Chapter 18 Jeremiah

Inside the house, the two pirates' eyes fell on him.

A careless voice sounded.

"Too slow. Do you still want to pay taxes? I don't have all day to waste here!"

Alexei frowned. He smelled a strong smell of alcohol as soon as he walked into the room.

He looked inside the room expressionlessly. The empty room had no extra decorations. A heavy long table was placed in the middle of the room, with papyrus and ink bottles neatly placed on it. A pair of dirty deerskin boots were resting on it, shaking impatiently.

The man was leaning against a chair with several empty wine bottles scattered around his feet. He was holding another one in his hand, which made a clinking sound when it hit the scimitar at his waist.

"Boy, I remember you." He raised the bottle and glanced at Alexei at the door. "Your Count doesn't dare to come over again, right? It doesn't matter. As long as the taxes are paid on time, Black Sail doesn't care whose name is here."

The Black Sail Fleet of Gem Bay roams the Storm Ocean without any rivals. When this fleet is patrolling the sea, even the Empire's navy will return to the port to avoid the attack.

The man raised the bottle and poured it into his mouth. The amber wine slid down from the corner of his mouth, along his curly beard, across his scarf and onto his dirty clothes.

"Huh? Gone?" He raised his head drunkenly and shook the bottle in front of his eyes. "If you ask me, the only good thing on your lousy island is the fruit wine."

Then he raised his hand, and the bottle drew an arc in the air and fell on the floor beside Alexei, then rolled to the side with a gurgling sound, and the spilled wine stuck to his shiny military boots.

"Boy, bring me two more bottles of wine."

Great, it looks like he doesn't have to think about how to start a fight.

He put the documents aside, took a step forward, stood in front of the pirate, and looked down at the pirate at the table with an expressionless face.

It was said that the people of the White Crow Principality in the north had the blood of giants flowing in their bodies. When Alexei stood up, he was almost as tall as the door frame. His short, almost transparent, light golden hair looked like a chill under the midday sun. He just took a step forward, but the pirates at the table felt as if a wall had hit them.

A look of panic appeared on the pirate's face, and then as if he had thought of something, he did not move, but instead showed a mocking smile.

In the corner of the room, in the shadow formed by the wall and the cabinet, a figure slowly stood up.

As he stood up, the light in the whole room seemed to dim.

Alexei felt his whole body suffocate, and the air in the room seemed to have turned into mud. His vision gradually went dark, and the figure of the man in the shadows gradually grew taller.

This was an extremely muscular man, with bronze muscles bulging on his body like iron felt that had been hammered by a blacksmith. He had no hair, not even eyebrows, and every inch of skin visible to the naked eye was painted with black lines and symbols of varying thicknesses, making him look twisted and weird.

But what frightened Alexei the most was his eyes. In the center of his pale eyeballs was not a pupil like that of an ordinary person, but a square pupil like that of a cold-blooded animal.

Sticky, cold, slippery, and twisted.

All the sounds gradually faded away, and he seemed to be diving into the deep sea alone. The hustle and bustle of the world was nothing but a vague gurgling sound above the water. The only thing left in front of him was this strange man.

Some noisy sounds appeared in my ears. No, not just appeared, they have always been there, but I didn’t pay attention to them before, and only heard them at this moment.

The tattooed man stared at him, but it seemed as if his gaze was not focused on him, as if he was looking at someone behind him. Alexei stared blankly at his square pupils that were as dark as the abyss, and he felt that it was just like a door.

A door that is slowly opening.

Suddenly, a hand rested on Alexei's shoulder.

The endless fall stopped, as if someone grabbed him.

"What are you doing here? Our guests want some wine. Bring them a bottle."

Hughes turned to look at the pirates at the table, smiled with his white teeth, and said, "Two gold rums, no debts."

Alexei came to his senses at this time. He coughed violently and spit out some water, as if he was choked.

"Two gold rums?! Why don't you go and rob them? How dare you fool Captain Jeremiah?" The pirate stood up suddenly, lifted the hem of his clothes with a sneer, and a scimitar and two muskets were clearly inserted on his belt.

After saying this, he seemed to have thought of something and glanced at the tattooed man behind him calmly.

Then Jeremiah's pupils shrank slightly, and he found that the man who usually had a blank expression actually showed a confused look.

The man hesitated? Would he hesitate? Jeremiah knew his background. He was a direct subordinate of the Pirate King and he couldn't command him.

Jeremiah loosened his grip, and the clothes he had lifted slid down again. He sat back in his chair and said, "I'm here to collect maritime taxes for the governor, and this is how you treat your guests?"

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Jeremiah was of average ability, and he became a pirate captain by adapting to the situation. As soon as he saw something strange happening on the other side, he immediately became reasonable.

Zeus patted Alexei's back gently. When he saw that he stopped coughing and gradually regained his breath, he sat down at the table and looked at the pirate captain who was pretending to be calm across from him.

Jeremiah snorted coldly and reached into his arms to pull out a roll of dirty parchment.

"This is the tax list of the Governor. All the taxes that Castel has to pay are here."

He slapped the parchment on the table, pushed it over, then leaned back with an expression of watching a good show.

The list was real, and the Pirate King's Court did give them the list for tax collection, but... it was written in pirate language.

Pirate writing is a general term. Most pirates were illiterate, and they used a very primitive method of drawing and marking to record the treasures they had robbed.

Over time, a crude form of writing was gradually formed, but at least it was possible to communicate normally. After the sea king of Gem Bay unified the pirates on the Storm Ocean, he began to require the use of a unified pirate language.

This matter did not take long, and Jeremiah was sure that Hughes would definitely not be able to understand the tax list written in the pirate language.

Oh, noble, experience the feeling of being illiterate. He wanted to think about how to mock the Earl later.

Well, it's better not to go too far. After all, Jeremiah has no intention of breaking up with him. But it would be nice to see how this pampered nobleman is getting.

Just as he was about to laugh at the joke, Hughes' next words stunned him.

"No need to look at it. From today on, Castel will no longer pay maritime taxes."

(End of this chapter)