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Chapter 37
Wolfram’s eyes went wide at my suggestion to grab his collar, and his face lit up with delight.
“So it’s you! Party-chan!”
“No, I’m the party leader…”
Then he threw Poin onto the deck.
Poin’s small body tumbled across the wooden floor.
That guy…! And he already looked so hurt…!!
“Your name is Party-chan? Yeah, I knew it was you!”
Wolfram hurried toward me, grabbing my collar with his left hand.
Gah. My windpipe.
“How did you do it? Huh?”
“It’s a trade secret.”
I answered, frowning as the chokehold pressed against my throat.
“Trade secret, huh?”
If you want to know, you could just let me live.
But judging by his half-crazed eyes, the moment I asked for mercy, he’d probably kill me on the spot.
Still, even though blood was rushing backward, there was no denying that this man held the lives of me and the others in his hands.
“Then I have no choice.”
Wolfram drew his sword back as if ready to stab me at any moment.
Behind him, the Milky Way sparkled densely across the night sky.
Ah, the way it glitters reminds me of His Majesty’s beauty.
‘Just a little longer, Your Majesty.’
I will definitely survive and return!
“Farewell, Party-chan.”
“But, Captain…”
At my call, Wolfram’s sword stopped mid-swing.
I deliberately acted casual and spoke up.
“Don’t you need a smart subordinate?”
“Subordinate?”
“You said all your subordinates are stupid and that you hate them. One of my dreams was to be a pirate. How about taking me on?”
Even though I look like this, I’ve been told I’m a free pass for part-time job interviews.
I didn’t expect to be self-promoting in a place like this, though.
Wolfram snorted.
“Kid, I know you’re smart. But why should I trust you enough to take you in?”
“You’re going to the Noxdam Sea, right?”
I whispered to Wolfram the information I had overheard Princess Charle muttering to herself at the villa.
I didn’t forget to smile confidently as I said it.
Right now, my role model is His Majesty.
“You… you! Are you Attinger’s lackey?”
“No?”
“Then how do you know that?”
“I heard it from the Kingdom Army. I was caught in their interrogation room. They accused me of being Zendal’s spy for trespassing on private property or something.”
“A spy, huh?”
Wolfram’s eyes, which had been wide in surprise, narrowed suspiciously.
Trying to act like an innocent civilian here wouldn’t work, right?
When making friends, it’s fastest to start by targeting common ground.
I felt a bit sorry for Princess Charle, but I added a little exaggeration to what actually happened to me.
“Is it reasonable to label someone a spy just because they stole some food?”
Starting with, “I’m a bad guy. I hate the Kingdom Army. I understand your feelings a little. The enemy of my enemy is my ally,”
And ending with a satisfying twist that I got back at the Kingdom Army by damaging their property.
Surprisingly, Wolfram didn’t interrupt and listened carefully to my story.
Once I felt it was enough, I got to the main point.
“I’ll give you information if you take me as a subordinate. But you have to guarantee these people’s lives. No hurting them either.”
“…….”
Wolfram spoke without taking his eyes off my face.
“Subordinate?”
“Yes!”
I was calling for a pirate nearby, not myself.
The closest pirate answered loudly.
“What did she just say?”
“She wants to become the subordinate of the great Captain Ben Wolfram!”
“I told you not to say Wolfram’s name!”
“Sorry! …Sir!”
Wolfram’s face turned red and purple from shouting.
I imitated His Majesty’s kind smile, imagining he had some hidden agenda, while looking at Wolfram.
“Don’t you need a smart subordinate?”
“…….”
“I never even mentioned the captain’s name.”
Around 6:00 a.m.
The Deydern was preparing to depart from the shipyard as scheduled.
“Hey, Henkel.”
Chobi called out to Henkel, who was on the same upper deck.
She was sitting on the floor, waving two thin iron rods at the guide’s eye.
The guide’s eye was linked to the emperor’s ring placed on top of a sacred power generator.
Henkel, who had been watching from the lower deck, glanced at her.
“Any problems with the repairs?”
“If I ask His Majesty to build me another lab, do you think he would?”
Henkel stared blankly at her sudden words.
Chobi didn’t stop working and continued.
“Should I sign another loyalty contract? I think I made a mistake in my thinking. If I’d known His Majesty spends money this freely, I shouldn’t have asked about ruining the Binhood things; I should have asked for material stuff instead…!”
More nonsense.
Henkel shook his head slightly and looked back down.
“Hey, what were the terms of your loyalty contract? You didn’t ask for ‘a peaceful empire for all,’ did you?”
