Blood on the waters. Dying people still conscious thrashing. The pirate ship still chasing after the Floating Fantasy. Nenandil warns me that a lot of predators are coming for the banquet. I hope nothing too huge with ship-crushing tentacles come.

I must've wounded a hundred pirates now. I know I took fewer hits than that but my HP is almost half now. While I fight with the small fry, the high-level pirates just watch, biding their time for the killing blow. More hooks are loaded on the ballistae. I'm running out of options and out of time. I don't want to shift, not yet. Shifting means killing all these pirates. I want to interrogate them. I'm not even using {Assassin's Contract} to spare myself from another form of exhaustion. Even Nenandil is low on MP, the waves she made to keep the ships apart took a lot from her.

The captain lady is watching the brawl with an amused smirk. I would sass her if I had the time or the motivation to.

No. I need time to recover. I think I'd evened the odds enough that the crew of the Flying Fantasy can keep the pirates at bay. It was a lost fight for them by what I saw. The pirates came outnumbering the sailors badly. I jump, duck, dive, dodge, and go for one of the stairs leading into the lower decks. From there I go around and descend once more, into the darkness. Darkness is good. I can see, they can't.

The pirates were ordered, "all hands on deck". There's nobody around. Maybe someone hidden but an ambush is not much of a concern. I shift into my hybrid form. Lacking the structure to hold them, my boots fall off my rear paws. I pick them up and tie them to my belt. The bracers too are loose. They go on the other side.

Now it's the waiting game. Regenerate HP, shift back, and back onto the fray. My pseudopods start to clean the grime, blood, and gore on me. I gave up thinking if that's cannibalism long ago. I'm not actually eating - put in my mouth and swallow - people. And even if it is, that might be the among the least of my sins.

I hear the ballistae fire. The pirates didn't come down to get me but I hear the trapdoor above shutting closed and heavy chains rattling over them. They think I'm trapped in the hold. Silly pirates.

The hull is made of wood. Thick wood but still just wood. Like a cartoon animal, I claw a circle on the wood and start to carve a wide circular groove, as tall as me. After ten minutes, water starts to squirt in some places. From the outside - I don't want to be bashed by a flying disk of wood - I keep carving and more water sprays. The wood creaked and starts to break. I crawl far away.

The disk I carved shatters and seawater starts to seep inside, quickly filling the hold. I take a lungful of air and dive.

The fairy rejoins me and casts water breathing. Once the pressure in the hold I'm in stabilizes, I crawl outside and up the rear of the ship. The place with the least eyes. Near the surface, I notice that the usual waterline marks are more than my height beneath the water. Just like with Taylor, Dodge, and Landon, the pirates' vessel is sinking.

Once above the water by a good margin, I turn around and latch my back to the ship hull. With my free limbs - guess not even Mr. Parker can do that - I don my bracers and boots again.

The sharks are having a field day. The water behind us is blood red. I rise and take a peek between the railings.

The Pirate lady is shouting orders. The officers are worried and I hear water splashing. One of them comes to the poop deck and reports.

"Past salvage, ma'am! We are going down in shark waters."

Her first reaction is to caress her lower abdomen and frown. The hand briefly caressed that area but in that split moment, she had a tender and sad expression. I know what that mans. Lady's pregnant. Damn.

Now she tugged my heartstrings.  I jumped from the deck. The pirate officers drew their weapons.

"You can try. Back in Pynkney, I killed Sullivan and Salvatore without breaking a sweat."

My name-dropping did its magic. They backed off, studying me and my stance. I was uninjured, rested, refreshed, and clean. The vultures that were expecting to prey on a worn {Heroine} were the cowards I expected. Then realization hit me. I killed Salvatore and Sullivan but it was the Death Princess, not me. I hoped they didn't catch my slip of tongue but probably not. That was only twelve days ago and I took five to get here on a fast vessel.

"Back off," The lady captain said. "Let the girl speak. What do you want, Demon Slayer?"

