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When I came to my senses, waves were crashing before my eyes. Without any warning, a sudden wave of sword strikes rushed in. Witnessing a situation where a thousand sword strikes appeared in an instant, Kukunis was left dumbfounded.

‘I can’t block this.’

Of course, he couldn’t just take it lying down, so he decided to resist. Until the very last moment, as much as he could keep up.

First strike. Swinging his spatha, he deflects the arc drawn from above to below in front of him. Second strike, twisting his body, he pulls the sword and thrusts it forward to parry. Third strike, he guides the attack to the left side of his body while standing his sword, then immediately swings his cloak to obstruct the opponent’s vision while rolling his body to the right to avoid the fourth and fifth strikes.

Sixth strike, seventh strike, eighth strike, ninth strike, ……, one hundred and seventy-second strike, one hundred and seventy-third strike, ……,

{Ugh, damn.}

I can’t keep up. The slow flow of time naturally brings pain as if my brain is burning. This body, which can be called a possessed one, is relatively free from physical pain, but instead, it’s hard to escape from spiritual pain.

For a moment, it became difficult to thrust the sword forward. A resistance like swinging a sword in the deep sea gripped his limbs. It felt as if space and time were completely restraining his movements.

Originally, there were sword strikes he missed due to the difference in skill, but now it felt purely like his strength wasn’t enough. One, two, the number of sword strikes he allowed increased. Thanks to calmly deciding which areas to prioritize and minimizing the damage from unavoidable strikes, he somehow managed to keep up with the tempo, but even this had its limits.

The distance between the opponent and himself kept growing. The more he blocked the Nun Knight’s sword strikes, the faster they became, and as someone who had just started, Kukunis couldn’t see any way to keep up.

Block. Slash, slash, slash, and slash again. From the five hundredth strike, if he blocked one strike, dozens of slashes would pour down in an instant, and the speed and number of slashes only increased.

And finally, when the thousandth slash passed through his body, Kukunis realized that the thousand exchanges between him and Sophia had happened in less than a moment, and that there was no more room for him to be slashed.

{Ah……. This is it.}

Kukunis muttered with regret. The most fresh and wondrous martial arts realm he had never experienced in his life, the fact that he couldn’t experience it anymore was unbearably disappointing. Even if he was called a legendary pirate, in the end, he was just a martial artist.

“You were splendid. Since I mastered the Heart Sword, no swordsman has ever kept up with me this far.”

Despite Sophia’s praise, Kukunis couldn’t honestly feel happy.

{In the end, I couldn’t keep up until the very end, right?}

To his disheartened reply, the opponent smiled and answered.

“Of course. If you had kept up with me in an instant, what would my past years amount to?”

{Haha, ha. Is that so? That’s a bit comforting.}

Kukunis slowly realized he could no longer maintain his body. His already mutilated body had turned to dust in every corner due to the sword energy contained in the long sword. Now, he was only maintaining his form with the remaining life force and the energy supplied from the dungeon.

It seems it’s time to prepare for the end, Kukunis thought. As the dungeon boss, the ancient pirate, was about to accept his final moments, Sophia spoke to him with a meaningful expression.

“So, I have a proposal for you. Would you like to hear it?”

+++++

The people of the St. Maria, who had been barricading themselves near the port using the city walls, sighed in relief as the dungeon was lifted and the ancient pirate ships covering the sea disappeared back into the depths.

Fortunately, there were almost no casualties. Thanks to the Nun Knight’s party covering most of the enemy’s main force and Captain Benjamin’s divine command in the siege and defense, while many were injured, no one died. Watching the ancient pirates turn to ash and disappear, one of the sailors muttered.

“It’s finally over. But what’s that?”

Where the ancient pirates had turned to ash, the sailor strained his eyes to stare at the empty space.

In the places where some ancient pirates had disappeared, objects they had been holding or were thought to have been holding were left behind. The ancient pirates didn’t just turn to ash and disappear. Indeed, as a dungeon, they left behind what could be called rewards.

A passenger from the St. Maria, who was an adventurer, exclaimed.

“Dungeon artifacts!”

His words caused quite a stir among the crowd.

“What? Dungeon artifacts!”

“Those are dungeon artifacts!”

Soon, a few brave ones headed towards the port’s open space and quickly confirmed the speculation.

“Potions!”

“This looks like equipment!”

“There’s a spell on it!”

“““They’re real dungeon artifacts!”””

The eyes of those who gained certainty began to glisten with the shine of gold. Who had said it? That dungeons, for those born under the right conditions, could bring sudden wealth? Among the dungeon artifacts scattered there, of course, there would be some duds, but there were also treasures that couldn’t be denied.

Expectation began to fill the people’s eyes. The pirates’ base, treasure! And dungeons and dungeon artifacts! Life is full of ups and downs, what they thought was a disaster turned into a blessing.

