Chapter 67: 5. Captain Alagina
Seeing the massive ship waving in the distance, it wasn’t just the passengers on board who were panicking; the captain on the bridge holding the telescope was the most frantic of them all.
As the captain of a passenger cruise, he had to be responsible to the Nali Exploration Company above and also to the safety of the hundreds of passengers aboard. If there was any damage to the ship or the passengers, he would definitely bear the consequences. Unfortunately, the Four Great Pirates were the most unreasonable presence across several oceans, and even governments had no way to deal with them, let alone this cruise ship that wasn’t equipped with large weapons.
“It’s the Iceberg Queen! Weren’t those crazy women supposed to be in the Northern Ocean of Shivali? How could they suddenly appear in the Southern Ocean?”
The first mate next to him did not have a telescope, so he could only clasp his hands over his eyes to see the enormous ship getting closer, attempting to enhance his vision this way.
“Captain, they’re signaling us! They want to board! What should we do, Captain?”
The captain opened his mouth, then put down the telescope, gritted his teeth, and said,
“Tell the engine room to slow down the engine speed. We’ll let them board.”
“But what if they come on board to rob us?”
“What can we do? Either we don’t let them board and immediately get shot through the cruise ship by their cannons, causing us all to fall into the sea to feed the fish, or we gamble that their purpose for boarding isn’t to rob us! I heard they only rob ships from Shivali. Even if we’re unfortunate and they take our money, at least we might keep our lives and return to Saint Nali. Quickly give the orders; don’t delay!”
“Yes!”
After hearing the orders, the first mate hurriedly ran out from the bridge to notify the engine room below. Soon, the whole ship’s speed slowed down, and the distant dark green vessel slowly kept pace alongside it, with iron chains wrapping around the railings on Lauren’s deck, linking the two ships together.
“Attention all passengers, the cruise is now entering an emergency situation. All passengers please return to your cabins immediately, do not wander around! Follow the captain’s instructions and return to your rooms immediately!”
Under the captain’s broadcast, all the passengers on the deck and in the corridors returned to their rooms, and the entire yacht suddenly fell extremely quiet, with only the rumbling sound created by the friction of the enormous ship coming alongside.
“Captain, they’ve boarded!”
Along the iron chains connecting to the other ship, many tall and robust long-haired women were jumping onto the deck of Lauren, making loud clanging noises. After boarding, they did not move chaotically but stood neatly on the deck.
Among them, a plump woman dressed as a first mate approached the deck, scanned around, and then shouted at the ship,
“Captain, no problem!”
After her shout, a woman on the edge of Iceberg Queen’s deck leaped down silently onto the deck.
The woman was quite tall, about 1.9 meters, with a pure black captain’s hat on her head and long hair as white as snow, distinctly different from the other female pirates who were either fat or thin. Her figure was well-proportioned, clad in a pure black women’s leather coat, and her appearance was quite dashing and exquisite, resembling an elegant young nobleman more than the traditional concept of a woman.
However, her gaze was slightly cold, and her expressionless face made one instantaneously feel transported to the farthest cold northern realm.
In fact, these pirates indeed came from the North, a land very close to the Western Continent.
Before the era of great geographical discoveries, the North was considered part of the Western Continent, and its countries frequently interacted with the Western Continent—accurately speaking, with Shivali, as Shivali is the country on the Western Continent closest to the North.
Among the Northern countries, the Sardinia Kingdom was the most powerful and famous. This nation is quite unique, as all the women among its citizens are taller and stronger than the men, forming a custom that respects women. Of course, women there also bear more responsibilities.
It is worth mentioning that the men there are known for their delicate elegance, with weak physiques and fair skin, and are very conservative and value chastity. For some unknown reasons, this culture spread to the nobility of Shivali, instantly igniting their desires.
Where there is demand, there is supply. It was surprising that Shivali’s slave-capturing teams actually dared to go to the Sardinia Kingdom to capture local men, leading to national outrage among all the women of the kingdom.
Their cultural nature dictates that women should protect men, and the humiliation of the country’s men is a disgrace to the entire nation. So, in all circumstances—political, military, or academic—they collectively opposed Shivali, leaving the Shivali government at a loss for explanations, as they knew very well who had such demands.
All the crew members of Iceberg Queen were from Sardinia, and even though they themselves were being hunted by the Sardinia government, they still only robbed ships from Shivali, living by the principle of “you pursue your own goals while I pursue mine, each unaffected by the other.”
Leading this ironclad ship was the captain known as the Ice Mountain Queen, Alagina, with a bounty of seven and a half million Nali on her head, placing her alongside three other pirates with the same bounty known as the Four Great Pirates.
Seeing the beautiful, cold-eyed Alagina scanning over, the captain and first mate of Lauren unknowingly broke into a cold sweat, as if they were under tremendous pressure. After a second or two, the captain finally managed to speak,
“I don’t know why Captain Alagina has stopped us. We are a passenger cruise ship under the Nali Exploration Company, just ferrying passengers back and forth between the Southern Continent and the Western Continent. We have no valuable cargo on board.”
“We’re not robbing you.”
Alagina’s expression did not change as she spoke some awkward Nali language. The plump female first mate glanced at the very young male crew member behind her and unintentionally revealed a bit of a smile. However, she had important matters to attend to, so she spoke for the captain,
“Our ship has been stolen, and we are in pursuit of the thief.”
“Stolen?”
The captain and first mate exchanged glances and then scanned the vast ocean around them, momentarily at a loss for words.
No, do you think this is the streets of Saint Nali? If someone is stolen from, you can catch the thief around the corner! This is the Southern Ocean, the second-largest ocean in the world!
There’s not a single strand of hair around; if you’ve been stolen from, why come to us instead of catching the thief on your own ship?
“Um, could you be more specific?”
However, since the guns were in others’ hands, the captain’s tone remained friendly and polite.
The pirate first mate threw a flirtatious glance at the crew member behind her. The plump, greasy face made the crew member pale and retreat into the captain’s room. She chuckled, unfazed, and continued,
“That guy jumped into the sea and swam towards your direction. We’ve pursued him for quite a while and only saw your ship in this direction. The value of what he stole is considerable, so we wanted to search if any of our treasures are among your passengers. If not, we’ll leave immediately.”
“Wait, you’re saying your ship is at full speed chasing a live thief in the ocean, and you still haven’t caught him?”
“…”
The first mate of Lauren’s expression was hard to maintain, as if he had just heard a very funny joke; the smile almost broke out, so he had to pull down the muscles in his face with his fingers to make a grimace that looked worse than crying.
If he laughed out loud, his head would definitely explode with a big hole, he was certain of that.
However, as soon as this remark came out, the scene immediately fell into an awkward silence. Then the first mate realized the other party’s expression was unfriendly and began to explain as if trying to help them,
“Perhaps it was a magical item or some kind of machinery! I heard that the Royal Research Institute of Saint Nali has lots of new things like that.”
The captain also coughed lightly, turned to look at the numerous armed pirates behind Alagina, who were rudely surveying the structure of the ship, their firearms and weapons likely capable of scything through the heads of tourists three or four times over.
He nodded and said to the cold Alagina,
“I will instruct the crew to comply with your search, but you must ensure that the passengers and the ship itself do not sustain any damage.”
Alagina nodded, her cold demeanor unchanged, only continuing,
“Search. Whether or not you find anything, we will leave.”
It seemed she had lost something very important.
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(End of Chapter)
