That was twelve years ago.
Even back then, the Howard Family was already one of the foremost noble houses in the Orlan Empire. Unlike families whose status came from generations of noble blood, it was a true family of military officers, born from blood and fire, the ashes of cannon shells and the wreckage of warships, and raised up by the ever-shifting storms across the ocean.
“Twelve years ago? I was only six back then, helping Mother sell the milk we’d drawn from the cows in the pasture.” Captain Roy clearly had no intention of quietly listening to the story. Kain had barely begun when she hurriedly interrupted him, lost in memories of her carefree childhood.
“Don’t interrupt. Just sit quietly and listen.” Like a teacher at a military academy, Kain found himself asserting his authority without even realizing it.
“Oh…” Roy replied sheepishly, lowering her head to stroke Elfie’s sleek black feathers, which were gradually regaining their glossy sheen.
Back then, Admiral Naren—now a governor—had yet to take that position. He still commanded the fleet on the front lines, keeping the Eastern Sea Region firmly under the Orlan Empire’s control. In an era when the Imperial Navy was overwhelmingly powerful, even the Great Captain, who ruled the Southern Islands and had countless pirates under his command, showed the admiral a basic degree of respect.
As the Empire’s blade, Admiral Naren swept away resistance at sea and made enemies of many factions. Among them was the Punora League, which had long been at odds with the Empire.
The admiral’s almost excessively strict methods of control severely restricted the routes available to Federation merchant ships, causing enormous economic losses. That era came to be known as “the Darkest Period between the Empire and the Federation.”
Of course, the Empire and the Federation were enemies to begin with. Admiral Naren could easily ignore the murderous glares of the Federal Council’s members. The problem was that, among all the factions he’d offended, the Federation ranked only third in terms of danger. Two people stood above it.
Yes. Those two alone subjected Admiral Naren to an endless stream of assassination attempts and threats at sea.
One of them was a Legendary pirate Roy knew all too well, though she wasn’t particularly fond of him: Enzo, captain of the Ghost Scythe, known as the Nightfall of the Western Sea.
“From what I know of Enzo, he’d be more likely to sail the Ghost Scythe straight into Governor Naren’s warship. I find it hard to believe he’d resort to that kind of underhanded assassination. Besides, he’d only just come of age back then. He should’ve still been making a name for himself in the Western Sea. How would he have gotten involved with that governor?”
Hearing a familiar name, Roy could no longer hold back the question that had been itching at the back of her throat.
“I don’t know. He’s never told me about his past. I found all of this in the records and pieced it together myself.” Kain shook his head, then continued with the story.
Though Captain Enzo and Admiral Naren were bitter enemies, they rarely clashed directly. At most, they’d spot each other from afar near the border between the Eastern and Western Seas, fire off a few shots to express their hatred, and leave it at that. Most of the fighting took place openly at the negotiating table between the Orlan Empire and the Southern Islands.
But another person posed a very real threat to Admiral Naren’s life—and the lives of his family. That person was the founder of the Black Crow Society.
The Black Crow Society was an extremely mysterious organization. Its influence stretched across the entire northern continent, and it had a presence even in the freer Southern Islands and the scattered reefs.
No one knew who its founder was, or how the organization had come to be. Most of what people knew about it was shrouded in mystery. The one thing they did know was that it wielded enough power to command the attention of the three most powerful forces in the world.
The Black Crow Society’s members could be found all over the world, and they came from every walk of life. They might be a fruit seller, a beggar lying by the roadside with nothing to eat, a powerful political schemer, or a great noble from an illustrious family. As a result, the Society had a vast and highly organized network, with its hands in every kind of business, from commerce and the military to culture.
By fortune or misfortune, during an island raid led by Admiral Naren, the Orlan Empire captured one of the Black Crow Society’s elders. What left him stunned and disbelieving was that the elder had once been his teacher at the military academy.
There were no negotiations, and no resistance. The Orlan Empire had never been willing to tolerate a clandestine power it couldn’t control. Knowing there was no chance of learning any secrets of the Black Crow Society from the elder, Admiral Naren was overcome by the fury and grief of feeling betrayed. He raised his pistol and ended the life of a traitor to the Empire.
After earning several more merits, Admiral Naren was honored by the Emperor in the imperial capital. He became the Empire’s third governor—and the youngest in its history.
But the nightmare had only just begun.
Within the Black Crow Society, the elders held a position of immense prestige. They were almost the equivalent of governors in the Empire.
After careful deductions by the various factions, the world came to accept that the Black Crow Society had only two elders in total. One of them had died at Naren Howard’s hands. And so, under the founder’s fury, the Society’s revenge began.
“The founder declared that the revenge would not end unless Naren himself—or the person he treasured most—died, no matter what the cost.”
For the first time, Kain’s voice sounded so low and pained. The naval commander, who always seemed calm, finally let a trace of the fierce emotion of his youth show.
“So the one who died in that revenge was the person you mistook me for… Elizabeth Howard?” Roy asked curiously.
“My mother fell ill with a terrible disease and died at just twenty-four. She’d given birth to me not long before. So, naturally, my father married a young lady from a noble family, and they had my half-sister—the Elizabeth Howard you mentioned.” Kain quickly regained his composure. He seemed to have strongly disliked his stepmother; he wouldn’t even say her name.
“I didn’t like my stepmother at all, but I didn’t feel the same way about the sister who came later. In truth, she was clever and strong. Like you, she had long, wavy golden hair and rare dark-gold eyes. Put those traits together, and you wouldn’t find another person like her anywhere in the Orlan Empire.”
At that, Kain fell silent. There was no need for him to describe what happened next. The events were clear enough.
The elf-like girl never grew up. Her life was frozen forever in the great fire when she was six.
“My stepmother died in that fire, too. After that, Father never remarried. The Black Crow Society had taken what he treasured most, and he remained grief-stricken until only the past few years, when he finally began to emerge from that shadow.” After a long silence, Kain added a few words with a smile that was hardly better than a sob.
“They never found her body in the ruins after the fire. I kept holding on to that faint, impossible hope, and that’s why I mistook you for her. If she’d grown up healthy, she’d have been about your age.”
The story came to an end, and the warm red light along the horizon dimmed with it. It was like a book filled with years and old memories being closed, never to open itself to the world again.
