There was one thing Polaris didn’t know.
On the very first day she was confined to the infirmary, Caelum had a private meeting with the head of the Terminus family.
To be exact—with Nereus.
The Terminus family already knew their true identity as pirates. However, recognizing that Caelum’s actions were unlike those of typical pirates, they decided to observe rather than immediately arrest them.
‘And in the process, we made a deal.’
Nereus had also traveled to the Terminus territory to explore the possibility of negotiating with its lord.
The idea of pirates making deals with one of the Six Noble Houses was absurd—but Nereus believed it was plausible.
First of all, the Terminus family had very few connections with other noble houses.
And among the documents discovered on Odlo Island, only the name ‘Terminus’ appeared.
Had they been colluding with other families of the Six Houses, there would’ve been at least indirect references to them—even if not named outright.
‘But there weren’t any.’
That meant either the Terminus family was secretly monopolizing things on their own…
Or someone else was using their name.
Nereus strongly leaned toward the latter—and if that ‘someone’ truly existed, they had to be bold enough to pull something of this scale.
For instance, it could be one of the vassals serving the Six Houses.
In either case, the Terminus lord was likely to agree to a deal. And the potential gains were enormous—enough to persuade even Gilbert to support it.
At any rate, currying favor with a member of the Six Houses couldn’t hurt.
“Careful not to get it on your clothes.”
“Yessir~”
Nereus swung a poker he had pulled out from a storage room with sharp precision.
Its blunt edge, propelled by his strength, cut through the air with a whoosh—aiming at a target like a weapon.
Anyway, what Caelum offered in the deal with Terminus was help with the castle’s security.
This was because a few days earlier, Nereus had handed over a human trafficking group they’d caught.
And from the lord’s interrogation, it was clear that a much larger organization lurked behind them.
The problem was—the Terminus lord was currently unable to use much of her power.
Frankly, Nereus hadn’t expected her to go this far.
‘She pretends to be unsure in social situations, but clearly knows her own worth.’
No one in their right mind would try to overpower a lord guarding their own land.
If that happened, the Western Continent would immediately be drenched in blood, starting with Terminus territory.
So instead, they decided to make use of the situation.
They spread the word that the Terminus lord had temporarily left the castle.
Sending Isaac and Titan away was also a decoy.
Titan, for one, wasn’t the type to quietly clean things up at night.
And the Terminus lord was quite tall—nearly Isaac’s height.
So, they dressed up Isaac to impersonate the Terminus lord and sent him out.
Nereus clicked his tongue as he glanced at the corpses strewn across the hallway.
“Didn’t think people were that eager to shorten their lifespans.”
“Isn’t our line of work the same, though?”
“What even is our job?”
“Something most people wouldn’t do unless they have a death wish.”
True, being a pirate isn’t exactly a glamorous profession. Even Nereus couldn’t immediately refute that.
“Still, dying later is better than dying right away.”
“That’s true, too~”
After all, Caelum was a group of people who didn’t want to die just yet.
Bang!
Nereus’s muttering was drowned out by the sound of a gunshot fired by Dexter.
The bullet pierced the window and hit a man standing behind Clara.
“Ack—! That scared me!”
“How many of them are there?!”
They’d been told there were four adults and one child in the castle.
Including the butler, that made five adults total.
With numbers like that, the attackers might’ve assumed they could finish the job before the Lord of Terminus returned.
They clearly had no idea who the guests staying here really were.
Nereus began to think maybe it was a blessing Polaris had been sick and sleeping more deeply than usual.
Even with blades flying nearby, she hadn’t stirred—a bit of noise outside wouldn’t wake her either.
Looking out the window, he saw more than a dozen people rushing toward the castle.
‘They’re not storming in just to rescue some slave traders…’
It meant the ‘goods’ involved in the deal—had not been properly retrieved—and were still hidden somewhere in the forest.
With that last calculation done, Nereus tore off his eye patch, flung open the window, and leapt out.
Thud! The ground rumbled lightly as he landed and straightened his crouched body.
The attackers hadn’t expected someone to jump out of a dark window, and they were momentarily flustered.
But they quickly regained composure and drew their swords.
Whoosh!
Multiple assailants charged at Nereus at once, but he calmly hooked one man’s sword with his fire poker.
In that moment, he twisted the poker in a spinning motion, breaking the man’s balance.
As the man staggered and loosened his grip on the sword, Nereus snatched it from him.
Then, with the blunt end of the poker, he struck the man’s neck, knocking him out.
Before another attacker could land a hit from behind, Nereus countered with the newly acquired sword.
“Wh-what the hell?!”
“Is he a monster? An Enlightened one?”
His reflexes were far beyond what an ordinary human could achieve—yet he didn’t seem to possess any aura.
“Didn’t they say he was just a nobody without any special abilities?!”
“What nonsense is that?”
With a playful grin, Nereus now held a sword in one hand and his fire poker in the other.
“You don’t know Caelum? Caelum?”
“…!”
When the name ‘Caelum’ was mentioned, a few of the attackers visibly paled.
“C-Caelum…!”
“You mean that Caelum?!”
Among criminals, they were a name whispered with fear.
Though Nereus had been intercepting their wanted posters behind the scenes—preventing the bounties from rising or portraits from being updated—he couldn’t stop the word-of-mouth that spread among pirates.
