On his way back, he discovered some of the pirates that had jumped overboard.
Contemplating for a moment, he shook his head, 'They're not worth delaying my arrival over, the desert heat is too much to bear for any normal person. They'll be cadavers by the end of the day.'
Pulling the right lever, the ships speed decreased slightly.
'How convenient, left right with the wheel, faster slower with the lever. I will get one of these ships for myself one day, before I become the king of- The desert!'
Other than the left lever functioning as a brake, the controls were intuitive.
Following the still fresh trails left by the ship originally, he soon saw the last person to get taken down.
With a loud shout, Leo jumped up high, ready to cut down any pirate he saw.
Only for his expression to turn into one of disappointment, as he gazed upon the countless dead pirates, before turning to Magnus.
"You've done a great job. Since I and everyone else did not do anything, all the contributions will go to you." he gestured at the ship.
Hearing this, Magnus didn't relax in the slightest.
"Meaning?" he asked, caution apparent in his tone.
"You should share, Magnus. Those who stand out too much will get cut down to size. Not necessarily with me, either, the squad."
Rolling his eyes, Magnus snapped back, "And who other than you could cut me down?"
Chuckling, Leo wandered to the ships side, "Anyone in the squad who gets jealous of you. Maybe me, for making me seem incompetent, being less reliable than you. My grandfather, due to taking 'my' contributions. Need I carry on?"
"... Fine, I still want 70% of the contributions."
"Sure. Even if the others get 1% it's still a years worth of salary."
Throwing a suspicious look towards him, Magnus focused on controlling the ship.
'I shouldn't have agreed to become this snakes guardian knight!' he cursed in his mind, angry at Leo's grandfather. 'Promising hero candidate, my ass! He's nothing like that old man Bastil!!!'
It wasn't long before more knights jumped onto the ship, each one gazing in admiration at the massacre on the deck.
Making their way through the desert, Magnus soon noticed something in the distance.
Under the questioning gazes of the others, he changed the direction, heading left.
It wasn't long before the others saw it as well, prompting them to take a closer look.
Slowing the ship to a halt, all of them jumped overboard to inspect the wreckage.
The wreckage of a caravan.
The charred flesh of the passengers assaulted their senses, while the blood spilled had dried due to desert heat. Some of the wreckage, whether overturned or burnt down, still had smoke coming from them.
"Spread out, search for survivors." Leo ordered, and they started their search.
"...Why would they set the carriages on fire?" one of the knights asked, a murderous look in his eyes.
"I doubt it's their doing, they probably caught fire due to the heat. What was their doing is the corpses you see here. Unforgivable!"
Magnus turned to look at the knight, surprise flashing in his eyes.
'Do these bloodthirsty buffoons feel bad for the people?'
He had spent more than a month with them, and while most of it was his knight training, he still saw their blood thirst first hand.
'Especially when sparring.' unpleasant memories welled up in him, before he shook his head.
He was about to add some brownie points to the knights, when he saw one of them pick up a gold ring from a corpse.
'... To think i was going to give them some credit. - 5/10 -> - 7/10'
Noticing everyone look at him, the knight smiled bashfully, "Ahem, they won't need their belongings in the underworld."
"Drop it!" another knight yelled.
He dropped the ring, seeing as how all the other knights were ready to give him a beat down. "Fine, Fine..." he threw the ring.
'Nevermind. -4.' upgrading his rating of the knights, he glanced at the map.
'There's one!' he noticed a gray marker, though it was faint, as if it may be snuffed out any moment.
Avoiding suspicion, he discretely made his way to one of the smoking carriages.
Seeing as it was on the side, he jumped on top, trying to see what was inside.
Not making out anything, he tried opening the door.
Rattle-
The door refused to open.
'Hmm? Fine!'
Exerting more strength in his arm, the door was ripped out from the carriage.
As smoke started escaping, the inside of the carriage became visible.
A faint silhouette lay on the ground, unmoving. Only the slow rise and fall of her chest proved she was alive.
Jumping down, Magnus landed next to the survivor.
A young girl lay curled up in the embrace of a long-dead woman.
'How sad, she lost everyone around her.' he thought, unpleasant memories resurfacing of his own life.
Stretching out his hand to grab her, he threw her over his shoulder. After that, he jumped out of the carriage, carrying her quickly towards the ship.
'She's not gonna survive the desert heat, I gotta get her into the ship. The inside should be cooled with magic since the pirates could roam during the day.'
'If she lives, she's contribution points. Yup, I'm totally saving her for that.'
"Reporting, I found a survivor, I'm bringing her aboard the ship!" he yelled, attracting attention from the rest.
"Great work, you do that while we search for others." Leo replied absent mindedly, before again focusing on the search for survivors.
Jumping onto the ship carefully as to not rattle the girl, he opened the door to the lower decks.
Sensing a cool breeze coming from the inside, it seemed the girl might stand a chance.
Not knowing where to go, he made his way to the captains quarters. 'The best bed should be that of the captain, right?'
He gathered a bit of strength into his foot.
Bang!
The door flew open, and he marched into the room.
A green carpet covered the floor, while an imposing wooden desk stood in the middle, maps and charts scattered about on it.
'This is less like a pirate and more like a CEOs office, hah!' he thought as he arrived at the bed and gently put down the girl.
Only then did he take a closer look at the girl.