Chapter 21: The Treasure of Nattia? (Or is it Nadia)
Boom!
The black-sailed warship's side unleashed a barrage of cannonballs, aiming at the black-sailed ship. The shells landed near the target, splashing huge columns of water. After the broadside, the black-sailed warship immediately changed course, charging straight at the black-sailed ship while its main cannons on the bow continued firing.
Their distance wasn't close, and the warship's speed made it hard to catch up to the fast ship, so they could only rely on cannon fire.
At this distance, however, hitting with cannons was also difficult.
"I'll do it!"
Seeing that the cannons weren't hitting, Sag anxiously stepped onto the air with Geppo, flying at low altitude towards the black-sailed ship. When he was halfway there, he stomped his leg, leaping high into the air, raising his right leg high above his head.
"Rankyaku..."
Sag stared intently at the black-sailed ship, and his leg swung down with tremendous force.
"Ōkabutowari! (Great Helmet Splitter!)"
Swish!
A huge, pale blue slash shot out vertically, its tail end slicing through the water, creating a giant inverted V mark. With incredible speed, it caught up to the black-sailed ship. Like cutting through butter, the black-sailed ship's stern was smoothly sliced open, all the way to the bow. The entire ship split in two, even the mast was cleaved in half, like a pair of split pants, completely separating.
Sag stepped on the air a few times, quickly landing on the stern of the black-sailed ship, and said menacingly, "Run! Run again! I'll see where you run to!"
He had been taking the blame for days, and he had finally found the real culprits!
The pirates on the ship were stunned and frozen on the two halves of the broken ship, showing expressions of terror. They clearly hadn't recovered from the scene of the ship being cut in half.
Sag scanned around, finding only ordinary pirates, and asked, "Where's the black-robed man?"
"Wh, what black-robed man?" a pirate stammered.
"Where's your leader!"
Sag jumped directly in front of this pirate, grabbed his collar, and said fiercely, "Compass Town was your doing, right? But warships have been chasing me every day, you know that? Where's your lair? Where's the treasure?!"
"I, I don't know anything..." The pirate cried out in panic. "We only robbed this town. We don't know anything else!"
Faced with a figure who could cut a ship in half with one strike, they indeed had no courage to resist.
"Alright, you won't talk, huh..."
Sag flicked the pirate's forehead with his hand. The pirate froze, only his eyeballs moving frantically.
He looked at the other pirates and said, "I've hit his pressure point. He can't move for half a day. Now..."
Splash!
He kicked the man into the sea.
"Pirates are all good swimmers, right? But if you can't move in the water for half a day, can you still use your swimming skills?"
Sag sneered at the pirates. "You don't want to be drowned alive by the sea you love, do you?"
"Don't, don't be afraid!"
A pirate who seemed to be the leader trembled, gripping his knife, and stammered, "He's only one person. We, we are courageous pirates! Lads, take him down!"
"Is that so?"
Sag took a step towards that pirate.
Just that one step, and the pirate immediately threw down his knife, knelt on the ground, and shouted:
"Sumimasen! We are pirates from the Kingdom of Nattia! We apologize for troubling you!"
The pirate who had been thrown into the sea sank directly. He hadn't floated up yet.
He didn't want to be the second one.
"Tch, courage..."
Sag looked back at the gradually approaching black-sailed warship and stopped talking, waiting for his men to arrive.
There were only about twenty pirates on the fast ship, not many. Intimidated by Sag, they didn't dare to resist. Soon, along with the loot they had plundered, they were all brought onto the ship.
The twenty or so pirates were tied up with rope and forced to kneel on the deck, surrounded by grinning pirates holding knives and swords.
Lily moved a chair onto the deck for Sag to sit on. He was holding a stack of Berries, tapping them on his hand while watching these pirate captives. "Your Nattia..."
"It's Nattia!" Lily suddenly corrected.
"Isn't it the same?" Sag looked at Lily.
"No..." Lily shook her head. "I just feel like something's not right. It's better to say it correctly."
She didn't know where the feeling came from, but she felt that calling it 'Nadia' wasn't good. (The author is playing with words here - the original name sounds very similar to a rude word in Japanese).
