Michael was standing on the helm deck, watching the sunrise at the horizon. The sun bloomed on the horizon, golden petals stretching ever outwards into the rich blue sky above the calm sea. It was the brilliant flower of the sky that warms the days. It was the invitation to a new day, that sunrise so ordinary yet extraordinary. He changed into his usual black attire including a black long coat, a black shirt top two buttons opened to show the chest cut, black trousers, and black boots. He still wore the face mask to hide his real face, he'd rather be safe than sorry.
The last night after spending an hour flying over the clouds, they returned back to the ship to oversee the pirates cleaning the ship. Even after almost 10 full hours of cleaning, the pirates were only able to clean a small portion of the entire ship. He guessed it would take at least three days to clean the ship to his liking.
Since he supplied all the needed items to do the cleaning, he ordered them to clean the ship while he's spending his time in Gisel. He trusted Maxine would teach them a lesson if his crew tried to slack off.
After sailing on the peaceful sea for another hour, the sun completely emerged from the horizon, lighting the land in the distance.. The first thing that came to his view was a tall light tower painted in white with red lines at the top and bottom.
The closer they got to the light tower, he could vaguely see the buildings, ship docks as well as merchant ships approaching the shore.
"Kingdom of Gisel," he said under his breath.
"That's the capital of Gisel, Lord Lucifer" Heinberg came dragging the still unconscious bodies of Logan and Jonah.
"Crilta right?"
Michael remembered the city's name Heinberg mentioned earlier.
The city of Crilta was built in the shadow of a dormant volcano located in the far north of Crilta. Through the ships docked at the docks and the somewhat tall buildings, he could vaguely see this dormant volcano in the distance. The volcano's upper parts seemed to have been covered by snow which gave it a unique charm masking the terror hiding within.
The city's elegance was matched by the backdrop of grand forests which have helped shape the city into what it is today. Considering the volcanic soil contained minerals and various nutrients needed for pasture, the city thrived in farming, wine production and was blessed with grand forests.
The riches the volcano brought were of great importance, but it was also influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast majority of buildings have been built with granite and travertine. In addition to these stones, marble was considered the ultimate epitome of beauty and power by Gisel as well as many other kingdoms. Compared to Elon, the Southern continent kingdoms made the main construction of brick and mortar and lined them with marble slabs.
The black warship immediately received everyone's attention in the dock area. Michael saw little children pointing their fingers at the ship while their eyes sparkled in amazement. As the Silent Reaper approached the docking area, Gaya came to his side stretching her arms after her morning meditation. Like Michael, she too started to wear full black clothes. She wore everything the same as him except the small satchel hanging on her waist where the Hydra is sleeping peacefully.
Because Michael lowered a pirate flag that had the skull and two swords on it, a group of patrolling soldiers came to the docking area. Michael was not a historian but he watched enough movies to recognize the soldiers as legionaries with one single look. The patrol unit contained twelve soldiers who held long pointy spears in their hands. They wore red knee-length woolen tunics as well as shin guards made out of leather. They didn't wear boots like the soldiers Michael had seen ever since he came to this world but they wore sandals.
Their torsos were vest shaped armor with round plates covering their shoulders. Each soldier wore a helmet consisting of two flaps to protect their cheeks. In addition, the helm curled a little bit to protect the neck.
Only the leading soldier's helmet was adorned with red plumes arranged in a crescent shape. Their thighs and arms were unprotected though. In simple words, they looked exactly like the legionary soldiers of ancient Rome.
Not only the soldiers, when Michael looked around the buildings, they also looked exactly the same as the buildings he saw in some Rome-related tv shows and movies. Most of the buildings were two stories painted in white with light orange overlapping roof tiles.
The unavailability of the ship flag raised suspicion among the soldiers. The soldiers waited for them to leave the ship. Michael turned back to look at Heinberg,
"You sure they won't ask a question?"
Michael would have put Jonah and Logan into a sack if it wasn't for Heinberg who told him that he will deal with the soldiers. Until he could get the senators under his control, he decided to keep a low profile. His plan was to control the Gisel Kingdom through the senators from the shadows.
