“What are you doing?”

Just as Roy was smiling and bullying the honest, timid captain, a familiar voice came from not far behind her.

A couple of minutes after her, Kain climbed over the ship’s rail with the old sailor’s help and made it onto the deck.

The three smoked mackerel were tied to him with thin string. He looked less like an officer and more like a cook accompanying some noble.

It had been the pirate’s demand. Even with a chance to leave this godforsaken island aboard a merchant ship, she couldn’t bear to part with the three delicacies she’d smoked herself. Back when Kain’s wounds hadn’t healed, all the nutritious food had gone to the injured first. She’d been lucky to get a meal at all, and the hunger had left its mark.

“Oh, you made it up. You’re still too slow. If this prey hadn’t been so easy to handle, I wouldn’t have been confident I could take them down so easily.”

Roy turned around and wiped away the droplets running down from her hairline.

“Prey.” “Take them down.” Neither was a pleasant thing to hear. Kain untied the string, lifted the mackerel in his hand, and approached with a frown. He looked at Eda, who wore a miserable expression. “You’re the captain?”

“Yes, sir. I’m the captain.”

Unlike Roy, Kain had an air of elegance and solemnity that seemed to come naturally to him, and it put Eda under considerable pressure. Through the young man’s somewhat yellowed uniform, he seemed to glimpse a spoiled, imperious young officer.

That was exactly how he imagined the military men of the Orlan Empire.

Eda had dealt with the Orlan Empire’s navy many times. That was why he recognized the style of the badly faded uniform at a glance, and quickly realized that the young man before him was a survivor of the disaster not long ago. This only made him more anxious. He feared Kain might take his anger at fate out on him.

When Kain saw Eda repeatedly wiping away beads of sweat that weren’t there, his expression softened.

Like Eda, he was well-traveled and quickly identified the man as a Punoran itinerant merchant. As long as he wasn’t selling banned addictive substances or weapons, the Orlan Empire was always more than welcoming to foreign traders.

“You don’t need to be afraid. The Orlan Empire doesn’t give honest merchants a hard time. I just want to know what she said to you.” Kain soothed him with a few calm words. He seemed to have a way of putting people at ease, and Eda soon recovered from his panic.

“Th-this…”

The officer’s calm, composed manner reassured the captain somewhat. But when he remembered that the dangerous pirate was still watching them from nearby, he couldn’t help looking troubled.

Eda stole a glance at Roy, who glared back at him threateningly. He immediately shuddered and hurriedly said, “No, no. The lady didn’t say anything to me.”

Roy watched Kain smugly, ready to discuss whether merchants feared pirates more or respected the navy more. But then an old voice drifted over from a distance, completely upending her careful plan.

“Your pirate friend here is hijacking the ship, kid from the Orlan Navy.”

The old sailor folded his arms and watched the strange pairing of pirate and navy officer with interest, curious to see what would happen next.

“Hijacking the ship?”

Kain repeated the words, his expression darkening. He handed the mackerel to the captain beside him, then grabbed the furious Roy by the wrist and pulled her toward the other side of the deck. “Come with me.”

The navy officer wasn’t even using much force. Roy could’ve easily pulled free, but the dark look on his face—and the hellish lecture she’d endured on the island—made her feel guilty. She wasn’t as forceful as usual.

She lowered her head slightly and kept repeating to herself, “Don’t talk back, don’t talk back, or he’ll lecture me for half the day again.”

Once they’d reached the far side, where the sailors couldn’t hear them, Kain let go. He stared expressionlessly at the captain he’d only just met and asked, “Are you insane?”

“I’m not!” Roy shot back, instantly forgetting all the self-persuasion from moments earlier.

“We’re castaways. We’re relying on this ship to get rescued. We should be grateful they aren’t asking us to pay for passage, and you’re trying to seize their cargo? Aren’t you afraid they’ll sneak up and club you from behind tonight, then throw you overboard?”

Roy had clearly missed the point. She seized on Kain’s mistake and retorted, “I’m not taking their cargo. I’m taking the ship. Besides, you’re underestimating this captain. Those weaklings wouldn’t dare sneak up and hit me—and even if they had the guts, I’d wake up before they got within three steps of me.”

The pirate’s words showed Kain that he’d still underestimated just how ruthless she could be. But her defiant retort did nothing except make things even more tense between them.

“Yes, yes, our great Captain Roy is unbeatable throughout the Eastern Sea Region. You’re not afraid of getting clubbed from behind—but aren’t you afraid they’ll tamper with your food and water? It’ll take at least a month to reach the nearest island on the Empire’s coast. You can’t stay on guard every minute of every day without slipping up eventually.”

The girl clearly hadn’t thought of that.

To Roy, any problem she could solve with force or charm wasn’t a problem. As for the little details, her former second-in-command, Richie, had always handled them. After being protected day after day by a man well-versed in all sorts of cunning tricks, she’d ended up overlooking a lot of dangers hiding in the small things.

“Uh… I hadn’t thought of that. So what do we do? Play nice with them for now, then kick them all off the ship once we reach shore?”

Now that she understood the situation, Roy’s confidence faltered. She gave Kain an embarrassed smile, its meaning all too clear.

“I’ll talk to them. You just stay out of it.”

Seeing that Roy still had no intention of giving up on hijacking the ship, Kain sighed in frustration. Then he walked straight toward Eda, who was watching them anxiously.

Just then, Elfie fluttered down from the sky and landed on Roy’s right shoulder. The girl and the bird exchanged a glance. Roy’s eyes held a hint of confusion, while Jackdaw looked at its master strangely, wondering if she really had fallen under that “Mambo’s” spell.

The captain’s cabin.

The two-masted merchant ship might not have looked like much, but in the small, elegant captain’s cabin, Kain could still feel the wealth of the Federation’s merchants.

A portrait of a goddess by a famous imperial artist hung on the black oak wall, alongside fine liquor that even Olan’s upper-class nobles rarely had the chance to taste. Both were signs of Eda’s immense wealth.

“I’m guessing the captain doesn’t want to waste too much time, so let’s get straight to the point.”

Kain took a seat at the desk. He had little interest in admiring Eda’s collection. Instead, he reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a badge cast in purple copper, then handed it to the nervous captain. “This is my family’s insignia. I thought it might help you understand me better and trust me.”

Eda studied the badge carefully. Even the sight of the purple-copper lion insignia, which every commoner in the Empire—and even every citizen of Punora—knew by heart, made his hand tremble slightly.

Putting the insignia together with the young man’s age—he could only be just under twenty—Eda swallowed and said, almost like a groan, “You’re the Empire’s…”

Kain raised a finger to his lips and calmly cut him off. “Keep it confidential, Captain. Now, let’s talk about the rest of the voyage.”