The Pirate King's Daughter - Chapter 68

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

Episode 68
The next day, Kies had recovered enough to move about on his own.
I barely managed to persuade him to rest for one more day before he left, then hurried to find Berto.
“That wish you blackmailed me into granting? I’m giving it to you now.”
……
Berto said nothing, but he couldn’t hide that look in his eyes—the one he got when watching an overenthusiastic child.
“If you don’t want to, never mind.”
“Come with me.”
We made our way toward the Door, careful to avoid prying eyes.
It felt uncomfortable—this was where Kies had been offered as a sacrifice—but Aso had asked so earnestly I couldn’t refuse.
He wanted to head straight for where his ancestor dwells if anything goes wrong, apparently.
“Tatiana, thank you so much.”
Aso, who’d been waiting at the Door, bowed low.
Beside him stood his wife Marika, and someone unexpected.
“So you were the tribal chief’s daughter.”
It was Kara, who had helped me escape.
“I didn’t get a chance to greet you yesterday. I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Now I understood why Aso and Kara wanted to be rid of Demon Power.
Aso looked so young that they both seemed like Marika’s children.
“Who would like to go first?”
“I’ll go first. If something goes wrong, I’d prefer Kara not proceed.”
I removed the necklace, set it on the ground, and stepped back with Berto.
“I think that treasure is what stripped the chief of his power. If it doesn’t work, I’m afraid I have no other methods to suggest.”
It was possible that Lucas’s power had nullified the Demon Power instead, but I wasn’t about to take that risk for their sake.
“There’s danger—you could lose your life in the worst case. Think carefully and prepare yourself, then attack the pendant.”
Aso positioned himself at some distance from the treasure.
Behind him, Marika held her hands clasped together, her face etched with worry as she watched.
“I’m beginning.”
Black magical force flowed from his outstretched hand toward the pendant.
It engulfed the treasure without hesitation, and then the familiar scene unfolded.
Cough—!
The magical power shattered into fragments and vanished into the air, and Aso collapsed to his knees, coughing blood.
“Aso!”
“Father!”
Marika and Kara rushed to him and helped him up.
“D-dear……”
Seeing Aso’s face, Marika wept profusely.
“H-haah……”
A hand now marked by the passage of years cupped her face, wiping away her tears.
“How is it? Can I stand beside you with my head held high now?”
The man who had looked young moments before now bore the full appearance of a middle-aged one.
“Always. I was proud of you then, and I’m proud now.”
They embraced, pouring out the regrets of a lifetime.
“…I want to do it too.”
Kara, who had been watching her parents, stood before the treasure with determination.
Seeing that nothing had gone wrong, Aso nodded, and Kara attacked the pendant as well—with the same result.
But since she was actually young, her outward appearance didn’t change much.
I picked up the pendant.
Outwardly, it looked completely unchanged.
“Pudding, what do you think?”
“Hard to say. Looks the same to me.”
I hadn’t expected much anyway.
As I fastened it around my neck again, Berto approached and spoke.
“I’ll keep what you did today a secret, so next time……”
“You’re seriously trying to change a hundred wishes to a hundred more? How is that different?”
Berto’s face fell.
“I’m worried. I won’t ask questions—I promise. Just take me along next time too.”
A massive oaf acting like a puppy was a bit of a cheat, wasn’t it?
Honestly, as long as he didn’t create real problems, I found it easier to have someone with me anyway.
“…We’ll see next time.”
I answered evasively, and he laughed happily.
And now that we were done, all three of them approached and bowed.
“Tatiana, we cannot thank you enough. How can we ever repay such a debt……”
“Just guide us to the Coastal Area as I mentioned tomorrow. That’s all.”
There was nothing I particularly wanted from them.
Demons who had lived only within their tribe for generations would know nothing of the demons in the Empire.
“That goes without saying. If there’s no ship, we’ll see to procuring one for you ourselves.”
I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Understood.”
I accepted the ship readily and returned to the village with Berto.
* * *
“An Aura User’s body really is broken, huh.”
