The last remnants of sunlight gradually faded from the sea, rippling across the water's surface like a vast expanse of golden fish scales.
By the time the sun sank toward the horizon, the fighting around the harbor had already wound down.
In truth, it could hardly be called a battle at all. The cream of the entire merfolk pirate crew—all the adult fish-men capable of going to war—had already perished in the earlier sea engagement. All that remained were the old, the weak, and the women and children.
Even though Lei Lin's pirate crew was small in number, the assault had gone remarkably smoothly.
By the time the sun had fully set, he was already standing on the balcony of the former pirate captain's two-story pavilion, gazing at the scattered fires dotting the harbor below.
——Large-scale arson would destroy everything before the spoils could be fully transported, so Lei Lin had strictly forbidden it.
Just looking at their flushed faces from excitement told Lei Lin that the haul would be substantial, but hearing the details still drew a smile to his lips.
"Chief! We've hit the jackpot this time!"
Robin was looking more and more like a proper pirate these days—perhaps this was his true nature all along, merely suppressed before.
"Just from the warehouse alone, we found massive quantities of white sugar, silk, and elven ceramics and woodwork... enough to fill nearly half the cargo hold..."
"Also, inside this villa, we found this..."
Isabel added as she kicked a black chest right to Lei Lin's feet and flipped it open.
When the wooden lid, covered in archaic patterns, was pried open, a burst of golden light surged forth. A flash of greed flickered in Robin's eyes before he quickly suppressed it.
"This fellow had his treasure hidden really well—it took quite a bit of effort to track down..."
Little stars had begun to twinkle in Isabel's eyes as well. It seemed she had taken a genuine liking to the pirate profession.
Just as Lei Lin had read in an ancient text about the world of the gods: "Gold! What a beautiful and lovely thing it is! It can turn a coward into a hero in an instant! Transform the wicked into the good! Make rivers flow backward—with just a tiny fraction of its weight, it can send a soul soaring straight from hell to heaven!"
Even the churches of the gods needed wealth—vast amounts of it—to influence their faithful and expand the reach of their power.
The Church of Lady Waukeen in particular—their greed surpassed even that of dragons. Every avenue for generating wealth bore the unmistakable traces of their involvement.
Inside the wooden chest lay rows of ancient gold coins along with a scattering of gems, enough to dazzle Robin Hood's eyes.
Still, Isabel proved the stronger one. Having once been of noble birth, she retained a certain rationality in the face of such wealth.
"I've counted them. There are seventy-eight Corona gold coins in here, each weighing eighteen grams. Converted to our Danbres gold coins, they'd be worth at least fifteen hundred! And with these gems added in, this single chest alone has yielded us over two thousand gold coins…"
"Mm, there's no need to exchange these gold Coronas. They're still usable on the continent…"
Lin picked up one of the gold Coronas. Compared to the gold coins he had used before, this one was noticeably heavier in his hand. The patterns and portraits on its surface were also completely different from those on the coins of the Danbres Kingdom.
In the world of the gods, any entity of duchy rank or above held the right to mint its own currency. This had given rise to a bewildering array of metallic coins in every shape and size.
Although the Church of the Goddess of Wealth had always sought to replace all other coinage with its own gold Coronas—establishing them as a unified standard—the secret opposition of numerous deities meant that, to this day, they had not succeeded. Everyone could imagine how much faith such an achievement would grant Waukeen, so naturally, no one was willing to support it.
But even so, the gold Coronas, issued by the Goddess of Wealth and backed by her entire Church, enjoyed the strongest circulation of any currency across the whole world of the gods. They remained one of the most widely accepted and popular gold coins.
"It seems most of these pirates' wealth is stored in their stronghold…"
Lin recalled his prisoner from last time—Steve. If he had charged straight into their base back then and dug out every treasure cache Steve had confessed to, the haul would have been no less impressive than this one. A pity he hadn't had the time.
"Forget about the treasure for now. What about the rest—the people and the slaves?"
With this capital in hand, Lin now had confidence in establishing the enterprises on Faolan Island and even turning a profit.
What he valued most at this point, therefore, had become the human resources he could acquire.
"Since we had very few hands and couldn't seal off the port in time, quite a few of the residents managed to escape…"
At this, Robin Hood's expression turned somewhat grim.
"So far, we've captured a total of eighty-nine prisoners—mostly the elderly, women, and children, along with a handful of washed-up pirate scum…"
Robin Hood spat, having clearly suffered no small amount of trouble dealing with those fierce old pirates.
