The night on the deserted island was cold. Luckily, there was still some black powder in Kain’s pistol—no, in what was now Roy’s pistol—that hadn’t been completely soaked through. Drawing on it and all her years of experience living on islands, she managed to build a roaring fire, keeping the Navy officer’s condition from getting any worse.

When the first light of dawn spilled across the sea and fell on Kain’s pale face, it still didn’t rouse the weakened officer from his deep slumber. What finally brought him back to the waking world was the sound of an argument nearby.

“Let go, you stupid bird!”

The first thing Kain saw when he opened his eyes was the captain fighting her jackdaw over a little pale-gray fish, the sort that was common in these waters. Roy had the fish firmly by the head and was trying to pull its tail out of Elfie’s black beak.

What are they doing…?

Kain couldn’t make sense of what the woman and bird were up to. After watching them for a while, he turned his gaze to the many things that had appeared beside him.

There were a few chipped glass bottles, some silver cutlery, and a small, delicate cast-iron pot. Most of the bottles held cloudy fresh water, which Roy must have spent the past few days collecting with great effort.

After glancing over a few familiar pieces of cutlery, Kain quickly recognized where they came from.

They were rations from the Orlan Empire’s navy. They should have been floating across the boundless ocean alongside the wreckage of the warship. The only way they could have ended up here was if, while he was asleep, Roy had swum out to the wreckage to search for supplies that might help them survive.

The battle between the captain and her beloved pet finally came to an end. The undefeated Captain Roy emerged victorious once again. She clenched the little fish in her hand, then made a face at the flapping jackdaw, who was shrieking, “Thief!”

“I am a pirate, after all. And when I’m going hungry, you still want to eat fish? Go eat some bugs.”

With no chance of getting back the little fish it had worked so hard to catch, Elfie drooped dejectedly. A few hops took it out of Roy’s sight, and then it plunged into the dense forest.

Kain watched the captain walk over and start building a stove out of stones so she could cook the fish. Curious, he asked, “That was the bird’s catch, wasn’t it? You just stole it. Aren’t you worried it won’t come back?”

“It wouldn’t dare.” Roy shot him a glance and went on preparing the fish, which was barely bigger than her finger. “It’s a little sad, really. I’ve put more of my heart into Elfie than anyone aboard the Mermaid. That’s why, even after everything it went through, it still followed the traces of its memories to find me.”

The pale-gray fish had died of dehydration during Roy and Elfie’s struggle. Now it bobbed up and down in the murky water, which bubbled incessantly. Its snowy-white belly was the only part that stayed turned upward. After a brief silence, Roy offered her explanation of affection.

“I’ve never trusted anyone. Not even Richie, whom I watched grow up and raised with my own hands. In my eyes, people are far more dangerous than beasts, no matter who they are. You can never hope to see through the ever-changing human heart.”

“All right, eat up.”

Roy lifted the little fish out of the cast-iron pot and served it with some broth in the silver cutlery. She handed this precious meal—an extraordinary luxury on a deserted island—to the Navy officer, who was still absorbed in her story, and flashed him a mischievous smile.

“Of course, if you want, this captain can offer you a little of her precious trust. On one condition: you join me and become a pirate.”

Her ceaseless persuasion rang in his ears once more. Kain sighed helplessly.

“In your dreams.”

Good fortune rarely finds the down-and-out, while misfortune tends to come in pairs.

After they’d struggled through a stretch of calm, sunny days with pleasant temperatures, the Navy officer’s injuries had gradually improved, and he was able to help with a few simple chores. But the sky was growing steadily darker, and the distant rumble of thunder shattered all their hopes of things getting better.

Five days later.

A sudden downpour put out the fire before they could preserve its embers. As they moved to a new shelter, Kain was drenched by too much cold rain and fell ill. His body was as cold as ice, and even the small fire Roy had struggled to build did nothing to help.

It was a narrow stone cave, far from the shore. Its walls were solid, so there was no need to worry about a collapse or the sea flooding it. But the spray that splashed in from outside and the damp that seeped through the stone walls filled the little cave and wouldn’t go away.

Roy took her hand away from Kain’s forehead after checking his temperature. It was only an ordinary chill. The problem was that on this isolated island, they couldn’t even find hot water to ease his symptoms or clothes to keep him warm. Where was she supposed to find ephedra to help him recover?

So whether he could get through this chill, whether he could survive at all, was down to the officer’s own resilience and willpower.

Roy pursed her lips as she looked at Kain, his brows slightly furrowed and eyes tightly shut. Honestly, by any measure, the Orlan Empire’s naval officer was a handsome man—though not as handsome as her.

Besides, he didn’t look all that old. At most, he seemed a year or two past the Empire’s age of adulthood. For someone that young to become an officer in the First Fleet—even if he’d only taken part in the hunt for her as a lieutenant—there could be only two explanations.

The first was that he had a powerful family backing him.

Judging by the story he’d told a few days ago, there was no doubt the family behind him was the Howard Family, now rising like the morning sun in the Orlan Empire.

The Howard Family had a long history of producing officers, and Governor Naren commanded unquestioned authority in the military. But the Orlan Empire had always kept a tight hold on its armed forces—especially the navy, the greatest source of power and wealth in the world today.

So having the right family background wasn’t nearly enough to secure a place in the First Fleet. That brought them to the second possibility: his military talent was simply exceptional.

With one of those possibilities already confirmed, the other was more than enough to convince Roy to save him and bring him into her crew.

Captain Roy never did anything foolish that left her at a loss.

Everything she said and did, every step of her plans, had been thought through with great care. Most of what she’d done in front of Kain had been genuine—but one part in ten had been adjusted to suit his temperament and reactions. And that one part had completely transformed the fearsome Golden-Eyed Roy of the Navy officer’s rigid imagination.

If things kept going this way, Roy was confident she could persuade him with attentive care and gentle coaxing. But who could’ve guessed that before she’d finished her campaign to win him over, the young man she’d set her sights on would fall ill?

“Sigh. Fine, fine. For the sake of a capable underling, I’ll take a little loss. You can’t catch a wolf without risking your child as bait…”

The captain’s grumbling drifted through the cave. In Elfie’s wide, staring eyes, the two figures drew closer and closer, until at last they were pressed together.

“Get in bed! Get in bed! The captain and a man…”

“Shh. If you don’t say anything, no one will think you’re mute.”