"Charge with me, boys!" "Kill them, tear Bai Ye to pieces!"
A large group of pirates rushed through the streets of the royal capital. When the common people saw this, they screamed and ran away in fear. As the pirates made their way towards the palace, they started setting fire to everything in their path. Outside the city, flames soared into the sky, and soon thick smoke filled the streets.
Su Xiao moved through the night, quickly outpacing the pirates and arriving at the palace first. The Kingdom of Goya was considered a small nation in the pirate world, so its palace was just a modest castle. Hiding near the kingdom, Su Xiao began to wait for the Click Pirate Crew.
The royal capital was divided into three areas: the outermost was the commoner district, followed by the central street, and at the very center was the palace. There was a wall surrounding the palace area, but it wasn't very high. The Click Pirate Crew would soon break through it and storm into the palace area.
The guards in the palace area had already rushed out, and it wasn't long before the sounds of fighting began to echo. Su Xiao continued to wait. From what he knew, the guards in the palace area were all show and no substance. Those guards who had never seen real combat were no match for the pirates.
As expected, within half an hour, the palace guards were pushed back and retreated to the front of the palace. They looked disheveled and panicked, suffering heavy casualties, with some even fleeing on the spot.
"Boys, the palace is right in front of us! Let's take it!"
Click was already mad with bloodlust. After being tricked by Su Xiao and then rampaging through, this pirate was completely out of control.
"Kill them all, leave no one alive!"
With Click's command, hundreds of pirates charged toward the palace, clashing with the guards. A brutal melee began, with gunfire ringing out and blood splattering everywhere.
Inside the palace, the king, who had been resting, was awakened by the sounds from outside. The King of the Goya Kingdom was a man in his sixties, with a full head of black hair and a big beard.
"What’s going on outside? Why is it so noisy all of a sudden?"
King Philip Herbert got up, a bit impatient, while the young queen beside him sat up in confusion.
"Your Majesty, it seems to be gunfire. What happened?"
The young queen cuddled up to the king, looking scared.
"Someone come!"
The bedroom door burst open, and a burly man rushed in. He had a deep scar running across his face, making him look particularly fierce.
"Howson, what’s happening outside?"
This man, named Howson, was the king's personal guard. However, around Howson's neck was a metal collar, dark iron in color, with some intricate mechanisms at the connection point. If Su Xiao were there, he would recognize this collar as a slave collar from the pirate world. Howson was actually a slave, his life and death controlled by the king, which explained why the king made him his personal guard.
Howson didn’t speak but made a few gestures. He couldn't talk because his tongue had been cut out by a slave trader. If it weren't for his extraordinary strength, he might have already been killed by them.
"Pirates? How could there be pirates in the palace? Right Minister, go send someone to deal with them."
Although the king felt something was off, he didn’t pay it much mind, clearly confident in the palace's guards.
Howson stood still in the room. The slave collar around his neck restricted his freedom, and it could be detonated, meaning he would die if it were activated.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao was waiting for the right moment. It wasn’t the time yet. Even though the fighting inside the palace was fierce, it hadn't reached its peak.
After about an hour of chaos, the king finally couldn't stay calm any longer. He could clearly hear the sounds of battle getting closer. At that moment, he realized the seriousness of the situation.
With a loud bang, the door was kicked open, and the blood-soaked Right Minister rushed into the bedroom.
"Your Majesty, it’s bad! The pirates have broken in and are already on the third floor!"
The king's face changed dramatically.
"Impossible! Where are my guards? Those guards were carefully selected. How could they be pushed back so easily?"
The Right Minister knelt on the ground, curled up, afraid to respond. The palace guards were not elite fighters but just a bunch of young men who had cost a lot of money.
"Howson, you go—wait!"
The king's face was conflicted. Howson was indeed strong, but if he sent Howson out, his own safety would be at risk. If he didn’t send Howson, the pirates would soon be at his doorstep, and bullets wouldn’t care who they hit.
"Deal with those pirates as fast as you can, then come back immediately. Even if you're injured, it doesn't matter. Do you understand? If I die, you die too."
Howson's eyes showed no emotion as he nodded blankly and then left the room.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao soon heard a loud explosion from inside. A large cloud of purple poison gas spread out from the third floor.
"Finally, the moment has come."
Su Xiao leaped up, moving like a gecko, climbing up the castle’s outer wall. He quickly climbed up past the third floor. The fighting was happening on the third floor, so the king couldn’t be below that.
Reaching the third floor, Su Xiao looked through a window and saw two people fighting: Click and a muscular man. To Su Xiao's surprise, Click was getting beaten badly, with one arm hanging limply, clearly unable to hold on much longer.
The muscular man was like a human tank, smashing through walls with each charge. If Su Xiao faced such a monster, he would be defeated in less than two minutes. Not directly assassinating the king was the right choice; fighting such an enemy would be like seeking death.
This muscular man was estimated to have a strength attribute exceeding 20 points. Click was on the verge of collapse, so time was running out for Su Xiao to act quickly.
The palace had many rooms, and Su Xiao quickly checked through the windows. He didn’t find the king on the fourth floor, then the fifth, sixth...
After a rapid search, Su Xiao finally spotted the king through a window. The king wasn’t in a room but was running down a corridor, seemingly trying to escape upwards to reduce the chances of being discovered by the pirates.
The tremors from below were throwing the king into a panic. The bright moonlight streamed through the window as the king sprinted down the corridor.
"Your Majesty, huff, I can’t run anymore. Let’s take a break."
The queen, who was following the king, sat down on the ground, panting heavily.
The king's expression changed repeatedly. He still found this woman somewhat fresh, so he didn’t want to abandon her, but compared to his life, a woman meant nothing to him.
"Then you stay here and rest."
After saying that, the king turned to leave, abandoning the queen sitting foolishly on the ground. Just then, a figure with a sharp blade crashed through the glass window beside the corridor.
(End of Chapter)