Chapter 113: Going back home (I)

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"Wait wait, don't kill me! If you kill me this ship will stop working as it's bound to my soul! You want it right? Just take me as a prisoner and you will get the ship as well!!"

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'Seriously?'

Aspen, who was about to kill the evil spirit of the pirate, suddenly flinched when he heard that the ship was bound to the pirate's soul.

"No good, this ship is too good for me to lose it in exchange for your life... Hmm... What to do? What to do?"

Aspen stopped gathering mana in his hand and scratched his chin to ponder deeply what to do. He, after all, still needed to go back home, and getting a motherfcuking ship that could fly was a pretty good find in order to traverse the sea without a problem.

"D-don't worry, I will not escape from you! You can just have me as your slave!"

'Slave?'

As the pirate spoke rapidly with a scared tone, Aspen remembered something from many years ago that might help him in this situation... Moreover, it wasn't even a hard thing to do... No, it was fairly simple...

*Plop*

"Enter"

"Eh...?"

On top of Aspen, hands appeared a bottle without a cap, and as if not comprehending what Aspen was saying, the spirit of the Pirate continued looking back and forth between Aspen and the bottle with a confused expression.

"I- I don't think I'm understanding sir"

With an annoyed expression, Aspen pointed with his finger to the top of the bottle and signaled him to enter there.

"I said, ENTER"

"B-but-!"

Without any more patience, Aspen released a burst of mana from his hand that surrounded the body of the Pirate in just an instant.

"What is... Thiiiiiis....?!!"

In just the blink of an eye, the body of the Pirate started being compressed by the enormous pressure that the mana surrounding him was exerting. Luckily for everyone, the pirate was a spirit, and not a living being... Otherwise, this scene might have been very grotesque.

"A-aaack!! Stop stop, what are you doing to me?!"

In just a few moments, the big and intimidating skeletal body of the pirate which had surprised Aspen slightly at the beginning of the battle had now become a small ball with a skull imprinted in it. It tended to squirmish a bit every once in a while, but because the mana was still surrounding it, it was completely unable to move.

*Plop*

"Eh...?"

Confused about what had just happened, the Pirate looked panicky at his surroundings in order to understand the situation, but by the time it noticed, everything looked dull and slightly foggy... As if he was staring directly at a glass window...

"N-no way...!"

Finally understanding what had happened, the pirate looked above him and saw the grinning face of Aspen looking at him from above with a satisfied expression.

"You might work pretty good as a decoration to scare curious folks away... After all, I still don't know for how long will my house be hidden from the folks of the city... But with you, they would probably start running away immediately..."

The pirate widened his eyes enormously when he finally understood what had Aspen done with him... He, one of the most terrifying men in history before the Great war, and also one of the most infamous criminals from those times... Had been imprisoned inside a lame and stupid bottle...

"I can't believe it... How dare you... I, the great Blackbea-"

*Poof*

Storing the bottle inside his inventory, Aspen turned scratched the back of his head and looked at the mess that the pirates had left behind before dying before he then sighed in pity for whoever had to clean this up later.

"Anyway, let's go back already. Who knows whether that princess is already being kidnapped or being held, hostage? It could be a pretty smart idea to do that while I was away dealing with the pirates..." Aspen turned to look at the library where he and Yuuki were a few minutes ago and started walking towards there with a calm pace on his steps. He wasn't really that worried about her, even if an assassin did appear, she was as strong as a gorilla so she could probably protect herself well enough.

"Who is getting kidnapped?" From behind the debris and destroyed bookshelves, appeared Yuuki looking at him with a raised eyebrow due to the enormous commotion that came from within the ship while Aspen was fighting Morgan. On one hand, she was holding her staff, which by the way was covered in blood, and on the other hand, she was holding the limp body of an assassin completely beaten up by who knows who...

"Well, I wonder why didn't you do that before? And here I was working so hard for nothing..." Aspen chuckled a bit and sat on a chair before he then picked up a book he stored in his inventory before the explosion blew away almost everything in the library, and started reading with a completely calm expression as if nothing had happened.

"Aren't you gonna do anything else?" Yuuki, who was looking at him with a confused expression for a while, asked him with an impatient tone not expecting him to simply sit in a chair and calmly read a book after both of them faced the most feared pirate crew in the Kingdom.

"Ye"

"-*Sigh*- Whatever, I can't understand you anymore"

After seeing the nonchalant expression of Aspen, she too sat down and took one of the slightly burnt books on the ground to see if there was still something left for her to study. However, as she was about to open it, suddenly Aspen's hand appeared in front of her and handed her the book she had been reading right before the library would get attacked.

"Where the heck did you store this? I don't think you have enough space to put this inside your clothes..."

"I just have a lot of places inside me where to store them"

"..."

"No, that sounded pretty wrong. I just have a technique that allows me to store things without a problem"

*Pft!*

From one moment to another, Yuuki broke into a burst of laughter and started hugging her stomach while looking at him with crying eyes.

"You have a lot of places inside you where to store them? Hahaha, What's with that?"

"Ugh... Whatever, When are the guards supposed to arrive?" Aspen clicked his tongue and turned to look back at the book with an annoyed gaze as he asked something else to change the topic.

"Hehehe... Phew, that was good" However, Yuuki didn't seem to be caring about his lame tries of changing the topic and continued laughing while trying to clean the tears that were on the corners of her eyes.

"Tsk, Are you gonna answer or not?" Annoyed, Aspen glared at her with an angry look and tapped his finger on his arm repeatedly while waiting for her to answer.

