Fire

Sea Circle Calendar 1507, December 28, 8:30 PM, northeast wind.

Two groups had gathered north and south of Gray Terminal in the Goa Kingdom. One was the Higuma Bandits, led by Higuma himself, fifty-seven men in total. The other was the Bluejam Pirates.

Higuma was in high spirits. Once this job was done, he would not have to worry about expenses for the next year. At first, Higuma had looked down on such a trivial task.

After all, with a bounty of 7 million Beli on his head, doing this kind of work was beneath him. But he had no choice—Outlook III was paying far too much.

They had chosen to act at night after discussing it with Bluejam during the day. Starting a fire at night, when visibility was poor, would throw people into panic and leave them too distracted to put out the flames.

Besides, many people had already drifted off to sleep by then.

There was another reason: Higuma loved gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle at night. It made him feel lonely. Only the bright moonlight and endless darkness were worthy of his excellence.

"Send the signal!"

Higuma gave the order to his men. One of them took out a bamboo-tube-like object and pulled its bottom.

A burst of fireworks then appeared in the pitch-black night sky.

One arrow pierced the clouds, and an army came rushing to meet it.

That was the signal they had agreed upon.

On the other side, Bluejam received the signal and immediately ordered his men to spread the prepared fire oil across the ground before throwing down torches to ignite it.

The same was happening on Higuma's side.

Gray Terminal was filled with highly flammable materials. Combined with the fire oil, once the blaze began, it spread