Kite going through Greed's memories

I was born and lived for five years before I even have my first memories. My childhood was normal but I always had the love for gambling and the dream of owning a ship. I started a hoodlum gang in the city I was born in. We would steal from the wealthy section for the money to gamble and buy things we liked. I started to get a crush on one of the girls we would grift with. Her name is Lindsay.

I've asked Lindsay out. After a few months of being with her. We decide to get married, we're both young but I don't see myself ever being with anyone else. Things continued like usual for a few years like this. I'm sixteen now when my gang got broken up by the guards in the city we live in… A few of us died… All of our money was confiscated… Maybe this is a sign to leave the city and travel the oceans.

Everyone has slowly been working together to build up money. I told them about my dream of sailing the seas and everyone else has agreed to pull our money together to build a boat. I had already picked the jobs construction and woodworking for the purpose of designing the ship myself. I bought every single map of the ocean I can, read every book I could on sailing. I wanted to be as prepared as possible to keep my friends safe. I'm eighteen now.

I figured a way to get all the money we need at once. We can rob all the money from a local manor in the area. I know for a fact that he has over one hundred gold in his house hidden somewhere. He often leaves on long adventures, we just have to wait until then to search. Most of my gang are thieves, so I take a few of the more trusted crew with me. We wait for the next time he leaves… We'll raid it that night.

We break through the fence in the back of his house. It was too high to jump over so breaking a portion of it was the easiest way to get in. Without going through the front entrance. I know he has a few guards, maids and butlers here… We just have to be extra careful to not get caught. The cost of getting caught would be our fingers getting cut off at minimum. If that happens I'll never be able to follow my dream. Altogether we have four members. Me and Lindsay and two of my other friends.

We approach the window. Peaking in the room, it is empty. I try to open it but it is locked on the inside. I pull out a special tool I bought for this. I had bought a few things, including a smoke bomb and some throwing knives. I also bought black cloaks for all four of us. I spent most of the saved money… I think it will be worth it if we can find this treasure. Using the tool I cut a hole into the glass to open the window.

We enter a hallway. I have no idea where the adventurers money is. I just know it is somewhere in the building. The two goons I brought with me are looting everything else of value. Even if we don't find the big cache of money, we still wont walk away empty handed. This house is two floors at least and most likely has a basement. The most likely places are the adventurers living quarters or the basement. I don't know how to get to either one though.

Walking down the hallways we open every door slowly. Peaking inside for any people first before we loot. So far they've just been extra rooms. The maids and butlers probably sleep in servants wing or something similar. The guards probably have an outpost in the house as well. It might be beneficial to find it if none are there. Weapons could be of help later on once my ship is made.

We make it to a stairwell, going both up and down… Into the basement or to the second floor… We'll head down first. The basement is pretty empty. Their are some non laundered cloths. A few crates of food and some other low value items. This must be the storage room they use. We head out and go up the stairs. I'm the first up and I see someone in the hallway, whispering.

“Shit! Someone is up here.”

It looks like it isn't a guard though, maybe a maid going to get some water? She's walking towards us though… I'll knock her out. She gets closer but then enters a room right off the staircase… I wonder what shes doing. We follow behind her. Trying to make the least noise I possibly can I open the door. She's fiddling around with a bed, making it. The room is very fancy. I see a box, that might be where the treasure is! She is cleaning the adventurers room this late at night?

I sneak up behind her and cover her mouth so she can't scream. Everyone starts going through the room. I see the maids eyes widen. She must have realized we're here to rob the adventurer. I whisper into her ear.

“As long as you cooperate, we won't kill you.”

She nods her head then I ask.

“Where is the key to that lock box?”

She points to the headboard of the bed. It must have a hidden compartment. The key is there, after using it on the lockbox… Money! More gold than I've ever seen before! So much we could build ten ships if we wanted too.

I knock her out. I would have let her go but she might have started screaming if I did. It could have given us away. We head back the same exact way we entered from. Heading towards the window I broke through we exit… Not a single problem from the entire heist. Sometimes it is nice for things to go smoothly like this.

Leaving. One of my own goons attacks me. I'm injured but we managed to kill him… REALLY! HE WAS GOING TO KILL HIS FRIEND OVER MONEY! I can't believe some people. He just lost his life over something so stupid. My injury would have pushed are departure back a few days… If we didn't just rob a mansion in the city and have to flee to not get caught. We leave the city, I doubt we'll be followed.

Months of traveling later, me and my gang have finally made it to a port city! Here I can either buy a boat straight out or hire the men to make it. I have some designs I would like to use, so I would like it to be built. It will take another few months to build it. While we're hear I give each one of my men an entire gold to enjoy the city. This could be the last time some of them ever see land again. The ocean isn't a forgiving place.

The boat is finally built! All my designs should make it faster, with a better turning speed than most other boats a similar size. I painted the boat black before we leave. We name the boat the black dagger. The ship that will cut through the sea! We launch the boat with no problems again. With all my crew, plus a few veterans I hired to teach us the ropes we have a crew of twenty people on the boat.

