A panting Charles landed heavily onto the bed.
"I told you to be gentle!" A rosy-cheeked Anna looked down at the tattered stockings in her hands with distress. "One day, I'm really going to file those fangs of yours. I had a hard time getting my hands on this, and it's Spider Islands's latest spider silk product!"
"It's useless. I tried to saw them off, but they just grew back again," Charles replied.
"Why don't you just muster all your determination and rip them out? You're not a vampire, so you don't really need those fangs," Anna suggested as she snuggled up to Charles' arm.
Charles leaned and planted a kiss on her beautiful hair before saying, "Now that I think about it, Anna, do you still have the Bat Mirror? It might come in handy for the next exploration; we're going to the surface world, after all."
"No way, that mirror is way too dangerous. Use it too much, and you'll become some kind of freakish monster. And do you really think that I'm not familiar with your temperament?
"If I compromise, you'll definitely go overboard. You have no self-control at all."
Anna sat up, but Charles pulled her straight down.
Before they could get into it, however, a flash of radiant light erupted in the room, and a cute little girl wearing a skirt appeared at the bedside. Her yellow, cross-shaped pupils were fixed curiously on the couple on the bed.
Charles hastily covered himself and Anna with the thin blanket and stammered, "S-Sparkle... why are you here? Aren't you playing with Lily?"
"Mouse... lazy..." the little girl replied.
Meanwhile, the naked Anna nonchalantly lifted the blanket off her and rose to her feet. She lifted her daughter up to reveal the eight bright yellow tentacles underneath rather than two tiny legs.
"I still have many things to handle back at home. Don't forget to install a telegram machine on your ship. Contact me once you've found the exit to the surface world," Anna said.
Her words had yet to finish echoing in the room when another flash of radiant light erupted. The two were no longer in the room by the time the radiant light disappeared.
Charles leaned his head back on a pillow and closed his eyes slowly. He smiled as he savored the lingering fragrance in the air. He felt great. How could he not when everything was going swimmingly?
The next day, Charles decided to familiarize himself with his new eyes, and he found himself in an underground chamber beneath the Governor's Mansion. The chamber was spacious, and it was filled with many different equipment and gear.
The assortment of equipment and gear included guns, and there were targets to shoot at in the chamber, making it a perfect place to practice shooting.
Charles could see once more, but he still couldn't get used to his brand-new eyes. To make matters worse, he couldn't put a finger on what was wrong; all he knew was that they weren't as good as his original eyes for some reason.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The white bone bullets accurately struck the moving targets ten meters away from Charles. He then put the gun down, but a series of gunshots echoed immediately afterward. This time, he was the target rather than the shooter.
However, Charles had already begun moving right as the gunshots echoed, allowing him to avoid every single bullet that the navy soldier cut-out had fired at him.
Charles moved swiftly in the chamber; he moved too fast for the naked eye to track, and he even left numerous afterimages as he moved around. The gunshots eventually ceased, and Charles found himself slightly out of breath.
Charles then fished out crumpled bullets out of his clothes and tossed them aside while feeling somewhat dissatisfied with his performance. Clearly, he needed more training to return to his previous peak using his new eyes.
Charles quickly made a decision. The next voyage would certainly be dangerous, and a single mistake could mean death. In other words, Charles had to return to his peak strength before his next voyage.
Just then, a maid came up to Charles holding towels. She took a few surreptitious glances at Charles' muscular torso, visible through the holes in his clothes. Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly at the sight, and she even gulped a few mouthfuls of her own saliva.
Bang!
The door to the underground training room was flung open by an old man with a white triangle marking on his forehead. The steward chasing after the old man smiled awkwardly and explained, "Governor, I requested for this gentleman to wait in the reception room, but he insisted on seeing you immediately."
Charles wiped the sweat from his brows with a towel and asked, "What does he want to say?"
"His Holiness has sent me here to inquire about your next voyage," the old man replied.
"Haven't I told him? My crew and I need rest. It hasn't been that long since the previous voyage, and we need ample rest. If he can't wait until we've had enough rest, then he can depart first," Charles replied.
With that, Charles turned around and took a shower in the en-suite bathroom of the training ground. Upon walking out of the shower, the old man was nowhere to be seen. However, Charles wasn't the least relieved. That wasn't the first time the Pope had sent someone over; in fact, that earlier messenger was the fourth one.
The old codger had been sending people to harass him every day since the former acquired the nautical chart.
