Chapter 3 (Part 2)

The rising sun peeking from beyond the sea made his smile shine even brighter.

Meia felt her heart pounding and a strange feeling coming over her.

An oval-shaped face with clear and brilliant blue eyes and long, lush silver hair.

His face, always smiling with the corners of his mouth upturned, looked gentle yet exuded charisma.

Every time Meia, who looked more beautiful than a doll, smiled at Theodore, his heart would throb painfully. His heart pounded, and his pulse quickened.

With the pain in his heart came a fluffy and excited feeling.

Theodore wanted to tuck her silver hair, fluttering in the wind, behind her ear but couldn’t bring himself to do it without permission, so he only imagined it.

“The sea is truly a splendid view.”

“Lady Meia, you seem to really like the sea.”

“Yes, it’s my first time seeing it in person, but I like it. I think I’ve come to like the sea.”

Theodore gazed at Meia seriously with a soft smile, the corners of his lips gently curved.

“I like it too.”

Theodore was acting very strangely today.

He smiled a lot.

He smiled as if flowers were blooming above his head. Of course, he looked even more handsome when he smiled.

She liked it better when he looked flustered and his face turned redder…….

Meia turned her body and continued talking, looking into Theodore’s smiling eyes.

“Come to think of it, it’s not that I think I’ve come to like it, I really do like it.”

Hearing her say she liked it, Theodore struggled not to look flustered with his face turning bright red.

‘Why is my heart racing so wildly?’

As soon as he made eye contact with Meia, he averted his eyes without realizing it.

Embarrassment surged from his toes.

With his heart pounding wildly and unable to breathe properly, Theodore chose to retreat for a moment.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Yes.”

Theodore quickly went into the cabin and splashed his face with water several times.

His flushed face didn’t cool down.

He continued to take deep breaths to calm his wildly beating heart.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo.”

Aethon, who was beside him, looked at Theodore with a frustrated expression and spoke.

“Can’t you endure this?”

“But I can’t breathe.”

“You have to endure it, Your Grace.”

“I’m trying.”

“We’ll soon arrive in Teillon. Are you planning to ‘part’ with Lady Meia like this?”

At the mention of parting, Theodore suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart.

He felt like something terrible would happen if they parted.

“No!”

Theodore covered his mouth with his hand at Aethon’s words, his eyes growing serious.

“Your Grace, you like Lady Meia. You need to admit it. This isn’t an arrhythmia.”

“This isn’t an arrhythmia?”

“It only happens when you see her, right?”

Theodore nodded.

“It’s hard to take my eyes off her, I want to see her, touch her.”

“Exactly!”

“That’s what love is. From what I see, Your Grace, you fell in love with Lady Meia at first sight.”

As soon as Aethon finished speaking, a loud noise began to echo from the ship.

“What’s that sound?”

“Your Grace, it seems there’s an emergency on the cruise ship.”

“I left Lady Meia alone!”

With a face pale as a sheet, Theodore opened the cabin door and started running.

*   *   *

Stretching, Meia propped her chin on her hand and looked at the sea, sipping the strawberry ade Anna had brought her.

Bang!

“Huh? What’s that? I hear a loud noise.”

At the unusual noise, Meia stood up and looked around the ship, immediately identifying the cause.

“What’s this? Pirates? Juan, don’t come out yet. We need to figure out how many there are.”

[Yes.]

The men, who looked and dressed like they were up to no good, all had swords at their waists and were climbing up the ladder connecting the cruise ship and the pirate ship.

And people tied with ropes began to enter through the staircase leading to the deck.

In no time, the pirates surrounded the deck of the cruise ship.

Meia, who was on the top deck, hadn’t noticed, but the pirates had already taken many sailors, the captain, and passengers as hostages.

A pig-like man who seemed to be the leader ogled Meia up and down, drooling.

“Kahaha! What a beautiful woman to see as soon as I get up here!”

Meia frowned automatically.

[I will go out and cut that bastard’s throat immediately.]

“Juan, calm down.”

Juan’s murderous aura, hidden in the shadows, leaked out.

“In times like this, we need to think calmly.”

[Understood. But if it seems dangerous, I will rush out and kill them.]

A top-class cruise ship being raided by pirates. Where did the security breach occur?

