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At that moment, the drunken bald head jumped up. Ed felt like the guy was only seconds away from running to the deck and ordering that the cabins must be sealed immediately. He desperately shook his head. 

‘Liloa is now somewhere in the middle of the cabin deck. If the sleeping crew woke up and surrounded her from all directions, she could never get out… I have to turn his attention to me.’ 

Ed smashed the window and jumped back into the captain’s room without hesitation.

 – Tung! –

The window frame fell and shattered with a loud sound, despite that Ed landed with ease. The men gathered in the room quickly turned their heads. The three of them were busy making noise only seconds ago, but now they were so startled that they just stood there. While they were still engrossed, Ed quickly strode across the cabin and grabbed his sword from the wall.

“You, you… that Navy *******!”

Only then did the men come to their senses, pull out their swords, and prepare to attack. Ed stretched out his palm to signify a pause and reached out to them. Because of his casual movement, they stopped at once.

“Let me make a suggestion.”

“…What?!”

“If you graciously give me the title of Captain, you will see no blood…”

But as expected, those words didn’t work. Annoyingly, Ed had to block the rushing bald head before he could even finish speaking.

———-   End flashback ———-

‘…So that’s how it came to be, I didn’t do this on purpose to mess with the Captain!’

Feeling wronged, he fervently looked at Lil, but she didn’t seem to understand him at all. And besides all that, it seemed that she hadn’t gotten her necklace back, so Ed could only imagine how angry she must be.

“Cheer for the new Captain!”

“Hurray, hurrah, hurrah!”

‘The ship will become a mess soon.’ 

Ed knew why Lil hadn’t brought up the possibility of taking over the ship. The Navy was ‘unjustified’. Naturally, there will be people who won’t recognize Ed as their captain. 

‘A fight can break out at any moment.’

It was impossible to undo it now, so the only thing Ed and Lil could do was to run away from the chaos as far as possible.

“Hahahahahaha!”

Ed laughed wildly to provoke fear and repulsion.

It was then that he could see Lil slipping away towards the rear. 

‘By taking advantage of the situation, which is drawing all the attention to the stern, she seems determined to escape using the boat by herself.’ 

Ed felt half sad and half bitter. Not because she was trying to escape, but because it only took her a few seconds to decide to leave him behind.

Unsurprisingly, the first loud voice came out of the crowd.

“Wake up, you crazy ********! That’s the Navy!”

For a moment, the deck was quiet and suddenly, another passionate voice was heard.

“…Who even liked the Captain who drank all the time and only beat us up?…”

“…You fools! Have you forgotten the spirit of the Anatole pirates!…”

“…Wasn’t everyone waiting for that bald guy to die?…”

Gradually, the group, split into two camps, were about to start a fight.

“…Even so, do you sell your body and soul to the Navy?…”

“…Weren’t you an officer? I can’t believe you’re saying something like that!…”

“…What did you say?…”

“…What?…”

Two giants from each camp repeatedly put their protruding chests together, which eventually led to them pushing and pulling each other. Sailors who were dissatisfied with their harsh treatment strongly sympathised with the new captain, and those who used to be officers of the old system did want to give up their positions.

Ed shouted something in hopes to light the fuse.

“Whoever will join me will get 20 silts!”

As soon as the words were shouted…

 – Pak! –

A hasty fist knocked someone down and finally, the foreseen chaos erupted. In the beginning, the pirates merely exchanged curses and kicks, but in the end, they got so tangled that the deck became a mess in an instant. Engrossed in their fight, the sailors didn’t even notice where their new captain was going. Ed stole the hat of the guy next to him and put it on, then went down to the captain’s room and grabbed some stuff from the desk. When he came out again, he jumped down the stairs of the stern and moved as close to the railing as possible. The number of people on deck increased more and more as those who came up to the upper deck late and saw the situation, joined the fight without even knowing what it was about. Ed, who started to crawl low at some point, felt someone stepping on his back and prayed a short sentence of condolences to the man who just lost his balance and fell into the sea.

