168 Darell Graham

Vol. 3 - Chapter 12 - Darell Graham

.

.

.

Sometimes reforms that would target a group of people unnoticed would rally people to be against you, such a case was the nobles who didn't fight in the Civil War, standing on the sideline.

They minded their business, but the letters from the nobles on Vlad side made their skin get goosebumps, believing that the world would collapse on their heads. Such a case was Count Almeira of Valent Region along with Viscount Galler and Baron Olmsted who didn't know what to do with the hot potato in their hands, in their case, the letter.

"I have to get to Sagletius immediately. No time to wait about, this is the only chance I have to keep my family alive in this troubled waters. No way in hell I will give away my power without a fight, but from what Rohan says, that bastard is willing to give us neutral ones a chance in favorable conditions."

.

.

Summoning his servants and preparing for his journey toward Sagletius, he took his carriage and went directly to the Harbor from which a man watching from his office inside a large building, could see those changes.

This man was Kirin, the Marine Commodore, and as he watched those carriages move toward the harbor in an allerted manner, he said on the snail transmitter in his hand.

"Lord Vlad, it is as you thought, most of the nobles of Valent region have already prepared for the journey toward Sagletius. Do you want me to block the harbor and not allow this nobles to get to you?"

"Leave them, I have my plans for them. The neutral ones are easy to entice with some small privileges. Regardless of the nobles, did you manage to find the tracks of those transport ships that didn't fly any flag that you reported last night?"

"Lord, those guys baited us using some pirate ships in the surrounding zone to lose their track, and from the pirates we caught, nothing noteworthy was extracted. So they should be just some fools used by the ones who escaped."

"Keep the ones captured alive, I have my own methods of extracting information. As for that removed mark on their ships, I want to have your people try to decipher what its full image could have been. That should be the first lead into finding who those guys trying to enter Kaysang and support Lacilet were exactly."

"Everything that we saw has been recorded Lord, I will have my artist draw the symbol in all possible variations using our base of information about pirates and their jolly Roger."

"Don't stress yourself too much Kirin. Right, if you can I want you to come to Sagletius to invest you with your contract as Governor of Valent. As for the proposition I made to you about the Guild, have you thought about it?"

"Lord, that is still too much for me. I would he left exposed too much for interfering in your country's affairs and be signed out."

"They will not, I assure you. If you make a list of all notorious pirates of the South Blue I might make your status inside this part of the world indisputable. I gave my speech to those pirates, now I am really curious to see how many will come to visit my kingdom."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous? Attracting dangerous criminals?"

"The reward outweighs the risks, Kirin. You clearly should learn some poker from Peter since he is taking care of business in Valent."

"Not my cake Lord. Lastly, the last information I managed to gather is about the person called Darrel Graham. I found his hideout from a receptionated signal of his workers' calls."

"It was about time that fosil gave some signs of living. It has been almost 8 years since that event, so he could even kick the bucket for all I could care."

After Kirin told Vlad the location Darrel was hiding, continuing his underworld business right in the territory of one Counts with sea access Count Grailly who got killed by the poison Aslak he ended his call with Vlad and returned to his marine activities.

.

Still, as their talk went on, inside an inhabitable island, a group of 3 transport ships that anchored to the island shores, passed by some tense moments as the leadership of this group was sweating at the sign of that cold, malicious laugh of a man.

"I already know what happened. It is on the news, so stop lying to me or I will kill you once you return to Dressrosa."

"Master, we tried to get the goods faster from the Red Line as you told us, but when we arrived at the location you mentioned, we got encircled by the marines of the South Blue. Their entire fleet was on us."

"Marines trying to stop ships entering that kingdom? This shouldn't have happened since I got everyone in my pockets, from the marines to that fool. ARGHHH, my plans to expand into South Blue need to be replaced. Tell me, is the cargo intact? All the weapons, drugs, and illegal items I sent from the New World."

"Master, everything is intact since we used some pirates to have our track lost, we are planning to get to Briss and sell the goods before moving home."

"Be careful and don't mess up, that cargo is worth 350.000.000 𝔅 , I don't have my strings on Briss Kingdom, I only invested in Kaysang and that Duke."

.

.

.

On another hand, inside the secluded house outside of Sol, Vlad, after finishing his call with Kirin was asked by Sofiya who was reading a book on the bed.

"The one called Darrell, is he the one who sold you after you got captured by the pirates? You told me something at one point, but I forgot, short memory I guess."

