Chapter 248: Midnight Exchange
“I’m sorry, it was my fault.”
On the deck, Isabel, with her swollen face, graciously stepped onto the deck and decisively bowed her head to the crew member she had conflict with, saying an apology.
Paz looked at Captain Alagina beside her with surprise, then glanced at Fisher, who had also come up from the cabin with his arms crossed. After confirming his expression, she coldly shot a glance at the crew member standing behind her, indicating that she should respond.
In fact, Paz’s gaze didn’t reach the crew member; she only looked at Isabel’s swollen cheek and gently touched her own short hair that was just grazing the back of her head. Then she awkwardly said “sorry.”
The crew member’s timid demeanor irritated Paz, making her roar like a giant bear,
“Why are you speaking so quietly?! Aren’t you a woman?! Speak louder until I can hear you!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
After Paz sharply slapped her back, the force seemed to break the restraints hidden within the crew member, causing her to close her eyes and stand tall as she shouted “sorry” several times.
Seeing the atmosphere brighten up from afar, Fisher continued to lean against the mast, repeatedly reflecting on what Isabel had said to him; the emptiness inside him spread like cold gold, to the point he didn’t even notice when Alagina had walked up beside him.
After several seconds passed, he finally became aware of Alagina silently watching him. His thoughtful expression faded, and he turned to her and asked,
“What’s wrong?”
Alagina shook her head, moved a little closer to Fisher, and looked towards Isabel in the distance, saying,
“Her face is injured; I’m letting the ship’s doctor ice it.”
“That’s troublesome. I’ll cast a healing magic for her later; she should be fine by tomorrow.”
“You know so much.”
“Just okay.”
Then their usually dry yet comfortable conversation paused again. Alagina’s gaze shifted back to him, secretly glancing at Fisher’s hand that hung by his side.
After that, she suddenly asked,
“Fisher, are you unhappy?”
Fisher looked at the captain, who was slightly taller than him, with surprise. He thought Alagina misinterpreted him being displeased because of forcing Isabel to apologize, so he shook his head and explained,
“No. Isabel apologizing to the crew was not something I forced; it was her own will. She knows she did wrong.”
But Alagina continued to look at Fisher and said,
“That’s not it. I feel that you are not happy because of another woman.”
Now it was Fisher’s turn to be caught off guard; he hadn’t expected Alagina’s perceptions to be so delicate that she would notice he was thinking about Elizabeth.
He recalled a joke often circulated in Nali about the Kingdom of Sardinia: if a Nali gentleman decided to marry a lady from Sardinia, it would be better to learn from the forthright Shivali people and find a male partner since at least that way, there would be no need to go abroad.
This joke satirizes that Sardinia’s ladies have a strong inclination towards “big feminism,” not much different from the traditional gentlemen of Nali, known for their straightforwardness and lack of social grace, yet this legendary captain from Sardinia was not like that.
On the contrary, her thoughts were very delicate.
Realizing this, Fisher refrained from directly answering her question and instead brought up another matter,
“By the way, I almost forgot to tell you. Isabel is actually the youngest princess of the Godlin Royal, and we left Saint Nali without the permission of her biological sister, Elizabeth. I imagine we are being pursued with a huge bounty by Nali now.”
“I know that we received the bounty for you and her earlier. Elizabeth announced her ascension in Saint Nali a few days ago, becoming Nali’s tenth emperor and the first empress.”
“That was to be expected.”
Alagina’s gaze moved from his hand up to his profile before stopping.
“Fisher, is it because of Elizabeth that you’re unhappy?”
“…”
Fisher didn’t answer immediately, and seeing this, a strange bitterness slowly spread in Alagina’s heart. However, she didn’t press further, lightly extending her left hand to hold Fisher’s finger that was hanging in the air.
In that moment, Fisher suddenly felt a cold finger slowly intertwining with his palm. Alagina’s hand was not soft; he could feel the calluses from her sword grip, but her movement was gentle, wrapping around him willingly, bringing warmth from that cold skin.
Once she encapsulated Fisher’s palm, she exhaled lightly, her white hair tied in a ponytail, causing her earlobes to blush again. She asked,
“Is this… better?”
Perched on Fisher’s shoulder, Emhart suddenly rolled her eyes and ran toward Kalma and the others. With no one supervising him, Fisher instinctively glanced at her delicate neck. As his gaze moved, he didn’t release Alagina’s hand; instead, he gripped it even tighter.
“Um, much better.”
“Mm.”
His sudden strength took Alagina by surprise, and because of it, her previous earlobe blush spread to her cheeks.
At that moment, her gaze suddenly drifted towards her injured right hand. She suddenly thought that if Fisher touched her injured right hand, it would definitely hurt—indeed, it would hurt a lot.
In truth, from the moment Nali and Fisher met, she had suddenly realized a peculiar little quirk within herself: she seemed to enjoy the pain brought by a loved one.
Of course, it wasn’t that her mind was broken, intentionally seeking pain; she simply liked the pain that came from someone she cherished.
When she saw Fisher use the magic “Bone Worm” to punish the artificial sorceress from the Sorceress Research Society in Snakehead Tavern, she found herself fantasizing about him using that magic to punish her as well. Even after parting, she often dreamt of reliving that feeling.
This little quirk might seem strange, but after long-term use of the Ice Prince, the frost effect from the relic dulled her senses. Even gentle caresses and touches from her loved one were hardly stimulating enough; only the most passionate touches could melt the ice, and only pain could effectively transmit emotions to her heart, making her truly feel his presence.
