Free Web NovelIf they could have one more chance to do it over again, then even with a few hundred times the nerve, the Fire Wolf Star Pirate Crew would never have accepted this bounty.
But there was no medicine for regret in this world.
Now that they had been brought aboard a Saint Clan warship, strictly speaking, the few of them might very well be the only star pirates in history ever to set foot inside the Thanatos. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
And yet there was not the slightest trace of joy on their faces.
The warship was filled with Saint Clan members, and the silver-haired Saint Clan man standing before them now was clearly no ordinary one.
Hearing the other Saint Clan members in the command room address him as King, how could these star pirates fail to understand?
The silver-haired Saint Clan before them was that tyrant sovereign.
Having fallen into his hands, their fate was obvious.
Looking at the bone spines that had so easily twisted every bone in their companion’s body to pieces, the way these star pirates looked at Mansendis was no different from looking at some terrifying monster.
But Mansendis paid no attention to their stares. What concerned him more was...
“A bounty?”
The silver-haired ruler’s tone was cold.
The star pirates hurried to answer, afraid that if they were even a second too late, their own bones would be twisted apart as well.
“There’s a task hall in the black market. It specializes in this kind of bounty.”
People in the star pirate trade had no such thing as professional ethics. To stay alive, they would say anything.
Mansendis had only spoken two words, yet these star pirates had already very cooperatively confessed everything they knew.
There was a platform inside the black market specifically for taking and posting bounties, filled with all kinds of tasks.
Anyone could post a bounty or accept a task through this platform. The one thing the black market never lacked was desperadoes. They could make money by working as bounty hunters, and some of the powerful figures from various races also used black-market bounties to get rid of the people they considered troublesome.
It was a gray zone operating along the edge of the law.
They even had a dedicated website, and only specially invited accounts could enter it.
To save their lives, these star pirates very obediently handed over their light-brains.
Mansendis found the website icon inside them.
It was the emblem of a pair of blood-red wings.
After tapping into it, the interface showed an angel holding a sword. Behind it spread enormous bloodstained wings, its eyes tightly shut as two streams of blood tears ran down from its eye sockets.
And below that was a densely packed list of tasks.
Mansendis filtered for bounties related to the Saint Clan.
Compared to the other bounties, the tasks concerning the Saint Clan were fewer. Yet when Mansendis saw the contents, his gaze darkened.
Aside from some tasks offering payment for Saint Clan intelligence, the largest category there was trade in Saint Clan body parts.
Scales, blood, wings, bones—any part of a Saint Clan body would do.
If it was a living Saint Clan member, the bounty price rose to an astonishing sky-high sum.
And the prices also varied according to Saint Clan rank.
The listed “purchase” price for lower-ranking Tas and Ge De was lower, while higher-ranking Heimo were priced at double what those first two fetched.
Mansendis even saw a bounty for royal blood there.
That exorbitant number was enough to tempt the great majority of people in this world.
But that was not what made these people the boldest.
In the center section of the page, Mansendis saw bounties on himself and on the cub egg, and both had been posted by the Polaris Life Research Institute.
Not only that, every single bounty purchasing Saint Clan bodies came from that same institute.
By the time Mansendis saw this, his expression had gone completely cold.
He turned to Selet and ordered, “Compile a record of how many of our people have gone missing over the past several years.”
Selet quickly sorted out the data.
Over the past century, the number of missing Saint Clan had already reached into the thousands.
Set against the entirety of the Saint Clan, that number did not seem especially large.
But Saint Clan members had an exceptionally strong sense of racial belonging.
They followed a collective code, and ordinary Saint Clan would not easily leave the group.
Besides, Dark Tower Star was the homeland of all Saint Clan, the place where they originated. Even in death, the instinct carved into their genes would urge them to return to their native soil.
So for that many Saint Clan to have vanished so abruptly was clearly a highly abnormal matter.
And looking again at the black-market bounties, those missing Saint Clan were most likely inseparable from these black-market transactions.
Since ascending the throne, Mansendis had without exception brought back every Saint Clan soldier who died in battle abroad and recorded them in the register.
So during his reign, no Saint Clan disappearances had taken place.
Most of those disappearances had happened during an earlier period.
That had been the Saint Clan’s most chaotic era.
Their king had died, and the Saint Clan below had been lost and uneasy.
If the people behind the black market had truly wanted to capture Saint Clan, then that period had undoubtedly been their best chance to act.
But the question was... what exactly did Polaris want to do?
Mansendis said nothing.
The entire command room nearly sank into a heavy, oppressive silence.
The star pirates were trembling a little.
