After Daimon kept the badge, he accommodated the hand of the corpse so that the wound wasn't visible, he also inclined the corpse to the side, before he scrapped some of the poison on the weapons that were stabbing it, and spread it on his arm, so that it slid all the way down until it reached the wound, making the skin swell and changed its color successfully blocking the wound making it look as if the poison had corroded the flesh.
The girls od course knew Daimon was doing it so that others wouldn't notice he took something from the corpse, and while the Risha sisters knew Daimon has already gone through one of the hardest lessons in life… in other words killing, as he previously asked their mothers to teach them about it, before the exploration started, Mellie was a bit surprised to see how calmly Daimon dealt with a corpse.
"Say Daimon, is your native planet too wild or…", she asked with a somewhat curious voice.
While she is a princess and has lived her life relatively sheltered, her sister made sure to drill into her head, the thought of not hesitating to point her weapon at an enemy when the situation requires her to, she isn't too comfortable with the idea of killing.
And that isn't bad, the Risha sisters and most of the first years and even second years at the academy were the same, but Daimon's circumstances weren't as simple, he lived with the constant reminder that the Naktis and probably the Silverheart families would do anything within their power to destroy him and his loved ones, so he grew up in that sense, as he never wants to be forced to look from the sides, when his family is in danger… again.
"Not really, I would say the situation is overall similar to Neptune, with four bigger divisions and a relative peace among them, but constant fights still happen from time to time, so it's better to be prepared".
He tried to look for a mark or emblem with his infinity eyes, as he knew pirates tattooed the symbol of their crew on their bodies, but he didn't find anything, which made him wonder who this poor bastard used to be.
Once Daimon made sure there was no trace of them even approaching the corpse, he used some darkness to erase their footprints and then they deepened into the cave.
'That guy didn't come from the water tunnel's direction, so there must be an exit to the cave somewhere around', thought Daimon.
Normally he could have asked Rita or Horals to map the cave, but it was possible that their mana senses were intercepted as an Arch rank's mana will obviously stand out like a sore thumb, in fact even his might be noticed considering he was 90% sure there was a powerful rune master on the side of the enemy.
So, he limited to use his infinity eyes to look at close and long distances, the best way to describe it was as if he could use "zoom" in his eyes, reaching a distance of about five hundred meters without any detail escaping from him and one kilometer in regular "definition".
After about twenty minutes of them walking in absolute darkness and in complete silence, Daimon's ears managed to catch wind of some sounds coming from about two kilometers ahead of them.
"There are people ahead of us, I don't feel any threat so they should be at most middle-stage Lord ranked, prepare yourselves, I will take them down at sight, Mellie and Lili, can you two restrain them?".
"Mm".
"No problem, I have a spell that doesn't need me to see my enemy".
Both girls agreed and then they slowly and silently advanced until they reached an area that was slightly less dark, as there were some faint rays of light coming from a breach on the wall of the cave, meaning they have reached the other side of it.
Now that they were able to see about fifteen meters ahead of them, the first thing Daimon noticed was that there were dry blood stains on the ground, and judging by the amount of them, the blood came from more than one person.
Daimon beckoned the girls to follow him without saying anything, and he slowly approached the wall, he injected mana into his eyes until he was able to see through it, and the image at the other side was quite something.
Turns out the cave in which they were was a small separated area, of a large underground rock formation, and outside of the cave there was a small camp with a few people sat around a bonfire chatting and laughing, a pretty normal sight.
That's not what caught Daimon's attention, but the conversation the people around the bonfire were having.
A fat bearded man on his thirties with a bottle cursed as he spat alcohol on the bonfire making the flames raise for a couple of seconds.
"Ahh, this is so fucking boring, I get we are new on the crew but why did the big boss sent us to this really secluded part of the hideout!".
The other guys around the bonfire laughed and one of them who had a scar on his left cheek, smacked the shoulder of the bearded man.
"Blackface why are you complaining, the others have to play hide and seek with some noble brats, while we only need to stay here and boss around that ugly sea beast, what's the problem?".
The bearded man called Blackface, shook his head at his friend.
"Dog, you are a coward, but this daddy likes to fight and get some girls… and those noble misses will all be captured and distributed between the brothers if not tasted by them before, I don't want second hand goods, and I heard the granddaughter of the shaman attended this event", said the bearded guy as he licked his lips.
"Your long history of brothel visits says the contrary, or what did you believe those bitches stories about you being their first after paying with a few gems hahaha!", one of the other guys who had a bandana on his head, mocked the bearded guy.
"Yeah, a toad like you wants to eat swan's meat", and the others joined in.
"Baldie what the hell did you say you piece of…", the bearded pirate snorted but as he was about to start a fight with the bandana guy, nothing unusual, the only guy who hasn't laughed nor talked so far, let out his mana pressure.
