Chapter 3

A girl stood before me.

The pirate man reached out his hand toward Ambasha and said,

“Become my daughter.”

“!”

It was a sudden yet incredibly intense suggestion.

Ambasha asked with a trembling voice, “D-daughter…?”

“Yes, how about it? Become my daughter. Let’s form a family and sail freely across this vast sea together?”

“!”

The offer from the one who saved her, her benefactor, felt far too sweet.

However, at the same time, she couldn’t shake off the intense hesitation that accompanied such an outrageous statement.

Even though she had escaped from slavery due to her master’s death, the filthy blood that flowed within her had not changed…

“Ah… but… I’m just a mere thing, right? How can someone like… me…”

“What does that matter?”

“Excuse me?”

The pirate responded to her hesitance with a firm voice.

He slowly spread his arms with a noble smile on his face and proclaimed, “I have decided. You will be my daughter. I, the Pirate King, have made this choice. Do you really think things like birth and status matter here?”

“!”

“Think only of one thing in this situation. Whether you want this or not. Now answer me. What is your choice!”

A declaration with no trace of doubt or hesitation.

That powerful and kind proclamation brought about…

Ambasha followed her heart…

For the first time in her life.

Guided purely by her own wish,

She slowly reached out her hand.

*

Voted the most beloved line by Forbes, it was a variation of “Become my companion,” now saying, “Become my daughter.” (Not a thing)

This declaration to Ambasha meant that, in other words, I was choosing to obliterate the quest and the original work, taking the protagonist as my own.

Given my experiences, I knew that ignoring or giving up quests often came with considerable penalties.

Like how I once left a Sea King unattended, and my carefully set nets ended up in shambles.

Or when I let a target go without killing it only to face complications later when they sought revenge.

And even if it wasn’t just because of quest penalties, I was anticipating that this would stir quite the storm in the future.

If a character of great significance simply vanished, a huge void would likely emerge.

In severe cases, a realm that could fall ten years from now might just meet its end tomorrow.

Yet, despite all this, I resolved not to abandon this child.

What I was considering was something an ordinary person would never do.

When one was barely managing their own neck, there would be no time to worry about others.

However, I was no ordinary person.

The Pirate King.

The King of the Sea, whom one could boldly declare was the law out here on these vast waters.

The Pirate King described by Mr. Monkey in my past life was “the freest of all.”

Plus, the moment I ascended to the Pirate King, my status window said something similar.

“Congratulations.

You have acquired the title of ‘Pirate King.’

You have reached the pinnacle of this sea.

All pirates kneel before you.

Lords who know the sea fear and are cautious of you.

Now lead this sea as you wish.

Seize strength and power in this vast blue world and wield it freely.”

It was basically saying, “Now, just do whatever you please.”

Since that day, I’d confidently set and executed the rules of this sea without paying any mind to others.

This current endeavor was also a decision I made, independent of quests, declaring a regulation for the sea.

– Starting now, any scum caught conducting slave trade on the sea will lose their neck –

That was the rule I had established.

Thus, no longer was I just a powerless college student, but a person with strength and authority who could live as I pleased.

And regarding this decision of mine,

The protagonist girl, in a trembling voice, called out to me and carefully took my outstretched hand.

“…D-Dad?”

Due to malnourishment as a child, even at 16, her hands were still small.

Seeing the scars, calluses, and blisters on them filled me with a twinge of sadness, but I smiled gently and said, “Welcome, my daughter.”

“Ah…”

At that word, Ambasha’s eyes momentarily turned red.

As I lightly stroked her head, tears began to flow from her big, round eyes like a faucet turned on.

“Sniff… Sniff… Waaaah…”

A child who had never had a family, not even at any prior point.

Just the fact that I had become her family made my heart swell with warmth.

I promised to bring her happiness from now on, and a serene smile spread across my face.

*

“Thank you. Truly, thank you!”

“Thank you, oh great Pirate King!”

People expressed their gratitude to me repeatedly.

Most had been on the brink of being dragged off into slavery unjustly, and as they were saved by our hands, they were shedding tears of gratitude.

