SWNOVELXO Chapter 574: He Was Prepared
I managed to refrain myself from screaming at the Pirate Lord to ask what he wanted.
Turns out he's just informing me that his entire crew would be arriving soon and one of his ships would be docking with mine for a moment.
Well, at least he's being useful I guess.
Still pissed that he interrupted my little session with Amber though… Since I had to go meet up with the Pirate Lord to watch him to make sure he didn't take or do anything while we were occupied.
At least I managed to calm Amber down for now with a kiss but there's no doubt she would want me to continue this later on.
I quickly dressed myself right as a cacophony of alarms came from my console.
I rushed towards it and I realised an entire sea of red dots had shown up at the edge of my map, all of them currently heading straight towards us.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to yell for everyone to prepare for battle, I snapped it shut when I realised they were probably the pirate ships from that Pirate Lord's crew.
Right… Of course.
Now I'm a little glad that the Pirate Lord actually called me first because if he didn't, I might be telling Lea to start opening fire on them.
Oh well… Guess I should really head down to the cargo bay now.
Just in case, I did tell the girls to prepare for anything in case the Pirate Lord decides to backstab us and I headed down there with Amber and Mara as my escorts.
I found the Pirate Lord in the exact same place as before where he was seated on the ground with his back leaning against the wall. Seriously, does he not get muscle cramps at all? It's like he's a statue at this point.
He raised a hand in greeting, "Hey. I'll admit, I didn't think you could actually do it."
I frowned at him, "You didn't think so and yet you still followed me on the ship? And you called me crazy."
He made a shrugging motion with his arms, "I suppose there's no harm telling you the truth now since it's over. But I have a tracker on this armour and if your ship was going to get destroyed, I would have launched myself out into space and someone would come pick me up."
I scowled at him, "So all that threat about launching you out into space was pointless?"
"Pretty much."
Somehow I could imagine him smirking behind that helmet when he said that.
Right then, the sound of a ship docking with the side of our ship could be heard and all of us turned to the docking hatch closest to us.
I turned back to face the Pirate Lord, "I hope this isn't your plan of getting rid of us after we fulfilled our end of the agreement. Because if it is, getting left floating in space would be the last of your problems."
"Ha! I already told you, didn't I? I am a person who honours their words."
"And I told you I trust a pirate's honour as much as I trust synthfood being palatable."
"Hmph… Considering you're from the Inner Colonies, of course you would say something like that."
I waved my hand at him, "No, no. You're mistaken. Even though we eat organic food, I've never actually stepped foot in the Inner Colonies before."
"What? Then where did you learn how to cook? Last I remembered, every culinary school is located inside the Inner Colonies!"
"I'm self taught."
He stared at me silently and I stared right back at him, daring him to question it.
He tactfully chose to keep his mouth shut and the docking hatch made a hissing noise as it cycled open, allowing a group of five pirates to step through while pushing along a drone that was carrying a box on top of it.
Even though you can't see it, I knew Ries had her drones hiding around the cargo bay, ready to spring out to start shooting at them at a moment's notice should they try anything.
The pirates ignored us completely and went straight to the Pirate Lord with the leader bowing his head in greeting.
"My lord, the things you requested."
The giant guy in power armour made a huffing sound, "Ah… I forgot I actually asked you guys for this. It's fine, I don't need it anymore."
The pirate looked up in surprise, "E… Eh? My lord?"
He waved at him before standing up, "It's fine. Let's just go back now and wait until those two Leviathans are done fighting."
Now this is what I'm here for.
I stepped out to block the way with Amber and Mara flanking me, my arms crossed in front of my chest.
"Where do you think you're going?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
He looked down at me, "What is it now?"
"You expect me to believe that you guys won't start shooting at us the moment you get off my ship? My ship is currently surrounded by an armada of pirates in case you haven't noticed. You're staying with us until we reach the pirate hoard."
The pirate who had tried to deliver the box spun around to glare at me, "Hey? Who the fuck do you think you are? We've already showed you--"
His words were cut off when the Pirate Lord reached forward and grabbed him by the arm and crushed it in his grasp, reducing the pirate to a screaming mess as he collapsed onto the ground.
"When did I ever allow one of you to speak in my stead?" He growled.
"Ahhhh… Ahhh… My… My apologies, my lord!! It won't happen again!!"
"Get him out of my sight."
Two of the other pirates immediately lifted the guy in between them and scurried away.
The Pirate Lord huffed before turning his attention back to me, "So… You want me here as your hostage, is that it?"
I tilted my chin at him, "Was I not clear enough when I said that? Yes, I want you as a hostage here on our ship."
He clenched his fists, "You really think you can just make demands like that?"
"Weren't you the one who said that you are honourable or something? Surely you wouldn't begrudge us some peace of mind by keeping yourself here, right?"
"You're asking me, the leader of this entire pirate armada, to stay here as your hostage. Do you even understand the extent of disrespect you are showing me right now?"
"Why? Are you telling us you're not even worth being held hostage because your crew would still shoot us anyway even if you're here?"
He held my gaze and said nothing.
Since he already played the position card… I might as well also return the favour.
I made a show of shrugging my shoulders exaggeratedly, "I dunno. Maybe killing one Pirate Lord wasn't enough. Adding a second Pirate Lord to our list of achievements doesn't sound that bad now."
"Is that a threat?"
"I dunno. Do you want it to be one?"
Both of us stared at each other, neither side willing to back down.
That was when Mara cleared her throat behind me unexpectedly, causing me to turn back.
"Captain… It's going to be dinner time soon. If this pirate doesn't want to be here, I say we just let them leave since we wouldn't need to feed--"
The Pirate Lord immediately turned to his subordinates, "Change of plans! I'm staying on this ship for now! Tell the rest that they can contact me through the comms but no one under any circumstances is allowed to even touch this ship, understood?!"
Eh? Wow… That's a really sudden change in attitude. Don't tell me it's because of the food?
…
It's because of the food, isn't it? This guy really liked the food I made him and if he went back to his ship, he wouldn't be able to eat it anymore.
Well, whatever, as long as it works and keeps him here since the alternative would probably be feeding his entire fleet of pirates which I was definitely not going to do.
And of course, I wasn't even going to suggest it to the girls because I am a hundred percent sure they would tell me something like giving them jars of honey would be enough to keep the pirates satisfied.
Then I would probably find myself stuck in my room with one of the girls milking me of my honey the entire time…
No thanks.
The Pirate Lord subordinates looked at each other but they clearly weren't in a position to argue with him so they merely returned to their ship while pushing along the box they had brought along.
Which reminds me…
"What was in that box?"
"Oh, just a bomb in case you had somehow killed me and was hiding inside my Power Armour pretending to be me. That would have blown your ship up had I not done that," He explained casually.
…
…
This cunning bastard…