Navy Marigold

24.

The one-horned Marigold bathed in the blue moonlight.

Lancel watched her slowly descend barefoot from the windowsill, anticipating what was about to happen.

“Wait, Mary.”

He hastily stopped her, reaching out to block her shoulder as she approached.

“How are you here again? If you’re not busy, can we… talk… for a bit?”

Strangely, Lancel felt powerless in this space. His whole body felt heavy, as if he were walking underwater, and his limbs lacked strength.

Even getting out of bed was a slow process. It was difficult to escape Marigold, who was walking towards him slowly.

‘A dream? No, this can’t be a dream…’

It was too vivid to simply dismiss as a dream.

The scent of early summer wafting in through the window, the fragrance of wildflowers carried on the breeze that brushed against Marigold’s shoulder.

Everything that filled this space was vividly tangible.

The same space.

The same situation.

The same Marigold.

Lancel couldn’t resist his curiosity about the identity of the girl he had encountered again across iterations. This was the first time something like this had happened in dozens of regressions.

“Mary… right? You are Mary, aren’t you? Ah, I’m just curious, so don’t misunderstand. Wait. Hey. Not that way. Ugh!”

But Marigold didn’t answer. She simply grabbed his body and lifted him up.

Lancel was taller and heavier, but Marigold lifted him effortlessly, as if she didn’t feel his weight at all.

Then, she slowly carried him back to the bed. She lay down silently in front of him, who was lying on his side.

‘…’

Marigold, bathed in moonlight, exuded an almost mesmerizing aura.

Skin so white it seemed to sparkle, a flawless face, and eyes with a subtle emerald glow.

Marigold and Lancel stared at each other face to face without a word. For a long time, as if engraving each other’s existence into their retinas.

“Mary…?”

Without realizing it, Lancel raised his hand and reached out to Marigold. He lightly touched her cheek with his fingers.

She closed her eyes and leaned into Lancel’s palm, as if savoring the sensation and warmth transmitted through it.

The one-horned Marigold.

A meeting that transcended iterations.

A space that he couldn’t possibly think of as a dream.

“Why are you here, Mary? Answer me.”

At Lancel’s question, Marigold slowly opened her eyes.

Was she going to answer?

That expectation soon crumbled.

“Mmph!”

Her lips, which had come as a surprise attack, covered Lancel’s as always.

‘Not this again!’

Once again, all that remained until the end was Marigold’s intense presence, felt through their lips.

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“Keng!”

He flicked his finger and struck Marigold’s forehead.

The girl, who had been blankly facing the sea breeze, teared up at the sudden pain.

“Why did you hit me all of a sudden, Lancel?”

“Just because.”

“……?”

“Don’t bully Mary, Lancel Dante!”

Marigold looked utterly wronged.

Anyway, it’s your fault.

“To hold a grudge just because I played a little prank while you were sleeping…”

“……?”

From beyond the deck, the outline of the archipelago was gradually appearing.

25.

“Where is he!”

“He’s here!”

Coral Baron ran through the naval base, sweat beading on his face.

“Lancel Dante!”

Bang! He threw open the door, and two familiar faces turned to look at Coral Baron at the same time.

“Why is this guy alive!”

Coral Baron had been half-doubtful when he heard the news that Lancel Dante and Marigold had returned.

But as soon as he saw their unharmed faces, sitting there without having lost any weight, he called out to God from the depths of his heart for the first time in a long time.

“Why are you alive!”

“Is that how you greet someone after so long?”

“That’s what I mean by ‘good’! I almost had to run to Viscount Dante and bang my head on the ground!”

“You haven’t done that yet?”

“I was putting it off as much as possible, just in case. Mary! I’m glad you’re alive too!”

“Yes! But what about my promotion, Captain?”

“You’re already a sergeant? Well, it’s been three years, so I’ll just leave it as it is.”

“Two ranks promotion!”

Coral Baron’s thick palms ruffled Lancel’s and Marigold’s hair at the same time.

“I’m so glad you’re alive! Where the hell have you been all this time? Not just a day or two, but a whole three years.”

“It’s nothing much. We just drifted to a nameless island and ended up settling there.”

“Settling?”

“No passing ships, so what else could we do but settle down?”

“Oh dear.”

“But it was fun in its own way.”

“What? Fun? Drifting?”

“Yes.”

“That’s right. It was good. I want to do it again sometime.”

“Drifting?”

“Yes!”

Coral Baron was taken aback by Marigold’s seemingly sincere reaction. Even Lancel seemed to agree with her.

A man and a woman drifting to a deserted island.

Coral Baron quickly stopped his imagination from running wild. Anyway, if the people involved are happy, isn’t that all that matters?

“Have you found Her Highness the Princess?”