"Hm, if it is really that old man, I would love to see his face after all these years. You wish to come with me, Sofi?"

"No, there's so many things to do that I don't wish to spend my time so inefficiently. Still, don't go about cleaving your sword right and left and listen to what they have to say. Maybe you imprison them, but don't be the one who is consumed by the desire for revenge. Just look at who you have become and grew."

"I know don't worry, in the first place I wasn't looking for revenge in this meeting with that old man. I just want to see his old face since he lost his track that even Felicia and the others knew about his whereabouts." explained Vlad to Sofiya in a casual manner, while he walked to change his clothes in a black suit with a hat.

Afterwards, he gave Sofiya a farewell kiss, letting her do her things, and looking in the main room of the mansion, he saw Aerius and Robert laze around.

"Big brother, are you going somewhere?" asked Robert, curious about Vlad's intentions.

"Just on a stroll inside the kingdom taking care of some old business. I should be back tomorrow if things go according to my plans."

"Do you want us to join you?" asked Aerius who got in his four legs, looking up at Vlad after jumping on a table.

"If you want to tag in, I don't mind it, but you will have to not annoy me during the journey to Grailline County." responded Vlad while giving Aerius a deep gaze which had the gryphon still remaining a cat-sized creature, proud, beginning to laugh.

"If you fear me doing that, you are wrong. I just want to explore the kingdom, maybe I will see some places that I might remember from my life in Atlas."

"Then it is good. What about you little Robert?"

"I will join too since I got nothing better to do except training and studying. Taking a break once in a while is good for my head."

"Dumb kid, who tells you to train so hard? You will get home soon so stop stressing about some wet dream you had." said Aerius giving Robert a mocking expression which had the young man send a rice grain flying like a projectile that hit the gryphon right on his head.

"Buzz off, is your body still okay after what happened to you? If it is, I can take care of you."

"Hmph, just you wait when I return to my adult form, no one will be able to boss me around. I can see the light since that fight with the Bear Monster. I managed to grow slightly bigger in a small span of time but I don't understand why that happened."

"Who knows." said Robert, scoffing at Aerius, before they began nagging at one another until Vlad stopped them and had them prepare some necessities for the journey.

Their preparations were so pathetic that Vlad looked baffled by how fast they returned to him from their room.

"What? Is not like we will stay that long there. Don't you remember that we got out from Kalerna Mountain Mine with nothing? We don't need to waste our time with such things, so let's go! A fun adventure is about to hit us." said Aerius who jumped on Vlad's head, settling down, while placing the hat he was wearing on his body, giving Vlad an entire comical appearance.

Raising the hat, he placed it on Robert's head, and exited the house, spreading out his [Blood Wings] after morphing his blood, giving off a menacing feeling.

The young man and gryphon looked at Vlad from up-close as the wings had some veins which constantly pumped blood to enforce the construct, giving a more vivid sense about them. There was even a spirit to them, but barely noticeable.

"Hold tight, kids. We will get to my ship in about 5-10 minutes. I don't wish to have my clothes dirtied by your vomit. Got it, Aerius."

"Nah, I'll be fine. You are talking with Wind Incarnated, this is where I live, in the air, not on the ground."

"Stop boosting you damn cat. I am ready, big brother." called Robert, jabbing at Aerius for talking such big words when he was clearly a weird cat.

.

Chuckling at their display, Vlad took Robert by his upper body effortlessly, and with his wings starting to flip against the gravity, the winds he created were so strong that the greenfield where he was standing was blasted. With such force on his wings, he rose in the air, starting to move with a precise target, controlling his movements and speed to his wishes.

.

Soon in the frame of time Vlad mentioned, they could see the seashore that was on the opposite side from Sol's Harbor, it looked like a place a fisherman would secure his boat for the next day. Yet in the distance was waiting a light ship that contained 3 packed wind sails

Landing on the main deck with both of them, he took Aerius off his head and dropped him on the hard wooden planks for the ship, which the creature protested, feeling offended by this cold gesture, but the response he got from Vlad was to hear his laughter.

Walking toward the backside of the ship, raising his hands he began to push his blood outside, flowing from his hands and from the first droplets of Blood that touched the wood, with more material to work the shape of a rotating wind turbine could be seen morphing right in front of Robert and Aerius who were curious about the function of this construct.

"You will see once I start the ship. Until then hold your questions since I need to focus on building those mechanisms. One piece wrong from the entire mechanism and the construct will fail."