Even if their bodies bore disabilities or the ravages of age that had forced them into retirement, their viciousness and bloodthirstiness had not diminished in the slightest.
"But I hanged those few pieces of trash alive…"
In front of Lin, Robin Hood dared not hold anything back.
"Right! Even among the prisoners, there are significant differences. How many of them are merfolk? How many are human? And how many are indigenous slaves?"
Lin clearly had no intention of pressing on about the previous questions, and went straight to what concerned him most.
"Those half-merfolk resisted the most fiercely, and many fled. So far we've only managed to capture a dozen or so. The remaining humans and indigenous people are almost all slaves — roughly seventy in number..."
Although Robin Hood didn't have exact figures, the fact that he could relay this much was enough to satisfy Lin.
"Good! Even among prisoners, there are different tiers and classes. Those merfolk were the ruling class here. Now that we've killed their families and seized their wealth, it's only natural they'd hold a grudge against us. There's virtually no chance they'd ever genuinely side with us — kill them all!"
"As for the other human and indigenous slaves, take them all away first. We can sort through them slowly..."
As a human himself, Lin had a deep understanding of the saying that those outside one's own kind will always harbor different hearts.
Robin Hood clearly didn't regard those merfolk pirates as people either. He gave a brief acknowledgment and turned to leave.
"Wait — hand all the merfolk prisoners over to me instead."
Isabel stepped forward at that moment, a faint crimson gleam flickering in her eyes.
"Sure!" Lin nodded without hesitation.
Demons thrived on chaos and slaughter. This pirate raid had no doubt netted Isabel quite a few benefits of her own.
Night fell in full, and the entire port wept under the ravages of the invaders.
By the next morning, thin wisps of smoke still rose from various parts of the harbor.
"Chief! All the cargo has been transferred to the Crimson Tiger!" Robin Hood reported respectfully from the side.
"Good! Sound the horn!"
Lin stood on the deck of the newly christened Crimson Tiger, his expression calm as he issued the command.
In truth, the Crimson Tiger was the former Black Tiger. Lin had simply decided to carry out a major refit on the vessel and change its name entirely.
It was easy to imagine that in the future, the name of the Crimson Tiger pirate ship — along with that of his cousin Isabel aboard it — would resound throughout the entire Danbres Sea!
A deep, resonant blast of the horn sounded. The pirates, who had spent the entire night reveling and now sported heavy dark circles under their eyes along with all manner of trinkets and spoils, drifted out in small groups from the homes of the former residents and gathered on the deck.
"All of you, listen up!"
Lin opened the chest packed with gold crowns right in front of the assembled pirates, and the shimmering golden glow instantly ignited a greedy light in every pair of eyes.
But the moment those gazes fell on the owner of the boot planted firmly atop the coins, they were hastily withdrawn. Over the course of these voyages and naval battles, Lin had proven with countless lives that he was more ruthless than any pirate aboard.
"Everyone standing here today gets three gold crowns. Kill an enemy, and you get one more. Awakeners are calculated separately!"
Lin swept his gaze across the crowd. Only after seeing the pirates bow their heads respectfully, none daring to meet his eyes, did he speak with satisfaction.
The pirates erupted in cheers.
Lin was quite pleased with this atmosphere. Sheer force alone was not enough to keep pirates in line — you had to prove that following you meant greater plunder and greater wealth, only then would they be truly loyal.
After this, he figured that come the next battle, these pirates would show at least a sliver of initiative.
"Set fire to it all! Burn this place to the ground! Then we set sail!"
Once the distribution was complete, Lin issued his new order without delay.
Soon, thick columns of black smoke billowed from every corner of the port. Scorching tongues of flame gradually devoured the entire harbor, the blaze spreading ever wider.
Two pirate warships, laden with treasure and slaves, slowly pulled away from the port. On some of the pirates' faces, there lingered looks of regret.
"The geography here is excellent, and there was already an established foundation — a perfectly good base. What a waste…"
Lin gazed at the pier engulfed in a sky full of fire, his expression unchanged.
Burning Merfolk Isle had been part of his plan all along.
It was not only the isle — the Black Tiger pirate crew's former stronghold could not be kept, either.
Both pirate crews ultimately served under Marquis Lewis. If he were to seize this place, it would not be long before Lin found himself facing attacks from both the Black Skull and the Tiger Shark.