It was at the dead of night when the lizardfolk raided the fort. They were akin to shadows, moving as swift as the wind, as silent as the night. Before any men could react, a poisonous dart already struck their veins. The last thing they saw were their bodies falling to their knees, not even realizing their heads were cut off.
That was what I told the sailors.
I exaggerated it a bit. Sure the lizard barely took any casualties, but it was far more chaotic. But they were very invested in what in the story. Terror marked their faces. To calm themselves down, they passed smoking pipes among each other and puffed thick tobacco smokes.
"Depths claim me, I knew Goldenwheel went deep in the pocket," the captain said.
What was that supposed to mean?
“I know! I didn’t wanna come here but look what happened! The Depths saved me!”
"It did?" an old sailor said, "it's supposed to be the taker of life."
Oh, damn. This was why I shouldn’t randomly use another world’s local idioms.
"I don’t know what I’m saying… I just… I wanna forget it all.”
The pipe was passed to me. I gave it a puff and immediately coughed it out. The thick smoke scrapped my throat like a thorny vine.
"Well, boy, ‘yer safe now. Tell everythin’ to Farisle mayor, but devil whispers he’ll cut ‘yer throat and make a pig feast outta ‘ya.”
"Why?"
"’Cause he’s gon’ take the blame for all-all Goldenwheel lost ‘ere! I’d vent my anger on ‘ya, too!"
I swallowed. I had to act scared. After all I was a mere scaredy sailor.
"What should I do?"
"Just face ‘em. Maybe they'll be nice ‘nuff as ‘yer granny and toss ‘ya to the world-brine."
"That doesn’t sound better."
"It's better than lizard hosh-pitality, boy."
The storytelling wrapped off. Since I just arrived, they let me rest in the lower deck where everyone slept. It was musky as hell. The strong smell of old wood assaulted my throat. The thick scent of tobacco clung to everything in existence, making it worse. So I just went up for fresh air.
With my background story handled, I moved onto my next plan. I looked around for any gullible-looking sailors, someone that was also young and ambitious. It didn’t take me long to find one.
"There's one."
A young sailor with golden hair was busy pulling the ropes. He was your typical Caucasian, except his ears were sharp. Not too sharp, just a bit. This world’s version of elf, maybe.
"Hey, you," I said in a sharp hiss. "Why did you become a sailor?"
He looked at me suspiciously. "Because I want to explore the seas?"
"Wrong! It's because you need a job that can potentially pay a lot!"
"What're you talking about?"
"Once you’re done with your duties, meet me below. I have an offer that will save you decades of time."
And so I went below the deck. I waited for a few minutes, watching anyone descend from between the gaps of barrels. Once I saw the guy, I called him.
"I hope this isn't about mutiny."
"It's not. No mutiny is happening."
He sighed. "So? What do you want to talk about?"
"What’s your name, kid?"
"Horeln. And please don’t call me kid – we look the same age."
"Nice to meet you, Horeln. I'm Caesar, and Caesar wants to give you this," I said, sliding a speck of blood-red ruby on the barrel towards him.
"What’s that?"
"Check it under the light."
He grabbed the stone and placed it under the flickering lantern. The gem glowed a deep red, and he instantly realized what it was.
"This is a bloodstone!"
So it wasn’t a ruby, then.
"It is. I'm sure you know how much it's worth?"
"Anyone does! I could spend a year living leisurely with just one of these!"
Oh, so that was how much it's worth? I had a fistful of those gems in my pouch and some hidden back in the fort.
"What if I tell you I can give you more if you follow me around?"
His eyes widened. I could hear "cha-ching!" just from his expression. But his facial expression quickly shifted towards suspicion.
"As long as it's not mutiny or whatever that's very dangerous."
"It's not mutiny, I said. And, well, it has risks but I wouldn't say it's dangerous."
I told him everything he ought to know. I needed an assistant that would guide me around our destination, or maybe further if I liked him. Someone that could provide me whatever information I needed. And if he didn't have such information, he'd be willing to acquire it on my behalf.
He thought for a bit, but ultimately agreed.
"I can do that much. But I gotta ask, did you steal these?"
"I earned it," I said. "It's not a matter of how I got that, it's how you'll earn more."
"What about those men in the fort? Were you lying about that?"
"Of course not. We were really attacked. How do you think they died? I've even seen the lizard’s Elder."
And fucked her too. It was delightful. My only regret was not fucking her a second, a third, or more times to copy the rest of her skills and abilities.
