Another pirate couldn't wait to speak up. "You're collecting our blood for some kind of ritual or curse, right? So that we'll always obey you and never betray you?"
"Mhm, you're now the vice class rep."
Lilith threw over another dagger. "Alright, everyone, let's begin."
The two "class reps" glanced at each other, then without hesitation, each drew a shallow line across their neck and squeezed out a few drops of blood.
"Good. The class reps have completed their demonstration—now it's your turn."
Lilith waved her wand again and conjured a dagger in front of every pirate. She placed her hands on her hips and asked sternly, "Tell me—who is Miss Lilith?"
The pirates responded in unison, "She's Professor Edward's teaching assistant!"
"And what else?"
"A real, genuine witch!"
"Very good!"
Lilith nodded in satisfaction. "Go on, then."
The pirates looked around at each other, hesitating. But once a few of them took the lead and cut themselves, the others followed suit, reasoning that being subjected to supernatural influence was still better than dying outright.
Once Edward confirmed that every pirate had cut themselves, he nodded solemnly. "I will always remember your contributions."
The next second, his eyes flashed: Magnify + Distortion.
A wave of Sequence 3 power swept across the deck, warping the shallow wounds on their necks into fatal ones.
In the blink of an eye, the pirates dropped like cut wheat stalks in a storm—one row after another, collapsing silently as they drew their final breaths.
Bernadette's first mate had made it clear when these pirates were delivered—they were all heinous criminals. Edward had no qualms about killing them.
He stood up and transmuted their corpses into stone, then sunk them into the depths of the sea.
"All done. Time to go back and eat and rest."
"Miss Lilith could eat a whole cow right now!"
"Alright, I'll watch you do it later."
Lilith: "0-0!"
———
Later that night…
After dinner and some idle chat with Klein, Edward returned to his room to sleep.
Who knew how much time had passed.
Edward suddenly jolted awake, eyes wide open, staring up at the wooden ceiling bathed in crimson moonlight.
His spiritual intuition was warning him—something was going on outside.
He glanced at his pocket watch. 3:26 AM. At this time, only the night shift sailors should be awake on the White Agate.
But the disturbance seemed to be coming from outside the ship.
Thinking it over, Edward pulled out his Invisibility Cloak and threw it over his shoulders.
Just as he was about to Apparate away, Lilith, who had been sleeping belly-up, suddenly opened her eyes. "Edward, where are you going?"
"Something's happening outside. I'm going to check."
"I'm coming too!"
"But bringing you along would be—"
"You can turn me back into a kitty," she tilted her head matter-of-factly.
"…Right. That was a lapse in creativity."
As soon as she turned back into a black cat, Lilith instantly perked up, zooming around the bed a few times like she was on an indoor racetrack. Then she darted into Edward's arms and raised a tiny paw. "Let's go!"
"Let's go~" Edward mimicked her tone, and with that, he Apparated silently to the highest point on the White Agate, surveying the surroundings from above.
Before long, he spotted a small passenger boat tucked in the shadow of the ship's hull.
Pirates again?
Edward's heart leapt with anticipation. He silently glided down from the high point, using the air resistance to slow his descent and land soundlessly on the smaller boat.
At the moment, a makeshift wooden bridge connected the two vessels. Under someone's direction, several figures were walking across it from the White Agate, carrying what looked like…blankets?
Wait, no—there were people rolled up in those blankets!
Looking more closely, Edward immediately recognised the leader—Aldrich!
Wasn't this guy supposed to be a bodyguard from some security company? Creeping around like this in the middle of the night? Definitely not the behaviour of a guard.
Edward quietly followed two of them into the cabin of the smaller ship, which was a modest passenger vessel. The people bundled up in blankets were being placed into separate rooms.
He opened one of the doors at random and pulled the blanket aside—inside was a woman, one of the noble ladies, most likely.
Room by room, he checked—twelve women in total.
This was either a kidnapping or human trafficking.
Frowning in confusion, Edward exited the cabin and returned to the deck.
By now, Aldrich had started instructing the others to dismantle the bridge connecting the two ships. Under the blood-red moonlight, Edward spotted someone still standing on the White Agate's deck—'Just' Elland.
…The hell?
Edward was stunned. Even someone with such bold eyebrows and righteous eyes turned out to be shady? Sneaking around like this in the dead of night?
But wait—wasn't this captain supposed to be one of the more upright characters in the original story?
Elland gave a small wave. The small passenger boat began drifting away from the White Agate.
As the crew filed into the cabins, Aldrich stayed on deck, seemingly double-checking something.
After a few minutes, he let out a sigh of relief and turned toward the cabin.
At that moment, Edward's eyes narrowed, and with a thought, he twisted the direction of the ship's motion, forcing it to rapidly reverse course—back toward the White Agate.
The abrupt movement nearly made Aldrich lose his balance. His face darkened immediately. He pulled out a revolver and rushed back toward the helm, just as a few of the other crew members burst out of the cabin, shouting toward the wheelhouse:
"X! What the hell are you doing?!"
A man wearing a navy cap poked his head out of the cockpit, completely baffled. "It's not me! I didn't touch anything! The ship—it's sailing backwards on its own!"
"???"
Everyone froze for a second before rushing to the side of the ship to take a closer look—sure enough, the ship was retreating!
"Boss, our ship is moving backwards!"
"It's really going backwards!"
With a grim face, Aldrich watched as the White Agate grew closer and closer. After a brief moment of thought, he suddenly raised his head and called out, "May I ask which honourable guest is playing tricks on us? Could you please step out and meet us?"
