Chapter Thirty: Colluding with Pirates

Upon returning to Blood Castle, Ryan encountered a new problem: he had no administrative staff.

Managing a territory is no easy task. With so many people arriving on Salt Island, someone had to arrange their food, clothing, housing, and employment.

"I'll just leave it to Daya," Ryan decided. A personal maid doubling as a secretary—isn't that perfectly normal?

"But I don't know how to do that!" Daya said, on the verge of tears. "I've never managed people before!"

"I'll find you two helpers." Ryan summoned the two elves. "Elina, you served as the commander of the Spell Knight Order; you can be responsible for training the squires. Don't refuse; you still owe me a favor!"

"Bersalia, you've been the Rose Queen for so long—helping Daya handle the administrative affairs of my territory shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Elina remained silent, which he took as consent. Bersalia wrapped an arm around Daya's delicate shoulders and chuckled, "Sure, we have nothing to do lately anyway. But since we'll be working for you during the day, how will you reward us at night?"

The black-clad and white-clad elven beauties standing together were quite a sight. Just as Ryan was about to respond, the castle steward arrived to report that Kalich Faher had returned to Salt Island with his fleet and wished to pay a visit.

Ryan’s grandfather was quite the prolific sire, leaving Ryan with many uncles. His favorite among them, his fifth uncle Darian Faher, was in charge of the family's merchant fleet and spent nine months of the year at sea.

As for Kalich Faher, he led the family's escort fleet and was not particularly close to Ryan.

To be precise, Kalich was not close to any of the Fahers. He was a cruel, bloodthirsty little old man whose greatest pleasure was catching pirates, hanging them from the sides of his ships, and watching seagulls peck at their corpses. His tastes were so extreme that the rest of the family kept their distance, preferring the company of living, soft, and fleshy women.

The steward ushered Kalich and his attendants into the castle. The old man walked over with a booming laugh and gave Ryan a powerful bear hug. If Marquis Faher was always accompanied by the scent of an elderly man, Kalich reeked of rotting salted fish, as if he had bathed in a barrel of pickled herring.

Ryan embraced him with an impassive expression; his resistance to unpleasant odors was already maxed out as a necromancer.

"Ryan, when did you get back?" Kalich released him, patted his shoulder, and said enthusiastically, "Why didn't you let me know?"

"I sent a raven to inform you," Ryan lied without changing his expression. "It was probably eaten by a skua on the way."

"Damn those skuas!" Kalich roared with laughter. "Now that you've been granted Salt Island, you'd better kill a few more of them. The blasted birds are always gnawing on the trophies I hang from my ship's sides."

"By the way, I heard you're married?"

"Yes." Ryan turned gracefully to introduce Elina.

The uncle and nephew exchanged polite pleasantries for a moment before Kalich mentioned he needed to head to the fleet base to inspect repairs, bidding a polite farewell to Ryan and his wife.

Ryan sent him and his attendants out of Blood Castle.

Once back at the fleet base and having confirmed the status of his ships, Kalich returned to the inn with his men. Inside the room, the attendants immediately scattered to lock doors, close windows, and ensure no one was hiding or eavesdropping.

"Alright," Kalich said in a low voice. "We've seen him. Diamond, give me your assessment."

"That Lady Elina certainly looks like a High Elf royal," said an attendant in a black robe. "Her words and demeanor are impeccable, even possessing a certain classical charm."

"But that is precisely where the flaw lies. Many of the rhetorical structures she uses belong to the grammar of the Ancestor Elven Empire, which we High Elves do not use." The attendant pulled back his hood, revealing a scarred face with pointed ears—a High Elf sailor who had once been a pirate.

"So," Kalich stared into the man's brown eyes, "you believe she is a fake."

"The High Elf bloodline is surely genuine," Diamond said grimly. "Race cannot be faked. She must have been a High Elf raised outside the Jewel Islands. Having lived in isolation for so long, she knows nothing of the actual High Elf Kingdom."