"You must be so lucky."
"I am, and I'll share that with you. So, do you agree?"
“Yeah, I have no better reason to decline."
"Good. For now, here's what I wanna know..."
The city we were heading to was called Farisle, as the captain said earlier. It was established by a powerful mainland company called Goldenwheel for the sake of acquiring spices from Xitlachtan. Because of its lax laws – if they ever existed at all – it attracted all kinds of black-hearts. Other than Goldenwheel’s funding, its inhabitants depended mainly on fishing and sailing for a living.
I expected a pirate haven. But since the settlements around this sea – the Bloodscale sea – were founded not very long ago, it was yet to attract pirates. Most of the dangers came from either sea monsters or mermaids.
It had only been less than a century since they first acquired Xitlachtan’s resources and it was already in hot demand. They grew impatient and dropped the diplomatic approach for a more forceful one.
Mihan’s story tied very well with Horeln’s. Whoever ran Goldenwheel was either desperate or stupid.
Unfortunately, ships rarely docked in Farisle. Mostly it was just the sloops owned by Goldenwheel to collect local yields and Xitlachtan spices. Sometimes smugglers passed by as part of their route towards an archipelago called Korimd north-east from here.
"I’m still amazed that company bothers with Talak. I wouldn’t take a step on its beach even if you paid me ten bloodstones,” Horeln said.
Yeah, very dangerous indeed. If not for the skills I acquired from the cultists, I would've been a sex servant to a massive lizard milf capable of hunting a dinosaur with a pig iron spear.
"Trust me, even that is an understatement."
Goldenwheel grabbed my attention, so I asked him about it. It was a company founded recently but started appearing everywhere like mushrooms. Everything they produced had their brand on it, starting from barrels of wine to apparel and even carriage wheels. They’d been undermining local guilds with their suspiciously low prices. Rumors said they also participated in criminal activities, but no one could really prove that.
They really did sounded suspicious. After all, they were fast-scaling, which was a modern business strategy. Maybe this world was far more advanced than I thought?
We spent the next few days sailing the sea. The waters were unusually calm regardless of the wind’s strength, but the sailors said it had always been that way. However, it used to be the birthplace of storms. Mermaids with blood-red scales once reigned the sea, hence the name. It all changed when a hero from the west slayed Agaphonet, the queen of this sea.
It was probably just a local story though. It was fun nontheless.
On the fourth day, we finally sighted land. It was a chain of tropical islands, probably around ten or so lining the sea eastward. The captain rang the bell, yelling "land ho!" As the ship closed the distance, I went to the bow of the ship for a better view of the town.
"I guess it’s right to not expect much.”
It was, well, a town. Not much to see. Thatched houses were built on stilts as if the sandy ground had sharks in it. The buildings were connected by elevated wooden pathways, which started from the modest empty pier all the way into the inner parts of the town. Everything looked so combustible.
Up close, there were far more people around than I expected. Few children, less women, and a lot of men. Ragged, drunk men. Some women were garbed from head to toe, but there were those walking around with nothing but undergarments and ugly makeups on their faces.
The only redeemable section was the marketplace lined up on the pier. They sold all kinds marine from fishes of various sizes to shellcrafts. The only place with a stone base was the shipyard, but it looked just as desolate as any other buildings in this town. The building next to it was probably the warehouse.
I just hoped Goldenwheel bothered building a proper inn to sleep in. I dropped any expectations for food, though.
“Every single person here has abandoned their gods,” Horeln said with a serious expression, “but the world has driven us here. This is the cost of freedom.”
“Then I guess you go elsewhere if you die.”
Horeln nodded anxiously. “The Depths. The place even the gods avoid.”
That might be their version of hell. But I had no clue if people of this world went there. I remembered seeing different species back in the Prince of Lust’s orgy. Hell probably existed for everyone regardless of what world they came from.
Or maybe some of these people, the ones who were already outlawed, knew they weren’t heading to their gods so they made the most of their life’s remainder. I just felt bad for those that chose this path because they had no other better choice – one of them might be Horeln.
A crowd of men carrying long planks gathered at the pier. As soon as the ship docked, they rushed to climb aboard and the captain was quick to block the way.
“Steady, men! Nimble Deon needs no more sailors!”
I had to squeeze my way through smelly, musky, and scurvy-ridden men. As soon as I stepped off the ship, a plank broke beneath my feet and my leg slid through.
"I already hate this place.”