In silence, they flew towards the pirates yard where the pirates had been building their pirate ships. Considering Michael lost control of his anger, leaving the third persona to come out, he decided to resume meditation. He used to meditate every day when he was on earth. Now he has started to meditate in this world too. Caius or anyone would guess whether he was sleeping or just enjoying the peace and calm with his eyes closed. Nonetheless, they didn't dare to utter a word to disturb his peace.
Through the window, Tiberius saw nothing but an endless ocean. There were several ships including merchant ships, small fishermen boats as well as a man of war in the distance. Eventually, after flying for a couple of hours, clusters of little islands and rock formations began to appear in their sight. As they continued to fly, they saw several warships patrolling in formations as a gigantic island with numerous ships docked appeared on the horizon.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Michael's meditation was interrupted by thunderous booming sounds. Everyone except Maxine quickly looked through the window to see the patrolling warships getting into formations and firing their cannons.
"Tell your driver to stop the airship. This is as far as we can fly" Maxine calmly said without even looking outside. She just stood behind Michael's seat as though she was his personal guard.
Finally, Michael slowly opened his eyes to see everyone looking through the window. He turned his eyes, getting a view of the pirate ships lining up to shoot the airship down if they flew any closer.
"Sadie,Tiberius and Caius stay here. We will go and deal with this"
"Really? I always wanted to fight the pirates" Tiberius sighed as Sadie elbowed him gently.
"Yes my lord, I'll go tell the driver to put us down and prepare the boat for you" Michael nodded at Caius. While they were waiting for the pilot to lower the airship, Michael saw more and more pirate ships appear on the horizon.
"Quite a welcome" Michael smiled looking at the warships waiting to destroy them. There were at least fifty warships including frigates as well as galleons.
"This airship has the crest of Gisal on it Lord Lucifer. It's unusual for a senate ship to fly to pirates yard. Pirates tend to follow the fire first and ask questions later policy when it comes to the outsiders"
Gibson nodded at Michael while Maxine was explaining,
"I am pretty sure those idiots are itching to fire us down as we speak. So we better leave the airship and tell the senator to fly back to a safe distance"
With a nod, Michael stood up from his chair, He turned his gaze towards Aria, then at Tiberius.
"You two should talk. After all, you have someone in common"
***********************************
Leaving the airship, Michael ended up on a small boat that had only space for three people. Michael was sitting on end, Gibson on the other rowing the boat towards the warships while Maxine remained in the middle.
Since they were using a rowboat, the pirates didn't shoot them down but waited patiently, letting the rowboat near them.
"My Lord, shall I introduce myself to them?" Maxine asked Michael. Before joining his ranks, she was an infamous pirate captain named Marina, the iron fist. Almost every pirate in the Southern continent heard or knew about her because she had sunk hundreds of merchant ships and army warships alike under the order of Pirate Lord Corey.
She was a feared pirate captain. It had been two months since she had seen her crew. The last time she saw them, she ordered her crew to station at the pirate cover with her ship. She commanded fifteen ships but they didn't belong to her. Rather those ships and crew belonged to Corey.
"Go ahead before someone gets trigger happy" Michael calmly said. Gibson saw no fear in his eyes at all despite being facing fifty warships.
He was calm as the sea, no fear or any emotions could be seen on his face.
Even with spells, Gibson doubted if he could take on an armada of this size. However, after seeing his calm look, Gibson asked himself the question, "Is he more powerful than we realize?"
"Lower your cannons and let us pass through idiots" Maxine's shout reverberated the sea.
A few moments of awkward silence filled the area while Gibson stopped rowing the boat. Suddenly the brigades blocking their path slowly moved aside, forming a path for them to the island.
"Good, you idiots still have some brain inside ur thick skulls" Maxine yelled again before sitting back on the boat.
While rowing through the brigades Michael looked up at the ships and saw the pirates staring at Maxine with wide eyes. In their eyes, he could see fear and respect.
The pirates yard was a giant island that had several shipyards. Everywhere he turned, he could see ships being built and repaired. The smell of oil and gunpowder overwhelmed his senses. The sweet sound of a hammer hitting the iron, log sawing and chattering of the pirates offered a rather charming experience to Michael.
