CH 146

Sagastar was just as stubborn as Ed. Ed could ignore Sagastar all he wanted, but the latter would always stick around. As a result, Ed had to escape every time as if he were fleeing in the past. But now, the admiral didn’t have time to waste, so he gnashed his teeth and changed his order.

“Then Commodore Guillaume will take command instead. But you’ll get on another ship.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Climb onto that ship.”

“You’ll run away again.”

“…”

“I won’t nag you. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Fine, do as you please. Get on it or not, I don’t care.”

“…”

‘I can move the Visha even before Sagastar wakes up anyway. It seems that the senior officers’ temporary accommodation has been set up on this island, so all I need to do is cross over to the Visha while he’s still asleep and leave first… Sagastar nagging has already started even if he thinks it hasn’t.’

Staring at the map, Ed tilted his head and pondered. There was something else that he didn’t like. Before long, he pushed away the models of battleships one by one with his baton.

“Cadieu, Rodi, Rou, Clue, and Soberun of the 1st Provisional Squadron will also be taken by Guillaume. Keep only Justorin, Simon, Clida, and Baor… also reduce the number of the remaining sloops by half.”

“Are we retaining only these small ships? There may not be enough guns…”

“There is no need. We’ll capture them alive instead of engaging.”

“…What do you mean capture them alive? …And what do you mean by not engaging?!..”

“Take the Serlio route. We’ll depart tomorrow. Bring enough supplies for ten days and move the rest to the side of Guillaume.”

Sagastar, who was muttering alone, suddenly raised his head.

“Yes? No! Tomorrow? That’s way too short a recovery period, as Guiadé stated, you should definitely rest for another week.”

“There’s something I left behind.”

Sagastar barely held his nagging back. It was definitely questionable that the reason for pursuing an unidentified pirate ship had nothing to do with the admiral’s kidnapping and attempted murder, but he quickly accepted it.

‘In fact, Sir Edgar complaining about losing his belongings isn’t unusual… Robbing a commercial ship, which is a civilian ship, or robbing navy property are two different things after all. Furthermore, the Admiral has 40.000 Mondovi navies at his disposal…’

But Sagastar was unfamiliar with Ed’s authoritative demeanour. Even the Navy wouldn’t move the fleet to find an officer’s goods, so Ed’s command was only possible because he was the admiral. This was the first time this had happened, so Sagastar inquired, puzzled and cautiously.

“Should we hurry?”

“Very much.”

“With all due respect, may I ask what they dared to extort?”

“My sword.”

Sagastar almost reflexively blurted out, ‘Are you talking about the very same sword His Majesty bestowed on you?!’ but it had only been less than a few hours since he declared that he would return to his original intention of being in service to Ed, so he had no choice but to bite his tongue. In the end, Sagastar nodded his head with effort while diligently straightening his ever-narrowing eyebrows. 

‘There must be another reason why he can’t make this an official mission.’

Even though Sagastar knew that Ed wasn’t looking at him, he appeared eager as if he was trying to convince himself. 

Away from that fervent effort, Ed held his unfocused gaze somewhere else. He thought to himself while his eyes were grasping the memories that were floating in through the air.

‘My sword, my Surihe, and my…’

His eyes crawled a little higher. The balsam, hanging from a thin rope, was bright. 

‘…Like when it shone alone in the pitch-dark sea… Why did she throw that after me when she threw me to my death? At first, I thought that they had thrown all of my belongings into the sea, but that wasn’t the case. Only the balsam was thrown out.’

This was all Ed could think about while he was drifting on the surface of the sea.

‘Only Liloa knew about the balsam’s existence, and that it was a very effective means of survival in the night sea. Nobody else could’ve gotten their hands on it…’

Amidst his boiling hatred, conviction haunted him with a slither of hope. 

Ed shuddered and looked at the light. As he continued to stare, a cloud of light spread across his vision.

‘Did you change your mind again? Did you feel guilty all of a sudden? Didn’t you already kill me? What kind of denial and self-serving behaviour was that? And when are you going to stop shamelessly playing with people? I’m disgusted with my past self who had been so hopeful. To allow my mind and body to die, I must’ve been crazy. I must’ve been so out of my mind back then that I’m only realising this now… Indeed. How can I still say I love her without sounding insane… And when I don’t understand her at all?’

Ed’s gaze dropped at some point. Sagastar looked in wonder at those bloodshot eyes. 

