The flames from the fireplace continuously warmed the room, as Marlo slowly ate his meal.

His meal was fresh out of the Chimney-like oven.

Its smell and taste were truly sensational.

He had to say, he was really enjoying the taste coupled with the new Baymardian spices that he bought in Terique.

Everything blended perfectly well together, highlighting the flavour even more.

Marlo picked up another piece of meat, dipped it in the bowl of blood and placed it in his mouth.

'Crwu! Crwu! Crwu!'

He closed his eyes and enjoyed every little bit of it.

The taste gave him mouth-watering orgasms that made him feel like killing even more.

Luckily, while fleeing Terique, he had kidnapped 30 women and children as his reserves while he waited for his brother on this island.

He couldn't kill any of the pirates, so of course he needed reserves for his stay.

No other meat could do it for him like how human meat could.

He had just killed off Higoro, so he wouldn't have to kill another person for the next week or so.

Higoro was a full meaty grown man.

And normally, one might take 3 or more weeks to fully eat Higoro clean.

But not in Marlo's case, he was an assassin type of pirate who needed to maintain his muscles and body proportions by eating a certain amount of food every meal.

So for him, it would only take him at most a week to finish up Higoro leaving only his bones behind.

Marlo had already neatly prepared everything else for storage and placed it close to the fire to dry up to a certain degree.

And once that was taken care of, he would later store them in basins of cold water.

Higoro should last him for a week, and after that, he could kill off 2 children for the next week.

They had started crying a lot, which began to piss him off!

In cases like these, it was better to get rid of the children first.

At least the adults had some sense to stay quiet when frightened.

If not for his threatening the children, they would still be screaming nonstop and disturbing his peace.

Tch!

What an annoying bunch of preserves.

.

Marlo ate while seemingly lost in thought.

Of course, he was thinking about the things that went down in Terique.

What did the temple mean by attacking him directly?

Did they also attack Nopline?

No!

That wasn't possible!

He knew that Nopline was currently in Terique's Capital City and was staying in the highly guarded Palace.

Moreover, the number of forces that Nopline kept in the Capital, along with his sister's forces and some of his allies, was so great that one might need to prepare an entire army to battle then with swords and whatnot.

The temple wouldn't be able to make this move yet.

So it was safe to assume that Nopline was safe and out of harm's way.

As for how and why he was in contact with Nopline, well that was relatively easier to explain.

No one could stand alone in this world.

No matter how powerful they were.

Everyone needed allies that they could count on.

Of course, nothing was for free in this world.

Over the years, Nopline had been one of the key providers of slaves to the organization.

Nopline kidnapped, deceived, captured and sent people from all over the Pyno continent to one of their islands that was meant for slave auctions.

There, the slaves would either get assigned to different crews or different bases and headquarters on the islands and within the Morgany continent.

And if they refused to obey, then they would be shark food.

Plain and simple.

The organization was too busy to bother with acquiring slaves, so they left all that to some powerful people within the empires.

For the pirates, they took on serious voyage missions like attacking their client's target on ship, or even hunting for treasures or exporting the vast waters.

Of course, there were times when they were told to capture exquisite sea creatures that sold for millions.

And at times, they also discussed themselves and headed onto land for more serious missions.

That said, they were busy as a bee.

And just as new pirates emerged, several others died as well because many of these missions were life-threatening.

Some died without even knowing why they died.

Their lives were hanging on thin threads.

And so, they needed allies within many empires to provide them with some supplies of what they needed.

They even worked closely with some merchants too.

That said, many hated them for good reasons too, seeing that they liked pillaging, raping and killing indiscriminately.

Pirates were a proud bunch who loved living lawlessly.

Without a doubt, not all were like that, but the majority made many hate them wholeheartedly.

Their actions of sometimes harassing bar women or killing peasant husbands and sleeping with their wives were seen by many.

Once, pirates visited a town close to the shores, partied hard and burnt the place just before leaving because someone had offended them.

Let's not even talk about the time that they brazenly slept with a noble's daughter and wife right before his eyes just after robbing the guy clean.

The noble fainted from rage and swore to hunt them down.

But where could he see them?

The Pirates left and sailed off to another empire or continent.

More still, the noble didn't even know their names.

And even if he did, the pirate organization was something that not even the rulers of different memories would go against.

Everyone knew that pirates protected their kind.

So if word went out that a pirate died from someone's hands, they would unleash hell on that person.

Bottom line, the pirates didn't have time to handle slave capturing and transportation.

They left that to their trusted allies like Nopline.

.

That said, everything had been going very peachy and fine over the years.

But for the first time ever, something odd happened.

Apart from confirming his suspicions on Higoro, he also went to Terique to investigate a very important matter which contributed to the growth of the organization.

Basically, It all boiled down to one very important question; 'Where were the slaves that they ordered?'