After causing quite a commotion, I finally ended up alone in the infirmary, thanks to Ethan’s assertion that ‘Polaris needs some quiet time to rest.’
Now that I finally had some time to myself, I could calmly collect my thoughts.
‘Something’s strange.’
It was odd enough that I suddenly regressed by 20 years, but since I didn’t know the cause, I decided to set that aside for now.
There was a more pressing question.
‘How did they know I was affiliated with Caelum?’
I left the Caelum pirate group when I was 16, and for the past 10 years, I hadn’t mentioned anything that could link me to them.
Moreover, I never officially operated under Caelum, so my face wasn’t well-known.
“…didn’t anyone tell you anything?”
Nereus’s words before he died flashed through my mind.
‘I didn’t hear it properly.’
However, considering the nuance, I could speculate that Nereus had assigned someone to act as my guardian before he left.
‘But there was no one.’
I greeted the morning alone on a deserted island. Dragging my heavy, aching body to the spot where the ship had anchored, I found nothing. I stared at the vast, empty sea for hours until not even the ship’s shadow was visible.
No one came. The island had only a small amount of supplies left, and I was truly alone until I was miraculously cured of my illness and rescued by the navy.
Had there been a proper guardian, I wouldn’t have felt betrayed by Caelum or joined the navy.
‘Well, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have cured the disease and would have died, so maybe being alone was better.’
Regardless of the outcome, the fact remained that no one from Caelum stayed by my side. Simultaneously, information about my affiliation with Caelum had reached the navy.
‘There’s a spy among us.’
It didn’t take long to realize there was a rat in our midst, communicating with the navy and leaking Caelum’s information. It was also strange that Caelum fell so swiftly overnight.
Speaking of Caelum, shortly after I left at 16, it had defeated the infamous ‘Dunkin Knut,’ the leader of the Crescendo pirates, known as the king of pirates.
For 10 years, they thrived, only to be completely wiped out, save for Nereus? Nereus, who had repeatedly mocked and escaped from Admiral Pharus, the one who captured me, was more than a monster.
Thus, the only explanation for the incident before my regression was that someone leaked information.
‘But the problem is that this will happen 20 years from now.’
Caelum had few members, barely 50 at most, and due to internal rules, the numbers rarely increased.
However, time would ensure new members joined Caelum over the next 10 years.
‘So, the rat could be on this ship now or among the new recruits in the next 10 years…’
It’s likely a new recruit. The current members were mostly people I’d been with since before I joined this ship, practically like family.
‘So I’ll have to wait and see for at least 10 years.’
Since the spy hadn’t caused any harm yet, gathering evidence would take time. I wasn’t planning to leave this ship, so I’d slowly work to catch the traitor.
‘It’s a flawed plan, but it’s the best I have for now.’
However, if the spy held a higher position than me in the pirate group, would the others believe me? This worry lingered, but I soon shook my head.
“Then I’ll have to create a position.”
I was no longer the incompetent burden Polaris of Caelum. Although not the highest, I was a member of the esteemed Wittar Medical Association.
In other words, I now had skills. By becoming the ship’s doctor and holding their lives in my hands, I’d solidify my position.
‘Speaking of which, something happened not long after I fell ill.’
The mention of lives reminded me of a nagging feeling.
“I can’t just lie here.”
Unable to ignore the uneasy feeling, I got up and stumbled outside.
The cold wooden floor felt starkly real against my bare feet.
It was quiet around dusk to night. However, as I approached the deck, I started hearing some noise.
This feeling, though it had been a long time, was unmistakable. Those guys were drinking again.
“Those people are really…!”
In the past, such a scene would have been quite familiar to me, but I had spent the last 10 years with Dandel, my adoptive father. He was a person who only drank on very rare occasions, just one glass to celebrate something good.
Living with someone with such self-control made me fume at the sight of those people drinking excessively again today.
I marched up to the deck to confront them about their drinking.
The sound of the sea and the salty air caressed my cheeks and hair. Although I had been on navy ships before, the sea breeze on Caelum’s ship felt different.
‘Why?’
But before I could get lost in those feelings of nostalgia, another loud burst of laughter rang out, and the wind carried not just the salty scent but also the smell of alcohol. I squinted my eyes in annoyance.
“Kuhahaha~! This is great!”
“Here’s the English translation of the conversation provided:
“Argh?! What is this? We’re out of essential FXXX! XX! Who bought this nonsense?!”
“Let’s hang the [item] that we bought!”
“The vice-captain probably bought it.”
“…Should I hang onto it?”
They were making a ruckus, beating drums, and blowing pipes. Then, they burst into laughter again over something.