“I thought we had found her, but it turned out to be a false alarm. But it seems we’ve figured out who has her.”

“Who…”

“Blackbeard. A new pirate boss who’s appeared in this area. It looks like we’ll be chasing after him from now on. Now that you’re back, you should aim for achievements again, right? The opportunity to become an Imperial Hero doesn’t come often.”

Indeed.

Lancel stroked his chin, where his beard had disappeared.

He had already dealt with all the pirates who remembered him on the way here.

Even if there were any who had escaped, not many people would believe their words.

‘If there are any, I’ll deal with them then.’

Having finished his thoughts, Lancel nodded.

“I see.”

“Anyway, congratulations on being alive, Lancel. I thought I had made a promising knight into fish food by making him join the navy.”

“I was almost fish food once anyway, so what does it matter if I die?”

“Hmph, you. You should cherish your life. What kind of talk is that?”

“That’s right, Lancel. You have to cherish the life I gave you.”

Marigold chimed in. Come to think of it, Lancel was alive in this iteration thanks to her.

‘But how did she find me?’

Even after thinking about it again, it was too coincidental. Marigold being on the archipelago, and finding him after he fell into the sea.

So many unimaginable things had happened since he met her that he just brushed off this coincidence as something that could happen.

‘Fate…’

Well.

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“Sniff, sniiiiff!”

That evening, Miss Iceford, who had had a few drinks at the banquet, began to shed tears.

“Why is she like that?”

“It’s nothing much. The Chamberlain told her not to even think about leaving the island until he finds Her Highness the Princess.”

“So she’s the only one left behind after the Imperial army has all returned?”

“That’s right.”

Leaving the glamorous Imperial Capital.

Miss Iceford, stuck on the archipelago, was simply a picture of sorrow.

Finding the Third Princess, whom Lancel had hidden so well, would be impossible forever.

The young days of one of the three great beauties of the empire would perhaps all pass on this island.

“Sniff, I’m a pitiful woman. So sad. Such a pitiful woman. Sniiiiff.”

Before Miss Iceford, who was muttering to herself, were delicacies and expensive drinks, and around her, servants were fanning her and giving her massages, treating her with the utmost care.

But somehow, Miss Iceford couldn’t bear her situation of being stuck on this island.

“She’s like a woman who knows nothing.”

Lancel chuckled.

‘The Chamberlain is definitely someone who cherishes his daughter. Since the situation in the empire is turning strange, he was planning to hide his daughter here.’

That’s right.

Asking just one maid to find the Third Princess was a rather unreasonable request.

It was common sense to assume that a person who disappeared at sea was dead, and even if they were alive, it would be difficult to find them in a short period of time.

Even Lancel and Marigold had taken three years to return here.

To entrust that to just such a woman. It was clear that it was a trick by Count Palatine, who needed an excuse to hide his daughter outside the Imperial Capital.

From now on, the empire would collapse into more than ten pieces, and the curtain would rise on a war with no end in sight.

There was truly no safe place other than the archipelago.

The Chamberlain had used his head well.

“Sob, I’m so pitiful. I’m the pitiful, heartbreaking, and sad heroine who would appear in a tragedy at the Imperial Capital Theater…”

“……”

The Wise ones of the empire, who would soon be starving because they couldn’t even afford gruel, would have to see that sight.

“Lancel, you were here.”

Suddenly.

A small head wriggled into his side. It was Marigold.

She brought her mouth to his ear.

“About Pia, I sent her to the place you told me to. She seemed to like it a lot more than I thought?”

“Good job.”

Marigold whispered again.

It seemed she had just returned after taking the Third Princess there.

“But when did you make such a place? I was surprised because it was too nice for a villa.”

“Well, you know.”

Lancel paused to think.

“It’s just… a place I looked into to go to when I want to relax… or something like that.”

“Heh. As expected, nobles think differently. Ordinary people wouldn’t spend money on something like that.”

“Are you saying I’m wasteful?”

“Of course not. I didn’t say that much.”

“…There’s no one as greedy for money as I am among nobles.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.”

“I’ll believe you.”

“……”

The villa on the archipelago.

A place where Lancel always went when he wanted to spend time alone, in a place where no one knew.

There, Lancel always spent his days like a corpse. This time, he would have done so if it hadn’t been for Marigold.

After realizing that it was better to spend his time blankly than to take his own life, that was the method he had chosen.

Yes. For him, time on the archipelago might be a substitute for death.

If he hadn’t met Marigold, wouldn’t he have been spending most of his time there by now?

“Mary.”

“Yes, Lancel.”

“Did you like the archipelago?”

“I’m fine anywhere as long as I’m with you, Lancel.”

A flirt?

“Hehe.”

Marigold seemed pleased with her answer.

