At the very moment Carnoble's steel monster tore through the treacherous seas rather than land trade routes to unload goods of perfect quality in Masina,
the 'penalty claims' worth hundreds of thousands of gold, which Lorenzo had scraped together soul and all, evaporated into perfect 'scraps of toilet paper' useless even for wiping shit in just one second!
"Uwaaaack! My money! My gold coins!! My buildings, my ships are all tied up as collateral!!"
Lorenzo rolled on the floor and shed tears of blood.
If only he could appeal to the Council claiming he had been swindled, but speculative bond trading premised on a business partner's bankruptcy was a severe taboo and an illegal black-market deal under Continental Commercial Law.
The moment it left his mouth, he would vanish like dew before the Council's guillotine before the debt collectors could even slit his throat.
"Damn Valerius! Damn Elfanso Carnoble!!"
It was then, as he scraped at the floor, unable to complain to anyone, nursing a mute, cold anguish.
*Boom!*
The office door burst open, and a spy from the dark guild Lorenzo employed rushed in urgently.
"Count! The debt collectors are beginning to swarm! You must flee immediately...!"
"Shut up! Where would I run leaving behind Masina, which I've devoted my entire life to!"
When Lorenzo shouted with bloodshot eyes, the spy swallowed dryly, looked around, and continued his report in secret.
"Er, Count. I just eavesdropped on Carnoble Trading Company's sailors talking in a tavern by the docks. They say that bizarre black ship isn't returning to Pellua."
"What? They sold all the goods but aren't going back? Where are they going?"
"The East."
The spy's voice trembled slightly.
"They say it's heading straight for Kipro Island, off the coast of the Osaan Empire! Without even depositing in a bank the waterfall of hundred-percent pure gold coins they just collected from the southern merchants, they're loading it all into that ship's cargo hold!"
...!!
Into Lorenzo's eyes, clouded with despair, snake-like venom began to seep in an instant.
Overwhelming cash.
That massive amount of gold that had devoured the Southern Union's market beyond Pellua was loaded right now in the belly of that hideous ship?
And the place that ship was heading was the eastern seas, a dead land of heathens where Western armies couldn't protect it?
"Ke, kehehehe... Hahahaha!"
A chilling laugh leaked from between Lorenzo's lips.
It was the moment a rat on the verge of being crushed beneath a mountain of debt harbored the deadliest poison for a last-ditch revival.
"Yes. There's only one way to pay off this debt and recover my assets. To plunder those arrogant bastards' gold with my own hands!"
With trembling hands, Lorenzo pulled out a black wax seal hidden in the deepest part of his desk drawer.
It was a forbidden object used only when secretly communicating with those who ruled the darkness of the Masina Strait—that is, the raider fleet of the southern pirates.
"Send a pigeon immediately. Deliver a message to the captain of those who rule the southern seas, the 'Blue Crescent Pirate Crew'!"
Lorenzo's voice trembled with excitement.
"Write the message like this. 'A bizarre ship without masts is rolling toward the East. In its belly rolls a mountain of gold coins scraped together from all the wealth of the Southern Union. If you seize and plunder it, I will take only three-tenths as my share!'"
"B-but Count! The Blue Crescent pirates of the south are ruthless! If we're found out, we'll be dragged before the Council and won't escape execution!"
"I'm going to have my throat slit by debt collectors' knives tomorrow! Who cares about the Council!! Send the message immediately!!"
At Lorenzo's frantic order, the spy turned pale and dashed out of the office.
Lorenzo staggered to the window.
In the distance beyond the window, at Masina's port, Carnoble's steamship could be seen turning its bow toward the eastern red horizon, spewing black smoke into the sky.
"Yes. No matter how fast the ship or what marvelous sorcery it employs, it's merely an unarmed merchant vessel without masts. If dozens of galleys surround it and rain harpoons and cannons upon it, that meager iron barrel will become nothing but a scrap iron grave at the bottom of the sea."
Lorenzo pressed his forehead against the glass window, glaring at the steamship's trajectory with bloodshot eyes.
"I'll teach you the true terror of the seas, Elfanso. Your arrogant hunk of iron and your gold will become fish food in the depths of the eastern ocean."
A vile carrier pigeon launched by one of Masina's powerful figures soared silently toward the eastern night sky, thick with storm clouds.
*
At a hidden, secluded cove in the Masina Strait.
A small carrier pigeon flew into the stronghold of the 'Blue Crescent Pirate Crew', bloodthirsty plunderers who drove the southern seas into terror.
The pirate crew's captain, the one-eyed Karga, tore off the wax seal dangling from its leg and read the note.