"Whoever is behind this, also being ignorant of the current High Elf Kingdom, spent great time and effort reconstructing the image of the Ancestor Elven Empire from ancient texts and trained her accordingly—from her speech and cultivation to her etiquette and posture."

"It's a pity. The Ancestor Elven Empire is too distant, and the Jewel Islands have been closed off for so long that the cultural differences have become impossible to ignore. The more she resembles an Ancestor Elf, the less likely she is to be a High Elf."

"Kalich, do you want me to testify and expose her identity in front of your family?"

"Expose her?" Kalich sneered. "Do you think our Faher family would believe a word from an old pirate like you?"

Diamond shrugged indifferently. "Believe it or not, fake is fake. Once you intend to use her status to gain access to the inner circles of the Jewel Islands, she will eventually reveal her flaws."

Kalich fell into deep thought.

"Regardless, Ryan is my nephew," he finally said. "If he is being used by someone with ulterior motives and I know it but choose to ignore it, how could I answer to his father?"

The attendants remained silent, though they smirked inwardly.

Kalich had no real grudge against Ryan, but he had a severe conflict of interest with Darian. Since Bodak Faher, currently in charge of the family's smuggling fleet, was aging, the position—the most important in the family—would eventually be filled by either Kalich or Darian.

Ryan was close to Darian, and the fact that Darian had personally escorted him back had put Kalich on high alert. He could tolerate the family directly managing Salt Island, but he could not allow it to fall into the hands of Darian’s faction. Especially not if someone were to sabotage his ships while they were undergoing maintenance at the island's shipyards. Even if Ryan had no such intent, the mere capability as the lord of Salt Island was something Kalich could not tolerate.

"By the way," Kalich turned to another attendant, "I heard that boy Polo went missing recently?"

"Yes," the attendant replied. "The Marquis forbids anyone in the clan from discussing it, but rumors say he disappeared overseas."

Disappearing overseas was a euphemism for vanishing near Salt Island; Polo could hardly have sailed to the open ocean alone.

"Kalich," the High Elf Diamond asked suddenly, "are you implying..."

"Could the mastermind behind Ryan be pirates?" Kalich said slowly. "Perhaps they silenced Polo because he stumbled upon their conspiracy."

The attendants had a sudden realization and began offering suggestions. Piece by piece, they wove a seemingly reasonable story:

Ryan had left the family in his youth to seek adventure, but he had actually gone to join the pirates. The pirates intended to strike at Sea Rock City, so they sent a High Elf disguised as royalty to return with Ryan to the Faher family, gain the Marquis's trust, and secure Salt Island as a fief.

Next, Ryan planned to assist the pirates in destroying the family's escort fleet at night while they were docked at Iron Port, thereby crippling the family's naval power to facilitate the pirate raid on Sea Rock City. Polo had uncovered their plot and was murdered, but not before leaving his attendants in Sea Rock City to send word.

This loyal attendant had found Kalich and exposed the conspiracy. Knowing the gravity of the situation, Kalich had no time to return to Sea Rock City, so he was forced to strike first by attacking Blood Castle under the cover of night.

"No," Kalich shook his head. "Kin-slaying is a grave sin. Even if Ryan has secretly defected to the pirates and betrayed the family, I cannot lay a hand on my own blood."

"Understood," the attendants immediately corrected their plan. "The pirates besieged the fleet base, and we led the sailors in a desperate defense, finally securing the shipyard and port before launching a counterattack."

"When we besieged Blood Castle, the pirates, knowing they were doomed, slaughtered everyone inside, and Lord Ryan was unfortunately killed in the process!"

"To avenge Ryan, we stormed the castle, wiped out the pirates, and captured the High Elf fraud," Kalich added. "To be handed over to the family for rigorous interrogation."

Whether this story of colluding with pirates and storming the castle would fool others was debatable, but Marquis Faher would surely be suspicious. However, Kalich knew his brother too well. He didn't care about his son Ryan; he only cared about the High Elf nobility.

As long as it could be proven that the High Elf noble was a fraud, the Marquis would not hold anyone accountable for Ryan's death. He might even spit on his corpse and call it a good riddance.