0048 Barbarians

 At nightfall, the carriage pulled up slowly at Sir Cord's Cliff Castle.

 This castle is very small, a total of just more than ten meters high, four or five hundred square feet, square, four-cornered towers.

 It resides on a straight section of steep cliffs sticking out of the island, bordered on three sides by the sea and on only one side, less than thirty meters wide.

 Being on the cliff, the moon seemed extraordinarily large, the castle seemed extraordinarily high, the waves were lapping at his feet, and the boulders were pressing down in front of him, giving him a great sense of intimidation.

 Lorraine met the long-awaited Carmen outside the castle's drawbridge, in a dark purple lace gown embellished with gold trim and white veils, customized at first glance in the style of the Pansy Merchant Banner.

 Lorraine nodded her hand slightly, flexing her elbow in invitation to her.

 She lifted her skirts and curtsied, pulling up and coming up to Lorraine's ear as if in intimacy.

 "President, the Desai Chamber of Commerce has temporarily changed negotiators, Vice President Illesby is not coming and has been replaced by First Fleet Governor Velen, both of whom have the last name Desai."

 "Temporary?" Lorraine was slightly㤞 different.

 "Yes, temporarily, without informing us in any way, and according to etiquette, you can refuse the meeting."

 "Why refuse?"

 Carmen bit her lip and stood on her tiptoes, almost pressed against Lorraine's ear, "I've heard ... that Velen is arrogant, very arrogant."

 "Let an arrogant man come to negotiate ..." Lorraine's mouth hooked up a smile, "Isn't that just right, we are not very short of the two thousand pounds of ransom. Compared to capturing a nobleman, I prefer to stand on the side of justice ... to judge a pirate."

 Accompanied by Carmen, Lorraine stepped up the cold, wet, revolving stone stairs to the large terrace on the second floor of the castle.

 This was the meeting place for the negotiations, to the west, facing the sea, with sheer cliffs to the front and back, and the endless Dover Strait beyond.

 In the center of the terrace was a long table, covered with a facecloth dark blue tablecloth, which was empty, except for a cool young man in a tuxedo seated on the south side, and two big, burly men standing with long swords at their waists and their backs to their chests.

 The smile on Lorraine's face widened as she pulled out a chair for Carmen on the north side of the table and sat herself opposite the youth, the long umbrella she carried leaning against her hand.

 He crossed his legs comfortably, "Verlaine. Governor Desai, sitting in the direction of France, but not wearing bird feathers on his gown."

 Velen lowered his eyelids, "Full regalia is a sign of respect for the honorable bloodline, and a gown would suffice in the face of an English pirate who makes his living by pillaging."

 "That can be a bit unreasonable. It was your Chamber of Commerce that flew the pirate flag and hijacked England's merchant ships on the public routes, and now they falsely call me a pirate ... Is this the cultivation of a French gentleman?"

 Velen raised his head slightly, his light blue eyes not hiding his disdain.

 "I looked into you, Lorraine. Arnason. Drake, descendant of the pirate Drake, half-breed, bastard. Six months ago a black merchant in Elgin, six months after you finally scraped together a thousand pounds to register with the Chamber of Commerce, a mere trifle."

 "Ms. Carmen described you as arrogant." Lorraine leaned back in her chair and licked her lips, "I think she's wrong, you're not arrogant, just stupid."

 "Oh?"

 "A little man defeated your Third Fleet and captured your cousin? A cousin? Or a blood brother? You pleaded with me not to try him for piracy, and I accepted, which brings me here. And you don't seem to know why you're here."

 "I always know what I'm going to do, savage."

 Velen stood up and with a clink popped a gold louie that landed right in front of Lorraine.

 "There are no fools like Yacharin in the blood of the Desai, and the honor of the Desai is not to be tarnished. This, your traveling expenses from afar ..."

 "If you manage to get out alive tonight, you can hang Yacharin. The next time we meet in Cantabrian, I'll settle a hundred pounds for you privately as a reward."

 He gave Lorraine a gentleman's salute and walked into the deep castle with a long laugh.

 Carmen watched dumbfounded as Velen left, dumbfounded as the two burly men who stayed behind grinned and drew their swords, and dumbfounded as Lorraine stood up and lifted the long-handled umbrella leaning to one side with no expression.

