Date posted: 30th August 2023

Not very happy with how this chapter turned out, but as my nine-fingered friend once told me, "Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it."

Shorter than normal, but it is what it is. Also, it's my birthday, so I'mma go easy on myself.

Btw, you might notice I've reused the same opening quote from the last chapter, chapter 26. I have now replaced it with another because using this quote seems more apt.

I spend an inordinate amount of time finding the right quotes for opening chapters. This chapter could have gone up yesterday. See, I didn't have this problem writing Sinonon. What idiot thought this was a good idea?

Chapter 27: Occupational Hazard

"You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of."

"But you have heard of me."

- Curse of the Black Pearl

It was Koremune's luck that of all assignments she got, it was the one that separated her from the rest of her guildmates.

She was at a roadside warung that served pulled tea and fried fish, the day was warm and sunny. The snack, a mixture of fish and starch, were mixed together to something akin to dough, and fried in a wok of oil and served with chili sauce. A favourite of the Nadyah peoples, and damn if it didn't taste great. Even their bananas were fried.

There were a few other people there, peasants and merchants mostly, traveling the dusty road, but they were the only two players there.

Her guild leader, someone she looked up as a brother, profusely apologised. "Look, I'd rather send one of the boys for this, but Tets ate the wrong mushrooms and is stuck at the healer's temple and Daiju's in jail for lockpicking again. The caravan mission needs at least two guards for it, and you -"

"Yes, I know. They need a healer and I'm the one that can do it." Sometimes she wondered if choosing to study as a nurse hadn't bite her in the ass, but then again, her healing skills have undoubtedly saved lives in the real world and this one. "At least they're paying a lot for it."

He nodded understandingly. "Yeah, it's easier to give someone a spear and tell them to stand guard than it is to sew up a wound. Good thing someone's doing work in this guild of ours, eh?"

"Remind me how long this assignment will take."

He said something under his breath.

"Pardon? Can you repeat that?" asked Koremune.

"... days."

"Speak up, please."

"Two weeks," he squeaked out.

"TWO WEEKS!" Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. "Keita, you cannot put me on a ship for two weeks, with a bunch of NPCs!"

Keita waved her worry away. "Relaaax. This captain is completely trustworthy and isn't in any shady business! And he's got the muscle to protect his ship."

Sachi Korumune sighed for what felt like the sixth time in the row.

"The last time you said something like that, the 'noble lord' we were working for was actually a bandit chief." It took all of Keita's diplomacy skills to convince the actual local lord's militia to not hang them all from a tree back in Granum lands.

Keita slapped her on the shoulder, his go-to move to convince her and the others to just do the damn job. "Listen, Sachi-chan, you'll do fine. You've got your crossbow and your sword -"

"Which I barely know how to use, by the way," she interrupted. Kinda hard to learn sword fighting when you spent most of your time leveling up your «Healing» skill and brewing potions and keeping your idiot teammates alive.

"Look, look, you do this job and I'll train you myself. Okay, I know that look, fine. I'll get someone else to train you and I'll bump up the pay, how about that?" Keita was a good fighter with his spear and shield, but a lousy swordsman.

Sometimes, there was nothing more than Sachi Koremune would have liked to do but ditch her current guild for something higher paying. She had a buddy in the Aincrad Liberation Force who worked admin and said they could always do with more of them. Same goes for those Roman cosplayers. Why, the highest afforded salary she had seen was from this small guild called the Raiders, paying thrice the going rate for a new recruit; three months pay was worth more money than the entitrey of what Moonlit Black Cats paid her for the entire year plus she's been stuck in this horrid game.

With a forced smile, Sachi said, "Fine. I'll do it."

"Fantastic! So I need you to go to -"

She raised her hand. "I also want a new crossbow to go with it." In truth, Sachi was a better shot than she was a melee fighter. The amount of things she killed with her sword could be counted on one hand.

"You got it. Here's the address, that guy over there is your boatman." He gestured to the swarthy fellow by the river, whose boat was beached and currently being cleaned. Around Floors 21 and above, people traveled by boat more than horses.

Boat ride? That didn't sound so good.

Sachi squinted at the address and the piece of map that was given to her. "Keita?"

"Hmm?"

"You realise this place is called «Seawolves' Cave», right?"

"Weird name, I admit! An interesting tale behind that most like!"

