Inside the captain's quarters of the Crimson Tiger, a tense war council was underway.
Few attended.
On Isabelle's side, besides herself, were the pirate leaders
Beside Tiffany were the forces Leylin had cultivated in the North. Among them were even devil worshippers and actual devils—though they had done their best to suppress it, the aura they gave off still made the other pirates rather uncomfortable and wary of danger.
Yet right next to these devil worshippers sat several composed, senior members of the priest corps. These priests were seeds Leylin had nurtured himself. Though they were still young, a quality of compassion and gentleness already radiated from them. They were utterly at odds with the devils, yet had been brought together anyway, producing an oddly surreal atmosphere.
This was the first time the two groups had met, and they eyed each other with undisguised curiosity.
These were all elite forces under Leylin's command—the embryonic form of the Church and legion he would build in the future, and the capital with which he would launch this expedition against the native empire. Naturally, he needed to integrate them properly.
After the lengthy round of self-introductions finally concluded, Leylin gave a slight cough, and the meeting hall instantly fell silent.
"Isabelle, give us an overview of the situation over there!"
In formal settings, Leylin always addressed Isabelle by her name directly, and this had become even more the case after his ascension to divinity.
For an eternal god, mortal bloodlines and all other such trivialities were nothing but illusions—only interests were everlasting!
"This native empire was discovered by one of my pirate crews. They are gathered on a massive island, roughly two or three times the size of the Kingdom of Dambres… and the island is perpetually surrounded by dangerous hurricanes and ocean currents. Only during a brief window each year can ships pass through safely, which is why they've had very little contact with the outside world. My people have already mapped the ocean current patterns there and charted accurate sailing routes…"
For the pirates under Isabelle's command, reading ocean currents and plotting courses was basic bread-and-butter.
As seafarers who made their living by the grace of the weather, their maritime skills and ability to navigate by the stars far surpassed those of ordinary merchant ship pilots and helmsmen. As the greatest pirate queen of the open seas, Isabelle naturally had no shortage of such talent under her command.
Once the target's precise location was identified, it merely took a bit of time and repeated trial runs with lives spent freely to plot a reliable course—it was simple work.
"Hiss…"
Isabelle's report immediately drew a wave of sharp intakes of breath from Tiffany's side.
"Two or three times the size of the Kingdom of Dambres? That kind of area? That's practically a small continent, isn't it?"
"The Kingdom of Dambres has around a million inhabitants. Even discounting for the natives' level of civilization, that's still staggering—which would mean we're facing over two million natives?"
This simple comparison alone was enough to put a look of unease on some of the pirates' faces.
After all, their total numbers didn't even reach ten thousand, yet they were facing an enemy more than a hundred times their size! If not for their advantage in ships and sea routes, they would probably already be figuring out how to flee.
"Silence!" Tiffany called out in a stern voice. "Do you intend to disgrace yourselves in front of the Master? Or are you simply cowardly?"
This sharp reprimand, paired with the other party's legendary status, immediately brought the room to silence.
"The natives are numerous, but they truly amount to nothing. You'll understand the specifics once you set foot ashore…"
Lei Lin waved his hand dismissively.
Indeed, even in Lei Lin's previous life, during the Age of Exploration in the West, when colonizers conquered North and South America, they rarely relied on several hundred—or even several dozen—men to directly crush great tribes and native kingdoms. There were even those who conquered an entire continent with a few thousand scoundrels and criminal pirates, only to become national heroes in the end (such as Cortés, who conquered the Aztec Empire—a realm of fifteen million people—with just a thousand men in five years).
For Lei Lin, that native empire was no different from the Aztec Empire of his original world—both steeped in barbarism and ignorance, hopelessly lagging behind the times.
With the superiority of their technology and civilization, conquering a civilization that looked imposing on the surface but was in reality bloated and backward was, in essence, no different from slaughtering a fattened pig.
No matter how dark the nations of the continent might be at present, they were still far more advanced than natives who didn't even have clothes to wear and could only wield wooden spears.
And most importantly, they had Lei Lin—their "deity"—cheerfully stacking every advantage behind the scenes. Did they really think they could lose?
As a being of divinity, Lei Lin radiated an invisible but powerful aura of confidence. After seeing his self-assured demeanor, the unease of the others was gradually soothed.
