Pirates: The wages are in place, the four emperors are kicked out

Guevara took Long to the cargo room in the deepest part of the ship. Most of the storage was made of huge stones, but there were also things like old books and glassware. Every piece of cargo inside was stained with sand.

It's full of earthy smell.

Lucy stood in front of the table in the corner of the room, staring at the book open in front of her, and groaned "Um...". When she unexpectedly discovered the dragon's arrival, she was startled and stared at Guevara.

"Really, Mr. Guevara! Why did you let Mr. Long come here too!"

"Mr. Long is also a companion on the same boat as us. Why can't we let him come to visit?"

Guevara smiled and said, "Besides, we were able to obtain these cultural relics unearthed in war areas with the help of Mr. Long, weren't we?"

Lucy couldn't help but puff up her cheeks after Guevara said a few words: "Mr. Long may not be interested in these cultural relics, and I don't know whether the interpretation will go smoothly..."

"I'm actually quite interested in these things, Miss Lucy,"

Long said, "But I also know that interpreting historical relics is definitely not a simple matter, so don't put too much pressure on yourself..."

"……Um"

After she and Long looked at each other, Lucy's heart began to slow down again. She whispered "Yeah", her big eyes quickly looked away, and then she immediately looked away from the piles of books on the table.

He took out a slate and showed it to Long and Guevara.

Strange symbols that look like paintings but not paintings, and look like words but not words are densely carved on the stone slabs at equal intervals.

"What is this? Miss Lucy."

Long asked curiously,

"Mr. Long, do you still remember the ancient ruins where we found these cultural relics under your protection?"

After entering her professional field of archaeology, Lucy's whole person seemed to have changed. Not only did she regain her usual generous and casual personality, but she also looked energetic. "I have communicated with the locals and it has been confirmed that there are hundreds of people there."

The ruins of the national royal palace in the city years ago are called the Yuriga Civilization."

"Is Yuriga civilized..."

Long nodded while listening. His fingertips ran across the stones piled up in the room. Their surfaces were covered with a thin layer of dust. "Every time I communicate with you, I feel that you archaeologists are really amazing."

"……Eh?"

"Is not it?"

Long smiled and looked at Lucy again. The latter returned to the awkward and overwhelmed state because of the sudden gaze. "If these precious cultural relics are placed like this among the monuments in the war zone,

If you don't care, it will definitely be destroyed by people who don't understand its value, and then disappear together with the civilization and history it carries... Although I don't know anything about archeology, I can also judge what it is like.

A terrible situation. And…”

Long looked down - the notebook on the table was filled with Lucy's handwriting that he had seen occasionally during the week. The young female archaeologist copied these historical documents. Although Long had not seen it for many years

He had already picked up the pen, but he could see Lucy's troubled process from between the lines, as if he had experienced it himself.

"To use a sentence I once heard to describe it, Lucy, you 'want to listen to the voice of history that has disappeared'... I am very happy to help you get these historical artifacts."

Long smiled at Lucy, and Lucy smiled shyly along with him. Guevara's expression on the side also softened because of the soft atmosphere present.

"...Mr. Long, how much do you know about the Yukari civilization?"

Like a child sharing his favorite snack, Lucy asked Long with some pride.

"I've never understood that before."

Long faced Lucy's question with a very calm attitude and gently shook his head.

Lucy then looked at Guevara aside.

"Sorry, Lucy, I've only heard the name."

Yukari should have been a city-state that existed about six hundred years ago. It seemed to be quietly isolated and was born amidst the disputes between big powers. It suffered from invasion but remained independent for nearly a hundred years. Finally, it was annexed by a neighboring big country.

Destruction - its legend goes like this, but no one knows the truth. The area where the Yukari civilization once flourished is still a disputed area at the junction of national borders. There has not been much progress in its research in the world today. Even among archaeologists,

Few people know its name.

"But what I can tell you is - this is not a stone slab, but a fired clay slab."

Lucy said confidently.

"Clay tablet?"

Long looked at the board on the table in surprise.

The words written on the soft clay dried with time and lost their original appearance. He assumed that the information that needed to be preserved for a long time should be written on a slate, so it was natural for him to regard it as a slate. And in fact, in front of him,

The writing board is as hard as stone.

"Mr. Long, you still remember that I said this was a stone slab unearthed from the ruins of the royal palace, right? The palace may have suffered a fire more than six hundred years ago, and the clay slab burned by the high temperature became as hard as pottery, so it has been preserved to this day...

…“

Lucy stroked the surface of the clay slab with her slender fingers. Because it had been buried in the soil for a long time and was not exposed to the air, it was in extremely good condition.

"The palace suffered a fire more than 600 years ago... Can you archaeologists predict such an unexpected event in history? It's really amazing!"

Long praised sincerely.

However, Lucy shook her head: "Mr. Long, this fire was not an accident... Based on the phonetic characters on this clay tablet and other cultural relics near it, I speculate that the fire that occurred in the palace should have been caused by a group of people.

It’s what outsiders do.”

"...outsiders? Pirates?"

Long subconsciously thought of his old rival in the navy - no, he was still in the navy now, but he was in the exile stage of being punished.

"No, it should be a group of slaves. They rebelled against their masters, the rulers of the Yuriga civilization. In the end, they burned the ruling class of the Yuriga civilization and their palace in a fire. These slaves called themselves

'Revolutionary Army'..."

"..."

This time it was Long's turn for his heart to start to stall uncontrollably.