“……”
“Really? Then we should ask to change it to something else.”
“……Fix it yourself.”
Boring guy.
Chobi grumbled and followed Henkel’s gaze down to the lower deck.
Through the evenly spaced railings, she spotted a picturesque man.
Their emperor, even perfect from behind as he looked at the sea.
“Even the sea looks like His Majesty owns it.”
Though he wore a robe and even dyed his hair to avoid attracting attention.
To Chobi, it was all pointless.
No matter what he did, it wouldn’t matter.
He was someone whose very existence was meant to attract attention.
There had already been a commotion at dawn when he removed his hood.
The sailors, seeing the emperor’s appearance, were sure their new master was royal, raising a toast in celebration.
“That one’s unlucky too. Showen, I think.”
Chobi pointed to one side.
Across from her, Showen awkwardly approached and then stopped repeatedly, hesitating before the emperor.
It seemed like a battle between wanting to impress the new master and his own pride.
“Do you think the saint will arrive by the promised departure time?”
Henkel turned his head fully to Chobi this time.
As her guard knight, he was here on this deck to oversee Chobi Binhood’s work, not near the emperor.
To check that her repairs were proceeding smoothly.
“Why?”
“Your hands are idle.”
His little attempt at teasing was caught.
Chobi sat back down, grabbed the repair tools again.
“Be honest. Do you like Saintly One, you and Evon Hyben?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just… well, you’re not the kind to easily give your heart to someone.”
“I respect you. You.”
“Me?”
“Evon said you might dislike the saint. Is that true?”
Chobi hesitated to answer.
She could have brushed it off as usual, but it was hard to do that in front of Henkel, who didn’t get the joke.
“…It’s not that I dislike her. She seems different from those annoying noble guys.”
In truth, Chobi couldn’t clearly define what she thought of the saint either.
Even though she herself wasn’t “normal,” the saint was also strange.
Despite holding a position that could control a whole country, she fussed over trivial things like a statue.
She would forego obvious benefits for others without hesitation.
“I don’t know. Anyway, I need to find the saint to guarantee my freedom. …Ugh, why won’t this work?!”
Day was breaking, but this old junk showed no signs of repair.
Frustrated, Chobi shouted in anger.
Splash.
The sudden surge of a large wave rocked the Deydern.
Chobi’s hands, holding the iron rods in the guide’s eye, slipped.
“Ugh, ugh! No! …It works?”
The guide’s eye, empowered by the emperor’s ring, slowly lifted its eyelid.
Chobi jumped up, pressed against the railing, and shouted to Allend.
“Your Ma—ah, no. Hey! I fixed it! I fixed it! This Chobi did it!”
Henkel, knowing that half of her inventions worked this way, silently watched Chobi.
Clang. Clang.
Charle was completely focused on responding to the onslaught of attacks.
It was an ambush.
While trailing Ben Wolfram’s ship with the navy, suddenly cannon fire rained down.
Taking advantage of the chaos, pirates used the surrounding terrain to secretly board and engage in close combat on the deck.
Somehow, the information had leaked.
“Charle Attinger! I’m the one who’s going to kill you!”
A pirate’s sword flew behind her as she tried to block an incoming attack.
Charle’s nimble movements dodged attacks on both sides, cutting down the pirates.
After quickly subduing two attackers, more attacks came at her.
‘I need to find her quickly.’
A compass-shaped tracker was in the captain’s cabin.
The repeated cannon fire shook the ship, leaving no time to retrieve it.
“Captain! There are five ships!”
Lecond reported to Charle while cutting down pirates.
The pirate fleet attacking the navy consisted of five ships.
They were Ben Wolfram’s forces.
But it wasn’t a big problem for the Bonia Kingdom Navy.
They blocked, attacked, and captured the pirates, using their numerical advantage repeatedly.
By the time the morning sun brightly lit the sky, the Kingdom Navy had subdued all the pirates.
‘That ended easier than I thought.’
Charle sheathed her sword.
It might have been lucky that she dealt with them here instead of going to the Noxdam Sea.
The tracker showed the saint’s location near the coast, not far from here.
Since it hadn’t moved for some time, it seemed she had made a temporary nest there.
‘Now I can go.’
Charle hummed a tune, thinking of the Arie she would soon meet.
But soon, irritation strong enough to give her a headache hit her.
“Is that all?”
Charle frowned and knelt on the navy ship’s wide deck, looking at the bound pirates.
She asked her bewildered subordinate, Lecond, standing nearby.
“Where is Ben Wolfram?”
