“…”
Shen, Ashura, and the two high elves had shocked faces for a while now, making Tian stop from narrating.
“Is there a problem?” → Tian
Tian asked confused, tilting his head.
“A problem? You tell me if there is a problem or not. How come you can go undercover, live like a fugitive and sneak inside a capital, a place which is supposed to be the most guarded inside a kingdom, all of this when you were a king not even 2 months ago. I heard about the ability to adapt but, isn’t this just too ridiculous?” → Shen
Shen asked with a stunned face. The idea of remaining calm and collected when your Kingdom was besieged and everyone was hunting you down, was truly commendable and terrifying. Out of what kind of metal must your heart be, to resist all the trauma and mental exhaustion, bringing yourself together and find a place in which you and your people to be able to live after just being banished from your own kingdom? Even Shen thought that having such a strong mentality would be quite the challenge.
“Hm? When I was young general Garon taught me martial arts, how to survive in the wilds and how to think like an assassin. About martial arts, he said that a good king must be a strong king. For the second, ‘you never know when you’ll need it’ as for the third: ‘being a target, knowing how an assassin thinks will help you survive in this dangerous world.’ Everything he said was as accurate as possible.” → Tian
Tian said with a sad smile. Garon was like a master to him and losing his master was even more painful than when he lost his father.
“I see… I’m sorry for your loss, king Tian.” → Shen
Shen said with a serious face.
“Ah. It’s fine. Now let’s continue: After I entered the capital I was able to get inside the palace. The palace wasn’t that guarded, nobody thought that someone would try to sneak inside it. Besides some patrolling guards who were easily fooled by equipping their clothes and armor, nothing else seemed to be a challenge. I sneaked inside the huge palace and arrived at Zi Jianhua’s tower. I climbed from outside on the tower till I got on top of her balcony. She was still awake when I arrived. After some difficulties, I was able to talk to her… only to find out that she was the one who sent the soldiers inside that village. She said that the only value I still have is the bounty on my head… I was confused, I couldn’t understand what she meant at that time.” → Tian
Tian clenched his fists, his eyes looked like a knife was stabbed in his heart.
“She said the only reason she accepted being my fiancée was that my Jian kingdom was one of the most prosperous Kingdoms of the south parts of Nostrung, wishing to make a strong alliance with it and help her family to become even stronger. I was devastated, I didn’t know what to do or say. The only support I had in my heart shattered just like that… I stood there, dazed by what she said to me, unable to move at all. After that, I remember Zi shouting for guards. After they captured me, they locked me inside the underground prison…” → Tian
Tian looked in space with empty eyes. The huge scar from his heart was bleeding while pain and rage burned inside his eyes.
“The days passed by without even feeling. That filthy food looked as if a rat died in there. I only drank the water while throwing the food outside the window between the bars. I was tortured and whipped numerous times to talk about where the others were, but my heart was in too much pain to feel the torture.” → Tian
Tian examined his nails, under them, purple and black lines were visible. It was as clear as day that they inserted needles under his nails to make him talk. The elves and Shen shivered at the thought of such torture, every finger had at least 2 such lines. If one looked under his shirt, they would see numerous scars from sword-cuts and whips. Ashura’s gaze was dark, understanding Tian’s physical pain in full. He also had to go through such torturous experiences as well; maybe even worse.
“They also wished to mutilate my face by taking out my eyes and cut my nose, but the time was up. I was condemned to death by decapitation. I had to endure another 3 days with no food till I got on top of the stage with my head on the log ready to be cut. I looked around and saw the bastards from Sava Kingdom, the king of Jianhua and his daughter… Sitting right beside him, looking with indifferent eyes at me waiting for my head to fall. I felt my heart tear apart and waited for death when suddenly, a powerful explosion resounded. The execution took place right in the middle of the capital, inside the largest marketplace from the kingdom. The explosion was heard for quite some distance away and then a blue shell made from something like ice destroyed the building right above the king. After that, chaos broke out. More than 200 bandits rushed inside the marketplace, destroying and stealing everything. The guards were overwhelmed and unprepared so they weren’t able to stop the assault, nobody ever thought of a bandit attack right in the middle of the capital. The Saints tried to stop them but the head of the bandits, that weird pirate-captain over there…” → Tian
Tian pointed with a small smile at the captain who tried to help Sylvia with some plates.
“… Named Bururiba, bombarded the 3 saints with weird magic and weapons, going from that weird cannon you guys already saw, to that ‘gun’ or whatever the name, together with other pirates and bandits that wielded the same weapons as him. The Saints couldn’t comprehend what happened at that time, being completely knocked out by the bombardment. While chaos broke out, Kavala appeared from the sky, killing the executioner and freeing me. They took me to the closest river where more than 10 little ships were positioned, ready to sail away. They brought me to their base inside the Raising Sea and took care of me until I got back on my two legs. At first, I had no will to live, but Bururiba punched me good and told me some stuff I still don’t remember because that punch almost knocked me out.” → Tian
Tian said with a wry smile.
“What I clearly remember where his eyes full of spirit and fire. Kavala explained me about Bururiba’s will to help and about how I’ll be able to get my revenge on the Sava Kingdom. This fact made me regain the will to live, at least long enough to see their kingdom burn the same way mine did. I still try to forget about Zi and focus only on my revenge over Sava Kingdom.” → Tian
Tian said with a fire in his eyes.
