Navy Marigold

22.

“Running away with Pia, or something…”

“Mary!”

Marigold’s words moved the Third Princess, who clasped her hands together in admiration.

But Lancel, as if forgetting that he had said he would leave the decision to her, immediately interjected.

“If you run away, you’ll be branded as pirates without exception. Are you okay with that? They kill people, kidnap, sell them, and plunder.”

“Those are… really bad people!”

Ah. She realized it, Marigold.

Originally, pirates are bad people.

For reference, the pirates here were initially planning to do something terrible to Marigold.

Lancel still held that in his heart.

And above all.

==========

[Game Guide]

※Characteristics of the ‘Pirate Route’.

1.

Many evil achievements.

2.

Many undiscovered endings exist.

3.

Potential to develop into a ‘Corruption Route’.

4.

Conduct score decreases in the next game!

5.

Very high probability of Karma Point increase.

※What are the penalties for Karma Point?

-10 points or more: Initial travel funds are stolen.

-50 points or more: Start in a dangerous area.

-100 points or more: Start with a sickly constitution.

-200 points or more: Permanent physical defect.

-500 points or more: Permanent terminal illness.

-1000 points or more: RE-START.

-3000 points or more: GAME OVER

※How to lower Karma Point?

1.

Faith achievement.

2.

Fame achievement.

3.

Defeat villains.

==========

Lancel stared at the ‘Karma Point Penalties’ section that appeared in the middle.

‘Karma! I can’t let that happen!’

He shuddered as if a trauma was resurfacing.

Why did his sister make something like this?

‘Wasn’t this game supposed to be a romance fantasy?’

Again, this game’s genre is romance fantasy, a female-oriented life and dating simulation.

It being made into such a brutal game is purely his sister’s fault. Damn it. He should have grabbed her by the collar and stopped her during the test play.

‘Terminal illness? Restart? Game over? What is this?’

The explanation was too brief to understand properly, but one thing was certain.

If they messed up, something very big would happen.

Something very big that he might not be able to handle.

Lancel recalled what happened in the Imperial Capital with the blind Marigold.

‘Absolutely not. I went through so much trouble with just 200 points. The pirate route is scrapped.’

It was Marigold, of all people.

What would happen if this terrifying prodigy of possibilities became a pirate?

It wouldn’t end normally, that’s for sure.

Becoming a great pirate and roaming the seas would be nothing out of the ordinary.

It was something Marigold could do.

Perhaps accumulating 500 Karma Point or more in one go wasn’t entirely impossible. After all, she accumulated 200 points at once, so why couldn’t she do 500?

“Lancel? Why are you sweating so much…?”

Marigold, flustered, took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead.

Lancel calmed his pounding heart and stared at Marigold.

“Think… think again carefully. Piracy might not suit you, you know?”

“Calm down, Lancel. I didn’t think I would become a pirate either.”

“Why, Mary! Now that you’ve become the pirate boss, why can’t we just live lavishly together?”

“No, Pia. How can I live doing bad things? In the first place, I’m a proud navy of the archipelago. The naval base can’t function without me.”

Marigold, dismissing the Third Princess’s dissatisfaction, turned to Lancel.

“The running away I mentioned isn’t like that, Lancel. Can’t we just hide Pia well?”

“Hide?”

“Yes! Hide her well until a safe time comes, and when the empire calms down and becomes peaceful… then we can think about it again, right?”

Marigold racked her brains and stammered.

“What do you think, Lancel? This is all I can think of with my head…”

She blinked and looked at him cautiously.

‘It’s not a solution for the immediate future, but…’

It was only a temporary measure.

However, it wasn’t an entirely unfavorable condition for Lancel and Marigold.

They could just stick her somewhere remote and have her live like a dead mouse, right? The archipelago is a region with lax surveillance, for better or worse.

If it became too dangerous, they could just wrap her up nicely and return her to the Imperial Capital.

-Here’s the Third Princess you were looking for.

-She is the Third Princess I was looking for.

Even if the worst-case scenario occurred, the Third Princess or Lancel could take responsibility for everything.

Nothing bad would happen to Marigold, a mere navy private first class.

‘Well, what else can she do but die.’

He didn’t have any particular attachment. Wasn’t this turn aimed at a vacation anyway?

If protecting the Third Princess was what Marigold wanted, then Lancel would simply grant it.

That was all.

Looking back, the three years of drifting on a desert island were decent days for him too. There were no worries or anxieties.

He just had to solve the problem of eating and sleeping.

This would be counted as one of the more fulfilling vacations in his life.

The original purpose of taking a vacation had already been achieved. Yes. That’s it. Let’s go with that.

“Your Highness… too…”

“I don’t like it! Call me Pia, Mary.”

“P, Pia, is this okay with you?”

“Yes! I only trust Mary and Lancel. You’re my only friends and family now.”

Marigold still seemed confused between Pia and Princess.

The Red Coral Parrot, for its part, was tilting its head in the cage, seemingly unaware of anything.

“When I regain my dignity as a princess in the future, I will make sure you never regret protecting me now. Mary, Lancel.”

“…Yes…”

Why did it feel so untrustworthy?

But the conclusion had already been reached.

‘It can’t be helped. Let’s hide her.’

Considering the affection built up over the past three years as the Red Coral Parrot, regardless of what kind of relationship they had in the past…

‘Affection?’

