Somewhere in the sea, lightning pierced the northern sky, and the blue-white sky set off a black spire, and after six heartbeats, thunder came, like a drum beat in the distance.

The guards escorted someone across a bridge made of black rock, under a rusty iron gate, and in the distance a deep river filled the sea and a drawbridge tethered by a pair of thick iron chains, and the turbulent green rapids under the bridge, stirring up countless waves, washed the cornerstone of the castle, and they walked through the second doorway, even larger than the first, and the stone was covered with green seaweed, and the man stumbled through a muddy courtyard with his wrists tied, and the cold rain stung his eyes. The guards escorted him up the steps and into the tall, deep stone fortress of Breaking Waves.

As soon as he entered the room, the guard unfastened his cloak and hung it on a hook, and the man clumsily unfastened the buckle with his bound hands.

They found a certain pirate king sitting alone in the dimly lit hall, enjoying a dinner of wine, bread, and stew, and twenty iron candlesticks on the heavy stone walls around him, but only four of them had torches on them, and they had not yet been lit. The faint, flickering light of two thick butter candles could be heard, raindrops could be heard beating against the walls, and a crack in the roof kept leaking rainwater.

"Your Excellency." The captain of the guard said, "This man we found in the bay, he is trying to offer a bounty to help him get off the island, he has this thing with him. The captain placed it on the table in front of the lord: a wide ribbon trimmed with gold trim, on which were decorated with three coats of arms.

The man stood there like a reservoir dog, his wrists so tightly worn, worn out by the wet rope, that if the lord said a word, he would have been hanged under the tower, but at least he would not have been caught in the rain again, with solid rocks under his feet instead of a bumpy and undulating deck, he was drenched, his muscles were sore, he was haggard, numb from grief and betrayal, and fed up with the damned storm.

The pirate king wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, grabbed the ribbon and took a closer look, and lightning lit up outside, and the blue and white light flashed alternately for a moment, one, two, three, four, he counted, and then the thunder came, and after the thunder fell silent, he heard the sound of rain falling, and a dull roar came from beneath his feet, it was the waves crashing against the giant stone arch of the Wave Breaker, whirling through the dungeon below.

The grown-up stroked the ribbon and frowned at the seal, he was an ugly-looking fellow, huge and fat, with broad shoulders like that of an oarman, no neck, and a rough, half-white gray stubble that covered his cheeks and chin. On the broad head of his head was the top of his bald head, rosacea nose and thick lips.

The adult straightened up, "Untie him." He said, "Take off his gloves and I'm going to look at his hands." ”

The captain of the guard did as he was told, and as he grabbed his captive's crippled left hand, lightning flashed again.

"Anyone can steal a ribbon." The adult said. "But you seem to be a knight?"

"Yes, sir. I was about to take a boat to Dubrovnik. ”

"Then you're in the wrong place, and you're looking for the wrong island." The Pirate King looked like he was going to laugh, "This is the Pirate King's territory."

"I know where it is." The man said.

"I don't doubt you have friends here." "Everybody has friends, and some of them are still my friends," he said. Not my friend's, I would pull out their intestines, hang them up, and let them slowly suffocate to death. "The lightning-lit windows made the hall bright again. Two heartbeats followed by thunder. "If you're a knight, why are you here, and it's false to say you want to go to Dubrovnik? Could it be that you, like the rumored old knight, were hired by one of our pirate kings? ”

He's on the run, he knows it in his heart, but what he says is, "The storm just kept me going." ”

The gloomy sky, the bitter cold wind, the rain that whipped at them, had been with them along the coast, and the ship he had fled had nearly hit the reef, another had sunk, and another storm had arisen in the sea to the north, and the remaining ships had been blown away all over the Narrow Sea, some of them might still struggle to get to a port, others might never be seen again.

"And where did you come from?" The pirate king stared into his eyes.

"The White Knight Setner." The man said this, and there seemed to be an arrogance between his eyebrows.

