Steel and Timber

The room fell silent in an instant. The only sound was the soft swishing of Theus drying his hair.

Alexei pressed a hand to his chest and stared at his lord in astonishment.

What had he just heard? No sea taxes!?

Ever since the Pirate King had united all the pirate factions on the Storm Ocean and issued the Thirteen Laws of Gem Bay, every faction on the Storm Ocean had been required to pay sea taxes to Gem Bay.

The order had quickly been met with compliance everywhere. The Black Sail Fleet would anchor in a port, and the pirates would hold up their documents and read them to the local lords. They would leave with the sea taxes—or leave with the lord's head.

Refusing to pay sea taxes meant only one thing: declaring war on all pirates.

It was true that wherever a Border Count was appointed, war usually followed. But Alexei was the chief clerk, and almost every matter on the island passed through his hands.

War? Castel hadn't made any preparations for one. What could they possibly fight with?

Besides, this was at sea. No matter how strong the Empire's army was, it might not do much good here.

Alexei's face twitched as he looked at the two pirates.

Jeremiah had just called the Pirate King "Governor," and he hadn't done so casually. That was what people across the Seven Seas called him.

Governor was an imperial title, usually bestowed by the royal family. Yet when the Pirate King claimed the title for himself, Her Majesty the Empress, who was usually so forceful, had reacted with uncharacteristic silence.

For now, the Empire's blade couldn't reach the sea, and the Pirate King had no interest in going to war with the Empire. So the two sides maintained a delicate balance: the Governor's men occasionally raided imperial fleets, while Border Counts like Theus had permission to expand freely into the Storm Ocean.

My lord, even the Empress on the Iron Thorn Throne chose to stay silent, and now you want to wage all-out war on Gem Bay?

Tomorrow, every inch of sea you could see would be filled with ships flying black sails. And before then, these two pirates would cut off your head and feed it to the shit-eating Horse-faced Fish in the sea.

Or perhaps you could drag the entire Empire into it, making the Empress pay the price of losing the Four Western Territories to go to war with the Pirate King. In that case, it wouldn't matter that you were Duke Cohen's illegitimate son. You could be his illegitimate father, and it still wouldn't help.

Jeremiah was also stunned by Theus's words. He glanced around uneasily, as though a crowd of tin cans might leap out at any moment and chop him into mincemeat.

How long had it been since he'd heard anyone dare to defy Gem Bay on the Storm Ocean?

Even Blood Port, where the Candlelight Society had built Saintis Cathedral, didn't dare openly oppose Gem Bay. The Empire's entire navy was stationed there.

And yet this lord in front of him had the nerve to turn the table over?

Could this be a trap set by one of his rivals? Collecting sea taxes was a lucrative job.

Jeremiah would rather suspect Theus of trying to rob him than believe he actually dared refuse to pay the sea taxes. That was how outrageous it would be to go to war with Gem Bay on the Storm Ocean.

Perhaps countries on land could rely on their terrain to secure some kind of neutrality, but this was the sea.

If Jeremiah made it back today, the Black Sail Fleet could come knocking on Castel's door tomorrow.

Jeremiah was already secretly signaling the Tattooed Man, but Theus's next words made him stop.

"If Gem Bay is willing to accept equal trade, we can talk."

Equal trade? You're talking about equal trade with pirates?

Jeremiah's gaze gradually turned hostile. He began to wonder if he'd been overthinking things. Was this noble just some ignorant brat?

The Tattooed Man beside him wasn't signaling a warning, either. So there was no ambush.

Had he just been imagining things?

Jeremiah's face twitched.

Jeremiah reached for the curved saber inside his coat. He intended to teach this lord a lesson and show him how pirates did things.

But just as his hand closed around the hilt, Theus's unhurried voice sounded again:

"For example, steel or timber?"

Jeremiah's hand stopped.

He stared hard at Theus and asked in a raspy voice, "You must be joking?"

Steel and timber?

What the sea lacked most was steel and timber—or, more precisely, weapons made of steel and ships made of timber.

Those required forges and shipyards. Gem Bay had no shortage of either, but it did lack raw materials.

The Empress's power at sea might be too weak, but on land, that was another matter.

The Empire had been expanding abroad for ten whole years, sowing its fields with swords and gunpowder.

The Empire still had many enemies on land, but the enemies along the northwestern coast were gone. They were just across the sea from Gem Bay, and Border Counts like Theus now dotted the whole coastline like sesame seeds sprinkled over flatbread.

Under those circumstances, the Pirate King could forget about getting even the tiniest bit of resources from the land—at least openly.

If Theus had a way to sell steel and timber, Gem Bay would be willing to pay more than the market price to buy them, and would take as much as he could supply. They wouldn't even bother collecting sea taxes.

You want free trade? Absolutely no problem. No matter who bought the goods on the Storm Ocean, they would eventually end up in Gem Bay's hands.

They could even open a separate trade route just for this, with Gem Bay personally guaranteeing its safety.

That was how much influence Gem Bay had on the Storm Ocean.

But could Theus really get his hands on such sensitive goods? Jeremiah didn't know much about the Empire, but steel and timber were controlled resources everywhere. Did Theus really have powerful enough connections?

Jeremiah looked at Theus suspiciously.

Wait, Theus. Before coming here, hadn't someone told him about this lord's background?

Right. Gem Bay usually gave men like them—those sent to collect taxes from the lands of Border Counts appointed by the Empire—some basic information about the local lords. Border Counts were famously tough, and there had been cases where they'd clashed right on the spot. If the two of them didn't make it back, the Black Sail Fleet would come knocking on the island the next day.

Naturally, Jeremiah had received information about Theus, too. But he'd gone off drinking at the time, and the man giving him the details had only mentioned a few things in passing when he saw how drunk Jeremiah was.

Later, Theus's willingness to pay the sea taxes had put him completely at ease.

Jeremiah only vaguely remembered that this lord in front of him was the child of some important figure.

Wait, where had he said he was from? It seemed like... Duke Cohen's Territory?

Duke Cohen?

Jeremiah sucked in a breath. He knew very little about the Empire—only a handful of names, few enough to count on both hands. But Duke Cohen was among them.

Duke Cohen's territory covered a huge swath of the Empire's southern lands. And judging by how young Theus looked, it was obvious that he'd gotten this territory through his ducal father.

What title had he said he held? Border Count? How important was a count?

Jeremiah didn't understand the Empire's noble ranks, and the civil and military systems were even further beyond him. His guesses were all over the place, but when he looked at Theus again, his expression had changed.