Water Magician

Vol 4. Chapter 730: Cleanup

“In other words, trade is being conducted between the Nozu Kingdom to the north and the Western Countries. You thought this ship was one of those trade ships and attacked it.”

“Yes...”

On deck, the five pirates taken prisoner were being questioned.

“They are answering with an incredible lack of resistance.”

“Well, that saves us trouble, doesn’t it?”

“They are not even fit to stand in the shadow of the pirate’s code... no, the villain’s code.”

“The pirate’s code? The villain’s code?”

For some reason, Ryo was indignant, and Abel had no idea what he meant.

“When a villainous boss is captured, he must not give up information easily. That is his duty to others in the same trade.”

“Duty...”

“Put me through torture or whatever else you want! I’ll never talk! He has to throw out a defiant line like that.”

“R-right...”

“But then his subordinates are about to be hurt, and at last he talks. Stop! All right, I’ll tell you! Don’t lay a hand on him! Something like that, with his voice full of bitter regret.”

“...”

“And then the subordinate cries out, Boss...”

“...”

“Only after that kind of exchange is the information extracted. I think that sort of formal beauty is necessary.”

“That’s Ryo for you... I’m always impressed by that delusional beauty of yours.”

Ryo spoke of formal beauty, and Abel created a new phrase: delusional beauty.

That said, seeing the pirates answer everything without resistance made Ryo wonder.

Questions were best resolved as quickly as possible.

Especially when he had an expert in that field standing right beside him.

“Abel, in the Central Countries, what sort of punishment do pirates receive?”

“Basically, death.”

“Basically... death...”

“Unless there are very special extenuating circumstances—say, a neighboring village on land was struck by famine, and someone turned to piracy out of a desperate desire to help the villagers—everyone involved is executed.”

“What an incredibly exceptional exception...”

“Exactly. It almost never happens. So, basically, death.”

Ryo was shocked, and Abel answered with a grimace.

It was not as if Abel wanted to sentence his fellow citizens of the Kingdom to death.

Even if they were wicked men... villains, in the truest sense.

Even if someone had once stained his hands with evil, it was not impossible that he might one day change his heart.

But there were times when severe penalties had to be imposed to prevent similar acts.

As a ruler, he understood that as well.

“It’s the same with pirates and bandits... Even if you turn the tables on the raiders, you can’t immediately hand them over to a warship or guards. You have to take them somewhere they can be handed over, and during the journey, you consume food for the raiders as well.”

“Ah, true.”

“That is another practical reason why, in most cases, there’s no choice but to execute them.”

Food was not something that could be obtained immediately anywhere.

At sea, the problem of drinking water became even more serious.

If supplies had to cover not only the crew and passengers, but captured pirates as well... it was simply not realistic.

“So not only in the Central Countries, but at least in the Western Countries as well, piracy basically means death.”

“A practical reason they cannot be handed over to the people responsible for public order...”

Both Abel and Ryo shook their heads slightly.

“But trade with the Western Countries is already being conducted from around here?”

“Apparently.”

“Apparently? Abel, you didn’t know? Isn’t that a little lacking in study...?”

“It wasn’t written in the reports that came to me.”

“Maybe you skimmed them carelessly.”

Ryo looked at Abel with dubious eyes.

“What is that look for? I remember most reports once I’ve read them! But none of them said that the Western Countries were trading with this area. Well, not all information is made public, and there’s no guarantee that what the pirates are saying is true.”

“You think they’re lying? What would be the point of doing that?”

“They aren’t necessarily lying. They may have been deceived, or kept uninformed, or fed mistaken information... there are all kinds of possibilities.”

Abel shrugged.

Not everyone in the world had access to every piece of information.

Information one believed to be correct might, in truth, be wrong.

That sort of thing happened all the time.

After continuing the interrogation for a while, Captain Paulina came over to the two of them.

“Your Majesty, I will report several pieces of information we have obtained.”

There were ten inhabited islands in the archipelago region, along with countless uninhabited ones.

The population of the archipelago region was around two thousand.

There was nothing resembling a government; regular assemblies were merely held on the largest island.

The Nozu Kingdom to the north, which traded with the Western Countries, was also an island nation, but a considerably large one.

The population of the Nozu Kingdom was unknown.

It was three days away from the archipelago region by pirate ship.

Trade between the Nozu Kingdom and ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the Western Countries was conducted by large ships... which was apparently why they had identified Skidbladnir as one of those trade ships.

No one had paid any attention to the shape of the ship.

They claimed they had acted as pirates this time, but were normally ordinary fishermen... though from Paulina’s perspective, there seemed to be no basis for believing that.

“Well done.”

When Abel praised her, Paulina hesitated briefly, then made up her mind and spoke.

“Your Majesty, regarding the treatment of the prisoners...”

“Mm?”

“Under the laws of the Western Countries, those who commit piracy receive the capital punishment... in other words, death.”

“Yes. It is the same in the Central Countries.”

“However, with Your Majesty’s approval... I would like to release those men here.”

“Oh?”

Abel was surprised by Paulina’s words.

Ryo, who was listening silently beside him, was a little surprised as well.

As had come up in his earlier conversation with Abel, death was the usual outcome not only for legal reasons, but for rational ones too.

“They are people of this archipelago region. In other words, there is no need to take them far away. If we release them here, they can reach their islands on their own.”

“Hmm.”

“Though the pirate ships burned and became wreckage, some pieces of them are still floating on the sea. If they use those, even the injured should be able to reach land.”

“True.”

“Considering the future, I believe it would be better to show Your Majesty’s mercy.”

“I see. The future... trial voyages and route development.”

Abel nodded at Paulina’s explanation.

It seemed her proposal to release the pirates was made with a long-term perspective in mind, and at the level of a national undertaking.

After thinking for a moment, Abel nodded.

“I accept the captain’s proposal and permit their release. I leave the details to you.”

“Thank you.”

Paulina bowed deeply, then left Abel and began giving instructions to the crew.

“Captain Paulina is incredible. She proposed releasing them with future ships passing through these waters in mind.”

“That’s not something most people can do. People like that are valuable.”

Both Ryo and Abel knew how difficult it was to make such a proposal.

It was an advanced political judgment, or perhaps what was called an extralegal measure.

When affairs moved on the scale of states, many such things occurred.

That was, in itself, perfectly natural, yet ordinary citizens could not understand it at all.

We live by obeying the law, so why does the state do things that seem to ignore the law?

That anger.

It was natural anger.

It was natural, but...

The world was not made up of one’s own country alone.

Other countries existed.

No nation could continue on while ignoring its relationships with other countries and the people of other countries.

What one considered obvious in one’s own country was not necessarily obvious abroad.

Anyone could understand that if they thought about it... but in the first place, they did not think.

And so they could not understand.

“The world is complex and difficult.”

“If everything could be handled simply by following the law... national politics would be much easier.”

“Is His Majesty the King allowed to say that?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re supposed to stand as an example to the people and say that the law must be obeyed... aren’t you?”

“That is my position, yes, but reality is more complicated than that, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The world is complicated.”

Both Abel and Ryo understood.

They understood the importance of law.

They understood the importance of obeying rules.

They understood that if those things came to be treated lightly, order would collapse.

Even so...

“Surely history will one day prove the correctness of that decision.”

“Is it the sort of thing we have to entrust to history?”

“History watches every human action with a stern eye.”

“History has it rough.”

Ryo took half a step into the path of historical studies, while Abel shrugged at the weight of the role history had to bear.

Without caring in the slightest, history continued to record the world again today.