To most pirates, including Bjorn, they only know Ayla as a royal within the Empire of the Seven Hills. But this didn't have much impact - in their hearts, no matter what Ella's identity was, she was already a companion who had been with them through life and death.
After returning to the main force, the pirates who had been to Antilia recounted their great adventure to seize gold:
Some people say that he and Ella worked together to solve a thousand-year puzzle and obtained the gold; some say that he and Ella defeated seven powerful necromancers and seized the gold from their hands; some even He swore solemnly that he saw Ella defeat the Sword Master in a duel, forcing the Sword Master to pretend to be dead and hide. It was not until the Sword Master handed over the treasure house hidden in the cave that he was forgiven by the Shield Girl...
Then, they described how the Qiqiu Empire sent a huge fleet to kill the Shield Girl, and how they fought bravely and killed many enemy troops, and then rescued the Shield Girl from the dilemma... …
Although most people knew that this was probably just a drunken bragging by their companions, no matter what the truth was, seeing the ship full of gold, the pirates looked at this "legendary" who appeared in all versions of the story. "Shield Girl", the respect in her eyes became a little more.
After getting Lodbrok's permission, Hestein allocated part of the gold brought from Antilia to his troops, allowing them to return to Sealand, Hestein's territory. Hestein himself took the other half of his army and the remaining gold and sailed to Gotland to meet the Hero King.
Bjorn followed Hestein; Ella and Amy returned to Sealand with the troops left behind by Hestein. Lily Mistertin was originally scheduled to return to Zealand first, but due to her persistence, Hestein had no choice but to agree to her accompanying him.
The twelve or thirteen-year-old kid Gan Ye didn't know when he came back. Hestein didn't ask why he disappeared before, but just told him to take care of Ella and Amy.
As for Dan who "ran away", he was still missing.
More than half of the approximately 5,000 troops joining Ella came from other territories outside of Zealand. When they approached Zealand, they parted ways with Ella and the others. In the end, only more than 2,000 people accompanied Ella back to Zealand.
In this way, after more than a month of sailing on the sea since Ella left Constantiniya, she was finally going to land on the territory of the Pirate Kingdom.
Before actually setting foot on Zealandia, Ella and Amy got together several times to guess what the Pirate Kingdom would look like:
Ella guessed that the only men in the pirate kingdom were slaves, and all the chores were done by the tied slaves. The pirates not only drank and ate meat every day, but also went out to sea to rob. Amy boldly guessed that the Pirate Kingdom has no land and is connected by hundreds of ships. These ships are always moving and traveling around the North Sea.
The real scene was beyond their expectation: pirates also lived on land.
Not only that, as soon as the ship docked, many women and children gathered around it. The pirates who returned from the robbery picked up their children with smiles; they told their children about their adventures with added details, and at their home, their wives had already prepared dinner waiting for them.
These pirates who brought tears to countless families in the Seven Hills Empire suddenly transformed into the mainstay of a family's livelihood.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, what is going on? Aren't they pirates? Why do they feel like an ordinary family... Those women don't look like captured slaves..."
"If you think about it carefully, it makes sense that pirates have families... But pirates are pirates. They make a living by robbing. For this reason, they cannot be considered ordinary families."
As soon as Ella finished speaking, farmland appeared again on both sides of the road, with grains, beans, radishes, and cabbage planted on it. It was no different from the farmland in the Seven Hills Empire.
"Your Majesty! Crops! Pirates actually still grow crops?"
"It's... normal, isn't it? It would be a waste not to grow crops on the land. But the people working in the fields must be robbed slaves."
While Ella was speaking, the people working in the fields straightened up and greeted the returning pirates cheerfully. And the pirates responded politely.
"Your Majesty... they... seem to be friends?"
Ella was speechless.
After walking forward for a while, a large wooden fence appeared in front of us. Amy saw it and exclaimed: "What a big cattle pen! It's as big as our village!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Ella felt people's eyes turning to them.
"What...what's wrong? This is really the first time I've seen such a big cattle pen. It's as shocking as a pyramid...I'm serious..."
Amy explained carefully. But the expressions on the pirates' faces became even weirder.
"Could it be...a pigsty?"
Ella asked cautiously. She didn't know what the pirates were thinking.
One of the pirates replied in an unpleasant tone:
"That's our walled city. What you see is the wall of the walled city."
Ella and Amy were so frightened that they hurriedly covered their mouths.
After entering the big fence, people dispersed one after another. Gan took Ella and Amy to a low wooden house.
"Boss Hestein said, Sister Shield Girl, you can stay here before he comes back."
A sheep's cry came from the wooden house.
"Sheep...sheepfold? That Hestein is simply ungrateful! If it weren't for me, how could he have brought back the gold..."
Hearing Ella's complaint, Gan reminded from the side: "Sister Shield Girl, that's the home of Boss Hestein..."
"Only a devil would believe this kind of lie! There was a sheep's cry inside just now! Don't tell me that it was the cry of your boss's maid!"
"Your Majesty! Can you not take me with you when you complain!"
"Of course it's the sound of sheep? Sister Shield Girl, if you listen carefully, you can still hear the sound of cows."
"So, why do cows and sheep live in Hestein's house?"
"If you live outside, you will freeze to death at night?" Gan's head tilted slightly to one side in confusion, "Sister Shield Girl doesn't want to sleep outside the house at night, right?"
"Isn't Hestein the lord here? Why does he sleep with the cows and sheep!"
"Aren't you sleeping together? There are partitions inside, so you don't have to worry about being stepped on by a sheep when you sleep at night. In the whole of Zealand, the only house with partitions is the only house in Hestein... Hestein Because the boss hires people to come and clean it every once in a while, and there are also dedicated people to manage the cattle and sheep, so it’s pretty clean.”
After saying this, Gan raised his face and said:
"To be honest, I really want to see the strength of the shield girl sister... but the boss won't let me. Forget it, let's have a chance to compare the number of enemies killed on the battlefield in the future. I'll just go and play with the white bear now... "
White bear... Ella was stunned for a moment, and Gan had disappeared in a flash.
Amy walked around the room, then revealed half of her face behind the door:
"Your Majesty, the inside is surprisingly clean. It seems that someone has been cleaning it. There is also a place where you can light a fire for cooking in the middle of the house, but the food only has some potatoes and cabbage..."
Ella stamped her foot:
"Then kill his sheep and roast them! So as not to disturb our sleep at night!"
"Okay...Wait, wait a minute, Your Majesty, is it really okay to just kill the King of Beasts' sheep?"
"What's the problem! I rescued him from the guards, helped him write letters, helped him find gold, and most importantly, he tarnished my reputation! What happened to me eating one of his sheep!"
Amy listened to her ears and couldn't help but mutter to herself:
"I feel like Your Majesty... is she becoming more and more integrated into this group of pirates?"