The pressure these Saint Clan gave off was too strong. On top of that, their companion’s corpse was lying right there in front of them. The threat of death hung over their heads the entire time. As the atmosphere on the scene grew quieter and quieter, the nerves of these star pirates tightened with it.
And what broke that silence was the alert sound of a light-brain.
It was the ringtone for a video call.
In that silent command room, the sudden ring immediately drew everyone’s attention.
The Saint Clan inside the command room looked at one another, only to finally realize that the sound was coming from... the light-brain on Mansendis’s wrist.
Mansendis glanced at it. It was Wen Yuzhi calling.
The moment he answered, the figure of a young boy appeared in the command room.
“Dad...!”
Wen Yuzhi saw Mansendis first. From his angle, he could not see the few star pirates tied up there.
So Wen Yuzhi assumed that Mansendis was simply in the command room as usual.
“Dad, am I interrupting you?”
Wen Yuzhi was worried that he might be interrupting Mansendis’s work.
Mansendis glanced at the star pirates, then answered in a calm voice, “No.”
As the silver-haired ruler said that, Selet made a gesture for the star pirates to keep quiet.
Under the warning gazes of the surrounding Saint Clan, and with the bone spines in front of them, the bound star pirates hurriedly clamped their mouths shut.
Forget speaking—they did not even dare breathe too hard right now.
Wen Yuzhi could not hear any of that, so naturally he had no idea that before his call came through, Mansendis had been interrogating several star pirates.
He was dressed in a gardener’s outfit, and with the little watering can in his hand, Mansendis immediately guessed what the cub was about to do.
“Zhizhi, are you going to water those trees?”
“Mhm!”
Wen Yuzhi nodded.
“Mond said the little trees can be pruned a bit now too.”
Then the cub puffed out his cheeks and, dragging out his soft little tone, said, “Dad, when are you coming back? I miss you so much...”
Mansendis pressed his lips together. If the real cub had been right in front of him, he would already have reached out to stroke his hair.
But what stood before him was only a projection cast by the light-brain.
He could not hug his child, nor could he touch him.
Mansendis could only soothe the cub with words. “Soon. Just two more days. Can Zhizhi wait a little longer for Dad?”
At that, Wen Yuzhi’s eyes showed a bit of disappointment, but he still nodded obediently. “I’ll wait for Dad to come back.”
And then, before Mansendis could continue comforting him, the cub had already adjusted his mood.
Wen Yuzhi took the initiative to bring up what had happened today. “My hair got a little longer, so Mond put it up in a little sprout. He said it was really cute, but I can’t see it, so I don’t know if Mond was just trying to ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ coax me...”
Mansendis looked at the little sprout bobbing at the back of the cub’s head, and his gaze softened as well. “Mond wasn’t just coaxing you.”
So that meant it looked good?
Since Dad had said it looked good...
Blinking, Wen Yuzhi’s steps immediately became lighter.
After that, he and Mansendis chatted for a while longer before ending the video call.
And the moment the cub’s figure disappeared, the Saint Clan in the command room immediately showed faintly reluctant looks in their eyes.
...They had not gotten nearly enough.
The little prince on the call was clearly livelier than he appeared in the recorded videos. He would call out Dad in that soft little tone, and he would even act spoiled toward Mansendis.
Everyone present felt their hearts soften at the sight.
As for those star pirates...
They were terrified out of their minds.
The moment that boy called him Dad, the shock inside them became indescribable.
...That was actually the Saint Clan tyrant’s child?!
So the rumors on StarNet were true after all. The Saint Clan really had given birth to a new royal bloodline! And it was Mansendis’s child!
If that news could be sold...
The breathing of those star pirates suddenly turned heavy.
But the instant their emotions shifted, Selet seemed to see straight through their thoughts. He stared coldly at them, a trace of frigid killing intent flashing through his eyes.
These people deserved to die.
Mansendis only ever showed a gentle side in front of Wen Yuzhi.
After Wen Yuzhi hung up the call, when he looked at those star pirates again, the emotion in his eyes had already returned to pure coldness.
“Take them away and interrogate them.”
That meant special methods were going to be used.
It was obvious the star pirates would not be that honest. What they said on the surface might be one thing, while they were hiding something entirely different inside.
Nor would Mansendis believe them based on a few words alone.
He had Selet take the star pirates away for interrogation.
By then, no matter what those star pirates knew, they would definitely confess it all obediently.
The star pirates...
A chill suddenly climbed up their backs.
...
Wen Yuzhi sneezed too.
“Achoo—!”
He had only just wrinkled his nose when he looked up and saw Yiluo and Feier staring at him with solemn expressions.