While I didn’t know the full details of their backgrounds, it was a completely natural reaction given they’d been saved from dire situations.

“You don’t need to thank me. We only wanted the loot on the ship. We had no intentions of saving you.”

“Even so, you freed us without expecting anything in return.”

“Thanks to you, we can return to our hometown! We will never forget this grace!”

“Umm…”

Even though I said something like, “I’m not really helping you, so don’t be too thankful,” receiving such gratitude still felt nice.

While I hid my satisfaction, a new wave of silent fury swelled within me against the nobles who’s still engaging in the slave trade despite strict regulations.

In this world, social classes were a given, and the fact that slaves weren’t treated like human beings was also a norm.

Nobles buying and selling slaves, beating them to the brink or actually killing them posed no legal issues in their respective nations.

While there were exceptions, that was the common law among countries in the central-western continent.

But what of it?

Unlike these primitive middle-aged fantasy folks,

Why should someone like me, with an open-minded perspective who dismisses class hierarchies, have to comply with such nonsense?

Did status matter?

If you’re powerful and hold authority, then you’re a king or an emperor.

In fact, one of the main plots of the original work was that individuals with similar open perspectives would incite a revolution.

But until that actually happened, voicing such opinions on main streets would get your neck cut off in the public square.

Of course, I had the power to sink whoever sought to take my neck into the sea.

For such reasons, I felt no hesitation in kindly sending arrogant nobles to the afterlife.

Especially those who, like just now, would spout things like “How dare a lowly XX…”

Needed a lesson teaching them about the equality of the spear while providing some physical therapy as an ideological education.

Anyway,

After dealing with all the scum that needed killing, sending off those who could be sent away, sorting through the prisoners, and taking the loot for ourselves as a reward for our good deeds,

I once again felt the truth that joy is fleeting, while dealing with mess is quite lengthy as I returned to the ship.

“Hey! Good job, Captain.”

As I climbed onto the deck, a woman waved at me with a bright smile.

With short black hair, green eyes, a silver cross around her neck, and a great sword on her back, she was a pretty woman in her early thirties.

She was the second-in-command of our fleet and held the position of Vice-Captain.

Lemain Migdal.

Seeing her smile after she had finished organizing the loot made me ask the most pressing question.

“You too worked hard. So, how much profit did we make from this haul?”

“After disposing of everything, I’d say around 50 talents? But considering it’s a slave trader, we had plenty to gather. It’s quite a good haul.”

Since we had released all the slaves we carried as the primary cargo, it was inevitable that the profits would dwindle.

50 talents… roughly translated to about 50 million won, which barely covered our pirate crew’s monthly food expenses.

Taking into consideration the costs of repairing battle-damaged ships, restocking ammunition, and treating the injured, calling it a profit would be tough.

But as this wasn’t our main source of income,

It was fair to conclude that a fee like this, while somewhat of a side hobby and charitable act, wasn’t too bad.

“That’s a relief. Now we can fix the mess from the gamble you had three days ago.”

“Haha… right? I had no idea it would come to that.”

“Then maybe you should quit. How could the Vice-Captain of the Pirate King waste her salary on gambling?”

“I just had a bit of bad luck then. This time, I’ll pay back double with interest, about 4 talents… umm… just kidding.”

As I raised my fist in agreement, the Vice-Captain shrank back, clearly intimidated.

While I frowned at the minor flaws in my female subordinate and friend, I let out a small sigh.

“Ah… Speaking of which, what happened to the girl I sent aboard?”

“Are you talking about the one named Ambasha who just joined us? I sent her to the cabin to learn a few things… Oh.”

“What is it?”

The Vice-Captain suddenly made a peculiar face.

Then, looking somewhat perplexed, she said to me, “By the way… today’s cabin duty was Franklin’s…”

“Oh no…”

Hearing that, I felt uneasy and hurriedly started moving my feet.

“I hope they aren’t crying…”

“It’s already too late; they’re both crying. I’ll bet 1 talent on it.”