It was likely that some other faction was involved in this deal between the Thunderstorm Pirates and the customs officer. That would explain why the authorities had not sent anybody to take control of the situation even though it was clearly chaos everywhere in the city.
Carl even suspected that the alleged report about the pirates in Wiebar Village was merely a ruse by the Thunderstorm Pirates to lure the troops at the port away so that they could infiltrate the city easily.
In any case, given how messy things were out here, Carl felt that it was best to bring Harold and the girl with cat ears back to the castle so that they could seek refuge by Melissa's side. As long as she was willing to protect them, nobody would dare barge into the castle and try to hurt them.
However, even after
