Chapter 68: 6. A Flower with an Owner
Upon seeing the gigantic pirate ship, Fisher and the businessman Laiba hurried down the corridor toward their rooms. The captain’s broadcast echoed repeatedly, warning all passengers to return to their rooms.
“What should we do? Just when I made some money, pirates show up! Aren’t those crazy women supposed to be in the North Sea? Why are they suddenly here?”
Laiba’s face was mournful; he didn’t even have the chance to lament his bad luck. He had already started looking around for places to hide his cigarettes and money from the pirates. After working so hard to earn some cash, he didn’t want to return to the Western Continent empty-handed.
Fisher, gazing at the approaching pirate ship, didn’t panic. Although he was not familiar with the reputation of the major pirates, he had just heard Laiba mention the crew of the Iceberg Queen and their exploits. Since they only targeted ships from Shivali, Fisher felt their chances of seizing this ship were slim.
Given that several countries frequently sabotage each other, it was clear that Alagina’s focus on only plundering Shivali’s merchant ships had its own reasons. Fisher didn’t believe a band of pirates could contend against Shivali’s military with just a few stolen cannons.
Aside from some minor affiliated countries, there were three neighboring nations near the North Sea. First was the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was actively hunting for Alagina, making it unlikely that they would supply her with resources. Secondly, there was Shivali, which was furious at her and had launched naval patrols in the North Sea every month to deter the pirates. Under such circumstances, Shivali would not allow merchants to privately sell supplies to her.
So, who was the last neighboring country?
That’s right, it was Nali.
Thus, after hearing about the Iceberg Queen, Fisher, who had a fair understanding of Nali’s political landscape, immediately thought that there must be someone from Nali backing this pirate ship, no matter what kind of support it was.
Fisher suspected that the most likely form of support was supplies; after all, selling weapons to pirates was hard to justify, but selling supplies could be interpreted as just private merchants acting on their own.
Why not let the pirates rob Shivali’s traders in the North Sea for fun?
“Well, I’ll take my leave first, be careful.”
“Ah, you too. May the Mother bless you!”
After bidding farewell to Laiba at his door, Fisher walked a short distance to his own door, only to find that Renee was not in their room. Instead, she stood by the window in the corridor, cupping her face as she watched the pirate ship draw closer to the cruise liner.
“You’re back! A ship is approaching; is it a pirate?”
Fisher nodded and pulled Renee back into the room.
“Calm down; pirates seek profit. If they discover you’re a sorceress, they might capture you and sell you to the Sorceress Research Society, and they could make a big profit.”
The Sorceress Research Society, a religious organization established in Cardu, was considered a cult in both Shivali and Nali. They believed that sorceresses held secrets close to the Mother and crazily wanted to capture sorceresses for study.
Renee allowed him to lead her into the room, her other hand playfully pointing to her lips,
“Will you protect me?”
Fisher didn’t turn back as he said,
“I’ll give you half of what I earn from selling, consider it compensation for the past.”
“Go to hell!”
As the door closed, the sounds of chains being thrown overboard by the pirate ship and tangling around the railings could be heard outside. To be safe, Fisher hid his unfinished paper in a concealed place to prevent his hard work from going to waste.
He was uncertain about how the captain of this cruise liner and the pirates from the Iceberg Queen had fared in their negotiations. When the cabin door was opened, the pirates walked in one by one, and many passengers inevitably began to panic.
“Attention passengers, Captain Alagina is only here to search for thieves, please do not resist; they will not harm you! I emphasize again, they will not jeopardize passenger safety!”
The captain’s message repeated over the broadcast. Fisher sat calmly in a chair in his room with his legs crossed while reading the newspaper. In the distance, voices and the sounds of doors opening were heard; he believed it wouldn’t be long before they reached his room.
Renee seemed unconcerned, merely boredly drawing circles on the table with her finger dipped in coffee.
Outside, larks flew up and down, tilting their heads as they surveyed the rooms within the cruise liner.
“Bang!”
Not long after, the door was pushed open roughly, revealing the very plump and unfriendly-looking pirate first mate. She glanced at Renee and Fisher, tilted her head, and beckoned the pirates behind her. She then addressed Fisher and Renee, saying,
“Stand up; we’re just checking if there’s anything belonging to us here.”
Fisher and Renee reluctantly stood up. It was only then that Fisher caught sight of Captain Alagina standing at the door, her captain’s hat removed, revealing her long silver hair.
Unlike the greasy and dirty faces of the other pirates, her cheeks were clean, apparently well-cared-for, making the woman appear more like a noble than a pirate.
Fisher took a look at her and followed a few pirates forward; they surprisingly even wanted to do body searches, separating men and women, with women in the room and men outside.
Fisher only had a box of cigarettes and two completed manuals in his pockets, so he wasn’t worried about them being discovered and let them search freely.
As he walked out of the room, a female pirate next to him seemed to want to come over and search; however, Alagina raised her hand to interrupt the action, personally stepping forward and reaching out her hand toward Fisher.
“Sorry, just a search.”
Her pale hands came over, first feeling the pocket of Fisher’s shirt, pausing for a moment upon touching the shape of his cigarette box, then quickly moving on.
Fisher’s pants had no pockets, so she didn’t search there. After a brief inspection, Alagina’s hand lingered at Fisher’s lower abdomen without withdrawing, while she behind him silently closed her eyes, her breathing gradually becoming rapid.
Fisher began to sense something was wrong, and his expression instantly turned blank.
He had forgotten that these women were from the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Just as he was about to make a move, he heard the woman behind him draw a breath and break the previous state, speaking to Fisher,
“That skinny little woman—is she your wife?”
She glanced at Renee, seeming to look down on such women, but her expression was neutral enough that her emotions were hard to discern; it seemed she was merely trying to express her confusion to Fisher.
Having lived for twenty-eight years, Fisher was experiencing harassment from a woman for the first time, leaving him momentarily speechless.
Due to geographical reasons, the Kingdom of Sardinia did not have deep interactions with Nali. Previously, when Fisher was at the Royal Academy, he had received letters from their school, which seemed quite normal at first, but he hadn’t expected to encounter a woman from Sardinia in such a situation today.
“Yes.”
To rid himself of this strange woman’s harassment, Fisher painfully lied to Alagina.
Sure enough, upon hearing that Fisher was already married, her calm expression showed a crack, and she took a regretful step back, no longer approaching Fisher’s body.
The men of the Kingdom of Sardinia were very conservative, and the women weren’t much better. They were all pure-hearted warriors who firmly believed in the unbeatable power of loyalty in love and would certainly not engage in any form of infidelity.
Though this man was quite handsome and not as weak as the men from her hometown, his expressionless demeanor was very much to her taste, making her somewhat interested.
It was just a pity that he was already taken.
The pirates behind had finished searching the room and were shaking their heads at the supervising fat first mate, indicating that they found nothing. Sensing the situation, the plump first mate gave a knowing glance and, after seeing her captain casually step back, cleared her throat, saying,
“Well then, let’s continue searching the next room. Sorry for the disturbance.”
Alagina shot one last glance at Fisher and suddenly pointed at his chest. Before Fisher could react, she had already placed the captain’s hat on her head and walked toward the next room.
Watching her slowly retreating figure, Fisher reached into his pocket, only to find something extra there. He pulled it out and discovered it was a pearl glowing faintly.
This was a gift from Alagina to Fisher, indicating her favor toward him.
“.”
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(The End of this Chapter)
