Late Evening - Early Winter : The Temple Space Rune

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*psh-RUMBLEEE* Blasting thrusters and darting ahead of the group, the slowly approaching island quickly accelerated toward me.

After only a second, I turned off the thruster magic again and aimed down toward the beach. -I don’t see anyone… It should be fine right?-

Deciding to play it safe, I turned slightly and aimed toward a section of the beach that the ship couldn’t see.

*WHHHAAAAMMMM* The sand beneath my feet turned to glass in an instant as a massive shockwave was sent through the island.

"Damn…" -I was definitely going too fast to land in my humanoid form…- Immediately setting down Ilios, I changed to my humanoid form and quickly started making my way down the beach.

As I rounded the bend, however, I finally noticed how worn the ship was.

With dark, almost black planks making up the hull, countless areas had seemingly been repaired and slathered in tar, but shockingly, the mast and sails were in great condition, as if they had just been replaced.

The flag however.. had seen better days. -Is that.. a cat on their flag?- Although it was hard to distinguish with how tattered the black flag was, the insignia looked to be a white cat.

-Their insignia doesn’t exactly.. strike fear into people… Does a black flag not mean they’re pirates in this world?- Continuing down the beach past where the ship was anchored, I passed by several barrels full of shockingly fresh food, drinks, and even spices. -Are they unloading the ship? Why are there none out here?-

I idly glanced over at the ship's crow's nest to see if there was a lookout, but it was empty as well. -What in the world are these people thinking?-

Turning back to the beach, I saw a trail leading into the trees with several barrels stacked at the entrance and decided to check it out. -Are they all in the island?-

Making my way over to it, I started walking down the surprisingly clear trail.

The path was clearly indicated with a trail of sand, and the underbrush that was present throughout the trees was cleared away from the path.

After a short moment of walking though, I heard all kinds of noise up ahead.

"None of you idiots thought to leave a lookout?!" *pat-pat-pat-pat-pat* It was a distant woman’s voice followed by the noise of countless footsteps.

-Oh they’re coming to me… That’s convenient…- Casually walking over to a large empty barrel set on the side of the path, I moved it into the middle of the path and hopped up on it.

Over the next few moments, the voices and noise steadily approached before eventually some people came into view.

The first one to round the corner was a fairly tall, lean-muscular woman with messy brown hair and an oddly familiar black cat on her shoulder like a parrot.

Her face was completely washed with anger, but once she saw me, it turned pale, and she froze.

The people behind her had similar reactions as well.

"So, are you the captain?" I pointed at the woman in front, who was the only one wearing moderately clean clothes.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She immediately stiffened up and pulled out the shiny sword on her hip as I pointed. "Y-yes. Who are you?!" She sounded aggressive but looked surprisingly scared.

-I guess I could introduce myself…- Quickly coming up with a good idea, I straightened my posture and gave her a condescending look. "My name is Vasilias Whyte. The owner of this island."

*VWOOM* Immediately flooding the area with my aura, I focused it around the group of people to the point that almost all of them fell to the ground or passed out.

But the woman in front was surprisingly able to resist it with some struggle. -Hoh?- Thinking I found something interesting, I hopped off the barrel and walked up to her. "How unexpected…" -This much aura should make Lawton have to kneel…- "What is someone like you doing here?"

Her face was ghastly pale and covered in a cold sweat as she struggled to remain standing. "W-e we-re j-just.. try-ing to se-ttle h-ere…" Her voice was extremely shaky and strained. "W-e didn’t k-now th-is island h-ad an ow-ner…"

-Wow, why didn’t she say they were just camping or something?- Surprised by her honesty, I had an idea come to mind. "A band of pirates wishes to settle on this land?"

She quickly shook her head with much effort. "We w-ill lea-ve imm-edia-tely!"

"Hmm, that won’t be necessary… How about we make a deal instead?"

Although I couldn’t tell whether it was on purpose or from exhaustion, she fell to her knees the moment I asked. "We a-re will-ing to d-o anyt-hing for o-ur lives to be sp-ared…"

"In that case, I will let you settle here if you can, but there are some conditions." Seeing she understood, I continued. "First, the temple is off limits, and you must protect it once you have the means to do so. Second, if you ever get large enough to start collecting taxes, I want five percent of it. And lastly, I have the power to change anything I wish about the settlement, and you will all be killed if you run away. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Good." *vwoom* Pulling back a substantial amount of my aura, I finally gave them a bit of room to breathe. "Now, what is your name?"

"Abb-ie L-assar…"

-Captain Abbie Lassar, huh…- "Well then, Abbie, I look forward to seeing your efforts." Quickly looking over the people behind her, I made sure no one wore a look of resentment before getting ready to leave. "Since you seem to understand, I will take my leave for now. An older gentleman might come by later to ask some simple questions as well, but as long as you are honest, you have nothing to worry about."

She reluctantly gave me a fearful nod before turning to look at the ground again.

"Ah, one last thing. I will come by every once in a while to check in on you. If you need something, ask while I am around. Asking for help is better than failing." Turning around with a serious expression, I tossed the barrel aside and made my way back down the path, with Ilios quickly following suit.

Once back on the beach, I looked down toward where I first landed and saw Father leaning against a tree in his humanoid form. -Mother and Krystallo must have gone ahead…-

Once he saw me, he quickly made his way over. "Did you find them?"

"Yeah, they’re in the forest. They said they want to settle here."

Father grimaced immediately, but I continued before he could speak.

"I thought it was a good opportunity, so I said they could as long as they followed a few of my conditions."

"Hm? What conditions did you give them?"

"Well, I just said they had to protect but never touch the temple, give me 5% of their taxes if they ever grow to that point, and essentially give me complete power to do whatever I want with them."

Father gave me an unbelieving look as he let out a sigh. "Haah… Vasilias… Settling a nation is much harder to do than you can imagine. "The chances of some random band of pirates succeeding are slim to none."

-I mean, I don’t see them getting that far either…- "But if they pull it off, I would make an insane profit. If they fail, who cares? But if they succeed, we have a lot to gain. There is no reason not to let them try. We have nothing to lose." I paused as I glanced back toward the trail. "Even if they do end up running, it doesn’t affect us at all."

Father paused with an unusual look on his face before letting out a sigh. "Haah, alright." He probably closed his eyes to think about something before pointing over his shoulder. "Since you seem to have already settled things, let’s go meet up with your mother and Krystallo. They are probably already getting close to the temple."

"Huh?" I was immediately caught a bit off guard. -He doesn’t want to go talk and verify anything?- It felt a bit odd, but I couldn’t say that his increased trust in me was a bad thing.

"Is something wrong?" He didn’t seem to understand at all.

"N-no, not at all… Let’s get going." Quickly following him down the beach, I couldn’t help but feel surprised. -He.. really is getting better…-