Mystery: The Witch of Desire

"It's nothing. Those materials with special ingredients weren't originally prepared for you."

"What's special about it..."

Tracy looked somewhat bewildered upon hearing this.

Katarina didn't answer. Instead, she pulled a bottle of dark blue-black, viscous liquid from her bosom. Just looking at the almost stagnant, viscous substance in the bottle gave off an aura of suffocating despair.

"This bottle is the one with no problems..."

"Drink her, my child, drink her, embrace divinity..."

……

……

The air currents in the raging sea are always extremely turbulent. One second the sky is clear and blue, and the next second it may be a storm with waves tens of meters high.

After sailing on the raging sea for several days, Livre realized this deeply. If one day the weather suddenly became very peaceful and normal, she would feel something was wrong and wonder if the end of the world was coming.

Fortunately, the transcontinental sea routes developed since the time of Emperor Roselle were already quite mature, and as long as one followed the official routes, there would not be much danger.

Of course, this only applies to official and civilian ships. For pirate ships, the warships and patrol boats lingering on official routes may be more dangerous than the storm.

At least, that's what the other crew members on the Treasure thought.

"Captain, a destroyer is approaching at high speed to our starboard aft!"

The lookout shouted in alarm. Livre looked in the direction of the voice and saw a streamlined, pure white ship approaching at an extremely fast speed. Its sharp bow looked like a blade about to crash into her, and the bright flag of the royal navy fluttered above the mast.

"It's the Swallow!" a crew member recognized the ship. "The recently famous naval hero is on that ship!"

"Naval hero?"

Liviel was momentarily stunned. Could it be that guy...?

The crew member said in a fearful tone:

"Daniel, the naval hero who killed the Blood Admiral's right-hand man and fought a great battle with him, driving him away!"

It really is that guy... And how come the rumors are getting more and more outlandish? When did he fight a great battle with the Blood General?

Liviel was speechless, but now was not the time to complain. The Swallow would soon collide with the Treasure's side, and Liviel didn't think they were there to say hello.

"Turn the rudder and go full speed ahead!"

Livre gave the order, and the helmsman quickly pulled the rudder to its full strength, leveling the ship with the Swallow, and propelled it forward at full speed.

However, as an ordinary sailing ship without any mystical abilities, the Treasure was no match for the Swallow, which was equipped with two high-powered engines. Soon, the piercing sound of cannons rang out from the stern.

boom!

A cannonball with an explosive warhead landed far from the stern. Before the pirates could even laugh at the enemy gunner's off-target shot, a deafening barrage erupted, a hail of shells raining down on the Treasure, exploding around it. Two shells struck the hull directly, igniting a raging fire on the upper decks. Fortunately, the area below the waterline was unharmed; otherwise, Livre would have had to consider abandoning ship.

However, if things continue like this, the Treasure Ship will be sunk sooner or later.

After a moment's consideration, Livre tried to anchor herself to the mirrors on the Swallow. Fortunately, the distance was close enough, and she successfully sensed several usable mirrors and activated her mirror travel ability.

Liviel concealed herself and emerged from a mirror. She was now in a spacious bedroom. On the ship, having such a luxurious residence meant that even if she wasn't the captain, she must be a first mate or a crew member.

After leaving the ship and crossing the bridge, Livre arrived at the command room, where she saw several senior crew members gathered together, including the naval hero Daniel, who wore the armband of a lieutenant commander.

"Captain, we must fire again and sink this pirate ship!"

Daniel shouted excitedly to Captain Ashbaff, a bearded captain who looked troubled and covered his head, saying:

"Our mission is simply to drive it away, not necessarily to sink it..."

“No, Captain!” Daniel’s eyes burned with fervor. “We must eradicate evil completely! We cannot allow those scoundrels tainted by sin to leave this sea alive. It would be a failure to the King and the people!”

[Swear word]! This is my boat! You're going to sink it! What am I supposed to say?!

Liviel had just finished cursing in her heart, but then she thought that if all the navy were single-minded guys like Daniel, the environment at sea would definitely be much better, and the pirates wouldn't be so arrogant.

