Pirate Kingship

The Blood Moon, bearing the face of Lilith, slowly descended.

Then, a sun identical to that of the Old Continent, untouched by any pollution, rose to disperse the intense darkness of the night and also drove away yet another bloody frenzy of the night.

The feast of the grotesque and the evil spirits ended, leaving humanity’s refuge in disarray, like a "disastrous feast".

People who narrowly escaped disaster mustered the courage to leave their houses or shelters and start the day anew.

Those few who couldn’t tell whether it was luck or misfortune had to immediately clean up the "remains" from last night’s revelry, as they still bore... the blood and flesh of their own kin’s corpses.

If the bloodstains and remains are not promptly cleaned, tomorrow morning it might be oneself who is swept away.

Yesterday saw escaping slaves, and the loss of a Slave-catcher Team at Oak Manor.

The door of the Chief Financial Officer’s house was knocked:

"Mr. Colin, Mr. Colin, open the door! The Wizard himself just came to deliver a message, Mr. Smith wants all the stewards to come..."

On usual days, if a mysterious Wizard visited, the eligible stewards were more eager than anyone to approach.

But the young man from the Estate Guard knocked twice on the door with no response, leaned against the door crack and sniffed carefully, unsurprisingly, smelling a thick stench of blood.

His heart sank instantly with an ominous thud.

"Something happened."

He hurriedly called for help to break down the door; First Order Apprentice Derek, who was sent by [Wolf Grandmother] Britney to relay the order, also came upon hearing the news.

They found the Chief Financial Officer, who lived alone, slumped at the desk, already transformed into a dried-up corpse.

His shriveled black-blue skin clung tightly to his bones, eye sockets sunken, and not a trace of moisture or flesh was found anywhere.

Two letters were pressed beneath the desk, presumably written just last night.

Colin was one of the very few literate stewards in the manor, in addition to managing accounts, he was responsible for all correspondence between the manor and the School.

One letter reported the escape of slaves and the failure to return of the Slave-catcher Team by nightfall, speculating they might have entered a forbidden area, urging the School for immediate dispatch.

The other reported suspicions of an ancient burial chamber being broken into within a subsidiary iron mine of the manor, with daily disappearances of mine slaves, requesting the School for handling.

The second letter was unfinished, and the quill pen last came to a stop at the word "mine slave".

And the problem obviously was here.

The rest of the words were in deep blue ink, but this one was so red it was black, emitting a strong scent of blood, and the handwriting twisted like a snarling ghostly claw.

The others were illiterate, scanning past without noticing anything amiss.

Apprentice Wizard Derek from Fairy Town School was different.

Seeing that word, he immediately realized, those missing Black Iron Race mine slaves had already transformed into Bizarre·Miners for some reason!

With Colin’s precise description of the identity and origin, it gave rise to a mystic positioning akin to a Three-part Honorable Title, unfortunately drawing the opponent to his door.

He hurriedly snatched that letter in his hand, vigorously shook it, and used Fire-igniting Skill from witchcraft to burn it into ashes.

He watched the papyrus imported from the Desert Empire and that bizarre word completely disappear in the fire’s glow, sighing slightly in relief, though his face still didn’t look good:

"The dangers in Corridor of Truth are completely impossible to guard against.

We, as the Witch School serving as the mortal defense barrier, can only selectively eliminate those threats with major harm, never able to thoroughly protect everyone.

Even if all territories undergo regular cleaning, external ones leaking in, born directly within, bizarre things continue to emerge.

The loopholes are growing bigger, who knows when a Ghostly Level disaster where an entire city could be annihilated might occur.

Learning witchcraft won’t save humanity, but what can one learn then? Alas—!"

From the extreme north to the southernmost point of the Corridor of Truth, countless humans ushered in a new day in this manner, becoming so accustomed they were almost numb.

Moreover, day after day, year after year, seeing no hope for release, tomorrow destined to only be worse than today.

Just as [Whale Hunters] initially warned through the mouth of Saranthe: "We’ve entered the Intertidal Zone, hold on tightly to the cables around you, welcome eternal descent!"

The fall of the Old Continent had just begun, yet they were already half submerged.

Perhaps one day just saying one wrong word may lead to an unbearably gruesome death.

Which would be a hundred times more brutal than a literary inquisition.

The same sentence "The clear wind can’t read, why does it flip the book" were it said here, might not even need others to act, oneself and the entire family may die tragically then and there.

Even from inside out, from soul to body, being entirely devoured by the taboo within the words.

Derek was about to order the Estate Guard Team to burn Colin’s corpse, and then appeal to the School for reinforcements to deal with that newly-born bizarre.

He accidentally found the dirt floor of the room was gently heaving as if breathing, seemingly awakened by the "food" ready for another attack.

His spine shivered with cold dread.

"That thing hasn’t left yet!"

If it were Wizards from other Schools, they would likely pretend they didn’t know anything, quietly leave the house, return to the sunlight the bizarre fears most and prioritize self-preservation.

But evidently, the thought process of Wizards from Fairy Town School differs from others, and with a sudden shout: