When the new ship set sail, many people came to watch.
The ship was departing from Blood Port, but quite a few Castel citizens had come as well.
Most people who had come out of Castel had heard the name Black Pearl. Even before Theus had been invested as Border Count, Jeremiah had already been a pirate captain on the Storm Ocean.
In the later Deep Sea War, the Blood Port Rebellion, and the Northern Territory Expedition, the Black Pearl had all appeared before the public. It could be said that people had watched this ship change bit by bit with their own eyes.
Even Beatrice had come. She had ridden this ship before, after all.
Back then, the Black Pearl had only been a wooden sailing ship. Now, standing before them was a sleek iron vessel.
The last wooden plank on the ship had been replaced.
Theus looked at everything before him and could not help but sigh inwardly.
The war with the Empire had temporarily come to a halt. Next, they would be going to war with gods.
He did not know what those resurrected gods represented, but since they had been killed once before, killing them again should not be too difficult.
Ever since the Deep Sea War, Castel seemed to have fought endless wars. The old Theus might have complained about it.
But now, he had come to understand—once you were strong enough, people would always set their sights on you, whether out of greed, fear, or ambition.
If you wanted to gain a foothold in this world, then stop dreaming of hiding in some isolated corner and developing alone. Castel had already grown large enough that merely existing was enough to block many people's paths.
He spotted Gaia and the others among the crowd.
Castel's