Chapter 281 Pirate Meet (24)

The Representative realized that the other three had no real reason to keep him around. Unlike the Bunglehoppers and the Red Hook Pirate Crew, the Cult of Nihiltas didn't dedicate themselves to their leader based on feelings of loyalty and camaraderie. The Representative was what his title said he was, a representative of the Void and the Cult. There was nothing that tied the cultists to the Representative. However, the Representative was nothing without the Cult. It probably wouldn't be difficult for Toz and the others to kill and replace him with someone more willing to fall in line.

The Representative erased his frown and replaced it with a smile as he took out a grimoire from his robes.

"Here is the grimoire I promised you. With you being one of the Void, it is our honor to support you in becoming the Pirate King. Your prestige is the prestige of the Void."

Toz looked at the grimoire labeled Dissolution and confirmed its authenticity before looking at the Representative again.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Everyone's support guaranteed that Toz would become the official king of Pirate Haven. However, their meeting wasn't over yet. There were still a bunch of details and issues to figure out.

For simplicity's sake, the Bunglehoppers would take over the Blue Lounge Island and the majority of their businesses in the city. Since the Blue Lounge was the largest pirate crew in terms of members and area controlled, the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas would take over some of it instead of handing over everything to the Bunglehoppers.

Wulf was a little dissatisfied at having to give up profit that would help him pay off the debt of his treasury, but he also realized he and his crew weren't equipped to handle such a large part of the city by themselves. Even if they hired a bunch of smaller and weaker crews to work for them, they didn't have enough resources to oversee everything, and they would likely lose more than they gained.

However, Toz was pretty sure Wulf only appeared to be unsatisfied with the distribution to hide how happy he was about the island he and the Bunglehoppers got.

One of the main reasons people looked down on the Bunglehoppers was that they didn't have their own island, but that wasn't why Wulf was happy. Their treasury was stuffed inside the city, and while it had a bunch of defensive measures to protect it and its contents, the treasury would naturally be a lot safer if it was put inside the island.

The only problem was that it would take a lot of resources to move the treasury to the island. It had taken all of the Bunglehoppers' and then some to build it, and Wulf had no way to estimate what it would take to uproot it and then put it on the island instead.

With the major details like business and area distribution settled, there wasn't much left for Toz and the others to do other than plan a new Pirate Meet where they could announce the results of their efforts and discussions to the general public. It would also serve as an opportunity for Toz to display his power to everyone who doubted him.

The only ones who had seen how strong Toz was were the strongest of the strong in Pirate Haven. While their words held a lot of sway, pirates weren't generally people who listened to the words of others.

The second Pirate Meet would also be an opportunity for the pirates to unite.

No matter what Toz said or did, despite being the Pirate King, he wouldn't be able to establish a proper and orderly kingdom of pirates. But, he would at least be able to dissuade the pirates from fighting each other and competing with one another all the time.

During ordinary times, such an attempt would probably be futile and meaningless. However, the Starsling Kingdom's attack and attempt to take over Pirate Haven and enslave all the pirates was proof that Pirate Haven was vulnerable.

That vulnerability stemmed from the chaos and discord of Pirate Haven, which allowed Stris to build up the Blue Lounge League and cooperate with his brother to almost completely take down Pirate Haven.

Toz had no plans of infringing on the nature and activities that defined pirates or preventing smaller crews from growing. But in a haven for pirates, only pirates should succeed. And if the pirates of Pirate Haven worked together in some manner, it would be a lot harder for someone to infiltrate and only pretend to be a pirate.

It probably wouldn't mean much, but it would hopefully prevent another Stris from appearing.

However, Toz didn't want the pirates to have a sense of unity only to prevent another infiltration mission. It was also because they would need it in order to prepare for the ramifications of defeating the Starsling Kingdom's navy.

Considering the Starsling Kingdom's arrogant attitude and the way they looked down on the pirates, Toz would be surprised if they could withstand the slight of having their fleet demolished by the very same pirates they tried to enslave.

And if what Dristel had said was true, that the other kingdoms were in on it, it wouldn't be strange for them to help the Starsling Kingdom in taking down Pirate Haven.

One of the fleets of the Starsling Kingdom would have been enough to conquer Pirate Haven if Toz hadn't been there.

If another one of the Starsling Kingdom's fleet came, and it was supported by the fleet of some other kingdom, Toz wasn't sure that Pirate Haven would last.

However, the reason the kingdoms gave for wanting to subjugate Pirate Haven was that they needed more combat strength due to the ongoing war with the demon realm.

Toz hoped the kingdoms would be smart enough to realize that failing to take down Pirate Haven would only lead to more losses on their side and would eventually weaken the human realm's standing in the war even further.

If there hadn't been a realm war going on with the demon realm, the situation would have been very different, and Toz wouldn't have ended up in the Void. But now that he was the King of Pirate Haven, he would do his best to make sure he and his city don't lose to anyone, whether it be humans or demons.