We were two weeks into traveling. We are running sugarcane stalks from this port to another port to sell for a raised price. We're essentially a trading ship. We get attacked by a sea monster. It is massive! Easily half the size of the entire ship… Four of my men die in the attack… I wish I was more prepared against attacks… There has to be some way to fight against these giant monsters without losing so many men.

We make it to the other shore but… The sugarcane we had taken to sell wasn't selling for more at this location… We actually lost money bringing it here. I was downtrodden. I thought this would be easier than it is… The money I thought would last forever is already starting to dry up. Out of the one hundred and twenty gold we stole, only eighty gold is left…

We kept it up, after the first loss I made sure to check the prices of everything beforehand. A few more months of working and we're finally making money instead of spending it. We haven't lost another person since the first giant monster. I spent extra money on a mana cannon. They're needed for protection on the sea. I'm starting to gain experience with trading. Lindsay has picked the merchant job to increase the money we can make.

We've been doing this for around five years now. We've been steadily increasing our business size. We have a few ships for work. I've upgraded the defenses of all my ships. We don't lose many men to monsters anymore. The biggest problem we have is pirates. A few times we've been raided and lost all of our storage. Me and Lindsay have our money stored on an island that only us two know about.

We were attacked! A giant number of pirate ships raided all of our ships together… One of our ships was sunk. Half of our crew was killed and they left us a single ship taking the rest… Stealing the black dagger. All our work over the past three years is gone. All the effort was stolen by someone else… I can't stand for this, no matter what it takes I'll get even with these pirates!

Thankfully most of my old gang was left alive. Everyone else who was new to the crew abandoned us. I killed everyone who wouldn't join. I wont let someone who isn't going to help, eat our food and contribute nothing. We only had enough rations to chase them if we killed the people. We know where there hideout is now. We can leave and come back to kill them later.

Hit and run tactics have paid off. Seven of the pirate ships have been sank by us. I bought far more upgrades to the ships defenses. This ship now has more mana cannons than all my other ships that were stolen put together. I will have my revenge! Seven ships is nearly half of their fighting force.

We're chased by a few of their ships. We manage to sink two of them but the last one boarded with us. More than half the crew dyed defending the ship… Lindsay was one of them...

I will avenge her! I will kill all the pirates! I will make the pirate leader wish he never messed with us! The crew wants to quit… I killed off several of them to re-encourage everyone to continue to fight. I'll use all of my money to kill these fucking pirates! I'll bribe anyone who can help me, kill anyone who tries to get in the way! I'll fucking slaughter all of those pirates for what they've put me through!

I bought another ship. Paid a handful of guards to board it and pushed towards the pirates hideout. We are still outnumbered two ships to one. I think we still have the advantage in firepower. We get there… I see a white flags everywhere…

It could be a trap. I see pirates all standing on one of the boats near the shore. It looks like the captain I had met with is tied up and sitting in the middle of the deck of the black dagger. Other pirates all standing around him. Him shouting out curses for his crew betraying him. One of his crew yells out.

“We give him up! We'll all join your crew if you spare us! Please just let us live.”

I send my crew to get the captain. He's aboard my ship meaning it wasn't a trap. I'll have them kill themselves.

“Alright! Anyone who wants to live has to kill another person! You can kill more than that but you have to prove your strong enough to kill and loyal to me through blood! Get on that ship there and get an ear off of someone to prove your worth.”

The next few minutes was a slaughter. Many people dying and killing their comrades. The numbers of pirates drops below half of what it was… They're all on a single ship from the fight. I order them to head back to land… Then while they exit the water, I have them killed. Completely massacring them. Not a single pirate lived… I'm finally done. I avenged everyone who lost their lives to these pirates…

The next few weeks I spent torturing the pirate captain… It didn't make me feel any better for what happened but he had to suffer for killing someone I cared so much for… MY LINDSAY! In a fit of anger one night I beat him to death… I felt empty with no one to take my frustrations out on. I gave up on the sea.

Kites point of view

I came out of his memories crying… Just by going through them put me in the same mind set as Greed… He was… Is an old life of mine. I can't believe he went through so much at such a young age… He wasn't an evil person, it was caused by other people. This world is too cruel sometimes. Greed begins to talk.

“Do you see now?... You, you remind myself when I was younger… I'll do anything to keep you how you are right now. I'll kill anyone who would try to change you. You are me, that means anyone who tries to kill your friends… Is trying to kill my friends too… It's just… You haven't seen all of my memories… I left the ocean after that… For the next ten years I traveled adventuring. Then... I can't really remember much of when I went back to the sea.”

“It's fine, I'll finish going through your memories. I just need a break… It feels like so much has happened in a single day. I need to think everything through.”

“I understand. You can always go talk to Merlin about the mana cannons between going through my memories. Just know Kite, I'll be the monster so you don't have too. I'll try to control my Greed but it is hard since it is my defining trait.”

“No, I've done nothing but go against your choices. I'll rely more on you when it comes to decisions with money… I'm sorry… I'm truly sorry about what happened to Lindsay… Also that feeling… When I avenged my parents it felt like a weight had been lifted from me… When you avenged Lindsay it felt like a weight was added.”