Killed the Captain

A waning moon hung on the edge of the sky, and the night was pitch-black. A single sailboat drifted across the boundless ocean, and the oil lamp on its bow gave off a firefly-like light that seemed as though it could go out at any moment.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

The sound of boards tapping rang out. Inside the cabin, a middle-aged man wearing a hat froze. He carefully closed the chest under his bed and pushed it further underneath.

"Who is it?"

The man stood at the cabin door, one hand resting on the sailor's knife at his waist, and asked against the wooden panel.

"Captain, it's us. We're all drinking on deck, but we couldn't find you and wanted to come get you for a drink," a man wrapped in a headscarf smiled and said.

"Drinking? Where did the alcohol come from? I recall we didn't have any left in storage," the captain asked in surprise when he heard this.

"When we stopped the ship today, we went ashore to buy some. We finally pulled off a big score, so we definitely have to celebrate," the man in the headscarf said happily.

"Since that's the case, let's go drink. Tell the cook to prep more meat," the captain pulled open the cabin door and walked out. He was scruffy, and upon hearing there was alcohol to be had, he licked his lips and happily spoke.

"Let's go."

A few people walked toward the deck, and then upon reaching it, the light was dim. The captain stopped in his tracks, staring blankly at the scene before him.

"Plop!"

With a muffled sound, a bright blade pierced straight through the captain's chest. Under the moonlight, the blade was so chillingly cold.

The crimson blood hadn't registered at first, but finally it reacted. Blood dripped from the wound, sliding down the blade to fall drop by drop onto the deck, completely overlapping with the pattern already on the boards before him.

"You... why?" the captain widened his eyes, his weathered face draining of color. His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the two men in front of him.

"You can't blame us; if you want to blame someone, blame yourself. You're too greedy. The four of us feel you don't have the strength for this. You bunch of trash take so much money, yet you only hold us back," the man in the headscarf turned his head and smiled.

"Rogge, I... I treated you..." the captain turned his head to stare at the person behind him who held the blade buried in his chest.

"Captain, I'm very grateful to you. It was indeed you who brought me aboard, but everything I owed you has been paid back—you just don't know it yourself. Think about it, which of the four of us is inferior to you in strength? Wouldn't it have been better if you had taken the money and left long ago? Why did you have to squat on this position?" Rogge said with a smile.

"You... you'll die a horrible death... Da... David's curse..." the captain finished speaking and completely drew his last breath.

Rogge chopped off his head and shoved the corpse straight into the ocean. The blood stained the seawater red, and sea fish smelling the blood would come to deal with this body, so there was no need to worry about pollution at all.

Under the glow of the oil lamp, the entire deck was covered in blood. This ship had previously belonged to a pirate crew of over sixty people, yet now only the four of them remained alive on the entire vessel.

"That old man's money is all right here," a golden-haired man with a long sword tucked at his waist dragged out three chests and said.

"Jelly, how much is inside?" the man in the headscarf asked.

"There should be around one hundred million Beli. A lot of these items are antiques, so we can't go through normal channels. On the black market, one hundred million is the cap. I never expected he was secretly hoarding so much," Jelly smiled and said.

"What are our plans for next?" asked a black-haired man in his forties who was smoking a cigarette.

"I'm going to set up my own pirate crew. As for you guys, do as you please," Rogge wiped the blood off the blade and said.

"There's no trust left between us anyway, we might as well just split up like this," the man in the headscarf smiled, reaching out to grab the treasure inside one of the chests.

"Stab. Stab."

Two blades pierced directly through his body. The man in the headscarf turned his head with difficulty, staring with wide eyes at Jelly and the smoking man.

"You guys... Jelly, Ham, the two of you..."

"Just like Rogge said, you really are an idiot. You're fine to use, but once used, you have no value left," Jelly smiled.

"We already decided beforehand to form a new pirate crew, just the three of us. The captain is the Madman Rogge," Ham said.

"You bastards, I'll take you—"

"Slash!"

A blade flashed past, head and body parting ways before being kicked straight into the sea.

Now only three people were left on the pirate ship, and the three of them smiled.

"Thanks, you two," Rogge said to them.

"Isn't this completely normal? We're pirates, after all. Our ambitions aren't limited to just this, Captain Rogge," Ham exhaled a puff of smoke and smiled.

"I've grown sick of staying in this place called West Blue. The Grand Line is our true battlefield. Following that trash, we could only continue to muddle along here. If it weren't for wanting a bit of peace and quiet, I would have killed them long ago," Jelly smiled.

"Since that's the case, our new pirate crew is officially established. It's a good thing I have the two of you, otherwise I really wouldn't have known what to do," Rogge smiled.

Ham was a navigator, forty years old this year, with over twenty years of navigation experience. He had always mixed in mercenary groups. Because his mercenary group had been wiped out in a double-cross, he managed to survive and joined the current pirate crew. He had always kept a low profile, but his combat strength was by no means poor.

Jelly had once been a member of a kingdom's guard unit, and his identity was that of an aristocratic scion. However, he was not born to the primary wife, but rather was a child born to a female slave. To cover up this matter, the aristocrat killed his mother and raised Jelly instead.

Jelly became a member of the kingdom's guards and was profligate by nature. Back then, to pick up women, he had learned a pretty good hand at cooking. When his family discovered the truth, he killed his father and left the kingdom, just happening to run into this pirate crew recruiting people, so out of curiosity he joined them.

As for Rogge, his background was a bit peculiar, because he was not a person of this world.

A month ago, Rogge was a desperate fugitive who truly could no longer survive, so he headed to a country at war and became a mercenary.

Rogge dared to fight fiercely on the battlefield, and soon he carved out no small reputation. However, personal martial might on a battlefield never counted for much, and he was ultimately blown to death by a mortar shell. He only woke up to find himself in this world, and inexplicably joined this pirate crew.

"What are we going to do next?" Jelly looked at Rogge and asked.

"Their heads are still worth a bit of money. We'll go find the Marines to exchange them, and by the way, handle all this black money," Rogge said.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's move out; I can't wait to see the Beli," Ham grinned and smiled.