As the Hope drew closer, the ships under Vice Admiral Ailment's pirate fleet began firing warning shots. Cannonballs exploded in the nearby waters, throwing up sprays of seawater, while several small boats were dispatched toward them.
As before, Hastur left Audrey and the others to deal with the matter themselves. It was a form of training for them.
Audrey and the others continued using their previous strategy: Xio would confront the enemy head-on, Audrey would provide support, Fors would handle rescue, and Susie would bring up the rear.
When the pirates aboard the small boats scrambled onto the deck, they saw Xio standing alone in their way. Although she was rather short, her valiant and heroic bearing caused quite a few pirates who had gone a long time without action to harbor lecherous thoughts.
They demanded to search the entire ship, their words filled with teasing and harassment toward Xio.
Xio merely stared coldly at them, her gaze sweeping across their faces one by one as she searched for any that matched the faces on wanted posters.
Unfortunately, she only found one minor leader worth 800 gold pounds.
Seeing that they had already split into several groups and were about to search the Hope, Xio let out a cold shout that briefly intimidated them. Then she drew the long whip at her waist. Like a spirit snake probing the way ahead, it specifically lashed at their disgusting faces.
Audrey and Fors didn't even need to help. Xio alone dealt with this small group of pirates. She pulled over the rope that had been prepared in advance and tied up the minor leader worth 800 gold pounds, then whipped him several more times. His gaze had been the most obscene just now!
Perhaps sensing that something had gone wrong, the pirate ships belonging to Vice Admiral Ailment ahead began concentrating their fire on the Hope.
At this moment, the Hope's helmsman had been replaced by Butcher. He placed his oversized butcher knife beside him, revealing two sturdy, powerful arms as he steered the Hope left and right. Not a single cannonball managed to strike the Hope.
This inexplicable phenomenon left the pirates aboard the pirate ships dumbfounded.
His steering skills were only average, but his luck was simply too good. The ship always managed to brush past the cannonballs at the crucial moment.
Before long, the Hope broke through the encirclement, with three pirate ships following closely behind.
"Fors, it's up to you!" Xio shouted.
"I haven't learned how to create precise teleportation doors yet."
"...All right."
Xio, who had been excited just moments ago, immediately deflated. But she quickly perked up again. She had just captured a pirate worth 800 gold pounds all by herself. Even after splitting the bounty, she could still earn around 500 gold pounds!
As for the three pirate ships chasing them from behind, they could deal with them when another opportunity arose. They could also ask Mr. Hastur for help.
However, Hastur rejected that request. Not every adventure would have him there as a safety net. Knowing when to retreat in time was also a form of wisdom.
Besides, Xio's behavior couldn't be indulged. Otherwise, tomorrow she might ask him to help capture those Pirate Kings.
Audrey was quite calm about it. She had already lost interest in hunting pirates. Going out with Mr. Hastur at night was much more interesting.
Over the following nights, Audrey repeatedly followed Hastur to nearby ports and seaside cities to have fun.
She finally saw for herself what adventures on the sea were truly like. There were pirates killing one another over a little money, with betrayal and bloodshed everywhere.
There were also pirates who had grown tired of killing and plundering, married the girls they loved, returned to the ports to live peacefully, and eventually settled into peaceful lives.
There were also adventurers and pirates engaged in schemes and mutual hunts against one another.
What Audrey found most interesting were the bars at the ports. There, she could meet all kinds of people and hear all sorts of mysterious and bizarre stories.
When she heard others recount the story of how a group consisting of three people and a dog had broken through Vice Admiral Ailment's pirate fleet blockade, Audrey felt a little proud inside.
The only slight regret was that she had never met Vice Admiral Ailment herself. She had heard that the pirate captain was exceptionally beautiful, appearing weak and delicate on the outside while possessing a reputation akin to a mobile natural disaster, a person in whom beauty and cruelty coexisted.
When she asked Mr. Hastur about her, Hastur looked Audrey up and down before saying with some emotion, "If it were Miss Audrey, Vice Admiral Ailment would definitely entertain you with all her might and joyfully throw herself into your arms."
At first, Audrey didn't quite understand what he meant. But after hearing people discuss it for long enough, she eventually understood the implication and glared at Hastur in embarrassed annoyance.
He clearly knew that Vice Admiral Ailment liked girls, yet he had deliberately teased her like this.
She had heard that the purpose of Vice Admiral Ailment's pirate fleet's current operation was to find a girl who had escaped from the Black Death.
A young woman named Helene.
...
In Bayam, the City of Generosity, inside the Intis Consulate, Helene sat before a dressing table, staring at her beautiful yet haggard reflection in the mirror, her eyes filled with worry.
Ever since leaving the Black Death, she had been fleeing from place to place. Only after escaping here had she finally found a temporary place of respite.