"You're the rumored White Knight Essertena?" The pirate king looked at the white knight Esertna carefully, where did he still have the personable appearance as rumored, now he was almost like a fugitive, yes, the Turner family had already been defeated by the other families, and even all their territories had been lost.

"If you are really the white knight of the Turner family, Setner, then you should die immediately, the Turner family has perished, as a knight, what face do you have to survive in this world? Could it be that your so-called noble knights are also afraid of death? The pirate king scoffed loudly, his words full of condescending enjoyment, these bastard noble knights had always looked down on their pirates, and now the scene was full of comical and irony.

"Yes! Why don't I die? "I should have died, the war was lost, my family was destroyed, my wife was separated, Lord Turner gave me the last secret mission, and I will complete it until I die in the name of knight, but I can't die until then!" ”

Perhaps the sweet-talking grown-ups could convince the pirate leader, but Essertna was only an upright noble knight, and his words could only provoke the pirate king's wrath.

"Until now, you knights who claim to be noble have not recognized the reality of your life? It's sad! The pirate king sneered, "Look where you still have the appearance of a knight, even worse than us pirates, like a fugitive slave, a lost dog, if I let you die now?" ”

I knew that day would come sooner or later, the White Knight told himself with Seltner.

"People always die, and if today is my death, I will admit it."

The pirate king turned to his men. "Hand this guy over to me, remember he's never been here."

"Yes, my lord, never been." His men were gone, his wet shoes leaving a drain of water through the carpet, the sea beneath the floor roared incessantly, beating against the cornerstones, and the door outside slammed shut like thunder in the distance, when the lightning lit up again as if echoing.

"If you think you can win against me now, you are very wrong, King of Pirates!" ”

"I can take you where you want to go." The pirate king said slowly. "Or I can send you to some cold, damp hell."

It's hell here, the White Knight Setner said inwardly.

"If the people of the royal family in Dubrovnik knew that you were here, they would definitely ask me to hand you over to them." The pirate king picked up the wooden spoon and resumed his stew. "Maybe the king will secretly reward us with a lot of money, huh? Looking at your expression, it seems that you don't believe it, don't think that you noble nobles won't make deals with us pirates, in fact, there will be less things about those who claim to be nobles and us secretly colluding with us over the years? Especially now that we've captured the White Knight Essertena, oh my God, how could there be such a stupid knight as you, stupid enough to report himself to our territory, my knight, you are now just a fugitive to be slaughtered, you know? It's worse than us pirates! ”

The White Knight replied fiercely, "So what! It's just a death! ”

The pirate king stirs his stew. "Death is a relief for you, but that's all you have for that task."

As the Pirate King said, keeping the White Knight alive with the belief that Seltner was the last task.

"Truth be told, I've never received a knight of some repute under my roof," said the pirate king. "You're the first, but never the last, how about that? Become my hired knight? This will allow you to complete the task given to you by your lord, which is a good deal, right? ”

"Want my allegiance to a pirate? Dream on! Kill me! The White Knight Setner roared.

"My dad used to say that what nobles, what knights, it's not worth mentioning at all, but it's all a lie, but even those of us believe in fairness and justice, power is fairness, faith is justice, this is the creed of pirates, it is more practical and effective than the creed of you knights, do you still think that we will only burn and loot? Wake up, go to those bountiful islands, and see what fucking fairness and justice are! ”

The White Knight struggled to imagine what he had heard, "You're telling me that you pirates are more knights than we knights?" ”

"We don't want to be bullshit riders!" The pirate king took a sip of cider. "We pirates just want to survive, when we can survive, we want to strengthen our own power, when we have great power, we need to create a territory of the king of pirates, if you want to rule this territory, you must have power and faith!"

These words were buzzing in the mind of the White Knight Essetna, who Lord Turner had told him in his last moments, to go to those far-flung seas in search of fairness and justice, where there was everything they didn't know, where some pirate king's domain was located, where there were answers to their needs and defeats.