The more pressing issue now was the hostages’ lives. Pirates are a brutal criminal group that sells women and children into slavery but kills men on the spot.

There seemed to be about 30-50 pirates, and there was a faint magical presence, suggesting a wizard among them.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a high-quality product.”

The pig-like leader of the pirates scanned Meia up and down as if appraising a valuable item, drooling and nodding in satisfaction.

“Boys, make sure not to damage that silver-haired girl’s face.”

“As you wish, boss.”

[Miss, I will go out.]

“Juan, come out when I call you.”

[But Miss, those bastards dare!]

“I was already a little stressed, so this is good timing.”

[Take out your stress after tying them up!]

“It’s more fun when the target moves.”

“What’s this? Talking to herself? Is she crazy? But she’s pretty, so she’ll sell for a high price.”

The pirates, following their leader’s orders, began to approach Meia.

Meia chanted an ice magic spell.

“A wizard?!”

“Ah! She’s a wizard.”

At Meia’s spell, the ground began to freeze over.

The faces of the people held hostage changed from despair to hope at her magic spell.

As the ice spread on the ground, the pirates approaching Meia found their feet frozen.

“That girl’s a wizard?”

“Our feet are frozen!”

At that moment, a bald man in a robe among the pirates cast a fire spell.

The ice began to melt slowly.

“As expected, they have a wizard, Juan.”

Meia called Juan. Then she chanted a powerful ice spell to extinguish the flames in the bald wizard’s hands, causing ice to form on his hands and making him scream in pain.

“Ah!”

The wizard, whose hands were frozen, glared at her. Meia gave him a relaxed smile.

Juan, filled with intense murderous intent, swiftly emerged from the shadows and cut off the wizard’s frozen hand. The hostages cheered.

“Juan, don’t kill the wizard, just restrain him.”

“Understood!”

At that moment.

“Don’t come any closer! If you do, I’ll kill everyone!”

The bald wizard cauterized his severed arm with a fire spell and shouted loudly. He then raised his other arm, creating five fireballs.

Seeing this, Meia created six ice balls above her head.

“Damn it!”

The bald wizard continued to increase the number of fireballs. Meia also began to increase the number of ice balls.

“What’s this? How can someone so young have so much magic power?”

Meia laughed as if she found it amusing.

“Don’t tell me you’re done making fireballs?”

The numerous ice balls above Meia’s head began to transform into sharp spears.

As the bald wizard hurriedly tried to form a shield, Juan quickly struck his vital point, knocking him out.

The pirates watching shouted.

“The wizard’s been taken down, boss!”

Meia smiled brightly and looked at the pirates with amusement.

Then, humming a tune, she began to take out various scrolls and artifacts from her bag.

Meia cheerfully told the pirates.

“It would be good for your lives not to move.”

Meia’s smile was very beautiful, but the pirates felt as much fear as they did awe.

In front of a pirate who fell to his knees, trembling at Meia’s smile, sharp ice spears began to pierce the ground.

“Eek!”

“Why are you moving? Do you find my words funny?”

The pirates froze in place, staring at the ice spears embedded in the ground.

Smiling brightly, Meia took out artifact bracelets from her bag and put them on her wrists.

“It’s been a while since I’ve worn these…….”

The artifact bracelets were for amplifying magic power and supplementing insufficient magic.

There were also necklaces and earrings for such purposes, but there was no need to wear them against these petty pirates.

The pirates could only watch Meia, who was putting on the artifacts, with tension.

Their wizard’s arm was already cut off, and he was restrained in the shadows.

“You idiots! We’ve done piracy without a wizard before! Just capture her! Throw a knife and hit that girl!”

The fat man, who seemed to be the leader, shouted loudly.

She didn’t know how strong their forces were, but in a fight between wizards and swordsmen, wizards are at a disadvantage.

When casting spells, if a fast-moving swordsman attacks, the wizard will be immediately defeated.

However, Meia had artifacts and scrolls she had made herself to perfectly compensate for that, along with Juan to protect her while she chanted spells.

“So noisy.”

As soon as the artifacts were strapped to Meia’s wrists, the ice spears floating in the air began to grow larger.

Meia started tearing several scrolls she had taken out, and more ice balls floated above her head.

The hostages tied with ropes on the cruise ship cheered continuously, rooting for Meia.