The Pirate Hunter and The Pirate Noble
The hangar.

When Rosetta’s airframe was brought in, Marie– who was waiting on standby started giving out instructions to the surroundings.

“The daughter of the Claudia house is going to be Lord Liam’s legal wife. Treat her with the utmost respect as to avoid staining his reputation.”

The maids nodded and the knights lined up in formation.

The soldiers hurried to set up a red carpet.

“Hey, where’s the doctor?!”

“She’s waiting in the back!”

“A change of clothes! Somebody bring out a change of clothes!”

The hangar was in a frenzy.

Marie roared,

“Stop fooling around, idiots!”

Rosetta exited out from the aircraft’s cockpit.

She was quickly supported on both sides by female knights.

She looked faint, and her eyes were red and swollen.

The knights, soldiers, and maids lined up, the knights pulling out their swords in welcome.

The soldiers saluted, and the maids greeted her with curtsys.

As Liam’s legal wife, she was essentially the master of everyone here.

Marie knelt down in front of her.

(I never would’ve thought I’d be involved with the Claudia house after such a long time.)

“Lady Rosetta, we’re here to pick you up, but first let’s get you some medical treatment.”

Rosetta was in a state of confusion.

Marie had learned about her family’s situation in advance, so she wasn’t panicking.

She stood up and smiled,

“There’s no need to be frightened. All those here are Lord Liam’s servants. –Hey you over there, escort Lady Rosetta to the doctor.”

The female knights supported Rosetta as they led her to the back.

The maids followed afterwards, and when they disappeared, the knights sheathed their swords.

“Let’s see, now I have to…”

As Marie was thinking about what to do next, Kukuri appeared from the shadows,

“Marie, we have a situation.”

“I’ll deal with it later. Right now I’m busy with Lord Liam’s orders.”

She tried to ignore him, but Kukuri didn’t yield,

“That Lord Liam is currently being attacked by the Berkley family.”

A blue vein appeared on Marie’s forehead and her pupils shook.

The surrounding knights broke out in cold sweat at her intimidating figure.

“…what did you say?”

“It looks like the people in charge of supervising the Claudia house have decided that Lord Liam was in their way.”

◇ ◇ ◇

The wilderness of the tournament venue.

Surrounding me were dozens of pirate knights.

Among them, I could see Derrick’s aircraft.

It looks like he prepared a new model for himself.

“LIAAAAAAAAM~! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIIIIIIIS~!!!”

Derrick tried to make himself sound intimidating, but he was the one who always ran away from me in school.

I just wanted to ‘have fun’ with him, and yet he always found some way to escape.

Seriously– he wasn’t able to alleviate my boredom in the slightest.

“Don’t run away this time.”

“You bastard, I’ll compliment you for pretending to be tough in this situation, but don’t think I’ll let you die that easily. No help is coming for you, I’ve already made sure of that. And it’s not just me! The people who are in charge of supervising the Claudia house have decided that you’re an annoyance!”

I didn’t really know what he was talking about, but I could figure it out.

I’ve heard that there were officials assigned to supervise the Claudia house, and if Rosetta and I got married, then they’d be out of the job.

I’m sure this troubled them to the point where they were willing to make rash decisions like this.

“I see. I think I understand… now, is this all right?”

“Huh?”

The number of aircrafts surrounding me didn’t even reach a hundred.

“I’m asking you if you’ve brought enough. I just recently had Avid renovated, but I couldn’t really test it out in the previous match. Prepare a few more.”

“D-don’t you look down on me! Get him!”

The pirate knights rushed towards me at Derrick’s command.

Their performance seemed to be pretty good.

They look like pirate models, but they might actually be new ones.

“Okay, with this much I can test Avid’s new specs at least a little.”

When I grabbed the control stick and moved the aircraft, the surrounding machines were blown away.

“Oh, isn’t this actually pretty amazing?”

I commended Avid because it was able to reproduce the One-Flash better than before.

“Should I give Nias some praise later too?”

As I considered what reward I should give her, the pirates continued to gather.

While I checked Avid’s condition, I couldn’t help but be impressed with how smooth all of it’s movements were as I dealt with my opponents.

“You’re doing great Avid! Let’s go all out!”

I was glad to be able to test Avid’s performance against Derrick’s pirates.

They felt a little more crunchy than the ones I usually dealt with.

But that was it.

Then, as I continued to slaughter them, one of them tried to escape.

“Bastard, where the hell do you think you’re going?!”

After chasing down and impaling the fleeing aircraft, the rest of the machines froze.

Even Derrick was quiet.

“Now then, continue to entertain me!”

◇ ◇ ◇

Hundreds of pirate ships were trembling as they watched the footage sent to them.

