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“What flag is that ship flying?”

“No flags, Captain.”

The bearded middle-aged man in a neat navy uniform and an eagle-feather triangular hat picked up a brass telescope and looked at the black dot in the distance.

After a while, he lowered the telescope and said, “The hull doesn’t have the thin and long style of those pointy-ears. It resembles a merchant ship from the East Coast.”

“If it’s only a normal merchant ship, we don’t have to care, right?” the sailor who reported the situation asked out of caution.

Upon hearing this, the bearded middle-aged man widened his eyes and said, “Has seawater rusted your brains? How can there be ordinary merchant ships on this route? Where are they going to do business? They can’t be going to the Ruins of Orsis, right? Inform the Wind Controller to accelerate and intercept that ship first. I bet that it’s either smugglers smuggling supplies to the Ava State or elven spies disguised as merchant ships.”

Upon hearing such a tough order, the sailor—who understood what the captain planned on doing—said softly, “But Captain, what should we do about Miss Diana…”

These words made the captain conflicted.

If it were any other time, he would have hijacked such a smuggling ship without the empire’s shipping company’s flag. After all, he had a privateering permit issued by the royal family, and the other party was most likely a smuggler doing illegal business with Ava State… Alright, even if they weren’t smugglers, who cared about a ship that had disappeared from the vast sea?

The empire’s naval system was very independent. Other than the Priests accompanying the ship, outsiders were not to interfere. As for the Priests accompanying the ship, they were very easy to bribe. If they encountered someone non-receptive… there were always some risks at sea, right?

Therefore, as long as they did things cleanly, they wouldn’t encounter any trouble after taking on such ‘private work.’

However, there was a troublesome woman with lace on her cuffs in his cabin. Not only did she have to use silver knives and forks for meals, but she also needed a candlestick lit. Moreover, they couldn’t bribe this woman or cause any accidents for her.

After all, who dared to bribe or injure a prophet who had been certified by the Eighth Order’s clergymen and had once triggered a divinity manifestation miracle?

After some hesitation, the captain said, “I’ll talk to her. Inform the second mate and leave the command to him. Tell him to act quickly and cleanly.”

…

“We’re in trouble…”

Captain Hobbs looked at the empire’s warship that appeared on the skyline and muttered to himself.

“We’re still so far away. Can we get through this unscathed?” William asked.

At this moment, he was covering his forehead with his hand. It looked like he was blocking the sunlight, but in fact, it was covering the amber halo that swirled in his eyes for his Eagle Eye casting.

The empire warship that appeared along the horizon was different from what William had imagined.

Although it was also a wooden three-masted sailing ship, there were no cannon muzzles on the ship’s broadside, and there were no rams at the bow. Only two cone-shaped wooden towers the height of masts stood in the middle of the hull, and the top of the towers lit up with a deep light that resembled the starry sky.

In a world with magic chanters with high mobility, while resembling small-target artillery batteries, there was indeed no motivation to develop cumbersome weapons like cannons.

“Unscathed?”

Upon hearing William’s question, Captain Hobbs laughed as if he had heard a joke.

However, a mocking and bitter smile appeared on his face.

“There’s a reason why the empire can maintain such a large-scale navy with such a small maritime budget.”

With that said, he raised his monocular and looked in the direction of the empire warship constantly. He kept muttering, “The pirates of the Damon Continent are the most notorious at sea. Eight out of ten ships that do business in the White Sea have been hijacked by them. However, generally speaking, as long as you cooperate with them and don’t resist or injure them, those pirates will allow the ship to return safely under most circumstances. This allows such resources to be inexhaustible in a way. In comparison, the imperial navy isn’t notorious at all. Can you guess the reason?”

William didn’t say anything.

Hobbs said in response to William’s silence, “This is because very few people can survive to talk about their glorious deeds. As long as they are targeted, they will end up with their ships destroyed and everyone dead.”

With that said, he raised his whalebone prosthetic limb and slammed the deck.

“Even if they survive and complain about what they did, no one is willing to meddle. They will only advise you to join the empire’s freight company and register your ship as an empire merchant ship. You have to pay a huge tax on every batch of goods, and there won’t be any risk once you hang their flag… Ah, that warship has accelerated.”

William, who was using Eagle Eye, saw that the Dragon Sword emblemed sails of the warship in the distance had bulged like a pregnant woman. One of the wooden towers shone with a silver light.

It was obvious that the other party was also using Storm spells to accelerate the ship.

“Unfortunately, they’ve targeted us,” Captain Hobbs concluded.

Then, he shouted at the surrounding sailors, “Get Big Steel Cannon and Lightning Fire to the deck quickly. Get everyone to prepare their weapons for a naval battle. We might have a tough battle ahead.”