“I’ll kill the bastards that planned my downfall and bring their palace to ruins. I’ll be sure to make my name resound from the inside of the Nostrung Palace and back.” → Tian
“…What about the 200 people that wished to go with you?” → Ashura
Ashura asked with a calm voice.
“When Kavala searched for me, he found them inside the city we first visited. 200 people followed him while the rest were left behind, with the exception of the betrayers that tried to kill Kavala, their heads were blown by the guns. The 200 are at the pirate base ruled by Bururiba.” → Tian
“…”
Everyone was silent, trying to digest the story they just heard. Tian waited for everyone to organize their thoughts.
In the end, Shen sighed and said with his eyes closed.
“So the reason why you ended up as a pirate is so you could start your travels, helping Bururiba in his stealing and being sure to repay his kindness. Also, sailing inside the Sava Kingdom’s waters is also a form of revenge, right? Looting every ship that was going toward or outward their ports, not letting them get any kind of goods from the black market.” → Shen
Shen said with a little grin.
“Indeed, that was my plan.” → Tian
Tian answered while lightly smiling.
“But I won’t be able to continue like this any longer. The war-ships started patrolling around these parts more frequently and besides, the ones who are actually in more pain from taking the goods will be the innocent commoners. That’s why I was more focused on looting ships like these ones, on which nobles and important people from the kingdom were taking a voyage after their ‘hard work’.” → Tian
Tian made a dark smile.
“Sigh… Anyway. What about Bururiba? Do you know his story?” → Shen
Shen asked while pointing at the pirate-captain.
“Yes. But you’ll rather hear it from him, he has a lot to say.” → Tian
Shen then asked Bururiba to sit with them for lunch. While eating, Shen directly asked him about his own story.
“Do you wish to know my story?” → Bururiba
Bururiba asked a little bit surprised.
“Why do you need to know that? I’m a player, you know? Isn’t my story just like any other player’s story?” → Bururiba
Bururiba said while waving his hand indifferently.
“Is that so? Well, I am a player as well and I can guarantee you that not many players have the same story as me.” → Shen
Shen said with a grin.
“What?! You’re a player? But from where did you get that ridiculous power? It was like a demon lord just appeared in front of me.” → Bururiba
Bururiba shivered after remembering those dark but shining eyes together with the demonic squirrel.
“Bah! Don’t lump me together with that bastard.” → Shen
Shen waved his hand irritated, being compared with the demon lord gave him a bad taste in his mouth.
“Eh? What do you mean? Did you meet a demon lord? Wait, does it even exist?!” → Bururiba
Bururiba was dumbfounded by Shen’s reaction.
“That will have to wait for later. I want to hear your story first. I heard you’re the pirate king from the Raising Sea, is it true?” → Shen
Shen asked with a shine in his eyes.
“But of course! The rules were like this: The one who can bring down the king of pirates will become the king himself and do whatever he wishes. I smacked the face of the former king and became the king! Even so, after 1 week of partying and screwing around, I got bored and gave the throne back to the former king with the condition of letting me do whatever I wish.” → Bururiba
“…”
Everyone, apart from Tian, remained dumbfounded. You don’t hear everywhere about someone becoming king then passing his throne to another just because he got bored. What would become out of this world if every king would do the same?
“Well, I’m curious as to how you became a pirate in the first place, from where you learned that weird magic and from where did you get your hands on these guns? I remember there being no guns on Sario.” → Shen
Shen asked with a curious face.
“Hmm… for all of this I’ll have to go to the very beginning but I don’t feel like entering in details so I’ll just say a resume of what truly happened, you alright with that?” → Bururiba
Bururiba asked with an interested face.
“I’m all ears.” → Shen
Shen looked at him intently, waiting for him to start.
“So! When I first got on this world I was a little bit confused, just like any other normal human, right?” → Bururiba
Shen was able to tell that he was lying.
I bet he was actually screaming like crazy. → Shen
Shen surpassed a laugh then continued to listen.
“After 1 week, I finally understood what’s up with this world but I’ll pass that because it would be just unnecessary information.” → Bururiba
Bururiba said while his face turning with a shade whiter. One could tell that the first week was a nightmare for him.
“Anyway, when I was playing the game, I entered a clan named [Funky Bandits]. I was able to meet some of my clan-mates forming a group of around 10 people.” → Bururiba
“…”
Everyone looked at him with a poker-face.
“Funky Bandits? Really?”
Ashura was speechless.
The clan-leader must’ve had a disastrous naming sense.
“Hey, maybe not the best name but still better than what I saw before that one.” → Bururiba
Bururiba massaged his temples. Even he was surprised by the stupid names he was able to find on the clan-lists.
“He’s right. You’ll be surprised by what other clan-names there are inside the game we played before getting transported here. Seriousness isn’t the strongest point of a ‘player’.” → Shen
Shen interjected with a wry smile then he continued.
“Bururiba, please continue.” → Shen
“Alright. So we made a group of 10, yes? After that, we tried to train ourselves by hunting weaker monsters and wild beasts from around the city in which I was transported. We were able to kill them pretty easily but every time someone would get injured they would start crying and screaming as if bones were broken or something. Bah! They really annoyed me.” → Bururiba