Of course, he wasn’t thrilled at all.

“How was it for you, Lancel?”

“……Well.”

Lancel briefly imagined this iteration without Marigold.

If he had miraculously survived without her help and arrived at the archipelago, what would it have been like?

What if he had spent peaceful days without any incidents or accidents?

Lancel, who had been quietly thinking, soon smiled.

This vacation.

“It was pretty good.”

It wasn’t bad.

To the point where there would come a time when he would miss this moment.

That’s how 10 years passed.

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[Playtime 10 years 0 days]

—Marigold is 25 years old.

—No marriage partner.

—Achievements available.

▶Only One Person +300 points.

▷Only One Person +300 points.

▶Savior of the Princess +100 points.

▷Naval Sergeant +50 points.

—Achievements have reached a total of 2000 points.

—Memory Inheritance ‘1 time’ has been accumulated.

—Points remaining until the next Memory Inheritance. (500/1500 points)

[Bonus Ending 5. Deep Sea King Marigold and Phantom Island]

—The ending has been added to the ‘Album of Memories’.

—Opening the album.

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The life they started together gave Marigold infinite happiness.

At the naval base during the day, at the villa at night, and on the streets of the archipelago on holidays.

Marigold’s life now has nothing more to wish for. Her only wish is that days like today will continue.

However, their peaceful daily life was shattered when one member of their family passed away.

-Don’t be sad. Until we meet again.

The remaining two spend their days in sorrow.

Like that.

Years pass.

Finally, Marigold overcomes her sorrow.

Amidst the ever-present threat, she steels herself.

‘This island, where I was with you, is the only legacy left to me. I won’t let anyone ruin it.’

To protect the grave of the person who left, the villa, and the one person who remained by her side.

‘This is all I know how to do.’

Taming whales.

Marigold’s island is gradually surrounded by the whales she has tamed.

From one to two, from two to four, from four to eight… starting with whales and extending to octopuses and sharks.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

‘Good job, Mary. You are now the master of this archipelago. Sink all the ships of the traitors.’

Now, no one can approach this land.

Pirate ships and Imperial ships alike all crumble before the barrier created by Marigold.

One day, the Kraken’s sucker, another day, the Great Whale’s tail, another day, the Shark’s teeth completely block the intrusion of strangers approaching the archipelago.

Finally, the war ends.

On this continent where peace has arrived.

The legend of the Deep Sea King is known far and wide.

‘We worship you. Master of the Phantom Island, the archipelago.’

Her existence becomes a myth and is passed down to future generations.

Forever.

[Deep Sea King Marigold and Phantom Island – fin]

※Unlawful Penalty: Karma reached 15 points.

—Would you like to use Memory Inheritance ‘1 time’?

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“There’s no way it can end normally. Marigold.”

Lancel clutched his dizzy head.

Marigold’s extraordinary actions were enough to cause dizziness, but the decisive factor was Lancel’s own death.

‘Why do I keep dying?’

His death wasn’t without reason.

He wasn’t dying because he wanted to die.

It was clear that there was a reason for his death.

‘And to think that rebels entered the archipelago.’

As far as Lancel remembered, the archipelago was safe land. At least, it had almost always been so during the 10 years he had been alive.

He had never imagined that rebels would enter after those 10 years.

Perhaps his death was one of those processes.

He didn’t know.

‘Anyway.’

Lancel focused on the next section. The part that said ‘Unlawful Penalty’.

Fortunately, his Karma Point didn’t accumulate to 200 at once like last time, but 15 wasn’t entirely safe either.

‘What happened when the Karma Point was 15?’

He briefly recalled.

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

The funds given to Marigold… about 10 silver coins.

“How much is that money to steal it?”

There’s a limit to taking the liver out of a flea.

For a fallen Miss thrown out into the world at the age of only ten, 10 silver coins were her only hope. If that disappeared, it was no different from telling her to go out and die right away.

It was amazing how Marigold had managed to survive until she was fifteen with just that money.

To steal that?

Lancel gritted his teeth.

He didn’t know who it was, but he would catch them and kill them.

‘No, but it’ll be okay for now.’

Lancel put his worries aside for now.

Why?

‘Regressor Marigold.’

Because it was the iteration she was arriving in.

It was an iteration where there would be no problem even if she started without a penny.

3 years later.

Knock knock.

“Hello.”

“Who is it?”

The gatekeeper of the mansion scanned the visitor up and down.

A woman with braided hair behind her back, a tall height for a woman, a long sword worn at her waist, and a blue cloak.

“Is Lancel Dante in this mansion?”

A bright smile spread across her face.

“Knight, I’ll borrow you.”

[Navy Marigold – END]

[NEXT – Inheritance 2nd Iteration. Husband Lancel]