.^^ Captain w/ Magic Musket ^^

— Josef —

The grappling hook tensed, trying to find a setting on the boat, and I braced one foot, then simply pulled as hard as I could, smirking at the surprised shouts and the one splash I heard afterwards, but then the rope hauled again, halting my celebration.

Vanya laughed. "See? S- is the average, lovely. Settle in for a fight!" She knocked another hook out of the air with a sword she'd pulled off her belt, and I turned back to the water, releasing the hook.

"Or I'll avoid the battle entirely..." I hummed, and searched my grimoire, finding a freezing spell. "Ah... this should do." I nodded, and froze all the water around the enemy ship, making it into a floating iceberg, and following that up with a spell to instantly turn ice into steam, creating a steam explosion of powerful proportions.

The ship vaporized entirely, the resultant shockwave pushing our ship a good two hundred meters across the surface of the water, and we saw two more ships, abandoning our pursuit for the wreckage, quickly fishing the survivors (of which there were many more than I expected; the entire crew, it seemed,) out of the freezing water.

"They all survived that? Rather impressive, I'd say..." I hummed. "Either way, Captain, onwards. Ignore them for now." I froze the water behind us, preventing any further chase, and sat back down.

Vanya frowned at me. "You're no fun, sometimes."

"There'll be plenty of fighting when we get to shore, Vanya, but for now we probably should avoid making enemies for no reason." I shrugged.

"That's true, I suppose. Destroying the ship is an insult, sure, but also a warranted response to an attempted boarding. After all, only a fool would wage war with the expectation of zero casualties or losses..." she sighed, and sat back down, waving the sailors back to their duties.

Most of the crew were women, selected by Vanya from amongst mercenaries from her old homeland, our destination. Surprisingly, or should I say unsurprisingly, given my new knowledge that nearly all Warriors from this society were S- or better, they were all of that same rank, which was apparently a cut-off for most normal adventurers.

'Why is that, do you think?' I asked The Messenger, curious.

'The Peak of the Mortal Form is S-. Anything after that is considered to be Demigod territory. The gods decide who can or cannot reach that level of attainment. Creatures are of a different scale, uncontrollable by the gods of civilization. Different gods decide the powers of Beasts.' She responded casually.

'I see... so the gods might be a bit miffed that I created six SS+ ArchLich?'

'No, UnDead are governed by the Gods of Death and the Underworld. They're pretty lax, seeing as every soul you summon is one they don't have to deal with.'

'Ahh, good to know.' I nodded.

"Dragon Sighted! Young, it seems, and skinny!" The lookout barked.

I glanced at the dragon, and hummed. "Send it off with a warning shot, Captain, we've no interest in hunting dragons today!" I called out.

He nodded, and raised a musket, sighting and firing in only a few seconds. The barrel spouted a flash of blue magic, and the musket-ball, made of tungsten and charged with lightning magic, slammed the joint of its wing, breaking it and making it careen towards the water.

It flapped it's one wing laboriously, and then splashed down, grasping the side of the ship for dear life. (Apparently, dragons could not swim, an odd bit of information I had not been aware of until Francois had refused to play in the lake I'd had made for him. They were too heavy, he informed me, and their flight was made possible with magic, not pure physics, like birds or bats.)

As it clawed it's way aboard, its hissed in its language, growling in pain. "I concede, humans, only kill me on land, not toss me to my doom in the briny depths."

I smiled and walked over, patting her snout. "No worries, little one. You will be healed and fed, not killed. I would happily send you to my home, where another High-Dragon lives. He would enjoy the company, I'm sure."

She flinched, and sniffed me. "Ahh... a Dragon-Slayer who has awakened a Dragon's Therianthropy... you can be trusted, methinks." She bowed her head, without the need for any Taming, and I healed her wing, then sent her to the Dragon Mountain, before turning back to the crew.

Vanya laughed softly, shattering the shocked silence. "Well, I suppose that was to be expected. Are you going to take all the dragons? Because we wouldn't mind that at all."

"I might, actually. Dragons can't swim, so placing them on Islands was likely an attempt to kill them all off or isolate them, then the elves and Fae found the islands as well, and decided to shove in on the dragons's territory. Add in the food shortages, due to the mortal inhabitants taking the dragons's food sources, and doubtless the elves hunting the dragons, I'm not surprised that they began to hunt you." I shrugged, and took a seat on a barrel.

She shrugged back sarcastically. "There is a debate as to who was here first, but it doesn't really matter. We're born strong enough to hunt them, because we've been doing it for several millennia."

"Mm." I nodded, and looked at the Captain. "Good shot, though."

He grinned, looking pleased with himself, and began to correct our course.

—

A relatively large, bustling port city was not what I expected, when we pulled into the capital of these islands. Nearly the entire island, about four miles across, was covered in city; made up of ship yards, docks, fish-markets, spice-markets, and several other kinds.

"Wait... if they have such a bustling economy, why would they need to steal food?" I wondered aloud.

