At the Fleming Clan’s estate in Golden Feather City.

MacLaren leaned back on a soft hide sofa, leisurely savoring Gregor’s latest fine wine.

Now over fifty, his strength was progressing very slowly, and he figured he would likely never break through to the Great Mage realm in this lifetime.

Rather than meditating and practicing Cultivation every day, it was better to just enjoy this wonderful life.

"My lord, we’ve learned why the Royal Family’s warships set sail."

One of his knights was reporting the latest intelligence.

"Go on."

"Reportedly, His Majesty the King was furious about the Pirate Gang’s attack on Count Ronin. After interrogating the captured pirates, they located the gang’s base. This deployment is aimed directly at the White Whale Pirate Gang."

A cold glint flashed in MacLaren’s eyes before quickly vanishing, his expression returning to calm.

"They’re going to wipe out the White Whale Pirate Gang?"

"Yes, my lord." The Knight hesitated for a moment before asking, "Should we offer our support?"

MacLaren fell into thought.

After a long moment, he shook his head, rejecting the suggestion.

"Our dear His Majesty Bruno is a man who values his pride. He sent his own men. If we were to attack his warships, it would stir up another storm of pirate extermination campaigns in the Screaming Sea. I have no interest in answering such tedious calls to arms."

"Then what are you suggesting, my lord?"

"Send a message to Hed at once. Tell him to take a few core members and their assets and get out of there."

MacLaren took another sip of his fine wine. "Leave the unimportant ones on the island. Let them serve as an outlet for His Majesty the King’s men to blow off some steam."

"Yes, my lord!"

MacLaren swirled the wine in his glass. The thought of the White Whale Pirate Gang’s assassination attempt on Ronin still angered him.

He enjoyed doing business, but he did not enjoy losing money on a deal.

Being persuaded by the Count of Moonlight Valley to cooperate in killing Ronin was clearly a losing proposition.

Not only had he lost two large ships and several Knights, but now even the White Whale Pirate Gang had to relocate its base.

Although rebuilding a pirate crew wasn’t difficult, the feeling of it all left a sour taste in his mouth.

’Jesus is such an unreliable fool,’ MacLaren thought. ’He swore to me it would be one hundred percent successful, yet this is the result.’

MacLaren had a very low opinion of the Count of Moonlight Valley.

’If I had orchestrated the assassination, I would never have sent just one Golden Knight. At least two.’

’Then again,’ he thought, ’recalling that championship match between Ronin and Karda... to kill that version of Ronin, two Golden Knights probably wouldn’t be enough. It would take at least five, wouldn’t it?’

’Getting Jesus to dispatch five Golden Knights at once might be asking too much, but his son-in-law, the Meteor-Level Ramsay, could have easily handled it.’

’Killing someone with that much potential is absolutely a task worthy of a Meteor Knight.’

’Thankfully, Ronin doesn’t know I was involved in the assassination attempt,’ MacLaren thought, secretly relieved.

Not long after, a Message Bird from the Fleming Clan landed on an island.

The island had no official name, but since the White Whale Pirate Gang took up residence, the small, nameless island had been renamed White Whale Island.

It was called an island, but its landmass was tiny. An ordinary person could probably run along its coastline in less than an hour.

Yet, this tiny island possessed a very simple dock.

At that moment, in a spacious wooden building on the island, the leader of the White Whale Pirate Gang was reading a letter. On it was a single, extremely concise word: Withdraw.

An outsider might have struggled to understand, but the leader knew exactly what this word meant.

After a moment of thought, he abruptly stood up and walked outside.

...

On the vast sea, Captain Vic, who had been requisitioned by Ronin, was piloting the *White Whale*—a name given by Ronin—and leading the way.

Following behind were two ships from the Dennis Clan and the Royal Family’s warship.

Ronin was aboard the royal warship.

At a full forty meters long, the warship was even larger than the Dennis One.

Ronin had toured the ship inside and out and was thoroughly envious.

It was said that such a warship cost more than Fifty Thousand Gold Coins, and even with the money, it wasn’t guaranteed you could buy one.

At this moment, Ronin was leaning against the deck railing, enjoying the sea breeze.

They had been sailing for a day already. According to Vic, it would take another half a day or so to reach their destination, White Whale Island.

"What’s wrong? Scared to go up and say hello to Missy?" Ronin teased Karda, who was standing beside him.

When they had rendezvoused at the port yesterday, Karda’s expression had been quite a sight to see when he saw that the knight dispatched by the Royal Family was Missy Knight.

But in all the time since, they had only exchanged a few words.

Karda looked up at Missy Knight, who was feeding her Griffin at the ship’s bow. The desire to go over to her was plain in his eyes, but his feet remained rooted to the spot.

"It’s better if I keep some distance."

Karda finally managed to squeeze out the words.

Ever since Luther had a talk with him, he had been deliberately keeping his distance from Missy, hoping it would spare her from some of the outside gossip.

Ronin pursed his lips.

At first, he had thought Karda’s love was unrequited, but he later realized they had mutual feelings for each other. It was just their difference in social class that kept them apart.

He walked up beside Karda, gave him a hard kick in the rear, and sent him stumbling toward Missy.

’You’re not even going to seize such a perfect opportunity?’ he thought. ’How am I supposed to recruit another talented person for my territory?’

’Romance is important, sure, but getting a powerful female Knight who can train Griffins for the Wubei Territory is just as important.’

Karda fell to the deck with a THUD, the sound causing Missy, who was up ahead, to turn around.

"Uh..."

Karda scrambled to his feet, shot a look back at Ronin, then scratched his head and said awkwardly, "Little White has gotten bigger again."

Little White was the nickname of the Griffin Missy rode.

"Little White has been an adult for a while. He’s not growing anymore," Missy said with a smile.

Hearing this, Ronin couldn’t help but shake his head. ’What an incredible opening line,’ he thought.

He turned and headed into the cabin. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

As he passed Melonika’s room, he couldn’t help but pause.

The middle-aged man truly spent most of his time on Cultivation.

Since they set out, the man had barely left his room.

Ronin had checked in on him last night just to be friendly, and the man had said he was studying the *Fire Dance Thunder Strike Slash* Secret Technique that Lurans had given him, hoping to master it soon.

Ronin was genuinely worried the man might try to use the move on the ship and end up dismantling it.

Fortunately, the man said he was only honing his Attribute fusion techniques and wouldn’t be generating any attacks with too much power.

’What a diligent person,’ Ronin thought.

Ronin returned to his room, spread out a sheet of Magical Beast Hide, and began to draw a Magic Scroll.

「Time flew, and noon of the next day arrived in the blink of an eye.」

A small island appeared on the vast sea. As the ships drew closer, the island’s silhouette and its simple dock came into view.

This was the base of the White Whale Pirate Gang.

However, the sight made Ronin furrow his brow. There were only two small, dinghy-sized wooden boats around the simple dock. Forget ten-meter sailboats; there wasn’t even a five-meter one in sight.

"Are you sure this is the White Whale Pirate Gang’s base?"

Ronin was deeply skeptical. "Could Vic have been dishonest and tricked us?"