The Pirate King's Daughter - Chapter 65

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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 65
“Laeira, I’ve come to prepare the bath.”
“Come in.”
Marika and several other women entered carrying wooden buckets of water and quickly finished the preparations.
“I’ll have only one attendant.”
“Then I shall—”
“No, not you. You.”
I ignored Marika and pointed to a young woman with long, jet-black hair.
Once everyone else had left, I asked the woman who remained.
“What’s your name?”
“Kara, ma’am.”
Kara answered stiffly, her whole body tense with nervousness.
“What fragrant oil did you bring?”
“A blend of sandalwood and orchid, ma’am.”
“Get something else.”
Confused by my mercurial manner, Kara’s eyes darted as she stammered.
“W-what sort of scent would you prefer, ma’am?”
“Something different.”
“…I understand.”
She had been standing beside the woman who wept when I chose the man—the very woman whose lover I’d taken.
I’d dangled enough bait; she wouldn’t simply watch me claim her boyfriend without a fight.
While I pondered what weapon might serve my purposes, Kara soon returned.
Her hands trembled as she gripped the new oil, trembling with anxiety, until she suddenly dropped to her knees before me.
“Laeira! Please allow me to speak.”
She’d taken the bait.
I gestured for her to continue.
“The warrior you have chosen tonight is already promised to another in marriage. I beg you—please select a different warrior instead.”
“Then who should die in his place?”
……
Confronted with such bluntness, Kara fell silent.
“You don’t think this is unreasonable too?”
I hadn’t heard them speak, but their silence told me everything I needed to know about what the tribe was thinking.
“I’m not your goddess.”
At my sudden change in tone, she lifted her head and stared at me in shock.
“I’m just an ordinary person. So you need to protect your tribe yourselves. I have no intention of killing anyone tonight, and I’m leaving for home.”
“But how can—”
“First, tell me the truth about what happened to my friends.”
Kara hesitated, then made her decision and opened her mouth.
“Three of them fled the moment they woke, and one… one has already been offered as a sacrificial offering.”
“A sacrificial offering…?”
Surely that didn’t mean… dead?
‘No, it can’t be. That’s impossible. He’s the protagonist, after all.’
I wanted to ask how the ritual of sacrifice was performed, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Who—who was offered?”
“A man with silver hair.”
Silver hair. The moment I heard those words, something snapped inside my head.
‘No, no. I must have misheard.’
I wanted to reach into my mind and physically tear out the part that kept trying to move.
“Laeira!”
My legs gave out and I collapsed, but Kara caught me quickly.
Still, I shoved her away with all my strength.
“Save your own son, save your friend’s fiancé. Don’t you have any shame?”
She fell to the floor, her head bowed low.
“He… he might still be alive.”
“Now? How?”
“Before he woke last night, he went through the door. If he woke immediately after, he might still be alive.”
“A door?”
“A massive hole in the floor. From outside, there’s a mystical lake beneath it. We believe that hole is a path to our Ancestors.”
Her words calmed me slightly.
‘Then he’s alive. He has to be.’
It’s Kies. An Aura User. He wouldn’t die from something like that.
Reason returned, and I realized time was slipping away. I asked urgently.
“There should have been a transparent jellyfish with a blue glow. Do you know anything about it?”
“A jellyfish…?”
Kara pondered for a moment, then gasped softly.
“Something that looked gelatinous—the chieftain was carrying it. It’s probably at his residence.”
“Then listen carefully to what I tell you from now on.”
I began explaining my escape plan.
As darkness fell, the man I had chosen at the feast entered the chamber.
“I greet you, Laeira.”
After his greeting, the man stepped closer.
“Did Kara tell you?”
I whispered softly, and the man hesitated before nodding.
“I’ll hide myself. Check that you can’t see me, then go outside.”
I squeezed myself under the bed.
The man soon rushed out and shouted urgently.
“Laeira has disappeared!”