Vanya shook her head. "This is the only city in the entire country, Josef. There is no 'bustling economy', just one city full of fishmongers, whores, Sailors, Raiders, and foolish merchants who braved the harsh northern seas,-and the dragons,- just for the prospect of a little money."

"Well, as cities go, it isn't that bad. It'll make a decent base for trade, given its central location. Remove the issues of pirates and dragons, and it's actually rather perfect!" I chuckled.

She sighed deeply. "You think too highly of yourself sometimes, I think. You can't change an entire society in less than a decade."

"I did it in less than four months with the Dwarves of my City. Of course, After I built the entire city." I quipped dryly, and watched her slowly slip into a pensive expression.

The ship set anchor at the docks, then I stepped off, approaching the dockmaster. "Hello! My ship is docking, for about a week, I'd say, how much is the quarter?" I asked the short man holding a clipboard.

He gazed up at me, then at the ship, writing down the name and then doing some calculations based on our numbers. "That's 2 gold pieces, for a frigate of that size and crew of 14... cargo?"

"Diplomatic Mission, no cargo." I shrugged.

He hummed. "Half, then, so 1 gold piece."

"Done!" I grinned and handed him the gold piece, then looked at Vanya. "So, where to from here?"

She nodded, looking around. "The queen's hall is in the center of the island, surrounded by the Royal Guard and the Upper Barracks... We can request an audience there, and wait for the answer at an old tavern I remember; the best tavern wenches in the capital!" She laughed at a memory, and started walking into the city.

I settled one of my Royal Guards in the captain's quarters, to guard the ship, then followed, curious about the culture of this country, beyond the obvious love of piracy.

The first thing I noticed was the number of people. For a small island, it was packed with several times the amount of people it should be able to House, leading me to wonder about the policies regarding space and how much someone required to sleep.

Of course, being an island of elves and Fae, sleep was less of a necessity, with the average elf sleeping only once in a three day period, but still, it surprised and concerned me, until I remembered the thousands of ships at various ports all around the island. These people likely slept on their ships, and came here for the large number of prostitutes, of which I believe may have outnumbered the clientele, funnily enough.

Nearly one in three buildings was a brothel of some sort, (of every sort that existed, actually,) and I found myself amused with the selection; then I noticed the collars, and I halted in my tracks.

Vanya noticed me no longer behind her, and returned, grinning when she saw I was staring at a beautiful dark-skinned elf woman. "Ahh, you've found something you like? I can negotiate for price, if you-"

"Are these women slaves, Vanya?" My voice cracked and growled in a savage mockery of Dominique the dragon, against my will, and she flinched, stepping a full arm-length away from me on reflex.

She glanced around, at the hole I'd drilled in the pulsing masses that walked the streets, now all giving us space for the first time since we stepped off the boat, and then at the woman I'd been staring at. "Some of them, I suppose, but not most... you don't want to start that fight, Josef... you really don't." She warned slowly.

I tore my gaze away from the woman's collar, and glared at Vanya, feeling my eyes pulse with heat. "I REALLY do."

She breathed deeply, and stepped closer to me cautiously, placing her hands on my chest. "Trust me, no women are raped on this island, Josef. Those women chose this profession, and their customers know that if anything is done to them they don't like, punishment comes swiftly and harshly. Any slaves you see are serving willingly, because if they didn't want that job, there are others. The idea of Slavery you're thinking of died out thousands of years ago, here. Let me be clear- Slavery, here, simply means that those people owe debts, and the Queen allows them to pay those debts in a variety of ways: some choose military service, or raiding, some take to whoring, hell, some even repay their debts by cleaning up in a tavern! They have a choice, always. Remember, society run by women, my dear, we do not abuse our women, or even our men." She explained calmingly.

I cracked my neck slowly, and nodded. "So by Slavery, you mean they're Debtors; they're not bought and sold like pieces of meat, they're simply citizens that are marked as owing substantial debts to the Queen, and as such are working for a reduced salary?" I clarified, slowly calming down.

She smiled. "Yes. Now, we do capture enemies in our naval battles, but they're ransomed back to the other countries after we heal them up as best we can." She relaxed entirely, and the crowd started closing back in, sending the loss of tension.

I snarled softly and grew my wings to their full size, flexing them slowly, and the crowd parted again like water. "Fine... I suppose that's better than I'd imagined. Lucky you. Let us continue forward." I started walking again, in the direction we'd been going.

—

The barracks were exactly as I'd imagined; a low, squat building made of stone, dug about twenty feet into the ground, and full of small rooms, designed for two people at the most.

A reddish stone was the main building material of the island, I'd noticed, but these were made of a darker, near-Black stone, carved with Runes. They created a protective ring around the interior 'castle', which, as I couldn't see it from the outside, was likely only one story, also dug down into the surrounding red rock.

Two guards door at the south entrance, armed and standing a casual watch, while eight more were visible in the open common room behind them, keeping an eye on the door and a hand near their weapons, despite their projected nonchalance.

