George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He’d heard about alchemists who spent their lives trying conduct bizarre rituals and experiments in the quest to transform various substances into Gold.
Some had managed to convince kings and queens to grant them funding and offices for their research.
George apprenticed himself to an alchemist, and after a few months, he learned the man’s secret:
Alchemy was a fraud. Just a way to make a living off of arrogant and greedy royalty.
“So be piracy, matey,” said George, drawing his cutlass. “I be taking ye grant money now.”