Chapter 21: Golden Rose

The Morning Light River originated from the West Onzeklar Mountains on the Onzek Highland in the middle of the Farvill Continent. It flowed from west to east across seven countries and regions including Flaine, Maven, Delanmaya, and Petbuka, and finally poured into the Sea of Stars from the Holy Shield Bay.

Along the Morning Light River, there had once appeared the richest, most civilized, oldest, and most beautiful countries on the Farvill Continent, including many ancient forests ruled by the Elves and mountains ruled by Dwarves. Therefore, the Morning Light River was called the “flowing history” of the Farvill Continent.

It was said that in ancient times, Elosta, the great god who governed the stars, accidentally rolled the sun onto the ground. Wherever the sun rolled past, a vast crimson glow surged forth, and later that place turned into a huge river — this was the Morning Light River.

Therefore, some said that the Morning Light River was a river blessed by a miracle, and that it had nurtured the civilization of the entire Farvill Continent.

I believed all of this was grounded in truth. When the first ray of morning sunlight spread over the Morning Light River, the golden ripples in the water rolled layer after layer into the distance, giving off colors more dazzling than the sky’s light, making people unable to tell whether the real morning glow was in the water or in the sky.

When the sun burst out from the river surface, the whole world changed its appearance. The entire water surface seemed to be plated with a layer of brilliant golden skin, as if what was flowing beneath our feet was not water waves, but a warm beam of sunlight.

No wonder the sunrise over the Morning Light River was called one of the most beautiful sights in Delanmaya.

While we were admiring the beauty on the river, Fred walked out of the cabin, pale-faced, holding onto the cabin wall.

The poor fellow had been tossing around all night and had almost thrown up his stomach juices and bile.

“Hey, my brother, you’re up.” Red Flame’s eyes lit up, and he went over to give him a warm hug.

His left ear was smeared with a layer of purple medicine, and the teeth marks on it were clearly visible.

“Hello, sir, your ear…” Fred was taken aback and replied.

“Never mind my ear. Haha, you’re a good one. Except for drinking, you’re really a good one.” Red Flame shook his head and answered generously.

“Ah, yes, yes, thank you for the compliment, sir. Jeff…” Fred called me over in a low voice. “How did his ear get like that?”

“You don’t remember?” Riley asked loudly from the side. “You don’t mean you’ve forgotten everything, do you?”

“I… damn it, Riley, can’t you keep your voice down?” Fred blushed and looked around awkwardly.

Everyone was snickering at him, which made him a bit flustered.

“I remember that I fought with Mr. Red Flame. Afterward I drank a little wine, and then… I… was lying on the bed.”

What a lovely fellow. After getting drunk, he actually remembered nothing.

The one who felt most ashamed was Red Flame. He had actually been beaten so terribly by a man who had no consciousness at all. This was simply an insult to the reputation of an outstanding Ranger.

“Jeff, did I really… bite his ear?” After hearing my account, Fred looked at the teeth marks on Red Flame’s ear and was so ashamed that he wished he could crawl underground — ah no, underwater.

“I’m so terribly sorry, sir.” After getting my confirmation, Fred apologized to Red Flame in panic. “I never thought I could do such a thing. This is really too rude. I sincerely apologize to you, and I hope you…”

“Hey, brother, what are you doing?” Red Flame stopped him. “This is a fight, a great and glorious ritual of men. Haha, it’s been a long time since I met an opponent who could make me so embarrassed. I’m happy. No need to apologize. According to our custom, if you could call me brother, I’d be even happier.”

“Then, Red Flame… brother, if I may ask rudely, how did your eyepatch end up on… your right eye.” Roll asked shyly from the side.

“Wearing it on the left eye all the time gets uncomfortable. Usually I switch eyes every three days.”

“If it’s uncomfortable, why do you still wear it?” Dakla asked, touching his big head.

“Style, know that? It’s style. Don’t you think wearing this eyepatch makes me look more dignified, tall, and handsome? In novels, many Misses like this kind of masculine and tough-guy look. Look at me, am I handsome?” Red Flame struck a vain pose. Unfortunately, if one of his ears had not been dyed purple by the medicine, his look might have been more perfect.

“A warship! Flying the Winston flag!” Suddenly the lookout’s voice exploded from overhead, shattering the peaceful atmosphere on the ship.

