Chapter : 06
The Bayron Company, which had been operating the ship, had invested a huge sum into the search, and they even hired mercenaries privately to comb the sea thoroughly.
Thanks to that, more missing people had been found.
But now, Lubester had taken all that money and declared surrender. Roela couldn’t accept this situation at all.
“They’re just taking the money, getting fat, and leaving.”
Roela muttered. It seemed the Bayron Company had the specialized equipment needed for the search, more than the mercenaries did.
Requests for naval cooperation had been sent, but no response had come yet. Even the navy was too busy fighting the monsters in the sea.
If even the royal court had given up, the only hope left now was the Bayron Company.
Roela gripped Lubester’s wrist tightly.
“Find my friend. Right now. Even if no one had trusted you, no one would have boarded that ship!”
Roela let out a piercing scream.
“I’m telling you to risk even that pathetic life in the sea to bring my friend back!”
Lubester sighed and stood up. When Roela tried to follow closely, he closed the door to stop her.
Once he confirmed no one was around, Lubester spoke in a low voice.
“Miss Roela, I don’t want to do this either. You know how much I cared for that ship, don’t you?”
“Then why!”
“Even raising the ship now has become difficult. The navy has imposed restrictions.”
“…What?”
Roela’s expression went blank. If the navy had imposed restrictions, that meant the royal court had ordered it. Roela blinked.
She couldn’t understand it. Why would the royal court do this? This was a major incident where the empire had lost its citizens. They should be leading the search, not stopping it. And Duke Kaisa was involved, wasn’t he?
Duke Kaisa was a hero of the empire.
He was one of the few Swordmasters in Luikaron and could fight several monsters alone. Some monsters would flee at the very sight of his sword.
And now they were abandoning him?
“I’m just a businessman. I don’t know the details. All I know is that, due to naval restrictions, further searches of the sea are impossible. They said there were traces of monsters moving south beyond the Monster Sea, and it’s dangerous. You know what I mean—they’re hush-hush about it, but the traces point to the Kraken. If it hasn’t been found yet, it’s probably already been eaten by the monsters.”
“…That can’t be.”
Roela muttered, pale-faced.
“No, Milena.”
Roela squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her lips trembled as she bit them hard.
“I truly regret this, Miss Roela.”
“…We just have to persuade His Majesty the Emperor, right?”
“Miss Roela, you’ll also need people willing to risk their lives against the monsters to conduct a search. Who would search after hearing that the monsters moved south? Even experienced veterans have withdrawn.”
“Are you sure the monsters really moved into Poseidon’s territory? Did I see that right that day?”
“All we can do is believe it. The sea is under their jurisdiction. It seems they are busy repairing Poseidon. Anyway, I’m truly sorry, Miss Roela.”
Roela’s lips trembled. Even with all that said, there was nothing more she could do. She turned away, eyes full of tears.
She still couldn’t give up hope that they were alive.
All she could think was that she had to get them back, by any means.
“I won’t give up on you, Milena, just like you didn’t give up on me. I promise.”
Roela bit her lips tightly.
The previous evening, they had dinner with tomato stew that Kaisa had cooked himself and bread from a bakery.
The next morning, they ate lightly with the leftover stew.
As the events of yesterday felt slightly like a dream, a forgotten promise came to mind.
“But, Duke.”
“Hm?”
“The six words…?”
Kaisa looked uneasy. He took a bite of bread and slid away from the table.
“Duke?”
“I really couldn’t help it yesterday.”
Kaisa spoke seriously.
His neat silver hair fell lightly across his face, contrasting with his serious purple eyes and the straight, handsome bridge of his nose. His face seemed honest and trustworthy, almost sculpted.
Yet the way his eyes avoided mine made me lose all trust.
“Duke!”
“I really couldn’t help it. I swear. I lost the vocabulary book while catching a wyvern… If you make it again, I’ll memorize it.”
“Liar!”
It was like a child losing a workbook and claiming they couldn’t do homework.
When I glared suspiciously, Kaisa quietly slipped out of the kitchen. I followed him.
“Are you going to keep lying and running away? You know we need this! We have months to survive here!”
“I know. I just need some time too.”
“How long? The smuggler ship will come and we’ll be heading home before you learn!”
“Then good… hmm! Milena, tonight I might buy some meat. How about steak and pasta? I think I can imitate it a little.”
“…Fine. But you promise to memorize the six words today. ‘Here’, ‘Please put it down’, ‘Thank you’, and…”
“I think something more practical would be better.”
Kaisa said seriously.
I tilted my head. I thought we were already focusing on practical conversation.
“I think it’s better to memorize a full sentence. For example, ‘If you don’t do exactly as I say right now, you don’t know what my sword will do.’”
“…Threatening…?”
“Yesterday, it was a very practical sentence to use.”
I blinked. Thinking about it, Kaisa was right in a way.
He was doing mercenary work, and in situations like yesterday, a prepared sentence could be far more useful than individual words.
I nodded seriously.
“Fine. I’ll follow your teaching.”
Kaisa repeated after me seriously. After several repetitions, he even wrote the pronunciation on paper.
He had shown an enthusiasm I hadn’t seen before.
A person focused on practicality, indeed. He had always done only what was necessary.
“And one more sentence.”
“Of course. Tell me if you need it.”
“Consider this a warning. I can turn bad anytime. If you step back now, I’ll forgive you.”
“A very useful sentence.”
Sometimes he received requests to take down bandits occupying mountains.
I nodded and taught Kaisa the pronunciation. He wrote it down seriously.
I should have started with this from the beginning. I had been teaching him basic words used in daily life, but I realized he used different expressions.
“Tell me if you think of more.”
“This is enough for today.”
“Good. Then let’s prepare for work. We’re already a bit late.”
Kaisa nodded. After this dramatic compromise, we started getting ready. Memorizing sentences might even be better. Kaisa’s enthusiastic learning melted my heart, unaware of the butterfly effect it could later create.