Chaos erupted outside at once. Two guards rushed in to check the bedroom and bolted back out.
“Search the forest and the door immediately!”
From the distance, I heard Saulo’s roar of a command.
Holding my breath, I waited. Soon I saw a woman’s legs entering the bedroom.
“Laeira.”
It was Kara’s voice.
The moment I crawled out from under the bed, I nearly burst into tears.
“Tatiana!”
Pudding was trapped in a wooden cage, her tentacles reaching toward me.
“Pudding…”
“Whaaaa!”
My dear little one wailed miserably.
“I’m sorry.”
My poor thing was always suffering because her master was so helpless.
“Where’s the key?”
Kara shook her head at my question.
“I couldn’t find it in time.”
“Pudding, we’re going to have to break this. Is that okay?”
“Yes!”
I quickly set Pudding on the ground and raised my foot.
Pudding’s eyes trembled, but there was no other choice.
Crack!
“Y-you really are fierce…”
Pudding, huddled in the corner and terrified, spoke quietly.
Did she really just call me fierce?
“Now hurry—guide us to the door.”
Pudding and I followed Kara out of the room.
“H-hey, Mom, mmph!”
A child spotted us and pointed, but the child’s mother covered her mouth and dragged her away.
“This way!”
As we bolted into the Jungle Forest, pain shot through the soles of my feet. My blisters had burst.
But I couldn’t stop.
Desperate to avoid anyone searching for me, I crashed through the undergrowth, leaving my exposed arms and legs scraped and bleeding.
“Wait.”
Kara stopped, and I followed her behind a massive tree, peering ahead.
That must be the door.
The only place in this tangle of trees and vines that bore the touch of human hands.
A circular stone frame melded seamlessly with the overgrown plants around it, and vines spilled down into the hole below.
“The chieftain is there.”
Saulo and his burly men were examining the door.
“So you threw the silver-haired man down that hole. And there’s water below.”
“Yes.”
My legs trembled violently. I was desperate to run down there and check if Kies was safe.
Soon, once they confirmed I was gone, the men moved away from the door.
“Laeira!”
I couldn’t hold back any longer and burst from cover.
The men who had been hurrying heard my voice, spun around, spotted me, and charged.
But they were still some distance away.
The dirt and twigs underfoot vanished as I finally reached the stone ring surrounding the hole.
I planted my feet and spoke to the men.
“Your chieftain is a demon, you brainless fools.”
Standing stiffly on his staff, Saulo glared at me, and I made sure to give him the middle finger.
Then I fell backward.
“Tatiana! No! You reckless contractor—!”
Pudding grabbed my hair.
I knew I wouldn’t die anyway, so why was she making such a fuss?
‘Oh, I didn’t even check if there was actually water down there.’
With that thought, as I threw myself into the hole, Saulo reached out toward me from afar.
Black Magical Power erupted from his fingertips, surging savagely past the horrified tribe members toward me.
‘No chance, old man.’
The Black Magical Power crashed against my rippling white silk dress and began to swallow me whole.
But the moment it touched me, the power shattered like glass and rushed back toward Saulo in an instant.
“Gaaagh—!”
He collapsed, coughing blood.
And I—
“Kyaaaaa!”
Splash!
fell safely into the lake below.
When I opened my eyes, clear transparent water reflected the torchlight from above, creating a mystical beam of light.
Pudding tapped my shoulder and took the lead.
As I kicked gently, the long dress they’d put on me—as if I were some actual goddess—was annoyingly cumbersome.
“Phew!”
I emerged from the water in a place hidden from view above, and everything was pitch black.
“Pudding, I’m scared.”
I couldn’t see anything.
“And whose fault is it that you jumped down so recklessly?”
Pudding scolded and took my hand, leading me toward solid ground.
“Now you just climb up.”
Pudding bounced onto the ground and spoke.
I grabbed the edge with my hands like I was getting out of a swimming pool, and as I pushed with my arms, suddenly a pale light appeared.

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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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