Chapter 45:Castle
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: I and Elkassar
The formerly busy districts had declined into crimson dyed streets, with raging flames reflecting cries and curses. The wild laughters of the pirates echoed throughout the once peaceful for 70 years port. After going ashore, the chosen pirates stood around disorganized, they had a fanatical expression, filled with an urge to move about. If not for the stress of Harry’s authority and Sheyan’s cruel methods, they would have immediately rushed in to join the fun and loot something for themselves.
After a series of profanities and commands, the pirates of the Bell and Mug swiftly made their way towards Tortuga castle. Their motivation behind this was obviously the rumoured ‘mountains’ of riches within the castle. During their journey, they stomped through numerous warm corpses. Still able to smell the remains of the fight from the smoke and blood, excitement surged inside of many senior pirates as they raised their weapons and roared.
Sheyan who had never experienced such a despondent scenario became a little distracted, but he immediately steadied his emotions, shouting loudly at the nearby pirates to quicken their pace. Ordering them to slaughter anyone obstructing without hesitation! Such barbaric behavior would normally stir up a huge calamity, however in this currently lawless and chaotic port, it undoubtedly raked in great effects.
“Look!” A pirate at the front cleverly picked up a small piece of cloth. “This is Old Buqi’s, looks like they used the same route to the castle.”
Sheyan received that piece of cloth, noticing that on its rough surfaces there were no blood stains. His eyes flickered, while his pupils contracted as he raised his voice loudly exclaiming.
“Let’s hurry up! Old Buqi was so excited that even his bandana was thrown aside. Our companions are still waiting for us to move the mountains of treasures!”
The blood boiled within the surrounding pirates as they raised their sabres and daggers in wild exasperation! Hastening their pace as they started running. Originally, Scarface Harry also wanted to take a look at that piece of cloth, but at this point in time, Sheyan was already leading a group of men and sprinting ahead. A bone shattering pain electrified within his head. He immediately grabbed a pouch of rum and gulp down mouthfuls to numb the pain, before enduring the pain and joining up with the rest.
Once this group of pirates reached the entrance, they realized this majestic and towering castle was unexpectedly entirely dark. It brimmed with a deathly stillness, as though it had been abandoned for centuries. The only thing left behind were ghastly shadows, cobwebs and its glamorous lights were like a exhausted fantasy. The castle main doors were widely opened, and within it was a pitch-black darkness as though a ferocious huge beast was waiting for its food inside the darkness. It was like the former advance force had completely evaporated into the thin air!
Faced with such a strange image, the pirates became quiet. Only the crackling sounds of their torches could be heard, as the pirates glanced at each other in hopelessness. Some faces even turned cowardly. Within their minds, they imagined it to be heavily-guarded or in a state of great confusion, this sort of strange picture was something they had never encountered before.
This was the time where Sheyan should make a decision. He trotted towards the side of Harry and lowered his voice saying.
“This is probably a bluff by the enemy.”
Scarface Harry dropped his tone and spoke.
“Why’d you say so?”
Sheyan calmly replied:
“Based on my prior understanding of the situation, Little Lord Fokke took the lead in acting against the Black Pearl. This meant that he would have ample time to plan and prepare of that assault. Presently, Little Lord Fokke’s main forces are aboard the Black Pearl, there are not many guarding the castle. Thus, he had to resort to this cheap tactics, once his enemies separated after entering the castle, he would wither their forces slowly. If not, wouldn’t it be better to shut the castle gates and repel any hostile aggressors?”
“Then how about Xiaer and the rest?” Harry replied.
Sheyan raised his voice in resolution.
“I reckon that they should have entered the castle and splitted up in search of the treasures. They should still be trapped within. If we immediately enter, we may still be in time to save them!”
Presently, Sheyan was the main person leading, Scarface Harry was only responsible in keeping watch. Even though he could smell something fishy, but after bearing with this unending torturing pain, he could no longer think of any reason to refute Sheyan. Furthermore, Sheyan went ahead and announced his deductions to the pirates. Based on his prior reputation, even if someone felt suspicious they could only keep in within their chest.