Eventually he found Lil standing in front of the main mast, cutting the rope that was holding a small boat in place. After Ed somewhat escaped the confusion on deck, he ran towards her back on his own two feet. When Lil raised her head, she saw Ed approaching and immediately threw one of her daggers at him with phenomenal speed. Ed dodged it quickly and untied the rope on the other side of the boat as she was. Lil jumped over the boat and swung her leg high, aiming for his lower waist. Ed greeted her actions half heartedly and pushed her foot away.

“Hey!”

“You madman! Why are you crawling back here after acting as their new Captain?”

“No, you misunderstood! That wasn’t my plan at all. When you entered the cabin deck, your position was about to be discovered, giving me no choice.”

“How exactly?”

“Someone found the watchman that you had tied up. You should have hidden him better, so that he couldn’t be discovered.”

“****.”

Lil didn’t pour out any more arguments, so she seemed to have forgiven Ed.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“No.”

“What will you do now?”

“Seeing as things already came to this, surviving is our top priority.”

Ed nodded his head. He thought he had to knock her out to stop her from trying to retrieve her necklace, but he’s glad her answer was surprisingly reasonable. Also, Ed didn’t feel too sorry for letting go of the chance to see the precious relic. 

‘Should we survive, it will always be possible to pursue it later.’

With only one rope left to ride down, they each took a stance and worked together to drop the boat.

“On three. One, two…”

Ed was doubtful because he failed to hear “three” and followed Lil’s gaze. Her eyes stopped over his shoulder, making him look behind him. Lil had made eye contact with a small sailor who seemed to have just come out on the upper deck.

“Catch him…”

Before Lil could finish her sentence, the fellow screamed.

“They’re getting away!”

Ed noticed that his front teeth were missing and wondered how such a loud scream could come from such a small body. A body that was jumping up and down like a frog, signalling their escape.

“They’re escaping! They’re escaping!”

Some of the nearest pirates turned their attention toward them. Ed did a quick calculation. 

‘If we continue lowering the boat like this, we’re going to run into the possibility of being shot until we’re out of range, whether it will be by cannon or gun. On the other hand, the ending would be obvious if we stayed on the ship, it would be reckless to wield a sword against 200 people.’

The pirates suddenly realised their common enemy and before they knew it, they were united once again.

“Captain, are there some more air conchs around here?”

Lil shook her head quickly.

“There aren’t.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Damn it, let me think…”

“We could use fire.”

“…Are you crazy?”

“If you could bring a torch from the deck below, I’ll try to buy us some time. They won’t attack easily if you threaten to burn their sails or…”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know…”

“In this plan of yours, the one who holds the torch, loses. Even if I bring fire and stop them from moving, there’s no guarantee that you won’t go on the boat alone.”

“Captain, this isn’t the time to doubt me.”

“How can I trust you?”

Lil racked her brains in a hurry. But she couldn’t come up with a plan to get out of this situation. It didn’t help that several men loading their guns occupied her view. She gasped due to the impending trouble.

 – Boom! –

Out of nowhere, the hull shook. Lil, who lost her balance, rolled over the deck, not knowing what was going on. Smoke filled with acrid air covered the deck. Lil opened her eyes, jumped up and anxiously looked around through the thin smoke. 

‘It looks like we were bombarded on the stern side.’

 A cracked scream was heard through the faint smoke as someone shouted loudly.

“It’s an enemy ship!”

Lil staggered and regained her balance by grabbing onto the boat, then hurriedly ran to the railing. 

‘Could it be the Navy? Who else could it be?’ 

Lil could see the ‘enemy ship’ slowly revealing itself as she leaned so far over the railing that she could fall at any moment. 

A sailing ship was approaching at a frightening speed.

“…Get the cannons ready!…”

A beautiful statue of a mermaid cut through the waves.

“…Everyone, go down to the deck!…”

The ship in full sail was unstoppable.

“…stay in position!…”

It looked familiar.

Lil, who was looking past the hull without a telescope, soon let out a weak groan.

“No way…”