### Chapter 263: 39. Pure Love (Combined)
Wearing a Northern Region dress, Captain Alagina quickly walked through the bustling commercial streets of Pat Sulshen Island. It was the afternoon, and the sunlight was scattering down from the sky, falling onto the ground as fragmented patches of light, like little islands of stars spread out on this land.
Although the temperature was just right and the atmosphere was lively, the more Alagina walked, the colder she felt, as if she had suddenly returned to the backyard of her mother’s palace over a decade ago.
At this moment, the warm sunlight transformed into the blizzard of the Northern Region, and the thin patches of light on the ground suddenly thickened, becoming a heavy layer of snow that almost submerged Alagina’s calves.
The figure of Alagina, taller than most men, seemed to shrink in that moment, turning into the child she was at five years old, wearing a cotton coat, her little face flushed.
“Father!”
In the vast backyard of the feudal royal palace, her fragile cry echoed far, stirring the falling snowflakes in the sky. The icy lake and frost-covered trees around her did not grow their own mouths to respond, so she had no choice but to gasp and run deeper into the yard.
She knew her father did not like staying in her mother’s palace, especially enjoying solitude without attendants deeply in the yard.
Whenever young Alagina woke up from her afternoon nap or escaped from her heavy studies and combat training, she would chase after her father’s figure like a timid boy.
At that time, the winters in the Northern Region were exceptionally cold, as if the Frost Phoenix were angry and punishing the sins of the Northern Region people. The Sardinian kingdom was experiencing a rare blizzard in a hundred years.
Ignoring the palace attendants’ warnings, young Alagina gasped and ran alone deep into the yard, searching for her father.
The courtyard was home to many fierce beasts favored by her feudal royal mother, but even those strong predators were tormented by the severe cold, hiding beneath the rockeries and thickets, merely opening their eyes to watch Alagina run through the snow.
“Father!”
Running had exhausted her, and she leaned on her knees, calling again into the empty courtyard. Her panting chest seemed about to drive away the last bit of warmth inside her, and her small body was growing increasingly tired, unable to resist collapsing in the ice and snow.
“Alagina?”
At that moment, a voice responded suddenly from a small pavilion by the distant ice lake. That familiar voice ignited her heart like a match; she hurriedly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and ran in that direction.
Finally, she saw her father sitting in the corner of the pavilion.
He was a gentle man with white hair, wrapped in a thick fur coat. His handsome face always bore a hint of sickly pallor and melancholy.
He seemed to be staring blankly at the cold surface of the lake until he heard Alagina’s calling, snapping him out of his daze. He turned to look at the small girl panting outside the pavilion.
“Alagina, weren’t you napping? Why are you here?”
He slowly stood up and reached out his hand towards Alagina, who had rushed into his embrace.
The men of the Sardinian kingdom were delicate, and Alagina’s father’s body was even weaker, whether due to his long history of being a fragile patient or the daily torment from her cruel mother. He couldn’t even withstand Alagina’s enthusiastic rush and inevitably fell back against the pavilion’s edge after holding her.
He wrapped the young Alagina in his fur coat, shielding her from the biting cold outside. Feeling the calm rhythm of her father’s heartbeat brought Alagina unprecedented comfort, and she began to nuzzle in his embrace.
“Father…”
“I’m here, Alagina.”
“What were you looking at before?”
Her father opened his mouth, paused for a long while, then shook his head and smiled as he replied, “…I wasn’t looking at anything, just getting some fresh air. How was your nap? Did you sleep well?”
“Okay… just a bit missed you.”
“Is that so? Do you still miss me now?”
“Miss~”
Alagina said no more, burying her head, silently staying in her father’s embrace.
Within the fur coat, her azure eyes fell upon the visible bruising on her father’s neck and arms, and although she was young, she seemed to understand what was happening.
She tightly clenched the clothing beside her, as if wanting to strangle the neck of her enemy.
Her father sensed her tension and rage, gently placing her hands on his chest to help her relax.
It seemed that wasn’t enough, and he suddenly remembered something, reaching into his coat to pull something out.
“By the way, Alagina, I have a gift I want to give you…”
“Okay, okay. Hey, what’s this?”
Alagina straightened up from his embrace and saw her father holding a metallic necklace embedded with a blue gemstone. Having been cupped in his hand for a while, its warm temperature had covered the original coldness of the metal, so when he placed it in Alagina’s hands, it was already warm.
“This is an accessory left by your grandmother; I am giving it to you now, as a token for when you find a husband… If one day you meet someone special, then give this item as proof of your affection.”
Alagina stared blankly at the exquisitely made necklace in her father’s arms, waiting a long time before she solemnly placed it in her own embrace and nodded, “I will keep it safe.”
“Mm, good girl.”