-Screech!

-I’m not stealing it, so stop pecking.

-Screeeeeech!

-Oh, you have such a dirty appetite.

-Screech! Screech! Screeeeeech! Screeeeeeeeeech!

-What, do you get hives if I touch you?

-Screech! Peep! Screeeeeech! Screeeeeeeeeeech!

-Alright. You’re dinner tonight. Come here!

‘Hmm.’

Affection… I guess?

Thump-!

It was then.

Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!

Loud drumming awakened the pirate base.

“Who is it!”

“It’s a surprise attack!”

“The navy has landed on the island!”

“Why now…! Damn it, run away!”

Commotion from outside.

“The, the navy, the navy! They’re trying to catch me! Hiiiiiek!”

And the Third Princess, burying her head in Marigold’s arms and trembling.

‘…Should I just return her right now?’

Lancel wavered for a moment.

23

“To build a base in a place like this, you rat bastards.”

As the jungle forest deepened, revealing the pirate base, Rox Ruwen twitched his lips.

The bamboo house he had painstakingly built over the past six months looked like nothing more than a war trophy to him.

Just wiping out pirates of this scale was already something to be recognized for.

“Kill all the men. Bring the women to headquarters. Be careful while capturing them, as Her Highness the Princess might be among them.”

It was a secret base where, at the very least, hundreds of people resided.

The strange thing was that, within a base of this size, there were hardly any combatants to be seen.

Even if there were, they were just battered and injured, groaning.

“Sa, save me…!”

“Die!”

“Run away! Run away to where the ships are!”

“Don’t let them get away!”

The pirates, unable to resist the navy’s merciless offensive, had their lives cut short.

“Kuaaak!”

Blood spurted everywhere. A crossbow bolt pierced the back of a fleeing pirate. Those hiding in the jungle were dragged out and simply beheaded.

“Heh heh.”

In that place mixed with screams and shouts, Rox Ruwen hummed a tune.

To him, the pirates’ screams sounded like a symphony.

“Ah! Your Highness the Princess! Rox Ruwen has come! Please come out and receive my protection, Your Highness! Rox Ruwen has come to this remote island, parting the distant seas to save you!”

Above his head, the corpses of pirates fell, crashing with a loud thud.

The navy, climbing up the bamboo houses, was literally hacking the pirates to pieces.

“Rox Ruwen, the heir of Count Ruwen, has come! Your Highness the Princess!”

Amidst the chaos, Rox Ruwen drew his Rapier.

“Get out of the way.”

He slashed diagonally at the one who appeared before him.

Kaaang-!

“Hmm?”

Rox Ruwen felt a tingling sensation and faced his opponent.

A large height. A black cloak. A man with bandages wrapped around the exposed skin.

A thick beard covered the lower half of his face, visible under the hood.

“Hoo. For a pirate, you have a decent Aura. I, Rox Ruwen, will specially grant you the honor of hearing your name. Be honored.”

“…Name…”

He stroked his beard and thought.

“Beard.”

“What?”

“Black Beard.”

Rox Ruwen’s face contorted.

“…To dare utter my epithet so presumptuously, even though I personally asked for your name. Yes. It was my fault for expecting chivalry from a mere pirate rabble.”

Rox Ruwen twisted his mouth and raised his blade high.

“There is no second chance. Go to hell.”

Like lightning, the tip of his sword flew in. Piercing the heart of the man called Black Beard in an instant.

Or so he thought.

“…!”

Kaaang-!

Rox Ruwen’s sword tip was neatly deflected.

He stared in disbelief at the weapon in ‘Black Beard’s’ hand.

It wasn’t a sword.

It wasn’t even a weapon in the first place.

“A stone, axe?”

A smoothly polished stone axe rushed towards his face.

.

.

.

“What the hell is going on here…!”

By the time the navy, chasing after Rox Ruwen, belatedly arrived on the island, more than a day had already passed.

The path to finding the pirate base hidden deep in the jungle was not difficult.

The corpses scattered everywhere, emitting a foul odor, were sparsely connected to the pirate headquarters.

But they had to lose their words at the sight that appeared inside.

“What are you looking at! Just lower me quickly!”

Rox Ruwen’s irritable voice flew in. The place he was in was above their heads.

He and the advance team of the navy were all tied up, dangling from the aerial prison.

Nearly dozens of navy soldiers were tied up inside.

“H, how could this happen?”

Those who arrived as the rearguard could not understand the sight.

All the corpses they saw coming here were pirates’ corpses. Nevertheless, it felt strangely bizarre that the navy soldiers were captured.

“Sir Rox Ruwen! Could it be that you were defeated by the pirates?”

“…It was the work of a guy named Black Beard.”

“Black Beard… Could it be that Black Beard from the legends of the archipelago sea?”

“There’s no way! He’s just a pirate who knows how to use a sword. Just lower me quickly!”

As Rox Ruwen shouted loudly, the navy soldiers who were with him frowned.

24.

After settling things on the desert island.

On the way back to the archipelago with the help of the pirates.

Lancel, who had fallen asleep inside the ship, suddenly realized that the scenery before him was not reality.

‘A dream.’

Lancel was once again aware in his dream.

It was a familiar dream, with a large full moon visible through the window.

-Lancel.

Marigold was there.

Yes.

The one-horned Marigold.

‘…Again…?’