Ch17: Fooling the pirates

At this point in the night, people at Kaeru's banquet were already pretty drunk. Only a few people appeared somewhat sober.

Hank seemed to be drinking less than others, looking instead at Mabar and Ganero, listening to them talking with Kaeru and sometimes asking things himself.

Ganero was very happy, thanks to the cheese he ate earlier. Some of it was still sitting on his plate. From time to time, he sliced a small part and tasted it together with rum or wine.

Mabar was enjoying the party, molesting the passing slaves and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. His tolerance to it seemed very high, as he still could answer questions from the rest of the bunch without mumbling or going in circles with his words.

Now, Kaeru himself looked the most unaffected with the alcohol, which is impressive, since he drank almost as much as Mabar. That's even crazier, because he is much smaller than him, not even adding the huge belly he's hiding under that oversized shirt.

Most of their coats and other garments were thrown around. While drinking, people get hot.

Women walking around tried their best to smile widely and act like nothing out of the ordinary was happening around them. Especially when some pirates groped them while they served food and more drinks.

A while earlier, one of Kaeru's men tried to openly take one of them and rape her on the table. He stood up while she was putting down bottles and took her from behind, forcing her to lay down with her face on the table.

As he was starting to take off her clothes, another guy sitting next to him with a bottle in his hand drank the last bit from it. Seeing no more alcohol, he stood up and saw what was going on next to him.

In a drunken rage, he smashed the bottle on the guy attacking her. The pirate fell down and as she was about to thank her savior, he took her by the arm and shouted at her.

"Get more alcohol you filthy bitch!" He shouted into her ear and threw her back.

She stumbled and fell down, so he kicked her and before he managed to do any more, a different slave gave him another bottle, distracting him from the kicked girl.

Seeing the full bottle, he smiled dumbly to himself and went back to sit, totally ignoring the guy who he knocked out a moment ago.

Kaeru saw all that, but just ignored it. That's not the first time something like that has happened. They are pirates after all, drinking and fighting is their bread and butter.

The time went on with them having fun and alcohol being not an infinite resource, they arrived at the last bottle. It was put on a tray and served to Kaeru by one of the women. It is a tradition in their crew to leave the last bottle to the captain, so as he was about to drink it, something they didn't expect happened.

Suddenly, the doors were opened.

Seeing this, Kaeru got mad, because he definitely instructed the guard to stop anybody who might try that.

As they fully opened, they revealed a lone young man. He seemed exhausted and drunk, which was noticed in the way he walked, swaying from side to side.

Just as Kaeru was about to shout at him, the man spoke first.

"We ale bein attacked! The shi-ps are on f-fyre!" He shouted, slurring his words.

One of the pirates sitting closer to the entrance, quickly walked up to him and took him by the collar. "What do you-u mean fyre? What attack?!" He shouted, shaking the man.

"It's-" Before he answered, he coughed. Putting a hand on his mouth, he did it again but harder, before the pirate saw blood coming from the man's mouth.

Seeing this, he dropped him on the ground. Other pirates stood up to look at the bloodied man, but Hank was first to recognize him.

"It's Mario! What happened to you?" He quickly got to him, but Mario was unresponsive. Checking for his pulse, he found it before shouting at the slaves. "Help me out there you whores, if he dies then you are next!"

Hearing that, the five women ran up to them, not daring to challenge Hank's claim and started tending to Mario, looking for wounds and moving him to the side.

"Check if what he said is true!" Shouted Hank.

The pirates looked at Kaeru, waiting for his confirmation. Other pirates outside this hall wouldn't do that, instead they would immediately do what Hank said. Those here however are the ones most loyal to Kaeru, his highest echelons. They will only listen to him.

Combine that with the newly gained reverence for Kaeru and you have a group almost fanatically following the word of their leader.

Kaeru nodded his head and pointed at two people, one of which was the one who shouted at Mario. "You both, go check if that's true. The rest of you, wake up those sleeping idiots!"

Hearing the orders, they got to work, even in their highly drunken state they managed to run without falling too many times.

On the side, one of the women saw that Mario almost chuckled after hearing Kaeru's voice. Just as she turned around and was about to announce that he woke up, Mario took her hand.

Feeling that she was grabbed by the hand, she looked at him and saw how he quietly shushed her, with a finger on his lips.

Seeing that, she was surprised, but obliged and stayed quiet. Fortunately they were on the side, with her blocking his head and torso from being seen by the others.

Content with her actions, Mario again played a sleeping person.

'Damn, that threw me off.' Thought Caden, who was currently impersonating Mario.

'His voice is hilarious, how do these pirates listen to him?'

In a few moments, they all heard a shouting from one of the pirates sent to check about the fire.

"Boss, there really is a fire! All our ships are burning and there's one going away!"

Hearing this, all the people inside ran out to see this. Leaving the hall, they also noticed the guard laying down on the side.

Hearing them running, Caden waited a bit before looking around. Seeing only the women around him, he suddenly got up.

"Aaa-Mmmpph." One of the girls started to scream but he quickly covered her mouth.

"Shush, we don't want to grab their attention." He calmly said.

The woman calmed down, so he took his hand back.

"What is going on?" Asked the girl who noticed him moving earlier.

Looking around and listening for any footsteps just in case, Caden answered her question. "A moment ago almost all the slaves managed to escape this mansion. I am one of the prisoners that were held down in the basement."

"So we were left behind?" Asked a blond younger girl, about to cry from this realization.

"Well, yes. But don't worry, we didn't know how to save you before, so I told the rest to leave me behind and notify the marines to help us." He said, trying to ease the girl's worries.

"Then we are doomed." Said one of the older ones, sitting down with a blank expression.

