"Finally!" Aliza breathed out a sigh of relief and quickly untied the rope on her legs. After that, she stood up unsteadily, walked forward towards the dusty gate, and frowned.
'That Rudie bastard locked the door from the outside, huh?' He bit her lips in frustration and quickly noticed her spatial ring was still on her finger.
'It seems I still have some luck.' She smiled bitterly.
She felt grateful that Rudie took away her father's family heirloom instead of her spatial ring.
'Maybe he never thought it was a spatial ring.' She nodded solemnly, closed her eyes while focusing on the spiritual imprint, and soon searched her spatial ring. It was a low-tier spatial artifact that could only store around five cubic meters.
After linking her mind with the spatial ring, she found rations enough for one week; two spell scrolls, a small water barrel, books, a short sword, and magic stones were placed inside.
She first turned her attention towards the short sword and soon shook her head.
'But I can't break off this door with my amateur sword skills.'
'My only choice now is to use one of these two spell scrolls and escape from here.' She shifted her attention to the spell scrolls. But to her misery, both were red orb fire spell scrolls.
'This will only attract more attention. Damn it! I guess I have no other choice then.' She inhaled deeply, took out one of the red orb spell scrolls, and ripped it.
A second later, a small magic rune circle appeared in mid-air. A cold smile crept on her face as she took out a low-tier magic stone from her ring and threw it into the magic circle. The next instant, a small fire elemental fluctuation appeared inside that small room and formed into a ball of red flame. Without having any command, it went directly up above and made up the hole in the ceiling.
Boom!
An explosion shook the whole Inn, causing everyone to awake in a panic.
"W-What happened?!" Keith woke up from the sudden noise and shouted in stutter while glancing at others. Meanwhile, the fat Inn lady had already dashed towards the southern corner of the Inn to check what was happening.
"Fire!" "Fire is spreading everywhere!"
Within seconds, Keith heard panic shouts from the inn lady. A second later, his eyes widened.
She was shouting while looking at the room where Aliza was locked inside!
"F*CK! Rudie, Morons, wake up." He shouted at the snoring bandits and ran after the Inn lady hurriedly.
Soon, he saw dark smoke coming from the room.
He quickly arrived in front of the small isolated room and opened the wooden door with a heavy kick.
Fire gust filled with smoke came towards his face, causing Keith to stumble back a little. After calming himself down, he looked upward and saw a large hole in the ceiling.
'She escaped? But how? Where did she get an alchemic explosive?' Questions whirled in his mind, but he had no time to look for the answer. He must capture her now; otherwise, all his efforts would become vain.
He hurriedly returned to the area where his lackeys snored loudly and kicked everyone.
"BASTARDS! Wake up. She escaped!" Keith roared angrily.
"Eh?! B-Boss, what happened?" Rudie asked while yawning. Soon, others also woke up due to his angry roar and rubbed their sleepy eyes.
"Aliza escaped morons! Follow me. We have to search for her." Keith said while dashing out of the room in a hurry to search for her.
Meanwhile, the Inn lady and other nearby shop owners carried buckets of water from the nearby well and tried their best to put down the fire.
At that moment, a black-hooded figure stood hiding near the nearby building's chimney and watched Keith and other bandits leave the Inn with a nervous face.
Aliza then looked around at the pirate town and noticed there was only two way to get out of the town. One was through the sea route, while the other way was through the northern gate.
'Should I go to the northern gate?' But Aliza firmly shook that idea.
It was almost unrealistic because those two gatekeepers would be waiting for her. Soon, her eyes shifted towards the other side of the town where the harbor was located.
'Sea! Maybe I can escape using some boat.' Hope appeared in her eyes.
Without hesitation, she stealthily climbed down from the chimney and moved towards the harbor.
Aliza could hear the loud shouts of the bandits and other pirates from behind but didn't stop her footsteps. She crossed two streets while covering her head with a hood and finally arrived in front of the harbor.