After Yuuki finished laughing a few minutes later, she finally regained her composure and blushed slightly in shame seeing that she had shown such unsightly behavior because she couldn't suppress her laughter... Well, unsightlier than normal.

'What's with her, it wasn't even that funny...' Aspen sweatdropped slightly but waited patiently for her to answer.

"Ehem... Yeah, I think they should be coming soon, it was quite an enormous explosion after all... However... It's strange... I think they should have arrived quite a while ago..." Yuuki looked worriedly over the entrance of the library, and furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed that no one was approaching.

"Hmm... I don't know why but I feel like we got played"

"What?"

When she heard Aspen say that with a bored expression, she couldn't help but look even more curiously at the entrance... Why were there no guards coming to help her? She was already safe from danger... But that didn't mean they would slack off even when an enormous explosion strikes the castle.

"Hmm... I think we should check on the king... Just in case..." Aspen, who was still looking at the book in his hands with a bored expression, closed it and stored it inside his inventory before he then stood up and walked towards the exit.

"What?! You mean...!" Yuuki, who was surprised enormously when she heard Aspen mention her father, had something click in her head when she thought about the situation properly. However, when she turned to look at Aspen to inquiry further, she saw that he had already left the library.

"Oh, goddamnit! Wait for me!"

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On the throne room...

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"Truly a shame, to think that your daughter could die so young..."

"Ugh... Uguhk..."

"And with you dying because of an assassin... What a tragedy... But don't worry your majesty, I will personally take good care of the Kingdom in your absence and princess Yuuki's.

"Greedy old bastard... To think you could contract Morgan... I thought you wouldn't go so far... But it seems like I underestimated your disgusting ambition, you don't care about your own pride anymore... Duke of Hamilton...!"

"Hmm... I think you should call me the new king instead. With the Antlions that I released outside of the castle, and your newly acquired "Hero" being occupied fighting those horrifying pirates, no one should be bothering us for a while..."

Two figures would be seen facing each other with fury. One of them was the King of Nuwa Kingdom, however, his body was covered in injuries and he had four enormous sword cuts on each shoulder and ankles... Thus, he wasn't able to stand up anymore nor move his arms to his will anymore... And on the other side of the room, the Duke of Hamilton was currently looking coldly at the dying King with a smile on his face. He had a beautiful sword on his hand, which was covered in the King's blood, and grinned viciously as he started approaching the defeated King.

Around the room, there were several bodies of assassins that had tried to defeat the King, but failed to do so as his abilities with the sword were enormous. It was only after the sacrifice of every one of them, that the Duke of Hamilton finally got an opportunity to immobilize the King and defeated him.

"It certainly took me a while to defeat you and your guards... But it doesn't matter anymore. I've won"

"Ack!"

The Duke soon stabbed one of the tights of the King, and laughed sadistically as he saw the man that always looked down on him howl in pain after receiving his attack.

"It's over for you... That kid, although a bit lazy and uncaring for others, still has some heroic feelings in his heart! When he finishes with Morgan and his pirates, you will be the next one!!"

"It's over...? Hahaha... Do you think that new Hero you got recently... Aspen, was it? Do you think that he is going to defeat the pirates and kill me after that?... Indeed, I don't think Morgan will be able to defeat him, but that is exactly what I planned from the beginning!"

"What?!" The King opened his eyes wide open when he heard that the defeat of morgan was all under the Duke's calculation. After all, that would mean he had already prepared a counter-measure to fight Aspen.

"By the time he arrives here, I will be gone already, and you dead... And when the guards and knights see him next to your corpse, what do you think they will do?!"

"N-no... Damnit! I have to warn him!!"

"Even if he is strong... Even if Morgan was strong... None of them can deal with an army! By the time he arrives here, he will become the Kingdom's new worst criminal!! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

*Ftchk!!*

From one moment to another, blood splashed violently as the laughter of the Duke came to an alt.

"---?"

When he looked at his chest, he saw a very sharp arrow covered in a strange liquid was sprouting out his heart zone.

"You talk too much"

When the Duke turned around to see who had shot the arrow, he saw with an expression full of shock and fear at Aspen, who was standing at the entrance with a very beautiful bow made out of platinum on his hand. He was supposed to arrive several minutes later due to his fight with Morgan, the worst criminal of the Kingdom... But he had dealt with him in such a small amount of time?! This wasn't supposed to be happening!!

"I can't die here... I can't-"

*Thud*

Having his heart pierced by an arrow of extreme power, the Duke was able to continue his speech, as he died tragically without even putting a speck of resistance.

"You got outplayed, old man"

The King could simply watch in shock at the sudden turn in events. It had happened so fast, that even he wouldn't believe that it was over just like that.

When Aspen noticed the King lying on the ground, he tossed a healing potion on him and waited for the potion to take effect.

And of course, soon all the wounds on the King's body disappeared and he recovered almost completely from the fight in just a matter of seconds. When he noticed the change, all that was on his head was... What kind of miraculous medicine is that?!

However, before he would have the chance to ask, Aspen raised his voice and tossed his Royal Guard uniform at the King's face without a speck of hesitation. Even when the man in front of him was the actual kid.

"I quit." Aspen said those words before he then disappeared completely from the King's view.

The King just stood there trying to process what had happened until now. The sequence in events was so fast, that his brain had yet to process everything that had happened now... It was only after a minute later that he finally understood everything... Except for one thing.

"What do you mean you quit?"

Unfortunately for him, there was no one there to answer his question anymore.

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