Oh well, I'll just have to bear with it.

She immediately disguised herself as an orderly, revealed herself, knocked on the door, and shouted:

"Report! The lookout has spotted a large number of hostages on the pirate ship!"

“Hostages?” Daniel’s expression changed. “Captain, I request permission to take a small boat to negotiate with the pirates and get them to surrender and release the hostages.”

Ashbaf sighed deeply, and after a long while, asked with a puzzled expression:

"Is it really a hostage? Could we be mistaken?"

He felt extremely helpless. He was about to retire, but a naval hero suddenly appeared on the ship, making him live in constant fear at his advanced age.

Why risk your life against those pirates? Just make a show of it to give them an explanation. No matter how rampant they are, they can't reach the Kingdom of Rune's homeland and won't threaten my family and property...

Livre, disguised as an orderly, said in a deep voice:

"Yes, a large number of hostages were bound hand and foot and gathered on the deck, which was a very dangerous situation."

Upon hearing this, Ashbaf glanced at Livre with a hint of resentment, feeling quite dissatisfied with this 'orderly soldier' ​​who couldn't understand his superior's intentions.

However, it was too late to stop Daniel's actions, so he could only sigh and give him some instructions:

"Alright, be careful. The hostages' safety is secondary; you, our 'naval hero,' absolutely cannot be harmed!"

Daniel gave a brief reply and quickly went to prepare the small boat to set off to negotiate with the pirates.

The shelling naturally stopped, and the teetering Treasure took the opportunity to flee at full speed. The crew members in the storm used water magic to extinguish the fires burning in the superstructure.

Livre then went to the Swallow's engine room, disguised as the chief engineer, and shut down one of the two burning steam turbines. Now, the steam turbine would need to be refueled and restarted, which would take at least half an hour. The Swallow would have no chance of catching up with the Treasure in the short term.

Having done all this, Livre returned to the Treasure Ship with satisfaction. All she had to do next was get rid of Daniel.

She transformed into Pratt's appearance and stood at the stern, watching Daniel speed up in a small boat. Behind him was a Navy Beyonder who possessed basic ritual magic, providing extra power to the boat with basic ritual magic so that it could quickly catch up with the Treasure.

"I'm here to negotiate! You must surrender unconditionally immediately and release all hostages!"

Once he was close enough, Daniel shouted.

"Go back, Navy! There are no hostages on my ship!"

However, Daniel didn't believe it at all. He leaped up, grabbed the protective netting on the side of the Treasure, and with a powerful push, jumped onto the deck.

Swish! Dozens of guns were pointed at Daniel, but the pirates holding the guns were trembling, their expressions filled with fear.

They recognized him; he was the naval hero who had defeated the Blood Admiral!

Livre gestured with her chin towards the nail plate:

"As you can see, there are no hostages at all. We are law-abiding treasure hunters who never do anything to harm the public. We only hung the pirate flag to lure a group of pirates into our trap."

Her words carried a persuasive quality, easily convincing the simple-minded Daniel that she believed most of them.

He hesitated for a long time with a solemn expression, then said:

"Let me check the cabin. If there really are no hostages, I'll leave immediately and won't make things difficult for you."

"Please go ahead."

Livre waved to the two pirates—no, treasure hunters—to lead Daniel on a thorough search of the treasure ship. Sure enough, they found no kidnapped hostages.

Back on deck, Daniel looked relieved, then glanced at Livre, who was dressed as Pratt, and gave her some instructions:

"Don't fly pirate flags anymore, especially when facing the navy."

"I will follow your teachings."

Liviel gave a slight bow, secretly hoping that this troublesome fellow would leave quickly and go elsewhere to deal with real pirates.

Daniel nodded and was about to jump back into the boat.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard in the distance.

Livre quickly turned her head to look, and saw that the Swallow was emitting towering flames and thick smoke in the distance, and the ship was beginning to list to one side.

Amidst the surging waves, the shapes of ships came into view. The flagship at the head was entirely blood red, with a massive hull, about the size of two Swallows, and a blood-red skull and crossbones flag was flying above it.

