"Kaeya, you, the True Lord Ice-Bridge Across the Sea, may begin your performance."
"True Lord Ice-Bridge Across the Sea? Me?"
Kaeya froze slightly when he heard that unfamiliar title. Since when had he ever had a nickname like that?
Ningguang and the others looked rather strange. The term "True Lord" sounded like something from their Liyue, like Moon Carver or Cloud Retainer.
When had there been an extra "True Lord Ice-Bridge Across the Sea"? And a Mondstadter, no less.
They did not know Kaeya was from Khaenri'ah.
"Why call me that?" Kaeya asked in confusion.
"Kaeya, your skill Frostgnaw releases freezing cold air forward, doesn't it? It can freeze a fan-shaped area into ice, and the ice lasts quite a while," Koji said.
Kaeya understood. The corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.
So that was what "freezing ice to cross the sea" meant.
It was honestly speechless-inducing. Though, to be fair, he had used Frostgnaw before to help the Knights of Favonius cross rivers.
"I do have that skill, yes. But using it to freeze a path across the sea? Forget it. That would be exhausting." Kaeya shook his head helplessly.
The elemental consumption for Frostgnaw was acceptable, but the range was limited. If he got distracted and failed to refresh the ice in time, everyone would end up as drowned rats.
"Also, I'm not a pirate," Kaeya corrected.
"Judging by your skin tone and that eyepatch, Kaeya, you really do fit the image of a pirate," Eula said with a smile.
"Exactly, little brother. Your skin is darker than mine, and I'm someone who sails all year round. Were you born like that?" Beidou asked with a laugh.
Kaeya: "…"
His skin tone was natural. It really had nothing to do with being a pirate.
"Little brother, want to join my fleet? I feel like you'd fit in very well," Beidou asked with a grin.
"Uh, I'll pass."
Kaeya had no intention of going to sea. His current position was already quite nice, and it gave him plenty of time to slack off.
"Kazuha, we've worked as mercenaries before, but we've never been the kind of pirates who burn, kill, and loot."
Beidou was straightforward and generous by nature. Even when she worked as a mercenary, she always investigated the situation first and never helped villains commit evil.
"Big Sis Beidou, we're not pirates in the traditional sense. There's no difference from before," Kazuha said helplessly.
Had she even listened to what Koji said? Also, why did she seem so happy about becoming a pirate?
"What's the problem? We're not robbing civilians. There are so many pirates out there. We can just rob the pirates instead," Beidou said casually.
"Beidou, did you tell Hu Tao about that mercenary job you took?" Eula asked with a half-smile.
Back then, her informant had provided an interesting piece of intelligence: Beidou had accepted an invitation from the Inazuma Resistance. Although they had not ended up fighting in the end, the nature of the matter was a little too sensitive.
"If you had truly participated, that matter would have escalated into an issue between two nations."
Beidou laughed and said, "Wasn't there still you? I trust the methods of Ningguang, the Tianquan."
"Besides, I agreed to Kokomi's request because the Sakoku Decree was very unfriendly to cargo transporters like us. If it could be lifted, that would be better than anything."
Ningguang shook her head helplessly. If the incident had truly come to light, even she would have had quite the headache dealing with it.
"Dear, what should we name our pirate crew?" Lumine asked.
"The Traveling Pirates?" Koji was too lazy to come up with a name.
"That's so perfunctory. But whatever, let's go with that." Lumine had no real objections.
"Mom, can we blast fish here?" Klee blinked her bright, watery eyes and asked curiously.
"Of course. There are also many super-huge fish here, but the seawater is rather deep. We'll need to modify our bombs a bit." Alice rubbed her delicate chin and slowly said.
This was the sea, not an ordinary lake. The big fish were basically all in the deep sea, so they needed bombs that could reach that depth.
Everyone: "…"
Listening to the mother and daughter's conversation, everyone looked at one another in speechless silence. Aside from their appearances, the two of them really did both love bombs.
"Wano is a pretty good place. You can blow that place up," Koji suggested with a smile.
Those who knew what Wano represented all smiled knowingly. But there was no rush. It would not be too late to blow Wano up when they aimed at it later.
Since they were going to be "pirates," they naturally needed a pirate ship. The ship everyone rode was Beidou's Alcor. This ship even dared to cross Inazuma's thunderstorm barrier, so its quality was absolutely rock-solid.
"Little ones, from now on, we are pirates! Put some spirit into it and don't embarrass Liyue!" Beidou shouted heroically.
"Now that we're pirates, I have nothing to do with Liyue."
Ningguang shook her head. She had no desire to let Liyue lose face, and besides, piracy was not exactly an honorable profession.
As the sea breeze blew past, Ningguang's thoughts gradually drifted far away. The last time she had ridden a ship had been many years ago.
After becoming one of the Qixing, she instead had far less free time. Relaxing like this was not bad.
"Kaeya, didn't you say you weren't a pirate? Then why are you so professional with that spyglass?" Koji teased with a smile.
Kaeya stood atop the lookout platform, his movements extremely standard. He was practically displaying the full essence of what a pirate should look like.
Still, this kind of piracy was not bad. It was very free, like being an adventurer. As a "Mondstadter," he found it rather enjoyable.
Boom, boom, boom—
Alice and Klee tested the bombs they had modified. The tremendous impact made even the Alcor shake along with it.
"Can you two throw them farther away? Don't blow up my beloved ship," Beidou said irritably.
"Don't worry. And even if we accidentally blow it up, I do know a little about ship repair," Alice said with a smile.
Although she said that, she still restrained herself a little. It was not that she could not afford to compensate Beidou; she simply did not want to go swimming in the sea.
"Big Sis Beidou, there's a strange fruit floating over there on the sea," Kaeya shouted.
Through the spyglass, he saw a fruit with strange patterns floating on the surface of the water.
"Oh?"
Beidou became interested. She immediately headed in that direction and had the strange fruit fished up. The fruit had lightning patterns on it, making it look related to thunder and lightning.
"A Devil Fruit. Judging by the look of it, it should be a Paramecia-type."
Koji examined it.
Blessing of Appraisal, activate!
A Paramecia-type Electric Shock Fruit. If someone ate this thing, they could release crackling electric currents. It could be considered a lower-level version of the Logia-type Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Still, it was a pretty decent Devil Fruit. Lightning as an element had no weak offensive power.
"Who wants to eat it?"
Koji explained the ability. To him, it was completely useless. Besides, according to rumors, Devil Fruits tasted like eating crap, so he had absolutely no intention of eating it.
(End of Chapter)
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