"Keita, this is where criminals hang out." Not just NPC ones, your usual fare of highwaymen and pirates, but players who got on the wrong side of the law too.

It was a cave accessible only by water, and the waters itself was infested by sharks, pirates, and pirate sharks. Many a lawman, sheriff and bounty hunter had eyes on them, a terrible battleground committed in the waters, brush and shadows. Even someone like Sachi knew that.

"I assure you, our new employer is a -"

"A noble lord, an honest merchant, a good man, yada yada." She shook her head. "I need another thing."

"Anything for you, Sachi-chan!"

She pointed at him. "I need your mail. Your backup one, which I know you have."

"Well, yours is -"

"Rusted, broken in five different places, and my gambeson has patches everywhere." It began to smell too, despite her best attempts at washing it out. "Keita, I'm going to be in the company of pirates most likely. The least I can get is good armour if they try to stab me while I'm sleeping."

Keita closed his eyes, and gestured to his tied horse in the treeline. "It's in the pannier."

At least it was something. "Don't worry, Keita. With the money we're bringing in, you can maybe have three sets of armour, huh?"

There were three sets of armour on one side of the office: a mail hauberk so big you could use it on a horse; a tunic of thick leather, what kind she could not tell but with its red scales it may have been dragonhide; and most fearsome of all, a massive suit of plate armour, spikes upon the pauldrons and the bracers, made of a mysterious green metal and inlaid with gold, the kind of armour a king would wear.

Asuna had seen her fair share of high quality armour, but this was perhaps one of the finest she had seen. If the orc was but a mere drillmaster, how did he have access to such a fine piece of kit?

Before she could ponder, a cough from Kirito returned her to the task at hand.

Asuna had never once considered orcs having an office. In fact, she didn't really think of orcs at all, save for her brother's almost obsessive interest in watching the LOTR trilogy every three months that only gave her the vaguest idea of what they were.

The office wasn't as nice as her father's in downtown Tokyo, nor was it even as nice as her own office back at Eternal Vigilance. But it was neat and spartan, which fit the orc quite well. The orc himself was also currently wearing the world's largest tunic it seemed.

He took a seat behind his desk, his chair being a well shaved and cut tree stump with a backrest made of a kite shield, and his desk was large enough to function as a bed. Upon it were numerous tablets, papers, an ink pot, and a quill made from some great bird. Aside from the massive double-headed battle axe hanging on the wall behind him, the sets of armour, and the unusually sized furniture, the office would look no different from many others Asuna had found herself in.

Of all things Asuna expected, Grogan pulling out a tiny pair of glasses and perching it upon the bridge of his nose was not one of them.

"Take a seat, this will take a while," he growled. The man's voice was like gravel.

They did just so. Asuna leaned over to Kirito and whispered, "We should have had Argo here, just in case."

"She, Sinon and Yuuki need their rest. I think you can handle him, if needs be." The swordswoman still noticed the dagger sheath attached to his forearm under his sleeve.

The rest of the girls had taken the Seahorse back to Stingray's Rest, leaving only Lisbeth handling their horses outside the camp. There was much arguing and push back from Sinon and Argo but Kirito utilised a power that was rarely seen and rarely used, a powerful magic that not even the most accomplished sages had in their vast libraries.

"If you don't go back to the inn now, I won't sleep with either of you two for a month," he threatened with a smile and a wink.

That shut both of them up effectively so they returned to the inn with mere grumbles. So this was the power of being a good lay …

Thankfully, the orc was a fast reader. "Hrgh. So Fedir now wants to be on board this … plan of ours." He snorted the last word out, as if finding some humour in it. "That, or he wants me off his island."

"A hundred men is a small village in itself, especially one that doesn't farm or produce anything," said Kirito. Like most medieval fantasy worlds, the vast majority of people worked the land and food security was something everyone always had in mind.

The orc placed one large green hand on the parchment and pushed it towards the merchant. "You know, I think you and Fedir are plotting something. I don't trust either of you."

"Trust is an important part in any relationship, especially a business one. It's all there in ink and lambskin. What's the issue here?"

Despite Asuna's one semester at uni working on a business degree, she had to admit, it was a complex subject to wrap your head around.

Stingray's Rest wanted to be a regional power. To do that means to have pirates not harass the trading vessels and routes. To do that means to acquire ships. Unfortunately a navy was very expensive, and Fedir could not summon one as easily as a lord summons his vassals which he had little of, aside from a few villages of farmers and fishermen. Which meant the old age trick of hiring corsairs, a type of pirate of dubious legality, serving a local power.

