Chapter 59

“Alright, it’s all done.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

The gentle touch of my mother healing the wounds on my body. Cheshire quietly smiled at the corners of her lips.

As always, it was a warm and tender sensation.

Right after the treatment ended, Elise calmly spoke to Cheshire.

“You’ve had a lot of injuries lately. Are the enemies that strong?”

“…No. I was able to take them down. It was just a little mistake…”

In reality, it could be said that it was not merely a mistake but rather a limit.

Since the incident of Higuma’s death, clashes with the Frantz Kingdom Army had become frequent.

In those instances, she couldn’t avoid a few encounters with that Admiral guy, considering her capabilities.

Fortunately, her ‘friend’ Dust, who was always by her side, offered help, or else she would have sustained injuries that could have rendered her recovery completely impossible.

But…

Even so, Cheshire couldn’t speak about these facts.

Her reason for existence was solely to protect her mother and her pirate crew.

As someone who bore that mission, she couldn’t show any signs of wavering.

“Fufufu… I see… a mistake…” Elise chuckled softly at those words.

Then, she put down her healing tools and, as always, beamed a beautiful smile while saying,

“From now on, be careful. You may go out now.”

“Yes, Mother.”

After bowing respectfully, Cheshire left the room.

Watching her, Elise still wore a blissful smile that didn’t fade away, speaking in a warm voice.

“Soon… next, perhaps…”

*

“Phew…”

Achroiel let out a deep sigh.

She couldn’t help but frown at how annoyingly chaotic the situation was turning out to be.

“I thought there would be some friction, but… I never expected it to be this much.”

The repeated clashes between the Navy and the Pirates were intensifying.

In the case of Benessa, she had been thoroughly controlling it, so things were relatively fine.

The problem was the naval forces of the Frantz Kingdom.

While there were plenty of elements of discord between the pirates of Brittania and them, the biggest issue was that the Commander was entirely unable to control the situation.

“I don’t know if he’s incapable or just unwilling…”

Considering he was a person who couldn’t even grasp the situation from the start, it was very likely he didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation.

Perhaps he thought lightly, “We won’t be seeing each other long anyway, and after this ends, we’ll be enemies again…”

Though they gathered to take advantage of one another, there should at least be minimal trust among those working together.

It was clear how ridiculous the High Nobles of the Frantz Kingdom were to have placed such a useless person as the Commander.

“But… even considering that, I have this unsettling feeling…”

No matter how bad relations between pirates and the navy may be, only a few days had passed since they had teamed up.

You need to clap your hands to make a sound.

There was hardly any reason to provoke each other like this while facing a common strong enemy, the Pirate King.

“Well… there are indeed some filthy bastards among people…”

There’s always someone eager to stir trouble wherever you go.

Especially those famous for their hot-headedness in the Frantz Kingdom, right?

It might even be more unnatural if nothing were to go wrong.

However… it still felt deeply unsettling.

Her finely honed intuition was sending a soft warning.

While she couldn’t make definitive judgments due to the lack of clear evidence…

“Given the situation… perhaps it’s better to execute Plan B?”

It was a plan she wanted to avoid as much as possible, considering it would risk harsh criticism later on.

It would be one thing if she were a participant in the alliance, but as someone who initiated the alliance, she preferred to avoid actions that could compromise her minimal credibility.

However,

The Frantz Kingdom had already done enough to ruin its reputation, and this situation was already putting cracks in the alliance, so that thought didn’t seem too bad anymore.

“Ugh… well, no matter how I think of it, that just won’t do… even if it’s pirates, there are civilians among the navy…”

Though it wouldn’t be a bad plan for success, ultimately, Achroiel slowly shook her head.

Considering it would practically be a betrayal of everyone here, she felt it wasn’t right…

“And besides, we’ll be launching soon… there won’t be time to make things worse, so let’s just keep it as is…”

-BOOM!!!

“?! Wh-What was that?!”

At that moment, a loud sound and a flash of light unexpectedly rang out.

In a hurry, Achroiel looked out the window.

“Over there… No way…”

Flames rising and the sounds of commotion in between.

It was dark, but Achroiel could tell.

Who was there.

And,


What this situation meant…

“Let’s do it… B..”

*

Blue Shark Blue Queen.

She felt deep annoyance at the various annoyingly chaotic circumstances around her.

She had sensed an ominous vibe since the clashes between Elise’s White Sharks and the Frantz Kingdom Army began, but it didn’t take long for that ominous feeling to spread to her as well.

To those Frantz snails, both Elise and Blue Queen were just the same privateer of the Brittania Empire.

“I don’t like this. Those filthy navy bastards can’t even hold themselves for a few days without causing problems.”

Of course, she never expected to get along well with those navy buffoons from the start.

Though they were privateers, their territory was limited to that of the Brittania Empire.

The navies of other countries were clearly enemies devouring one another.

But still, to have caused such friction within just a week of gathering together was quite frustrating.

While the current grim atmosphere was a problem,


The more significant issue was whether they could actually trust such an alliance and fight properly.

“Blue Queen Captain, are you sure it’s fine like this? I know it’s a bit late to say so, but I’m increasingly uneasy about putting them in the vanguard.”

“Same thought. But does that mean we go in the front ourselves? Do you think we can trust them not to stab us in the back right now?”

“…Umm… well, that is…”

“If they stab us, we’ll just stab back. Just hold on a little longer. When they take the hits up front, we’ll take what we can from behind.”

“I see your point… understood.”

“We must not make mistakes. There’s only one target. The Pirate King’s treasure. We should avoid paying any price for unnecessary distractions.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Captain…”

“!”

-CRASH!!!

At that moment, a sudden massive explosion erupted.

The inn where Blue Queen and her officers were staying was engulfed in flames and began to burn.

“What… what’s going on?”

“Is… is that where Captain Blue Queen is?”

“Damn it! Put out the fire, quick!”

“Save the Captain!”

In an unexpected emergency, the pirates rushed toward the inn.

At that moment, they began to notice a group of people fleeing frantically somewhere.

“W-Wait! Who are those guys?”

“I… I think they’re… naval forces of the Frantz Kingdom?”

Though they couldn’t recognize them clearly, the uniforms they wore were undoubtedly those of the Frantz Kingdom.

They tossed down the bottles they were holding and vanished in an instant.

“No way those crazy bastards… how dare they!”

“W-Wait! We can’t focus on that now! We need to rescue the Captain!”

“Ugh…”

Filled with rage, but the urgent matter was the situation involving the inn engulfed in flames.

The pirates struggled to put out the fire, carrying seawater or using magic as best they could.


And after a while…

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

“C-Captain!”

“A-Are you okay, Captain?”

Emerging out of the still-smoldering flames was Blue Queen and her officers.

They had burns all over their bodies, and while a few were seriously injured, fortunately, because they had used magic to protect themselves, none were dead or in critical condition.

But…

“How dare those bastards…”

“How dare they even touch our Captain…”

This incident was enough to ignite their anger, which was already simmering due to the tyranny of the Frantz Kingdom Army.

It wasn’t just a minor offense; it was an actual threat.

“If we remain here like this, we’ll be at their mercy before we even go into battle!”

“Agreed! They even attacked the Captain directly this time! This is intolerable!”

Whether it was an accident or not no longer mattered.

The fact that they had attacked their ‘Captain’ had already crossed the line.

In terms of nations, it was equivalent to touching the king of a country.


For whatever reason…


This was essentially a declaration of war.

“Contact Elise.”

“Yes! Captain!”