Her father nodded, smiling as he reached out to stroke Alagina’s white hair, making her comfortably squint her eyes.
But just as she was enjoying her father’s gentle touch, Alagina suddenly sensed something; it seemed someone was watching them from outside. That gaze was subtle, never penetrating the warmth between father and daughter, lingering instead in the storm of snow outside the pavilion.
She leaned slightly out of the fur coat to look outside, and saw a tall girl, strikingly resembling her but with a few years’ difference, leaning against a tree, quietly observing her and her father.
The girl was Alagina’s half-sister, ten years older than her,
Helena Hammond.
……
……
Her thoughts abruptly came to a halt as Alagina’s steps stopped in front of a tavern usually frequented by Paz on Pat Sulshen Island.
The tavern, normally very lively during the day, was eerily quiet now, and a faint, pungent scent of alcohol wafted from the half-closed door.
Something was off; something had happened.
Was it the Nali people Fischer mentioned?
Had they discovered Fischer, but why did they come for Paz first instead of herself?
She furrowed her brows slightly; the phantom of the Ice Prince sword also manifested in her hand, a wave of chilling air erupted from her feet, pouring toward the tavern inside, and her senses followed the spreading ice blocks into the tavern.
The frost entered the tavern like an extended sensory organ, and she quickly sensed the general situation inside.
Scattered bottles of alcohol, bodies unconscious on the ground, a mixture of alcohol and blood flowing on the floor, and Paz, still lying in a corner of the tavern, dazed, clutching a firearm, with Old Jack, the Nali elder Fischer brought aboard, lying behind her.
And finally, there was a massive shadow standing in the middle of the room.
As Alagina sensed the location of that figure, a wave of extreme danger surged through her heart. She quickly reacted by retreating, raising the Ice Prince sword, and in the split second, a thick ice wall instantly formed before her, attempting to block the impending attack that was storming from within.
“Boom!”
“Crack!”
The sound of shattering wind and cracking ice resonated simultaneously. Alagina’s blue eyes narrowed in disbelief as she witnessed a hand easily pierce through the ice wall, stopping right before the blade of the Ice Prince sword.
That hand was covered in pure silver armor, decorated with feather-like embellishments, making it look like both a human hand and a sharp claw of the mythical Phoenix.
In the next moment, that giant hand suddenly turned and tightly gripped the Ice Prince sword in Alagina’s hands, leaving her unable to advance or retreat. The frost from the Ice Prince began to creep along the opponent’s armor, but the opponent seemed completely unaware of the cold.
“Phoenix Knight?”
Alagina opened her mouth in surprise, recognizing the identity of the armored figure, but what responded to her was a disdainful chuckle.
“No, not just a Phoenix Knight… but also your sister.”
With that contemptuous voice coming from behind the ice wall, the extended hand suddenly clenched and withdrew, then another hand swung toward Alagina, delivering a powerful punch that directly broke through the ice wall hole she had made, striking hard against her face.
“Thud!”
Feeling a tremendous force, Alagina was uncontrollably sent flying, crashing into a shop on the other side of the street.
The booming clash quickly caught the attention of passing pirates and merchants on the street, but sensing the dreadful low pressure here, they wisely chose to flee and report the situation to local gangs or pirates…
But clearly, even if they did, no local forces on Pat Sulshen Island would be foolish enough to interfere in this battle.
The blocks of ice formed by the cold were brutally torn apart by the woman who had just emerged from the tavern, a tall figure blocking the sunlight pouring from above, casting a heavy shadow named “Helena” that completely covered the street.
“Helena!”
Alagina supported herself on the shattered wall of the shop and stepped back into the street. Blood flowed from her nose where she was struck, yet she paid it no mind, wiping it away and fixing her gaze with a chilling intensity on the woman slowly walking out of the tavern, who resembled a giant bear.
Helena Hammond was the first daughter born to her damned feudal royal mother and her marriage husband, ten years older than her youngest sister Alagina, and she was the daughter who looked most like their mother.
Alagina, guilty of the crime of murdering her mother, harbored intense hatred for everything about the Hammond family, loathing the one who had brought her gentle father to destruction, and of course extending the same feelings toward this rarely-seen sister.
As Blair had said, once they were aware of each other’s existence, neither would rest until the other was dead.
Sensing the cold air radiating from Alagina, Helena’s pale blue eyes reflected Alagina’s face, which seemed to be indistinguishably merged with someone from her memories, causing her to momentarily daze.
However, she quickly forcefully dispelled that apparition, donned the helmet she had been holding, which turned her rugged face into one resembling the head of a phoenix made of mithril.
The helmet isolated her from the lingering thoughts of the past, chilling her heart.
“I thought that the Alagina who did something so great back then would become formidable and brave… in the end, you’re still a disappointing child, just like that coward from back then who would only cry and sneak away after being struck in training!”
