“Quickly unload the cargo!”

The unexpected rain forced urgent action. With storm waves crashing violently, they needed to move the carefully loaded goods to the warehouse quickly before they became worthless.

When the typhoon began to hit, Arthur rushed the sailors as soon as the ship docked. The workers waiting on land to receive the goods moved with equal urgency.

“We have an injured person here!”

In their haste, accidents multiplied – feet getting caught under boxes or dropping cargo. Arthur’s expression darkened at the shortage of hands.

“Papa!”

Unaware of her father’s burning worry, Clara playfully tugged at his collar.

“It’s dangerous, so go down first. And no mischief, okay?”

Arthur wanted to beg his daughter to follow his request. While he was checking on the injured sailor and arranging for workers to carry him away on a stretcher, Clara let out a loud shout. She seemed to be causing trouble again.

The ship rocked violently under the assault of wind and rain. At first, he dismissed it as the ship’s creaking, but the second time he heard it, he knew it was Clara’s scream.

“C-Clara!”

The heavy raindrops soaked his head and clothes rapidly. Arthur pushed through the workers carrying boxes and looked down from the edge of the deck.

Bang!

A gunshot echoed loudly.

It was the flag of Uldraf, the Crown Prince’s direct knight order.

“Damn it.”

These knights, who directly carried out the Crown Prince’s orders, wielded more authority than others. In other words, they were impossible to defy.

Arthur irritably wiped the rain from his face.

“We’re here to execute the Crown Prince’s orders! Everyone stop what you’re doing and come down!”

The Crown Prince’s side must have known about the ship’s evening arrival, yet they came early.

‘Aren’t they diligent.’

Most sailors were hired workers with no connection to the revolutionaries. They followed the knights’ orders with confused, bewildered faces. Only a few revolutionaries mixed among the workers watched sharply while blending into the crowd.

Arthur also sighed deeply as he disembarked.

“Cooperate with the search.”

“Papa!”

Clara was being held by one of the knights. Arthur didn’t trust the captain’s words that they were merely protecting the child.

Though grinding his teeth inside, he maintained his best friendly smile.

“Of course. This way, please.”

The heavy rain suggested an approaching typhoon. While suggesting they conduct the inspection quickly to prevent rain damage to the goods, his lips turned blue with tension.

The knight captain, completely ignoring Arthur’s request, commanded loudly.

“Search everything thoroughly!”

Boxes of goods rolled and tumbled across the floor.

Arthur couldn’t express his anger even as he watched his carefully selected goods breaking and being damaged before his eyes. The gold epaulettes on the captain’s shoulders were special gifts reserved for nobles.

Even as the owner of the goods, he couldn’t dare object to a noble’s actions, so he could only clench his helpless hands. His fists trembled. Blood vessels stood out on his neck and hot tears welled up in his eyes from the rushing heat. Still, he endured, biting the inside of his mouth.

The sailors lay on the bare ground like criminals, hands on their heads, unable to move. Rain poured menacingly onto the muddy dock.

Rumble, crash!

Lightning struck the distant coast. A tree cracked in half, burning even in the rain. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut watching the flames cascade down the coastal cliff.

“Captain!”

A knight who had finished searching approached to report. They had come to catch weapons smuggling in action, but found nothing.

The captain’s gaze turned hostile. Arthur lowered his head, avoiding eye contact. He was being cautious because some nobles would shoot without hesitation if eyes met wrongly.

“Where did you hide them?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. Really.”

Arthur pleaded with frightened eyes. The captain grabbed Arthur’s collar and dragged him off the ship.

“W-why are you doing this! We are truly innocent!”

The sailors and workers gathered at the dock grew restless in confusion. They protested against the sudden assault.

“I was a servant at Count Kelly’s house just a month ago! I only came looking for work!”

“Why are you really doing this? This is unfair!”

But despite people’s cries, the knights’ expressions remained unchanged. The flag symbolizing the imperial messengers fluttered noisily, and the raindrops intensified.

As the violence continued, blood spread across the ground.

When people began crying and begging for their lives one by one, a knight kicked a sailor and shouted.

