╔═══ Author's note ════╗
Sorry for the late update! Here, a longer chapter as compensation.😅
╚════════════════╝
Grabbing a plate of food with four meat skewers, Lucian walked through the camp, observing the training of his feral army.
They've been helping him with collecting more of their kin, and he now had around 400 ferals under his command.
He needed more intelligence on the Eastern Reavers, but they were out of their reach at the moment. Beside Lord A's occasional sightings, they were an elusive bunch.
Lucian approached Lord A's practice ship on dry ground, finding him on the helm.
Lord A's was looking at his crew rowing the paddles, barking orders at them. He was in his element, acting all superior and mighty, but looking more like an arrogant kid who got his first toy and was showing off.
Lord A's turned towards Lucian, saluting him with a wide grin, "Boss, you have come at the right time."
Lucian took a bite of the skewer, chewing slowly while waiting for Lord A's to elaborate. The meat was a bit dry, but it had a good flavor to it.
"They are ready," Lord A's declared, pointing at his crew of sixty, who were rowing the paddles with perfect synchronization, "Which pirate gang should we target first? The Black Vipers, or the Red Sails?"
Lucian swallowed, then licked his lips, "What are our chances against Red Sails?"
Lord A's face fell slightly, "Well..." he scratched his temple, "It's hard to find them unless they need to resupply and come to the shore. The black market they set up, is as close as we can get to them. If we stay in the open, they will just avoid us."
The East Sea had many islands, which made it a perfect hiding spot for the pirates. It was a vast area to patrol, and the pirates knew it well.
They were not as organized as the reavers and operated in smaller groups, but they were still a threat.
Pirates were rogue Northern Knights, who had abandoned their honor and oaths to their houses. Most of them had bounties on their heads and were wanted by the crown.
Lower-ranked knights (anything below Gold rank) were treated as a "glorified workforce" who were trapped in lifelong debt to the noble houses that sponsored their training. Some houses keep their knights' rank below golden intentionally to keep the knights under control.
It was a system designed to keep the nobility in power and prevent the commoners from rising through the ranks. It was a vicious cycle of debt and servitude, and some knights couldn't take it anymore.
They would desert, turn their backs on their kingdom, and become pirates. They used their superior strength to pillage and loot, becoming rich and free.
Lucian took another bite of the skewer. He didn't want to go into the enemy's nest just yet, so it was best to lure them out. That meant having a bait that would attract them.
The sea was a whole new world. Lucian would have jumped in without a care if it was just himself before. Being one step ahead of death always made him feel as if he was defying fate itself.
Maybe he knew Celine didn't need him, so he was more reckless. Maybe she knew he could do really stupid things when he wanted to, so she added more shackles around him in the form of their son.
'She's truly horrible,' Lucian thought, taking another bite of the skewer. As if she wasn't seeking death with her behavior all the time, 'Watching over my shoulder, ready to step in whenever I'm about to do something fun. She's a buzzkill.'
He looked at Lord A's, his rowdy crew, and wondered how many would survive an encounter with the pirates.
Lucian could only imagine a defeat for his side and a lone hay head guy with a hay head child on his back, sailing the seas on a piece of wood, while being circled by sharks.
'I can't bring Lady Rose with me for the milk, either,' he munched on the skewer, thinking about the necessary logistics if he took his son with him, 'She is a city lady, who already got sick from a carriage ride. She is not going to last on a ship. I would need a new milk provider.'
Lord A's could see the cogs in Lucian's head turning and waited patiently for his next words. He had already started to doubt his own suggestion, thinking that it might be too soon to go after the pirates.
He didn't know Lucian's son's eye color, and assumed Lucian would just leave him behind in the care of Lady Lily, and be on his merry way. The boy was almost seven months old already, he could survive a few months without his father, right?
If Lord A's could see Lucian's thoughts, he would have been more worried about Lucian's sanity, for wanting to take a child into a pirate battle, on sea, than a child being left in a woman's care.
It was weird for a man to take care of a child on his own, but their Boss had always been weird. His gentlemanly way were also very questionable, making everyone pray their Boss not to fall to any temptations. Women could be a bane to a man's life.
A good woman could raise a man's status, while a bad one could ruin his life. Everyone hoped for a good woman for their Boss. They didn't want their hard work to go to waste because of a woman.
Lucian blinked innocently. He knew what was going through Lord A's mind, and it amused him greatly, "I need to arrange a few things. Do you know where the drug your father wanted to use on you came from?"
"No," Lord A replied, frowning at the mention of his father. Black market merchants were a shady bunch. They usually sold illegal items as a side hustle, and operated within the legal boundaries as a front for their business. "I can ask around though."
"There's no need for that. Contact a merchant by the name Graff. He is well connected to the black markets in the area," Lucian instructed, "He might not sell you anything directly, but he will know where to find what I need."
Lucian revealed the name of a merchant who helped him smuggle himself into the Rochefort's estate, back when he had no access to their grounds.
Lucian also used to sell his drugs to Graff, back when he was a nobody.
As a shackled, who couldn't die a normal death, he had tried to reproduce the church's medicine first.
The books he got from Celine also helped a lot with his research. The apothecaries he sold his herbs to taught him a few basic techniques in exchange for a discount.
From hallucinogenic drug that was popular among the aristocrats, to poisons that could kill a man...Lucian was truly a suicidal idiot back then.
He was not planning on killing himself with poison, but he would have been fine if it were to happen. He called it: going down with a fight.
He was desperate to reach Celine's status but also not. It was a very confusing period after he found out he was a shackled. He tried everything he could to get stronger and richer as fast as possible, even if it killed him.
He still had to face his parents in heaven with his head held high, after all. He couldn't just tell them he died from jumping of a cliff, could he?
Seline's death had shaken him enough to make him reevaluate his life choices. He had become even more crazy, dragging Voice down with him to the bottom of the hell becoming his new goal.
It was a miracle he survived that reckless period. Voice had to pull so many all-nighters to keep him alive, which made Lucian wonder where the nearly infinite energy source came from.
"I need you to get your hands on anything related to astral plane training. A book, notes, any information will do," Lucian continued to instruct.
Only the elite students had access to these.
Celine refused to share her knowledge, obviously not wanting him to gain any advantage over her.
Voice wasn't keen on teaching him either, so all the more reason for Lucian to do the exact opposite and get better at it.
He needed his son to grow a little bit more first before picking fights with others, so more studying and training it was.