Everyone who's going up in the world did so. Granum lords squabble by sending their own men-at-arms to raid their rivals or play bandits. The Nadyah themselves go pirating every other monsoon season, lords against lords or against foreigners. The Free Tribes and kozakis did so too, as did the desert tribes a few floors above. It's a dog eat dog castle here in Aincrad. There was one caveat:

The major difference disrupting this honourable and proud tradition in the Dark Sea was the sudden appearance of the Darhaka fleet, raised from its watery grave. Thus the dwarves of Qar Hadast, having their own navy and citizens militia, used their influence and wealth to call upon the islands to brace themselves against the stone reavers and wage war against them. Aincradius may have brought an age of peace, but perhaps it was more accurate to describe it as 'mostly-peace.'

For you see, Qar Hadast only had a small army raised from its citizenry. Well equipped, well trained, arguably the best marines in Aincrad, but small nonetheless. A single mid-level boyar could summon an army bigger than Qar Hadast could. Where they lacked in size, they made up with mercenaries from allies and client vassals within their sphere of influence.

If only there was a large amount of available soldiers ready to plunder and pillage for pay.

Enter, the fifty thousand players trapped in SAO. Funny how that worked out.

But the Darhaka Fleet was not so off-footed despite their many years of slumber. They had experienced men, whose very skin was stone, and their riches were spread all over the castle. And if there's anything that local authorities feared, it's a doomstack that just spawned in your territory.

Asuna wasn't so sure what a 'doomstack' was, mind, but Kirito had told her that it was not a good thing. "Especially if you're playing as Egypt or the Turks."

And this doesn't even include that whole orc horde over the mountains thing with their new prophet, that even Argo had little in the way of knowledge. And apparently something about banks? It was a perfect mixture of violence, grudges, curses and magic that can and probably will end spectacularly badly.

And here was the tiny Kirito Corporation in the middle of it.

Grogan pushed up his glasses with a finger as big as a sausage, the same hand that Sinon shot at and Asuna stabbed; there was nary any scar on it.

"It says here you're the lord of Eternal Vigilance."

"That's right. Though, I have left the keep to my trusted men to handle in my absence," said the merchant. From what Asuna had gleaned from the record books, they were making profits, but not enough to replace the wealth that was stolen from them. "I'm a wanderer, I need to go out there and see the castle."

"And what about you?"

Asuna returned to earth. "Me?"

"Says here you're the one that thwarted a siege of undead, from the Cult of the Worm That Devours the World. I've had … experience with that particular one."

"It wasn't just me. It was the brave men and women of the Watch and many others." It hadn't been all that long but Asuna stated so with pride at the order she helped build.

"So, you're his concubine?"

Excuse me, she thought. If anything I'm his wife!

Her eyes turned to look at Kirito. He winked at her. Asuna summoned all her warrior discipline to banish the stammer that no doubt would have spilled from her lips. "I am his sword, that's enough for you to know."

The orc raised a brow at that. "Hgh. I could use another experienced warrior around here. Most of the recruits here couldn't tell one end of a spear from the other."

Asuna was about to object, her days of being war chief was far behind her but Kirito interfered. "And not only does the Kirito Corporation have an experienced pilot in their employ but also hunters, info brokers and a renowned smith!"

Grogan took that in, narrowing his fuzzy brows in thought. Asuna gave her a look that said, "What are you doing? Is this really the way we're going with?"

Which he replied with a look that said, "Relax, I got this."

"Hrgh. Very well. I will sign this contract …"

"Excellent! Just sign on the dots here, here and -"

The orc palmed his desk so suddenly that both of them almost reached for their daggers. "I demand a show of trust. I need you to do a job."

Of course he did. "It will be done. What does the corporation need to do to secure your acceptance?" Kirito asked.

The orc told them. Asuna groaned inward as Kirito shook hands with their new friend.

It took four days to wait for the target to arrive at the designated ambush spot, and at that point Sinon was mostly healed from her injuries thanks to Lord Fedir's physician. Save for some stiffness, not that it threw off her aim at all. The crew was in tip top shape and ready to rumble.

Was it so hard to do things not related to violence? They could have gone the route of Eternal Vigilance, just become a lord, y''know? Minus the breaking into a fort, raising a small army, fighting off beavers, undead and necromancers, plus doing the tournament.