The crowd immediately fell into chaos. The fat, big merchants ran around at a loss, not knowing where to put their big butts.

Hugh was a successful merchant, but he was clearly not an experienced captain.

He was frantically directing the sailors, but judging from his expression, I found it hard to believe he knew what he was doing.

“How many ships?” Fred’s mood calmed instantly, and he asked the lookout loudly.

“Two. A Winston warship is chasing one… God, it’s chasing the Golden Rose. They ’ve seen us. They’re charging at us.”

“What is the Golden Rose?” Fred asked.

“They are a group of river pirates on the Morning Light River, but they aren’t bad people. As long as you’re a legitimate ship, after being stopped, you only need to pay a small sum of money to guarantee safe passage. They’ll even escort you for part of the journey and help you get through some dangerous rapids. They’re good people, much friendlier than tax officials.” A sailor replied.

“Damn, where did these Winston people come from…”

“It’s the Eastern Route Army. Kaplan the City-Slayer. He may have already taken the eastern military port Lubizhilin. That warship came from there. It’s actually a warship! Everyone, fall back!” Hugh ordered.

“Wait, fall back!” Fred interrupted Hugh’s order and asked, “What about that City-Slayer you mentioned, Mr. Hugh?”

“That fellow is the leader of the Winston Eastern Route Army, a cruel and arrogant man. He was once besieged on the Kansen Plain in the northeast and suffered heavy losses. Only after the Western Route Army occupied Titello City did he escape danger. When he occupied Poncecasia, in order to save face after being besieged, he actually ordered the massacre of the city. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in one night, most of them women and children. The high officials above were afraid of causing unrest, so these things were not made public.”

“Then how did you people know?”

“We are merchants. Wherever there is trade, there are our people. There is rarely news we don’t know. Damn it, fall back!”

“You said they slaughtered women and children who couldn’t fight back?” Red Flame raised an eyebrow and tightened his grip on the twin blades in his hands.

“Yes, they killed for a whole night. I heard at least thirty thousand women and children were cruelly killed. What a sin. Pull back quickly!”

“Captain! The Golden Rose is sending a distress signal. It says there are civilians from Delanmaya on board,” the lookout reported.

“No falling back. Prepare for battle!” Fred ordered loudly. The sailors immediately panicked and didn’t know what to do.

“I am the captain! I say we can’t go die!” Hugh shouted at Fred.

“Not saving them — saving ourselves, Captain!” Fred answered rudely. “That’s a Winston warship over there, a warship, know that? You also know it’s loaded with a whole ship full of killing beasts. If we wait until they finish killing everyone on the pirate ship, will they let us go? They’re much faster than us. If they turn around to chase us, can we still escape? You should also know that even if you throw all the cargo into the water and throw all the unrelated people into the river, we still can’t run away! Damn it, there’s still a chance now. While they’re in chaos, we still have a chance to catch them off guard!”

Fred’s eyes were wide open, and he stared fiercely at Hugh for a long time. At last, Hugh let out a breath.

“Fine, damn it. Now you’re the captain. At worst, we’ll all die together. I need to find myself a handy weapon.”

“Does the ship have any long-range attack weapons?” Fred asked.

“No, we’re a merchant ship.”

“Everyone, listen to my command. First, keep the Winston people steady. Reply with flags that we are a merchant ship and cannot help. Yes, answer like that. This is for those Winston madmen to see. Fool them as long as we can. Full speed toward the warship. All hands on deck, prepare to board. Lookout, report at any time. Anyone who can fight, grab weapons and get on deck.” Fred turned to us and smiled, then deliberately or not shouted a joke: “This is not a drill. Repeat: this is not a drill.”

Most of the fighters on deck were sailors. When those rough men heard this, they all burst out laughing.

Those of us who were new soldiers and had only been on the battlefield once also relaxed a lot at once.

“Brother Red Flame, I know Elves always respect life and don’t like killing. This is a war among humans. If you want to leave, it’s best to go now.”

“I am an Elf, but I am also a hot-blooded Ranger. They actually slaughtered defenseless women and children. Then I can only put aside the Elves’ traditional beliefs. Moreover, there are civilians on that ship who need rescue.” Red Flame replied.

“Report, Captain! The warship has met up with the Golden Rose, and a boarding battle is underway.”

“Understood. Watch for any other ships. Bowmen, prepare. Brother Red Flame, let them see the Elves’ divine arrows.”

