The Pirate King's Daughter - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16
I stared at Kiis in shock.
He tossed the shattered remains of the chair’s armrest carelessly to the floor.
“So you’re a con man, yet you manage to sound quite convincing.”
Kiis and Dilshard’s gazes locked with razor-sharp intensity.
‘What does he think he’s doing, staring Kiis down like that?’
I opened my mouth carefully before things escalated.
“Look, getting off now is too dangerous anyway. Just until the next port…….”
“I.”
Kiis’s strained voice cut me off abruptly.
“I said I didn’t want to doubt you anymore.”
Betrayal clung to his eyes, which burned red.
“That’s not what I meant——”
Kiis scraped his chair back and stood, speaking as he left the dining room. “If you find me so tiresome, then go with him. I won’t stop you.”
“…….”
Nothing but silence remained where he had been.
“Kiis is right.”
Still holding my throbbing head, I looked at Perian.
“You know your behavior doesn’t add up. We were both uneasy about him joining from the start. It’s time you were honest with us—or gave up your stubbornness.”
Perian left the dining room as well.
‘Berto, then…….’
He was the most rational of the three. In short, the one least likely to accept what I’d done.
Sure enough, I heard him stir from his chair.
“……!”
A large hand pressed firmly down on my bowed head and passed me by.
I turned around with widened eyes, but Berto had already gone.
“Tatiana.”
With the two of us alone, Dilshard spoke.
“I’m not making empty offers. Come with me——”
“I want to be alone right now.”
I needed time to collect my thoughts.
His face was full of things unsaid, but he nodded readily enough.
“Understood.”
When Dilshard finally left and I was alone, I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed out slowly.
Night fell.
Dilshard and I weren’t cast off in an Escape Boat, but the three others and I remained in a cold silence.
“Maybe I should just let it all fall apart.”
Death was such a hollow thing—it left nothing behind. So what was the point of struggling?
“Still, the stars are beautiful.”
I’d never seen so many stars back home in South Korea.
“Tatiana.”
Dilshard climbed up to the upper deck.
I sat up in my Hammock and gave his clothes a critical once-over.
“I bought you plenty of clothes. Wasted money, I suppose?”
“No. Except for a few pieces from that purchase, I changed everything to men’s wear.”
“And that makes it all right?”
Dilshard sat down on the sofa beside the Hammock.
“Don’t be angry. I’m sorry I deceived you.”
“I go through the trouble of saving you, and you pull a knife on me. You didn’t apologize properly, but instead you’re actually honest about deceiving me by changing your appearance.”
I rolled over to face away from him.
“I’m sorry for that too. But I’m not ashamed of the con. I only picked the pockets of worthless aristocrats.”
“That worthless aristocrat’s son might be decent.”
Duke Fray kills his own daughter, yet I’m apparently too good-hearted and off saving the world.
“Are you talking about yourself?”
“……It’s complicated.”
“I don’t know what kind of people you all are, or how you ended up here.”
I was still turned away from Dilshard, but he didn’t stop talking.
“But I boarded this ship because of you alone. If you’re foolish enough to take a whipping for someone you don’t know, at least you probably won’t stab me in the back.”
Is that an insult or a compliment?
“I actually heard you that day. You and him fighting.”
Creeping through windows and eavesdropping too?
“If you really must return to the Empire, I can take you myself. There’s no need to insist on this ship. It’s usually true that people you already know are more dangerous.”
I pushed myself up to face Dilshard.
“I trust you too. The way you tried to evacuate me first, even before escaping those restraints.”
Not because I blindly believed the source material. That novel, with its different gender for the protagonist.
“But I trust the others as well.”
Kiis, who came to save me driven by a sense of justice. Perian, with his sense of duty. Even Berto, who prioritizes conviction over feeling.
Honestly, I hadn’t made much effort to look good to them or clear up misunderstandings.
After all, we’d part ways for good at the final port. I thought it would be enough to help each other out moderately until then.
