YM778.TV Chapter 245 Black Beard
When Ynosuke and Meredith saw the boat emerge from the mist, they looked at each other in astonishment.
The boat arrived silently in the harbor, without making any kind of noise. In fact, to the two former thieves who watched it approach, it seemed more like the boat came out of nowhere. Quickly, the suspicious vessel slipped in between two other boats of similar size, and stood there, without tying a thick rope to the quay or dropping its anchor.
After this, nothing could be heard seen on the boat, not even a point of light or a person on deck. To Ynosuke, this was terrifying because it was dark and yet the boat parked exactly where it was supposed to, and also because no one got off the boat.
"What was that that just happened?" The half-fox asked. She too was incredulous about what she had just witnessed.
"I don\'t know, but we don\'t need to act. If we have to, we\'ll stay here all night." Ynosuke stated.
It was clear to both of them that the falling of the guard in obsidian armor into the water was a distraction, so that this suspicious vessel could reach the harbor unnoticed. Although it was dark, even the man with the slightest of reflexes would notice something moving in the harbor, where everything was so monotonous and only the faint waves of the sea could be heard.
After the four guards managed to pull the head guard out of the water with much effort, they began to laugh at the situation, even though they were quite out of breath.
"Hehe... What happened to you, boss? Couldn\'t see where you were walking?" One of them asked.
"Ha... Ha..." The man in obsidian armor was trying to catch his breath. "... My eyes were burning with sleep, so I started to feel them heavy, and before I knew it, I was already sinking into the water." He tried to explain himself.
"You\'ve got to be kidding... We warned you that this obsidian armor is unnecessary and that it\'s a waste to wear it here." Kainan, the younger guard, spoke as he coiled the rope they used to pull the head guard out of the water.
"Not to mention that there are some rotten planks in that harbor, and you\'re in such heavy armor... You were lucky you didn\'t fall through the pier. In case that happened, we wouldn\'t know how to help you."
"Right, right... I\'ve understood and learned my lesson. Starting tomorrow, I won\'t come in that armor anymore, are you satisfied?"
"Bruh! You always say that, but this is already the third time you\'ve fallen in the water just this month. Don\'t tell me you have that blurry eye disease, do you?"
As the head guard stood, and the remaining water dripped from inside his armor, he replied:
"Blurred eye disease? Are you some kind of bumpkin to talk like that? Talk like people, call it myopia! Hahaha!" He gave a light slap on the back to the subordinate who tried to mock him. "Come, we have other areas to cover. If criminality doesn\'t sleep, we shouldn\'t sleep!"
Then, after his shout the head guard raised his right arm, evidencing his firm fist. All the other guards looked at this as a huge act of bravery, because he was very close to dying a few seconds ago, but still he didn\'t seem shaken, so they roared as well and headed to the right of the harbor.
Ynosuke saw all this from afar and couldn\'t hide his displeased expression at seeing that the younger guards fell so easily for the older guard\'s litany. He knew that all the young adventurers and guards of Oukiwa customarily had a philosophy of heroism far above normal, so they wanted to fight crime, only he didn\'t imagine that they could also be innocent to that extent.
"I can\'t believe they also even noticed that yet another boat just appeared out of nowhere." He thought and put his hand to his forehead, indignant. If he had known in the past that it was so easy to fool city guards, he would have stolen from them more often.
After the five guards moved away from the area, everything was very quiet for almost twenty minutes. The icy wind became stronger, perhaps due to the sea waves that were intensifying this. The tide rose, and consequently the boats moved a little, only to have people appear on the deck of the suspicious boat a few seconds later.
All these people who appeared were men in ordinary clothes, and also looked quite similar, except that they were all very thin and carried sabers in their scabbards. Some of them moved to the bow, others went to check the starboard and port sides.
They calmly checked to make sure that there was no one in the harbor, even after waiting for a long time. After checking everything, one of these men went back into the captain\'s cabin and called the captain.
Ynosuke and Meredith saw a muscular man climb the stairs and finally reveal himself on deck. He had a very voluminous beard, which made his face round in much the same way as his belly, which was so large that it fell in front of his waist. In addition, because this man was shirtless it could easily be seen that he had a very large tattoo on his chest: the illustration of a hat, which was exactly like the Straw Hat stamp that Luke had seen on Vinigo\'s slave contract.
Back then, people who got tattoos were rare, even more so among criminals because they could use this to recognize the criminal. Still, marking the body with tattoos was common among wizards who used runes.
Those who seemed to be the underlings of this larger man brought a large bed, and covered her back as well as her head.
With her extremely keen and focused hearing, Meredith could hear them talking:
"I will go and return before dawn. Since all the worms have been sold in Stahurt, I will have to go and apologize personally to the boss so that he doesn\'t kill all of you. When I return, I want to see the whole deck cleared and if you have enough time, clear the barnacles as well. You are out of six, it shouldn\'t be hard to do this simple job."
"Speak." The commander allowed.
"Sir, the warehouse is stinking pretty bad. Do you want us to clean there as well?" He asked rather fearfully.
The man with the tattoo sighed, "We don\'t need to submit to that. What\'s the point of you cleaning everything up and the next shipment makes it dirty again? It\'s useless."
"Yes, sir." The servant said and bowed his head again.
"Right. Now don\'t waste any more of my fucking precious with stupid questions. In case someone shows up, create the best lie you can, and if I get here and don\'t find one of you, I will hunt you down to hell."
Everyone looked into the commander\'s black eyes, and so they could feel the seriousness with which he was speaking. So instead of brandishing loudly because it was night, they bowed until their foreheads brushed against the dirty wood of the deck.
The bearded man smiled at his inferiors, walked to the bow of the ship, and used exactly that as a support to climb down to the deck, quite carefully. He knew that if he jumped, he would probably end up breaking the wood of the harbor because of his weight.
After landing on the pier, the man looked at both ends of the harbor and all his eyes could reach was mist, so he headed left.
\'Lucky we\'re high up and far away, so he can\'t see us.\' Ynosuke thought as he watched the man start walking. "What are we going to do now? He\'s walking alone."
Meredith stood and followed the bearded man\'s walk with her head. "Come, we should follow him." She said and lifted Ynosuke by the collar of his jacket.
"Hey, the boat is over there. We should focus on the boat, no?"
At that point, the half-fox remembered that her friend did not have as effective hearing as her own, so she sighed, looked again at the bearded man following along the pier, and said:
"He basically said that the ship is out of slaves, so it doesn\'t matter to us, because he already got here like that. He also said he\'s going to find his boss, and on his chest is a tattoo of the..."
"Straw Hat symbol." Ynosuke completed her reasoning. "Okay... if there\'s no one on the boat and there\'s a chance we can find where this asshole is hiding, I\'ll take it. Let\'s go!"
Meredith smiled and as she walked to the front end of the shed they were in, she tied her hair in a ponytail, so she wouldn\'t be in the way in case she needed to run or fight. Since the half-fox was used to sneaking up behind people at a young age to steal from them, it was not difficult for her to follow the captain of the suspicious boat without making any kind of noise.
The same applied to Ynosuke, because before the whole mess with the demons got its start, he was the worst of the pimps and this forced him to learn to be as quiet as he could. After all, there were countless occasions when he got involved with committed women and then had to run away from their husbands.