They were rowing towards the dockyard where several crates were stacked on each other along with several barrels. There were hundreds of pirates running around the shipyard.
"Dock the boat here," Maxine told Gibson as he docked the ship with several other fishing boats the same size as their boat.
Michael stood up, jumped on the dock with a swift leap. Then he reached out his hand to help Maxine. She was surprised but ended up grabbing his hand to get onto the dock.
"Don't mind me" When Gibson was about to reach his hand too, he saw Micahel and Maxine turn back to walk away. Fortunately, the water was not too deep. Therefore, he stepped out of the boat, dragged himself through the water, and climbed the few steps to reach the wooden platform.
"Lead the way," Michael said to Maxine. Since she seemed to know the layout of the island more than him and Gibson, he let Maxine take the lead while he just followed her behind, looking at the surroundings. The island was not much different than any tropical islands on earth but with lots of ships, barrels, drunken pirates fighting each other, and few anchors buried in the sand.
As he was following Maxine behind, he saw a lone pirate with a Cuban cigar in his mouth approaching them with a sly smile on his face. On the other hand, he had a bottle of rum.
The man had shoulder-length greasy hair that seemed like it did not see the sight of a comb for at least a decade. The scare that ran from his upper left eye to the upper right corner of the mouth gave a ruthless look to him.
He flaunted his chiseled chest and six-packs abs while walking towards them. A tattoo of a flying eagle could be seen on his chest along with a dagger.
"It isn't the famous captain Marina herself?" the man took the cigar out of his mouth,
"Wow, I wouldn't have recognized you if it wasn't for your face. What happened to you? You've been eating less?"
Michael did not react at all as he remained behind Maxine without uttering a word.
"Or did you become poor after deserting Pirate Lord Corey's fleet?"
"What the fuck do you care?" Marina snickered,
Just by the exchange of these words, Gibson could tell the two of them have some bad blood between them.
"I have a hundred thousand reasons to care" the smile on his face grew wider.
"Someone put a bounty on my head i assume" Maxine shrugged without a shred of worry,
"Aren't you a smart one?" The man put the cigar back in his mouth,
"You can try putting your hands on me" Maxine cracked her knuckles as the man just shook his head,
"I would love to, especially now you aren't as fat as you were. Luckily for you, Pirate Lord Vance ordered us not to take on the bounty. So if I were you, I will get on that ship of yours" he looked at the rowboat with a mocking smile on his face,
"And row as fast as you can away from the continent"
"Get out of my face, we have a ship to buy" Maxine waved her hands off as though she was shooing him away.
And just as she was about to take a step forward, the man burst into laughter,
"Buy a ship? Fuck me. You have no idea what's going on do ya?" Maxine frowned, clenching her fists. She wanted to punch the smug off of his face,
"What?" she didn't hide the annoyance in her voice,
"No one is selling ships here or anywhere for that matter. Every single ship's being built is going to the Pirate Lord themselves. Since you abandoned your ship, crew, and Pirate Lord Corey, you are not getting a new ship baby, no matter how much you pay"
Michael had a weird feeling listening to the man. Also, he was getting annoyed as he wanted to grab the man by his neck, beat the hell out of him, and make him spill out what was going on.
"Some moron king from Ozer is sending a war fleet into the void line. They might be big assholes on the other side of the void line. SInce they are coming to our world, we are gonna tear them a new one"
The trio was surprised, including Michael himself. He wondered who dared to cross the void line, battle with pirates and hope to win in their own territory.
"What king?" Maxine asked. This time, her voice did not show any signs of irritation but curiosity.
The man closed his eyes, looking as though he was picking his brain to remember the name,
"Masia…Rosia…yeah" he snapped his fingers as he opened his eyes,
"Thusia…Kingdom Thusia"
The mere mention of the name made Michael clench his fist. His heart began to beat faster and faster. Gibson noticed Lucifer starting to breath faster as well as the clenched fist,
"Calm down Michael" Michael ordered himself in his mind before the other persona took control over his body. If that persona came outside, the entire island would be painted in red with their blood.
Fortunately, his extreme control over himself, as well as the meditation, kept his anger under control.