CH 044 GHOST SHIP

“Listen to this typical Rose family tone.” The pirate captain muttered, “Okay, okay, you are right. We did accidentally meet with a little trouble…..Maybe you are interested in condescending to listen to one short story?”

“I am glad to.”

“Have you heard of ghost ships?” The pirate captain asked.

“A little bit.”

“Then let our story begin with the ghost ship.” The pirate captain took out a gold pocket watch carved with roses and opened it with a “snap”. “Look at this, it was obtained from the ghost ship. Although the people’s rumors are always far from the truth, but one thing is certain——Walway owns more than one ghost ship.”

The King took the pocket watch handed to him.

It was actually an extremely complex foldable astronomical instrument with fine scales on it, including a compass sundial, etc. The gold-plated pocket watch was heavy on the hand and very complicated words could be seen engraved on the front and back of the pocket watch. The words did not belong to any of the current circulating language, those words were slender yet dense, like many snakes entangled together.

If one looked closely, there would be an illusion that those snakes were actually twisting slithering before one’s eyes.

The legend of the ghost ship was widely spread.

People firmly believed that there were ships wandering in the sea from ancient times to the present. Those ships only belonged to ghosts full of hatred. They were loaded with gold and jewelry but whoever dared to take the jewelry from the ship would be befelled with an ancient curse.

“Do you believe it? There is a kind of ship, which is as alive as you and me.”

Asked the pirate captain.

“Do you mean that Walway owns ships that are alive?” The King asked rhetorically.

“Yes.”

The Walway pirates who wander the sea all year round had a different definition for “ghost ships”. They called a kind of bizarre ship “ghost ship”——this kind of ship was alive in itself! The ship had its own life, its own will, and when people walked quietly on it in the middle of the night, they would be able to hear the ship’s breathing.

When they see other ships at sea, they would sometimes avoid the ships themselves, but sometimes they would pass by the merchant ships in a provoking manner.

This was why the story of “ghost ships” was widely circulated.

Once the Walway pirates got news about a “ghost ship”, they would immediately hunt for it. They had their own special methods to sign contracts with these ships, allowing the ghost ships to join the Walway pirates and become a member of them. Prior to this, the Walway pirates had a total of three ghost ships.

It was precisely because of the existence of these ghost ships that they could become the most dangerous, fantastical and mysterious pirates.

“But during the battle of the Five Port Alliance, your ghost ships seem to have not participated?” The King became interested in these ghost ships, “is it because they can’t appear in front of people?”

“No.” The pirate captain’s lips curled down, showing a bitter expression, “Because they refuse us to board them now.”

The matter stretched back to a month ago.

At that time, the Walway pirates got a clue to a ghost ship and hunted for it as usual. They found the ghost ship stranded on the beach of Handler Harbor on a stormy night.

Because ghost ships sometimes repelled each other before entering into a contract with humans, they often only steered ordinary ships when searching for new ghost ships.

The boarding process went smoothly, and the ghost ship did not seem to be rejective of them.

The ghost ship was full of pearls and gold, but when one of them picked up a pearl at random, a black flame rose up and burned him to ashes. At first everyone thought this was because that bastard didn’t wait for the contract to be completed before touching anything and rashly angered the ghost ship——some ghost ships were very generous and willing to share their treasures with the pirates, but some were very stingy and did not allow their possessions to be touched.

But, soon, the pirates found out that they were wrong——

This was not an ordinary ghost ship.

Not only did their past contract ceremony which used to be held very smoothly with other ghost ships fail, everyone also got a black tattoo on their bodies.

A trap.

Everything, from the ghost ship being moored quietly on the beach and allowing them to successfully board, was a trap. After the tattoo appeared on their bodies, they could vaguely feel that the ship was pulling something from their bodies.

After a fierce battle, the pirate captain successfully led everyone in an escape from the ship, but when they returned to the Walway pirate base camp, they discovered something bad——

The ghost ships they originally owned now refused to let them board them.

Because of this, this time there was no ghost ship participating in the naval battle.

“We were all cursed.”

The pirate captain rolled up his sleeves and let the King see the black lines on his arm——the curse was spreading. Maybe when these black lines completely covered the whole body, their lives would be over.

Seeing the black lines on the pirate captain’s arm, the King’s finger bent slightly.

He had seen this before.

——When the Devil signed a contract with him.

But there was still a big difference between the two. The black lines created by the Devil’s signing of the contract formed an extremely complicated pattern that was beyond human imagination. That pattern only appeared once. In comparison, these lines on the pirate captain were simply stick figures.

“Hunting the ghost ship, steering the ghost ship…..” The King remained expressionless, “You are indeed courageous.”