“Everyone quiet!”

At the command accompanied by violence, the sailors turned pale, lowered their heads, and trembled. The knight captain lifted Arthur by his collar and growled up close.

“Tell me where the weapons are. If you speak within 10 seconds, I’ll at least spare your life.”

Arthur recalled his conversation with Reizen from a few days ago.

[It’s obvious they’ll search at the port, so we shouldn’t unload there. Two ships will depart.]

[Two?]

[The ship departing in the morning is a real merchant ship, and the afternoon ship carries weapons and transfers the goods to small boats in the middle of the sea.]

[Then the empty ship…]

[We’ll send the empty ship back to Tavania, and the merchant ship should dock at Glinford as planned. To avoid suspicion.]

So this ship never carried weapons in the first place. Search all you want. See if you find any weapons. Arthur spoke with bitter satisfaction.

“With my daughter here, would I lie? Really! I’m telling you we didn’t import any weapons!”

Arthur pleaded his innocence desperately, and afterward, the knights who had thoroughly searched the ship came down and shook their heads at the captain’s gaze.

It meant they had found nothing.

‘We’re saved.’

Sighs of relief could be heard among the sailors too. They all seemed to hope they would be released soon.

The knight captain wiped the rain from his face irritably and said.

“Do you know what happens to us if we go back and report to him that ‘we found nothing’?”

Something was going wrong.

‘No way…’

Arthur’s pupils gradually darkened.

“We’ll have to forfeit our lives. All of us, including our families.”

Click.

Along with the captain’s words, the knights behind him loaded their weapons. A young knight asked the captain as he turned away.

“What about the child?”

“Witnesses must be eliminated too.”

Hearing this, Arthur’s eyes went wild. In normal circumstances, he wouldn’t dare make a sound against a noble, but facing death changed everything. Through the wind and rain, Arthur shouted at the top of his lungs.

“The child is innocent…!”

But his words were cut off as a knight gagged him and dragged him away. Clara froze completely seeing the situation unfold. Arthur silently wailed as he looked at Clara.

This wasn’t part of the plan. A massacre without any evidence! Previously they at least followed the principle of punishing based on evidence, but now they were doing this without any proof – it felt like he would die from the injustice even before the bullet struck his head.

“C-Clara!”

Arthur went berserk watching his precious daughter being forcibly dragged away by a strange man. The sailors tried to seize this opportunity to find a way to survive. Just as they all made eye contact and were about to rise together.

“Papa! Waaahh!”

A gun was pointed at Clara’s head.

“Clara! Heuugh, please. Please spare the child, I’m begging you like this. Please? The child knows nothing, the child…”

Arthur, having spat out his gag, begged the knight captain while banging his head on the ground. He crawled over like a madman, rubbing his hands together. Please, at least spare his daughter.

“I’ll do anything you order! I’ll do anything, I will! Please?”

Clara struggled and managed to break free after kicking between the man’s legs. The gun misfired and the bullet hit a random box.

He had never been more grateful for his child being strong and fast than today.

When Clara looked back while running, Arthur shook his head. Don’t come this way, just keep running like that. He deliberately clung to the knight captain’s legs to create a distraction.

The knights seemed flustered by the child’s escape. Being human, they hesitated to kill an innocent child. The knight captain shouted.

“Listen up everyone! Unless you want to all be searched as soon as we return!”

Click.

“If we don’t kill them, we die!”

The middle-aged man bit his lip as he loaded his rifle and aimed at Clara’s fleeing head.

“Aaagh! No, please don’t! Please, please spare her! Please!”

Arthur wailed miserably while clinging to the legs. His expensive-looking clothes were covered in mud, and his face was stained with black despair.

As the father’s screams rang out through the white curtain of rain, the young knights grew solemn. Their uniforms clung uncomfortably to them in the wet weather.

The knight captain judged that child would be the most difficult to deal with among them.

“We need to make an example…”

With a gaunt face, he slowly applied pressure to the trigger. At that moment, an unknown woman stepped into the crosshairs of his scope.

When Clara ran to her and hugged her, the woman who awkwardly picked up the child raised her head.