The voyage was smoother than expected. The Dead Sea, called the deep blue grave among sailors, was calm enough to make its infamous reputation seem almost absurd.

Canasia Hereis, princess of Hereis, sat at the edge of the weathered ship’s railing and looked up at the cloudless sky with resentful eyes.

Six days since she left the kingdom for a marriage she never wanted. She prayed for a storm to capsize the ship, but the indifferent gods seemed unwilling to grant her wish this time either.

Maybe she should just throw herself into the sea.

Gripping the low railing and staring down into the ink-dark water, Canasia finally let out a sigh. She had chances, more than once, but she hesitated each time and ended up here, so she would not do it this time either.

Canasia closed her eyes, her face full of resignation. Behind her closed eyelids, the face of a stranger suddenly surfaced.

‘You said to take you anywhere.’

‘Are you sure anywhere is fine? Even hell?’

The arrogant, shameless man who took her first. Would things have been different if she took the hand he held out?

……Never mind. She would never see him again anyway.

Canasia smiled bitterly, letting go of the pointless hypothetical.

For a sailor who drifted the seas without a fixed home, how many women like her could there be? She disappeared without even revealing who she was, so he probably forgot her easily enough.

She felt a heaviness in her chest despite having eaten nothing, and she pressed her hand over her heart to ease it.

“It’s cold out here. Why are you outside?”

A warm voice accompanied a thick coat dropping onto Canasia’s shoulders.

“You’ll catch a cold. At least put this on.”

“I’m fine. Take it off.”

Canasia coldly shrugged the cloak from her shoulders. The man whose offer she refused picked it up without a word and held it out to her again.

“Stop being stubborn and put it on. You’re not exactly in good health.”

“Please don’t pretend to care about me, Sir Ferdinand.”

“Canasia.”

“Ah, or is this about your own interests? A hostage you barely managed to convince might fall ill before reaching her destination, and that would be inconvenient, wouldn’t it?”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“Then what is the reason for this sudden show of concern? Did you develop a conscience all of a sudden?”

She pressed him with words sharp as a blade, and the man, whose lips had been moving to speak, dropped his gaze. Canasia stared at him with resentment, the cloak still in his grip.

Roderick Ferdinand. The eldest son of Marquis Ferdinand’s household, the finest knight in the kingdom, Canasia’s first love, and the man who was once her late sister’s fiancé.

There was a time she imagined a future alongside him. All of that was meaningless now.

“You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“……How could I send you off alone?”

“Then you should have stopped me from going in the first place.”

She twisted her lips, as if to say she wanted none of his half-hearted excuses. His throat moved anxiously, the prominent line of it rising and falling, and Canasia turned her head away.

It was miserable enough to become the wife of an old man nearing sixty at barely twenty years old, but the thought of having to travel all the way to Eldos without even a proper dowry or attendants, under the cold stares of rough sailors, was unbearable.

“You didn’t give me even the last small kindness you could have.”

You don’t know how humiliating it is to let you see me become the bride of a man forty years older than me.

“Cana, I─”

“Let’s drop this pointless conversation, Sir Ferdinand.”

Canasia turned away sharply, and Roderick caught her wrist.

“Cana.”

“Let go.”

“Just listen to me.”

“I said let go!”

She tried to pull free with resolve, but her body, worn down from going without food for so long, would not cooperate. Her vision swam and she lost her footing, stumbling, and Roderick quickly caught her and held her up.

“Are you all right?”

Canasia turned away from the hands steadying her and waited for her blurred vision to settle. The scar on the back of the hand gripping her waist seemed unusually dark today, and she barely swallowed the irritation rising to her throat.

If he was going to be like this, he should not have been kind at all.

Tears were on the verge of spilling over.

“Well, isn’t this a lovely sight?”

A voice laced with mockery came from behind them. A stocky man approached the two of them with a slimy smile. It was Baron Jeff Dawson, the envoy dispatched from Eldos and captain of the Victore.

He received his title as a reward for currying favor with the king of Eldos, but he spent his whole life as a sailor and was crude and vulgar for it. Even so, Canasia could not afford to ignore an official envoy of Eldos, so she did her best to pretend she did not notice his taunting.

“It seems I’ve stumbled in without reading the room. My apologies, Your Highness.”

Jeff Dawson lifted his worn hat and lowered it again, grinning to show his yellowed teeth.

“Though I’d suggest being a bit more careful in front of others. Sailors have loose tongues, you see. If you’re that eager, you might as well go inside the cabin.”

The jab was unmistakable. Roderick clenched his fist and fixed Jeff Dawson with a sharp glare. On land he would not have let it go, but on a ship the captain’s authority was absolute. Even more so in a situation where they depended entirely on the captain, as they did now.

The sea route connecting Eldos and Hereis was notorious for being treacherous. With its many reefs, high swells, and unpredictable weather, no one short of a seasoned veteran captain would dare attempt the voyage.