"Ughh", the mana pressure of a middle stage Lord ranked suppressed the other guys, making their faces pale a bit, the bearded guy on the hand spat blood due to the shock.
The silent man then stood up and gazed at the other pirates as he spoke with hatred filled voice.
"In case you bastards forgot about, the vice-captain was done in, because he was thinking with the head between his legs, which dragged his subordinates along with him".
"We are here to capture the daughter of the queen, the Valas princess and the granddaughter of the shaman, after that if you want women, I don't care how much whores do you fuck, but if you mess up, I will cut off your dicks and make you eat them, am I clear!".
The man retrieved his mana sense and the other pirates were able to breath and move again.
"Yes, sorry boss Travis", said the pirates as they regained their composure.
"Very well, now move your asses and go see if the Deep Bottom Shredder has caught something"
The pirates's faces paled a bit more, the bandana guy hesitated for a moment before saying.
"Boss… that thing ate Matt the last time we were alone with it, can't you come with us?".
Travis snorted as he waved his hand urging the pirates to leave.
"There is six of you, and that thing was practically a bag of bones after being "trained", Matt screwed up and that's why he was sacrificed, I sent the creature to fish its own food, so it should be better now, so hurry up and go get it before I order it to eat you all along with those noble pieces of shit!".
The pirates had no other option but to swallow their complains and obey, they all helped Blackface get up and then walked towards the semi blocked wall, which led to the cave where Daimon and the girls were hiding.
…
Daimon looked at the bandana guy, more accurately to the black stingray tattoo on his shoulder.
"Stingray Devil pirates, six of them, you know what to do", mumbled Daimon as he waved his had using black curtain to hide the Risha sisters and Mellie, he and Aisha were using the hollow suits, so with their presences hidden, they could meld with their surroundings.
The girls nodded at him and prepared to ambush the pirates as soon as they got Daimon's greenlight.
The pirates moved a large boulder that was blocking the exit of the cave, and after making sure the creature they had to go get wasn't near, they all entered after making sure to block the exit again.
Of course, the pirates didn't want to wander in the darkness, so they brought some branches they lit up with the bonfire as torches.
"Damn, it surely sucks that we can't even use our storage rings", said the pirate with the scar on his face.
"Fuck your storage ring, what's up with Mr. Travis going mad all of a sudden?", mumbled Blackface in a low voice to make sure the echo wouldn't filter outside of the cave.
"Idiot, it's your fault we were reprimanded, among the ones that were captured by the Clear Water kingdom, was Mr. Travis brother, what do you think they are doing to him right now, of course they are torturing him do get information about us, and you have to remember him why he was captured", said the bandana wearing pirate.
"Humph, what's so bad about it, it's not like the boss is going to let those cuties go unscathed even if he reaches an agreement with those nobles and sect fools, I don't see the problem in getting a go at them, it isn't my fault the vice-captain was a horny idiot who couldn't control some little princess", said Blackface as he kicked a rock in front of them.
Blackface who was looking at the ground after kicking the rock, waited for his companions to answer or make some nasty observations like usual, but he was met with a sepulchral silence.
Blackface felt his back covering in cold sweat imagining that the creature they were sent to get, had killed everyone but he still forced himself to raise his eyes just to see a fist copying all his field of vision.
Blackface was a bit too slow to react and he took a punch to the face, he originally thought he would be fine, since pirates are used to dirty fights, so he was going to roll on the ground to get out of the reach of his attacker, but all his plans and experience went to hell as soon as the fist connected with his face.
It was as if he was hit with a bar of iron instead of flesh and bones, his nose was dent backwards making him stop the scream of help he was about to shout, due to the blood going down his throat.
The next thing he knew was that his whole body was cold, and then the lights dimmed as the torched went off.
"Yo, Blackface it's good to see you", a familiar but unlikely to hear voice, drilled Blackface's ears, he slowly moved his head upwards and his face lost all its color, in front of him there was a corpse with weapons stabbing his body, smiling at him while blood leaked out of its eyes and mouth.
"No, it's impossible, we killed you after getting to know you were a spy from the skelefiends!", shouted blackface.
While Blackface was having a mental breakdown seeing his former "friend" now talking with him as a corpse, Mellie saw Daimon placing his hand on the back of the head of the bearded pirate after he was held down by Liliana's ice, and then the pirate just started screaming and talking some nonsense.
Luckily, Liliana built an ice dome around them to make sure, the screams couldn't be heard, because the bearded pirate was screaming and retorting as if he was having a horrible nightmare.
Yvonne saw it and her eyes glowed for a split of a second, as she saw a vague pitch-black shadow extending from Daimon's body, its shape was definitely not the same as Daimon's but the eyes had the same amethyst color, the difference was that those eyes were cold and arrogant, as if it was looking down on the world itself.
'Well, he was able to simply deflect my Illusion back then', she thought.