Seeing that things had settled down, Lei Lin nodded and had Isabelle continue her report on the native empire.
"Following our convention, I've named this newly discovered large island 'Banks Island.' As far as we know, at the center of this great island lies a native empire called 'Zacatecaz' by its own people—meaning 'the Eternal Sun.' It controls most of the island's plains, and its population is roughly one and a half million. Surrounding the Zacatecaz Empire are numerous other tribes, most of which pay tribute and submit to Zacatecaz, though wars exist among them as well. Together, they add up to perhaps another five to six hundred thousand people…"
It was clear that Isabelle had taken this intelligence effort very seriously. To have obtained detailed information about the Zacatecaz Empire was an impressive feat.
Though the others had steeled themselves mentally, hearing that they would be going to war against more than two million natives still made them gasp.
"Heh… What's so intimidating about that? You blind fools! Those aren't over two million enemies—in my eyes, they're over two million strong, healthy slaves! And beyond that, endless gold and silver, even fertile land!"
Isabelle looked at her subordinates' reactions and let out a cold laugh, her tone dripping with contempt.
The other pirates recalled how meek the natives were and quickly came around.
They had always made their living by raiding natives for slaves, so of course they knew that once you frightened those natives with a blade, they became utterly docile—no matter how you whipped them, they would never resist. Sometimes a single overseer could manage hundreds of native slaves.
Once they set aside the sheer numbers, the pirates finally came to their senses, and the sense of superiority they normally felt toward the natives returned to the forefront of their minds.
"Exactly! Those natives are incredibly weak—what is there to be afraid of? Besides, we don't have to wage war against all of them at once. We can start with the surrounding tribes, even subdue a few native groups as vassal forces and let them kill each other..."
Ronald also spoke in a low voice, "And with an island that large—if we conquer it! No, even just a tenth of it! Everyone here would gain wealth beyond imagination, even become nobles with their own fiefdoms..."
The pirates already made their living by the sword, and upon hearing such an enormous temptation, their breathing grew heavy and their eyes turned bloodshot.
"That's right... As a marquis, my family holds the authority to grant vassal noble titles... When the time comes, I certainly won't be stingy..."
Leylin made his promise at that moment, immediately drawing cheers from the other pirates.
To go from the lowliest of pirates to nobility? That kind of appeal was more than enough to make the pirates risk their lives.
On Tifa's side, the crowd also stirred slightly—even those who served the divine still needed food and water, still needed safety and comfort in their lives.
"Conquering the native empire and providing faith for our Lord—this too is a divine oracle!"
Tifa declared with a solemn expression.
"For our Lord!"
The other clergymen began to pray devoutly.
Once they had reached a consensus, everyone left the venue one by one, leaving only Tifa and Isabelle behind.
"Facing those natives, I wouldn't worry even if they outnumbered us ten to one. But... has the Master considered the possibility that they may have the protection of a deity?"
Tifa raised the question with a solemn face—one that Leylin had deliberately been avoiding.
"Mm! I've been meaning to remind you—in several of the native tribes out in the open sea, there exist totem faiths, and some of them are no less powerful than Legendary or Demigod beings..."
Isabelle spoke with a grave expression.
By their reasoning, with enough people, no matter how inadequate those natives might be, they could surely muster at least one or two true gods.
And that would be lethal.
After all, Leylin was merely a divinity holder at this point! The horrors of divine wars could be vividly felt through countless epics and poems.
You don't need to worry about this at all. There are indeed some native believers and divine beings on Banks Island, but at most they're only demigods—not a single true god among them. Moreover, the gods of the various divine systems on the continent have absolutely no interest in the faith of the natives…
Leylin said with assurance.
When it came to divine matters, he naturally had the most authority to speak. Upon hearing this,
A true god was an unbridgeable chasm, but the gap between divine beings and demigods wasn't so vast. As long as the difference wasn't too extreme, they still had the courage to fight with everything they had.
As for how Leylin knew all of this, both Isabel and Tifa wisely chose not to ask—after all, gods always had their own secrets.
Leylin likewise had no intention of sharing anything with them. Once they had all left, he descended directly to the bottom of the ship's hold, where a group of cowering native slaves huddled together.
As preparation for the expedition, these natives would serve as translators and intermediaries, helping to ease the natives' hostility toward them as invading colonizers.