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Chapter 4
“Let go right now—aaagh! Lara! What the hell is wrong with you?! That hurts!”
“What do you think you’re doing, Nereus?! Are you out of your mind?!”
I yelled and yanked Nereus by the hair. As I kept pulling, his head jerked back and forth in whatever direction I dragged it.
For someone screaming and thrashing about saying it hurt, the arm Nereus had wrapped around me was surprisingly steady.
Reassured, I pulled even harder.
“You’re throwing kids that young into the sea in the middle of the night?! Are you crazy?! They could die!”
“L-Lara! How old do you think you are?! You’re barely a kid yourself—why are you worrying about them?!”
“Is my age really the point right now?!”
“Of course it is!”
Nereus finally managed to pry my hand off his hair and held me firmly in place.
“You should be worrying about the right people!”
“If I don’t worry about Caelum, then who am I supposed to worry about—?!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs, only to choke and start coughing.
“Cough, cough!”
“…! Ah—hey, hey. Lara, I’m sorry. Don’t shout.”
After I coughed a few more times, Nereus lowered his voice and started fidgeting anxiously. Meanwhile, Gerard and Dexter were already sniffling and getting ready to jump off the ship.
“H-Hey! Tell them not to jump first! Why is it Gerard’s and Dexter’s fault that I’m sick?! They took really good care of me!”
But the moment I shouted that, the deck—noisy just seconds ago—went ice-cold and silent.
‘W-What? What’s going on? Why did it suddenly get so quiet?’
Gerard and Dexter suddenly burst into thick streams of tears.
‘What? Why are they crying? What’s happening?!’
“W-We’ll just jump.”
“W-We’re trash not worth dealing with. We’re a waste of air….”
“Jump! Jump! Become fish food!”
“Boo! What did the fish ever do wrong?! Go die somewhere without fish!”
The ship filled with jeers again. A few people even got carried away, slamming both hands on the deck like drums. Even stoic Isaac looked at me with pity, covered his face with one hand, and shook his head.
The only person who didn’t understand—or couldn’t accept—what was happening was me.
“Why…?”
“Ha… Lara, you really are….”
Nereus let out a deep sigh and spoke as if dumbfounded.
“You’re so kind it’s worrying. How are you going to survive on these rough seas like that…?”
“Huh?”
“The captain, Polaris, is kind and smart, so she’ll manage just fine… haa….”
Isaac, who had tried to defend me in his own way, couldn’t even finish his sentence and sighed deeply too.
Honestly, that felt even worse.
“Oh no, our kid’s too kind. What do we do? How’s she supposed to be a pirate like this? At this rate, won’t she end up joining the navy for real?”
‘I’ve already been in the navy before. And honestly, aren’t they more upright than pirates?’
“Captain, by society’s standards, the navy are more respectable adults.”
Isaac voiced my thoughts exactly.
“Shut it, you little punk.”
“You really don’t hold back in front of a child.”
“Ah! Cancel that, cancel! Lara! What I just said doesn’t count!”
‘As if you can just cancel something like that.’
“Ahem! Anyway! Lara, those guys are absolute scum, so you don’t need to defend them!”
“But they’re family, Dad. You said the Caelum pirates are all family, and because we’re family, even if we do bad things, we talk it out and try to understand each other.”
“…….”
What now? The Caelum pirates, who had been loudly jeering just moments ago, all fell silent at once. Because it had been so noisy before, the silence felt even more stark.
Breaking the quiet, Nereus called my name.
“Lara.”
“Yeah?”
“If you’re that kind-hearted, you’re going to get taken advantage of wherever you go. Be grateful you’re with us.”
His voice was so serious it made me irritated.
No, seriously, what was his problem? Just say it already. Before I could protest, Nereus continued.
“Those damn bastards were supposed to watch over you, but they got blackout drunk and passed out. If Titan hadn’t found you, you might really have died.”
“…….”
“Got it? Those bast—no, those sons of—”
“Throw them in.”
I shouted straight at Gerard and Dexter.
“Throw them in right now!”
The moment I shrieked, everyone on the deck burst into applause, shouting, “That’s right!” and “Exactly!”