The reason Eldos sent Jeff Dawson rather than a high-ranking noble as their envoy was precisely because he was a veteran sailor with the skill to navigate that dangerous route safely.

Even the proud Roderick knew it was foolish to lose his temper over the insult. Instead of pointing out the rudeness, he smoothly changed the subject.

“The waves seem fairly high. Will we be all right?”

“This is actually quite calm.”

Jeff Dawson shrugged and answered, casting a sideways glance at Canasia.

“It seems Her Highness has quite the lucky streak.”

Roderick barely suppressed the urge to throw his glove in Jeff Dawson’s face.

“How long until we reach Eldos?”

“As long as we don’t run into pirates, we should arrive in a fortnight.”

“Pirates? There are pirates out here?”

“Not many ships pass through this way, so they don’t usually show up, but…”

The captain glanced at Canasia and continued.

“There’s someone who loses his mind over anything to do with Eldos.”

“You mean Arslan?”

“A knight, I see. Well-informed.”

The breezy reply made Roderick’s brow furrow.

Arslan. The existence of the infamous pirate who ruled the Dead Sea was well known even in Hereis, where maritime trade was not particularly developed.

People said it was better to run into a storm than to run into Arslan. Roderick, never having encountered the man himself, thought it was an exaggeration, but Jeff Dawson’s reaction suggested it might not be.

“Well, there’s a fine knight aboard this ship, so I’m sure he’ll take care of some measly pirate without any trouble.”

Jeff Dawson snickered, looking at the sword at Roderick’s side like it annoyed him.

No point dealing with him any further. Roderick made up his mind to stop wasting time and have a serious talk with Canasia. Just then.

“An unknown vessel sighted off the stern!”

A sailor keeping watch from the crow’s nest shouted urgently.

“Unknown vessel?”

Jeff Dawson raised his sparse eyebrows and ran toward the rear of the ship. Roderick turned with a puzzled expression, and a ship came into view at the edge of the horizon. A flag bearing a black lion flapped vigorously at the top of the tall mast.

“A, a black lion…… It’s Arslan!”

The lookout’s shout sent the deck of the Victore into chaos in an instant. Jeff Dawson bellowed curses at the sailors scrambling around like they were about to throw themselves into the sea.

“Everyone to your stations! Get your heads straight if you don’t want to drown! Unfurl all sails and turn the bow into the favorable wind! Full speed, we run before they close in!”

Jeff Dawson issued orders with a decisiveness that seemed at odds with the man who mocked a princess moments ago. Canasia stared at his ashen face, then turned her eyes to the pirate ship.

Unlike the Victore, the ship bearing the large flag and bearing down on them was narrow from side to side, long from bow to stern, and fitted with a massive ram at the prow.

It looks familiar somehow.

But before she could search her memory, the pirate ship closed the distance at terrifying speed.

“Captain, they’re gaining on us!”

“Turn the helm northeast! There’s a reef field eight miles out, we just need to reach it!”

“If we go that way, our ship is in danger too!”

“Then you stop them yourself!”

Jeff Dawson’s sharp snap barely preceded the ship lurching into a hard turn.

“Cana, get to the cabin now!”

The violent change of course nearly capsized the ship. Canasia lost her footing and stumbled, and Roderick grabbed her firmly and brought her to the cabin.

“Stay hidden here. Do not come out until I open this door myself!”

“Roderick!”

Bang! The heavy wooden door slammed shut with a thunderous sound. She turned the handle as his footsteps faded, but the door was locked from outside and would not open.

That idiot! What does he think he can do alone!

The knights who accompanied her on this journey numbered fewer than ten. No matter how brave a knight Roderick was, there was no way he could handle that many pirates alone.

“Roddy, open this door! Roddy! Is anyone out there? Someone…… Kyaah!”

A tremendous impact shook the hull. The pirate ship rammed them. Threatening shouts rang out from not far away.

“Cut them all down! Leave no one alive!”

Frightened of being found, Canasia hid behind the bed and held her breath as pirates came pouring in through the hatch.

“Hold them! Don’t fall back!”

Terrible screams and the sharp clash of metal struck her eardrums without pause. At some point the ship stopped moving.

If they take this ship, will they let me live?

If the pirates were after the princess’s dowry, they might be furious at the meager haul and sink the ship. Or they might take her as a hostage and extort money from the king of Eldos.

Not that it would take them long to realize I’m not worth that much.

Canasia pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them. The noise outside the cabin seemed like it would never stop.

“……”

After a long while, silence settled around her.

Is it over?

Canasia cautiously lifted her head.

If the pirates won, there would have been a commotion as they ransacked the spoils. The quiet outside suggested Roderick might have dealt with all of them. She decided to go out and assess the situation, and the moment she rose to her feet, the locked door burst open.

“Hello, Your Highness. I’ve come to collect you.”

“……!”