Close Combat Mage

Chapter 398 - Reward for Achievements and Punishment for Faults Pt.1

Plop… Once the pirate leader was completely trapped by the Ice Prison Technique, he fell into the waters, and was quickly sucked towards the center of the whirlpool. When he realized this, the pirate leader began to scream wildly, but his voice couldn’t be heard from within the Ice Prison.

However, Suo Jia clearly had no intention of letting him die. With a wave of his left hand, the thick and sturdy ice stream snaked outwards, closing the forty or so meters distance. It wrapped around the Ice Prison, and tossed it back onto the deck.

Boom! The pirate leader’s body fell back down onto the deck floor just as the last pirate ship tilted and soon sank to the bottom of the sea amidst the pirates’ miserable cries.

Within a single minute, the Diamond Dragon had instantly sunk five pirate ships. Aside from the flagship, the horizon was now completely clear. Even the wreckage from the ships had disappeared, already sucked to the bottom of the ocean by the whirlpool.

Suo Jia coldly smirked at the ashen-faced pirate leader trapped within the Ice Prison. He turned around to speak to other paralyzed pirates that had been working on the ship and said, “I will give you all two options: the first option is to immediately surrender. From today onwards, you will work for me. The alternative is to join your former comrades under the sea and become fish food!”

Having personally witnessed Suo Jia’s cruel ways, the pirates all knew that they were at his mercy. If they didn’t want to die, they had to obediently surrender.

Although they were pirates, they all had families and homes. Some even had wives and children. Moreover…pirates didn’t have any form of loyalty. When on the vast ocean, one would only listen to the victor! As long as they were paid, they would work for anyone.

Of course, there were also powerful pirate leaders that could gather loyal subordinates. But it was clear to see that this pirate leader named Whale did not have such ability. As soon as Suo Jia made this declaration, the two hundred crew members on the flag ship immediately knelt down before Suo Jia.

Suo Jia nodded in satisfaction. The reason he’d left the flagship standing was simple一he would make this ship his own.

Suo Jia surveyed the ship. Of course, as the flagship, it was different from the ordinary pirate ships. Just in terms of size, it was several times larger, and was a large-scale, high-masted sailing ship!

Pirates made a living by robbing any traveling merchants at sea, and counted as a type of thief. Just as the pirate leader as said, they were pirate overlords!

A typical pirate ship had an extremely large crew, without any wares aside from food. But any stolen loot needed to be stored in a ship as well, which was why the flagship existed.

The so-called flagship wasn’t just larger in size with a sturdier deck. More importantly, aside from food storage, it also had a massive storage area that could be compared to a merchant ship’s. All the stolen loot was placed here to bring back to land and sell. This was the main source of a pirate’s income.

After dissipating the whirlpool, Suo Jia commanded the pirate flagship to slowly make its way towards the little boat that Suo Jia’s party was on to pick up Xiang Yun, Roger, and Nicole. Suo Jia no longer planned on using the small boat; it was too slow, and it was too unstable as it couldn’t withstand the stormy sea.

Once Roger and Xiang Yun had been gathered in the captain’s room, Suo Jia focused on healing their injuries while Nicole sorted out everything outside. Under Nicole’s watch, the 200 pirates raised the sails and turned the ship to head towards the closest seaport.

Although Xiang Yun and Roger were heavily wounded, Suo Jia was a master at healing. An injury of any severity was no problem for him to heal as long as the victim was still alive.

After three days, Xiang Yun and Roger had fully recovered. At the same time, Suo Jia urgently called upon his three other party members to begin a formal meeting to summarize and review the last battle.

With the four of them sitting within the captain’s room, Suo Jia stated with a grave expression, “Firstly, I must apologize for the recent events. Because of me, the entire party was engravely dangered, and I’d almost lost two of my most important allies!”

Suo Jia abruptly drew a dagger from his waist and gritted out, “This is neglect on my part, a disgrace to my acting as the leader. Thus…I must account for my wrongs!”

Suo Jia slowly flipped the dagger to point its tip at himself, and he cut the right side of his face as he continued, “I don’t know how to make up for all your past injuries, so…”

Suo Jia slowly dragged the dagger across his skin, and the sharp edge deeply cut through his face. As he moved it across, the wound began to bleed profusely.