“You should be thankful that you weren’t in the palace when I killed that scum; otherwise, you would now be suffering alongside her in the depths of the earth.”
As soon as Alagina finished speaking, several other Phoenix Knights clad in armor burst out from the tavern behind Helena, each wielding a slim and light sword, slowly surrounding Alagina.
“Traitor Alagina Hammond, surrender immediately and return to accept the Chief’s judgment…”
Before the Phoenix Knight in front of Alagina could finish speaking, a large hand reached out from behind her, pushing her aside. Helena raised a heavy hammer shimmering with eerie light, a gruff voice escaping from beneath her phoenix mask.
“Stop with the pathetic chatter and get out of my way!”
“Lady Helena, but…”
As Helena lifted the warhammer, a terrifying gravitational force erupted from its surface, pulling surrounding debris and Alagina simultaneously toward her direction as if wanting to deliver their heads willingly.
Relic, [Black Hole Hammer]
Only those who had been bestowed the title of “Great Knight” or higher by the Chief could receive the granted relics, and reaching this step as a Phoenix Knight was not a simple process. Historically, there were only about a hundred knights who could be called “Great Knights.”
To match such special glory, the relics bestowed upon them by the Chief were typically not commonplace, as seen in the Black Hole Hammer.
Facing the terrifying force of the impending strike, Alagina maintained a serious expression but remained calm. Her dress, slightly stained, clung tightly to her as she executed a graceful turn in mid-air; the Ice Prince sword, almost like protective armor, brushed past Helena’s massive hammer.
“Buzz!”
The erupting frost made Helena’s joints stiffen momentarily, but helplessly, her strength was overwhelming. In an instant, the speed of her heavy hammer reached its peak, swiftly catching up to Alagina, who was attempting to evade the blow.
Realizing there was no escape in mid-air, Alagina’s pupils constricted slightly as she braced herself to minimize the damage, covering her head and chest with her hands, gritting her teeth in preparation to take the incoming blow head-on.
“Shriek!”
But at that moment, a fierce wind swept in from the snowy mountains of the Northern Region, causing Helena’s hammer-swinging motion to falter. In the blink of an eye, a cyan lightning bolt suddenly surged forth, seizing Alagina and pulling her away from Helena’s attack range.
“Boom!”
What had just transpired occurred within mere milliseconds. The next moment, Helena’s missed massive hammer swept desolately through the street before her, with such force that the shockwaves spread throughout the street as if it aimed to sink the entire island, generating an explosive rumble accompanied by a powerful sucking force that reverberated through the air and ground, blowing Aoxi and Alagina far away, tumbling several times before landing on the ground.
“Cough cough…”
“Alagina! Get up! You pathetic coward who hides in your father’s arms!”
Despite the massive blow, Helena was relentless, hoisting her warhammer and charging at Alagina. As the Phoenix Knights behind her prepared to follow, they suddenly heard a fluttering sound behind them as if several bees were rapidly flapping their wings.
“Buzz!”
The Phoenix Knights turned to look and saw several fluttering light rings rapidly dashing toward them in the empty street.
Three-ring magic, Dance of the Bees.
“And there’s an enemy attack!”
The powerful Dance of the Bees struck the Phoenix Knight standing behind Helena, producing a sharp friction sound against their armor’s surface, but failing to penetrate their protection at all.
In both the Western Continent and the Northern Region’s proper kingdoms, there typically existed combat units known as “Knights,” and due to the unique historical and cultural characteristics of different kingdoms, each had different strengths and weaknesses.
The Royal Knights of Nali excelled in group combat and were the best at coordinating with modern firearms, boasting reasonably balanced capabilities.
According to Fischer’s classification, a standard six-person knight squad would have an average rank of around three to four, considered the most average level among knights of various nations.
Moreover, the average physical quality of Northern Region women far surpasses that of men from other kingdoms. With their renowned physical prowess and excellent equipment, the average rank of the Phoenix Knights would certainly be higher than that of Saint Nali’s knights, probably hovering around rank five.
Fischer’s Dance of the Bees had only a three-ring’s power, which of course could not penetrate their armor, but he never intended to use the Dance of the Bees to solve them anyway.
“Fischer?”
This sudden attack captured all present attention; Aoxi and Alagina, both enveloped in Aoxi’s wings, raised their heads simultaneously, peering through the smoke that had just risen from Helena’s assault. They saw a peculiar man, dressed in a white shirt and wrapping a cape around his head, sprinting towards them.
To Fischer, Aoxi’s cape was a bit short and very inconvenient to run with; in order to cover his face, he had to wrap it directly around his own instead.
Aoxi immediately recognized the cape on Fischer’s face as her own belonging, and as she saw this scene, her expression slightly flushed.