Sure, like most players, Lisbeth was a fighter. If needs be, she would don her hauberk and raise her mace against bandits and wildlife. But attacking an innocent ship was another matter entirely.

Lisbeth made her displeasure known. "Just because I joined this outfit, doesn't mean I'm going to be a bandit!"

Kirito explained, "They're smugglers carrying a shipment of fairy dust to empower the drug lords in numerous urban areas."

Well damn, he got her there. "And what will we be doing with said fairy dust?"

"Grogan tells me that his orc brethren use them as a sort of cooking ingredient, like MSG. See, nothing wrong with that! We're feeding people!"

"Kirito, they're an orcish horde ready to invade the rest of the world." Granted, Lisbeth had only just seen the one orc and no one else.

"Hey, you want us to get to Forty Thieves or not? If you want to break the deal, by all means, take it up with the big guy."

Considering that it took all four of the girls to even stop the orc, and even then barely hurt him, Lisbeth did not believe that would be wise.

Now here she was on the open sea once more. She'd be more receptive to it had it not been for their mission.

"Yarr! Shiver me timbers! We see a fat booty ship in the distance, ready for the taking!" said Absolute Sword - sorry, Absolute Cutlass Yuuki. Of all the people in the company, it took her the least amount of effort to convince to turn pirate. It also took a lot more effort to convince her to not wear an eyepatch into battle.

Captain Darwi too was easily convinced. If anything, the dwarf captain seemed to be delighted at no longer needing to play merchant. "When we were mountainbound, our ancestors used to raid the creatures of the Neath. But as our Founders left for more open lands, we found fighting other people proved much easier. It may not be honourable work, but it is profitable."

Ever since the whole business at Eternal Vigilance, Lisbeth was always on the hunt for more lore. She had heard rumours that the founders of Qar Hadast were exiled for an unknown crime. If you were to bring up this fun fact around a Hadasti, well, you might find yourself with a black eye.

"Hasn't Qar Hadast signed a treaty amongst the various kingdoms to not engage in any sort of piracy?" asked Lisbeth. It was a formal treaty between the Kingdom of Nadyah, Granum, and the elven enclaves, but it was less format between the Free Tribes and the Kozakis.

"Correct, but that only applies to citizens of Qar Hadast. And I am not a citizen." The captain took off his citizen's ring, a tasteful silver band topped by a sapphire, and pocketed it. "See?"

Lisbeth was no lawyer, but that probably wouldn't fly in a modern court. "So, corsairs."

"Basically, yes."

The Seahorse's notable namesake, the great bronze seahorse mounted upon its bow, was removed and replaced with a more plain but equally serviceable ram. From what she could gather from various sailors, the majority of naval battles on the Dark Sea consisted of peppering the enemy vessel with arrows and artillery, before closing in and finishing them off in ferocious hand-to-hand combat.

Qar Hadast was an outlier in that they still used great powerful rams to destroy the enemy, and their ship construction was different from most. She couldn't tell you what's the difference between this caravel and the next, but looking up the stats, Hadasti ships tended to have more HP and Armour, at the cost of less speed. The ram, the supplies and the ammo was all graciously supplied by the lord of Stingray's Rest.

"It would be better had Lord Fedir used those pirates squatting on his island," said the dwarf, "But this little exercise will allow the men some fighting experience."

"I don't think the bow will do much against a stone ship though," said the smith.
"Then let us pray we never encounter one and your aim with the balista is true."

The ship they were preying on was called Kuda Rempah, a humble merchant cog carrying mostly a variety of spices from Nadyah lands.

Of course, that was one of its many names, and chances are the Kuda Rempah was called something else a week or month before. It was not difficult to change names on the ship itself or in registries. They were manned by Nadyah marines, perhaps second only to Qar Hadast marines, and the two peoples had always had a rivalry when it came to feats of arms on the open sea.

Due to the somewhat incognito nature of their business, the Seahorse flew no flag and most of the men covered their faces. Asuna, Lisbeth and Yuuki wore helms, the swordswomen with their beaked bascinets and the smith a steel cap with aventail. Even Kirito wore mail over his clothes and a bandana over his mouth. The Rat and the slayer wore similarly, plus hoods.