What the rest of the family thought at that moment was none of my concern.
“How old are you two right now?! Huh?! You’re not even eighteen yet, are you?! And you’re drinking alcohol?! Drinking?! That stuff’ll kill you! Get dunked in cold water and wake the hell up!”
“N-No, Lara, that’s not the point—”
“Drink when you’re young and you’ll grow up stupid! You won’t become a proper adult! You’ll turn into an idiot, hot-headed moron like Nereus! At least Nereus is all muscle so he doesn’t get a beer belly, but you two—hey! You will! Got that?!”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…Ah.”
Only then did I realize what I’d said. Everyone had clamped their mouths shut and was watching Nereus nervously.
After a long silence, Nereus asked in a chilling voice,
“Lara… have you always thought I was a hot-headed idiot?”
“Uh… um… well….”
“You know I’m the first mate on this ship.”
“Y-Yeah… right?”
Despite looking like someone who only knew how to fight, Nereus was actually the first mate of this pirate ship.
‘Still, being good at navigation and being smart are different things.’
That said, his ability to read ocean currents and interpret the Compass Stone—the map and compass of the sea—was genuinely outstanding. Separately, though, his explanations were always terrible, making Isaac’s presence absolutely essential.
‘Isn’t that more like animal instinct…?’
I hadn’t actually thought of Nereus as a stupid hothead before, so feeling guilty, I tried to apologize.
“Hey, Nereus—”
“Hah, forget it. I think of you as seaweed in my head anyway.”
…….
“When you get wet, you’re kelp.”
What did you just say, you bastard?
* * *
In the end, I fought with Nereus.
When I first returned to the past and saw him healthy again, I’d felt overwhelmed and emotional. But now, not a trace of that feeling remained.
It was like waking up from a really bad dream. We talked just like before—no, even more childishly than before. I distinctly remembered being intimidated by Nereus, yet now I had no idea how I’d ever been afraid of such an immature adult.
‘Is this… a good thing?’
I didn’t know. It was too ambiguous. I lay on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Gerard and Dexter didn’t end up being thrown into the sea. I’d expected that. Nereus only ever threatened like that; he’d never actually do something as brutal as tossing a fellow crewmate overboard. Thinking about it now, the reason those two had been so nice to me was probably guilt over leaving me sick and unattended.
‘Ha… betrayal.’
I really thought they were kind older brothers, but they were jerks.
‘Well, they’re pirates.’
I accepted it quickly.
‘No. I don’t accept it.’
I un-accepted it just as quickly—because those damn pirates had added “kelp” to the nickname they called me by.
Even taciturn Isaac was desperately holding back laughter. I had no idea where his stoic, humorless persona had gone.
‘Maybe back then, I was just too young, so that’s how everything looked to me….’
As you grow older, you start seeing things differently. I muttered hollowly to myself.
When I was young, the Caelum pirates were my entire world—my sky and my sea. It was natural. We weren’t related by blood, but they were my family. Because none of us were blood-related, the Caelum pirates cherished each other fiercely.
Every pirate crew had its own rules, and Caelum’s most important one—the First Rule—was this:
【Rule 1: If you gain family by blood or by law, you quit being a pirate.】
Caelum was unusual among pirate crews in that it had female pirates, but none of them saw each other romantically. They lived like true siblings—joking that they could even strip down together for summer baths.
Before my regression, I once asked Nancy, one of the female pirates, why they joked about it but never actually did it. She told me it was because Nereus, despite his looks, was an old-fashioned hardliner.
‘If you get a real family, you’ll prioritize them, and then you can’t live as a pirate anymore.’
That was what he said. Nereus believed that while having something to protect made you stronger, caring too much would make you weak. He called the Caelum pirates his precious family, yet always spoke that way.
To Nereus, this crew was family and precious—but not precious enough to weaken him.
Still, before my regression, I thought I was his real daughter. Up until then, I adored Nereus, and he openly doted on me.
So I thought I was the exception.
Until my eighth birthday.
“Didn’t you know? We picked you up off a ship. There was this insanely luxurious cruise liner, and you were all alone on it.”