"Alright, Nattia..."
Sag said, "Did your Kingdom of Nattia make you pirates go out and plunder?"
These black-sailed pirates came from the nearby Kingdom of Nattia. All their looting operations were directed by that kingdom.
Including the recent robberies of the three economically important towns, they did it.
They just hung black sails. As long as they escaped quickly, no one would know who did it.
Originally, after they robbed, the kingdom told them to wait for a while, until the heat died down before going out again. According to the people above, they seemed to be making a treasure. With that treasure, they wouldn't have to be afraid of Marine pursuit when robbing in the future.
Originally, everyone was resting, but then they heard a rumor that another group of black-sailed pirates had appeared somewhere, and they had even robbed a warship and were being chased by the Marines.
After repeatedly confirming that it wasn't them, many pirates got ideas.
Someone was attracting attention for them. Why not take advantage of this and rob a little more!
So they formed their own pirate crew and went to rob other places. But they had only just succeeded in robbing one town when Sag found them...
"Did your king form a privateer pirate crew?" Sag frowned.
The pirates didn't answer this time. They all lowered their heads, remaining silent.
Sag didn't press the issue. No one would believe it if they said it.
A king forming a pirate crew, it wasn't unprecedented, but this matter was good in private, but no one would admit it publicly.
One was a king ruling a country, and the other was a notorious pirate. The difference between the two was too great.
"Alright, the culprit has been found. I have another question..."
Sag shook the Berries in his hand. "That town seemed to have a very large building. Why didn't you rob that place, and only robbed some ordinary people?"
This ship's haul included some gold and silver jewelry, and one million Berries.
This haul wasn't small. Even if it was divided among these pirates, it wasn't a small amount.
An ordinary person's monthly salary was only about a hundred thousand Berries. This haul was worth half a month or even a month's salary.
Being a pirate was definitely a high-profit group.
"That wealthy man had very strong defensive forces. We didn't dare to go up, and we were also afraid of the Marines coming, so we just robbed some money and left," the pirate said honestly.
"Just that? Then why be pirates?"
Sag sneered, waved his hand. "Throw them down."
His men threw the bound pirates into the sea one by one. Whether they could survive was up to their own fate.
The sea itself was cruel.
Being a pirate meant putting your head on the line.
Sag had already prepared for this when he started being a pirate.
"Sag, are we going directly to Nattia?" Lily asked.
"Not in a hurry."
Sag shook his head and looked at the town, which was dimly lit in the front half and brightly lit in the back half. "Since we're taking the blame, let's take it all the way. They're all black-sailed pirates. Let's do what they didn't do! Lads, approach the town. We're continuing the robbery!"
"Oooooh!!"
The pirates raised their blades and shouted, then began to turn the ship around, heading directly towards the town.
Before long, the black-sailed warship approached the town.
Sag picked up a burlap sack, leaped down from the railing, followed by Lily and Gin, and then Pearl leading a group of pirates, heading straight towards the town.
The people here were putting out fires. The previous black-sailed thieves had fired a few cannons here, causing a disturbance.
The fire had just been put out. Among the robbed civilians, some were kneeling in front of their houses crying, and some were clinging to injured civilians, comforting each other.
Then they saw the black-sailed pirates returning...
"Everyone! We can't be robbed again!"
A civilian who had fought with the pirates earlier, with wounds still on his abdomen, stood up gritting his teeth. "We have no money left. If we're robbed again, we won't even be able to survive. We must drive them back!"
A group of civilians, holding wooden sticks and pitchforks, quickly gathered, looking at the approaching pirates with hatred.
If they were robbed again, they wouldn't even be able to pay the mayor's taxes!
If they couldn't pay the taxes, what they would face was not as simple as being robbed. No matter what, they must...
Bang...
Sag threw the bag towards these people. The mouth of the bag opened, scattering Berries and gold and silver jewelry.
This scene stunned the civilians.
That seemed to be their property...
"Make way! I'm going to rob that wealthiest man at the highest point!" Sag shouted.
"Alright!"
The civilian who had been filled with hatred just now quickly cleared a path, letting Sag and the others advance.
The wealthy man...
Isn't that the mayor?
Then it's fine.