Although the pirates under the Bloody Captain had been rescued, every one of them was exhausted, and most had been injured. A few of the unlucky bastards the ratmen had captured earlier had gone completely mad. One of them was even peeling off his own skin.
Clearly, he'd suffered severe psychological trauma—in other words, he'd gone insane.
But the most hellishly ironic part was this:
The poor bastard was a vampire pirate with incredible regenerative abilities. Every time he finished peeling off his skin, new skin grew back, while the discarded skin burned away rapidly in the sunlight.
It was a truly miserable, endless torture in every sense of the word.
"Get these fellows to the Avalon sanctuary as quickly as possible. Find Raven and have him give them some post-disaster psychological care. Just look at them—they've been through so much."
Murphy couldn't bear to watch any longer. Turning to Adele beside him, he said:
"Send the seriously injured pirates back, too. Have them find somewhere to rest in the embassy district. Lord Pablo and his first-mate wife will be going to Batasing City under Andre's escort to pay their respects to Lady Shani.
"After they return, I'll arrange for Triss to meet with them.
"Leave a few people here to document and compile my warriors' hunts for the ratmen and the destruction of their nest. Once we've chosen the most outstanding hunter, give this sword to him or her in my name."
He handed his sword-cane to Adele. Murphy wasn't upset at losing a collectible-quality weapon. He'd always been able to take these things in stride. As he'd said, you had to get rid of the old to make room for the new. Besides, if a sword was all it took to earn a player's unwavering loyalty, then it