Chapter 3

The leaves dance to the melody of the wind. It was a peaceful day like any other day.

Sebastian pulled out the weed in the garden at the front yard of his house. "Rea, is there still no letter from Gaelan?" He said.

Under the shade of the roof in the front balcony, a woman sat on a chair, while watching Sebastian doing his chore. Rea or Andrea, was holding two long needles in each of her hand and knot a series of loops with dark green yarns.

"No. Usually, we had already received the reply in two days. There might be some problem on his side," she said, "for now, just wait a bit more. If there is still no response in two day, I will contact Judy."

Sebastian sighed. "Do you think the brat will wake up?"

"Who knows," Andrea replied, "even when I exhausted everything, it still didn't work out. It's like pouring water into a cup full of hole."

"What about Helena? Is there no new from her side?"

"Huh… That kid also preoccupied with her own problem. But, she got some lead. We can start from there."

"About Aretha's Skill," he turned and looked at Andrea, "still nothing?"

Andrea shaked her head. "Nothing. I could find nothing at all."

"Could it, related to her other mana source?"

"It could be. Just, the record on people with two mana sources is little to none, and, none of their Skill or Blessed Ability is similar to our granddaughter."

"If it is truly Kira blessing, then, none of those record could provide anything."

"If there is still nothing, I think, I might have to go to Namhtu Empire."

"If you're going, I will go too, and… it's better for Aretha to be with us. Gaelan's side is still unstable."

Andrea nodded. "That is my plan. Before that, we have to plant the seed, if anything happen to us, Aretha will be fine."

A flock of birds flapping their wings away from the village. A loud voice of a young man shouting pulled the couple's attention to the lane in front of their house.

"Sir Bastian! Madam Andrea!" the young man shouted. Although his legs was trembling and his body drenched with sweat, he didn't stop running, until he was in front of the couple's house.

The young man was panting and huffing, desperately catching his breath. "Sir Bastian, madam Andrea, the town, there was an intruders! It's pirates!"

Andrea stood up. The ball of dark green yarn rolled on the ground. She put down the needles she was holding. She scurry inside the house. She went into her work room and fetch bottles of potion, and put it in a bag. She grabbed a few bottle of poison and put it in a small bag tied to her waist.

Sebastian's face muscle tensed up. He gritted his teeth. He clenched his fists. His ear perked listening to his wife movement. Sebastian took a deep breath and exhale.

"Jack, tell the others to evacuate the children first. Move them to the safe house. Rea and I will go to the town hall."

Jack nodded and quickly dashed out of there.

Sebastian took off the apron and went into his house. He opened the door of his bedroom and reached for a sword.

"Been a while since I used you," he whispered.

He met with his wife outside the room. They look at each other eyes, and without any word, walk side by side, out of the house, toward the town hall.

***

At the town hall.

A tall man, with broad shoulder, menacing face, dark brown hair, sat on the bench with his legs open. Beside him, a big scimitar sword leaning in a vertical line on the bench.

Another man with a pair of hook sword on his back, walk closer toward him. He said while scratching his head, "brother Wayne, there is not much valuable thing in this small village. That man said there are treasure in here, there is nothing at all. Did he lie?"

"Cain, do you think any sane noble would pay pirates to ransack a small village in a small kingdom?" Wayne said.

"Won't they? Noble are unpredictable after all."

"Pft… That's true. But, this time, he could just hire mercenary or assassins. Instead, he does it in a roundabout way. He choose the cruelest, untraceable way. He was trying to warn them, whoever his opponent is."

"Hmm… So, there will be nothing left for his opponent and they should never get in his way."

"Um."

Cain looked at Wayne. The first time he met this man was two years before Wayne became the leader. Cain was a slave meant to entertain the nobles with his life. He fight monsters as the nobles cheers and swear. On one particular day, the arena was invaded, the nobles was brutally killed, and in the midst of all that, one young man stood out. It was Wayne. It had been eleven years since then.

"Brother, do we wipe out everything?"

Wayne looked at the mess in front of him. His people were brawling with the people from the village. Even outside the town hall, they ransacked houses, shops, and take every valuable possession. People were splattering blood everywhere. His eyes remained cold.

"Yeah, there's nothing interesting after all."

He closed his eyes. His memories went back to one month ago. They were in Yenem Kingdom, when suddenly he was approached by a man wearing a black cloak with his face covered by the hood.