"I can help you guys survive. Maybe we can reach some kind of deal. Name's Apricot. {Heroine} Apricot." A pirate comes closer and looks down. I wave at him. "I invoke guest rights and a truce to parley. If you guys still want to fight, we can fight underwater. If you want to save your booze-swilling faces, stand down and let us talk."

I let {Divine Negotiation} work its miracle and sway the pirates to accept my offer.

They argue but the captain lady shouts, "Let her up. Nobody attacks."

I jump over the railing and back on the deck. "Smart girl," I grin.

"Can you save us from sinking?' She asks.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Yes. How's the Floating Fantasy?" I look past the deck of antsy sailors and find my ride lazily trailing ahead but out of the ballistae range.

"Better than us," She snarls.

Gotta give her credit, this pirate lady has guts. I approach and lean next to her ear, brushing my cheek on her shoulder.

Nenandil does her magic,

I whisper to the captain lady, "I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for the twins you are carrying. Congratulations."

Her jaw unhinges. She blinks a few times. "Twins?"

I grin. "Double the fun," I whisper in her ear then take a step back. Spreading my arms wide, I look at the boisterous crew around us, So, are we still trying to murder each other? I only need less than two billion to level up again."

"No. You have my word. Save our ship from sinking and you'll have our cooperation."

"Good. I want all your weapons thrown in the flooded deck. Don't worry, you'll get them back later."

She stares at the pirates double her weight and barks the order. "You heard the {Heroine}! Do it now. Attention, everyone. Throw down your weapons in the flooded deck!"

It is not much of a surprise that the pirates obeyed. They are losing mobility, sinking, in shark-infested waters. They throw their weapons in the flooded deck and I touch the water. Nenandil freezes everything, stopping the ship from sinking further and giving us some buoyancy. The hull might be compromised by the expansion of the ice but it will hold until we make shore.

A notification surprised me.

> A peaceful resolution was achieved. Bonus Exp awarded.

>

> For defeating a crew of pirates, you gained 13,862,250 Exp (45,000 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x2 bonus x 5.05 favored enemy).

It was less than what I'd have earned if I had killed them all individually.

----------------------------------------

The Floating Fantasy approached and the surviving pirates surrendered to the armed and rested crew of the passenger. They weren't put in irons or anything like that, they had a half-frozen vessel to man. After I assured captain Dowric I was okay and unharmed, I sat with the pirate lady to talk.

"You'll help me search for somebody," I tell her. "A rower from a galley called Dawn Skimmer. Did several trips between Pynkney and Port Whitecastle. Vanished two years ago."

"I knew that ship," She replied. "But all rowers were slaves. Why are you looking for a slave?"

"Personal reasons," I said. "Important reasons. At least to me."

She studied my face for a silent while. "You're too young. Not a lover. Family?" My reaction tells her everything she needs to know. Apricot had the second-best poker face in this incarnation but family was her weak point. "Father? An older brother? A brother it is."

I break down in tears and confess, "I'm looking for my brother Almond. He fell into debt slavery seven years ago. Missing index finger of the right hand. He's the last one that's missing."

"What about the rest of your family?" She asked. I didn't look at her face. If I had, things would be much clearer.

"We lost our twin brothers to some pervert general. I murdered the bastard. But everyone else is fine. We struggled a lot and now we lead a good life," I sniffle. "But it is not the same thing without Almond. I need to find him or avenge the ones that killed him."

My voice grew cold. "If he's dead, every slave trader in this continent will feel my wrath. I swear I'll murder every single one of them until nobody dares put a collar on anyone else."

She hugged me and chuckled. "Blood is thicker than water, Apricot. My name is Melyonen, by the way."

I take a handkerchief and wipe my tears. I met her eyes and smile. "Nice to meet you, Melyonen. I'm glad we didn't have to murder each other."

She sighs in relief. "Me too, girl. Me too."

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I had a dilemma. Melyonen needed to repair her ship but she couldn't dock in Port Whitecastle. Captain Dowric could but he wouldn't follow me to the pirate's hideout. Too dangerous for both parties. I sent Dowric to Port Whitecastle with orders to wait for me and went with the pirates to their hideout.

