All three ships flanked our own, and their boarding bridges fell onto the deck with a heavy wooden slap. Footsteps followed — boots marching across the planks, wood creaking under their weight. Three n were walking towards us.
The atmosphere on our ship had gone cold. I could tell everyone was trying their best to keep it together, and there was that unspoken tension beneath the surface — suppressed, coiled, waiting to snap.
Kassie and I sat near the cabin entrance. Yuan wasn’t here. She’d been sleeping since that intense mont at dawn, and no one had wanted to wake her. Po and Nisha stood by the port railing, faces carefully neutral. Derry waited at the center of the deck, hands clasped behind his back, his expression carved from stone.
The n finally stepped onto our ship, and they looked exactly as one would expect. Naval uniforms in azure blue — long coats over black pants, brown belts cinched at the waist, open-faced silver helts with flowing blue crests. Authority with teeth.
But one of them wasn’t wearing a helt. Short white hair, grey eyes that held nothing — not cruelty, not curiosity, just a flat emptiness that was sohow worse. His hand rested on his sword hilt. As unremarkable as he seed, he reeked of danger. The kind you feel in your spine before your brain catches up.
He walked to the center of the deck while the other two flanked him. They stopped before Derry, their eyes roaming the ship with the lazy hunger of n looking for sothing worth taking ho for themselves.
His gaze lingered on Kassie and for a mont. Sothing flickered there. Then he turned back to Derry and smiled.
"My friend. How have you been?"
Derry’s expression didn’t shift.
"Friend? Don’t give that, Lord Fargo. You proved well enough last ti that we’re not friends."
The smile crawled wider.
"Derry, you sure do know how to hold a grudge." His grin stretched further. "You sure do have a lot of people boarding this ti. New faces... Even beautiful ones."
Derry’s gaze darkened.
"Since when did my crew mbers beco your business?"
The man looked away for a mont, clicking his tongue in mock disappointnt. Then he stepped closer to Derry.
"Listen... whatever it is we had in the past, let’s settle it, okay? You and I both know you’re traveling with a bunch of illegal things you could lose if you’re not careful. So why not just let us co to a simple arrangent..." He spread his hands. "I’m feeling rciful today."
Derry still looked irked, but sothing in his posture loosened a fraction. He didn’t know why this Naval Prefecture Officer was being generous, but it wasn’t going to hurt to hear him out.
"Go on," Derry said flatly.
The man moved closer still, and his voice dropped to a whisper. At that point, I couldn’t hear anymore.
So I used enhanced hearing.
"I see a pretty girl back there," he murmured, gesturing behind with his eyes. "The red-haired one. How about you just hand her over to as a slave, and I’ll turn a blind eye to your passage here for a while... okay?"
My hands clenched hard.
Not just — Derry’s face twisted into a deep frown.
But I was already moving. Already stepping away from my position, fists tight enough to ache.
Derry’s eyes widened slightly as he spotted coming. The officers behind Fargo saw and moved to intercept — one reached for . I shifted back, let his hand cut through empty air, then lunged forward and drove my fist into his face. He stumbled away. I was already hearing the second one closing, so I shoved the first man into him to break his advance.
Then I was through them.
I grabbed Lord Fargo by his collar. His eyes narrowed and he snapped his head forward — a headbutt aid straight at my nose.
I caught his face with my palm. Stopped the blow cold.
’I’m the only one who gets to do that.’
I threw my head back, then whipped it forward. Removed my hand at the last mont.
My forehead cracked into the bridge of his nose.
His head snapped back. He staggered. Blood sprayed from his nostrils.
His n had reached by then — they grabbed my arms from behind and drove down to the deck. I thrashed against their grip, muscles straining, but they were strong.
"Hands off my woman!!" I shouted as they pinned to the wood. "Kassie is mine! How dare you try to enslave her?!"
Po was standing there smiling. Nisha sighed. Tristan looked stunned by the situation.
The rest of the crew stood frozen — they hadn’t heard the man’s whispered words. Even Kassie hadn’t been paying attention. But the mont I moved, she was on her feet and watching with a scowl.
Fargo touched his bleeding nose and went livid.
"Derry!!! What is the aning of this nonsense?! Blood! Blood! I’ve got blood running from my damn nose!!"
Derry looked at the man.
"As deserved. I would’ve loved to deliver it personally for what you said, but Cade over there beat to it."
The officer’s face went slack with shock.
Even I was surprised. I’d been certain I was doing nothing but making things difficult for them.
Kassie stepped forward now. She moved past and stood behind the two soldiers. Her red gaze burned into them, and for a mont, they shivered.
"Take your filthy hands off him."
She grabbed the first soldier and tore him away from . He flew through the air and dropped into the water with a distant splash.
The second one glanced at his vanished comrade, then back at Kassie. She tilted her head toward him.
He frowned and lunged at her.
’Talk about bad decision-making.’
She moved. One leg swept up — knee rising to intercept. His face folded into it with a wet crunch. He dropped to the deck, blood flying, and didn’t get up.
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