My Players Are So Fierce

“Come on, come on, have a drink, my dear little short-tempered friend.

Look, even Handsome Murphy has raised his glass voluntarily; he was appointed as Governor by the two Kings, which would surely earn him some privileges with those damn Steam Lords at Charles Port.

The warriors under his command are fierce, and they’ve already made a name for themselves at the Blackflame Mountain Pass.

I’m telling you, little guy, don’t ask for trouble!”

In the first-class restaurant of the “Good Luck” airship, the drunken Deputy Claire was urging others to drink.

This scantily dressed guy was practically sitting in Murphy’s lap, an enthusiasm Murphy found hard to bear.

But damn Captain Pablo saw his First Mate cozying up to another man and just chuckled, continuing to drink heartily without bothering.

Hey, are all you pirates this wild?

However, Murphy couldn’t push Claire away because this Blood Fear Deputy was speaking up for him now.

On her invitation, Captain Paula, sitting across from Murphy, unhappily grabbed a special cup with her cool mechanical arm, lightly clinked glasses with Murphy, and downed the drink in one go.

For those who brave the waves, this means past grievances are written off.

Of course, her grudges with Transylvania can’t really be blamed on Murphy, but alas, it was Salockdale, that old bastard who kidnapped her and wrecked her ship, and now it’s too late to seek vengeance.

But the Governor knew well that Captain Paula’s displeasure hadn’t dissipated; it was just that she didn’t want to strain her relationship with the Blood Fear Fleet over this matter.

Right now, Captain Pablo and Deputy Claire were clearly siding with Murphy, leaving Paula with little choice but to save face.

Murphy thought he’d need to put in some effort, but suddenly there was a surprising turn.

Surprising in that Murphy couldn’t understand how the notorious pirates of the Misty Sea had such a deep connection to the supposedly legitimate Half-body Man shipping company.

But since Captain Paula was drinking with the big pirates, it showed that this “Perfect Shipping” company was not as proper as it seemed on the surface.

Before he could ask, Pablo, in a fit of drunkenness, ignored the airship’s firework restrictions, picked up a skull-carved pipe, put it in his mouth, and made a gesture to Paula, who then flicked a flame with her mechanical arm to light the captain’s tobacco perfectly.

In the thick aroma of tobacco, Pablo leaned back in the luxurious booth and said in his husky, manly voice:

“I guess, Handsome Murphy must be thinking of some unseemly matters, like the feuds and grudges between pirates and airship captains, ha!

It’s not as complicated as you think.

Before the Blood Fear Clan entered the Misty Sea, piracy was already a thriving profession, and Charles Port, being a bustling harbor, inevitably had to deal with pirates.

There was a time when both sides were at loggerheads, but the half-body men had clever ways.

Especially the Steam Lords, whose wisdom cannot be underestimated.

Anyway, they drew a line over this matter, you know?

No matter who makes a living in the Misty Sea, as long as they don’t cross the half-body men’s line, our ships, as long as they don’t fly a pirate flag, can dock in the bays near Charles Port and send people ashore to buy or sell some goods.”

“The half-body men’s black market has a long history.

Even before the Black Disaster, Charles Port already had a sizable black market, mainly dealing with smuggling goods between the Castia Elf Kingdom and the Continent.”

Captain Paula snorted, explaining slowly:

“Later, after the ‘Maritime Commerce Act’ was introduced, dealing with pirates swiftly dominated the half-body men’s black market.

The top turned a blind eye to this; pirates needed Charles Port to fence their goods, the city could collect taxes from the black market, and merchants could buy cheaper items.

Everyone was happy.

It’s an unwritten rule, but how I got to know Pablo and that old flirt Claire is another story.”

“Don’t keep secrets now, tell us.”

Deputy Claire leaned on Murphy’s shoulder, grinning, and said:

“Paula just loves to play mysterious.

Actually, when she was just a kid, her old man often took her to pirate harbors offshore to collect all kinds of rare goods.

Back then, Pablo and I knew her old man.

When her father was gravely ill, we even made a special trip along the Far East route to bring back a precious elixir from the Kalem Ancient Country for her dad, which allowed that very resourceful old half-body man captain to extend his life by ten years and pass all his skills onto Paula.

Unfortunately, Paula’s luck was too bad.

On her third independent voyage, she encountered the fourth Black Disaster and then ran into trouble in Transylvania that couldn’t be solved with wisdom, leading to her family’s airship, ‘Ramming Hammer’, being destroyed.”

“Oh, that was a good ship!

Ramming Hammer was a real armed commercial airship, with main cannons fore and aft and thirty-seven bomb ports, practically a moving arsenal.”

Pablo, too, puffed on his pipe, saying with regret:

“Back then, my Blood Fear Fleet was in big trouble.

We were trapped by a large group of Wave Fishmen outside the Large Reef Province, and it was Paula’s dad who risked being hanged by the Steam Lords to bomb us a way out.