When he heard this, he must have thought that Lord Turner was crazy, how could such a noble nobleman go to the pirates? How could there be any answers to any questions there? But that's what Lord Turner believed, he didn't know where Lord Turner got this news, but it was like a distant puzzle that had been urging him forward for the rest of these days, and it was Lord Turner's last mission.

The pirate king waved a spoon at a chair. "Sit down, Essetna, before you fall, my hall is cold, damp and dark, but there are not so many rules, we will get you some dry clothes, but you must eat first." He shouted, and a woman entered the hall. "We have a guest to be fed, bring up fruit wine, bread and stew."

The wine was brown, the bread was black, and the stew was covered with a milky white color, and the cook served it on a plate made of hollowed-out old bread, and the stew was thick, with shallots, carrots, white radish, green radish, and crab meat, mixed in a thick soup of cream and butter, and it was the kind of stew that a man needed to warm his whole body on a wet and cold night.

The White Knight Essernan ate with some gratitude, he had lost his weapon, but at least the pirate king in front of him didn't want to kill him yet.

"Have you ever eaten such a vulgar stew before? My knight. ”

"I've eaten it."

"It's even more delicious than you've ever eaten before! Why, because that's the taste of freedom. ”

In addition to the salt, there is a strange aroma in the stew.

"By the way, it smells of pepper." The pirate king picked up a handful with his thumb and forefinger and sprinkled it in his own eater. "There's nothing better than ground black pepper, if you like pepper feel free to take it, I've got it."

Pirates are unreliable, the White Knight Setner still thought.

"The storm has given you luck and blown you to my door." The pirate king said, "You will only get cold reception and capture in Dubrovnik or any other realm, you are too late, knight. He swallowed a large gulp of fruit wine. You are free here, and how precious is freedom? Perhaps your good lord just wants you to be free before he dies. He dipped a large loaf of bread in the stew. If there was anything better than rewarding a knight, it was eternal freedom! ”

"It's not an honor." This was not what the White Knight Setner had expected. "A knight is a man who will die for honor, and he values honor more than his life, and freedom is still not worth mentioning honor."

"That's wrong." The pirate king said, "When your family is defeated, your honor is lost, and now you are fugitives, but you are free, and what can you do with it?" My good lord. ”

"What for?" The White Knight asked rhetorically, Setner.

"Freedom can be used to chase new honors, and if you die now, all honor will cease to exist, and all you will leave behind is some deeds of ruin, and even soon forgotten."

The White Knight Setner felt like the pirate king punched him in the stomach, he was telling the truth, now he is the general of the defeated army, a knight on the run, what honor can he have, honor can be easily crushed in the face of power.

The pirate king began to eat the bread he used to serve his dishes, tearing it in two with his large hands. The stew has softened the old bread. "I won't force you to be my hired knight now, I will let you go, let you go in search of fairness and justice on the seas, until you become a hired knight of our pirates, yes, don't look at me with that cannibalistic look, my happiness is very simple."

The Pirate King continued, "As the Pirate King, my pleasure is nothing more than seeing your self-proclaimed noble knights become our pirates' subordinates, one day shouting us kings. ”

"Maybe you're dreaming." The White Knight Setner poured cold water on him.

"There are already knights who are loyal to one of our pirate kings, so why can't there be a second?"

The pirate king was in a good mood at this time, "The one who follows the approval is the legitimate king, what a simple truth, race and blood are just deceptions, and the truly intelligent follow faith and strength." ”

"Can pirates have that?" The White Knight Setner immediately scoffed.

"The difference between a pirate and a nobleman is only that he is lucky and unlucky to be born, but the world is determined by people, and this is the difference between me and you.

The Pirate King continued, "We will turn our unlucky into lucky, and the greatest luck of our people is that no matter how we go in our lowest life, we will always face up!" ”