At first I thought it was a joke.
It wasn’t. Damn it—it was the truth. No wonder I didn’t look anything like Nereus’s kid.
I cried my eyes out. Somehow, around that time, a huge fight broke out between the vice-captain and Nereus, and Nereus got beaten to within an inch of his life.
“Why would you say something so unnecessary? It’s bad for the kid’s emotions.”
Thinking back on how he always acted and the things he said, maybe that was his way of drawing a line. No matter how much he cherished me, I would never be his biological child.
To think that even while carrying “Belsomnea” to the very end, not knowing whether I was alive or dead, he still didn’t treasure us that much—what a jerk.
My nose stung for no reason, and I covered it with my hand.
‘Now that I’m like this, I kind of miss Nereus.’
I suddenly jumped up from the bed and headed for the captain’s cabin.
Creak, creak. The pirate ship at night was quiet, gently bobbing on calm waves.
I couldn’t find my slippers, so I walked barefoot. The cold floor felt even sharper in the nighttime chill.
Even though it had been a long time since I’d walked this ship, I found the captain’s cabin without hesitation.
‘It’s closer than I remembered.’
Creeeak—
“What is it, which bastard’s opening the door without even stating their ident—”
Nereus was sitting at his desk, looking at something. He frowned deeply as he looked up—then his eyes widened when he saw it was me.
The silence felt awkward, so I awkwardly announced myself.
“Uh… Polaris Caelum?”
“Lara? What are you doing here? And wait—since when do you know the word ‘identity’?”
Who taught you that? There’s no kid on this ship with the brains to teach you that. Nereus scrambled up from his chair and hurried over.
‘Did he forget we fought earlier?’
In just a few long strides, he was in front of me. He looked me over carefully, then frowned.
‘Ah. He remembers.’
“You damn little brat.”
Even as he said that, he picked me up very gently.
“I told you earlier—walking around barefoot again? Huh? What if you get a splinter in your foot? Keep this up and Ethan’s going to give you a really painful shot. You’re scared of injections, right? Right?”
“I’m not. I’m not scared of shots.”
“Liar—. I remember you crying because you didn’t want one last time~”
Grinning, Nereus carried me over to the desk, grabbed the coat draped over a chair, and wrapped it around me.
“There. Dress warmly. If you catch a cold, you’ll need injections anyway. If that happens, I’ll tell Ethan to make it extra painful~”
I ignored his not-really-worrying worries and looked at what was on the desk.
‘Sea charts… and some kind of notebook?’
“Dad, what were you doing?”
“Curious about your dad’s work?”
Since there was nothing to hide, I nodded. For some reason, Nereus seemed pleased and forcibly pressed down the corners of his mouth as they tried to rise.
“I was thinking about where we’re headed next. We’re on our way back to the Western Continent, but we’re taking a different route this time. If we catch the wind right, we’ll hit a fast current.”
After that, Nereus went on and on without any explanations—talking about things a real six-year-old probably wouldn’t understand.
To be fair, even at twenty-six, I couldn’t fully understand it.
Something about water speed, wind velocity, how high birds flew that morning and what it meant… I only grasped it in the vaguest terms.
“Do you want to be a navigator like your dad?”
“Nope. I don’t think that suits me.”
“Why not? Even a hot-headed idiot can do it.”
Damn it.
So he was holding onto that. I turned my eyes away and muttered,
“I’ll do something else….”
“Like what? Daughter of the Caelum pirates? You’re already doing that.”
“Yeah, not that.”
“…….”
For some reason, he looked hurt at my “not that,” though I hoped it was just my imagination. No matter what, being someone’s daughter wasn’t a job. I didn’t want to be someone who merely existed on the ship, useless, like before.
‘This time, I know I can actually do something.’
So I declared proudly,
“I’m going to be a doctor.”
“A doctor?”
“Yeah. The ship’s doctor. I’ll become a healer. I’ll treat everyone when they’re sick.”
At my earnest six-year-old declaration, Nereus stared at me with wide eyes—and then—
“Ahahahahahaha—!!!!”
He burst into loud laughter.
…….
Damn man.
