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Interstellar General (7)

"Welcome to the Silver-Tongued Snakes' spacecraft, esteemed guests. The captain is waiting for you in the reception room."

Silas said, "Lead the way."

The spacecraft was nothing like a regular space pirate's ship. It was not only clean but it was decked out in luxury. It was surprisingly empty though. Silas and Grey guessed that the captain moved his men elsewhere just in case a large-scale battle would happen. It was a smart move, especially if Silas decided to kill them off regardless of them not following orders to try to kill them.

"He's smart," Silas said, his hand shamelessly grabbing onto Grey's.

Grey didn't mind it. He agreed with Silas. "And a very cautious man."

"My master will be happy to hear you two complimenting him."

Even though the butler didn't know who Grey was, he could see that General Silas treated him as a partner. He was respectful regardless of what he thought though.

To even have a dedicated butler, it seemed these Silver-Tongued Snakes were more than just pirates...

After going through the red-carpeted halls filled with gold and other precious metals, they reached a room in the inner part of the spacecraft. The door was different from the others. The other doors were simple, but this one had a silver snake with its tongue sticking out. It was the emblem that was on their flag carved onto the door.

The butler knocked on the door, "Master, General Silas..." he looked over at Grey as if asking for his name.

"You can just call me Grey."

"His lover, Sir Grey, and Lieutenant General Christoph are here to see you."

"Let them inside."

"Understood."

The aide opened the door and motioned for the group to go inside. After that, he closed the door behind him and stood in the corner. He pretended he didn't exist.

The first thing everyone noticed was a man with a mask and a snake piercing on his left ear. The mask covered most of his face. The only thing they could see was his red eyes.

"General Silas and company, welcome to our humble abode. You can call me Captain Aylward or Aylward. It doesn't really matter to me."

"Okay, Aylward, we just came here to tell you that we have no intentions of killing you or the Silver-Tongued Snakes. As long as you continue to do as you have been doing, I don't see a problem keeping you all alive."

Captain Aylward paused for a moment before laughing hysterically. They could see tears forming at the corners of his eyes from how hard he was laughing.

"Really now? The General of the First Legion, who was said to be the one who took down the Zerg Queen, the man who should embody justice for all, actually wants to keep pirates alive?"

He was the only one laughing. Silas and Grey looked at the man blankly.

Grey didn't know what to think when he saw this Pirate Captain. The man wasn't burly but he could tell the man was strong. As someone who was hired to take out influential people, they had to be skilled. This man, though, did his best to hide his energy, and from time to time it leaked out.

"Things are not just black and white. Even if you have committed murder, so have I. As long as you stick to your principles, I will turn a blind eye."

"Don't worry, General Silas. All Silver-Tongued Captains have the same oath when they become a Captain. Only kill those who deserve it, but take all the money you can." That was the crude way of saying it, but that was essentially what they have always done.

"Why live a life without money when you can have anything you want with money?"

In the end, Captain Aylward was a man who followed the scent of money. Where was the lie though? He would rather be sad and rich than poor and happy.

"Another man obsessed with money?" Silas couldn't help but mumble to himself.

For some reason, seeing Aylward obsessed with money reminded him of Luis, his secretary who did everything he asked for the sake of money. He had Luis buy all of Grey's tickets when he was an idol...

Grey couldn't hear what Silas said so he ignored it. He would ask him about it later.

"Well, if you are going to let me off, give me your contact information, General Silas."

Silas looked at him with caution. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Don't look at me like that. If you need someone who deserves it but can't kill them, let me know. I will do it for you. For money of course. This isn't a charity, but I can give you a friend discount."

Silas looked at him with a blank expression and then gave a sigh. It didn't hurt to contact Captain Aylward from time to time. Plus, there was a sense of familiarity with the man.

Christoph didn't say anything the whole time. He just stared at the exchange and pretended he wasn't there. He didn't just see General Silas add pirates to his contact list. He didn't see it!

The two added each other as friends. Silas, Grey, and Christoph were about to leave but were stopped by Captain Aylward's words.

"Leaving so quickly, don't you want to know who contacted me to kill you?"

"Will you tell me?"

"If you guess correctly, I will. You only get one try so think long and hard about it."

Silas didn't need to think that hard about it though. Out of the three people, he knew only one of them who had the funds to contact the Silver-Tongued Snakes who were money-hungry.

"It's Norton Hanover, isn't it?"

"Ah, there was no suspense. Yeah, it's him. What did you do to piss him off that he would pay so much money to have me kill you?"

"Nothing."

It wasn't exactly nothing, but he didn't want to explain the long history of the Hanover family butting heads with the Ebunox family.

"Well, I'm not surprised. They haven't exactly hidden their loathing for you and your family... Well, since you guessed correctly, let me give you a reward."

Captain Aylward smiled, though only he knew what he looked like when he smiled.

"There's someone who transferred over some funds to Little Lord Norton. His family isn't the only one who wants you dead. Seems the two have been teaming up for quite a while."

Silas didn't question how Captain Aylward got the information, but he knew that Aylward was right. He also thought the same thing.

"Thank you for the heads up, Aylward. Don't worry. I will deal with them myself."

"Boo... boring. Okay, you can leave now."

After Aylward shooed the trio out of his office, he relaxed into his chair and put his feet on top of the desk.

From his experience, he saw the good folks of this universe struggling with enemies who were either greedy or power-hungry. They fought like beasts and killed those who were soft-hearted for just a moment.

Good people, just like his parents, died at the hands of those bad people.

"It's always the good people who end up dying first..."

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kuro_kama: I want to live long enough to witness the advanced VR that the RPG novels write about. So /proceeds to commit arson/

Joking! Just joking! Of course.

Grandpa Marky: So Kuro forgot who Luis is so let me refresh yall. Luis was God System's secretary in the trans arc! Hope that jogs up your memory a bit haha. He was a money-grubber who would do anything for money xD