Chapter 18 "The Legacy of the Black Stone"

My dears, you've returned, I see. Come, have a seat. It's time I continue telling you the story of the Black Stone. Ahem.

After our victory at the Yenchei Lumber Mill, we returned to our base in the south and celebrated. Our celebrations were interrupted by a group of Takahashi samurai who seemed to share the same resolve as Haruki, disliking the treatment Lord Daisuke gave to anything that could breathe. The man who led the group put his two swords, bow, and arrows down, ordering his men to do the same. He approached me, asking if I was the captain of this large group of rebels, as he called us. I smiled but remained wary, giving him an affirmative nod before speaking: "Yes, I am the captain of this resistance. We aren't necessarily rebels, though; we're a group of pirates sent from the mainland—an unlikely bunch, aren't we? The two lords of Clan Ishikawa and a group of people with similar backstories. Now, if you'd introduce yourself and state your business, are you messengers for Lord Daisuke? Because if that's what you are, tell him we are not interested in surrendering."

He smiled, taking a glance at my macarons. If you think I gave him one, you'd be mistaken. I only give macarons to a handful of people I trust; it's considered an honor to receive a macaron from me. Anyway, he did as I had ordered. "I am General Imuge, once a loyal servant to Lord Daisuke Ishikawa, now commander of this group of deserters who share the same resolve as I do. We have all seen the way Lord Daisuke treats living beings, and we've grown sick of it. So here we are, asking you to let us join your humble force of men and women. I see you've even recruited the lord's son, the heir to Clan Takahashi, Lord Haruki. It is a pleasure to see you once more, ahem, Captain Ishikawa. In the event that you accept our offer to join your forces, I would be willing to pass the command of my men to Lord Haruki. I shall give you a moment to think, Captain." He bowed to pay his respects to the three lords in front of him.

Initially, it was only Jiro, your auntie Zeth, and myself, of course, that talked about it, but we left it to a vote, asking our crew to raise their glasses if they were in favor of letting the group of roughly a hundred Takahashi samurai join our forces, to which they did. And so, we welcomed our new allies to the group and let them celebrate with us. Just so you know, I still didn't give Imuge any macarons. I did give your auntie one; she deserved it. Oh, and I gave one to Jiro; he deserved it as well.

Anyway, as the celebration came to a close, I had a talk with Jiro and Zeth. Of course, your uncle Austria was there too, with a totally wasted Max. We talked about the legacy of the Black Stone. It seems the more good we do, the more people are willing to join our cause. Your uncle spoke up; naturally, he's the genius of the crew. He said, "You know we can't take all these people with us, right? We can take maybe one from each clan we encounter, plus the two monks; they'd be a great asset to the crew after all. But right now, there are 600 samurai out there, Rei, plus you have another thousand at your estate. What do you suggest we do? We can't outright reject them; they've put their fate in us."

I gave what he said a thought, but before I could even collect my thoughts, Max spoke up, still half drunk, "Y-Ya know you and that emperor cutie seem close!! What if you could pull some strings and gain control over Yenchei after we liberate it! It would still be part of the 4 winds, but you'd be the one governing it, hic! Y-You get it, don't you pookie bear~?" Your uncle just knocks her out with a gentle strike to the head.

I gave what Max said a hard thought on that note, and yes, it did make sense, so I spoke up, "I could be the governor of Yenchei, not to mention Taka would need one anyway. Plus, I could use the pre-existing army I have here to tell him I could control things if I need to. I'd have someone I trust take my place when I'm at sea and make them act as a puppet governor for me while I'm out. That fighter who's currently drunk off her rocks actually made quite the genius suggestion."

I look around the table and ask for any suggestions. All three people that weren't me and still awake agreed, and so I ran to my room that Jey made using her earth magic and began writing.