Edward was just about to reveal himself when he saw Aldrich suddenly signal to his subordinates. Immediately, six or seven men moved in to encircle an area stacked with barrels.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Klein, who was hiding behind the barrels, grew anxious. If I had known earlier, I should've woken Edward when I first heard the noise…
He had been startled awake by some strange sounds and followed them quietly, only to discover people sneakily transporting things off the White Agate—
His first instinct had been to make noise and alert everyone…until he saw the ship's captain among them, and then noticed what they were moving: human-shaped bundles wrapped in quilts!
Was this…human trafficking?!
Klein, still fuming from a similar incident not long ago, followed them stealthily, intending to get the full picture before warning Edward.
But the moment he boarded the smaller vessel, it started sailing away.
This completely caught Klein off guard. A dozen people organising a covert mission in the middle of the night, colluding with the White Agate's captain, and going through all this trouble…just to kidnap a handful of people?
Are you sure this is even profitable?
At that moment, Aldrich suddenly sped up, grabbing a massive barrel nearby and hurling it at Klein's hiding spot.
Bang!
A burst of flames erupted as Klein jumped and teleported away to another location.
Aldrich's men opened fire immediately, but Klein blinked out again, disappearing after three rapid jumps.
"Stop!" Aldrich raised a clenched fist, signalling his men to cease fire. He spoke in a loud voice, "My friend, I don't know why you've infiltrated our transport ship. We mean you no harm. If you come out now, I'll even give you a small boat to row back to the White Agate. But if you don't, I'll have to treat you as an enemy—and we'll fight to the death."
No response.
"In that case…"
Aldrich brought his fist down with force. His subordinates stepped forward.
Just then, the leading bodyguards suddenly fell into a state of frenzy—dropping their weapons and running wildly. This was the chaos caused by the Creeping Hunger's "Psychiatrist" ability.
Klein blinked again, repositioning himself.
Aldrich seemed to anticipate where Klein would land and dashed toward that direction like a phantom. But a few steps in, a sharp pain exploded in his head, nearly causing him to stumble.
Clenching his jaw, he pushed through the mental assault and fired his revolver several times.
The first bullet hit a ball of flame.
The second missed entirely.
The third bullet hit Klein squarely—but his body suddenly shrank and flattened into…a paper figurine.
In the next moment, Klein reappeared behind Aldrich, snapping his fingers to release an air bullet.
Aldrich rolled aside just in time, dodging it, but before he could stand up, another psychic assault followed—then a wave of shock and madness.
Klein blinked again, clearly intending to finish the job.
Just then, a female voice called out, "What's going on?"
A brown-haired woman in a beast-skin cloak walked out from the cabin, looking half-asleep and rubbing her eyes as she gazed at the chaotic scene.
"Aldrich, what are you all doing?"
Klein immediately stopped his actions—This situation isn't quite what I thought it was?
Aldrich, clutching his head in pain, hurriedly motioned his men to gather and protect the woman at the centre, whispering, "Miss Olivia, someone has infiltrated our transport vessel. I fear he's—"
Olivia jumped, frightened, "Ah…Didn't you say this plan was foolproof?"
Aldrich replied, "It's no use talking about that now. Please return to the cabin—we'll handle this."
"O-okay."
The woman quickly pulled her cloak tighter and, escorted by two guards, returned inside.
Throughout the entire exchange, Aldrich kept his eyes locked on Klein, noting that he hadn't taken any action, which led him to a certain conclusion.
"Sir—"
Before he could finish, Edward suddenly removed his invisibility cloak and said casually, "Good evening, Mr. Aldrich."
The sudden voice startled everyone. Guns immediately turned toward Edward—only to transform into hissing vipers in their hands. With terrified yells, the crew dropped their weapons and scattered to avoid the snakes on the floor.
Another flash of fire—Klein blinked to Edward's side and gave him a small nod.
"You came too?"
"Yeah," Edward replied, "Heard a noise, came out to check, didn't expect to see this. I wasn't sure if it was kidnapping or human trafficking. But now…"
Seeing both of them clearly now, Aldrich's face changed drastically. He forced a bitter smile, "Gentlemen, this is a misunderstanding."
"Oh?" Edward raised an eyebrow.
"We really are bodyguards from a security company," Aldrich said earnestly.
"Our job is to escort those twelve ladies safely to their destination. But due to certain reasons, someone's trying to kill them—very likely with a trap waiting up ahead. That's why we decided to switch ships and change routes in the middle of the night."
Klein frowned, "But…who would go out of their way to target such women?"
Aldrich was silent for a few seconds before replying, "That's…the employer's secret. I can't reveal it. But I swear to the gods, those women are innocent victims caught in something bigger."
Then he added, "You can confirm all this with my employer shortly. But before that, could we get our ship moving again?"
Edward snapped his fingers.
The passenger ship jolted sharply, then resumed sailing away from the White Agate.
Klein looked at Edward in awe. To change the direction of an entire ship so effortlessly—just how strong was he?
Later, Aldrich invited them into the cabin and served them hot coffee in the lounge.
A few minutes later, the brown-haired woman—Olivia—approached them.
"Klein!" she called.
Klein blinked—but quickly realised she was looking at Edward.
His face darkened.
Olivia, initially looking nervous, brightened up the moment she saw Edward.
"Was it Miss Akasha who sent you to escort us? I knew seeing you during the day wasn't a coincidence!"
———
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