaced in their minds.

Anyone who had spent some time at sea or lived for a while in the port cities of the major colonies knew, to some extent, of the existence of such a pirate ship!

“Oh, Storms be with you and me.”

“May the Goddess bless us!”

“Steam above!”

…

Prayers rang out one after another by instinct, filled with fear and helplessness.

These passengers were well aware that the owner of the Black Emperor was the man with the highest bounty across the Five Seas. In a certain sense, he was the king of pirates, a powerful figure who could still remain active even after being encircled and suppressed by the fleets of various nations. He was definitely not someone a passenger ship’s cannons and crew could resist.

This meant they were about to fall into the hands of pirates!

Quite a few women could not help imagining scenes of being humiliated by pirates and sold to unfamiliar places. Some trembled uncontrollably. Some had their knees go weak, sliding down from behind the windows and kneeling on the floor. Some hurriedly searched out daggers and revolvers, though it was unclear whether they meant to resist or simply refused to face the worst possible ending. Those who could not find weapons moved the coat racks beside them instead.

The men’s performances were not much better. Aside from a small number who took out weapons and tried to organize resistance, the rest were either dazed, searching for places to hide, or cursing the damned passenger ship and the King of the Five Seas.

Finally, the captain’s voice reached everyone’s ears with the help of some amplification device or method:

“Quiet! There is no need to be afraid!”

“The owner of the Black Emperor has established his own laws. He is different from other pirates. He and his subordinates only rob wealth; they do nothing else!”

These words were repeated several times in succession, and the panicked passengers finally calmed somewhat. They were no longer so terrified.

Compared with the experiences they had just imagined, being able to remain alive and avoid humiliation already counted as an excellent outcome.

After several dozen seconds, some passengers thought of how they had struggled and worked hard for so many years, only to finally save a little money—and now they were about to lose all of it. It was truly difficult to endure. Grief surged within them, and they actually began to cry.

Several among them had borrowed money to do business. If they could not bring back funds this time, their families might end up wandering the streets and relying on the workhouse for survival.

Thinking of this, they hurriedly began moving, hiding money in all sorts of concealed places, hoping to preserve even a little. After finishing, each of them gripped a weapon tightly, prepared to die together with the pirates at the critical moment.

Even a dying beast would strike back, let alone humans.

At this moment, many pirates on the Black Emperor had already, according to orders, gathered along the ship’s side, ready at any moment to jump onto the “prey” once the distance closed.

Their second mate, Viscount of Dread Bird Mustang, was holding a monocular telescope and rather casually observing the passenger ship opposite them, inwardly calculating how long it would take for the two sides to draw near.

This great pirate, whose bounty had long since exceeded ten thousand pounds, wore an Intis-style shirt with elaborate patterns at the cuffs and collar, and had a dark-red captain’s coat draped over him. He looked as though he were waiting for a banquet to begin, rather than for a plunder to happen.

Suddenly, his vision blurred. He could no longer see any trace of that passenger ship!

Bird Mustang hurriedly moved the monocular telescope and searched, but in that direction, other than the waves whipped up by the violent wind and red-headed sea eagles that liked hunting fish in heavy rain, there was nothing at all.

Such a large steam-and-sail-powered passenger ship had vanished just like that!

“…” Bird Mustang’s gaze flickered, yet he was unable to make an accurate judgment.

“Where’s the ship?”

“Where did that huge ship go?”

“It was right there a moment ago!”

…

The pirates on deck also noticed something wrong and cried out in shock one after another.

A ghost ship? No, what ghost ship looks like that? Steam-and-sail hybrid designs have only become popular in the last few decades… An illusion? Someone used a large-scale illusion to hide that passenger ship? An illusion at this level has to be at demigod level… Bird Mustang’s thoughts shifted. He put away the monocular telescope and walked toward the cabin area.

Throughout this entire process, the measure of distance seemed to become confused. Bird Mustang used only seven or eight steps to cross a not-at-all-short distance and arrive below the captain’s cabin. He bowed respectfully and said,

“Earl, an abnormality has appeared in the hunt.”

On the Black Emperor, the King of the Five Seas, Nast, always called himself an earl. This came from Emperor Roselle’s appointment.

Of course, he had also publicly declared that he would sooner or later establish a kingdom belonging to pirates and become a grand duke, prince, or even emperor.

After a brief silence, a deep, majestic voice sounded from inside the captain’s cabin:

“Go around it.”

“I obey your will!” Bird Mustang did not ask why and directly accepted the order.

