We stared at the trap door that had opened up to lead even deeper down into the ground.
The old pirateâs face had already disappeared so I guess that former Pirate Sovereign was expecting us to head down there.
"Are we... Going in?" I asked, looking at the dark hole.
The Pirate Lord peeked into the hole in the ground, "Of course. Why wouldnât we? This is the way to the Pirate Hoard! Our goal is right there!"
Well... I guess that was indeed a stupid question. We already came all this way so not going in when weâre already here is just dumb.
I looked back at the crowd of pirates that had just arrived as well, "Is everyone going in as well?"
"Of course. What if thereâs more enemies down there? Iâm also running low on ammo here."
That reminds me...
I checked my own ammo status and... Oh... Wow... I only have about a quarter of my total ammo left.
If I had to fend off another tidal wave of androids, I probably wouldnât have enough ammo to deal with them.
The Pirate Lord took the first step onto the ramp and started leading the way down into the ground with all of us following behind him.
That fact that Matsumoto was walking on the Pirate Lordâs right while that Helen woman was walking on his left was not lost on me.
Iâm guessing these two are like his left and right hand man and woman.
In fact, I could see Helen shooting glares at us every few steps like she doesnât approve of us being there.
We had a quick introduction with her earlier and she had been glaring at me ever since she shook my hand. And no, I did not step out of my Power Armour for that, I just shook her hand with the Power Armour.
Does she have a crush on the Pirate Lord and think weâre trying to steal him or something?
Woman, I like girls, Iâve never seen what your Pirate Lord looks like and Iâm not sexually attracted to Power Armour so you can relax, sheesh.
Eventually we reached another doorway and this one slid open the moment we walked past it.
The door revealed an illuminated walkway that seemed to be suspended in the air of a dark hall that was definitely filled with stuff but it was too dark for us to see what they were.
Even our flashlights were not strong enough to illuminate the objects meaning they were really, really far away from us.
The Pirate Lord continued walking forward and the rest followed us onto the walkway, all of them scanning around the area in case there were more androids waiting in ambush.
When we reached the centre of the walkway, the lights around the room suddenly switched on and we finally got to see what was in the room with us.
My jaw dropped.
There were mountains upon mountains of what looked like gold and precious jewellery all piled up on top of one another.
Not only that, there were even treasure chests that were filled to the brim with gold and jewels spilling out of the lid and overflowing to join the mountain of gold they were already resting on.
This... This was a dragonâs hoard of treasures. Thereâs so much gold!
While I was trying my best not to salivate at the sight, the Pirate Lord let out a growl, "What the fuck is this?"
I spun to him. "What are you talking about?"
"Whatâs all this yellow stuff? Are those rocks?"
"What? Thatâs gold! Gold!! Donât you know gold?!"
"Gold? That disgusting metal thatâs used for cables or something?"
I blinked at him before turning to the girls, "Is gold valuable?"
The girls shook their heads quickly.
Amber leaned over to whisper, "Itâs quite a common metal found in space so itâs mostly used in manufacturing electronics..."
Great...
The Pirate Lord pointed at the piles upon piles of gold around us, "So what the hell is this? Why did the Pirate Sovereign store so much gold here-- Wait... I know now! These are all the materials heâs using to make the androids!! Of course!!"
I guess... Maybe thatâs the reason... But one other thing though...
"What about the other jewels like emeralds, rubies and sapphires?"
The Pirate Lord spun back to me, "What?! Where?! Those are worth quite a lot if you have the pure stones and not the synthetic ones! Where are they?! Especially the emeralds?!"
Ok... So gold isnât valuable but those precious stones are still valuable...
I pointed at the mountains of gold, "See those red, blue and green stones scattered amongst the gold? Those should be rubies, sapphires and emeralds."
The pirates all started looking around them to see just how many of those stones there were and there were indeed a lot of them.
That means even if the gold was useless, the precious stones more than made up for it, which in turn means weâre rich!
Then, as though hearing our thoughts, the projection of the pirate appeared in the air again, though this time he was even wearing a pirateâs tricone hat.
Man... Just how old is this guy to be wearing such an outfit in this universe?
The projection of the Pirate Sovereign grinned at us, "Ay fair winds tâ ye! Ye âave found me treasure stash! Aye, everythinâ ye see here be now yers! ân dis ainât even the only one! Tharâs several more jusâ up ahead! Jusâ follow along dis bridge ân yeâll find even more oâ me treasures as well as all the things Iâve left behind jusâ fer ye!"
I still canât get used to the fact that this guy is talking in this dated speech...
The pirates behind us started muttering amongst themselves in excitement which I guess was expected since they are already guaranteed all the Credits the precious stones would get them if they sold it.
And since these guys are pirates, they would definitely be selling them on the black market so maybe I can get some contacts from them as well?
The Pirate Lord continued to lead the way, this time walking even faster as we reached the door at the other side of the bridge.
We walked into a semicircular platform that was overlooking what was another giant hall and the lights turned on once more to reveal it was a hangar.
Ships of varying sizes were docked all around us and every single one of them looked impressive.
Then our eyes were drawn to the biggest ship at the end of the hangar which occupied half of the entire hangar and even then, only half of the ship was visible since there was a crevice at where the ship was.
I think that was at least an E Class Battleship judging by the size.
And this wasnât even the end because on one side of the semicircle platform we were standing on, there was a set of stairs leading down which leads to a path that continues on to another door, no doubt to a different storage area that would be filled with even more loot.
All the pirates were just gaping up at the ships all around us, clearly impressed by the ships that were displayed.
But curiously... I was expecting Ries to be the one that was most excited about this, only to realise that my Maochatte mechanic had her brows furrowed and eyes narrowed when she was looking at the ships.
Before I could ask her whatâs wrong though, the Pirate Lord turned to the pirates and pumped his fist up into the air.
"Weâve made it everyone! This is it!!"
I braced myself for the cheers I was expecting from the crowd of pirates around us but... What greeted us was silence.
Huh?
I turned back to see all the pirates basically staring straight at the Pirate Lord oddly.
The Pirate Lord was obviously confused about their reaction as well until Helen stepped back from him to stand in front of the other pirates.
"Matsumoto... I think itâs time we stop pretending with him. Weâve already seen enough, havenât we?"
Matsumoto frowned at her while the Pirate Lord leaned forward to stare at her.
"What are you talking about, Helen?"
"I thought you would be smarter than this, my looord," Helen sighed dramatically, even drawing out the âlordâ word sarcastically. "Weâre done with you. This crew is under new management from now on. Donât you get it?"
"Under who? You?"
"Hahaha! Obviously itâs your dearest second in command here! Matsumoto! Do you think he hasnât been plotting against you all this time to claim your spot and heâs happy to be an underling all this time? No, no. Heâs going to be the new leader and we are following him from now on!"
"... Why?"
"You really dare to ask something like that? Youâre the bloody tyrant who keeps crushing peopleâs limbs and torturing them when they go against you, do you think we would be happy with that? Of course not! Thatâs why... I think itâs time for you to give up~"
The Pirate Lord stood up straight, "You realise that youâre talking to me while Iâm in my Power Armour, right?"
"Hahaha! Of course our dear Matsumoto has a fix for that!"
All eyes turned to the pirate in question, right as he pulled out his sword and activated it, the energy blade extending out and casting a glow around him.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you guys seriously mutinying right now?!