Chapter 436: Audrey and Susie's First Move

Chapter 436: Audrey and Susie's First Move

After a brief discussion of their plan, Audrey's group decided to have Xio go out first to attract attention. Fors would be responsible for rescuing Xio if any unexpected situations arose. Audrey would handle the sneak attack, while Susie would flank from behind.

As they finished planning, two ships carrying pirates approached the Hope. The pirates began boarding without hesitation, their brazen behavior causing Xio to have low expectations for this group of pirates. She estimated that none of them were likely even on wanted posters with bounties.

The cook and maid stood at a distance, calmly observing without any intention of intervening.

Xio's appearance immediately drew the attention of the pirates boarding the Hope. Soon, many pirates began commenting on her appearance and height. When someone mentioned her height was a bit disappointing, Xio lost control of her anger. With just a stern shout, the mental worlds of the pirates present were struck as if by a heavy hammer. They couldn't help but fall to their knees, with some of the weaker pirates already in tears, confessing the various sins they had committed in their lives.

In terms of interrogation, the path of Judgment had a natural advantage. Even a simple, stern shout possessed an ability no less powerful than a Buddhist lion's roar, truly capable of making people bare their hearts and repent.

"You bunch of misfits dare to comment on my height!" Xio coldly snorted, drawing the long whip coiled around her waist. She first joined its ends together, pulling it taut to produce two sharp cracks, then lashed out at the pirate closest to her.

Crack!

A bright red whip mark appeared on that pirate's face, causing him to cry out in pain as he clutched his bleeding cheek.

Xio skillfully retracted the whip and struck at other pirates, quickly eliciting a chorus of agonized wails.

These pirates were ordinary people, and after being frightened out of their wits by Xio's stern shout, they lost all will to fight.

Someone tried to rush forward and grab Xio, attempting to use the natural strength difference between men and women to restrain her whip. Unfortunately, before he could even touch Xio's dress, he was sent flying by a lash of the whip.

"To think there's an Arbiter on a ship like this..." A figure emerged from behind the pirates. From the respect and entourage surrounding him, it was clear he was the captain of the pirate crew.

Before he could finish speaking, he and the other twenty or so pirates who had boarded the Hope were instantly mentally controlled, standing motionless in place.

"Controlling so many people at once, Miss Audrey, you're so cool!" Xio couldn't help but cheer for Miss Audrey in her heart.

"..."

Seeing the situation completely under control, Fors, who was still hiding in the shadows, was at a loss for words. It seemed she hadn't contributed even a tiny bit.

In that case, how would they divide the bounty later?

What made her feel even more ashamed was that Susie, who had been in her line of sight just moments ago, had already disappeared, presumably having gone to execute the earlier plan of flanking and ambushing.

"It's too dangerous for Susie to act alone. I must go help her!"

"Yes, that's right."

Fors made up her mind and quietly slipped from the Hope onto the two pirate ships.

This was a small pirate crew, with a total of fewer than fifty people, including over a dozen non-combatants responsible for odd jobs and the galley.

After being completely overwhelmed on the Hope, the pirates left guarding the ships posed no threat at all.

After Xio and Audrey had dealt with all the pirates who had boarded and tied them up, Xio, holding her blood-stained whip and wearing a kind smile, quickly extorted all the pirates' private savings.

"Where are Fors and Susie?"

"They should have gone to finish up."

Xio and Audrey went to the pirate ships together. On one of the ships, all crew members had fallen into a deep sleep. As they reached the end, they faintly heard Susie's voice.

At that moment, it was sprawled on the sofa in the captain's cabin. Two crew members under mental control were treating it like a deity, bringing out the best food on the ship to entertain Susie. One person was even kneeling in front of the sofa, devoutly massaging Susie.

"... Really knows how to enjoy itself."

Xio marveled, impressed that Susie could so easily deal with the personnel on this ship. Its abilities were quite remarkable. She wondered how Miss Audrey had trained it.

When they reached the other ship, Fors was standing lost in thought at the stern.

She had just thoroughly searched but hadn't found anything of much value on the ship.

When the three women and the dog returned to the ship, apart from finding about 200 gold coins in cash and 100 gold pounds, there were only some inexpensive goods.

Xio took out all the pirate wanted posters she had collected and began comparing them one by one. She actually found a bounty related to this pirate crew.

Jelock, captain of the Night Hawk Pirate Crew, with a bounty of 500 gold pounds. He had repeatedly plundered merchant ships with brutal methods and was responsible for seven or eight deaths.