After more minutes of silence, only accompanied by the sea breeze and the waves hitting the shore, Vlad took his hands back, moving toward the wind turbines and giving them a spin with his hands.

"Good, the internal mechanism works."

"Big brother, is this how your devil powers can work beside the manner you use it to fight?" asked Robert, no longer being able to hold his interest in Vlad's powers.

"Little Robert, to be honest with you, I can say I know about 30% of what my powers can do. There's so much to explore, so much to learn, so many possibilities. My powers have applications in all fields, from boosting my strength in fights, to creating weapons and puppets to fight my battles, to being able to boost my mental strength, to helping others heal from wounds and who knows what else."

"There should be a constraint, right?"

"Obviously. It consumes a lot of my energy to maintain complicated constructs, such as my [Blood Wings], [Blood Fall Sword], [Blood Marionette] and so on, all of those constructs are costly. Aside from the energy such as my Blood Energy and limited blood, there's also a lot of mental energy, and in this one Inner Energy(A/N: Haki) is the principal component that starts depleting.

"I see. Still, big brother, compared to the point you were 4 years ago where you only knew about some basic abilities, I can't even look back and compare you from the past and the you of the present."

"Something you shouldn't even be bothered to ponder. What's the use of thinking in the past, little Robert? You shall be in the present, and only there. The future is also an uncertain variable you can't foresee, so don't consume energy to do the unthinkable because no one can see their future for sure."

.

Responding to Robert's questions, and thoughts that he shared with him, Vlad had them turn silent before doing a jump toward the main mast, climbing on the spiderweb and releasing the sails. Doing this for the rest of the masts, he returned to the 'Stern' and watching the turbine stay in a stationary state, he gave them a small impulse using his blood powers to turn them, starting to move the ship.

"Little Robert, go take the steering wheel and move in the directions I tell you while I control the turbines."

Nodding his head, he rushed to take the steering wheel in his hands, accompanied by Aerius who was standing on his head with Vlad's hat on his body, like a rabbit from a magician's tricks.

"Robert, this is crazy. The ship moves so smoothly even though there's no wind to take the ship out. How does it work, I still didn't understand Boss' explanation."

"From what I have understood, that blood thing big brother made, is spinning in a fast manner, similar to a tornado, and it creates winds that pushes the ship forward."

"Like a tornado? But how? The explanation?"

"Those blades are most likely the catalysts to this construct big brother made. Stop asking me why, it is annoying. I can only tell you what I understood from big brother explanations. Ask him if you are this curious."

"Rather not. I'll be made fun of."

"That's what you get for sticking your nose too deep where it clearly doesn't belong."

.

.

In this manner, with Robert steering the ship toward his destination, they encountered along the way some of Patrick's Fleet Ships that were tasked to patrol the interior sea, keeping in check any possible pirate even thinking of raiding the territory of Kaysang. While the outside sea, where the islands in the sovereignty of Kaysang were situated, was patrolled excessively by the Navy with the base on Picodras.

"We wish you a safe journey YOUR HIGHNESS!" shouted a captain in charge of one ship, as Vlad was passing by them, giving them some signals beforehand of his status.

Getting away and distancing from Sagletius after a smooth journey with a peaceful sea, in a journey that was leading to Valent city, Vlad instructed Robert to sail on the opposite side shoreline because they would soon reach Grailline.

The sight of a small sized city was in front of their eyes, with Vlad and Aerius spotting the place from the moment to Robert the place looked like a small dot.

Arriving at the harbor, he could see that it had a decent amount of trading ships anchored, awaiting their new cargo, and stepping inside the city, the first sentiment he got watching the people of this place who were wearing clothes of bad quality with slightly weak complexions.

"My plans shall progress unfaltered. I might not know what happened here, but I will surely get my answers from the old man. This is not something only a noble can contribute to the demise of his own people."

"Those people are really living the hard life. Just as the people of Sol before we took over the city." commented Robert as he passed by the citizens of the city seeing for themselves what this city had to offer.

It didn't have much beside the houses the people were living, trying to get past with life from day to day, some shops that had close signs to them, some guild buildings, taverns, and in the distance the castle of the Count House. Activating his Blood Powers, he saw the Castle that had a beautiful facade and it looked majestically past the city.

"I see what their priorities were. That's fine by me, I get more things to confiscate. Anyway, little Robert, Aerius, go take a walk around by yourselfs while I go to resolve my problems. Visit some taverns and try to understand the story of this place. Better to have more perspectives to a problem rather than being like a horse only seeing ahead of myself."