“Stop!” At the sight of this, Xiang Yun suddenly picked up his tea cup from the table to throw at Suo Jia. Roger and Nicole also stood up and rushed to Suo Jia to stop him.

Suo Jia had seemed to have long anticipated this would happen, and activated his Space Shield to block the attacks and keep his companions away. At the same time, he continued to cut himself as he blamed himself, “This isn’t just my punishment. More importantly, I need to use this wound to remind myself that the group’s well-being is always above anything else. I definitely won’t let anything allow me to neglect the group anymore!”

With this, Suo Jia finally stopped. By now…a fierce gash had formed underneath his eye on the right side of his face.

Suo Jia pulled out a handkerchief to painfully wipe the blood from his face as he indifferently said, “I will not heal this wound. I want it to leave a scar; that way, I will be able to remember what happened today every time I see it. That will keep anything like this from ever repeating!”

Xiang Yun helplessly sat back down. Nicole and Roger could only blankly freeze in place as well. Roger seemed relatively okay, but Nicole couldn’t help but start crying.

Nicole believed that all of this was her fault. If she hadn’t acted so reserved and directly gone to find Suo Jia, how could he have been so distracted? The typical Suo Jia wouldn’t have made such a mistake. Most importantly, she was the reason that an un-erasable scar was now on Suo Jia’s face. This fact was enough to make Nicole feel guilty to death.

Suo Jia expressionlessly sat back down and solemnly declared, “Everyone, return to your seats. This is a meeting to discuss a serious matter. Before it’s over, it’s best not to leave your seats. Otherwise, you’ll be showing disrespect towards me!”

Roger and Nicole hurriedly sat back down as Suo Jia continued, “Since everyone believes in me and calls me Boss, I hope that everyone can comply to my words while I am the boss. This is true for both punishments to you, or punishments to myself. Neither of these should be defied. Please believe that all these things definitely have reason.”

Xiang Yun, Roger, and Nicole fell into silence. That’s right…since this was a serious offense of neglecting his duty, Suo Jia definitely needed to be punished. If Suo Jia hadn’t done this to himself, how would he deal with anyone else making a grave mistake?

Suo Jia had already used himself as an example. In the future, no matter who made a mistake, Suo Jia would strictly sentence a punishment. This way, everyone else would resign themselves to whatever punishment it was without any hard feelings of resentment.

Suo Jia slowly looked around and continued, “Alright, I’ve already been punished for my mistake. Now…it’s your turn. Although I made a mistake in this battle, I wasn’t the only one!”

“That’s…” They couldn’t help but all raise their heads to look at Suo Jia in shock. They just couldn’t think of any other mistakes that had been made in this past battle.

Suo Jia coldly turned to criticize Nicole, “Although you’re a girl, you are still a member of our party. Yet you never appeared from the beginning to the end of the battle. I would like to ask you now, what were you during the entire time?”

“I…!” Nicole couldn’t help but stand up in panic. She wanted to explain, but couldn’t say anything…

In reality, because Nicole had been mulling over the issue with Suo Jia the past few days, she hadn’t slept at all. Only at daybreak today had she finally been unable to endure any further, and passed out. No matter how lively it had been outside, she had not woken!

Nicole silently opened and closed her mouth a few times before helplessly sitting back down and she shook her head. “Sorry, I have nothing to say. I indeed neglected in my duty. While everyone was fighting, I was sleeping instead. Young Master, please punish me. No matter what it is, I will sincerely accept!”

Suo Jia nodded in acknowledgment and then turned to Xiang Yun and Roger. “Nicole’s misconduct directly harmed you two. Thus, it will be up to you two to decide on her punishment!”

Xiang Yun and Roger exchanged glances at this. Meanwhile, Suo Jia added, “However, Nicole must be punished for her mistake. If you guys try to just let it pass, I’ll take back your privileges and decide on a punishment myself!”

The two mean couldn’t help but timidly glance at the still bleeding gash underneath Suo Jia’s eye and inwardly worry. Was it possible that Suo Jia would also inflict such a wound on Nicole’s face?

They put their heads together and quickly began to discuss. After a long while, their discussion finally ended, and they returned to their own seats.

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