North x Northwest

hint of a beard and hair fluttering in the wind, he was definitely a person that did not fit between the sailors.
It was appropriate to say that his appearance would even make the Sesbron’s woman scream.

Lil finally looked at his eyes.
Green eyes were staring right into hers.

She shouted reflexively.

“Ah!”

“Captain?”

“What! What’s this bastard doing here?”

Lil yelled at Alain but suddenly stopped.

‘I only met Ed when I was a woman.
Lil Schweiz is a stranger to him.
Damn it.’

She cleared her throat a few times.

“Hm, I mean, who’s this guy?”

“He’s a new recruit, Captain.”

“Recruit? Who wants to be recruited? I thought the recruitment ended at dawn.
Why is this the first time I hear about this?”

“Cesar said it was okay.”

“What? Where the hell is he?”

“Uh, Captain.”

“Bring Cesar right away!”

“Captain.”

She felt her surroundings narrowing and had a rough guess why.
They tried to stop Alain from running back to the ship.

“What is it?!”

“He’s a doctor, Captain.”

Lil had the impression that she saw Ed smile from the corner of her eye.
She felt a chill running down her spine.

‘What are you up to? What, what’s he laughing about?’

“What?”

“He has quite the experience.
He’s from the mainland and received formal education.”

“He’s Navy.”

When asked how she knew the stranger she saw for the first time was from the Navy, Lil insisted it was her gut feeling.

‘Just trust me and keep your guards up.’

Alain, on the other hand, shrugged as if nothing had changed.

“Wasn’t Depp too?”

“What? Are you trying to sell out the Bell Rock?”

“Don’t yell at me, go see Cesar, Captain.
He said he already talked to the guy.”

“The navigator? Did Cesar really approve it or was it someone who claimed to be our navigator?”

“I don’t know.”

“You idiots! Can’t you see he’s just trying to get on our ship by lying about Cesar?”

“Come on, wait… Captain!”

She looked back at Ed, who was chasing after her.
He had a clueless face, with ‘I don’t know’ written all over his forehead.
Lil couldn’t stand the anger boiling inside her.

‘It’s all a fucking act.
This guy is crazy!’

“Captain, I can explain!”

“I’m not your captain.”

Ed hesitated with an innocent face as if he really didn’t know anything.
Lil’s nose was so stuffy that she couldn’t even breathe properly.

‘What a scam.
He looks just like a lost puppy.
I now understand why Cesar didn’t recognize him.
Seeing him now without that scruffy beard and messy hair, I think he’s probably four or five years younger than Cesar.’

Lil glared at him as if she was trying to tear him apart with her eyes.
However, Ed not only calmly accepted her gaze but also made her shiver by looking at her with a face that seemed helpless.
It was a response that seemed to be well aware of the fact that his good looks were a powerful weapon.
It was the same for Lil, making her see right through his strategy.

‘Damn it, that filthy bastard.’

Lil shuddered once again as if shaking off a spider, then pushed the sailors to make way.

‘I need to quickly ask Cesar the full story of this bizarre coincidence.If it was indeed Cesar’s decision, he’d know for sure that he was the same pervert we met ten days ago.
So why did he agree to let him join our ship?’

“Oh, get out of the way!”

She stretched out her arms and scowled at the sailors who didn’t step aside quickly enough.
It was as hard as to swim against a tidal wave.

Suddenly she realised she was in the minority, and it’d be almost impossible to throw him out.

‘The crew is already sold by the fact that Ed is a doctor, they’ll never take my side, even if I’m the Captain.’

From time to time, Lil glanced sideways.
Her crew were of no help and by now were busy showing interest in Ed’s luggage.

“…What kind of drugs do you have?…”

“…I heard that there’s a device on the mainland that can reattach severed arms and legs…”

All kinds of curious questions went back and forth.

‘Doctors are very rare.
Of course, that doesn’t apply to Sesbron.
Most of the well-educated people, such as doctors, served their duties in the Navy as soon as they received their degree from the Imperial academy or worked as physicians for a noble family.
There was no shortage of doctors in the capital.
The problem was everywhere else.
Especially in the South, doctors were scarcer than the rare, speckled dolphin.
The physician on Varese Street, Doctor Pons, was considered the only prominent doctor in Amiaeng.‘

Still, Lil hadn’t forgotten when the old man sutured a wound by pouring boiling oil on the patient’s injured area.

Therefore, it was natural for her crew to swarm around Ed.
Lil, squeezing herself through the crowd, lost her temper when someone tapped her shoulder.

“What now?!”

– – – – –

Footnote:

8.
Yard: A wooden beam that lies horizontally above a topsail.

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