The fight would be mostly straightforward just as they planned back at harbor. Asuna had a blueprint (which disappointingly was not parchment soaked in blue) of a generic cog, using pebbles to signify where the Nadyah marines may be at. They drilled the men as best they could in short notice.

"Nadyah pahlawan prefer to use bows over crossbows. We can outrange them with our crossbows as well as the ballista, but the greens - " Asuna caught herself, " - our new employer would prefer to capture both ship and cargo intact. I'll be leading the marines with Yuuki. Sinon, if you please."

"I have ten marksmen on hand, Darwi's best. The wind is not to our liking, and if we try to chase them we'll lose em'. We've got buckets of sand if they use fire arrows," said Sinon.

"And I've been practicing my jumping skills along with my new buddies," said Argo, whose team consisted of local dwarven wrestlers - big burly men whose beards and chest hair were so thick they probably had the same «Armor»rating as mail (or she claimed). How she convinced Kirito and Darwi to let them on board, the smith had no idea.

"As for me, well I'll be here. Captain Darwi will lead the ship, as always," said Kirito. He looked out the cabin's windows, the cargo ship becoming larger and larger. "Good luck and good hunting, team."

They trailed out of the room, Darwi already heading to the wheel and Yuuki to the marines. Kirito gave his girls quick pecks on the cheeks, and whispered words of love and encouragement to each, making them giggle like schoolgirls. Lisbeth rolled her eyes.

The Seahorse chased the ship eastward for a good twenty minutes, but a strong gust of wind blew westward just for a moment, slowing them down immensely. Lisbeth decided then it was time to take her shot.

It had been a while since she had used a ballista, and this one was a bit smaller and lighter than the ones manned on the walls of Eternal Vigilance, more accurately called a scorpion. She aimed high, waited for her moment, and let loose.

The missile struck one of the sails, entangling itself in the sheet with a specially made barb-liked bolt. Instead of dropping into the water, the back weight of the bolt dragged itself down to the deck making a huge tear. Normally, fire arrows would be used for this sort of thing but they were often ineffective if you weren't using enchanted flame arrows, which in itself were not cheap.

Despite the tear, it did little to dissuade the merchant vessel. The wind was against the Seahorse, heading eastward and making the Nadyah arrows fly truer and futher. But Captain Darwi however was a masterful pilot and his men were experienced sailors; the ship slowly but surely was catching up as Lisbeth let loose more bolts onto the ship.

The captain of the Nadyah ship seemed to have decided to stay and fight. Their sails furled as a group of mailed marines gathered on the deck, raining evermore arrows on the Seahorse. The crossbows simply did not have the sheer volume to counter them as a handful of the dwarves were feathered and brought down, dragged below to be tended. More than one arrow went whistling past Lisbeth herself.

The Seahorse finally struck the bow of the Kuda Rempah with its bronze ram, shaking both vessels greatly, reminding the players too much of earthquakes of their homeland. Had one of the sailors not caught her by the shoulder, she may have slammed face first into the deck.

With one last bolt, Lisbeth struck an archer right in the gut, nailing her to one of the masts. Asuna sounded the warhorn for the coming melee and Lisbeth readied her mace.

"MOSH PIT!" the Rat yelled, as she and her wrestlers began with running start and lept from the quarterdeck and into the backline of the melee, just moments before Asuna and the marines did.

The Rat and her wrestlers wreaked havoc with their strength, knocking them over or throwing them overboard, her golden dusters glinting in the afternoon sun. Sinon and her arbalesters sniped and slew the remaining archers, taking cover from behind the shieldwall.

Like most melees Lisbeth had the displeasure to find herself in, it passed her like a haze or perhaps more accurately like a fever. The sound of battle, the cracking of heads, and the spilling of blood. It was like an out of body experience, as she watched herself blocking spears and whacking people in the face.

Her body moved instinctively: block, strike, avoid. Get hit, rotate out, chug a potion, rotate back in. The Seahorse's marines were clad in heavy scale compared to the Nadyah's padded armor and mail and they were doing bloody work with their spears and axes.

It was only after she noticed her HP was no longer depleting did Lisbeth realised the fight was over. To her surprise, there were a lot less dead people then expected, with only a few of their own marines wounded. The defeated lay on the deck, bloodied and broken.

Then, and only then, Kirito stepped onto the deck, clapping. "Excellent work, everyone. Sinon, Yuuki, tend to the survivors and tie the rest. Argo, fish out the people who fell. Lisbeth, Asuna, to the cargo hold. Be careful down there."