Following that, Sheyan divided the pirates into 6 groups, one group contained at least 20 pirates. Each group was distributed fairly in terms of combat abilities of short or far range, and nobody could be fussy about it. After that, he once again utilized the prospects of the treasures to rally the pirates, and finally led the charge into the darkness of the castle.
Since Sheyan adopted a ‘follow me” approach instead of the “listen to me” one, Scarface Harry was also embarrassed to remain at the back as he led another group into the castle. Since their heads were willing to set the example, what could the other pirates say? In additional the infiltrating forces boosted their courage as they roared and charged in. Based on their initial arrangement, whenever a group would meet another crossroad, they would divulge into smaller groups to search. Very quickly, the massive Tortuga castle cut up the six groups and swallowed them in.
After splitting into small groups, Sheyan still led his group at the front. However, he seemed to be extremely relaxed, as though he had confirmed that his surroundings were adequately secured. It was not in the least on guard. Furthermore, Sheyan’s prestige wasn’t lower amongst the pirates, the pirates following him were naturally remained silent and occasionally uttered a sentence or two. Initially this absolute silence felt extremely grave.
The furnishings within the castle were relatively gorgeous, the shining torch brightened up the area as it revealed a velvet carpet beneath their stomping footsteps. Its delicate design was a given, its furry sensation felt extremely cozy giving these pirates a whole new experience. However, those valuable objects like gold plated candlesticks or cutleries were strangely missing, obviously already hidden by their owners which supported Sheyan’s initial conclusion. Suddenly, one of the front pirate halted, pressing his hands on the hilt of his blade, he turned around and exclaimed urgently.
“Careful, I can smell blood!”
The others instantly gasped, and simultaneously discovered the faint blood smell in the air. To these merciless robbers, this was obviously an extremely familiar aroma. The atmosphere tensed up as a few pirates drew their weapons. Sheyan placed this torch nearer to the ground, as he discovered a faint brown bloodstain on the thick and spongy carpet. Following this blood trace, they came to a stop abruptly by a tough granite wall.
“It’s a hidden passage!” An excited pirate said out with a shivering voice. This blood trace was broken of in front of the granite wall after making a bend, that injured person could not have suddenly evaporated right? The only explanation was he fled into the hidden passage! If it weren’t for the guiding of the blood trace, who would have thought this durable and thick granite wall would have a hidden passage behind it?
After realizing this lead, the pirates scrambled about in search of a clue. These old foxes were naturally experts in such a field, they very quickly discovered a small lever beneath the carpet. Two pirates expanded their strengths to pull and drag the lever, and suddenly a heavy and dry mechanical sound creaked out from within the wall. Following that, the granite wall shook and gradually raised itself, exposing a secret and dim pathway.
Under the torch’s illumination, the floor of the secret passage was filled with scattered and adorable looking twinkles. The breathing of the pirates turned heavy, gold coins sparkling, beautiful cutleries and glossy silk cloths scattered around the hidden passage. This looked to be the result of a hasty renovation. Undoubtedly, these pirates emitted a greedy croak from their throat as they pouched on the treasures. Only Sheyan stood still while still raising his torch, his expression was peculiar, it looked somewhat sympathetic and somewhat relieved.
Following that he threw down his torch, taking a deep breath, he exerted force in his right shoulder to heavily bang against a sliding window at the side! The rusty hinges of this window surrendered under the immense force, distorting and finally breaking apart. The colourful glass of the window shattered in a flash, as the fragments shot all from all angles. Yet Sheyan seized this opportunity to dive out of his castle, bending his knee and sucking in his stomach as he landed on the ground!
His sole landed first, followed by the arch of his foot. At the moment his foot came into contact with the ground, he shifted his centre of gravity forward as he directed the force forward. Sheyan could feel an immense pain transmitted from his feet to his elbows. But it was only a superficial pain as he rolled 5-6 times forward. Afterward he casually pushed himself up from the ground. Although he fell from the third floor of the castle, his execution was perfect as he only suffered light injuries. He did not lose even one-fifth of his life points. Presently he was not in a combat state, therefore after 5 minutes his HP would naturally regenerate fully.
Sheyan fished out that semi-torn bandana from before, humby sighing.
“I’m sorry, I already knew this was a trap but I still brought you guys in.”