“…what the hell is he?”

Somebody muttered,

“H-he’s the devil.”

The appearance of Liam happily slaughtering pirates looked no different than a demonic being to them.

New models were being scrapped one after another.

The captain shouted,

“W-we’re retreating! If we stay in a place like this, we’ll become part of his hunt!”

The captain, who decided to abandon Derrick and escape, was stopped by an official.

“What about our deal?! Weren’t you going to help us kill Liam?!”

“How the hell are we supposed to kill someone like that?! You guys can go and assassinate him yourselves!”

The confused official blurted out,

“It’s because we failed to assassinate him that we asked for your assistance!”

Then suddenly, multiple masked personages in black rose up from their shadows.

They came out squirming, killing the pirates as they materialised.

“What the hell?!”

The head of the captain who cried out was crushed by Kukuri’s large hand.

“Oh, how fragile. The pirates of old had stronger bones. Now then– the official over there, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“Stay away! I-I’m an imperial official!”

Kukuri and his subordinates gathered around him after killing the surrounding pirates.

“Now then, you just said something I couldn’t let pass. What did you mean when you said ‘we failed to assassinate him?’ Who’s ‘we?’”

One of Kukuri’s subordinates laughed as he stabbed the official’s thigh with a knife.

“MY LEG!!!”

Kukuri grabbed the head of the crying official,

“Oops, please excuse my subordinate there. Even I’m troubled with how bloodthirsty they can get. Now back to the question, who sent the kill order?”

Even though the official screamed, help didn’t come.

Looking at the monitor, he could see their ships being attacked by the Banfield house’s fleet.

“H-how did you know?”

To the trembling official, Kukuri began to explain,

“Oh, that? We always did. When we told Lord Liam about your plans, we were ordered to allow you to drop the mobile knights because he thought it’d be interesting. They seemed about perfect for the renovated Avid’s test run. I believe they were supposed to be new models?”

From the already infiltrated pirate ship, they were ‘permitted’ to send out the new machines down to the planet.

If they were to run away or cancel their plans, they were to be killed– the only path left for them was to fight Liam.

Looking at the footage of the venue, the image of Liam toying with all the pirates that dropped in on him was being displayed.

The frames of the new aircrafts were destroyed one after another before being piled up.

It was doubtful whether Avid could even be considered a mobile knight anymore. It’s performance and appearance was completely different from the norm.

The new models didn’t stand a chance.

“P-please have mercy.”

“Pardon~?”

“Have mercy! I’ll tell you everything! Just spare me, please!”

Kukuri smiled at the official’s words, but it didn’t reach his eyes,

“Too bad~ What I said earlier was a lie –we can’t forgive you. In truth, we’ve already investigated all the important information you could possibly know, so we never really needed you in the first place. Now, I bid you farewell.”

Kukuri crushed the official’s head.

◇ ◇ ◇

Inside the hangar.

The officials assigned to supervise Rosetta were panicking.

“Hey, what the hell is going on?!”

“The pirates aren’t strong enough to kill Liam!”

“In anycase, we need to secure Rosetta! As long as we have her as a hostage, then they won’t be able to touch us!”

While they were in a heated discussion, suddenly, they could hear the clicking of heels.

Click… Click… The faint sound strangely carried all the way to their ears.

That’s when they noticed the woman that appeared near them.

“W-who the hell are you?!”

As one of them shouted that out, his head went flying.

The woman was holding a sword in each of her hands.

They looked like kitchen knives– but expanded to the size of real swords.

“I’m amazed that man’s foolish order is still going on after two millennia. I can still remember the face he made, laughing as he had me petrified.”

The officials couldn’t understand what the woman was talking about.

When they tried to draw their weapons, their arms were cut off.

“Y-you bitch, if you think you can get away with–”

He tried to tell her they were imperial officials, but she said that she already knew that.

After stabbing a sword into one of them, she grabbed the jaw of their leader with her free hand– and crushed it.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“Don’t bother talking. You die here. –you’re the subordinates of the man who caused my two millennia of suffering, I can sleep soundly knowing that I’m the one who killed you.”

The woman who didn’t listen to their words seemed insane.

One of them shouted,

“W-we were just following the orders of the late Emperor!”

“I know! And that’s why I’ll kill you!”

The official lost his life after being vertically sliced by the woman.

The cut was beautiful and clean.

“In deference of the loyalty you’ve shown by following that fool’s orders, I’ll send you all to whatever hell he’s in. Make sure to convey to him my message– ‘Marie has been revived.’”

The remaining officials started trembling.

They knew the truth about what happened two thousand years ago.

“…Marie? As in, Marie of the Three Knights?!”

