Mid Morning - Mid Winter (Hemisphere change) : Northeastern Space Rune

"Would you guys happen to know where Captain Lassar is?"

Immediately freezing, they all paused and stared at me.

"Is that a no? What a shame.. I was hoping finding her would be easy." Ignoring them, I casually walked by.

"Oi!" The strongest of the group pulled out his sword and pointed it at my back. "You can't just walk in here like that!"

"Says who? As far as I know, I own this place. If little miss Abbie tried to change that then she needs to be given a reminder.."

"Who are you to say you own this place?!" One of the guys behind him drew his sword and swung it at me. "Let me teach you your place!"

"Man.. speed, strength and even your form all sucks.." Just moving enough so he barely missed each swing, I dodged his flurry. "I at least expected you weaklings to rely on some technique.."

Appearing in front of him, I reached out to set my hand on his shoulder.

"Now how about you guys.." *CRACK* "..give me some directions.." I put a tad too much force into the motion and ended up blowing the guys shoulder off.

As the man limply fell to the ground in a pool of blood, I glanced back towards the strongest of the group and pressured him with a bit of aura.

His face immediately paled and he dropped his weapon. "We are happy to answer any questions you may have!" He turned to me and gave a deep bow.

"I just want to know where Abbie Lassar is."

"She is in the tavern, sir!"

"See? Was that so hard?" As I walked past, his shaky knees finally gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

The other two guys in the group were simply frozen from fear and didn’t intervene.

-I'm surprised they didn't try to fight me when they saw me blow their friends shoulder off..-

Continuing down the trail, I came up to a small town that was built on stilts, presumably for storms and extra high tides. (For common flooding)

Although the town was small, only consisting of a few buildings, they were each fairly large, the largest of which having a hanging sign with a wooden mug and a fork on it.

-That's probably the tavern..-

Walking up the ramp I made my way across the little village and past several groups of people.

-For pirates, some of them are pretty decent looking..- A few of them didn't have the appearance of bandits but instead just looked like hard working folk.

Walking up to the tavern, I reached up and opened the door.

*Creak*

The chatter inside quickly stopped as they looked over to see who came in and saw the unfamiliar face.

Seeing Abbie sitting at the bar having a drink I paid the others no mind.

A few of them even tried to talk to me. "How did you even get here kid.."

It wasn't until I walked right up behind Abbie that everyone stiffened up and broke into a cold sweat.

Abbie glanced to her side. "Hm? What's with the sudden silen-"

"How have you been Abbie?" My voice filled the tavern.

The instant Abbie heard it, she froze and paled, slowly turning her head to look at me.

As opposed to her shock, I just gave a playful smile since I was in a good mood. "The settlement has truly come a long way but I couldn't help but run into a group of guys telling me I wasn't welcome. Do you happen to need a reminder?"

Immediately throwing down her drink she turned around and gave a deep bow. "I'm very sorry! I will have those men killed! I promise that you are and will always be welcomed here, Sir Whyte!"

All the people in the tavern, men and women alike watched the scene with a mix of fear and awe.

"It’s fine, you don't need to kill them. You should have as many usable workers as possible when building a settlement like this. Plus, whether a few rats think I'm welcome or not doesn't matter to me.”

“Thank you very much for your forgiveness and gracious generosity!” You could hear the anxiety and fear in her slightly shaky voice.

“Alright you can stop with the bootlicking, I just came by to check on how things were going. Is there a private place where we can talk around here?"

"Yes, one moment please." Keeping her head down low, she used magic to amplify her voice. "ALL OF YOU BAST*RDS GET OUT OF THE TAVERN!"

-That's one way to do it..-

As if they were waiting for the order, it was only a few seconds before the tavern cleared out with the exception of Abbie, the bartender and me.

"You can look up at me Abbie.. I'm not here to kill you or anything so why are you so tense?"

Slowly breaking into a cold sweat, she straightened up. "Fear, sir.."

"Pfft-hahaha.. I like your honesty. There isn't a need to fear me though, at least as long as you follow the deal of course.”

Abbie looked up at me and gave a nervous gulp.

“Well to start, how is the development going? Do you need anything?"

"No sir.. Development has been progressing smoothly with people being the biggest issue.."

"What do you mean? There were 4 big ships at the dock, it seems like you've expanded quite a bit."

"Well.. yes.. but those are just the smaller local pirate crews. We want to try and absorb some of the bigger groups up north and expand our fleet but we are running into some problems with that.."

"So is the problem strength?"

"Gear and management.. A lot of our gear is starting to get old and worn so it's limiting our strength and I need to stay here and manage everything in the settlement, leaving my crew without a captain. I’m too nervous to send my crew out alone since I make up such a huge portion of our strength.."

-She’s pretty smart..- "So how much money would fix all of your problems?"

"Haah.. too much to acquire quickly.."

"So.. how about 10 platinum? Would that be enough?"

"I mean.. yeah.. but, that's way more than what we need and is far too hard to-"

*Clink* I casually set down a small stack of platinum coins on the bar counter.

Not only Abbie, but also the bartender just froze and blankly stared at the money.

"Think of this as.. an upfront investment of sorts." -It's money that I just made so even if I don't make it back, it's fine..- Plus, I wasn't worried about money, I was mostly doing this for fun.

Abbie slowly turned to me with a look of disbelief.

"See? I told you I'm not scary!"

After that, we talked for a bit longer about some details moving forward along with me giving her a few tips that would help the settlement grow.

Overall it was quite a good talk. By the end, she stopped looking at me like I was a monster and more as if I was her savior.

"Thank you very much sir Whyte!"

"Food and Drinks are always on the house for you here!" Even the bartender was acting like he owed me.

-I can't blame him though..- Well, since we have wrapped up here.." I leaned down and picked up Ilios. "See you in a few months!"

*Vwoom*

As soon as I went through the gate I changed to my dragon form and let Ilios onto my back. "Time to head back and get ready to meet grandmother!"

Bonus:

- Abbie Lassar ~

"See you in a few months!"

*Vwoom*

With his goodbye, a mysterious black sphere appeared around him before disappearing along with him.

As if my brain had short circuited, there was only a single word that resounded through my mind. -What..-