I murmured in admiration, watching Kies gear up in his chair.
He looked completely recovered.
Ordinary people needed at least a week or ten days, but he’d healed in just two days.
“Now I get why you kept telling me to stay put?”
Kies said, buckling his sword at his waist.
“Yeah.”
I understood how maddening it must have been for a body that could barely hold a plank for fifteen seconds.
“So tell me now.”
“Tell you what?”
Kies leaned closer, pressing his hands on the table.
“You said something bad happened. What did they do to you? Should I just wipe out the entire tribe?”
“You’re alive because the tribe helped you. That’s not what you should be saying.”
Though it was true they’d been the perpetrators as well.
“I’ll decide after hearing your side.”
That bloodthirsty look in his eyes suggested he’d already made up his mind.
Not just Kies, but everyone else was in the dark about what happened to me.
The tribespeople just apologized sheepishly, and I’d said nothing about it.
When I’d told Pudding, he’d gone wild. I had no confidence I could calm him down again.
“They treated me like a goddess.”
“That can’t be all.”
“It really is.”
Kies narrowed his eyes, studying me, then knelt and subtly trapped me in my chair.
“You were that worried?”
“I wanted to escape. And I was concerned about you all. They told me you’d been offered as a sacrifice.”
“…So that’s why you cried like that? Thinking I was dead?”
Half right, half wrong.
Once I’d escaped that precarious situation and found Kies, I’d finally felt safe—and that’s when my emotions broke.
“Something like that.”
Half was close enough.
“Sigh……”
Kies exhaled and buried his face in my lap.
“Tatia……”
Just then, Dilshard entered the room, saw us, and froze. His expression hardened.
“What?”
Dilshard strode over and yanked the chair I was sitting in, but Kies grabbed the chair legs and held firm.
Here we go again.
I simply stood up, stepped over Kies’s arm, and sat down on the other side.
“Did you find something?”
“Yeah. The tribal chief aged. I came to ask how you managed it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kies leapt to his feet, looking furious as he stared at me.
“I told you not to wander alone. And you went and did something like that alone?”
“I didn’t go alone.”
“Then?”
“I went with Berto.”
Dilshard’s brow furrowed.
“Berto just watched while the tribal chief attacked you?”
“Attack? Explain properly.”
Of all the irritating people to be interrogated by at once.
“He didn’t attack me—he set this necklace on the ground and attacked that. When the Demon Power touched the treasure, all of it vanished and he aged.”
It was now certain that it was the necklace, not the ability Lucas gave me.
“Then why did you take Berto instead of me, when we discussed this together?”
Well, because I wanted to get the wish over with quickly.
But I couldn’t say that.
“Berto just happened to be nearby.”
Dilshard and Kies’s faces took on the petulant expression of disappointed children.
I was about to slip away when Berto and Perian entered the room right on cue.
“Perian, you came at the right time. Is Kies’s body really well enough to leave today?”
I asked Perian, partly to change the subject.
“Rest would be better, but with tribe members who know the forest guiding us, it should be fine.”
Perian added that on the battlefield, he’d fought in worse condition than this.
“Should we head out then?”
I shouldered my bag and was heading outside with the main group when Perian called me back.
“Tatiana.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry for what I said that day. I wanted to keep apologizing, but there wasn’t time to talk.”
Which day was he talking about?
Confused, I furrowed my brow and thought hard, and Perian explained.
“I told you not to play the victim, that I had no intention of accepting you.”
“Oh……”
He was referring to a conversation we’d had the first night we camped, sleeping in the same tent.
I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.
“It’s fine. I understand.”
When I spoke so casually, Perian’s face, which had been hanging somewhat, suddenly went rigid.
“Why is it fine?”
I had to receive that kind of look even after he’d apologized?
‘Yeah, that’s just how things go.’
It was natural for others to find it unsettling—that I wasn’t affected by the terrifying treasure that controlled people and stole Demon Power.
“Just… I find myself interesting too. And to you……”

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