They headed down into the ship and found someone, the captain of the ship himself if his fancy clothes were anything to go by. He threatened a whole lotta things at the pirates only to finally shut up when Lisbeth slammed her shield into his face.

"The Dust Syndicate will have your head for this!" the captain said with a bloody nose, just as Asuna slipped the keris out of his sarong.

"Oooh, the scabbard has jewels on it," said Asuna as one of the marines came down and took the captain away.

Lisbeth checked the numerous crates and chests; some had the usual fare of food and barrels of water, but she did find the true treasure: three chests bound in iron, unlocked with the key nicked off the captain.

Opening the lid revealed glowing pink dust. A whiff alone was enough to give Lisbeth a mild sense of euphoria and she had to shut the lid to snap herself out of it. "Damn, that's strong! You think they're made from actual fairies?"

"I'm not curious enough to find out, honestly," said Asuna.

No one was exactly sure how fairy dust was made; some said it was used by grinding literal fairies into dust, others said it was made from fairy droppings (ew), but the most likely explanation was it was made by herbs made of a mystery flower, the petals were grinded and mixed with a sort of mysterious liquid. Generally used for medicine, it was turned into a potent drug by bandits, pirates, warlords, and other fine people.

Suffice to say, it was a drug that will and can destroy communities, thus it was outlawed by most nations and only trafficked. And here they were taking it for themselves.

"You know, this is potentially enough money to replace our funds lost at Bakuye," said Asuna, eying the chest as if it were filled with gold. It may have as well been.

"Well, we did give our word to the orc. And you know how Kirito is with his promises."

"I just wished he didn't give his word to a pirate."

"It's one pirate, it's not like he gave his word to Kayaba or something," Lisbeth joked mirthlessly.

As they turned back to the door, they found a woman pointing a crossbow straight at them.

She was a player, that much was clear with her Japanese features. Her blue bob cut was shades darker than Sinon's, as was her eyes. There was a mad look within them. She must have hidden herself in that empty crate nearby, Lisbeth thought.

They were less than five feet apart, and at that range, even a basic hunting crossbow like hers was liable to pierce through Asuna's brigandine, much less Lisbeth's mail. Their weapons were sheathed at their belts.

Asuna held up her hands, "Okay, let's talk about this."

"Pirates," she spat out the word like a curse. "It's bad enough I've worked overtime with this crew. Two weeks, Keita said. Two weeks and the pay's good. Well you know what, I've been on this stinking ship for a month and I still haven't seen any of my gold!"

Lisbeth's eyes flicked to Asuna and back to the player. "D-did they hurt you?"

"Oh no, they're actually quite pleasant people for a bunch of smugglers and drug dealers. But they've worked overtime for too damn long!" She let out choked laughter. "Scraps, cuts, bruises, all day every day, as if they were a bunch of kids! You're fearsome pirates, why don't you act like it, huh?!"

"H-hey, we captured the ship, y'know! Maybe we can send you on your way?" Lisbeth suggested, but the player aimed a bolt at her face.

"Contract says if they don't reach home safely, I won't get paid." Her left eye twitched and Lisbeth noticed she had bags underneath both. "The pay is good, but the hours are hellish. If they don't make it back to «Seawolves' Cave», then that money is gone! Taking up residency post graduation would have been easier than this!"

"We can pay you," said Asuna.

"I don't believe you," said the stranger. "So what you can do now is call your captain, give my captain back his ship and we can go on our merry way."

"I don't think that's gonna happen …" said Asuna.

"Why the hell not? You think this is the first pirate ship we've fought off?!"

"Because of me," said a voice behind the stranger, as thick arms wrapped itself around her neck.

Lisbeth took the chance to slap the crossbow out of the way as it dropped uselessly to the ground. A few moments later, the stranger was out cold as she collapsed to the ground. The smith and Asuna let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close," said the Rat. "So who the heck is this?"

Asuna prodded the woman with the tip of her sabaton. "No clue. But maybe it's best if we take her with us."

"But her contract -" said Lisbeth.

"Lisbeth-chan, she ran with a crew of pirates. Contract or no, I think it's safer that she takes the chance with us rather than them," said Asuna.

