Pirates: Invincible from the Start

He couldn't help shaking his head as he spoke.

"I'm getting old. I keep forgetting things that aren't all that important."

"Is that strange?"

Kuta looked toward the two islands gleaming gold in the sunset.

A deep curiosity stirred in him.

Anyone Golden Lion had invited—even if he'd ultimately turned him down—couldn't be ordinary!

A Peculiar Welcome

Bass Island.

Spring Island, the central Royal Palace.

It had long since lost any resemblance to a kingdom's royal palace.

Pirates filled the palace.

Some lay around, some sat, and others shouted at the top of their lungs.

It was utter chaos.

Another palace presented a very different scene. Everyone there wore a cold expression and drank in silence.

Their eyes remained wary of everyone and everything around them.

Judging by the air these people gave off, they weren't pirates.

This was the Bass Kingdom now.

Farther out, the entire kingdom lay in ruins, apart from the two palaces in the center that were still more or less intact.

The villages around the Royal Palace were nothing but rubble.

Among some of those ruins, numb, despairing faces could still be seen.

There weren't many people, and none looked strong. Most were old people and children; even women were scarce.

They hid carefully and searched through the rubble, terrified of being discovered.

Everything here told new arrivals that this was no longer the prosperous Bass Kingdom, once so full of laughter and happiness.

The island was still the same island.

But the kingdom that had stood upon it was gone.

Only the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled remained.

The former kingdom and its docks had become a paradise for pirates and bounty hunters.

Why could pirates and bounty hunters coexist peacefully on this little island?

Probably because, like those at Whiskey