Alger continued, "I heard that the Hell Admiral led his fleet to intercept them. Some reports said the two sides only had a minor clash, while others said they fought fiercely.
"But no matter what, after that, no pirates were ever seen on that route again from the Intis Republic's ship."
Audrey frowned. "Mr. Hanged Man, why is there so much conflicting information in the news you received?"
"That is normal." Alger explained, "Information is usually this chaotic. I need to use my own knowledge to make reasonable guesses and draw conclusions.
"Take this matter, for example. The reason it looks so muddled is that none of the reports came from the Hell Admiral's crew. Many people merely heard rumors or witnessed the scene from afar.
"So, information gathered through different channels needs to be sorted out by me."
After a pause, Alger continued, "In my opinion, two pieces of information are useful: the Hell Admiral led a fleet to intercept them, and no one saw the Intis Republic's ship again.
"Then came the reasonable speculation, filling in what happened in between.
"It was said that the Hell Admiral was a powerful Sequence 5. He could not have silently destroyed an Intis ship, because that ship also had a Sequence 5 aboard.
"After a series of deductions, I believed they probably negotiated. The Intis ship left behind some gold, and the Hell Admiral helped them escape that sea area, or concealed their trail so they would not be harassed by other pirate ships."
So that was why Byron had said, "The admiral decided to pay you the price we agreed on." When Alger sold that intelligence, what he had sold was information about the treasures aboard the entire Intis ship. Clearly, Ludwell had not obtained all of those treasures. Otherwise,