Soon, a fishy, explosive laugh burst from between his rough lips.
"Kwahaha! It seems that old fox Lorenzo has finally lost his mind!"
"Captain, what did the old man from Masina blabber about?"
When his lieutenant approached and asked, Karga spat the note onto the deck and sneered.
"A bizarre ship without masts is heading east, he says. Yet inside its belly is a massive amount of cash, a mountain of gold coins that swept the Southern Union's market clean, he says. If we seize and plunder it, he'll take just three-tenths and be on his way."
"A merchant vessel without masts? A galley rowed by slaves?"
"No, the note doesn't say a word about it being a galley. It just says a ship without sails or weapons."
The lieutenant let out a hollow laugh, as if at a loss.
Logically speaking, how could a ship without sails or oars navigate the middle of the sea?
Moreover, the weather in the southern seas right now was a 'windless' state—a blessing to pirates and a terrible curse to merchant vessels.
On a sea where the wind had died, a merchant vessel bearing a heavy load was nothing more than a giant wooden target bobbing in place.
"Without wind, even the mightiest warship can't move. Yet a ship without sails? Why, this is nothing but a feast set out in the middle of the sea for us to come and devour!"
"Uhaha, old man Lorenzo has finally brought some good news."
"...But will he really give us three-tenths?"
"Has he lost his mind? Unfortunately, we'll just have to say we only managed to recover one-tenth because the bastards threw the rest into the sea. Wouldn't three-tenths of that be enough for the old gentleman?"
"Kehehe, as expected of the boss!"
Karga licked his lips greedily.
In truth, even with a certain target, pirates were reluctant to set out to the open sea under a scorching sun with rough currents and no wind, as was the case now.
To move the ships, they would have to whip the hundreds of slaves chained belowdecks to force them to row; if things went wrong, the slaves could die of exhaustion before even finding the target.
However, the temptation of 'gold scraped together from all the wealth of the Southern Union' aboard Carnoble's ship was sweet enough to endure all that hardship and then some.
Naturally, it was never actually all the wealth of the Union in gold, but it was indeed a great deal of gold.
"Whip the slaves! We set sail immediately!"
At Karga's thunderous roar, three large pirate galleys anchored at the hideout began fiercely cutting through the water.
*Splash! Splash!*
"Row! Faster, you worm-like bastards!"
Below deck, hundreds of slaves rowed the massive oars, shedding tears of blood.
The sharp prows of the galleys advanced like mad toward the strait's bottleneck stretching eastward, the stretch of sea called the 'Serpent's Pit'.
"Captain, if we block the bottleneck at this speed, no matter how fast a merchant vessel is, it can never escape us. Besides, didn't he say it has no sails? It's probably drifting in the currents right now, spinning round and round near some reef."
"Kehehe, this is the easiest hunt of my life. I'll scrape up every coin and throw every last sailor into the sea for fish food."
The pirates oiled their weapons and gathered harpoons, imagining the arrogant iron ship and mountain of gold they would soon meet, rejoicing uproariously.
Thus, the three galleys perfectly blocked the bottleneck of the sea lane.
They set their trap and waited for the prey to walk right in on its own.
A day passed.
Nothing but the cries of seagulls crossed the sea; not a single rat passed by.
Two days passed.
The slaves began collapsing from exhaustion, and irritation gradually crept across the pirates' faces.
"...What the hell is going on?"
On the morning of the third day.
Karga, sweating profusely under the blazing sun, threw his telescope to the deck and shouted.
"If it left Masina Port and headed east, it absolutely has to pass through this bottleneck! But we've watched with burning eyes for three days and nights—why can't we see that damned scrap iron ship!"
"C-Captain! Could Count Lorenzo have deceived us? Or maybe it hit a reef and already sank...."
It was then.
"Captain! A medium-sized sailing ship bearing the Pellua Trading Company's flag at its bow is crawling this way!"
A pirate shouted from the crow's nest atop the mast.
Karga confirmed with his snatched telescope: it was a spice merchant vessel belonging to Pellua, moving sluggishly like a caterpillar, unable to catch wind.
Though it wasn't the target 'sail-less monster ship', they couldn't return empty-handed.
"It isn't the ship Lorenzo spoke of...... but I need to vent my frustration. Loot them too! And capture them at once to confirm whether they are indeed a ship that departed from Masina!"
The pirate ships rowed in unison like a school of sharks that had found prey, surrounding the merchant vessel.
Grappling hooks flew and lodged in the merchant ship's deck, and ferocious pirates poured down ropes in a swarm.