Chapter 1466: Turncoat
Stillwater stared at Ning, confused. “How do you know this belongs to Yolan?” she asked.
Ning scratched his chin, wondering how well Yolan had managed to keep his treasure a secret. “How did you get this treasure if you didn’t know it belonged to Yolan?” he asked.
“I…” Stillwater thought for a moment. “I came across it somehow. I cannot tell you how.”
Ning took the flute and looked at it for a moment before smiling. “Do you know why you did not know this was Yolan’s treasure?” he asked.
Stillwater gave a confused look. How was she supposed to know why she didn’t know?
“He didn’t use it publically, I guess?” she said.
“Yes, but the question is why,” Ning said.
“I don’t think I’m aware of any reason. The best I can think of is that it does something incredible that made him want to hide it,” she said.
“Something incredible…” Ning said as he slapped the flute on his palm. “I suppose for a pirate, it would be considered incredible.”
“What does it do?” Tony asked, curiosity building up within him.
“Why are you asking me?” Ning said. “You know the answer yourself.”
Tony frowned. “I do?” he asked.
Ning tossed the flute to Tony who caught it and looked at it carefully. He looked at the design, the swirling blue pattern that was only visible close-up. There were specks of white on the blue too, as though images of a large wave where the white was the fizz on top.
Tony’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the entire thing, the descriptions matching something he had read a long time ago about.
“The Calming Flute?” Tony asked, looking up to stare at Ning in shock.
Ning smiled. “Yup!”
Tony’s eyes were truly wide, his shock clearly visible to Stillwater who couldn’t help but be curious herself. “What… is going on?” she asked.
Tony looked up from the flute and stared at the woman before him. “Do you not know about the Calming Flute?” he asked.
“I don’t think I’m aware,” she said, mouthing the name to herself. “What is special about that flute? Does it really do something incredible?”
“You can calm the ocean waves,” Tony said. “That is all you can do. It’s not particularly useful on most days, but on stormy days, it is an incredible treasure to save yourself and others from drowning when the waves get too high.”
“I see,” Stillwater said. “For a pirate, it is indeed incredible. But is that why you were shocked? That shouldn’t be it, should it?”
“No, that’s not it,” Tony said. “The Calming Flute is one of the three great treasures of the Rurian kingdom. It is said that in the past when the many kingdoms were still at war, the Rurian Kingdom came out supreme because their naval armies were never slowed down or halted.”
“And this is the flute that helped them do it. While the flute itself is not so good nowadays, its historical importance to the people of the Rurian Kingdom cannot be understated.”
Stillwater took in the information and thought for a long while before it clicked in her head.
“That fucking turncoat,” she said. “He’s joined the Rurian Kingdom, didn’t he?”
“That or he’s being funded by the kingdom,” Ning said. “Makes one curious exactly what it is that he is doing.”
Stillwater’s face changed as fury filled him. “We will find out tomorrow,” she said. “I will go question him in the morning.”
She stood up angrily, walking away to deal with the situation.
“Aren’t you going to take your treasure?” Ning asked, making the woman stop in her tracks.
“Right, that’s what I came here for,” she said with an embarrassed look and sat back down. Ning went to wake up Tim, who came out blurry-eyed and quickly handled the task of recording the treasure before handing back the coin to Stillwater.
Stillwater’s eyes softened and relaxed when she finally gained her treasure back. With this treasure, she could finally gain back the blessing of lady luck.
“Are you going to tell us how you gained this treasure?” Ning asked. “Or are you going to leave just like that?”
“I cannot tell you,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Ning nodded. “I see. Thanks for telling us,” he said and waved her away.
Stillwater left, confused and wondering why he thanked him in the end.
Tim had already returned to his room, so Tony remained alone on the couch, looking at Ning curiously. “Why did you thank her? She didn’t tell you anything,” he said.
“Oh, but she did, didn’t she?” Ning asked. “She didn’t tell us directly, but she gave us enough information.”
Tony frowned. “Did she?” he asked.
“I’m going to sleep. You can tell those two the information if you are curious tomorrow morning once they wake up,” Ning said and left.
Tony remained bewildered and after a while returned to his room to sleep.
The night was peaceful, and because of how soundproof the penthouse was, none of the three sleeping could hear what was happening outside.
At some point close to dawn, pirates had gathered on each side of the town, each understanding that they needed to take care of the other party.
Yolan and his group had made an alliance with Silvereye and the remnants of Ironheart Sam, as well as anyone who was unhappy with how Stillheart pirates owned the majority of the land in Rumgrave.
On the other side, Stillwater had allied with Redfist to declare war against the Greenskull pirates for collaborating with a government and thus turning against pirates in general.
It was difficult to say just what the consequences of someone betraying them at an unfortunate time would be. They would be devastated. They couldn’t let a traitor live among them.
They had to kill the scum of the scums.
As such when early dawn came, the entire Rumgrave island was engulfed in a large war between two incredibly big factions that fought each other until only one side remained.
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