“Well…”

“Roll, wake up Captain Carlson in the hammock. Hugh, tell those useless fat men to go down to the hold. That’s right, I mean you. Quickly get down.” Fred ignored Red Flame’s hesitation and kept giving orders.

Not far ahead, the Golden Rose, flying a flag with a golden skull rose, was connected to the large warship by grappling hooks and iron planks with claw hooks. Groups of Winston soldiers were shouting disgusting slogans like “Kill all the Delanmaya pigs,” “Finders keepers,” “There are women on the ship,” while waving long swords and charging onto the ship.

Although the Winston warship had quite a few ship-mounted catapults and large crossbows for long-range attacks, it showed no intention of sinking the Golden Rose. They probably planned to occupy the ship and then plunder it thoroughly.

The river pirates, wearing sailor clothes of various colors, desperately met the soldiers coming aboard.

Most of their weapons were sailor’s scimitars. This kind of sharp weapon was more lethal than standard long swords in boarding battles. The sailors’ water combat ability was also much stronger than that of the Winston soldiers — after all, just a few days ago, these soldiers on the warship had all been riders on horseback.

But the Winston soldiers’ numerical advantage was enough to make up for their lack of combat skill: their warship was more than twice as large as the Golden Rose. What’s more, all the soldiers in the warship’s hold could enter the battle, while the hold of the Golden Rose was full of civilians with no fighting ability.

Roughly estimating, the ratio of forces was about fifty against three hundred.

At least a hundred Winston soldiers had already boarded the deck of the Golden Rose. If the deck had not been so packed with people and space so limited, even more Winston soldiers would probably have squeezed over.

By the time our merchant ship gradually approached, the pirates’ resistance had reached a very critical point.

If not for the Winston soldiers fighting without any order or discipline because they were greedy for the loot on the ship, the pirates would probably have collapsed completely.

“We’ll approach from the right side. Bows and crossbows, ready.” Fred commanded calmly. We gradually closed in from the other side of the warship.

Fortunately, the battle on the pirate ship attracted all the Winston people’s attention, and no one was guarding against our ship.

Probably no one thought that our completely harmless-looking merchant ship would have any malicious intentions — especially after we had signaled with flags that we had nothing to do with them.

“Red Flame, I’ll leave that commander on the deck to you. Grappling hooks, ready.”

Under everyone’s respectful gaze, Red Flame drew his bow and shot a sharp arrow.

That powerful arrow broke through the air with a shrill whistle, howled through the warship’s main sail, and flew straight into… the water in the distance?!

He actually missed the target?!

This arrow missed the target by so far that even the enemies on the warship did not notice this sneak attack.

In fact, if we had not been closely watching Red Flame’s movements from beginning to end, we probably would not have been able to see where the arrow had disappeared either.

“Well… when my sister taught me archery, I always got distracted. Hmm… I think hand-to-hand combat is more satisfying than shooting arrows… Hehehe…” Red Flame explained with a red face, waving his hands around. In front of him were nearly sixty warriors holding sharp weapons, all stunned.

Really, they couldn’t be blamed for being so shocked. After all, the ultra-long vision that wasn’t blocked by darkness and the inborn ability to control the wind made the Elves natural divine archers.

It was said that in order to protect their secret forest, the Elves used bows and arrows to do pest control, and the ones doing this work were all children under sixty years old.

An Elf Archer who, at a distance of less than thirty paces, missed the target by more than thirty paces was simply unheard of. Even if I were throwing a stone, my deviation from the target couldn’t have been that big.

This was simply a disgrace to the entire Elf race!

But we could be considered “experienced and knowledgeable” after all. Since we had even seen a Mage who could only cast Haste Spell, Red Flame didn’t surprise us too much.

“Volley!” Fred was not affected by this unexpected situation at all and gave the order decisively. “Throw the grappling hooks. Prepare to board.”

After several rounds of volleys, the warship was already in complete chaos. The Winston people paid the price for their carelessness.

On the bumpy river surface, hitting the enemy accurately was not an easy task.

But on a deck packed with soldiers, even casually throwing a few nails would stick into quite a few people, let alone this indiscriminate attack like a rain of flowers.

Blood flowed along the edge of the warship into the Morning Light River and was instantly swallowed by the warm golden light.

“Board!” Fred drew his saber, waved it, and jumped onto the enemy warship.