Ed then tossed his glass to the ground and walked over to the bed.

“We set sail at dawn, go to sleep.”

***

Jericho paced along the doorway, his gaze fixed on Lil. When Lil returned his gaze and motioned for him to leave, he hesitated as if he had something to say. Jericho was startled when her gaze turned colder and opened his mouth.

“…I brought Courant with me.”

“Send him in.”

“Uh, what are you going to do?”

Lil, who was flipping through Ed’s notebook, raised her head in surprise.

“What’s wrong? Do you think I’m going to kill him?”

“That… You’re going to expel him…”

“So?”

“Oh, why, you know… his sibling, the little one is still on Panichi, right?”

“What do you want to say?”

“Uh, how can you do that? Huh? What about her?”

“You make it sound like I’m about to do something horrible to Mellie. The one who did wrong to Mellie was Courant himself, not me. The guilty should take responsibility, don’t lay the blame on me.”

“You know the circumstances, how…”

“Who do you want to take care of when you couldn’t even take care of Courant? Huh? You guys killed a man for your own benefit… Now you’re expecting me to just sit here, doing nothing and be pushed over, is that it?”

“…”

“Bring him in now and get the hell out of here.”

“…”

Jericho’s shoulders shrank and he quickly left. While rubbing her face roughly, Lil felt like stabbing her eyes with her fingernails.

“Damn it!”

‘I shouldn’t get so worked up, but I can hardly control myself… The change in my emotions, the ups and downs, these are all so unfamiliar to me.’

Lil buried her face in her hands and tried to stay calm. 

After a while, the door opened and Courant stood in the doorway, shaking. Lil couldn’t bear looking at that pitiful gesture. The mere fact that she was in the same room as him, gave her goosebumps. Feeling tenser than she had anticipated, Lil crossed her arms and tightly gripped her upper arms with her hands. 

‘I’m ‘personally’ angry with Courant. I want to punish him not just for breaking the code, but also for Ed’s pain, Ed’s time… and Ed’s life… It disgusts me that Courant is still alive and will be able to enjoy the time and opportunities he has robbed Ed of. So much so that I even want to deprive him of his future…’

Lil was impulsively encouraged by meaningless things like vengeance or retribution.

‘It’s ridiculous. I should only be feeling this way if it had been for someone in my family, but Ed was neither a family member nor a close acquaintance of mine. Then why am I so troubled with this personal desire for vengeance? Is this all because I’ve developed feelings?

I must be insane. It’s obvious that Ed has died cursing me, so who would retaliate against whom?’

In the end, it was Lil who gave the order. And she was the one who could’ve turned it around but didn’t because she couldn’t stand up to Cesar. Lil vigorously shook her head.

“Get off my ship as soon as we arrive at our next destination.”

Courant lifted his head.

“Because of him?”

“Yes. The crime of beating a fellow sailor, an officer even, until he died is condemned by deportation.”

“Ha, but Captain! He…”

“What about him?”

“He deserved to die! I’m innocent!”

“Does that give you the right to do whatever you want to a guy whom you think deserves to die?”

“I was just inter… interrogating!”

“Really? Interrogation is required for an accurate investigation, but can your actions be called an interrogation? What have you been investigating? What did you get from Ed? Did you believe what he said?”

“He’s from the Navy! You can’t believe what the Navy says!”

“If you weren’t going to believe anything he said, why did you interrogate him in the first place?”

“I was trying to sort out the truth from the lies!”

“Ah, so you decided whether it was true or not at your own disposal and tortured him until you got the truth you wanted to hear. How very convenient. It could’ve been true or false depending on your judgement.”

“…”

“I’ll tell you again. Interrogation is the process of examining in detail how something happened and investigating it accurately.”

“…”

“Now answer me. What you did to Ed, was it really for the sake of an accurate investigation?”

“He’s in the Navy. There’s no way he’s innocent! He was communicating with the fleet using that pigeon! The Captain saw it, too! You were there! Who would believe a spy when he says he’s innocent?”

“…”

“Even when he was caught, he was still acting so proud! I saw it with my own two eyes!”

The boy, who was trembling all over, became lost in the shadow of betrayal. The realisation that he had been betrayed by a being he thought would protect him weighed heavily on him and that was clearly seen on his innocent face. Eventually, he found himself wanting to strangle that very being…