After checking she was in a safe position, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention to the two large pirate ships. Both ships were filled with wounded pirates, and it appeared that the two ships seemed to have docked in the harbor just now. Near those two ships, a few rowboats laid on the seawater in lines.
'I think I can use those boats.' As Aliza pondered how to get out from there, she saw that the pirates started climbing down from those two large ships and soon stiffened up.
'I should hide near those barrels before they notice me and leave a few minutes later.' Aliza instantly moved near the area where empty wooden barrels were arranged on her left side and quickly sneaked behind.
"Everyone. Get all your important belongings and bring the girl to the ship. We are leaving in 30 minutes." A loud female voice came from one of the ships. Those cold words fell into Aliza's ears and caused her heart to beat faster for unknown reasons.
At that moment, the captain of the Black Skull Pirate group, Nelson, stepped forward and asked with a frown.
"Lavada, why are you asking them to bring that girl? If necromancer finds out that we took her away, he will surely chase after us."
"Nelson, do you think I will let him off that easily after what he did to my younger brother? I don't care about those gold coins. What I want is revenge. That necromancer killed my brother and turned him into some undead. So, I'll never let this off easily." Brink tried to console her, but she removed his hand away from her shoulder and urged others.
"Go! Find her and bring her to me. When the time that necromancer arrives, we will be long gone along with the girl." An evil smile appeared on Lavada's face as she said those words.
'Who is she? Is she talking about me? Why does she seem to be holding a grudge against me?' Aliza slowly raised her head and watched the group of pirates in fear.
Meanwhile, the pirates climbed down from the two large ships and moved toward the shoreline using rowboats. Uneasiness appeared in Aliza's heart. Hiding behind the water barrels, she covered her mouth not to make any noise and waited patiently for the pirates to disappear from there.
As she was about to turn back, she heard a sudden marching sound from behind.
Her whole body stiffened up.
"Boss, she is there!" A loud familiar sound came from behind, making her body quiver uncontrollably. She turned her head with a fearful look and soon noticed that the bandits were running in her direction while gripping their weapons.
'Shit! What should I do?' She got panicked inside.
"You b*tch! Let's see how you are going to escape now." Keith shouted furiously and started running in her direction. But soon, he halted his footsteps and noticed that two large ships had already docked in the harbor.
'The Drake pirates have already come back from the mission?' A smile crept on his face. He revealed his stained teeth and waved his hands at Brink and others who now arrived at the shore through a rowboat.
"Mister Brink, Miss Lavada? How is the mission? Did you manage to kill the necromancer?" Seeing the pirates here, Keith thought the pirates had already killed Murius and became overjoyed inside. Brink was about to explain what had happened in the tower, but Lavada raised her hand and stopped him. Instead, she ordered other pirates to go and get their important belongings. After sending out a few orders, she turned her head towards Keith and said with a twisted smile on her face.
"Mr. Keith, you don't have to worry about the necromancer. We killed him brutally and even hung his corpse in the front of the fort wall." Lavada shamelessly lied as she walked closer to Aliza. Meanwhile, Aliza trembled and stood there dumbly with a pale face.
"Excellent!" Keith exclaimed.
"Ms. Lavada, when can I get my share?"
Keith knew these pirates would get Aliza's bounty money from the Light Church within the next few weeks and asked in anticipation.
His eyes glittered in greed.
"Oh! We will get your share in a week or two. But before that, we must give this girl a harsh lesson. Don't you think? Otherwise, she will try to escape from us again, isn't that right, Mr. Keith?" Lavada arrived in front of Aliza and spoke in a chilling tone, causing Aliza to shiver.
"Y-Yes, miss Lavada. I also thought of the same thing." Keith suddenly felt that he was talking to a different person and stuttered. An uneasy feeling appeared in his heart.
"What is your plan then, Mr. Keith? What punishment can make her stop from escaping once again?" Lavada turned her gaze towards Keith and asked with a crazy smile on her face.
"I-I don't know, miss. You decide." Keith wiped the cold sweats on his forehead and replied anxiously.
'Why do I feel like I'm talking to some enemy?' He gulped down his saliva and became anxious inside.