Meanwhile, Alagina, who was beneath Aoxi’s wings, opened her mouth and, the next instant, reached out to gently push Aoxi aside to stand up, calling out worriedly to Fischer in the distance, “Fischer, wait, be careful!”
In her innocence, Alagina only prioritized the safety of her beloved from afar and didn’t notice anything else, not even Aoxi’s peculiar complexion beside her.
Helena evidently realized the close relationship between the masked man behind her and Alagina, and she lightly licked her lips, teasingly turning her gaze back to Alagina, speaking to the Phoenix Knights behind her, “Catch that man for me; I want to strip his clothes in front of this coward and play with her man, so she can see what a real woman looks like…”
Standing at a distance, Emhart, who was perched on Fischer’s shoulder, instinctively wanted to replace Fischer, the ‘bad man,’ with a comment like, “What a good deal,” but upon seeing Helena’s massive bear-like figure, he instantly fell silent, retreating behind Fischer’s shoulder…
Alright, even Emhart, who had a prejudice against Fischer, had to admit that this guy just had a peculiar taste, usually seeking to “explore” the Subhuman Race, but he absolutely didn’t lack discernment between human beings and animals.
As for Fischer, he showed no reaction; he never cared about the enemy’s verbal threats, merely closing the distance toward the Phoenix Knights while rapidly analyzing their combat levels and wielded items.
No magic was detected; the relic was present only with the leading woman, who should be Alagina’s sister, Helena. So these Phoenix Knights should be manageable…
“You bastard!”
Fischer was still deep in thought when Helena’s trash talk unexpectedly fully ignited Alagina’s rage.
Influenced by her father, Alagina gradually grew into a lady entirely different from her mother, being the traditional type of Sardinian.
Such Sardinians are both loyal and innocent toward love and their lovers, deeply resenting the scums who disrupt others’ relationships; otherwise, Alagina wouldn’t have decisively let go upon hearing that Fischer was married when they first met.
Helena’s “bullheaded” words instantly enraged Alagina, the pure love warrior from Sardinia. Before anyone could react, an overwhelming wave of cold air burst forth from Alagina.
But instead of summoning the phantom of the Ice Prince or deploying any other weapons, she gritted her teeth and impulsively swept behind, bare-handedly wrapping her arms around Helena’s waist. To everyone’s astonishment, she charged with that giant bear-like Helena toward the tavern.
All along, to Fischer, Alagina appeared like a gentle nobleman, and that impression often made it easy for people to forget that she was actually a robust woman from the Sardinian kingdom.
Sardinian women were valiant in battle and enjoyed combat and dancing against the elements, often being fiercer in close combat than others from different nations.
“Lady Helena!”
“Crash!”
Alagina lifted Helena and forcefully took her crashing into the wall of the nearby tavern; the violent impact transmitted through Helena’s armor, causing her to instinctively raise her hands and strike Alagina’s back to break free. However, no matter how hard she hit, the enraged Alagina wouldn’t let go.
The next moment, Alagina had already pinned Helena to the ground, delivering tremendous punches to her face.
“Is that all you’re got, Alagina? Come on! Let me see what you can do to protect your man!”
“Helena! You bastard! Stay away from him!”
Helena’s phoenix mask was dented by Alagina’s fist, obscuring her vision through the metal seams.
“Buzz!”
Within the tavern, the metallic scream was heard, and the suddenly formed large hole at the entrance made everyone outside uneasy.
The street outside fell eerily silent, with only Emhart watching the entire ordeal turning to Fischer, appearing somewhat frightened, stuttering a warning, “Hey, listen to me, Fischer, after we finish up here, we should hurry and leave the ship! That Sardinian captain isn’t a good person; we had all misjudged her and thought she was harmless, but people like that are the most terrifying! If your relationship with other women is discovered later on, it would be no better than being captured by that Elizabeth of Saint Nali, I can guarantee that!”
“Shut up.”
“… I’m doing this for your good; don’t be ungrateful!”
Emhart’s unpleasant quacks accelerated the momentary pause outside, with Aoxi fluttering her wings in place and the Phoenix Knights drawing their swords toward the approaching Fischer and Aoxi.
Today, the once eerily quiet Pat Sulshen Island suddenly became exceptionally lively; the commercial streets here and the tavern in the distance where the Nali people resided were all abuzz.
Oh, and the nearby seas.
In places unseen by everyone, several standard warships were steadily approaching Pat Sulshen Island, their masts flying a flag with a light blue background and white clouds as the primary symbol.
Such a flag seemed extremely unfamiliar even to well-informed pirates; it appeared that to prevent anyone from failing to discern its meaning, the words “Miya” were inscribed below in Northern Region language.
That was the vessel of the Snow Cloud Attack Squad from Miya.
Please vote, tip, and support; it means a lot to me!
Thank you for your support!
()
(End of Chapter)