"Mavro, the greatest pirates in the sea, lead by Wayne Mavro," the man in black cloak said.

Wayne smirked. "Never thought someone like you would come personally to meet me."

"There is something only your group could achieve, and I want that."

"Is there a need to use pirates?"

"That is not your concern. Just name you price."

"We're not going to be as cheap as the mercenaries, tho."

"Name your price."

"Do you need everyone there to be killed?"

"The noble there will be gone for some day at that time, wipe out everything else. Leave nothing."

It took them one month to arrive at the village, and as the man said, the lord of the land was currently absent, leaving only few knights, and villagers.

He opened his eyes. The air changed. Another presence had entered the town hall.

Cain pointed toward an old couple. "Brother," he said.

An old man swing a broadsword and slashes one of the pirates. He grabbed the arm of a young man and handed him to a healer.

Everyone in the town hall stopped. The was a pressure in the air.

The old man and the old woman beside him strode off and stood in front of all the villagers.

The other villagers breath a sigh of relief. "Bastian and Andrea have arrived. Thank goodness," said an elderly man.

The fight was stopped and the villagers all rushed to heal the injured and prepare for the worse. Everyone was on edge, sweating in the silence.

"Sir, as you can see, we are just a small village with nothing like gold to be hidden. Our path were never crossed, and our blade were never clashed, why would you suddenly come knocking our peace with brutality?" Sebastian firmly said with a restrain voice.

Wayne stood up and grabbed his scimitar sword. "It was not our path that you crossed."

"Those guy," Andrea whispered.

Sebastian clenched his fist. His jaw tighten up, and his eyes narrowed. He gritted his teeth.

The elderly man interrupted. "Bastian, Andrea, those people had never intended to settle in peace. We told them we would give away all of our possession but it was not enough for them that they put their hand on our villagers."

"That's right! Those sadistic bastards won't listen to our negotiation," Jack shouted.

Sebastian turned to Jack and whispered, "What about the children?"

Jack replied, "most of them already there, but… we couldn't find Aretha and nine other kids."

Andrea cut in, "asked one of the lady to fetch them, they should be at their usual place. It will be too late to send them there, tell Aretha to stay at the basement of our house. Be discreet, try to stay out of their attention."

Jack nodded and slowly step backward.

Cain grinned. "Sadistic bastard? Thanks for the compliment."

Sebastian took a step forward, closer to Wayne.

"Our village are just a small and simple village with nothing, I beg you, to let the villagers go."

"If we let you all go, what is there for us?"

"How much do they pay? We will pay more than that," he said.

Wayne lifted one of his eyebrow, intrigued. "Ho, old man, I wonder how can you pay a greater price than the noble from the empire. Could it be, there is indeed treasure in this village?" he said.

The other pirates grinned, their eyes brimming with greed.

Sebastian's eye twitched. "It's nothing but my personal saving since my youth. Unlike you all young men who still in your prime, I have earn much since my early age and never spent it on myself…and, if that is not enough, I will work my bone to pay you as I promised. As long as you leave our village alone."

"It doesn't sound interesting even a bit, or how about you and your wife join our group? At least the two of you could stay alive."

"Does that mean, you have no intention to let go our village?"

"It's quite hurting our pride if we go against our initial promise, don't we?"

Sebastian smirked. "As a pirates, was there any pride left?"

Wayne laughed out loud. "Old man. Don't cross the line."

"Was the truth too insulting, perhaps?"

Wayne unsheathe his scimitar sword.

Cain looked at the leader of their group. Then he turned to look at Sebastian. He frowned.

The image people had toward pirates are never the best. They look down on pirates for pirates are barbaric among the barbarian. Killer, murderer, kidnapper, smuggler, trafficker, sexual offender, all sort of bad stuff were labeled on them.

Pirates are known to be a group of people with no principle, no moral values, no etiquettes and many more. Well, it's half true. No, it actually true when the previous leader was the one in power.

However, since Wayne took over, other than killing, and murdering, none of other action were done by their group.

Wayne took pride on the fact that they are pirates that don't bowed to people and tied with rules. But the old man in front of them just said that they are pirates without pride. Although he was not completely wrong, he was not right either.

Wayne leaped toward Sebastian, pointing his sword. The two sword clashed and the pressure make the onlookers taken aback, and took a step backward.

Wayne's face was inch away from Sebastian's face. They glare at each other.

"You look fun, unfortunately, you have to die," Wayne said.