Although she was inside the Intis Consulate, it wasn't enough to make her feel secure. Only after returning to her homeland, Trier on the Northern Continent, would she truly be able to relax.
She still had another option: cooperate with the Loen military and the Church of Storms, using herself as bait to capture Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy.
As long as they captured this pirate admiral, the merit she earned would be enough to ensure her safe return to Trier.
But she had still refused. Although her nights aboard the Black Death had been very eventful, she ultimately couldn't bring herself to hate the seemingly forceful young woman who had brought her overwhelming pleasure.
Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy? In truth, she was nothing more than someone who lusted after other people's bodies...
Helene didn't allow herself to think any further. Rings of blush had already spread across her cheeks.
After a long while, she regained her composure and began dressing and disguising herself to prevent Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy's subordinates from finding her and capturing her back onto the Black Death.
She removed her clothes and wrapped strips of cloth around her chest to flatten it. Then she put on a white shirt, black vest, men's trousers, and a long double-breasted formal coat.
Finally, she took down a silk top hat and placed it on her head, completely concealing her pinned-up long red hair.
The person reflected in the mirror now looked like a handsome young man. In particular, those emerald-green, jewel-like eyes possessed a uniquely captivating depth.
Once her disguise was complete, she got up and left the room. Following a friend of her family's elders, she made her way to a side entrance of the consulate garden.
A carriage had already been waiting there. It could take her to the harbor, where she could purchase a ticket and leave this place to return to the Intis Republic.
However, after boarding the carriage and traveling for a while, she realized that she had been kidnapped, because this wasn't the road to the harbor at all.
She wanted to escape, but an indescribable fear welled up from deep within her, as though some terrifying monster had fixed its gaze on her and was ready to swallow her whole at any moment.
"I don't intend to hurt you. I only want to ask you some questions."
Helene's expression struggled for a moment before she finally stopped resisting and asked what the other party's true purpose in kidnapping her was.
After hearing her agree, the carriage door opened, and a lean, wiry coachman stepped inside before naturally sitting opposite her.
Helene bent slightly forward in vigilance, ready to spring out like a cheetah at any moment. She tried to speak calmly.
"Who are you? Why did you capture me?"
The only thing she could be certain of was that this person definitely wasn't one of Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy's people.
The coachman sitting opposite Elaine didn't immediately answer. His gaze slowly swept across Elaine's forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, chest... and even between her legs.
Such an unrestrained examination made Elaine extremely uncomfortable. Several times, she wanted to resist and escape, but in the end, she remained awkwardly seated in her original position, merely pulling her clothes tighter and pressing her legs firmly together.
"What exactly do you want!"
This time, there was a trace of anger in Elaine's voice as she tried to make the other party understand that she wasn't some toy he could manipulate however he pleased!
"I want to ask you everything about yourself, including all your physical measurements."
"..." Helene opened her mouth, momentarily speechless. After a while, she finally began cooperating with his questions.
Then the other party began asking for all sorts of information concerning Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, including how Helene and Tracy had interacted, down to the details of every night and how Elaine had gone from resisting to silently enduring.
Afterward, the other party asked her to remove her makeup and reveal her true appearance.
Although Elaine found his requests strange, she still tried her best to cooperate. She removed her makeup, took off her hat, and let her fiery-red hair fall loose, revealing her shy yet resistant expression.
Finally, the other party directly asked about the size of her breasts. Elaine's face flushed bright red as she fiercely glared at the expressionless person sitting opposite her.
Could someone really ask such an embarrassing question with such a completely expressionless face?
She badly wanted to punch him, but faced with her embarrassed fury, the other party merely said calmly, "This is an academic question."
In the end, she gritted her teeth and told him the answer. Only after silently cursing him as a pervert several times did she feel slightly better.
The only thing that made her happy was that he really was going to let her go. He merely required her to remain indoors for the time being and undergo a brief period of confinement.
By now, Helene understood. The other party wanted to learn all kinds of information about Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy through her and then launch a hunt.
Although Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy had once imprisoned her aboard the Black Death and bullied her however she pleased, when Helene saw that someone intended to hunt Tracy, her first reaction was unexpectedly one of heartache and guilt.
But Helene quickly shook off those inexplicable emotions. As a pirate admiral guilty of countless crimes, being hunted by adventurers was perfectly normal.
Even if this hunt failed, there would still be adventurers who would launch another hunt for the enormous bounty and fame.
After making arrangements for Helene, Klein rubbed his slightly sore and stiff face.
Those embarrassing questions hadn't been easy for him to ask either.
But when acting as a Faceless, this was also a very important part of the process.
Still, pretending to be a girl was much easier to accept than directly changing from a man into a woman through the Demoness pathway.
Sigh. If the number of adventurers hunting pirates hadn't increased recently, he wouldn't have made his move against Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy ahead of schedule.
"As long as no one I know sees me."
That was the only way Klein could comfort himself.