CHAPTER 10

The offices were divided over two floors. The administrative section open to visitors was on the ground floor, while the employees’ offices were on the first floor. The two pirates had decided to cautiously stay together to search the floors. They had been opening each office one by one for about ten minutes, delving further into the building every time and grunting with exasperation each time they found an empty room.

"For crying out loud, how many idiots were working here?" exclaimed one of the two pirates, an Asian man with a nasal voice and a completely bandaged chest.

"Shut it, Saneda," replied the other pirate, a muscular blond, in a tone full of exasperation,"we’re trying to be sneaky here."

Arriving at the last office on the ground floor, which was still empty, the two men headed for the staircase at the back of the corridor to go upstairs.

"Do you think it's Ermythians we missed?" Saneda inquired as he climbed the stairs two at a time.

"Don’t know." replied the other pirate. "Dande didn't say nothing special to Monigam, he saw four people coming in here."

"Wait, what if he lied? You know they can’t stand each other, I wouldn't be surprised if he’d try to screw Monigam over!" Saneda speculated, pausing on the landing of the upper floor.

"Frankly, I don't think he’d have the balls to do that. Scornwallis’ still behind Monigam, if I were him, I wouldn't even think about messing with…," the other man began before stopping abruptly and putting his hand on Saneda's chest.

"Wow, do I look like one of your whores, Jar-" Saneda started before realizing that his companion, Jared, had put his finger to his lips and was nodding his head towards the offices.

The pirate turned his head and widened his eyes. He could see light coming from under the door of one of the closed offices towards the middle of the room.

Without a word, Jared and Saneda drew their swords and crept discreetly towards the door. Jared looked up, noticing a small plaque indicating that they were standing in front of the mayor's office. They positioned themselves on either side of the entrance, swords raised, and Saneda silently counted down with his free hand. When they reached three, they kicked the door together with a huge blow, shattering the lock. Without wasting a second, they burst into the room.

A young woman in an oversized old sailor's shirt was sitting in a chair behind the mayor's enormous desk, her arms crossed. The light of a lamp placed on the desk filtered through the door. Her long, curly black hair cascaded in front of her eyes, and yet the two pirates couldn't tear their gaze away from hers. She stared at them with a murderous look that made them slightly shudder.

"Took you long enough," she said to them in an oddly playful tone, "I almost thought you weren’t coming."

Jared and Saneda exchanged a glance, completely dumbfounded by the situation, then returned their attention to the young woman, who was now giving them an almost flirtatious smile. Then suddenly, a huge blow to the back of their heads made them lose consciousness at exactly the same moment, and they sprawled out in front of their mysterious visitor.

"And that makes four!" Raphaëlle rejoiced as she stretched a bit. "Still got it."

"An’ I still can't believe it. Do ya have any more of them hidden talents, lil’ wolf?" Cornell asked while tying up one of the unconscious pirates.

"Even more than you think." she promptly replied with a little laugh.

The old man burst into a hearty laugh before remembering the situation they were in. Skepta was outside the office, standing guard, while Tolas and he were busy tying up the pirates together. Cornell discreetly nudged Tolas with his elbow before whispering to him:

"Well, she's goin’ to give ya a run for yar money, boyyo!"

Tolas didn't reply, his eyes fixed on Raphaëlle, who returned his gaze with a quizzical eyebrow raise. Regaining his composure, the boatswain quickly cleared his throat and finished tying up his pirate. He stood up and left the mayor's office, followed by Raphaëlle and Cornell. Skepta joined them, and without another word, they cautiously descended the stairs to return to the ground floor.

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Monigam and Fletcher had had time to climb all the way to the top of the watchtower before stopping near the broken wall to catch their breath. Monigam approached the hole in the wall, observing the darkness that covered the rest of the city and Vyx Bay. Fletcher, meanwhile, was trying to alleviate the pain in his right ankle, which he had sprained during their attack and which had been throbbing terribly ever since he had slipped on debris while climbing the tower.

"Honestly, I have a hard time imagining him doing that if it's just to mess with you," he said, massaging his ankle with a grimace on his face, " especially after what happened with Baste...."