Argo cocked her head. "But we are pirates."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

The survivors of the Kuda Rempah were plopped on whatever boats were still on board, given ample food and water for the journey and let go. Darwi's sailors made quick work in securing the merchant vessel as they sailed off to another island to be 'chop shopped' as it were. It would serve little for the lord of Stingray to be associated with this sort of thing, drug smuggler or no.

With good wind in their sails and a hearty lunch for everyone, they returned to the orc within a few hours. Argo insisted she'd know a good spot so the strange player would not yap to the authorities.

"Argo, please do not kill her," pleaded Kirito.

"I'm not gonna kill her, dummy! Geez, Kii-bou. Just gonna convince her to not spill!"

"If you do though, I know a few ways to safely dispose of a body," Sinon had told them. Everybody stared. "What?"

"Just keep her quiet, okay. I'll think about it later." This was not the problem of Today's Kirito, that would be the problem of Tomorrow's Kirito.

This time, the merchant had insisted on going alone and he would return by horse. It was thanks to most of the girls being too exhausted to argue did he get away with it. Darwi's men rowed him to the jetty to drop him off before sailing back to port. Two Nadyah pirates welcomed him and the cargo, and escorted him to the office.

There were more ships on the beach last time he had been here. They were hauled onto shore, hidden in the shade of trees. It would take only a sharp eyed sailor to spot these ships, many of which seem to come from many nations with each having a distinctive style. Here, was a Nadyah bedar; there, a Granum cog; and what seemed to be the remains of a Hadasti trireme, the kind used by its Sea Guard.

There were even more pirates. Not doubled but close enough, but now they were better armed. Most had padded armour but a handful had good mail. He could even see they were drilling and a few smiths plying their trade. Did Fedir promise Grogan his craftsmen too?

Bandits did not drill nor did pirates. This was an army in the making.

He found himself in Grogan's office shortly after, not even looking at the chests the guards brought in. The contract that Kirito had left with him was already signed, the ink seemed to have dried a while ago.

He picked up and examined it. "You didn't even know I was gonna hold up my end of the bargain."

"Our mutual friend sent a dossier about your corporation a while ago, found you trustworthy." The mutual friend was either Fadir or his wife, Ashat. "I signed that yesterday"

The contract as penned by a scribe (both lord and lady were smart enough not to use their real names or write the contract themselves) promised that in exchange for contributing to Grogan's fleet, he would defend Stingray's interest even if he would fight the Darhaka Fleet. Of course, Stingray itself was not named either; you gotta read between the lines for this sorta thing.

Though few knew it, the fact of the matter was that the Darhaka and the orc horde were not in it together. Some, like the Suffetes of Qar Hadast, assumed they were not, and that it was a rumour born from misinformation, spread by a certain criminal organisation. It was just now that Kirito got the confirmation he needed.

Kirito also did not like the fact that someone was able to write a dossier on him and the girls. "May I see it?"

"You may not, for I have burned it and committed the information to memory. It was seventy pages thick."

Kirito wasn't the best student in the world, mind you, but that was pretty impressive. "Must have been an interesting read then."

The orc did not comment. "The upsides of being vatborn. I have another mission for you, one that requires your specific talent and skills."

Of course he did. "Before you do though, I have a question."

"Permitted," said Grogan, not halting his writing but slowing ever so slightly. The big guy wrote fast.

"You could have had any of your lackeys capture that ship, why us? You could have any dishonest merchant to work for you, why us?"

"To see that you are not working for the Hadasti Council, that you will not shy away from bloodshed. That, and you Outsiders are more morally flexible than Aincradians," said the orc without judgment. At least, he still didn't know about that.

He continued, "Do know that if I were to find you, your staff, or our mutual friends, working against me, the wrath of the horde will fall upon thee."

Ah, so there was a horde. "And where is this so-called horde?"

"High in the mountains that hold up the rest of the castle, the Pillars of the World. There we bide our time, and we will break through the Black Gate that Aincradius and his minions erected an age ago. When that day comes, we will swarm throughout his castle and exact our vengeance."

Kirito was not one who would call himself a patriot but this is probably what treason felt like. "Okay, my second question, about the Forty Thieves …"

"The one that stole your chest of gold at Bakuye on the 20th Surface?"

"Yes …"

"The chest filled with some 50,000 Col?"

"Yes." How did he know about the specific amount?

"While you and your concubines stayed at the Pleasurable Nights inn?"

"Okay, how the hell do you know that? Also, not a harem."

The orc ignored that. "You wish to exact vengeance upon them."

