Chapter Text
“They say Kim Hongjoong is returning. Soon he will throw anchor as the undisputed ruler of the Pirate Shores, everyone knows it.”
“Be mindful of the way you speak, you fool! You know pirates have no king and if they were to have one, it certainly would not be that scrawny sailor, Kim Hongjoong. His deeds mean nothing to our town, his wealth is empty and ostentatious, his terror vain and carefully crafted. No man will ever bow before him, let alone seasoned sailors and hardened outlaws who came to our town in search of unbridled freedom, fuelled by the desire to fight the Kingdom’s system and the new alliance with the Young Republic that adopted a collaboration policy.”
“This is the reason why we need a King and a new centralised state that can take control of the Pirate Shores and make them a power within the conflict of interests that is affecting the two nations. We would have the most powerful, fastest, most ruthless and cunning navy in the whole world if only there was one man strong enough to gather all the ships under one flag and command an entire fleet of pirates!”
“And you expect Kim Hongjoong to do that? That man is completely insane! Have you never heard what they say about him?”
“Enlighten me.”
“That he was the son of a merchant coming from the Kingdom, the only heir to one of the wealthiest families, and that his merchant ship was attacked by pirates during one of the voyages that allowed them to cross the waters of the Pirate Shores to reach the Young Republic, which was previously still under the control of the Old Emperor. Merchants had stamped and signed permits that let them navigate our waters freely and they sailed under the protection of both the Kingdom and the Old Empire, they were the link that kept the economies of both nations alive and the only sailors, besides pirates, that knew how to navigate the complex waters of our ever-changing Shores.”
“Are you three idling here and talking about Kim Hongjoong? I know all about Kim Hongjoong, soon-to-be young Pirate King, excellent sailor, and future commander of all pirates. It is said that all of the crew of his captured ship was brutally tortured for long excruciating days on the deck of their own ship except for Kim Hongjoong, son of the Captain posing as a ship’s boy to learn the harsh reality of life at sea, with no discounts. His father was an honest trader, a respected man, and a revered Captain. The pirates who betrayed the ship, they do not even deserve to be called pirates: they were maggots, scum, dogs, they have thrown our town into the deepest chaos and have unleashed the wrath of the two nations upon us, punishing us with a bloody war that has brought near destruction and slaughter to our Shores.”
“And what about Kim Hongjoong? Was he not aboard the captured ship as well?”
“He was and he saved himself. His father’s ship protected him, nurtured and instilled in him a deep sense of hatred and revenge.”
“Protected by a ship? How is that possible?”
“The ship hid him among planks and small nooks. Kim Hongjoong had always been a tiny child and a frail young man. His father’s ship, who listened to the pleas of her dying Captain and who drunk the blood of the man who had always steered her wheel, swallowed him and only spat him back out after years, as a seasoned sailor who had learnt all he needed to know from the pirates. When he reappeared, he was a ruthless young man determined to take revenge. Legends say that he killed the entire crew on his own, aided by his ship, and then threw them overboard after he dismembered them, that the brigantine whose name is Aurora sang an old song of death that day and prompted him to throw the bodies overboard, that the foul stench of the corpses and their blood attracted sea serpents that silently swore allegiance to man and ship in exchange for food and have been escorting the Aurora ever since when she sails far from our coasts.”
“And you would leave our town in the hands of such a blood-thirsty madman?”
“What has gotten into you? Are you afraid of legends now? Do you believe in stories of ghosts and monsters that drunken sailors recite when they are about to pass out on the hard benches of rundown taverns not far from the harbour? Are you perhaps scared of the scrawny sailor, as you defined him earlier, that is Kim Hongjoong?”
“This town does not need a ruler but a leader, a powerful soul who can stir the consciences of men to rule themselves and to move towards a shared objective.”
In the summer dusk that had fallen slowly on the pirate town, the raucous noise coming from inns and taverns had increased with the shrill sounds of insects. Creatures that inhabited the swamps that surrounded the dirty waters of the harbours and the docks were starting to wake.
The cloaked figure not far from the sparse group of lowly merchants, simple sailors and freed slaves would soon leave the inner alleys of the town and return to the place where he belonged, taking care to stay well in the middle of the road and not fall prey to drunk men, thieves and predators that lurked behind every corner and were ready to pounce and attack. Many of them made no distinction, their desperation led them to lash out at anyone.
Delighted by what he had heard, with an elegant and discreet gesture, Seonghwa lifted his hood and let a fine pearl necklace slip into one of the pockets hidden in the folds of the cloak that protected him.
He smirked and turned around.