“There is such a saying among us Walway brothers,” the pirate captain replied, “To fear God and the fearless.”

“To fear God and the fearless…..a very wonderful saying.”

The King evaluated.

Mentioning the fearless and God on equal terms was not something that displayed any awe towards God, but contempt——the fearless was comparable to that of God.

This was an arrogant expression of blasphemy.

The pirate captain blinked at the King with delight when he heard these words: “You are interesting indeed…..If you are also at Walway, you would make the most charming pirate.”

“It’s just that I am a little puzzled.” The King pondered, “Why did you choose to ask me for help? Perhaps normal people would choose the priests of the Holy Court when encountering curses?”

“Let those fellows in long robes put their hands on our heads and say, the Lord forgives you, and then pour a mess of holy water on our heads? God, that’s too stupid.” The pirate captain exaggerated his expression of distaste and then saw that the King was still staring at him.

“Alright, fine. Because of a witch.”

He gave in.

The backgrounds of the members of the Walway pirates were complicated, and there were practically all kinds of backgrounds. A few years ago, they had accepted a witch who was nearly burned to death by the Holy Court. That witch was proficient in ancient fortune-telling and the interpretation of secret languages. It was this witch who found the way to break this curse.

It required a very complicated ceremony. The most critical part of the ceremony was “the pardon from the King of that world.”

“One thing that is puzzling.”

The pirate captain looked at the King with a hidden, inquisitive manner.

“She thinks that you are the King spoken in the prediction.”

The pirate captain regrettably failed to obtain any useful information from the King’s face. He showed no hints of what he was feeling or thinking at all, and just asked, “What steps are needed for this so-called pardon.”

“Do you need me to issue a permanent pardon for you?”

The King asked half-jokingly.

“This…..” The pirate captain spread his hands helplessly, “She didn’t say. Maybe so? But since you agreed, then I will ask her in detail.”

The King was noncommittal.

“You won’t tell sir Duke of this matter, will you?”

The pirate captain recalled something, and then asked.

“It depends on your performance.”

The King smiled gently.

The King now understood the whole matter.

The Walway pirates were unfortunately involved with an ancient curse and they needed the help of the King. Luckily for them, the King also needed the help of the pirates. However, with the temper of the Duke of Buckingham, if he knew that they dared to ask the King to participate in this dangerous curse incident, he would definitely draw out his sword. As a result, the pirate captain agreed to the appointment of admiral and helped the royal fleet defeat the Five Port Alliance.

The pirate captain originally thought that the King would never accept a naval general like him.

But it seems that rumors mislead people!

“Mr. Admiral.” The King bit the word “Admiral” very hard. “Since you cleverly took advantage of the lumbering characteristics of the Five Port Alliance ships in the port of Koszoya, then I believe you must have a way to improve this flaw?”

“Since you really don’t take criticism to the heart…..then, alright. I do.”

Captain Hawkins shrugged and replied.

The King smiled with satisfaction.

The situation could be considered satisfactory to both parties, and Captain Hawkins had to contact Walway’s witch, so he bid farewell to the King. He hummed a nonsensical tune that adapted the lyrics from a sea song, “From today onwards, the wise Captain Hawkins is now the noble Sir Knight…..oh oh oh!”

The King did not bother to comment on his unruly behavior.

“By the way.”

The pirate captain took two steps forward like dancing, turned around again, and looked at the King.

“I have a small request.”

“Speak.”

“My foolish first mate asks to enter St. Wyth Cathedral, can you satisfy his little wish?”

The King was slightly surprised: “Of course he can, but…..are pirates religious?”

“Oh, Your Majesty, please don’t confuse us with those priests that are no different from dead sticks of wood. On the sea, the Lord does not bless us pirates.” The pirate captain replied, “En…..something personal. Back then, your father William owed Charles a little promise, so he intends to see him about this.”

The King remembered. William III was buried in St. Wyth Cathedral.

He opened the drawer, planning to sign an appropriation: “How much does he owe Mr. Charles?”

“You misunderstood.”

The pirate captain turned around and lowered his black hat.

“He once boasted to Charles that he’ll take him on a tour of Legrand’s most beautiful snow-capped mountains, but now it looks like that is just another boast from that bastard.”

When the pirate captain stepped out of the door, he heard the King’s voice sound from behind him:

“Please tell Mr. Charles that the resting place of St. Wyth is always open to him.”

The pirate captain let out a brisk whistle to indicate that he heard.

“Too similar.”

As he left the palace, he spoke to himself.

)

The King sat quietly in the study room where he was the only one left.

Calculating the time, the Black Death was about to come, in addition there was the matter he promised Captain Hawkins…..

It was time to summon the Devil.