Debanks Island
An intense military discussion was taking place within the captain’s room of the Scarlet Tiger.
There were few participants. Leylin who was in charge naturally sat at the front, with Isabel and Tiff by his side. At Isabel’s side were Robin Hood, Ronald, Karen, and the other leaders of the pirates. Next to Tiff was the organisation Leylin had run in the north. This included devil worshippers and real devils. Even if they concealed it, their aura still caused the pirates to feel a sense of danger and unease.
Next to the devil followers were a few priests, higher-ups with grim faces. These priests were seeds that Leylin had nurtured. Although they were young, they were already beginning to show merciful and kindly traits, and did not seem to be compatible with the devils. However, they still sat together, which created a rather interesting atmosphere.
These two groups were meeting for the first time, and could not help but size each other up curiously. These were all Leylin’s elite forces, as well as the fledgling form of his future church and army. They were also the capital Leylin was using on an expedition to the native empire, and he naturally had to integrate them well.
After the long self-introductions were completed, Leylin coughed softly. Immediately after, the area went quiet.
“Isabel, present the situation over there.” In official settings, Leylin always called Isabel by her name, and would still do the same after becoming a god.
For eternal gods, blood relations and whatever else was pointless. The only interest was in eternity!
“The native empire was found by a group of pirates under me. It is on a large island with an area of about the size of two or three Dambrath Kingdoms… The surroundings of the island is always filled with dangerous gales and ocean currents. There is only a slight period of time every year that ships can successfully sail past, which is why contact with the outer world is at a minimum. My underlings now have a clear idea of the patterns of the currents and have created an accurate shipping route…”
For the pirates under Isabel, identifying ocean currents and shipping routes were fundamental skills.
For the pirates whose lives depended on the skies, their abilities in navigation and techniques in determining their location based on the stars far exceeded that of ordinary merchant ship navigators and sailors. As the greatest captain in the outer seas, Isabel naturally had many talented people at her disposal.
After determining the location, determing the shipping route was simple with some time and many tests at the cost of lives.
“Hss…”
Isabel’s speech immediately had gasps sounding from Tiff’s side.
“The size of two or three Dambrath Kingdoms? That area is akin to like a small continent already!”
“The Dambrath Kingdom has a population roughly made up of a million people. At the most conservative estimate, the native population that we have to face is over 2 million? How frightening!”
Such a simple ratio immediately resulted in uneasy looks on some pirates’ faces.
After all, they had less than ten thousand men, and yet had to fight enemies that numbered hundreds more than them! If not for having an advantage in possessing ships and a route, they would long since have had thoughts of escaping.
“Quiet!” Tifa yelled. “Are you trying to humiliate yourselves in front of Master? Or is your mind that weak?”
Such a strict questioning and his status as a legend immediately caused everyone to quieten down.
“While there are many natives, that doesn’t mean much. You’ll know how things are once we get onshore.
Leylin nonchalantly waved his arms.
Even in Leylin’s previous world during the Age of Discovery in the west, when the colonialists had taken over North and South America, they had conquered all the tribes and the kingdoms there with just hundreds or even tens of people. With thousands of criminals, pirates and many others, they had taken over the whole continent. It was then discovered by someone akin to a hero. (Similar to Cortés who used just 1000 people and took over the Aztec Empire with a population of 15 million people in 5 years.)
In Leylin’s eyes, the native empire was not much different from the Aztec Empire in his original world, a backwards civilisation full of savagery and ignorance.
With advancements in civilisation and technology, conquering a civilisation that seemed huge but was actually oversized and backward was basically no different from killing a fat pig.
No matter how terrible the continent was, it was still better than the natives who used wooden spears and did not even have clothing.
Most importantly, with a ‘god’ like Leylin working, was there a chance of failure?
As a divine being, Leylin had an invisible, powerful infectious aura. After seeing how confident he was, the fears of the rest of the people died down.
After seeing how the situation had turned out, Leylin nodded and allowed Isabel to continue introducing the situation with the native empire.
“Based on our usual practices, I call this newly-discovered island the Debanks Island. It is now known that there is a native empire at the very centre which they call Sakartes, which means the sun that never falls. That takes up most of the plains on the island. The population is about 1.5 million people, and around the Sakartes Empire, there are a few tribes. Most are subservient to the Sakartes, and amongst them, there are some wars. Altogether, there should be about five or six hundred thousand people there…”
Isabel evidently valued this intel-gathering job and had even been able to gain such definite numbers about the Sakartes Empire, which was pretty god.
While already mentally prepared, some still gasped after hearing that they would be declaring war on about two million people.
“Hehe… that’s nothing, you brainless things! Those aren’t two million enemies but, in my opinion, two million healthy slaves! There’s also countless treasures and fertile land!”
Isabel smirked at how her subordinates were acting and exclaimed coldly, sounding condescending.
The rest of the pirates remembered the frail natives and reacted.
What they used to do was take the natives as slaves. They obviously knew that just using blades would scare the natives into subservience, and they would not resist no matter how they were flogged. Sometimes, just one supervisor would be enough to manage hundreds of native slaves.
After disregarding the numbers, the pirates finally reacted, feeling vastly superior to them.
“Exactly! Those natives are so frail. What’s there to be afraid of? Besides, we don’t have to declare war on all of them at once. We can work from the surrounding tribes and subdue a few groups to work for us and let them kill themselves…”
Ronald spoke in a low voice, “The moment we conquer such a large land, or even just ten percent of it, all of you will be able to obtain unimaginable amount of wealth and even become nobles who have land…”
Pirates had always been living with their lives on the line. After hearing something so tempting, their breathing began to get rough while their eyes became bloodshot.
“That’s right… As a Marquis, my family has the authority to confer titles… When the time comes, I definitely won’t be stingy…”
Leylin made his promise then, which immediately had the pirates cheering.
Being able to turn from the most lowly pirates to nobles? That temptation was enough for the pirates to work torturously for.
At Tiff’s side, the people started to get a little restless. After all, clerical members needed to eat and drink, as well as have safe and comfortable lives.
“Taking over the native empire and providing faith to our master is also a divine order!”
Tiff grimly announced.
“For our Master!”
The rest began to pray devoutly.
After knowing each other, everyone left the room in succession, leaving only Tiff and Isabel behind.
“It doesn’t matter if there are ten times more natives than us, but… Has Master ever thought about the possibility of them being protected by gods?”
Tiff looked solemnly as he asked. This was also what Leylin had been trying his best to avoid.
“Mm, I also wanted to warn you about this. In the few native tribes of the outer seas, there faith totems. Some were even comparable to legends or demigods…”
Isabel spoke seriously.
From their point of view, no matter how useless the natives could be, they could still have one or two true gods.
That would be terrible.
After all, Leylin was now merely a divine being! The cruelty of divine battles could be experienced from many historical poems and poetic sagas.
“You don’t have to worry about this. The Debanks Island does have a few native religions and divine beings, but at most, there’s only a half-god and not a true one… On top of that, the gods of the continent have no interest in the faith of the natives…”
Leylin guaranteed.
When it came to gods, he obviously was the one with the most right to say this. Upon hearing this, Isabel and Tiff relaxed.
True gods were a large gap from him, but the difference between a divine being and half-god was not so big. If the difference was not so large, they would still have courage to to risk their lives.
As for how Leylin knew about this, Isabel and Tiff sensibly did not ask more questions, since gods always had their own secrets.
Leylin too had no intention to share his plans. After they left, Leylin went to the bottom of the hold of the ship and saw a group of native slaves cowering in fear.
In preparations for this expedition, these natives would be the translators and communicators. This would reduce the natives’ hatred of this colonial invasion.
