“Sister Aster is so awesome!! You went to find the leader and dealt with him yourself!!”
“Mmmm~”
“He looks pretty strong~ Yet sister Aster managed to beat him so easily!!”
“Mmmm~”
“I knew it! I still have a long way to go before I can catch up with sister Aster!”
“Muehehe~ Squishy abs~”
I wasn’t really paying attention to what Odeta was saying since I was busy squeezing her wonderful abs.
Like I thought, they had absolutely no problems clearing out the entire outpost by themselves and I wager even this pirate leader would have been easily thrashed by them too.
Emilia went up to the dead pirate Merman and nudged him with her foot, “So this guy is the leader?”
“Mmmm~” I replied noncommittally, feeling satisfied for the moment and pulling back from the Amrap.
She tilted her head at me, “So… Do we know who he is?”
“He said that he was known as Red Sabre Calder and boasted that he had a bounty of a hundred Creas,” I half lied.
He definitely did not introduce himself but he did claim that he had a hundred Crea bounty on his head so there’s that?
Emilia looked down at the dead pirate, “I’m surprised there’s even a pirate with a bounty all the way out here. But I guess they really are just a bunch of small-time pirates if their leader is only worth a hundred Creas.”
I perked up, “How much would a big name pirate be worth?”
That question made Emilia grin, “Heh heh~ It depends on what they’ve done but the biggest catch I’ve got was a pirate that had a fifty thousand Crea bounty on his head! Best catch so far even if I do say so myself~”
Woah~ That’s a medium Gold coin by itself and more than ten times the amount of money I have right now!
Odeta’s eyes sparkled, “Fifty thousand Creas?! Are you really rich, Emilia?!”
The Nekomata started laughing, “Ohohoho~ I own the biggest trading ship in the entire World, of course I’m rich!”
Oh wow… It’s the stereotypical noble lady’s laugh… I didn’t think I would hear it from someone like her, especially when I was sure she’s more of a yakuza boss lady type…
Maybe she just laughs like that when she’s flaunting her wealth?
I tilted my head at her, “Since you’re already that rich… Why are you still trying to earn more?”
“Haaa? Come now, Lady Aster! Surely you of all people would understand this! When has anyone ever said that they have enough money in their lives? Even with the amount of money I have, it could still run out if I stop earning more, you know? That’s why I need to amass even more wealth for myself!”
“Mmm… As much as I would agree that having more money is nice, have you heard the phrase ‘money is the root of all evil’?”𝔬𝔳𝔩xt.𝚌𝑂𝑚
Emilia blinked a few times at me, “That’s the first time I’ve heard it said like that… Though I am familiar with the phrase ‘All Crea with no love makes the hearth cold’. Does it mean the same thing?”
“Umm… I guess? It basically tells you not to prioritise money right?”
“Ohohoho~ That’s right. It basically claims that even if you have the money to build the biggest house in the world, it will still feel cold and empty if you do not care for the people around you~”
“That’s one way to put it… Are you not close with the people around you?”
“Ah! But here’s the thing, Lady Aster~ I’ve learned early that money is much more dependable than people! People can be bought with money and even your own trusted friends would stab you in the back for the right price!”
“What about a romantic partner?”
“Ohohoho~ Can love bring me profit? I don’t think so, Lady Aster~ Even love is worthless since that has a price tag too~ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had paid off people to sell out their own partners! That’s why love is pointless~”
Ok… I think I was better off not knowing that… To each their own I suppose? It’s her life after all so she’s free to choose how she wants to live it, I was just checking if she was aware of such dangers.
It’s not like I’m in a position to decide how she should live her life in the first place.
Looking back at the dead pirate, I gestured to him, “Is it bad that I killed him though? Would the bounty decrease?”
Emilia shook her head, returning to her usual self, “Oh, not at all! These bounties are usually the same whether the person is dead or alive. It’s just that you get a bonus if you turn them in alive but that’s usually not worth the hassle. Although there are cases where the person is wanted alive, those are rare and certainly worth more than a hundred Creas.”
“So how do we claim the bounty? Do we need to drag his corpse with us?”
Odeta flexed her arm, “Leave that to me, Aster! I can carry him, no problem!”
Emilia giggled, “Fufufu~ There’s no need for that. We just need to cut off a body part, like his hand for example, and that would be enough to claim the bounty at any of The Guild branches.”
“Eh? Not the head? How would they know who I killed then?”
“Oh? Lady Aster doesn’t know this huh? Is this your first bounty?”
“Err… Not exactly… I once fought a group of bandits but I captured them alive and brought them back to the knights to get a reward from them.”
Emilia nodded in understanding, “That’s easy if you have a way to transport them and it’s true that you only get a reward for non bounty targets for turning them in alive, but it’s not worth it in cases like this where we’re far away from the nearest Guild branch. We would just simply cut off their limbs and bring it there for them to identify with their identification magic.”
“Eh?! You can find out who the hand belongs to just like that?”
“That’s right, convenient isn’t it? That’s one of the ways we would make money while sailing out in the seas too~ Pirate hunting is quite profitable~”
“Doesn’t that mean that any corpse can be identified quite easily?”
“Fufufu~ that’s why it’s always a good idea to burn the bodies of people you don’t wish to be identified~ Or even better, just toss it into the sea and let monsters eat them~”
I won’t ask her how she knows that…
Odeta went towards the corpse and picked up his sabre from the floor, giving it a few test swings before bringing it down to slice the pirate’s hand off.
She then happily peeled off the pirate’s shirt to bundle the hand up before passing it to me with a proud look on her face.
“I got it, sister Aster!”
I took the bundle from her before looking at Emilia, “So… How do we split this? How does a fifty-fifty split sound?”
I didn’t ask Odeta this time since I already knew she wouldn’t want it anyway.
Emilia’s eyes immediately turned into money symbols, “Ooohh!! Lady Aster really knows me well! I would definitely not reject that!”
Well… I did consider the fact that both you and Odeta wiped out the rest of the outpost as well and I’m not shameless enough to just take that from you.
With that out of the way, I had to point out the biggest question here.
“So… Where do they store their loot?”
Emilia got even more excited at the prospect of getting even more money, “If I had to guess, it’s probably somewhere in the leader’s building! So let’s start looking for it there!”
The three of us went back inside the log house, stepping past the broken furniture that were a result of my fight with the pirate leader.
“Look for anything that might be used to hide treasures! Even under the floorboards!” The Nekomata cried out before rushing into the deeper parts of the building.
Odeta followed her advice by the letter and started ripping up the floorboards to look under the house.
I decided to go to the room I first found the leader in, guessing that he might have been trying to pack his loot to escape from here. And by loot, I meant sweets of course~
Pushing open the door, I found myself in what I assume to be the bedroom, which was a pure assumption on my part since most of the room was taken up by what looked like a fish tank which I thought served as the pirate leader’s bed.
I’m guessing he just floats inside to sleep?
Putting that aside, I found a very conspicuous chest leaning against the fish tank that I went ahead to open up, a little surprised that it was unlocked.
Looking inside, I found the only thing inside was an oddly shaped tube that reminded me of a thermos flask.
Curious, I took it out and found that I could uncap one of the ends to open it.
Inside the tube was a roll of parchment that I unfurled to read its contents.
Quickly scanning through the paper, I realised it was a drawing of a blueprint of a devic. A device that looked oddly similar to the tracking device that Emilia had showed us that pointed towards the location of her ship.
What’s this doing here?