Holy Spirit Calendar 2690, May 2.
The Black Sail Fleet turned right from the South Sea and sailed in an upward arc until they saw the symbolic landmark of the Narrow Sea, the "Giant Sculpture."
The deck erupted into complete chaos, bursting forth with shouts of revelry.
Kai Deng was jolted by the cheerfulness; he found the excitement of these country hicks quite amusing.
The so-called Giant Sculpture.
Historians suggest that it has some connection with the great rift barriers in the western part of Beima Duchy, and it might have been constructed during the mysterious Ancient Era, when the Western Continent erected numerous colossal military structures to fend off invaders due to the convergence of the Heavenly Sphere or other reasons, but this remains mere conjecture.
Despite being called the Giant Sculpture, the carvings were not actually of giants, but rather these huge stone structures spanning across the sea, and even breaking through the deep sea to almost touch the sky, could only be constructed by creatures like Mountain Giants, beyond the capabilities of humans.
How exactly they were built has become impossible to verify, but under the assault of sea winds over the millennia, those stone sculptures had long lost their original appearance, and now were just giant, oddly shaped rocks eroded by wind plastered across the sea.
Indeed, it was a picturesque scene.
At this moment, Liszt was also standing on the deck, his first time at the Narrow Sea, gazing towards the distant magnificent scenery. The horizon was filled with towering rocks that even overshadowed the sunlight at two in the afternoon, their shadows swallowing hundreds of nautical miles. They were about to pass through the gaps between those rocks and enter the Narrow Sea.
Throughout this part of the journey, they encountered several scattered merchant vessels and disguised pirate ships, but none dared to provoke them.
"East of the Narrow Sea lies the territories of Alan and Pedan, west of the Narrow Sea are places like Gureg, Ji Weng, and your homeland. Want to go back for a visit?" asked Liszt, having hypnotized himself into believing that Celeste was his wife and casually wrapped his arms around her lean waist.
Unbeknownst to him, he was enveloped by death—the Netherworld Envoy was undeniably a legendary assassin.
"Spare me the sweet talk, we should focus on the task at hand," dismissed Celeste, distancing herself from Liszt’s arms. As they drew closer to Golden Palm Port, the formal submission request of Liszt to Lostra was almost due, and once that was processed, substantial funds would be allocated for Celeste’s follow-up services as Liszt’s substantial Fafna maintenance fees would also be settled.
Liszt, pressing his tongue against his cheek, found this woman truly challenging—worthy of her role as a special agent. Short-term advances were futile with her; she’d recover fully overnight. He decided he needed to find a moment to conquer her in one fell swoop.
"Have you ever thought that with your status, entering the Narrow Sea, you should communicate with the local underworld bosses? Otherwise, your presence might inspire fear or anxiety among those prone to wild guesses, leading to some rash actions," Celeste warned Liszt, recognizing that he completely lacked the awareness befitting the East Sea King.
"It’s fine to cause some anxiety. Since I can hold the position of East Sea King, why not also aspire to be the top dog of the Narrow Sea?" Liszt mused, considering that soon, with the East Sea, Narrow Sea, and North Sea under his influence, he would be a legendary pirate recorded in world history. With the creation of ironclad warships signaling the twilight of pirates, these few years represented his last chance to dominate the Four Seas.
Reflecting on a specific period in the history of the East Sea, he noted that those who wielded power had insufficient recognition and were far from the world’s elite.
Humans always yearn for more; grounded individuals dream of the skies, and emperors aspire to become immortals.
Celeste rolled her eyes, not meaning to dampen Liszt’s spirits, but the East Sea, due to its geographical advantage, largely remained independent, its chaos at the fringes of the world managed by brutal and ruthless leaders.
However, the Narrow Sea was a different story.
Though power plays here were not as distant as others, they were practically face-to-face, immensely complex, where no one dared monopolize power like Doringger, even those with the greatest influence kept a low profile, merely serving as go-betweens.
The individuals here were considerably shrewd, a stark contrast to those of the East Sea where pirate gangs were called security companies, indicating the underlying schemes—it was only a matter of time before they got chewed to the bone.
Achieving prominence in the Narrow Sea carried much more weight than in the East Sea; say you go find an official in Alan, even their cunning wouldn’t match that of these cavemen.
It wasn’t that Celeste didn’t appreciate Liszt’s attributes; even the Alan Royal Court knew the saying: the local snakes are harder to suppress than a strong dragon from afar. They had managed the public relations around the robbery, finding that their efforts and gains were disproportionate, hence they now refrained from bothering Liszt in the East Sea.
Liszt should have grasped this principle—did he really think he was more audacious than the Emperor?
"Let’s first settle the railway matter, and then we can talk... there will be a reward once it’s settled."
Celeste was speechless. These past few days, she had even worn jeans over her bodysuit, yet Liszt’s overly intense gaze still made her uncomfortable.
Of course, it wasn’t just Liszt; there were quite a few lustful pirates on board.
Liszt uttered those intriguing three words.
Celeste was about to lose her mind.
May 2nd, 11 PM, the sea darkened.
The fleet had already entered the Narrow Sea and was now heading towards Golden Brown Port in Mulong Duchy; it wouldn’t be long now.
Kai Deng had already made his move.
Like a spider in the dark, he watched the two women in their room, waiting until they fell asleep, embraced in slumber, before he dared to act and lit a sleep-inducing incense in the room.
Since the two women hadn’t carried out the door card task, he didn’t mind doing it for them. The assassination had already begun.
Kai Deng walked out of the women’s room, having completely transformed into Goria’s appearance, with light aqua-colored wavy hair, no need to wear leather armor to meet Liszt.
He was dressed in form-fitting brown jodhpurs and a white open-neck shirt.
Since Goria was quite well-endowed, in order not to reveal any flaws, the rather slender Kai Deng, who was between an A and a B cup, used the highly flexible nightingale pads three or four times over to match Goria’s bust size.
Now he was indistinguishable from Goria, even speaking with her voice. Read full story at N0veI.Fiɾe.net
He had prepared a bottle of wine, laced with one of the world’s deadliest poisons—a mixture of Madness Poison Violet, strychnine, Great Wetland Magic Beast Gland, and a neurotoxin from New Pharmacology.
Put plainly, this concoction in a wine glass might even kill an Emperor, let alone a simple Liszt.
He approached the captain’s cabin where Liszt was, perfectly mimicking Goria’s movements. As a relatively traditional woman with the confidence of a Heroic Level adventurer, she wasn’t talkative but neither was she reserved, just gentle enough.
Along the way, many off-shift pirates encountered him, but none dared meet his gaze, merely greeting him, suspecting he might be Liszt’s lover.
Liszt, now of a different status, though striving to blend in with the grassroots, was met with a certain degree of reverence due to his position.
Kai Deng responded with just the right amount of measure.
Mika, having returned to the deck for some fresh air, happened to run into Goria on the third-floor corridor of the battleship.
He could no longer restrain the doubts in his heart.
"Excuse me, I have a question which might be a bit presumptuous—Liszt and you?"
Mika got straight to the point.
"That is none of your business. Go back to your A book."
Kai Deng knew how to handle these people.
Struck by a critical blow, Mika envisioned creating a world where prostitutes used A books as currency!
Watching Mika’s retreating figure, Kai Deng also exhaled deeply and approached the door of the captain’s cabin on the second floor of the battleship’s corridor, where Liszt was.
He held a bottle of wine in his hand, hesitated for a moment, rehearsed everything in his mind once more, then began to knock on the door.
Inside the room, Liszt was alone reading a native novel from the Western Continent.
"Stop knocking, come in."