"What do you mean by that?"

"If all the other slaves escaped then they will push the blame on us and torture us." She said, putting her head down and letting her brown hair cover her up.

Hearing that, the others started tearing up.

"Oh no, why did you do that! Now I can't save my sister!" Desperately said the girl with light blue hair.

"Ours too" Together said two girls with dark blond hair, looking almost identical to each other.

They all started to fall into despair. Noticing this Caden had to do something.

"Girls, don't worry. I can still save you all, but it will be much more dangerous than just staying here and waiting for help." He started.

The ones who spoke of their sisters looked at him, hoping for some way to save them.

"I was supposed to help you before the pirates managed to harm you, so from the start you weren't in any danger." With his words, the others also looked back at him.

"Right now the ships in the port are burning down, so the pirate's won't be able to go after us."

"Why is that good? Do you want us to go and swim away from here? That's ridiculous!" Said the brown haired one, having some more emotion on her face than before.

"No, there is one ship they didn't set on fire. It's too small for all the pirates to board." He said, listening to the shouting of the pirates outside.

"Everyone is tied up and knocked out, Captain!"

"Then go help the others at the port you imbecile!"

They heard shouts like this every so often.

"We need to leave right now." He stood up and also helped the others.

Walking out of the hall, he was in the front. Checking every corner for pirates or other things, they slowly walked.

While stopping for a while, both the twins and the blue haired girl spoke to Caden. "We need to save our sisters."

Looking back at them, he responded. "Where are they? We checked most rooms and all the upper floors. I heard that only seven people were left out, you 5 and 2 others."

"Then those two must be our sisters."

"Ok, but where are they?"

"We will show you, come on! We won't leave without them."

Instead of going to the exit, they had to turn back. Walking for a while more, they managed to find both girls. The sister of the twins was hidden in a small room on the side. She had brown hair, different from her sisters. Apparently all three of them slept on one bed. 

The blue hair's little sister was hidden in a closet for the brooms. Her older sister made her stay inside so she wouldn't be found by the pirates tonight and raped. She also had blue hair like her sibling.

Both of the girls were fine, but surprised at seeing them all. Hearing that they will be saved, they both got very happy and excited.

Curiously, he thought that the "little sisters" of theirs will really be little, but they turned out to be teenagers. Of course, compared to them they were still little.

The other women seemed to be almost all over twenty, with the blondie being maybe a bit younger and the brunette being slightly older.

Finally going back to the exit, Caden saw that Ganero was prostrated on the ground in front of Kaeru.

'Hmm, I think I saw him earlier, but it really is Ganero. Wonder what happened here?'

Kaeru shouted at him. "Is that how you pay back for my generosity?!"

"It wasn't my d-doing, I swear!" Shouted Ganero.

Caden saw that some teeth weren't in his mouth anymore.

"It's still your fault! Your ship was the only one that left the port! Only your people could do this, all of mine were inside and they still are! They are tied up and unconscious! Somebody has to pay the price for this." Saying that, he kicked him in the face.

'Ooh, so they took his ship and escaped.' He grinned smugly. 'You get what you fucking deserve, piece of shit.'

After a moment of admiring the beaten up Ganero, Caden saw that Kaeru didn't move from his place and kept looking down at the flaming ships in the port through the only exit from his mansion.

'Shit, we won't be able to leave if he doesn't move.' Thinking about it, Caden turned around to the women standing behind him.

"Who's this?" Asked Caden, pointing subtly in the Captain's direction.

Blue hair peeked out, before quickly backing out in fright. "That's the Captain, Kaeru." She quietly said, hiding behind the wall again.

'Hmm…'

"How strong is he?"

"We never saw him fight, everybody is too afraid of him or worships him too much to attack." Answered the brown hair, again going blank.

'That's not good..' Thinking about it, Caden found only one way ahead. 'Well, I hope my acting will be good enough again.'

"Girls, you know about the backdoor in the kitchen?" He asked.

"Of course we know, but we can't escape through there, the only exit is here!" She said, pointing to where Kaeru is standing.

"I know, so here's how you will leave. Go out through the backdoor and walk along the wall. I will go and distract him however I can. At that time, you must go and leave while he isn't looking."

"No, it's too dangerous!" Protested the twins, but Caden paid them no mind.

"It's still the most feasible option."

"Then what will we do next? How are we supposed to get on the ship with all these pirates around?"

"I don't know yet, just go and hide somewhere along the road. Maybe sit in a bush or something and wait for the pirates to go back before running to the port?" Said Caden, not very optimistic.

"What about you, how will you leave?" Asked the younger sister with blue hair, holding his sleeve.

Looking at how worried she got, he patted her head and said with a caring smile. "Don't worry about it, I will find a way. For now, all of you go." The girl looked at him with a sad face, before letting his sleeve go.

They started walking away, but still looked back at him with worry in their eyes. After a moment, they left from his vision.

'Hmm, gotta prepare for another act. I hope it will work well.' He thought before realizing his choice of words. 'Damn, I just had to think like that. Stupid brain, now something definitely will go wrong!'

Having a little crisis in his head, he took a moment before going back to being calm. This needed his full focus, so he started preparing, while every so often checking if Kaeru moved.

Meanwhile, the girls were making their way to the kitchen.

"I hope he will be alright." Said the blue little sister, walking at the back together with her older sibling.

"He must be, after all we need him to succeed if we want to escape from here." Said the brown haired one.

"Yes, we must believe in him!"

"Totally sis, we must do that!" Said one twin after the other.

The rest got a little more motivated, so they started to go a little faster.

They had to hope for the best, that's the only thing they have left after all this time spent with the pirates.

~2478 words