MTFBMP Chapter 46

“Next time we meet, maybe we’ll be friends.”

 

“Next time…”

 

Dion trailed off and then jumped to his feet.

 

“Captain?”

 

“It was kind of you to call me Captain, but I think I’d much prefer to be called by my first name.”

 

With that, Dion extended his hand toward me.

 

“What is this…”

 

A hand stretched out, with palm open and facing up. The other hand was gracefully held back. Dion was asking me to dance.

 

“It’s a party on board. You should dance.”

 

One of the sailors spotted Dion and whistled again. The tune quickly changed to match the sound.

 

With boisterous voices, the sailors linked arms and danced in pairs.

 

“And what am I to call you?”

 

“Ah.”

 

For some reason, Dion’s polite request for my name reminded me of Adele.

 

‘I thought I told you not to dance with other people.’

 

The words of our shared promise seemed to hang in my ears.

 

“My name is…”

 

Looking at Dion’s hand, I had just opened my mouth to say.

 

“Rat!”

 

Suddenly, I heard a chorus of sailor’s voices.

 

“Hey, kid! Get the rat!”

 

“What?”

 

Turning to the voices calling me, I saw a fairly large group of sailors taking turns pointing at the floor beside me.

 

“Huh? Huh! Rat, rat!”

 

Several mice, I don’t know where they came from, were running toward me.

 

“Rats!”

 

Goosebumps ran up my spine as they came at me in a swarm. I screamed and dodged the mice.

 

I’d never seen rats move like this before, lunging at a human.

 

‘Adele!’

 

It must have been Adele.

 

“Pfft, kid, you’re a good dancer!”

 

Dion’s eyes met mine as he looked at me in disbelief as I scrambled to avoid the rat. Dion smirked once more and threw up his hands in disbelief.

 

“Uh, there they are!”

 

“Are these rats going crazy as a group?”

 

Although I was relieved that Adele was able to influence things on deck again, I felt a little like crying at the amount of stares I was getting.

 

Some rats were caught by the sailors, and the few that remained skillfully scurried around the corner.

 

‘What a grump, Adele!’

 

I gritted my teeth and called out to Adele.

 

— Call for me, master.

 

Adele’s voice enveloped me. A serious voice with no trace of playfulness, it called me over and over again.

 

— Master, come on.

 

My gaze followed the direction of the last remaining rat on deck.

 

“Huh?”

 

Around the corner. A man stood in the shadows.

 

“Rhodon?”

 

The anxiety I’d been holding in check exploded again.

 

Adele’s voice, calling me over and over, filled my head.

 

‘We have to run.’

 

The name tag above Rhodon’s head glowed red.

 

As soon as I saw it, I reflexively spun around and looked out over the deck. One by one, red name tags popped up among the sailors.

 

They were headed toward Dion.

 

“No.”

 

I ran toward Dion.

 

Boom!

 

An explosion sounded in the distance.

 

✨

 

The ship was on fire.

 

“Aaahh!”

 

The massive vibration sent me spinning. Pushing down on the hat that was trying to come off, I pushed my fallen torso up and looked around.

 

Another gash had opened up on top of the one on my barely healed forearm, but I didn’t care.

 

“Anthele, are you okay?”

 

Dion, who had been caught in the blast with me, was pinned beneath me.

 

“Ugh. Y-yes, I am.”

 

Dion didn’t seem to be hurt either. It was the luck of the draw.

 

Behind the explosion, the people on deck scattered. It was hard to make out red name tags in the reddish blur.

 

“Anthele, we need to evacuate first…”

 

Bam!

 

Another explosion sounded, this one a little further away, and the vibrations could be felt in the distance. The situation was dire.

 

“Everyone evacuate! Find the source of the explosion and assess the damage to the ship!”

 

Dion shouted, leaving me behind. He scrambled to move the crew around, trying to assess the situation and make repairs.

 

“It’s the kitchen! There’s an explosion in the kitchen!”

 

“There’s a corpse in the kitchen!”

 

The sailors who came out in a panic reported the situation.

 

“Master, we can’t repair the ship, we have to get out of here!”

 

Boom!

 

Another explosion sounded. Dion seemed to realize the ship’s fate.

 

“Lower the lifeboats!”

 

Red name tags flashed in front of my eyes as people scrambled to get out.

 

“He-help, help…! Ugh!”

 

A sailor who had been running from the corridor to the deck screaming suddenly let out an incoherent scream and coughed up blood. I turned around to see a sailor holding a jungle knife behind him.

 

“Jerry, what the hell!”

 

The sailor’s name, Jerry, was glowing red above his head.

 

Other sailors began to draw their weapons, one after the other, starting with Jerry.

 

“Dion, we have to be careful with the new sailors!”

 

At my shout, Dion glanced at me and nodded. It was now up to Dion to organize the situation on deck.

 

‘I have to get to Adele.’ 

 

Pushing my hips back from my fall to gain some distance, I scrambled to my feet. Dion was already standing with his back to me, barking orders to the others.

 

We had to get out of here, and fast.

 

Taking advantage of the moment when people’s eyes were focused elsewhere, I picked myself up off the floor and started running.

 

‘We have to get to the basement.’ 

 

Adele didn’t know where the explosion was coming from, but if it had hit the basement, it could have flooded it.

 

‘Adele, please.’ 

 

Desperate for everyone to be safe, I ran down the hallway.

 

“Yikes!”

 

But just as I rounded the corner, I slammed into a giant figure that seemed to have been waiting for me.

 

Despite my urgent attempts to stop, I was thrown off-center and spun around. On a ship at sea, once you lose your center, it’s not easy to get it back. I ended up falling on my butt.

 

“Oops, kid. Be careful.”

 

A laid-back voice, out of place in this situation, landed on the top of my head.

 

“Rhodon.”

 

“Yeah. You’re just now saying my name.”

 

A short distance away was a door that would take me down to the basement, and there he was.

 

“I thought you were a little out of the ordinary.”

 

“No!”

 

He was faster than me, but I tried to run away from him. His big hand stretched out toward me.

 

At first, I thought I’d narrowly dodged, but his grip ripped my hat off, and it fell to the floor.

 

In her haste to dry her hair, she had left it curled up inside her hat without pinning it, so her fine silver locks fell straight down. 

 

A split second. While my eyes were on the hat.

 

“Ugh!”

 

My long hair was caught. My scalp burned. Reflexively, I raised my hands to shake off the touch and grabbed his arm.

 

“Yes, the silver hair we’ve been looking for.”

 

“Hey, get off me!”

 

Writhing in pain, I shook my head, only to have my chin grabbed and pinned by a thick grown man’s hand. I could see Rhodon in front of me.

 

“Kid, why have you been doing things that will make the Empire hate you?”

 

Baring his teeth, as if he had nothing to hide anymore, Rhodon smirked.

 

“…You. You were an Imperial, after all?”

 

“Pfft! Why do you ask if you already know everything? I thought you already knew what was down there.”

 

The way he spoke as if he already had me figured out left me speechless. He was watching me, just as I was preparing myself for him.

 

“No one is supposed to go down there.”

 

“…”

 

“Only those with permission are allowed down here, even the imperial family. All I had to do was serve the man down here well.”

 

Where had I let my guard down? I knew that Rhodon was no mere pirate. But with Adele, his superior, at my feet, I was no longer complacent.

 

“You’ve been in and out of the Forbidden Zone, a place not even the Master of this ship can enter.”

 

“I was just trying to make my way…”

 

“You should have known that would be an offense to the Master of this ship.”

 

“…”

 

“The butler told me.”

 

Jade saw, and he demanded that I be taken care of.