Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 1: Towing the keel and walking on the plank

pain!
The pain is unspeakable!
Byron felt as if an iron spike had pierced his chest. He felt cold and weak, and it seemed that something precious was rapidly slipping away from the hole.

So much so that every nerve was twitching violently, emitting unbearable wails and screams.

But he himself couldn't wake up at all, and fell into a long dream as if he was possessed by a nightmare.

And in that dream, there were actually two of me and two completely different lives.

The first one was born in an orphanage. He was trapped in reality but had a dream of traveling around the world.

Unfortunately, after only working for a few years and before I could save enough money for the trip, I was suddenly diagnosed with a rare disease - ALS!

He began to lose all body functions little by little, starting with his upper limbs. Within just a few years, he was unable to move, speak, swallow, or even breathe on his own.

Until the body becomes a cage that imprisons the soul, and the person dies alone, helpless and desperate.

Although the other self lost his mother at birth, he had a strict but kind father and a large and harmonious family.

an uncle who, though troubled by intermittent mental illness, was wise and kind most of the time;
A beautiful and gentle aunt who treated him like her own son;

The cousin who often took me hunting and practiced swordplay, horsemanship, and sailing; the childhood sweetheart who spent the whole day chasing chickens and dogs together and doing nothing else;

There are also many united and friendly family members; loyal vassals, vassals, and guardian knights.
What’s annoying is that the two lives in this dream are like being separated by thick frosted glass, and have been blurry from the very beginning.

It was like seeing flowers in the fog, and Byron could not recall any details no matter what.

I just vaguely remember that I seemed to have suffered a severe blow in a major incident not long ago.

The huge "memory palace" in the mind that constitutes the personality is missing a crucial piece out of the blue, causing a chain collapse.

The first life that had served as the foundation was accidentally exposed, helping him to barely hold up the "palace" from collapsing, but it also plunged him into complete chaos.

He was now like a small boat that had lost its anchor, drifting in the torrent of shattered memories, not knowing what to do.

Apart from deep-rooted instincts and common sense, even self-awareness is becoming blurred.

After an unknown amount of time, Byron's mind was left with only one image that he remembered most vividly:
On a stormy night.

Under his feet was a towering warship with a giant blue dragon [figurehead] on its bow, as big as a mountain.

The father of this life seemed to be saying something to him anxiously, but he could only see his mouth opening and closing, and could not hear any sound at all.

Then the icy cold deep sea water completely submerged everything.
Byron subconsciously felt that this might be the key to the incident.

But the harder you try to hold on to them, the faster these memories disappear.

"Who am I? What happened on that stormy night? Where did the rest of the family go?"

at this time.

Wow!

A large basin of cold sea water splashed on his face, waking him suddenly from the nightmare.

However, he did not notice at all that the moment he opened his eyes, a barely perceptible light flashed in his right eye, which was as blue as the sea.

Slowly raising his head, Byron was shocked to find himself among a group of soaking wet "drowned rats", with his hands and feet tied up with ropes.

Lying on the deck of a wooden sailboat in a very embarrassing posture!
Several ragged sailors with fierce looks on their faces were standing in front of him, looking down at him.

The leader was a burly man two meters tall, with a sailor's scimitar and a flintlock pistol hanging from his waist, and his body exuding a cold and bloody smell.

He took a big gulp of rum from a bottle and said impatiently:
"Don't you pigs just lie on the deck and play dead.

The captain's babies don't like to eat motionless corpses, so get up and don't cause us any trouble."

Hearing this, Byron, who was hiding in the crowd, felt his heart sink and glanced around secretly.

The traces of swords, axes, and bullets on the half-man-high bulwarks were very fresh, and the golden bronze cannons on the open deck were particularly thick with the smell of gunpowder.

There was filthy blood in the cracks of the deck that had not been wiped clean.
Everywhere you look, you see ragged but strong sailors busy retying broken sail ropes, repairing the damaged hull after the naval battle, or rescuing the wounded.

And at the top of the mast of this sailboat, there is a pirate flag with a black background and a white skull riding a shark hanging high!
There is no doubt that this is a pirate ship that has just experienced a brutal bloody battle.

No more than one nautical mile from the stern of the ship, in the hazy milky white fog, a shabby merchant ship that had been ravaged by artillery fire was sinking into the sea while burning.

It seemed that after launching a stubborn counterattack against the pirate ship, they still could not escape the fate of being robbed and massacred.

The bloody flag hung high on the mast of the pirate ship also proves this.

That is a sign of slaughtering all enemy ships without leaving a single one alive!

In theory, in order to deter merchant ships that dared to resist them, this bloody execution would be carried out resolutely by pirates, with almost no exceptions!
Combined with the pirate leader's words, Byron's heart skipped a beat and he realized that something was wrong.

"I became a prisoner of a group of pirates? And I'm going to be fed to some pet?"

Most of the merchant sailors around him who survived the looting were old sea dogs who had been on the sea for many years and had a keener sense of crisis than him.

We also have a clearer understanding of how brutal and violent this pirate gang called the Man-eating Shark, which is active in the North Sea, is.

Regardless of the bloody wounds on their bodies, they knelt down and begged for mercy:

"Mr. Bonebreaker, it was the captain who gave the order to resist. We have all surrendered. Please, don't kill us!"

"Please spare me! I'm the gunner of the Pelican, I'm a technical crew member, I'm willing to join the Man-eating Shark!"

"."

The leading pirate, "Bonebreaker" Miles, who was also the first mate of the pirate ship, was not moved at all.

He took another gulp of the rum he had stolen from the merchant ship and smiled coldly:

“It’s really unfortunate.