However, that didnt mean he would not show his powers at all. On the contrary, he would show his powers in a suitable place to get the maximum amount of badass points.
As the ship came to a halt, Heinberg put a black bag on Jonah and Logan's heads before following Michael and Gaya to the docks. When Michael was walking down the plank, three types of people came into his view. The majority of the three were commoners who wore rather plain-looking clothes covering their full bodies. They didn't wear any sparkling pieces of jewelry or any kind of accessories to adorn themselves, only sweat of hard work adorned them. These people were the majority in the docks area. Most of them were unloading wooden boxes from a merchant ship at the docks a bunch of meters away from the Silent Reaper. What was inside the wooden boxes was not Michael's concern at the moment.
The soldiers remained calm until they saw Heinberg dragging two bodies that had their heads covered by black bags. Some of the soldiers standing behind the leading soldiers tilted their spears towards Michael as a sign of caution.
"Tell your men to move aside soldier, we are here for official business," Michael noticed Heinberg retrieving a gold plated card the size of a credit card from the inner pocket of his shirt.
This was the first time Michael saw the thing but apparently not the soldier in the front. The moment he saw the card, the soldier's body tensed. He immediately saluted at Heinberg while his eyes showed a mix of fear and respect.
"Where is Senator Caius?"
"In his manor, Sir. Does the sir want us to escort you?" The soldier almost raised his voice like he was in a cadet walking. After Heinberg showed the gold card, the soldier didn't even take a second look at the bodies.
"Lord Lucifer" Heinberg looked at Michael, wordlessly asking him to speak further. Michael just nodded as Heinberg gave further orders to the soldiers,
"No one goes to the ship without my say so"
"Yes Sir!"
"Tell them to leave him somewhere safe," Michael said, glancing at Logan.
"Put him somewhere safe and leave him alone"
As per Michael's order, Heinberg moved Logan's body towards the soldiers. The onlookers stared at the scene and the Silent Reaper for a few moments before resuming what they were doing. After all these working classes were paid for working, not for gawking.
In front of Michael, there was a straight road paved in greystones leading to the inner city. Either side of the roads had buildings and occasional palm-like trees. Dragging Jonah's body would be a pain and slow down their pace so Heinberg just lifted his body, putting him on his shoulder.
As any typical city would have, he noticed smithery, a couple of bakeries as well as ration stores along the way. In addition to those stores, he was surprised to see many Alchemy ingredient stores and agriculture supplies stores. Given that all the people in the Southern continent required food, there was a higher demand for agriculture supplies than all the other continents.
"Fresh organic eggs!"
"Fruits and vegetables for the cheapest price!"
"Come on lords and ladies, take a look at our produce"
It felt like a century since he heard the cries of farmers and smelled the scent of a marketplace.
"How much are these?" While walking through the streets, he forgot to turn back until he heard Gaya's voice. She was at a fruit stall, smelling the reddish mangos on a bucker before a white-bearded old man.
"Ten mangoes for three gold coins"
"Noway, two-"
"Here"
He almost twisted her ears for trying to bargain with the old farmer for one gold coin. It was fortunate they could spend the gold coins of Elon in the Southern Continent as both the continents shared the same currency.
"Stop, let me choose" she interrupted the old farmer and started to pick the mangoes herself.
"What did she say? Oh yeah, don't focus on the color, squeeze the mango gently and smell the stem end for a fruity aroma"
The old man just stared at Gaya while she took each mango in her hand, squeezing and smelling them.
"Yeah take your sweet time"
"I am taking it"
She completely ignored Michael who just rolled his eyes. Seeing the both of them, the old farmer chuckled,
"Wives eh Sir"
Heinberg felt a chill crawling through his spine when he saw the old man casually kidding the two most terrifying people in the whole Southern Continent. He thought the old man was going to die a horrible death but unlike what he expected, Heinberg saw Lucifer just laugh with the Oldman while she elbowed Michael gently smiling.