“I’m choosing to trust people as they are, without needing a bond between us. That’s why I want us all to travel together. But I understand I can’t force you if you don’t want to.”
There’s no point dragging someone unwilling along just to save the world.
And I had no right to burden Dilshard with that weight.
“Tatiana, you’re terrifyingly kind.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It’s a thing. Want to grab some beer?”
Dilshard finally lifted himself off the sofa.
“You’ll get in trouble with Perian. Go down and drink by yourself. And keep quiet about it.”
“Cold as ice.”
I heard his footsteps descending the wooden stairs.
‘They’re all terrible people.’
My mood was heavy, my thoughts tangled, and for once I found myself rummaging through my own mind.
What if we’d met in the Empire instead, never trapped underground? I was curious.
Would I have avoided fighting with Kiis? Could I have become friends with Perian and Berto?
I knew it was all pointless speculation, yet my mind kept wandering.
I imagined laughing and talking with them in a banquet hall, and gentle sleep crept over me.
* * *
I was Tatiana. I had died and been born in South Korea, and when I died again, it was because of Lucas that I returned here.
I retained the memories from when I was Tatiana, but because a new self had been born, it didn’t feel like they belonged to me.
Yet sometimes, through dreams, certain memories would surface and brand my soul with such rawness that they became undeniably mine.
Like now.
* * *
“Your Highness, please don’t go…….”
I stood before Kiis with tears streaming down my face.
At seventeen, he was taller and broader than most his age, but he couldn’t hide his youthful face.
His fine silver hair scattered in the night breeze.
“Tatiana, you’ll bruise your face.”
Kiis took my hand and gently wiped my eyes with his Handkerchief.
“Is that really what matters now?”
I pulled my hand away and the Handkerchief fell.
“How could His Majesty order you to go to war?”
I was venting at an innocent target, yet he only squeezed my hand softly.
“I’ve been promised the Crown Prince Designation. His Majesty can’t openly support me indefinitely because of the Empress, so I need a justification.”
“But still——!”
“Tatiana, when the time comes, I’ll propose formally. Will you be my Crown Princess?”
“……Hic!”
The sudden confession sent me into hiccups.
We were already engaged, so marriage was the natural next step.
But what girl wouldn’t flutter hearing such words from a boy she loved?
“I’ll survive it for you. I’m powerless now, but once I end this war and become Crown Prince, I’ll be able to protect you.”
He brushed away a tear hanging from the corner of my eye.
“So don’t be too sad. You’ll write to me, won’t you?”
‘I don’t want to.’
If I could prevent him from leaving, then there’d be no need for letters.
But no matter how much I cried and pleaded, I knew it was beyond my control.
“I’ll—I’ll write every single day.”
“War won’t be entirely unbearable then.”
How could he laugh so clearly in the moonlight? My frustration flared even as my heart crumbled.
“If you actually get hurt, I won’t forgive you. I’ll chase after you and tear out every last hair on your head.”
“Ha, I promise. I won’t get hurt.”
Kiis looked at me as if fixing me in his memory, then slowly drew closer.
“Just wait a little longer, Tatiana.”
A tender first kiss brushed my forehead, fleeting and light. Then he was gone.
In the deep hours after his departure that night——
Unable to sleep, I’d gone for a walk when I overheard my father speaking with someone.
“Now that the Crown Prince has deployed, there’s no end of opportunity to eliminate him.”
“……!”
I nearly cried out, but clapped my hand over my mouth and barely managed to hide behind a wall.
“Really? You’re truly planning to kill him?”
“Of course.”
“What troubles me is that you haven’t yet annulled the Engagement between her and the Crown Prince. I suspect you’re hoping to curry favor with him if he survives and becomes Crown Prince.”
“Nonsense. It’s simply that my relationship with my daughter is strained. She’ll certainly let her guard down at my name—even if what I give her is Poison.”
Betrayal and terror twisted together, wrenching my heart and stealing my breath.
I bit the soft flesh inside my mouth until the other person left my father’s side.
And when my father was finally alone, I let loose the sobs I’d been holding back.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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