Keel-hauling

Dunn had not expected that Rokushiki, his comprehensive Career Skill, would actually be split into six Career Skills for his subordinates with lower-tier classes.

Although he had known that lower-tier class holders would be weak, this was a little too weak.

Still, it did not matter. Whatever else, they were at least second-tier combat class holders, and the pirates now generally possessed combat strength comparable to Annie, a [Navigator].

The most outstanding had even reached Biological Level 8, putting their combat strength firmly above Annie's.

Of course, that was assuming Annie did not use her two supernatural weapons.

Even Dunn felt a chill down his spine when facing Annie's two supernatural weapons. His perception, which had already reached 12 points, was warning him that these two weapons could undoubtedly breach his defenses.

Fortunately, the pirates' Career Ability, "Plunder," had not been weakened. Its effects were exactly the same as Dunn's.

Seeing that all the crew had completed their advancement, Dunn turned his gaze toward the prisoners from the [Golden Tangerine].

It was time to deal with the real business.

The fury left by the original owner's lingering will had been burning fiercely in Dunn's mind all this time.

Whether by good fortune or bad, the sailor from the bar yesterday had actually survived too.

As Dunn slowly walked toward the prisoners, everyone's eyes followed him.

Dunn walked right up to the sailor from yesterday and stopped.

"Captain, sir..." The sailor was just about to say something when he saw Dunn stop before him, but Dunn raised a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture, and he immediately swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

"Yesterday, at the Brave Ones Bar on Greenleaf Island." Dunn smiled warmly at the sailor before him. "I remember you saying that you once killed a noble. Campbell, I think his name was. Is that right?"

Owen and Henry, who had been watching Dunn intently from the side, instantly paled.

After surrendering and being brought aboard the [Black Pearl], the two had considered many possible outcomes.

For instance, the pirates might want to ransom them.

Or the pirates might want to recruit them.

But whatever the case, since the pirates had accepted their surrender rather than killing them, their lives were probably safe.

After all, if the pirates wanted to kill them, there was no need to go through the extra step of taking them prisoner.

But only upon hearing Dunn's question did they understand why they had been taken prisoner, and why they had been targeted.

Not just the two of them, but the other surviving sailors also understood at that moment why they had suffered this crisis.

Pairs of hate-filled eyes immediately fixed on that sailor, every one of them wishing they could strip off his skin and gouge out his bones.

But the sailor had no time to care what his colleagues thought of him.

Dunn's question exploded like thunder in his mind, leaving him incoherent for a moment. "No, no, I didn't, sir. It was all the captain and the others. I'm just an ordinary sailor..."

"No, Captain, sir, that was just a drunkard's nonsense. We're all law-abiding merchants." Hearing the sailor directly implicate him, Owen immediately grew frantic.

Although he did not know what connection the Pirate Captain before him had to that noble, he could not admit to this now, no matter what.

Before Dunn could say anything, the sailor grew frantic at Owen's denial. "They did it! Supposedly, some important person paid them a fortune to do it, and afterward, they even gave every one of us sailors a sizable bonus."

Although the sailor still could not quite make sense of the situation, he instinctively felt that his only chance of survival was to pin this firmly on Owen.

"Oh?" Hearing the sailor's seemingly genuine words, Dunn finally turned his gaze toward Owen.

"Captain, sir, he's just spouting nonsense. Where would we get the courage to slaughter nobles?" Although Owen no longer held out hope of surviving this, only by denying everything to the bitter end could he have any chance of survival.

"And you?" Dunn looked at Henry beside him.

"We didn't do it." Henry gritted his teeth and stiffened his neck in denial.

"Very good." Seeing both men deny it, Dunn continued to wear his warm smile.

Then he ordered the sailors watching nearby to prepare a few things.

Supernatural powers were highly developed in this world, and all sorts of industries flourished with their aid. Under such circumstances, however, people inevitably lacked a little imagination.

Torture, for example.

Many class holders possessed abilities that were highly effective in interrogation, and damage to the mind or even the soul caused victims far more pain than physical harm.

Thus, apart from a handful of relevant class holders, no one in this world had studied punishments that tormented the body in depth.

But the people of Dunn's previous world had studied this very thoroughly.

What Dunn was preparing for these prisoners now was one of the most terrifying punishments from the age of ocean sailing in his previous world-keel-hauling.

Keel-hauling was a form of torture in which the victim was thrown into the sea and then dragged beneath the hull, generally used on sailors who had committed offenses aboard ship. During the punishment, the executioner stripped the victim naked or removed his upper clothing, then used a long rope to bind his hands tightly, secure his upper body with the rope looped beneath his armpits, or bind his hands and feet. The other end of the rope was secured to a mast or railing to prevent it from falling into the sea. The executioner then took the victim to the bow and threw him into the sea along one side of the ship.

Because the victim fell into the water so close to the hull, he was immediately "pinned" beneath it, though this was actually caused by the current. The executioner then pulled the long rope tied to the offending sailor, walking from bow to stern or hauling him from one side of the ship to the other, making the victim move and scrape along the keel. This was the dreaded punishment of "keel-hauling."

Seagoing ships were generally covered in barnacles and other crustaceans, which had hard shells and razor-sharp edges. As the executioner pulled the rope and dragged the victim around beneath the ship, the barnacles on the hull gouged away his flesh, stripping off layer after layer of skin and flesh. The victim suffered as though he were being sliced apart by a thousand blades, in excruciating agony. To prevent the victim from drowning, the executioner sometimes placed an oil-soaked sponge containing a little air in his mouth, denying him such a merciful death.

On the deck of the [Black Pearl], a group of burly, vicious pirates pulled together on a sturdy rope, running from starboard to port. Bare-chested Owen was dragged underwater by them, passing beneath the keel encrusted with sharp barnacles.

Then he was violently hauled out of the water on the other side.

"Aaargh!"

Owen's piercing screams battered the eardrums of everyone aboard the [Black Pearl].

Hauled out of the water, Owen now looked as though he had been sliced by a thousand blades.

Bloody wounds covered his entire body.

Before Owen, who had just screamed, could draw a breath, he was dragged underwater to the other side again.

After two or three passes back and forth, Owen's body was so mangled that it no longer looked human.

Even the seawater around the [Black Pearl] had taken on a faint bloody tint.