There is only one other person on your ship, the chef who is said to have served the nobles and got a chance to prove his worth by backstabbing your captain.

No one else is worthy of the mercy of Captain Blood Eyes.

Stop talking nonsense, those little guys should be waiting impatiently, send them down!" After saying that, he waved his hand, and a group of ferocious pirates immediately stepped forward and dragged the captives, who were about to piss their pants, from the deck.

Many sailors suffered mental breakdowns after being mercilessly sentenced to death by pirates.

"You sea maggots and that despicable traitor will not have a good end!"

“I pray that the legendary ghost ship will take my soul away. The dead on the sea will one day take revenge on the living!
God will not forgive you!"

"."

Some cursed, some swore, and some took the time to pray to God.

The old sailor walking beside Byron had his teeth chattering:
"Oh, God Almighty! We shouldn't have obeyed the captain's order and put out to sea at this time.

What does the war for the throne of the Kingdom of Hattings have to do with us little sailors?
Even if the Lancaster family of the Red Rose is defeated, our Pelican Chamber of Commerce will only be a vassal of their vassal.

With your great protection, the White Rose York family who succeeded in taking over will definitely not do anything to us."

Byron, who had been confused about the situation, finally pieced together the whole story from the emotional outbursts of these sailors before their death.

This ordinary maritime robbery took place in the North Sea off the coast of the Old World.

In the nearby island country of Hastings, the two major families with red and white roses as their emblems have been fighting for the throne for a full thirty years.

Some time ago, these two great noble groups who had the right to inherit the throne once again brought their respective vassals to fight each other on land and sea, causing rivers of blood to flow.

And in the middle of the night five days ago, a rare strong storm suddenly hit the battlefield of the naval battle between the two sides - the Strait of Dover at the southernmost end of the North Sea.

The battle for the throne between the White Rose and the Red Rose was thus finally decided.

All male members of the Red Rose Lancaster family, which originally occupied the throne of Hastings, disappeared in the storm!
Even the first-class ship that the previous King Henry VI was on board, the Blue Dragon King, sank in the sea.

The nobles and merchants who were originally dependent on Lancaster fled one after another for fear of being liquidated by the new king.

Some fled to other countries on the continent along the North Sea coast, while others simply went to the overseas colonies that were in full swing.

The Pelican, a merchant ship carrying part of the property of Lord Crawford, a Lancastrian, had sailed from Hattings two days earlier.

The destination was the southern colony of the Bantaan Islands.

However, they unexpectedly encountered the "Man-eating Shark" here and were suddenly hijacked by this group of brutal pirates, and their escape journey came to an abrupt end.

Byron himself was a "victim" who was fished out of the sea when the Pelican passed by the outer waters of the Strait of Dover, the site of the original battlefield.

No one knows his identity, including the captain who died with the ship.

At this moment, he and the crew of the Pelican were captured by pirates.

"Red and White Rose, Blue Dragon King, Lancaster"

Listening to this information, Byron's eyes gradually became dazed.

The drifting and chaotic memories in my mind seemed to be anchored by these few words.

Faces, some clear and some blurry, gradually appeared before his eyes.

Especially in the midst of blood and fire, a burning red rose emblem stood out particularly.

Warmth, admiration, love, regret... all kinds of extremely strong emotions surged up, making his heart ache.

"what--!"

A shrill scream suddenly shook my eardrum.

Byron shuddered and came back to his senses.

Looking up suddenly, I saw that the bloody execution on the pirate ship had begun!
On the forecastle of the pirate ship, a group of burly and fierce pirates were working together to drag a strong long rope from the starboard side to the port side.

A shirtless sailor was also dragged from the bottom of the water through the keel covered with sharp parasitic barnacles, and was pulled out of the water from the other side.

The whole process was like being cut into pieces, leaving him with countless bloody, horrific wounds deep enough to see the bones.

The sailor just let out a scream and before he could even catch his breath, he was dragged from underwater to the other side.

After going back and forth two or three times, his body was in tatters and no longer looked human. Even the sea water near the bow turned a thick blood color.

This is one of the most dreaded punishments for sailors at sea - keel dragging!

What’s even more horrifying is that, as if attracted by the smell of blood, a large black shark fin as sharp as a blade suddenly rose from the sea!
They drew white lines on the sea surface and swarmed in in the blink of an eye.

Obviously, this is the pet raised by the captain of the "Man-eating Shark" mentioned by the first mate Miles.

At the same time, a long wooden board extended from the side of the ship.

A group of pirates wielding scimitars drove several merchant sailors with their hands and feet tied, moving little by little to the end of the wooden board.

He did not forget to make bloody wounds on their bodies.

Whether praying or cursing, the sailors all ended up stepping on empty air and falling into the surging waves with screams.

After a bloody scramble, they all disappeared into the sea.

Seeing their companions die one after another in the mouths of sharks, despair spread among the remaining sailors.

This kind of helplessness of having to wait for one's execution is simply maddening.

Some of the experienced old sea dogs have realized that this group of pirates are not simply executing them, but are holding an extremely cruel blood sacrifice ceremony!
"Compared to that rubber boy who looks like he's playing house, this is the true face of a pirate!"

Standing at the end of the sailors, Byron, with an equally grim expression on his face, subconsciously said something that puzzled others, and even himself.

He was pushed roughly onto the narrow gangway by the pirates.

Just a few steps away from your feet are the surging blood-red waves and dozens of bloody mouths with sharp teeth!
Byron's scalp went numb as he smelled the pungent smell of blood.

If nothing unexpected happens, he may never have the chance to regain his memory and discover the lost truth.

(End of this chapter)