"Sure thing big brother. This is what I even wanted to ask you. Ahem, big brother, I know it isn't my place to tell you, but don't kill that old man at the first sight, okay? He might hold some important information, so he has some value."

*Chuckle* "Who do you take me as, boy? I can control my emotions and the past is in the past. Anyway, I will not explain myself right now, what my motives and thoughts are for wanting to meet that old man."

Finishing drawing the plan for the group of three, Vlad walked according to Kirin's information, moving out of the city, and following a path toward a forest. Entering deep in this forest some large beasts similar to the 'Forbidden Forest' inside Sagletius area, charged at him with murder intent.

With a calm gaze on his face, his dark-green eyes started to morph turning crimson-dark and after the entire process was done in a couple of seconds, an crimson-dark shockwave exited his body, passing the beasts who stopped in place, trembling like foam on the mouth, before collapsing on the ground, creating a big tremor.

"Tsk, annoying beasts. You most likely gave away my mysterious entrance. Heh, whatever, let's get to them before they pack their things and escape."

As he said that, he began speeding up, in a couple of minutes reaching a building as the one Felicia and the others partaking in Darrel Graham Underworld Auctions in the past would encounter. The descriptions from their experience were spot on with what he was seeing.

"Old man, you really haven't changed your style. Still the same business plan. Quite sad to see someone who can't diversify his assets."

Walking undisturbed toward the mansion, he could hear from far away that people were panicking inside the building, and when he got about to step inside the two storey high building, some guards welcomed him inside pointing their guns at him.

"Raise your hands up and don't move even a step."

"Wow, this feeling I get. It has been a while since someone put a gun to my temples. Congratulations, it has been about 4 years since then. Go on shoot me, I want to test something." said Vlad with an evil smile toward those guards, taking casual steps forward in their direction, to which those guards reacted by pulling the trigger.

*Gun-fire*

The entire lobby was filled with gunfire smoke, and from the side of the guards they took breaths of relief, believing they finished the intruder, however their skins crawled up when they heard a long sigh, and footsteps.

"How many bullets were in total? A hundred? My Exoskeleton got some small cracks, yet the facial part remained strong."

As the smoke was clearing out they could see the young man wearing a malicious crimson mask on his face that was releasing some dark energy, while his body was without marks of gunshots.

"Calm down, I am not looking to kill you. I will just put you to sleep." said Vlad with a calm voice, void of emotions, releasing another 'Conqueror's' shockwave which dropped everyone inside the building unconscious, not even the little kid slaves, and slaves were spared of this fate.

Nevertheless, an old voice came from the upper-floor of the building, saying with a melancholic voice, as if he was talking to himself.

"That was a [Conqueror's] similar to Captain and Roger. I wonder who this old man got upset after all these years he was no longer pirating?"

With his voice sent to Vlad who was inside the lobby, from the upper-floor the footsteps climbing down the stairs was something evident.

Vlad remained calmly staring at the staircase, where an old man with wrinkled face of a tall stature, even taller than him, wearing a black suit with his white-hair slicked back.

"Young master, do I know you? What business do you have with this retired old man? Wait, wait, those eyes are familiar, but from where do I know you? Ahh, I turned senile, I can't even remember who you are child, come give this old man some help."

"You turned senile? Haha, from what Haki you have I doubt someone like you could suffer from such common illnesses only normal people suffer."

"Haki? I am confused, what could that be?"

Vlad gazed calmly at old Darrel Graham with his green eyes, before they turned crimson-dark, releasing a Conqueror's Haki which hit the old man head-on, but expecting a response from the old man, with his frail hand that was surrounded by an invisible wall, he blocked most of his willpower, yet his feet were pushed a tiny bit.

*Chuckling* "Thanks child, you helped this old man remember who you are and why I felt you seemed familiar. To think you would survive your trials and grow into such a big boy. Should I be proud of giving you this chance, of becoming who you are? Little Zagreus? Or better said Vermilion Zagreus Vlad, Prince of Kaysang."

.

.

.

A/N: We returned back to the one who could be said to be the fateful person that sent Vlad on his path.

I really wonder how the story would have looked if there were no pirates raiding his island, and everything was going as smoothly as a self-fulfilment MC would look like. Would it have turned into a pirate route similar to the original? What do you think about this?

.

.

Right, since I am not seeing so much activity from you, lurkers. I will call it a presence list, like how it used to be in school. Everyone present here who has two fingers, a keyboard or a phone, comment something so I know I am not writing this story for just 3-5 people.