After the shower, Charles went to his office to deal with the island's administrative affairs. Honestly, Leonardo and Bandages were so great at their jobs as the Minister of Administration and Navy Admiral respectively, that Charles barely had to oversee matters.
However, he was still the Governor of Hope Island, which meant that he couldn't completely let go of the island's affairs. The island belonged to him, after all.
In addition, if something had happened to the surface world, he would have to spend the remainder of his life here, so Charles believed that he had to take care of Hope Island.
Time passed slowly, and Charles took his time familiarizing himself with Hope Island's current affairs. Hope Island's governance appeared pretty healthy at the moment—finances, military, education, etc., seemed pretty robust.
Of course, it could all be because of the fact that Hope Island was just three years old, which meant that it was still in its rapid growth phase, where any issues could be resolved by passing down the relevant decree.
An island with over a hundred years of history would see its waters muddied by the vested interests of many people, and its Governor would find their decision-making impeded by such variables.
Charles felt his new eyes sting after using them to read documents throughout the entire morning. He decided to take a break and had a maid bring him coffee and some raw meat.
Charles took a sip of the hot coffee before digging into his right eye socket and removing his eye. He then placed his eye on the table, and it started twitching before pouncing on a chunk of meat.
The spider thrust its fangs into the meat and started injecting digestive enzymes into the meat. Charles found this part of feeding the spider to be quite troublesome; the spider had to liquefy its food first before it could consume it.
"Hm? Is this a new variety of coffee? This coffee tastes different than usual."
"I heard it's made from one of Admiral Bandages' experimental seeds. They sped up the growth process to send a sample to the Governor's Mansion. I heard the farmers say that the seeds produce greater yield and are tastier, too."
So, this coffee has been genetically modified? Charles was truly surprised. If they could do the same to the staple crops like bananas, they might start enjoying double the yield if it somehow succeeded.
This is a big deal. I should set aside some time to talk to Bandages about the potential of such developments. The coffee tasted so much more delicious than the usual coffee that Charles had ended up finishing it before realizing it. He set his cup down to return to work, but he froze upon realizing that something was amiss.
Something was missing...
Charles turned to the steward next to him and asked, "Where's Lily? She's usually running all over the place, so why haven't I seen her today?"
A panting Charles landed heavily onto the bed.
"I told you to be gentle!" A rosy-cheeked Anna looked down at the tattered stockings in her hands with distress. "One day, I'm really going to file those fangs of yours. I had a hard time getting my hands on this, and it's Spider Islands's latest spider silk product!"
"It's useless. I tried to saw them off, but they just grew back again," Charles replied.
"Why don't you just muster all your determination and rip them out? You're not a vampire, so you don't really need those fangs," Anna suggested as she snuggled up to Charles' arm.
Charles leaned and planted a kiss on her beautiful hair before saying, "Now that I think about it, Anna, do you still have the Bat Mirror? It might come in handy for the next exploration; we're going to the surface world, after all."
"No way, that mirror is way too dangerous. Use it too much, and you'll become some kind of freakish monster. And do you really think that I'm not familiar with your temperament?
"If I compromise, you'll definitely go overboard. You have no self-control at all."
Anna sat up, but Charles pulled her straight down.
Before they could get into it, however, a flash of radiant light erupted in the room, and a cute little girl wearing a skirt appeared at the bedside. Her yellow, cross-shaped pupils were fixed curiously on the couple on the bed.
Charles hastily covered himself and Anna with the thin blanket and stammered, "S-Sparkle... why are you here? Aren't you playing with Lily?"
"Mouse... lazy..." the little girl replied.
Meanwhile, the naked Anna nonchalantly lifted the blanket off her and rose to her feet. She lifted her daughter up to reveal the eight bright yellow tentacles underneath rather than two tiny legs.
"I still have many things to handle back at home. Don't forget to install a telegram machine on your ship. Contact me once you've found the exit to the surface world," Anna said.
Her words had yet to finish echoing in the room when another flash of radiant light erupted. The two were no longer in the room by the time the radiant light disappeared.
Charles leaned his head back on a pillow and closed his eyes slowly. He smiled as he savored the lingering fragrance in the air. He felt great. How could he not when everything was going swimmingly?
The next day, Charles decided to familiarize himself with his new eyes, and he found himself in an underground chamber beneath the Governor's Mansion. The chamber was spacious, and it was filled with many different equipment and gear.