"Not particularly, I just want my cash back." That was truth enough; revenge wasn't very profitable in his experience. Hell, they probably already spent it too but you can always shake a gangster and get some coin out of it. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yes."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"No. Perhaps, after the mission. I will contact you, it will be a while however."

Kirito sighed, he was worried about that. "At least this is a lot easier than running a fort."

"Also, please keep that squire of yours on a leash. She keeps trying to sneak in the camp to find buried treasure. There is none, we already spent it."

Elsewhere, in the city of Qar Hadast, a man was drowning his sorrows with his guildmates.

"It's been a month, where the hell is she?" asked one of them, the smallest of the group in garish orange colours. "I shouldn't have been hauled to jail."

"You say that, but you fucking keep stealing shit, Daiju!" complained Tetsuo. "Maybe if you kept your kleptomania in check, we wouldn't have needed to send Keita-chan away!"

"Me? YOU are the idiot that ate the wrong mushrooms, knowing full well you should have consulted the alchemy guide. Healing ain't cheap, my guy! Could have waited for Sachi-chan to brew something up!"

"To be fair, I don't think even Keita-chan's potions can help, she's more of a 'sew your wounds' kinda healer," said Sasamaru, sighing. "So uh, what you thinking, boss?"

"Thinking we need to mount a rescue attempt," said Keita, finishing the last of his beer. It was cheap and awful but they had to conserve their money. "Problem is, we'd have to find her first. But who has the skill to do that?"

He had asked the local authorities of course, the Qar Hadast Homeguard, their Seaguard, and even made inquiries at some guilds, and some far away friends. But none have heard of this particular ship, also helped their 'employer' that Keita had come into contact had mysteriously vanished. Even paid an info broker, who took so much pity on him he got his money back.

At that, the rest of the Black Cats continued to wallow into their mugs.

Keita found himself outside, taking a walk. The town they were staying at was cool, a far cry from the warmth and humidity of the day. He was partly drunk, not fully alert, but he wore his sword and as bad as he was at using it, a thug would think twice from robbing him.

Coming across the town square, he parked himself on the edge of the fountain. His guildmates were asleep now, door locked and windows shut. There was no one here save for a nearby sleep guard and the sounds of the night.

He shook his head and gazed into the water. He had not shaved since he last saw Sachi, and he made a personal vow to not do so until they brought her home. He was at lost how to find her.

He sighed. "I'd give all my gold to find Sachi-chan again."

"All of it, you say?"

Keita whirled around, hand on his pommel, blade ever so drawn. A stranger sat on a nearby branch. "Don't! Scare me like that, damn you."

They wore a great wide brim hat, the colour of dark blue, with a matching coat to boot. Their face was covered by their brim and their tone did not indicate any gender. "Overheard your worries in the pub, friend. Pirate problems? Mayhaps I could be of help."

The stranger stood up and despite the fullness of the moon and the light of the torches, Keita could not see their face save for a pair of piercing blue eyes. They were tall, a head taller than Keita in fact, and wore a long hilted blade on their belt as well as dark mail on their torso. The mail made no sound at all.

"I'd appreciate any and all help concerning my friend, but I'm afraid I've little in the way of money …" said Keita warily. In truth, the guild's funds were doing well but not so well they could spend it frivolously. Hell, he didn't even know if this fella was a player or an NPC. "And who might you be, sir?"

"Naught but a wanderer, a landless man, but a friend to all in need," they said with utter sincerity. He tossed something at Keita.

The player caught and examined it: a medallion wrought of silver, the size of Keita's palm. Upon it was a blue shield and two-criss crossed blades made of what could only be lapis lazuli.

The stranger bowed low, gloved hand on his chest and another raised upwards. "I am a servant of the people, a brother of the Blue Sentinels. How may we be of service?"

We actually don't know Sachi's last name in canon, but 7Skydark has helpfully given one for her.

You know, this chapter was gonna be 3,000 words longer since I cut out a huge section in the middle because I wasn't sure it was going well (it was a scene where Sinon and Argo were uhhhh 'were in happy company with each other' at a hot spring). Shame had to cut that out, but I think it works better without it. If you want to see that at some point, do tell.

Speaking of which, afraid there be no chapter next month. August has been highly unproductive and my time in the hospital has not helped much. Until then, I need to get my bearings and decide what I want to do with this arc. Thanks for the read and please rebiew.