Houses were ablaze, and the cries of men, women, and children intermingled in a cacophony of despair.
A coastal village was being raided by pirates.
Numerous pirates searched the village, packing the plundered goods into wooden boxes to be transported to their ships.
Other pirates gathered the villagers to select slaves.
One pirate took a fancy to a teenage boy, pulling him out of the crowd.
The boy, overwhelmed and trembling, watched helplessly as a woman clung to his legs.
"Please, don't take my son. He's all I have left", she begged, her eyes brimming with tears and terror.
"Let go! " the pirate who grabbed the boy shouted at her.
But the woman, still pleading, clung tighter to her son, refusing to let go.
Impatient, the pirate swung his knife-wielding hand, and the woman fell into a pool of blood.
"Mom!!!" The boy, gripped by the pirate, screamed in anguish and despair, "You monster! "
He bit the pirate's arm fiercely, a desperate act of resistance given his small stature.
The pirate, in pain, cursed and knocked the boy unconscious with his fist, then tossed him at the feet of another pirate.
These young, mentally undeveloped boys, lacking the ability to resist, were prime choices for slaves. Once on the pirate ship, if they quickly adapted to the harsh environment, they could become reserve members of the pirate crew and eventually full-fledged pirates. If not, they would remain slaves for life.
The other villagers, sitting on the ground, watched in fear, too terrified to resist, praying that misfortune wouldn't befall them.
The pirate selecting slaves approached the crowd again, looking for the next victim
On a nearby high ground, Mudfish Gaden stood, watching the fiery blaze engulfing the fishing village with a smug expression.
At that moment, a subordinate ran over from the village to report to him
"Boss, we've nearly finished looting.
We should leave now before Duke Farl's navy arrives."
"Don't worry, Jack. We have ten Galleons and thirty Schooner ships. So it will take a few more days for Duke Farl's navy to prepare themselves to fight with us." The pirate leader said with a slight smile, a look of confidence in his eyes. He is a Beastmen with an eyepatch. His name is Dem, part of the Black Fleet pirate organization
"Still, boss, we have looted many villages and small towns in this region. We think we should leave this region now, and focus on something bigger. Like imprisoning that prince"
"Are you talking about the former Prince of Latvia?"
"Yes, Boss. I heard that the reward for his capture has been increased. The King of Latvia will reward 200,000 gold coins to whoever captures Prince Eric and his companions alive." The pirate's voice was a little excited. The greed for money shone in his eyes.
"200,000 gold coins!" The pirate leader's eyes widened. The look of disbelief was clear on his face. "That's equivalent to the total annual income of a small country."
"So Boss, what do you think about this?"
"Hehe, it's a jackpot. Plus, Big Father will be very happy." The pirate leader grinned, showing his teeth. A sinister plot was evident in his eyes.
"But boss, I don't think it will be that easy. According to the information I received, the prince hired Blue-flag mercenaries for his journey. Also, Big Head's team failed to catch them. Although they sank many of the Blue-flag mercenary ships, but at the last moment someone used teleport magic and the remaining three Blue-flag mercenary ships were teleported away. Now We do not know their location.
"Teleportation magic!?"
"Yes, Boss. It might have been the prince's sorceress Hanna. I heard that she is a 7th circle mage"
"Hmm.... Jack, I'm not as stupid as that Big Head. We'll take the help of that guy to find their location and capture them."
"Are you talking about that guy?"
"Yes, I'm talking about that guy."
"Boss! Boss!"
Then another pirate came running there.
"Hmm? What's up?"
"The ships almost loaded. It's time to go."
"Alright, let's board."
Dem led the remaining pirates briskly towards the shore.
They boarded a small boat, rowing vigorously towards the larger vessels. Due to the heavy load, the pirate ships couldn't approach the shore too closely to avoid grounding.
Reaching the big ship, they climbed the rope ladder to the deck.
A subordinate approached and reported, "Boss, everything was ready."