"To my Player One, I hope you're doing well in your fancy palace, eating all the sweets you could possibly want in a lifetime. I wanted to report another successfully liberated outpost. This time, it's the western one. Turns out it was a lumber mill that the pirates had occupied. But, get this, along with the pirates, there were samurai from Clan Takahashi, led by Lord Daisuke Takahashi, which shocked me. However, since I'm writing you this letter right now, it means we successfully took it over. The bastard lord escaped though, honestly, what a pain. However, like the moon, all stories have a light face and a dark one, meaning some good news came out of that failure to capture the bastard of a lord. That good news being roughly 100 samurai from his clan decided to join us due to their previous lord's barbaric ways. I don't only have 100 samurai, I have 600; the other 500 come from the clan I came from, Clan Ishikawa. Our estate was nearby, so we headed east, me and Zeth, remember her? My rough and tough sister that you were scared of? Yeah, we went to the estate alone and successfully led our men to victory. Other than the initial 600, I have guards at both the southern and western outposts, and if you read this far, I assume you know I want something, and you'd be right, I do. I want to be the governor of Yenchei once we liberate it. You see, our legend keeps growing, and every time we do something great, like say liberate an outpost, big or small, a group of people will always turn up, and we can't take everyone with us on our ship. I want to be the governor of Yenchei once we liberate it fully. Hope you understand, Taka. I'm sorry if the letter sounds a little off today; I'm just in major pain. Some archer from Clan Takahashi got me on my arm, and it hurts like hell. If you're going to send a reply, send me more macarons, please ❤️."

After I had the letter sent back to the mainland using a messenger pigeon, I heard General Imuge shout, "Captain Ishikawa! Lord Haruki!" This immediately got my attention, worried that we were being betrayed. Luckily, that wasn't the case. I met with Haruki by the ship where he was talking to Imuge and Sean. I approached the three and asked what seemed to be the problem. General Imuge and Sean lowered their heads to show their respects, and I did the same to return the respect.

After exchanging respects, Sean spoke, "So I saw a light coming from the west, so I alerted Imuge, and he responded immediately by running into some tall grass and having his men take the enemy by surprise." The general spoke after him, "A group of 10 samurai from a clan I can't seem to distinguish, my lords." I approached the man who looked like the leader of the small group of warriors and looked at the insignia on the banner he had on his back. I called over Zeth to identify which clan they came from, as she's the genius when it comes to samurai families.

Zeth came to us and smiled, "I see you have samurai from Clan Ishioka. Looks like the son of Lord Ishioka. Now I wonder what brings this pretty little prick to our doorstep~" I asked my sister to calm herself, of course, and I questioned the young samurai, "Why are you here, Ishioka? State your business. We just finished dealing with the Takahashi, and we don't want any trouble just yet." To which he replied, "How rude! Do you not know what you're doing!" At this point, Imuge covered the boy's mouth, silencing him. My sister and I gave him the most intimidating look we could with our light blue eyes, which would glow blue if we wished for it. The young samurai froze and calmed down.

I spoke up, "I am Lord Rei Ishikawa, captain of the St. Michael. Now, unless you wish to join the prisoners in the brig tonight, I suggest you speak with great caution, or I'll have Lady Zeth Ishikawa over here to deal with you. Or would you rather Lord Haruki do it for you?" Imuge let his hand come off the obviously scared boy. He spoke gentler now, obviously frightened after hearing that three enemy lords reside in the base he was just taken to, "I-I am Lord Omura Ishioka's son, Rukio Ishioka. I've come in search of the Black Stone Pirates. I heard that they were really giving the invaders and the traitors a run for their money. Knowing that my dad is a traitor, even though he's a lord, makes me want to move to the right side of history. I don't want to be remembered as Rukio Ishioka, the son of the traitor Lord Omura Ishioka. I'm sorry for trespassing on your territory."

I smiled before speaking up once more, "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it, Lord Rukio? And it seems the heavens fancy you since you got captured by the Black Stone Pirates themselves. I am Captain Rei Ishikawa. I hope you understand that we are only being cautious, after all, we had to fight samurai during our last battle. We never know if a samurai passing by is friend or foe." I released the poor deserter and his guards from their restraints and took them to the mess hall to have a meal.

And it looks like we don't have enough time to talk about what meal Lord Rukio had, since it's already 12 am. You kids were supposed to scurry off to bed two hours ago. Go to bed now, my dears.