 "The last time I fought in a dress was in Bellemeo, fortunately, and I remembered to order my umbrella sword from Mr. Martini."

 Medaka!

 Umbrella Sword Unsheathed ...

 A few moments later, Lorraine walked out of the castle with blood on her face, holding the stunned Carmen with a smile on her face.

 To his surprise, Velen, a barbarian in savage skin, had remembered to drive off his hired wagon and replace it with a dozen dirty guides dressed as sailors.

 Lorraine could do nothing about it and sighed as she unhooked her own tuxedo and solemnly handed it over to Carmen.

 "Carmen, stand a little further away, I don't really like my clothes splattered with dirty blood ..."

 The sailors cried out and pounced.

 ...

 Setting up, plotting an assassination, blocking a kill ...

 Cliff Castle was separated from the West Coast docks by more than ten kilometers, and all along the way there were dense forests and cliffs that were off the beaten path, and from time to time, killers would come out of the shadows and launch themselves at Lorraine.

 These sailors, who were only strong enough to hold their own, didn't count as a qualified threat in Lorraine's eyes, but his heart was racing, and with his umbrella sword in hand, he couldn't help but lead Carmen faster and faster.

 Carmen can barely keep up ...

 "President, wait ... ah!"

 With a gasp, Lorraine actually picked her up and started running.

 Holding her with only his left arm and carrying his sword in his right, he used the height difference and his strong, powerful arms to keep her half-sitting, half-leaning on him, and sent his feet into a frenzy.

 Carmen felt as if she had been kidnapped by a stallion, the shadows of the trees on either side of her were flying backward, and her body couldn't help rising and falling with Lorraine's strides

 In order not to fall, she could only wrap her arms around Lorraine's neck with all her might, her entire body almost falling softly onto Lorraine.

 Her pretty face was red and her voice was like a mosquito, "Chairman, I can do it myself ..."

 "You're too slow." Lorraine wasn't polite at all, stretching her arms and wrapping them around Carmen a little tighter, "Velen is a madman and I'm worried about the Buttercup ..."

 "He dared to attack England's merchant ships in a harbor sheltered by the Royal British Navy?"

 "Fear not 10,000, fear only ..."

 As he was talking, a sailor jumped violently down from the fork of a tree at the side, slashing straight at Carmen in Lorraine's arms with his sword held high.

 Lorraine couldn't dodge in time, and strongly sidestepped, taking the slash hard with his back!

 Pfft! The sharp blade ripped through his vest and tore through his shirt, leaving a long gash on his back, bright red blood instantly dyed out, and in the time it took to breathe it had dyed through half of his clothes.

 Lorraine frowned, took a half step forward, and returned to stabbing at speed.

 The slender umbrella sword pierced through the sailor's throat, cutting off almost the entire head with a horizontal swing.

 Carmen was terrified, "President, your injury ..."

 "Yelling won't help stop the bleeding and pain!" Lorraine gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep going, "If you're afraid, close your eyes."

 One way to go, one way to kill.

 A short ten kilometers of road, Lorraine held Carmen killed more than twenty people, back also accidentally took a knife, rushed for more than two whole hours, finally outside the harbor, saw the first fleet quietly moored on the pier.

 The guys ... are safe and sound.

 Lorraine let out a long breath, the exhaustion of a night of killing and the pain in his back coming together to make him almost fall to the ground.

 The hold on Carmen loosened.

 Carmen landed and scrambled to hold him up, and it took a lot of effort to carry the bloodied Lorraine back to the Buttercup against the stunned gazes of the entire ship.

 The deck became chaotic.

 Hina flew to catch Lorraine, her emerald-like eyes overflowing with murderous intent.

 She stared at Carmen, "What's going on?"

 "Velen ... Velen . Desai is a madman. He arranged for many people to hijack us on the road ... President in order to protect me ..."

 "Hina ..." Lorraine snapped out, "issue an order for Ramos to take command immediately ..."

 He leaned helplessly against Hina, shaking his head weakly to clear it.

 "Tell Ramos that the fleet is offshore and not out of harbor, and that the observation deck is to be manned all night ... Be careful of the Velen's Reindeer ... Survive this night and wait for morning... ..."

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