It was a painful sight, really. The docks in Hargeon used to be one of Daiko’s favorite places to thrive at; he still remembered all his training schedules under the wooden planks and in the fairly cozy waters. A lot sure had happened, and time had really taken its toll on this place… had it been, what? Over a year? The Fire Mage had lost track of time, for truly, he had been around…

One of the greatest changes in him, the young man with mocha skin and his characteristic, wild hair, was the Guild Crest. It would have been a huge shocker to old Daiko, but it was actually not that of Lamia Scale… he was now donning a new crest. That of Blue Pegasus. How and why did he join Blue Pegasus? What happened to Lamia Scale? That was a story to tell another day.

Today, it was about the threats that he had heard through rumors from civilians in Hargeon. The docks weren’t inhabited by noble ships anymore, so there were a bunch of unknown seafarers and mercantile roaming about the waters near the docks, and Daiko was located with both his feet on the firm, salty wet planks. The last thing that he wanted was for the rumors to be true and watch an all-out assault from the docks towards his town.

Coda was flying in circles above him, far up in the air and in a safe distance from the seafarers. In all honesty, with how large the ships were seen from his location, it was a tad intimidating to just stand out here all by himself. He clenched both his fists, hearing the metal of his left gauntlet grind against itself as he saw one of the ships about to dock, assuming that they had already spotted him.

Indeed, they did. He was now looking straight at them. And they looked pissed…

WC: 318

“Argh! And who are you, eh?!” the middle man, the shortest among them spoke up towards Daiko who tried his best to stand as confidently as possible, “Move aside, landlover!”

“Not… not before I get an answer,” Daiko replied quickly, his left arm raised just a little bit, “I know what your intentions are, but I can’t and won’t allow any of your raids to befall Blue Pegasus’ hometown.”

“Aye, a Blue Pegasus? And what, one man? Move, or it’ll get ugly,” the shortest member of the three-man pirate squad threatened him, approaching even closer to the Fire Mage with the two others eagerly following their ‘leader’. Daiko noticed this and thought about the importance of this dock and its safety… now that the Nobles weren’t around, they would have to secure it at all costs.

But if he wasn’t able to send them away… maybe he could do something strange for a guy like him.

“What if I… wanted to come to a compromise with you?” Daiko asked them, “Our docks are very important to us. Not just financially, but it’s a special place and a symbol… but you guys clearly only care about money.” A few grunts came out of the two sidemen, but the middle man just rose an eyebrow towards Daiko’s comment.

“What else is a sea lover like us going to aim for than daily coin?” he questioned Daiko with a voice of arrogance.

“I get what you mean… but Blue Pegasus is starting to lose space. Vault space. It’s unhealthy to store so many jewels away, y’know…” he mumbled out loud, catching the attention of the two sidemen as they clearly were attracted to any promise of gold. But the middle man was skeptical.

“Uh huh? Oh, how intriguing,” he replied to the dark-skinned wizard, “I’m not interested in your lies-“

He almost bit his tongue to shut himself up when Daiko pulled up a bag filled with silver. Yes, it was probably unethical of him to take a sun from the vault, but he wouldn’t just give the guild’s money and jewels away for free or that easily. It was to help him with a bigger purpose.

The two sidemen eyed the contents and confirmed it to be silver coins mixed with sapphires. Their mouths watered, and Daiko felt more confident to continue: “Those who previously sailed these waters are no more… so listen. You say that you’re sea lords, and you say so very proudly, but you’ll end up in jail or drowning in the ocean. With the way you live your lives, I can’t see any other outcome.” Now, the shortest member fumed, and Daiko realized that he had found a weak point. He smiled a little.

“But what if you turned into men of honor and helped us? We’ll sustain you with our storages, you’ll earn more frequently than searching eons of land for just a chance of gold, and you get to feel right about yourselves… and when you grow old with families, you can tell your kids of your young days as good, honored seafarers,” he offered them, honeying his words as delicately as possible. He was getting the third one on the hook, but Daiko could see doubt in his eyes. Oh well, there was always the other option, albeit he would rather avoid it…

The two sidemen approached Daiko peacefully, and by mere peer pressure from them, the third one agreed as well. For a moment, Daiko’s face was covered with question marks, for this tensed moment just… flashed away as quickly as it came. Damn, he was good at this.

“A’right, we’ll consider your offer, but you gotta fill us in with the details, eh landlover?”

----

And so, he did a while later. Believe it or not, the ship they sailed into the docks with was full of many more men; for a moment, the Fire Mage thought he had gambled on a three-man unit that wouldn’t do well, but the pirate captain had his other men sleeping in inside the barracks, and he had contacts to five other ships on their way to the docks. How would Daiko know that they wouldn’t just let the other ships attack and surprise him out of nowhere? Daiko had to demonstrate some spells of his towards the blue ocean to solidify the fact that neither he nor any Blue Pegasus member would waver to any ships full of pirates. It was also too bad that most of the ships were constructed primarily of wood…

On their own boat, he explained the growing strength of his guild, Blue Pegasus, and pointed out all the reasons to support them by guarding the docks. The middle man got a closer look at the silver, and Daiko thought for a while that it was purely his bag full of them that brought him in at last, but the short pirate said otherwise at the end:

“Silver is tasty and hella sexy, but your eyes… they shine like gold. And what is a king without a golden gaze that shines brighter than any treasure…?”

“… That’s a weird way of putting it. Anyway, I’m glad that you agreed with the terms. Now, just write your name and the name of your… well, w-what’s the name of your crew? Or are you going for a new name?”

“Hmh… aye lad. That’s going to take a while to figure out-“

“Maybe Seaguard is fine enough…”

WC: 892

-END-