Pioneers of the Stars

Chapter 9

Rider Class Servant, Francis Drake, the woman who brought down the sun.

Summoned by Yuto using as a catalyst all of the objects he had asked Yamato to obtain before leaving Onigashima and the Rider Piece recovered by Medb, she began immediately recruiting people to challenge the storm.

In Yuto's world, she was the most famous hero of the age of exploration. She was the first historical figure to circumnavigate the world and one of the most famous pirates, known as 'El Draque', the sea devil, a title given to her by the Spanish crown after she annihilated the Armada Invencible.

Although she was described as a man, Yuto was not surprised to discover that Francis Drake was a woman. On the other hand, even his mother had hidden his gender for all her time as king.

"All I see is a bunch of animals just waiting to go to the slaughterhouse." Captain Drake spoke as her eyes peered at the slaves in an attempt to see some reaction from them. "And they should treat you as such. People without any wish like you are not so different from pigs ready to become a delicatessen."

Yuto raised an eyebrow perplexed. He didn't understand if Francis's plan was really to enrol them because he had the feeling that she was getting the opposite effect.

"You!" Drake pointed at a male slave with his gun. "What do you want?" Then she pointed it at a woman. "You! Don't you want to accomplish something?" Drake put the weapon in her holster. "Do you all think this makes sense?"

Perhaps most of them just wanted to die as soon as possible. They no longer had a name or a home to return to. They no longer had a future. Some had been sold by their beloved ones because they could not pay the tribute to the Celestial Dragons while others had ended so because of piracy and banditry.

However, before that, they were forgetting one thing.

"Each of you has a wish, I am sure of this. No matter if you have forgotten it or you don't know what it is, you have it." The words of Captain Drake and the enthusiastic and energetic tone she said them were like a bullet that hit directly at everyone's hearts, even that of Aisha herself. "If you are human, fight. If you're cowards... well... you'll die like the animals you are right now."

By then, Drake's words had arrived one way or another. Someone had taken them as challenging words while others had taken them as a matter of pride. Finally, for some of them, it had become a possibility.

"I accept," the man that Drake had indicated spoke.

"What do you do? Do you want to become a pirate?" an old man asked with a gruff voice.

The man turned to the old man and nodded. "As a slave or pirate, the final result is written in stone, however, if I have to decide how I want it to be held high and not at the hands of some shitty Celestial Dragons." He turned to Francis and hardened his expression. "But you must not misunderstand me. I'm using you to get out of here."

Francis stared at the man for a moment before bursting into a thunderous laugh that confused everyone. "AHAHAHAH! Very well. You are a member of the Golden Hind from now on!"

Francis made a gesture to the old seller who was about to take the man out of the cage, without removing the handcuffs that tied his wrists and ankles.

Captain Drake approached the man and began questioning him.

His name was Ridus and he was a carpenter on his native island. Although he was not as good as the worst carpenter in the Galley-La Company, he could still repair the damage to the ship just enough to get it to an inhabited island.

"Me too," the woman Captain Drake had pointed out.

The seller freed her too.

Her name was Lydia and she was the daughter of a doctor. Since her childhood, she had been taught by her father to become a doctor capable of taking his place once he retired.