"He thinks he can do whatever he wants because we let him grieve, that's the problem." Monigam interrupted, his face stern. "The only reason he's still breathing is because Scornwallis wants to respect the Admiral's' decisions."

Monigam spat on the ground furiously.

"A bilge rat allowed to mourn his brother's death. What a load of crap...."

Finally, the pirate’s expression softened, and a hint of a smile even crossed his face. He turned to Fletcher with a malicious gleam in his eyes.

"It would be a shame if one of them landlubbers was armed and ended up killing Dande, don't you think?"

Fletcher raised an inquisitive eyebrow before noticing that Monigam was slowly running his hand over his weapon, an old musket in a battered brown holster. He smiled too.

"Yes, and we fought so hard too, but those lily-livered bastards really wanted our hides. Dande took a bullet right between the eyes as he tried to protect us! " Fletcher exclaimed with a dramatic gesture to boot.

"A true hero!" Monigam chuckled heartily before resuming his usual taciturn expression and heading towards the stairs. "Whether the others found anything or not, the Dandes line ends tonight."

The scarred man turned back with a nod to Fletcher. The latter got up, albeit with difficulty, and headed for the stairs, followed by Monigam. Their descent was slow and silent until they reached the halfway point, when Monigam finally noticed that Fletcher was limping strangely every time his right foot touched a step.

"What's wrong with you? You playing the cripple?" Monigam asked.

"Sorry, sir, my ankle’s been killing me ever since that beam fell on me in the grocery store."

"The beam… in the grocery store? Wait, are you telling me the lad actually pushed you hard enough for the roof to collapse?" Monigam scoffed.

Fletcher, feeling a bit insulted, continued descending the stairs, grimacing in pain.

" May I remind you that I wasn't really focused on him when he got me because everything was on fire?"

A mocking grin twisted Monigam's face.

"Seriously, how hard is it to kill an old strumpet and a boy? Me thinks we should have recruited him instead of letting you run that sword through his throat."

Stung, Fletcher turned around on the stairs, not paying attention to where he was stepping.

"Okay, first of all..." the pirate began before stepping on an uneven step and losing his balance.

His ankle, already weakened by his sprain, folded over itself with a loud crack, and Fletcher tumbled painfully down the last few meters to the ground floor.

Monigam, taken by surprise by his companion's sudden fall, snorted and his grin widened. He rolled his eyes and slowly descended the stairs until he heard the sound of a violent impact and a piercing cry of pain. But then he heard the sound of an object shattering followed by a new groan of agony that faded after a few seconds and he stopped abruptly on the stairs, a few steps from the ground floor.

The pirate crouched down and drew his weapon, breathing as quietly as possible and listening intently. By closing his eyes and concentrating, he could hear snippets of conversations.

"… surprise… reflex!" a young male voice seemed to say.

"…keyboard… a chair…everything… with you!" replied a cheerful feminine voice

Monigam narrowed his eyes, and a wicked smile crossed his face.

"…the last one…I don't know…lucky…" said a third voice, somewhat trembling and nasal.

"I'm gonna...stop... around." said a much older voice, apparently closer to his position.

The pirate's fingers tightened around the handle of his weapon as he slowly straightened up and opened his eyes. He immediately noticed that the four voices must have had a torchlight because he could see light coming from the bottom of the stairs. He began to descend as quietly as he could, finger on the trigger, slowly approaching the light.

His breathing was calm and measured as his brain worked at full speed. The small musket he carried had to be reloaded between each shot, but to compensate, it was very powerful and extremely loud. This tended to paralyze his opponents with fear just long enough for him to reload a new bullet. He planned on relying on the element of surprise to outpace the four intruders and kill at least two of them in about ten seconds.

He could still hear them talking and he could easily get an idea of the approximate position of each voices’ source. The first voice announced that it was time for them to leave. As soon as he saw that the light on the stairs had moved, Monigam lunged towards the bottom of the stairs, aiming at the person closest to him, and when he saw a red and black striped sweater, he took aim and fired.