So as long as John spotted an armed merchant ship, he could simply rob it?
That merchant vessel had just given him an idea.
Meanwhile, aboard the pirate ship, one of the flagmen noticed the signal flags being sent by the armed merchant ship.
His face instantly turned pale.
"Captain! Something’s wrong!"
"Another ship has appeared!"
"No... that’s not a ship!"
"That’s a warship!"
"A battleship!"
"It’s the strongest warship in the Lothar Kingdom—a Loren-class battleship!"
"It carries hundreds of cannons!"
"It’s practically a moving powder magazine at sea!"
Captain Mad Shark quickly received the report.
Even someone as insane as him immediately sobered up upon learning that a Loren-class battleship had entered the battle.
For a moment, he was completely stunned.
"How is that possible?"
"Our intelligence clearly said that no Loren-class battleship was operating in this area!"
"If that thing fires even a single full broadside at us, we’re probably all dead!"
Captain Mad Shark’s mind began racing.
He had absolutely no idea how the situation had suddenly become this terrible.
He gritted his teeth and cursed.
"Damn it!"
"What the hell am I supposed to do?"
"Use this piece-of-junk ship to fight a monster like a Loren-class battleship?"
"I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid!"
Captain Mad Shark clenched his jaw.
"Turn around!"
"We’re retreating!"
"Get us back home!"
One of his subordinates replied miserably,
"Captain... we’re sailing against the wind right now."
"It’ll be difficult to escape."
That was the biggest weakness of wind-powered sailing vessels.
If the wind direction was unfavorable, their speed would be severely affected.
Of course, a Loren-class battleship was not purely dependent on sails.
It was a hybrid oared sailing vessel.
The lower decks contained rows of human-powered oars.
Whenever the wind became unfavorable, the sailors could row with all their strength and rapidly increase the ship’s speed.
Captain Mad Shark immediately roared,
"So what if we’re sailing against the wind?"
"Are you saying we shouldn’t run just because the wind is against us?"
"If we don’t escape now, we won’t even have the chance to run later!"
At that moment, another sailor suddenly shouted in panic,
"Captain! Bad news!"
"Our hull is leaking!"
"What?!"
Captain Mad Shark felt his mind explode.
For a moment, he simply stood there in complete shock.
...
Meanwhile, aboard the armed merchant ship, the sailors erupted in excitement.
"Look!"
"That really is one of the strongest battleships in our kingdom!"
"A Loren-class battleship!"
"Damn, it’s enormous!"
"There are so many cannons aboard!"
"Just looking at it is terrifying!"
"And look at those naval uniforms!"
"Seeing our own naval soldiers really makes you feel safe!"
Many sailors aboard the merchant ship pointed excitedly at the Golden Merry as it drew closer.
Their eyes were filled with admiration and reverence.
They were all human beings.
Yet some men could wear magnificent military uniforms and command one of the strongest warships in the world.
Meanwhile, they could only scrape together a living aboard an ordinary merchant vessel.
The difference was simply too great.
Before long, the Golden Merry had moved into position alongside the armed merchant ship.
The two ships were almost perfectly parallel.
Less than ten meters separated their hulls.
The merchant captain looked at the colossal battleship opposite him and could barely contain his joy.
"So this is the strongest military force our kingdom possesses?"
"We’re finally safe!"
Yet at that very moment...
the merchant guild flag flying from the Golden Merry suddenly began descending.
The merchant captain and his sailors were confused.
They stared blankly, unable to understand what was happening.
Then—
a black flag slowly rose in its place.
Upon that black fabric was a skull outlined with only a few simple white lines.
The moment they saw it, every face aboard the merchant vessel turned deathly pale.
A black flag!
A black flag represented pirates!
Which meant...
the strongest warship in the Lothar Kingdom...
a T0-class monster of the seas...
was actually a pirate ship!
The flag representing a Lothar merchant guild descended.
The black flag slowly rose from the base of the mast toward the top.
And as the black flag climbed higher...
the hearts of everyone aboard the armed merchant ship sank lower and lower.
The excitement and burning hope they had felt only moments earlier gradually turned cold.
Heavy.
Despairing.
"A black flag..."
The smile on the merchant captain’s face froze.
Then it twisted into an expression uglier than crying.
A black flag was a pirate flag.
It represented lawless chaos.
Death.
And plunder.
"How can one of our military warships be flying a pirate flag?!"
The merchant sailors could not believe what they were seeing.
"Did pirates... capture a T0-class battleship?"
They could not imagine what kind of pirate force could possibly accomplish such a thing.
"We’re finished..."
"We’re completely finished."
Facing such a colossal monster of the sea, the sailors could not even summon the courage to fight.
And at that moment—
the naval soldiers aboard the Golden Merry suddenly raised their muskets.
The barrels pointed directly at the armed merchant ship less than ten meters away.
"Fire!"
A commander immediately gave the order.
The soldiers pulled their triggers without hesitation.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
White clouds of gunpowder smoke burst from the muzzles.
Thumb-thick lead balls shot from the long barrels at high speed.
They swept across the short distance like a torrential rainstorm, covering the sailors aboard the merchant vessel.
Pfft!
Pfft!
Pfft!
Bullets tore into flesh.
Immediately afterward, agonized screams erupted across the merchant ship.
Rows of completely unprotected sailors were struck and collapsed to the deck.
At the same time, a boarding bridge suddenly extended from the Golden Merry.
Dozens of sailors lifted a fifty-meter bridge together.
It stretched outward like the tongue of some gigantic beast.
Boom!
The bridge slammed heavily onto the deck of the armed merchant vessel.
The Golden Merry continued firing the entire time.
Wherever the muskets pointed, the sailors on the other side either fled...
or died.
"Attack!"
The commander immediately gave the order.
Squad after squad of naval soldiers charged across the boarding bridge before leaping onto the merchant ship.
The first groups secured the bridgehead, allowing the soldiers behind them to continue crossing.
Before long, all fifteen hundred elite naval soldiers had gathered aboard the merchant vessel.
The merchant captain stared at the more than one thousand elite soldiers in front of him.
His eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Is this really necessary...?"
"It’s just my tiny merchant ship."
"Do you really need fifteen hundred soldiers?"
"Do you really need the strongest battleship in the entire Lothar Kingdom?"
"Is all of this really necessary...?"
The merchant captain let out a long sigh.
Then he ordered his first mate to raise the white flag.
They surrendered.
There was simply no way to continue fighting.
Whether in firepower, manpower, or the quality of their vessels...
the armed merchant ship was nothing more than a tiny speck of trash before the Golden Merry.
It did not take long for the Golden Merry’s forces to seize complete control of the merchant vessel.
The captured crew were brought before John and awaited his judgment.
John looked at the merchant captain.
"What cargo are you carrying?"
The captain answered honestly,
"Wine and liquor."
"Some furs."
"And a portion of gold."