Lucian was left alone in the cell. The whole ship was in chaos. Screams, shouts, and running steps echoed above his head, making it impossible to sleep.
"Lock the cannons! Search every corner! I want that bastard's head!"
He heard Miss Karina's father's voice among them, demanding to know what happened to his daughter. The hunt for Mathieu began, with ships being sent out to capture him.
Miss Karina underestimated the scale of Lucian's goals. He needed more than a safe route and a big business deal. He needed the whole sea to be under his control.
Voice could read his mind and knew what he wanted to do with her. It didn't protest, nor did it try to stop him from killing Miss Karina. Her death seemed to serve the shackles more than her life ever did. Which crossed the awakened shackled's importance off Lucian's list. They were as discardable as any other person.
'They don't want to make it easy for Mathieu either, huh.'
He thought Mathieu would be more favored as an invader than a native.
'How talented is he to be able to cultivate without spending a single gold coin?'
Mathieu was an unfavored child with a very limited budget. Lucian didn't find any streams of income that could explain his ability to reach gold rank at his age. And he never visited the church for blessings either. Mathieu was getting it from Adeline alone.
Once the commotion died down, Nilo unlocked Lucian's cell, and smuggled him out of the ship through a crate, with the help of his pirate friends. They were 'discarding' him per Miss Karina's orders, albeit a bit late.
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"It's a bit cramped in here," Nilo invited Lucian to his humble home, which was a small shack at the outskirts of Black Heart. It was barely standing, the roof leaking and the walls full of holes.
The neighboring buildings were made of similar cheap materials, with trash scattered everywhere.
Lucian stepped inside the small room. It had a single bed, a table, and two chairs.
"Sorry for the mess, Father," Nilo said, kicking the dirty laundry under the bed, and motioning for Lucian to sit on one of the chairs.
Lucian sat down, resting his elbows on the table.
"You can stay here for the night," Nilo said, lighting a candle on the table, "We can't protect you forever. You have to leave this place as soon as possible."
"How did you end up here, Nilo?" Lucian asked, watching the flame dance on the candle.
Nilo sighed, sitting across from him. The candle brought out the dark circles under his eyes. His hair was a darker shade of orange, dull like a rusty coin.
"A certain noble house thought my hair color had some potential...so they bought me from my family," he began, reminiscing, "Turns out, I wasn't what they expected. It cost more to train me than I earned."
He paused, his gaze dropping to the scar on the back of his hand, "I had to drop out of the academy and pay off the debt they said I owed them."
He rested his elbows on his knees, his head hung low. "I didn't know how to face my family, how to tell them I wasted their hopes on a talentless man like me."
Lucian played with the candle's wax, letting it drip on his fingers, and shaping it into a small ball. He didn't speak, letting Nilo continue at his own pace. The way he spoke sounded like he dropped out of the academy just recently, no accent or roughness to his words.
Nilo caught the wax ball Lucian rolled across the table to him, and began to play with it, "I thought I would find my way back to my family after I paid off my debt, but...I like this life. I make money, I spend it, and that's it. Oh right!"
He reached for his pocket and placed a big silver coin in front of Lucian, "Not paying for blessings is considered bad luck. I don't want to anger the Gods."
Lucian picked up the coin and flipped it between his fingers. Nilo was also superstitious like most northerners.
"When does your contract with D'Angelo ends?" Lucian asked.
"Two weeks," Nilo answered, "Cray Roderick just became Sapphire rank this year. Rides with him should bring better loot, so we plan to join him."
"What if you don't get a spot on his ship?" Lucian asked, remembering how he was thrown out of Cray's ship after his failed suicide attempt. Banging his head against the wall and throwing up all over the cell could have been a factor too, "I heard he only wants loyal subordinates."
"There's a saying in Black Heart," Nilo stood up and opened a cabinet, taking out a bottle of cheap alcohol, "You don't choose your ship, the ship chooses you. If you are meant to sail under a certain flag, you will be drawn to it. The moment I saw it, I knew I wanted to sail with it. I will prove my loyalty no matter what."
He poured two glasses and gave one to Lucian.
"Let's hope you get on the ship you want, then." Lucian lifted his glass. Ships had a limited number of spots available, and there were more pirates than ships. He needed talented individuals, thus decided not to recruit Nilo.
"I wonder if they've found Glory's founder. I heard he is a hay head with golden eyes. If yours weren't brown, you would have been a suspect," Nilo joked before downing the whole glass, "And I would have been able to get a good reward for turning you in."
Lucian chuckled, finishing his own glass. Ten thousand gold coins if found alive, none if dead, was the bounty on his head, "Probably on his way home in the Royal Navi's ship. He has a few friends in high places."
Nilo laughed, "Should teach him a lesson .. You don't mess with pirates in their territory. No matter who you are. Glory has grown too big for his boots. A proper ass-whooping will put him back in his place."
Lucian nodded, holding his glass for a refill, "I couldn't agree more."
Nilo excused himself, returning to the ship for the next voyage. He left the bottle with Lucian, who poured himself another glass.
'Should I recruit a few people before I leave?' he asked himself, his eyes on the candle flame. He rested on his arm and continued to stare at it.