Captain Melyonen warmed up to me. The pirate lady treated me as if we were besties for a long time. At the time, I attributed that behavior to the fact she'd survived and I brought news she was having twins. I, on the other hand, used my medical skills to care for her health.

In the state her ship was, the trip to the pirate hideout took a week instead of a day and a half. Every day in the morning, Nenandil froze the water in the hold again. The ship carpenter dived to examine the hole and said that the ship was condemned. Once we reached the shore, it would be salvaged for wood.

Piracy had much in common with professional gambling. You hedge your bets but it was high in the risk-reward scale. The ship wasn't that new and Melyonen wanted a new ship exactly because of that. But now with twins in the oven, she might have to hang the eyepatch.

The hideout was in a cove amidst tall crags. The mountain range here had an inward V-shape and most merchant vessels crossed from one tip to another of the V, never daring the tides to sail into the vertex. If you entered the wrong time of the day, running aground on sharp rocks was the least of your worries. At the center of the V, the sea opened in a natural crater or caldera that was partially submerged. Several ships and even a drydock dotted the circular area.

Two rowboats with fresh seamen came and boarded. Melyonen told me to stay put while she went and talked to them. It was very unusual to have guests over, in the never happened before the category of unusual. The talk got heated, then Melyonen set her foot down. Literally, she stomped some rowdy guy's foot. I couldn't help but chuckle and that earned me some glares from Melyonen's crew.

She turned back to find me and did the universal come hither gesture. Human body language is universal, codified in our DNA or some shit like that. The pirates that boarded us went wide-eyed when they saw my magnificent title.

"We are going to land with these 'fine' gentlemen here," she told me oozing sarcasm. "Then we'll meet the boss and I'll show you the survivors from the Dawn Skimmer."

"Sounds good to me," I said.

"She has to surrender her weapons, Mel," One of the older pirates in the newcomer group said.

"So sweet of you to think a pair of daggers is my most lethal attack," I teased back.

"Rufus, she froze the ship's deck with her magic."

I snickered, "So sweet of you to think that ice magic is my most lethal attack."

Melyonen threw an arm around my shoulder and held me, "Oh, right. She's the Death Princess too. She killed Sullivan, Salvatore, and the undead archivist in a single day. Are you sure you want to make a fuss because of two daggers?"

I look at her and her smug smile told me everything. She did catch my slip of the tongue. Damn pirates and their information network. I'm going to shoot every seagull I see from now on.

We got on the rowboat and the pirates brought us, ladies, into dry land. This wasn't a base. It was a city. I could see some goats being herded into the highlands through a back passage. Melyonen chuckled.

"We got even some crops growing up there in the plateaus. We smuggled a few ships of dirt to get enough to create a garden."

They had a blacksmith and a sawmill. When I asked how they powered the mill, Melyonen said they have this huge buoy in a cave attached to an arm. When the tides move the buoy, the arm moves some gears, and that powers the saw. An ingenious mechanical contraption.

The houses were all made of stone. No wonder, considering that wood might be at a premium in these parts. The buildings got better and fancier the highest we climbed in the crater.

Our escort abandoned us near a big house at the edge of the crater. As they went away, I overheard one of them grumbling, "... just because she's the boss' wife." I took a good look at her. Melyonen might've overheard too because she nodded.

"Come inside, stay with me as I give my husband the good news. He's going to be the father of two."

Call it fate, chance, happenstance, luck. From what the Master said, Luck was an Attribute and mine should be very high because all those points were randomly split between the three hidden stats. The pirate boss was a tall man of a strong build and a very familiar face. His right hand lacked an index finger.

I looked at him and I couldn't believe it.

I ran, arms spread wide, grinning, "Brother! I finally found you!"

He smiled but it wasn't a happy smile. I hugged him and felt a sharp pain.

I looked at him and I couldn't believe it.

My brother, Almond, had just stabbed me in the heart.