The study suddenly fell silent.
The girl’s confident claim left the major’s head buzzing. He stared with his mouth hanging open, his gaze darting between the young man and woman.
“Y-Young Master?”
At the sound of the major’s trembling voice, Kain finally came to his senses. He shot the captain a fierce glare, then lowered his voice to explain, “Just think about it. There’s no way she could be….”
“Could be what? You heartless scoundrel! The moment you get back to Olan, you plan to break off our engagement?”
Roy cut him off before he could finish. Her face was full of wounded indignation, and her words came in a rapid-fire barrage. “If I hadn’t saved you, you’d have died of dehydration and exposure. You wouldn’t even have had the chance to set foot in your homeland again! And just now, I nearly ruined these hands protecting you. Is this really how you repay me…?”
Watching the girl look on the verge of tears, Kain trembled with rage. He pointed at the captain, who was laying it on far too thick. “You… You…”
“Hey, hey, all right, all right. Young Master, don’t give this lady such a hard time.”
The major seemed to have figured something out. He gave Kain a peculiar look, then softened his tone and asked Roy, “Miss, tell me—what exactly happened?”
You had to admire Roy’s acting. With looks like hers, even the military’s specialists in disguise could only admit defeat beside her.
Roy ignored the major’s question and kept her eyes on Kain. In a slightly shrill voice, she challenged him, “If you don’t want to admit it, fine. Tell me, then—which part of what I said earlier was a lie?”
Kain froze. His sapphire-blue eyes filled with helplessness. After a moment’s thought, he realized with dismay that although the captain was putting on an act, every word that came from her rosy lips was true.
A lie made entirely of truths had no flaws to uncover. Knowing he couldn’t argue his way out of this, Kain darkened his expression and said coldly, “Fine. Then tell me—what exactly is this engagement of ours supposed to be about?”
At that, a sly glint flashed in Roy’s eyes. She looked like a little fox whose scheme had succeeded—and incredibly smug.
But to the major, after Kain spoke coldly, the girl’s gaze suddenly dimmed. The emotion in it seemed utterly genuine.
“It was a sunny morning. I-I was strolling along Hipalia’s beach with my servants when I nearly tripped over someone. That’s when I found him, soaked from head to toe and unconscious.” Roy awkwardly referred to herself as “Miss,” then began telling a story that was seventy percent true and thirty percent made up.
“Hipalia?”
The major repeated the place name in surprise, then asked in confusion, “Miss, isn’t that… a harbor in the Punora Federation?”
“Yes, Major.” Roy lowered her head slightly. Her hair fell across her noble dark-gold eyes, as if to hide the original sin she’d been born with.
Only then did the major realize that the girl had a pair of the Empire’s exceedingly rare dark-gold eyes. Putting that together with her mention of Hipalia, one of the Federation’s three great commercial harbors, he fell silent for a long moment before managing to ask, “You… No, are you a member of the Anderson Family?”
If the Howard Family of the Orlan Empire had been born from blood and fire, then the Anderson Family of the Punora Federation was the one that had sparked them.
The Anderson Family’s history stretched back an age. Long before the Federation was formed, it was already a powerful family that ruled Hipalia Grand Harbor. It controlled the largest military-industrial enterprise in the world and possessed wealth and means of force that surpassed those of ordinary small nations. Even now, it was one of the Federation’s most influential families.
And every child born with Anderson blood had a beautiful pair of golden eyes.
“I’m a collateral heir of the Anderson Family. A few days ago, I was going to the main branch for an assessment…” Roy’s hesitant expression was flawless.
The major knew all too well what it meant for a girl from a collateral branch to go to the main branch for an assessment. With his vivid imagination, he quickly pieced together what must have happened.
“So you saved the Young Master, and then, uh, resented the main branch’s arrangements and came with him to the Empire?”
“Yes. In my parents’ eyes, I’ve always been nothing more than a tool for currying favor with the main branch. I trained in martial arts day after day and studied etiquette, all so I’d catch the eye of Young Master Anderson.” After a brief silence, Roy seemed to have accepted her lot and gave a faint, bitter smile.
In an ancient family like the Andersons, where bloodlines determined one’s standing, it was nothing unusual to put a girl—or rather, a future bride—through near-torturous training just to tie her to the main branch.
“I just never thought that Young Master Howard, who promised to marry me after I left my homeland, would turn out to be just as cold and heartless as Young Master Anderson.”
By now, the major understood everything he needed to. If Roy said any more, she might give herself away. So she changed tack and gazed mournfully at her second-in-command, whose eye was twitching nonstop.
Kain never would’ve imagined that his captain could make up such a vivid story. And the most important part was that the major actually believed her. How could the old man be so gullible?
What Kain didn’t know was that he’d once been a victim of Captain Roy’s superb acting himself.
“Look. This ring is the engagement token he bought me yesterday.” Roy held up her left hand and waggled her ring finger in front of the major as if showing off a trophy.
Looking at the expensive sapphire teardrop ring, the major fell completely into the captain’s trap. He glanced cautiously at Kain, then weakly tried to defend his Young Master. “Well… perhaps seeing that Black Crow Society bastard reminded the Young Master of the past, so he wasn’t in the mood to talk about this.”
“Enough!”
Kain stood up with a cold expression, forcing Roy to swallow the inflammatory remark she’d been about to add. But to his surprise, the captain—who never let anything go—obediently kept quiet this time. With her injured hand held just so, she even looked a little more delicate.
At the sight, the major’s eyelid twitched several times. He hurriedly got up, pulled Kain over to a bookshelf a little farther away, and lowered his voice. “Young Master, House Howard has never broken a promise, let alone mistreated a fiancée.”
“What she said is just…”
“Then tell me honestly, Young Master: did this lady save you after the shipwreck or not?” The major calmly cut off his “excuses.”
Kain’s expression darkened, but all he could do was answer in a low voice, “Yes.”
“And just now, did she step in front of you and kill that Black Crow Society assassin?” The major’s expression was solemn.
“Yes.” Kain practically ground the word out through his teeth.
The major sighed, his expression complicated, then gave Kain a firm pat on the shoulder. “I still think you should’ve informed the Governor before making such an important decision. But what’s done is done, so I won’t try to talk you out of it. I only ask that you show at least a little—just a little—consideration for the Howard Family’s reputation and don’t bully that young lady.”
Kain stared at the major, who looked utterly serious, feeling that the whole thing was absurd. He wanted to crack the man’s head open and see what was inside. It was one thing not to exercise for over twenty years, but had his brain really gone soft, too?
“After what happened with the Black Crow Society, you two shouldn’t go back to town tonight. I’ll have someone prepare a room for you.” With that, the major left through the door, looking deeply satisfied, and gave the pair—who, to him, were clearly a bickering couple—some privacy to talk.
Kain glanced at the wooden door as it silently swung shut. After a long, speechless moment, he turned to the pirate, who had returned to her true self and was wearing a wicked smile.
“Satisfied now?”
