North x Northwest

>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.”

“Shit.”

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…”

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