42
Against the leaders of major powers or their top officers, however, they struggled to hold their own.
"We came this time to ask a favor."
"Sit down. Let's talk."
Reunited with old friends, Rossi naturally wanted to hear them out.
"A pirates' feast?"
"Yes. It only happens once every four years in the New World."
The Family gathered in the hall.
The Horse-Eared Girl's voice rang out clearly:
"Not every pirate crew has a way to fence stolen goods.
Some 'merchandise'... is too hot to sell easily.
There has to be somewhere everyone can meet."
The reasoning was easy enough to understand.
Plundering at sea did not necessarily bring gold and silver.
A captured ship might be full of food, or things they had no use for-an entire hold of metal parts, mountains of porcelain, even unrefined ore.
Were those things worthless? Bring them somewhere they were scarce, and they could fetch several times the profit in no time.
But what would pirates do with them? They could not eat them, wear them, or even exchange them directly for money.
Were they supposed to bury them and wait for them to sprout?
Stories always featured scenes of chests of jewels covering the deck.
In reality, what idiot would sail around with heaps of gold and silver aboard?
Someone nearby raised his head.
Diamante rubbed his nose.
Yes, that meant him.
"In short,"
the Horse-Eared Girl cleared her throat lightly and skipped over that little interlude, "the so-called 'feast' sets aside a trading day for pirates.
Anything stolen that they can't use can be put up for trade.
Robbing one another is forbidden during those days. Even plenty of maritime merchants slip in to pick up bargains."
Some countries even had their troops disguise themselves as pirate crews to