Dem commanded with gusto, "Set sail!"
The 40 ships started moving. Newly captured slaves, now serving as rowers, began their miserable fate amidst whips and curses.
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Bernard Empire
Alberto was inside a room filled with many instruments and a big screen in the centre showing a rocket and countdown timer.
A man greeted Alberto, " Welcome, Your Majesty. You are quite early, it is still 40 minutes before the satellite is launched into space."
"Ya, I'm actually really excited because I wanted to see this satellite launch."
Alberto purchased a space centre from the system, and now he has come to the Space Center to witness the satellite launch.
The control room laid many monitors that were powered by supercomputers. People with headsets are also in the room. In front of them was a monitor showing a live video of a rocket, the rocket was carrying a communication satellite.
When Alberto first read the satellite overview, he was very excited because, in his past life, they did not have the Internet and satellite. So he bought a communication satellite to use the Internet. However, since his level was not that high, the satellite he bought would only be able to provide 2G speeds. Still, this slow internet was like a dream for him.
Alberto was waiting patiently as this was the first time he would see a rocket launched into space in real life.
The Space Centre and launching ground were located 250 Kilometres to the west of the Capital; it was flat land surrounded by high hills, making a good camouflage in the eyes of people.
A voice then shouted, 5 minutes before take-off. All the people in the room started to concentrate even harder on the monitors in front of them. Some of them were flipping switches, Some were coding on their keyboard, and others were talking with their headsets.
After a few minutes, a man spoke into a microphone and his voice was broadcast all over the place.
The voice said, " 30 seconds before Alberto 1 takes off." As all of them were waiting for the takeoff, the giant screen showed many different parts of the rocket. Smoke was coming out from its massive thrusters, and the mechanical things holding the rocket started to slowly release their support.
The man's voice echoed again to the entire place:
10
9
8
7
6
4
3
2
1
0
Flames started to appear from rocket thrusters where the engines were connected. Smoke filled the area where the rocket stood, all dust and particles were blown away, and all the mechanical things supporting the rocket folded, returning to their place when unused.
The rocket slowly flew a few meters above the ground before increasing its thrust at the same time, increasing the speed of how it reached the sky.
The man's voice echoed again,
"Three minutes before, Alberto 1 will approach Thermosphere in 3 minutes."
The rocket continued to fly towards the Thermosphere before reaching space; the rocket passed the ozone layer of the planet and the stratosphere and, after a few seconds, started to enter the Mesosphere of the planet Proxima.
The man's voice echoed again, "Alberto 1 entering Thermosphere in Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Alberto has entered the thermosphere. Alberto will enter the exosphere in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Alberto has entered, five, four, three, two, one, Saria has reached space."
The man still continued, " Preparing for satellite release in 10 minutes, Initiating orbit travel, shell connections detach, setting up target waves 13° x 24° error by 3% calculating, error-corrected 14°x 25° error by 0.1%. Adjusting time frame GMT-24, 16, 17, 32, 8, 18. Setting up bios 30% complete, bios 48% complete, 63% complete, 73% complete, 87% complete, 99% complete, 100% complete. Shell connectors 100% detached releasing pressure holders."
Alberto was listening to the people around him, which he thought was quite cool, but the scene was so boring for him that he yawned unintentionally. He then looked everywhere; he could see people looking at the monitors, which showed waves of line; others showed numbers that he didn't understand; others were looking at the map; others were looking at a blueprint of the rocket, which you can see that many dot lights appearing on each part.
After a few minutes, the man spoke again, "Releasing Satellite from the shell in, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Satellite released."
The man's voice echoed again,
" Satellite will be operational in Three hours." After that cheers and claps from all the people in the room echoed. Alberto was bored to the core that he had fallen asleep but was woken by the sudden cheers of people.
Alberto thought to himself
{ I'm never going back here again in this boring place. I want to sleep now, I guess it is already getting late.}