"Trash! All of you are trash!" Earl Offrey's voice was a raw, furious snarl as he paced before the huddled group of Sky Pirates, his face a twisted mask of pure anger.
He stopped in front of their captain, leaning in so close the man could smell the expensive wine on his breath. "Do you have any idea what kind of catastrophic mistake you've just made? If you have an urge to rob someone, you find some minor lordling with no real power, some backwater baron who can't fight back! But you… you imbeciles had to go and attack a Duke's personal territory! Are you actively trying to get us all killed? Is that your grand plan?"
The Sky Pirates captain stiffened, but still forced himself to reply. "Boss, we genuinely didn't know it was Redgrave land. The place looked poor and abandoned from every angle… it didn't resemble anything a duke would care about."
His excuse wasn't completely unreasonable. From the outside, nothing about the region looked like it belonged to one of the most influential families in the kingdom. The land was remote, lacking guards, filled with small isolated villages, and looked like the perfect target. After all, they had been doing this kind of business for years, snatching peasants, turning them into slaves, and selling them to nobles who wanted cheap labor. Everyone in that circle knew it was happening, but pretended not to see, as long as the profits kept flowing.
But then, Gilbert Redgrave, the heir of the Redgrave family, suddenly arrived in person. That was the moment their entire routine fell apart. Only then did they realize how badly they had misjudged the situation. They had offended someone who shouldn't be touched, not even accidentally.
Earl Offrey's menacing glare didn't waver; it only intensified, his eyes promising a slow, painful death. "I don't give a single damn about your excuses, you garbage. I don't care if it looked like the gods themselves had abandoned it. You have single-handedly pissed off a Duke, and now you need to think very, very carefully about what happens when a man with that much power and an army to match decides he wants revenge. So stop whining and start thinking of a solution, or I'll hand your corpses to him myself."
The Sky Pirates stood there, humiliated, their heads bowed under the torrent of insults from this upstart merchant who had bought his way into a title.
How dare this mongrel, who had clawed his way into the nobility with dirty money and dirtier deals, speak to them as if they were filth beneath his boots?
The captain, in particular, seethed with a deep, personal hatred for the Earl, but he was pragmatic enough to know he had no choice but to submit and find a way out of this disaster.
"I… I have a solution, my Lord," the captain began, his voice tight with suppressed rage. "I understand how nobles think. What Redgrave wants now is to restore his public reputation and reclaim his honor. We must give him that victory publicly. We will stage a massive defeat. We will make it look like his forces have crushed us, that we are broken and fleeing. Then, we will disappear from the kingdom completely, for a decade at least. It's the only way to appease his pride without an all-out war."
A slow, calculating smirk spread across Earl Offrey's lips. "Oh…? You seem to understand the fragile egos of nobility a little too well for a common cutthroat. Fine. Your plan has a sliver of merit. Go, immediately. Round up all the slaves you have in your pens, every last wretched soul. Dress them in your colors, make them look like our crew. Then, you will release them in a chaotic, disorganized mob right in the middle of Redgrave's territory. We will spread the rumor far and wide that the mighty Duke Redgrave has personally vanquished the fearsome Sky Pirates, that he has liberated their captives and driven the scum from his lands."
His expression shifted into something colder. "If the duke and his heir understand this as a compromise, good. If they don't… then they can only blame themselves when things escalate."
He gestured lazily toward the exit. "Now go. Stop wasting my time. If any of you fail this task, I will personally see to it that you and every man who sails under you are ground into paste. Now go."
"Yes, my lord," the pirates answered quickly.
They bowed their heads and backed out of the hall with stiff movements, each of them understanding that their survival depended entirely on whether this desperate plan succeeded.
…
"Father, this was way too easy," Gilbert commented, his voice a low rumble as the last echoes of cannon fire faded from the air.
He had just single-handedly bombarded the entire Sky Pirate fleet into scattered, burning debris with his personal mecha.
Now, he landed the towering machine with a heavy, ground-shaking thud on the floating island's surface.
The hydraulics hissed as the cockpit hatch slid open, and he jumped down, his boots crunching on the scorched earth as he approached his father, Vince Rapha Redgrave.
"Hmph. They're just mere sky trash. What else did you expect?" Vince said, not even bothering to look at the wreckage as he crossed his arms over his broad chest, his expression one of pure, unadulterated disdain.
Around them, the knights of House Redgrave, who had also been cocked inside their own mechas, prepared to follow their lords.
They powered down their machines and began to disembark, but they halted their movements the moment both father and son strode past them without a second glance.
Vince and Gilbert entered a sleek, black sports car that had been waiting nearby.
With a low, powerful hum, the vehicle's anti-gravity engines engaged, and it lifted smoothly from the ground, driving straight up into the sky as if the air were a solid road.
A normal person might wonder why a car was floating in the air, but in Mobuseka, bikes fly, boats fly; hell, even houses fly if someone had enough money.
Of course a car could fly too.
This world wasn't grounded like Earth.
Everything sat on floating islands, drifting in the sky.
In this world, the sky is king.
They didn't go far.
Vince brought the sports car to a perfect, hovering stop in the middle of the vast, open sky, the endless blue expanse stretching in every direction.
It was here, in this private, airborne bubble, that Gilbert's complexion turned heavy and serious.