The Tree of Flesh! The ship of Admiral Señor, the Blood Admiral!

Chapter 209 Assassination of the Ambassador

Blood General! How did this guy show up?

Liviel couldn't help but recall that when she was in Bayam, she had learned that the Blood General and the Star General had been spotted in the nearby seas. She never expected that after heading south, she would still run into the Blood General.

Moreover, this encounter didn't seem to be accidental; Admiral Blood appeared to have come specifically to seek revenge on the Swallow, especially since the deaths of his second and third officers were blamed on Daniel, a crew member of the Swallow. Although the person who killed them was someone else entirely…

Livre touched her nose somewhat guiltily, and immediately gave the captain's order:

"Evacuate immediately! Get away from this area!"

The crew readily agreed to the order and swiftly carried it out, the Treasure heading south at full speed. None of them wanted to linger a second longer in the waters where the Blood Admiral was rumored to be indiscriminate in his treatment of men and women, and to enjoy cruelly torturing prisoners.

"Wait!" Daniel rushed to the ship's side in a panic. "I won't force you to fight the Blood Admiral, but at least get me back on the small boat. I have to go back and save the Swallow!"

Come on, bro, all you're doing is delivering it back home, so you might as well save your breath.

Livre ignored him and focused on directing the Treasure southward.

However, a resolute expression appeared on Daniel's face.

He rushed to the ship's side, intending to leap into the sea.

What an idiot!

Liviel cursed under her breath, used the puppet to manipulate the colorless threads to pull him back, then rushed forward and chopped him on the back of the neck with a hand chop.

Daniel immediately fainted, crashing onto the deck like a heavy stone.

"As expected of the boss, he took care of the navy hero so easily!"

Several pirates watched in stunned silence, then immediately shouted excitedly.

"Take him to a guest room, lock him up, give him food and water, and don't mistreat him."

While giving instructions to her subordinates, Liviel continued to observe the battle between the Flesh Tree and the Swallow in the distance.

There were also many extraordinary individuals on the Swallow, but they seemed powerless to resist the attack of the Flesh Tree.

Through the telescope, Livre could see crew members in naval uniforms turned into filthy clumps of flesh and blood, and naval soldiers with contorted faces pointing their guns at their comrades. Even the captain was surrounded by swarms of pirates...

Previous intelligence indicated that Blood Above has close ties with the Rose School, and given his bizarre abilities, he is likely an Extraordinary being from the Prisoner or Criminal pathway.

As they pondered, the Treasure Ship sailed further and further away, soon putting distance between itself and Admiral Blood's fleet.

After sailing for about half a day, Livre was finally relieved to confirm that there was no trace of General Blood in the surroundings.

She went to the guest room to visit Daniel, who looked exhausted and had just woken up.

"Where am I...?"

Daniel rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on, and suddenly woke up with a start:

"That's right! Blood Admiral! Swallow!"

He sat up abruptly, trying to jump out of bed, but was stopped by Livre, who happened to walk in.

"Calm down, the battle is over." Livre, now in Pratt's form, pressed down on his shoulder. "The Swallow has sunk."

Upon hearing this, Daniel's entire body trembled violently.

"The Swallow...has sunk?"

He seemed unable to accept this painful reality, pounding the bed and bursting into tears.

"Damn it! Damn it! Merciful Lord of Storms, if only I were a little stronger..."

Going from Sequence 9 to Sequence 7 in such a short time is incredibly fast. Aside from time travelers like myself and Klein, I haven't seen anyone faster than you...

Livre stood silently by, waiting for Daniel to vent his emotions.

A few minutes later, Daniel seemed to finally calm down. He eyed Livre, who resembled Pratt, warily and said coldly:

"who are you?"

After a slight hesitation, Livre reached out and wiped her face, revealing her true appearance.

Anyway, I guess this mythical beast will act impulsively again in the future, and with my true identity, it will be easier to persuade him.

"Ms. Marilyn Monroe?!" Daniel exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Livre casually made up a story:

"I have been ordered to go to the Southern Continent to carry out a top-secret mission from the Lord."