The head of the surprised official was cut off, the blood spray dyeing the woman’s cheek red.

“I’m so glad to serve Lord Liam. I feel like those two thousand years of suffering was all for this moment. This has to be fate.”

While immersed in euphoria, the woman continued her slaughter.

◇ ◇ ◇

There weren’t anymore enemies descending from the sky.

The surroundings were filled with their destroyed debris, Derrick’s aircraft being the only survivor despite it’s legs having been cut off.

“H-have mercy! I’ll do anything! Anything!”

Despite all the threats he made earlier, his attack bored me.

I threw the pirate knight I was holding away and stepped on Derrick’s aircraft.

Seeing Derrick try so desperately to escape with just his arms was really funny.

“Now what should I do with you?”

“I-I’ll never go against you again! So please spare me! I don’t want to die!”

“You don’t want to die? Then tell me, why should I let you live?”

Contrary to my expectations, Derrick actually started speaking quite fluently,

“I’ll give you anything! Whether it’s money or women, I’ll get you anything you want! T-that’s right, what about elixirs? Do you want those too?”

He had elixirs?

“…I want them.”

“I have a special device. With that, any amount is possible. If you spare me, I can prepare as many of them as you want!”

It felt great seeing Derrick beg for his life.

But I wasn’t interested in his offer.

After all, the guide will prepare for me whatever I want.

Just like the alchemy box or the mysterious sword, anything I wanted naturally fell into my hands like fate.

There was no need for me to rely on him.

Besides, elixirs could always be purchased with money.

“Hmm… I have enough of them already, so I’m taking your life.”

“W-wait, this is different from our promise!”

“…I don’t remember making one though?”

In my previous life, I was deceived by debt collectors and was made miserable.

They didn’t keep their promises either.

So why should I?

“Are you really going to kill me?! Just a little while ago, weren’t you the one asking for justification to spare me?!”

“That was a lie. I don’t have a reason to keep you alive. It’d also be troublesome if you were revitalised by an elixir, so I’ll make sure to kill you carefully.”

“S-STAY AWAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!”

“It’s your fault for making me your enemy.”

When my sword pierced into the cockpit of the new model, Derrick’s voice disappeared.

As I lifted up the aircraft impaled on my sword, communications were restored.

The timing was perfect, it felt like it got cut off right before my rampage.

If this battle was broadcasted live, then I definitely would’ve been stopped.

Thinking so, I couldn’t help but feel lucky.

One of the elementary school teachers started yelling with a pale face,

“Somebody, call for a rescue team!”

They seemed to be confused by the situation, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Professor, it’s too late. They’re already dead.”

It’s a well known rule that you have to be prepared for death when you enter the tournament.

It wasn’t my responsibility if Derrick died, and I wasn’t afraid of some provincial Baron house’s retaliation.

Swinging my blade, I threw Derrick’s aircraft to the ground.

Then crushed it under my foot.

“That’s all they amounted to. Even if small fish gather together, they’re still only small fish in the end.”

While I laughed, the teacher looked stunned.

My surroundings were filled with wreckage– it couldn’t be helped since I had to destroy hundreds of aircrafts.

With that, I was once again impressed with Avid’s improved performance.

This was a good test run.

For that alone, I’ll give Derrick my thanks.

◇ ◇ ◇

The audience seats.

Somebody asked,

“Who could fight against that?”

Those were the true feelings of the nobility.

The Berkley family were known as the Pirate Nobles.

While the Banfield house gained their power through pirate hunting.

If the two fought one another, the result was obvious.

In such a quiet venue, the weapon factory representatives were desperately trying to hold back their laughter.

But Nias had already broken out in it.

“Its disappointing that I couldn’t see the new model of the First Weapons Factory getting destroyed by Avid, but this should make the difference between us clear.”

This applied to all the weapon factories, not just the first. All the representatives were hurriedly trying to escape the audience seats.

Wallace turned to Nias,

“All the engineers and scientists will see you as a threat. Do you know what this bodes for the future? You essentially declared war on them just like how Liam did to the Berkley family.”

To Wallace, who was foreboding the dangers to come, Kurt said,

“But if I know Liam, he’ll force his way to victory.”

“You sure?”

“More importantly, what about the tournament?”

Rather than the dark times ahead, Kurt seemed to be more worried about the event being cancelled.

The school had judged that it was impossible to continue in their current state.

Nias’ shoulders dropped,

“No way~! I wanted to see more of Avid’s majestic figure!”

Wallace was amazed at how she was genuinely disappointed by this development,

“For you to say that in this atmosphere… As I thought, the people involved with Liam are truly strange.”

Wallace shook his head in exasperation.