He glanced around, confirming it was just the two of them, completely isolated from prying ears.
"So," Gilbert began, voice lowering, "should we accept this compromise? From the looks of it, whoever is behind this really wants peace, sending those Sky Pirates to die just to show they're serious."
Vince let out a quiet chuckle, almost amused by the audacity. "Those upstart Earl families are getting bold. Too bold. To challenge us? Whether it's the royal family's support, our standing in the kingdom, our wealth, the influence we have amassed for generations... it is not something a family of brainless, social-climbing merchants like them could ever hope to challenge."
Gilbert narrowed his eyes. "So? What's your answer, father?"
"The answer is simple." Vince leaned back in his seat, a cunning smirk forming. "We force them to send one of their children to us as a hostage. Then, I will send that boy or girl to the village where those two promising youngsters live."
Gilbert raised a brow, letting his father continue.
"They'll learn exactly who destroyed their village, who caused their suffering, and they'll also know that we took care of the problem. When they grow up, those two kids will become fiercely loyal to House Redgrave." Vince's voice sharpened, full of calculated cruelty.
"Moreover, they will have no other house to turn to, especially not when the Earl's own child is held right there under their watch. The Earl's family will be permanently offended, and those two will be bound to us forever, caught in the same web of vengeance and obligation. Permanently." Vince's eyes flashed with cold conviction.
His voice held the calm, ruthless certainty of a man who had played the noble game far longer than his enemies.
"Whether they like it or not, their future will belong to House Redgrave."
This plan was a masterstroke. It not only earned the favor of the village's most promising youths, but it also bound them tightly to his house, wrapping them in chains of gratitude and shared vengeance, giving them absolutely no chance to ever escape his grasp.
It was the perfect maneuver, hitting two birds with one stone and securing their futures for the Redgrave family.
Having a magic healer of such pure potential and a future knight with a burning grudge under his roof was a desperately welcomed addition to his forces.
He would cultivate them, train them, and forge them into perfect weapons loyal only to him. He refused to share such valuable assets with the royal families or any other house, no matter what.
The situation was made even more convenient by the Sky Pirates' own shame. The pirates themselves never breathed a word to the Earl that they had been beaten back by mere children.
Why would they? An entire crew of hardened adult marauders being humiliated and repelled by a boy and a girl was utterly embarrassing.
How could they ever be willing to share that news without becoming the laughingstock of the entire underworld?
So, they kept their failure a tightly guarded secret, and by extension, so did the Duke and his family, who now held all the cards.
"Alright, father. I will tell them the plan," Gilbert said, before a look of confusion clouded his face. "But… which Earl are you even talking about?"
Vince's face instantly darkened, his previous satisfaction evaporating into stern disapproval. "You don't know? You are my son and heir, and you are not aware of the players on our own board?"
"Urgh... Let me think, father..." Gilbert stammered, scrambling under his father's intense gaze, terrified of disappointing him.
Then, a spark of recognition lit his eyes. "Yeah! It must be that Offrey family. The description fits them perfectly—new money merchants who bought their way into an Earl's title."
Vince breathed a sigh of relief at his son's last-minute enlightenment and finally beamed a genuine, proud smile at him.
"Good. You are learning. And don't forget the final touch—tell them to pay us a significant reparation sum as well. We will give that money directly to the head of the village to fix whatever those pirates wrecked. It will make us look even more like benevolent saviors in the eyes of those commoners."
"Yes, father. I understand completely," Gilbert nodded, his confidence returning.
With the matter settled, they started the sports car's engines and continued their journey home, the threat of the Sky Pirates who had so foolishly appeared in their territory now nothing more than fading smoke and a memory.
...
Meanwhile, in the opulent halls of the royal palace, the King listened with a bored expression as a courtier relayed the news of the Redgrave family being attacked by Sky Pirates, and their subsequent, glorious victory.
The story was already spreading loud and wide across the kingdom, with many commoners cheering that the pirate scourge had finally been pushed back from their skies, at least for now.
Slouched on his throne, King Roland propped his head lazily in his hand, his eyes half-closed as he listened to the tale of the Redgrave family's latest feat.
The Queen, seated beside him, leaned in slightly.
"So, my dear," she began, her voice a soft murmur. "What do you think we should do? Should we send the Redgraves a sum of money to aid in their recovery, or perhaps a royal decree to publicly honor their…?"
Before she could even finish her sentence, Roland interrupted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It's just a farce. A political performance staged for the masses. I know exactly what it is, so there is no need for us to do anything. Trust me, the Redgraves have already gained far more from this little spectacle than they have lost. Their reputation is bolstered, their influence grows, and they have a new excuse to tighten their grip on their territory. Sending them money would be like rewarding an actor for a particularly convincing scene."
After all, how could he, as the King, not know about the Sky Pirates' shady dealings with certain nobles?
He allowed their existence to continue because, for the moment, their activities, the movement of certain goods, the disruption of certain rival trade routes ultimately benefited the crown's economy and kept troublesome nobles in check. It was a dirty, unspoken arrangement.
But his tolerance had its limits.
He watched and he calculated.
If the pirates' value ever shifted, if they ever became more of a loss than a profit to the kingdom's stability, he would show them no mercy.
The same went for the Redgraves, or any other family that grew too bold.
For now, he would let them play their games, all from the comfort of his throne.