Of course, he could imagine the reason:

Whether or not it was an illusion, for such a large steam-and-sail passenger ship to silently vanish under the gaze of several hundred pirates was definitely not something a mid- or low-sequence Beyonder could accomplish. That ship certainly had a demigod aboard, or else someone in control of a demigod-level Sealed Artifact!

To enter into conflict with an unknown demigod over an ordinary passenger ship would absolutely not be rational behavior. Even though White Maple Earl Nast was the King of the Five Seas, he would not rashly do such a thing unless both sides had direct and sufficient conflicts of interest or position.

From that angle, the fact that the opposing demigod had merely hidden the passenger ship without making any counterattack also showed that he did not want to enter into violent conflict with the Black Emperor or the King of the Five Seas. He was only displaying his presence and issuing a deterrent.

Bird Mustang immediately had the sailors leave the ship’s side and steer the Black Emperor to change course.

Just then, a huge and heavy red-headed sea eagle suddenly separated from the flock and flew toward the Black Emperor, circling back and forth above the ghost ship.

Amid the pirates’ bewilderment, the red-headed sea eagle looked down at the deck and spoke in a low human voice:

“I wish to pay a visit to White Maple Earl.”

Bird Mustang froze for a second, then turned his gaze toward the cabin.

The King of the Five Seas, Nast’s dignified voice sounded again. He did not answer the red-headed sea eagle directly, instead instructing his subordinate:

“Let him in.”

Bird Mustang was just about to carry out the order when the red-headed sea eagle had already dived downward through the dim wind and rain, its body gradually changing, twisting and writhing into human shape.

By the time it landed on the deck, there was no longer any red-headed sea eagle. There was only a man wearing a tall top hat, dressed in evening attire, with a feathered mask fastened to his face.

Bird Mustang’s pupils dilated slightly, as if he wanted to see the other party more clearly.

Yet no matter how he observed, he could not find anything abnormal from the front of this flamboyant man, as though the red-headed sea eagle from earlier had never appeared.

A few seconds later, Bird Mustang’s pupils widened even more, because the man wearing the feathered mask passed in front of him, allowing him to see the side of his body.

This man, dressed as though attending a banquet, was extremely thin—only about as wide as two fingers placed together!

For an instant, Bird Mustang seemed to have seen a walking paper figurine, except the other party was a little thicker than a paper figurine!

A monster… He swallowed with difficulty and watched this terrifying demigod walk toward the cabin.

The pirates on the deck all retreated several steps, then leaned against the ship’s side, as though what had just walked by them was a nightmare.

To them, this man whose proportions were strange to the extreme was something they had never seen in their lives. He made them feel more horrified than many monsters they had encountered in the past.

On the third floor of the cabin, outside the captain’s room.

Klein reached out, gripped the handle, twisted it, and opened the door.

The reason he had made his image so bizarre was half passive and half deliberate. The passive part was because the red-headed sea eagle’s body was not large enough. After separating part of it to form clothes and a mask, even if he omitted the internal organs, it could not support a normal human physique. The deliberate part lay in his beginning to explore and attempt the acting of a Bizarro Sorcerer. He had developed a slight idea:

The “sorcerer” was not the focus. The focus lay in expressing the word “bizarro” through a sorcerer’s methods!

Amid a faint creaking sound, the dark door opened, revealing the scene inside the captain’s cabin:

Candelabra after candelabra hung upside down from above. There were forty-one on the left and forty on the right, their numbers different on each side. At the end of them, a black platform rose, surrounding an iron-black seat.

The King of the Five Seas, Nast, currently had a relatively normal build, a little over 1.9 meters tall. He was no longer like when Klein had met him before, appearing more like a giant than a human.

He still wore a proportionally shrunken steeple crown and was draped in a black robe edged with silver. His facial lines were hard, faint wrinkles showed on his forehead, and short black whiskers covered his lower jaw. Dark-red light flowed within his pitch-black eyes, making people instinctively want to lower their heads.

“I have not seen you before,” Nast said in a low voice, “‘Mr. Bizarro Sorcerer.’”

Klein removed his hat and bowed.

“Now you have.”

Nast’s voice, which made spirit bodies tremble, echoed through the captain’s cabin:

“Speak. Why have you come to visit me?”

“Earl, I wish to know your impression of Emperor Roselle. Everyone knows that you and your father once met Him, more than once.” Klein replied, unaffected.

Nast swept his gaze over the paper-thin demigod before him, and the dark-red light in his eyes brightened slightly.

“Sit first.”

Before his words had even faded, Klein already felt a powerful pressure. His body was about to obey the order against his will and sit on a nearby chair.

However, what had come was only his marionette. As the Spirit Body Threads twitched, the book-thin figure swiftly returned to stability.