"The name's not bad, it's just the bounty that's a bit low," Xio sighed with some disappointment.

Audrey didn't care about this. She was just thinking about how great the gap between ordinary people and Beyonders really was.

She had barely exerted any effort, yet these pirates' mental worlds couldn't withstand it. Such an adventure was far too simple.

"How should we deal with these pirates?" Xio asked.

"Hand them over to the official organizations," Audrey answered naturally.

Fors coughed lightly and said, "Miss Audrey, we're at sea. We can't just dock whenever we want."

In reality, the best solution would be to kill all these pirates. There were likely no innocent people among them. But in front of Miss Audrey, she wouldn't dare suggest such a bloody option.

Audrey realized this point and fell silent, but ultimately decided to hand them over to the official organizations when they reached the next port.

She couldn't bring herself to choose other options.

Seeing their hesitation, the pirates began competing to show off their acting skills, all telling stories about how they had no choice but to join the pirate crew.

One had an elderly mother to care for, another had a seriously ill bedridden father, and some claimed to have several children to feed...

Truth and lies intertwined as they attempted to confuse Audrey and the others.

Unfortunately, trying to lie in front of a Beyonder of the Spectator pathway was a very difficult task.

Xio just coldly snorted and cut down their pirate crew's captain. The gushing blood immediately silenced all the pirates, and they no longer dared to randomly sell their sob stories.

Hastar merely observed from afar, with no intention of helping them clean up. This would serve as the first lesson in Audrey's adventuring career.

...

Gambling is an extremely tempting form of entertainment, especially for pirates who constantly put their lives on the line.

Drinking, lust, and gambling were their best ways to relax every time they returned from plundering on the high seas.

Some ports, in order to earn the heavy gold pounds in the pockets of pirates returning from successful raids, specially created places that were money pits combining gambling, entertainment, and leisure.

Port Purl was just such a port, providing various high-quality services specifically for pirates. One side made money, the other enjoyed themselves—a match made in heaven.

Here, a woman could potentially be the mistress of dozens of pirates simultaneously. As long as her lovers weren't members of the same pirate crew, not many pirates would get hung up on this fact.

After all, they might have other temporary mistresses in other ports as well. At sea, not many people cared about such things.

Indeed, there were quite a few pirates who minded at first, even engaging in duels over it. But after a dozen or so rounds of dueling, those who remained stopped caring.

Of course, there were also many girls who fell for a particular pirate and ended up marrying and having children with them. They might have been deceived, or they might have simply been in love.

But one thing remained constant: the art of extracting large handfuls of shiny gold coins from a pirate's pocket.

Tenur was a pirate who liked to spend large amounts of gold coins here until they were gone.

He wasn't an ordinary pirate, but the second mate of the famous Fire Fox pirate crew. Their captain was known as Swift Fox Grannam.

Just two days ago, their captain, Swift Fox, had been nailed to the mast by a pirate hunter, his once flamboyant red hair finally fading to a dull luster.

The mere thought of that pirate hunter's fierce appearance made him tremble uncontrollably, often waking up in the middle of the night.

That was the legendary pirate hunter known as the Pirate's Bane, German Sparrow.

Not just their Fire Fox pirate crew's captain, even a Pirate Admiral could be hunted by him if they weren't careful. He was arguably the most active pirate hunter in recent times.

Fortunately, at that time, he sensed something was wrong and quickly fled on a small boat, taking some of the captain's wealth with him.

With money in hand, the only place he could think of going was here.

After all, without the protection of a pirate crew, he could easily become a tempting target for other pirates. Death might come more easily than finishing a bowl of noodles.

Rather than waiting for death, he might as well come here and enjoy himself thoroughly.

He indulged himself at the inn for three days and two nights, then found it somewhat boring and moved on to the casino.

When he emerged from the casino a few days later, the gold coins in his pocket had shrunk considerably.

But there was still enough for him to live quite a luxurious life.

Late at night, he held a bottle of rum given by the casino, drinking and dancing lightly, his heels making a clicking sound against the stone-paved road by the sea.

Just as he was pondering where to find entertainment the next day, a figure wearing tattered yellow clothes appeared before him.

With just one glance, he sobered up halfway, his eyes changing from hazy to focused.

Having walked the line between life and death before, he felt a fear rising from the depths of his heart at the appearance of this figure in tattered yellow clothes.

The figure just stood there silently, its back to him, yet it gave an exceptionally tall impression, even seeming to dim the light of the crimson moon in the sky.

Tattered yellow clothes, a mysterious presence active in the dead of night—or was someone just playing tricks?