Pirates freer than anyone else on the sea.
A group as unpredictable as nature itself.
A pirate crew known for possessing unmatched individual strength.
In truth, they were far more merciful than most pirates—but that only applied to those within Caelum itself.
There were two types of people Caelum showed no mercy toward.
Those involved in illegal drugs, and slave traffickers.
Ironically, both were usually core revenue sources for most pirate crews.
That’s why Caelum had likely taken down more pirates than the navy had.
It was even joked that they captured pirates better than the navy itself.
To Polaris, they might’ve always appeared like a bunch of idiots.
But now—in the dead of night—all the things they couldn’t let her see would disappear into the dark.
“Gil—! Give me a hand!”
“Tch.”
A lazy voice came from behind. But in the next instant.
Whoosh—
CRACK!
Two massive frying pans flew across the field and embedded themselves deep into a tree, knocking down several enemies as they passed.
From the direction they’d come, a blur rushed forward and smashed the heads of nearby enemies with whatever he was holding.
Tap.
Gilbert stepped onto the handle of a pan stuck in the tree and spun the lid of a pot he held like a frisbee, expression bored.
“Fighting’s not really my thing.”
“Shut up, you idiot.”
The goal was to prevent any more intruders from entering the castle.
As for the rats that had already made it inside—Clara and Dexter could handle those.
‘They’ve both learned the castle’s layout well from Titan.’
Nereus and Gilbert were used to fighting in open spaces rather than cramped ones.
The thugs eyed Gilbert, who looked much slimmer and weaker than Nereus, and silently agreed to take him out first.
‘How quaint.’
Nereus, fending off a few of the attackers half-heartedly just to stir chaos, watched the fools rush toward their own deaths—like moths to flame.
‘They must’ve thought Gilbert was only fast, because of what happened earlier.’
Regrettably for the attackers, Gilbert ranked among the top three in physical strength in the entire Caelum pirate crew.
There was a reason everyone in Caelum feared him.
‘He’s the only one who can go toe-to-toe with me.’
Craack.
As if expecting this, Gilbert nonchalantly dropped to the ground and swung the frying pan lodged in the tree.
Even though it wasn’t an axe, the tree trunk was ripped apart like it had been cleaved clean through.
BOOM—!
A massive number of enemies were crushed beneath the falling tree.
Nereus, satisfied that the ‘moths’ had been properly cleaned up, finished off the remaining ones near him.
“You showed your face—so that means you’re planning to ‘completely’ clean up, right?”
“Of course. You and Clara can’t afford to get recognized.”
And in a situation where there were two people whose identities couldn’t be exposed, there was no way they’d let any of the rats slip away alive.
If even one escaped and sold information to Barkinfo, it would be a real mess.
“Think there’s something hidden in the forest?”
“Who knows. The Lord of Terminus is out scouting that right now.”
The only one capable of navigating the vast woods without getting lost, or noticing any subtle changes in the terrain—was the Lord herself.
As pirates, they regretted missing out on treasure.
But frankly, they didn’t have high hopes for the kind of ‘treasure’ a human trafficker would leave behind.
“Hey, but Ner — I’ve got a question.”
“Hmm?”
“How did these guys know that today, of all days, the castle would be empty? Just a coincidence?”
While they had dangled bait, today was the only day the Lord of Terminus was actually absent.
Realizing that strange coincidence, Nereus’s eyes widened—a chill of déjà vu running down his spine—and he spun around.
Just then, Clara and Dexter emerged, dragging bodies out from inside the castle.
“Captain? We’re all done with the cleanup~! No worries!”
“Y-yeah. I double-checked everything—”
“There’s still one left! Sh*t!”
Damn it!
Nereus’s face turned pale as he dashed into the castle.
There was one person he hadn’t even thought to suspect.
He bolted toward Polaris’s room.
Footprints on the floor—soaked in the blood pooling in the hallway—led the way.
They were smaller than his own, neatly shaped like dress shoes.
“…!”
Down the guest corridor—every door was wide open.
And the door leading to Polaris’s room was no exception.
Dread began to turn into certainty.
Among the many doors branching off the drawing room, all were ajar—including Polaris’s.
In that moment, Nereus had no time for thoughts.
He grasped the situation instantly.
The person standing near Polaris’s bed collapsed—pierced by Nereus’s sword.
“Huff… huff…”
Watching Evelyn barely clinging to life, Nereus panted heavily.
‘Lala… where’s Lala?’
Where had the child gone?
There was no sign of her on the bed.
Had she been kidnapped?
‘No… no, what if she really was taken?!’
In noble estates, there are always hidden passages—and this castle was no exception.
If Evelyn was affiliated with any particular faction, it wasn’t far-fetched to assume the traffickers had come equipped with knowledge of these secret routes.
Does that mean… my daughter could become a slave?
His blood turned cold. His heart pounded wildly.
No. No—if I hurry right now, if I move fast enough…
If he could just catch them before the ship left…
Just as despair and panic threatened to consume every corner of Nereus’s mind—
“Hiccup.”
A small hiccup broke through the chaos.
His mismatched eyes—each a different color—snapped toward the sound.
And there, under a small nightstand, a child was curled up, trembling.
She was covering her mouth with both hands, wide eyes staring back at him.
It was Polaris.
~~~
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