Yiluo had even taken off a coat and was about to drape it over him.
“Okay, okay, I’m fine. My nose just suddenly felt a little itchy...”
Wen Yuzhi muttered. Setting down his little watering can, he decided to go rest in the shade for a bit first.
Yiluo and Feier wanted to follow him over, but there was only so much room beneath the tree, so Wen Yuzhi simply had them go to the other side to bring over some water.
He was a little thirsty.
The place where Wen Yuzhi had left his cup earlier was not far from here, only a few meters away. Yiluo and Feier took a look and saw that it really was not far.
At that distance, the little prince still would not be out of their sight, so only then did Yiluo and Feier feel reassured enough to head over there.
Wen Yuzhi narrowed his eyes. The sun was harsh today, and even though he was wearing a straw hat, he still felt a little dizzy from the heat.
A breeze passed by, stirring the leaves into a rustling sound, and there was at last a trace of coolness beneath the shade.
Inside the enormous palace, Mond was in the kitchen reminding the Gumu what the little prince was to have for dinner tonight. Kasha and the others were in the simulation room doing their daily training. Merita, meanwhile, was holding a thick book of court etiquette and studying how to smile and bow.
And by the lake, Yiluo and Feier had also reached the place where the water cup was.
Wen Yuzhi was still sitting there enjoying the coolness brought by the breeze brushing his face.
But very soon, a sudden sense of unease rose in his heart.
Like an instinct warning him—
Danger!
Wen Yuzhi opened his eyes on reflex.
At some point, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind had stopped.
The whole world seemed to fall silent in that instant.
Wen Yuzhi reacted quickly enough. As he prepared to move out from under the tree and just opened his mouth to call Yiluo and Feier, a hand suddenly came from behind and covered his mouth.
A faint ripple seemed to pass through the air.
He felt someone strike the back of his neck.
In the final moment before his consciousness vanished, Wen Yuzhi heard a cool voice slowly say, “Mission complete. Target secured.”
The subtle disturbance in the air disappeared again.
Everything beneath the tree returned to normal.
Except the young boy who had been sitting there just moments ago was gone.
It was a difference of only a single second.
Yiluo and Feier had happened to miss it.
By the time they turned back around, the little prince under the tree had already disappeared.
Clatter—
The water cup suddenly fell to the ground.
But no one bent to pick it up.
Yiluo and Feier’s eyes turned crimson in an instant, and a sharp screech burst from their mouths.
It did not sound human. It was more like the howl of some beast driven into extreme fury.
That sound carried far, to the point that nearly every Saint Clan member in the palace heard it.
Mond’s expression changed at once.
He rushed toward the grove at top speed.
When he saw Yiluo and Feier on the verge of losing control, and then saw that there was no sign of the little prince anywhere nearby, the face of the chief steward—usually always gentle—turned instantly cold.
“Seal off Dark Tower Star immediately!”
By then, Merita and Kasha had also arrived.
Seeing the situation at the scene, their expressions were equally terrible.
The Saint Clan who received the order immediately activated the highest level of alert.
Warships rose one after another into the air, continuously laying down blockades all around Dark Tower Star.
In the palace complex, Alvin had been discussing the matters for their upcoming talks with the president of the Pachi people. The moment Alvin sensed the commotion outside, he stood up immediately.
“...Your Excellency?”
The president of the Pachi people was startled, only to hear the other party excuse himself and hurry out.
Before the Pachi president could make sense of the situation, his assistant came stumbling in.
“T-this is bad! Something seems to have happened to the Saint Clan! The palace complex has been sealed off!”
After hearing that, the president of the Pachi people went completely blank.
On the other side—
Aboard the Thanatos, the interrogation results had also come out.
Those star pirates’ purpose really was what they had claimed. They had come to the Ninth Star Sector because they had accepted a bounty.
The rest of it was more or less the same as well.
As for the many details behind the Saint Clan bounties, those star pirates did not know much. They were just a very ordinary star pirate crew.
But Selet discovered one point in their memories that was worth special attention.
“One of the star pirates once overheard someone in a bar mention that the organization behind the black market is a force called the Tribunal.”
Selet spoke.
...The Tribunal?
Mansendis frowned.
But in the next moment, an urgent alert from his light-brain interrupted his thoughts.
Mansendis lowered his eyes and glanced at it.
It was a message from Mond.
“My King, the little prince has disappeared.”
Selet had still been waiting for Mansendis’s orders on how to deal with those star pirates. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Instead, what he heard was Mansendis’s urgent, icy voice.
“Set course back.”