Their expectations peaked when the heroes who had slain the dungeon boss and the main force behind the Menorca subjugation revealed themselves and declared before everyone.

“Heroes, we have subjugated the pirates who disrupted the peace of the Sea of Tethys with their tyranny and atrocities! This was possible thanks to your courage in overcoming fear and sympathizing with the subjugation!”

Though it was not noble courage but monetary desire that overcame fear, what did it matter? Speaking on behalf of the party, Hildegard thought so. Originally, such things should be thoroughly flattered, she told herself, suppressing her inner self that was criticizing her.

And now it was time to tell them what they most wanted to hear. Something unnecessary for them but precious for the others. Namely, the story of gold.

“Now it seems time to talk about the reward for that courage! As you know, we belong to the Church Order! And those who serve as clergy in the Church Order are encouraged not to accumulate more than a certain amount of wealth! So our share won’t be much!”

So whose share would the rest be? Hildegard held back the somewhat blatant follow-up. Soon, cheers of joy and excitement erupted from the docks.

“Wooaaah!!!”

“Church Order! Grand Master! Paladin!”

“Hey, hey, is this real? Are we striking it rich?”

“My late grandmother whispered to me in a dream last night! She said I would become rich!”

Watching the near-frenzied cheers over Hildegard’s shoulder, Conra shivered unconsciously.

“Ugh, is it really that good……?”

The 11-year-old, soon to be 12, who didn’t know the value of money, said so. Surrounded by people indifferent to wealth, he couldn’t understand why they were so happy.

Watching Conra, who didn’t know the value or fear of money, Sophia began to doubt her educational methods.

Though they lived as part of the Church Order with little connection to monetary matters, wasn’t Conra being raised to eventually live in the secular world? While there would be no problem as long as they stayed together, she couldn’t help but worry about what kind of life he would lead once he became independent.

‘Hmm. I’ll have to educate him a bit later.’

Though the spirits Esras-Hermes and Rugus-Artaeus were attached to Conra’s education, in her eyes, these two spiritual beings didn’t have much sense of money either.

Why aren’t there money spirits or gold spirits? Sophia roughly organized such thoughts and silently patted Conra’s head.

+++++

The St. Maria left Menorca Island two days later. Over the course of two days, the crew and passengers of the St. Maria scoured Menorca Island.

They acquired quite a bit during their search of Menorca Island. The pirates’ personal and communal wealth, treasures, civilians who had been captured and were waiting to be sold as slaves, hidden remnants of pirates and their families, and dungeon artifacts created as a result of the island’s dungeonization.

The St. Maria’s party immediately freed the civilians captured by the pirates and, with their help, began managing the captured pirates.

“Serves you right, you bastards!”

“Finally, you’ve received divine punishment!”

Those who had been captured by the pirates harbored no small amount of resentment. The reason they hadn’t shown it outwardly was simply because they were overwhelmed by a greater fear.

But the moment they saw the pirates, who had truly fallen to the roots, bound and looking shabby, the shackles of fear were released, and only the matured resentment remained.

The actions of those freed from being the pirates’ captives towards the now captive pirates were merciless. Though they refrained from physical violence due to sharing some monetary rights related to the pirate captives, all sorts of insidious harassment and personal attacks were directed at the pirate captives.

Already in a sorry state from the St. Maria’s attack and the island’s dungeonization due to Highredin’s possession of the dungeon boss, the captured pirate remnants quickly lost their vitality under the harsh captive life.

However, Sophia’s party, who should have been most concerned about human rights, showed little interest in the pirates’ treatment. Only young Conra raised a slight question.

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

Seeing the blatant ridicule and insidious harassment, the boy asked with a disgusted expression, to which Sophia immediately declared.

“They reap what they sow. They’re only getting what they sowed, so who can they blame?”

Hildegard nodded in agreement with Sophia’s words. She was already enjoying a hearty drink of molasses wine she had looted from the pirates’ warehouse. Though her spirit Ariel was trying to stop her, Hildegard, of course, didn’t listen.

Meanwhile, Sophia and Hildegard were more focused on Esiocles. Beside him was Saraswati, his contracted spirit who had become active this time. The sensual spirit, clinging to the half-naked man in a bizarre pose, looked somewhat obscene.

{Um, I don’t know much, but…}

Suddenly, someone’s telepathic voice echoed in Sophia’s ear.

{Are spirits or clergy supposed to include ‘that kind of thing’?}

The owner of the telepathic voice spoke in a tone that suggested they had a lot to say.

“Hmm. Kukunis, didn’t your era have ‘that kind of thing’?”

{Common sense says it couldn’t have! Well, the world is wide, and there are many people I haven’t seen. I can’t say for sure, though.}

Grumbling, the spirit Lucas-Kukunis muttered.

 

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