Surprisingly, three of the ten were men, and all ten radiated the same feeling that I'd gotten from the captain of our little ship; the feeling I associated with S- Ranked Warriors. Though, one of them did feel a bit stronger than the others, it wasn't as impressive as Vanya, so I ignored it.

When the guards pointed their swords at me, I realized my wings were still visible, so I let them retract into my back, and looked at Vanya. "Well? How does one request an audience with the Queen?"

She nodded to the guards, stepping swiftly in front of me. "Like so: Hello, all, I am Vanya, a Lost One of the Raiding Clans. My master, the Red Duke, wishes to speak to the queen and the elders, about a pressing political matter, at her earliest convenience. We will be at the Red Snake Tavern, should She wish to accept and send a messenger to signal her will."

The guards looked at her, then me, and one nodded, whistling sharply at one of the eight people inside. The stronger one stood, bowing her head to Vanya, then stepped through a heavy iron door, disappearing.

Vanya didn't move yet, so I busied myself forming a plan of attack for the small, yet robust building, to amuse myself.

The low, thick walls would designate themselves as the largest factor of defense, but the Runes were the issue, so removing or destroying those, silently, would be acceptable. Once they were gone, only these paper soldiers were in the way, and they were little to no issue as well. Therefore, the only issue was a lack of a floor-plan. There could be a maze in there, for all I knew, and mazes were rather annoying and extremely effective. Shifting mazes even more so.

I would have to build one for my own compound, and my city. That would be a good stop-gap for invaders... having a lift and pulley system to take invited guests up and over the maze would be interesting... well, a lift on either side and a straight path atop the maze wouldn't be difficult... Ah, I've gone off topic, I should focus again...

Destroying such a small island wouldn't be much of an issue, but I would have to make sure to cull any collateral damage; it wasn't my intention to start a war, after all, only make sure the raids and slavery stopped... if Vanya is to be trusted on the subject, those 'slaves' are little more than workers who will pay off their debts, but how is that very different from slavery? I suppose their status being above pieces of property is nice, but surely there's other ways to manage debt than a form of serfdom?

"Josef? You're surrounded by thousands of mind-readers." Vanya whispered quietly.

"And?" I frowned.

"Maybe... don't think about conquering the city?" She suggested breathlessly, and I looked up to find the guards with their swords to her throat, and four more surrounding me. I haven't even registered them, they mattered so little to me. "And maybe don't insult them?" She added as their eyes narrowed.

"Whyever not? They have no right inside my thoughts, and the privacy of my own thoughts is entirely outside of their purview of punishment. Also, they couldn't kill me if they tried, let's be honest. Now! Where is that Messenger? Are we to wait here all day, or go for that drink you promised me? Lovely tavern wenches, Stiff drinks, all that?" I suggested, still ignoring the guards.

She sighed, as they glared thunderously. "Honestly, do you insist on insulting every person you meet?"

"Only the ones who threaten me." I shrugged.

She was spared responding to my arrogant remark, as the iron door moved, and the one who'd left re-entered, escorting an older woman who clearly didn't need any help walking, despite her age. She was built like a lithe tree, if such a mixture existed. Thin, but only as an optical illusion, caused by her height, which nearly equaled mine.

She glanced around at us, silent for now, only examining Vanya and I as she walked towards us. Her face was very close to mine, suddenly, and I grinned at the attempt to make me uncomfortable. "Güten tag, I suspect you're someone important? That'll make this easier. Have you a reply to our question, so we can go about our day until the meeting?"

She hummed, and nodded, taking a step back. "The Queen will see you at dawn. You serve the King of Thorns, Yes?"

"I serve myself, the Emperor is simply the person who believes he holds a leash upon my throat like a captive beast, or a hunting dog. However, my interests align with his, so I see no reason to rebel against him... and you're doing something to make me extra-honest, aren't you? It's impressive, but I don't necessarily care if you ask me questions. I have nothing to hide." I shrugged, ignoring the spell on my tongue. (It tasted somewhat like cayenne, which was not altogether unpleasant.)

She raised an eyebrow, as the guards around us shifted, more arriving and standing in concentric circles around Vanya and I. "I see... and what purpose is that, that you share?"

"The freedom of the Dwarves, elimination of slavery, the savage and painful deaths of all who perpetuate that sickening practice, command of my own fate, and other casual goals of mine. And as for your country, I just want to stop the Raids and hire you as naval privateers, and use you to bolster the standing navy, who, let's face it, are a buncha worthless pansies." I used a finger to push a spear away from my throat, as it was pressing too close to my jugular, and it shattered, making its owner step back quickly.

She narrowed her eyes at the shattered spear, and then looked back at me. "Alright... I will relay your message to the Queen. Return here in the morning."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Good night, all! Vanya, let's go get that drink, yeah? These smallfry pointing weapons at me is making me want to get drunk. That's a rare feeling, for me." I sighed and started walking through the spears, allowing them to shatter like twigs in the forest, and she followed me out.