The assortment of equipment and gear included guns, and there were targets to shoot at in the chamber, making it a perfect place to practice shooting.
Charles could see once more, but he still couldn't get used to his brand-new eyes. To make matters worse, he couldn't put a finger on what was wrong; all he knew was that they weren't as good as his original eyes for some reason.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The white bone bullets accurately struck the moving targets ten meters away from Charles. He then put the gun down, but a series of gunshots echoed immediately afterward. This time, he was the target rather than the shooter.
However, Charles had already begun moving right as the gunshots echoed, allowing him to avoid every single bullet that the navy soldier cut-out had fired at him.
Charles moved swiftly in the chamber; he moved too fast for the naked eye to track, and he even left numerous afterimages as he moved around. The gunshots eventually ceased, and Charles found himself slightly out of breath.
Charles then fished out crumpled bullets out of his clothes and tossed them aside while feeling somewhat dissatisfied with his performance. Clearly, he needed more training to return to his previous peak using his new eyes.
Charles quickly made a decision. The next voyage would certainly be dangerous, and a single mistake could mean death. In other words, Charles had to return to his peak strength before his next voyage.
Just then, a maid came up to Charles holding towels. She took a few surreptitious glances at Charles' muscular torso, visible through the holes in his clothes. Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly at the sight, and she even gulped a few mouthfuls of her own saliva.
Bang!
The door to the underground training room was flung open by an old man with a white triangle marking on his forehead. The steward chasing after the old man smiled awkwardly and explained, "Governor, I requested for this gentleman to wait in the reception room, but he insisted on seeing you immediately."
Charles wiped the sweat from his brows with a towel and asked, "What does he want to say?"
"His Holiness has sent me here to inquire about your next voyage," the old man replied.
"Haven't I told him? My crew and I need rest. It hasn't been that long since the previous voyage, and we need ample rest. If he can't wait until we've had enough rest, then he can depart first," Charles replied.
With that, Charles turned around and took a shower in the en-suite bathroom of the training ground. Upon walking out of the shower, the old man was nowhere to be seen. However, Charles wasn't the least relieved. That wasn't the first time the Pope had sent someone over; in fact, that earlier messenger was the fourth one.
The old codger had been sending people to harass him every day since the former acquired the nautical chart.
After the shower, Charles went to his office to deal with the island's administrative affairs. Honestly, Leonardo and Bandages were so great at their jobs as the Minister of Administration and Navy Admiral respectively, that Charles barely had to oversee matters.
However, he was still the Governor of Hope Island, which meant that he couldn't completely let go of the island's affairs. The island belonged to him, after all.
In addition, if something had happened to the surface world, he would have to spend the remainder of his life here, so Charles believed that he had to take care of Hope Island.
Time passed slowly, and Charles took his time familiarizing himself with Hope Island's current affairs. Hope Island's governance appeared pretty healthy at the moment—finances, military, education, etc., seemed pretty robust.
Of course, it could all be because of the fact that Hope Island was just three years old, which meant that it was still in its rapid growth phase, where any issues could be resolved by passing down the relevant decree.
An island with over a hundred years of history would see its waters muddied by the vested interests of many people, and its Governor would find their decision-making impeded by such variables.
Charles felt his new eyes sting after using them to read documents throughout the entire morning. He decided to take a break and had a maid bring him coffee and some raw meat.
Charles took a sip of the hot coffee before digging into his right eye socket and removing his eye. He then placed his eye on the table, and it started twitching before pouncing on a chunk of meat.
The spider thrust its fangs into the meat and started injecting digestive enzymes into the meat. Charles found this part of feeding the spider to be quite troublesome; the spider had to liquefy its food first before it could consume it.
"Hm? Is this a new variety of coffee? This coffee tastes different than usual."
"I heard it's made from one of Admiral Bandages' experimental seeds. They sped up the growth process to send a sample to the Governor's Mansion. I heard the farmers say that the seeds produce greater yield and are tastier, too."
So, this coffee has been genetically modified? Charles was truly surprised. If they could do the same to the staple crops like bananas, they might start enjoying double the yield if it somehow succeeded.
This is a big deal. I should set aside some time to talk to Bandages about the potential of such developments. The coffee tasted so much more delicious than the usual coffee that Charles had ended up finishing it before realizing it. He set his cup down to return to work, but he froze upon realizing that something was amiss.
Something was missing...
Charles turned to the steward next to him and asked, "Where's Lily? She's usually running all over the place, so why haven't I seen her today?"