I watched their conversation in dismay. The liquor they were drinking was notorious for tasting terrible, despite being made with some fruit.
‘Idiots.’
Even while complaining about the taste, they kept drinking. Watching them, I felt a sense of futility, wondering what I had resented for the past 10 years.
“There’s no choice but to drink it all, since we have a few more crates…”
“Hey, isn’t that Lala?”
“What?! Lala? Where?”
“There, look. Lala! Come here!”
“What are you doing up? Lala! Why aren’t you sleeping?”
The drunken sailors, faces red and holding their glasses, shouted at me. It seemed the nickname Nereus mentioned had spread widely while I was in my room. I spoke to them in a cold voice without realizing it.
“…Drunkards.”
“What?!”
“Isn’t our Lala a bit too cold~?”
“Wow~ Our princess has turned into an ice princess~!”
“I’m so sad that our princess has become cold.”
‘What nonsense…’
Sad, my foot.
They clearly saw an opportunity to tease me and were creating chances to do so. When I was younger, I was pushed around by them, but not anymore. I folded my arms and looked at them silently.
‘I wasn’t like this when I was 6.’
There was no need to act as I did when I was 6. Although my physical age was 6, my actual age was 26. Now, I could clearly see how immature they were.
“Oh dear.”
“……..…!”
As I looked at them with an unintentionally cold gaze, suddenly, my perspective shifted upward.
“Why is my princess out in the cold at this hour? And barefoot. What if you get hurt?”
“Nere… Dad.”
“Not just dad, but Nere Dad? Hmm, that’s not bad either~”
Laughing cheerfully, he…
‘He’s drunk.’
It was obvious to anyone that he was drunk.
He hoisted me onto his shoulders, then took back the glass of liquor he had handed to the navigator Isaac and downed it.
The smell of alcohol wafted heavily from him.
As I rested my chin on Nereus’s head, my body suddenly felt warm.
“Huh?”
“You’ll catch a cold.”
Isaac had brought a blanket from somewhere and draped it over me.
“Thank you… Isaac.”
“………”
“…Dad?”
Isaac was always taciturn and stern but took good care of me. In my previous life, I found him intimidating and never got close to him, but this time he seemed to be waiting for something. When I called him, his usually stern face showed a faint smile.
‘I should have called him that sooner.’
If I had known he’d be so pleased, I would have called him dad. They all clung to titles like dad, and were so happy about it.
‘Maybe because they’re all people without families now? …How foolish I am.’
“Lala.”
Nereus called me.
“Yes?”
“Even though Dad is strong, if you keep kicking me with your feet like that, it hurts a bit~”
“………..”
I didn’t know when I had started shaking my legs, but hearing that it hurt Nereus made me feel a little sorry.
‘It sounds more like he’s teasing me than actually being hurt.’
I grabbed a bit of Nereus’s hair and asked,
“Dad, what’s so great that you’re drinking so much?”
Caelum often threw drinking parties for trivial reasons. Once, they celebrated the historical development of magical science that allowed them to load ample provisions onto the ship, even though that had been possible for quite some time.
“Hahaha, isn’t it obvious?!”
“……..?”
“Our princess has finally woken up! How can we not celebrate it?! Right?!”
“Without me?”
“………..”
“So you’re celebrating me waking up but having fun without me?”
The deck fell silent at my words.
‘What’s this?’
Nereus downed his drink in one go and roughly wiped his mouth before shouting.
“Gerard! Dexter! You two were the most recent ones to take care of Lala, weren’t you?! Get out here!!”
Gerard and Dexter, looking pale, came running out at Nereus’s shout.
“How did you take care of her that a 6-year-old is already using such language?! Even if she’s a genius! Huh?!”
To be honest, I thought the language they used around me wasn’t suitable for a child’s sensitivity. But instead of saying that, I quietly listened to Nereus’s continuing words.
“Come to think of it, Lala got sick after you took care of her, right? How could you not notice she was sick when you were right next to her? What if our princess had died? You know how dangerous it was since she hovered between life and death for a week, right?”
To be even more honest, I thought Nereus wouldn’t have noticed my condition until just before I collapsed either.
“I didn’t punish you harshly then, considering how shocked you must have been, but that won’t do now.”
Nereus threw his empty glass far away.
Splash—
The sound of something falling into the water was heard from beyond the darkness. It was the sound of the glass falling into the sea.
Nereus spoke coldly.
“Bring it back.”
“………”
“………”
This man.
He didn’t mean say to bring that glass back.
🍓 :
For the last part, Nereus tell them to die. Since the Korean words he use it ‘주워’ similliar to ‘죽어’, maybe he’s misspelling since he’s drunk.