So, was it that she longed for the pain he would bring her?
Alagina thought this way.
Upon realizing this, Alagina’s lips slightly parted, and her usually cold expression was somewhat brightened by the warmth rising from her heart.
She wanted him to touch her injured right hand forcefully.
Just as Alagina was unable to control herself, reaching out her bandaged right hand towards Fisher, the whole ship suddenly trembled. Aoxi, at the top of the mast, stood up in response, shifting her gaze away from Alagina and Fisher.
“Boom!”
“The steam engine is fixed!”
“Finally! I thought we’d have to take that thing apart and reassemble it!”
With the tremor of the ship, a thick column of black smoke suddenly erupted from the chimney above the engine room, signifying that the heart of the Iceberg Queen had started beating again. Many crew members cheered up, shouting at the crew working in the engine room below.
“It seems the steam engine is already fixed; we can set off today.”
This sudden commotion interrupted Alagina’s thoughts. She gently lowered her right hand, and Fisher also released her left hand linked with his as Paz excitedly ran towards them.
“Captain, I thought it would take a few more days to fix it. If we depart tonight, this amount of food will be enough to reach the next supply point, and we can return to Pirate Port earlier.”
Facing Paz’s gaze, Alagina took one last look at Fisher’s fingers. Her previous shyness gradually withdrew, returning to her usual demeanor.
As she had promised Fisher earlier, Alagina was not in a hurry to pursue him nor did she want to pressure him. But somehow, when she recalled that Fisher was contemplating Elizabeth, she found it hard to endure.
A hint of something unexplainable flickered in her blue eyes, but she merely nodded, commanding First Mate Paz,
“I understand. We will set off immediately to the supply point at the junction of the Eastern and Southern Oceans.”
And at the top of the mast, with the roar of the steam engine echoing, Aoxi, who had been startled awake by the vibrations, saw nothing else unusual. She readjusted her cloak, instinctively reaching beside her but finding nothing in her usual spot where Parrot Steel Knife always stayed.
Her expression under the cloak briefly froze, scanning around until she finally spotted Steel Knife playing with Emhart and the others near the captain’s cabin.
“…”
Watching the parrot engaging with a few Mouse Daughters, Aoxi, concealed beneath her cloak, gently lifted her hand in preparation to whistle, but the expected whistle to summon it never came.
After waiting for a long while, Aoxi silently lowered her hand and returned to her usual spot, becoming an unchanging part of the scenery on the Iceberg Queen.
However, this time, her gaze couldn’t help but keep drifting towards the direction where Alagina and Fisher were holding hands.
Aoxi remained still, and thus her solitary figure seemed somewhat lonely.
The Iceberg Queen, having resumed its voyage, quickly left the island that served as a reference point, sailing into the vast ocean, just like before.
Tonight, the weather was poor; the wind was strong, and the ship was quiet. Most of the crew had returned to their rooms to rest, leaving only a few on duty.
As the night deepened, casting shadows that completely covered everyone’s sight, Fisher, alone, went to the kitchen, nervously examining the magical material powders on the table.
After dinner, the still-swollen Isabel didn’t want to face anyone on deck, so she had retreated to her room early, casting a pitiful glance at Fisher before going in, clearly waiting for him to inscribe a healing magic for her.
Yet, despite promising this, Fisher now realized a rather serious problem: the Iceberg Queen didn’t have any engraving tools for magic.
He had originally wanted to ask Alagina if there were any similar tools on the ship. They did have a dagger-like object but lost it to the sea, leaving only a scary-looking curved knife usable.
Alagina had wanted to use the Ice Prince to create an ice knife for him to engrave with, but as the ice knife would melt while carving, it caused the magical material powder to become sticky and ineffective.
With no other choice, Fisher had to ask their ship’s cook for a kitchen knife.
The kitchen knife from the Kingdom of Sardinia was peculiar, featuring a square-shaped blade capable of handling various ingredients from the Northern Region, perfect for tasks like deboning and chopping meat but somewhat odd for engraving magic.
Holding the kitchen knife in his hand, Fisher looked at the iron plate meant for engraving magic and found it difficult to get started. He shifted his engraving motions several times, but nothing felt quite right.
“Whoosh.”
The kitchen was located on the level just below the deck, but it was rather isolated, situated closer to the dining area near the stern. At night, hardly any crew came down here; they were either on duty or resting deeper in the bunks.
Tonight, fierce winds raged across the sea. Even through the window, Fisher could hear the howling wind outside, causing the entire ship to sway slightly, making it more challenging for him to carve the magic.
“Hello.”
“Hello! Hello!”
Just as he was distressed over the iron plate in front of him, a faint, soft voice suddenly emerged from the quiet dining area next door. Following the first line, another familiar and annoying parrot voice sounded.
Hearing that, Fisher raised an eyebrow, looking towards the direction of the dining room next door.
He gently set down the kitchen knife and moved towards the corner wall of the kitchen, where the faint female voice, mixed with the whooshing wind outside, became increasingly clear.
“Hello. My name is Aoxi.”
“Aoxi! Aoxi!”
“No, you should say… nice to meet you.”
“Gah! Gah!”
“I’m sorry, I forgot you’re just a parrot. Let’s try again, okay? Just say what I say.”
Aoxi?
The conversation from next door was somewhat recognizable; it was clearly Aoxi and her pet Steel Knife, but curiously, the content of their exchange seemed a bit odd.
“Hello. My name is Aoxi.”
“Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.”
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(End of Chapter)
