The Pirate King's Daughter - Chapter 76

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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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Episode 76
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
I bolted forward screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Help! Someone help meeeee!”
They’d catch me anyway.
So I decided to summon every last person in the Royal Palace.
“Argh! Kies! Berto! Dilshard!”
Pudding, who’d hidden her form, shrieked alongside me without hesitation.
But why was she screaming for the others’ names instead of mine, her Contract User?
How insulting.
I ran desperately and finally spotted a guard, was about to cry out again in his direction—
“Help, hurk—!”
Some man grabbed me roughly, and a massive hand clamped over my mouth.
“You rotten bastard!”
But Pudding, who’d swooped in, immediately sprayed him with venom.
“Ggggh—!”
“Kyaaah!”
He choked back a groan and threw me to the ground.
“Please! Somebody help!”
The game was over.
The two guards I’d spotted earlier had already come running at the commotion.
“What on earth—!”
But my game was truly finished now. My own game, that is.
The guards looked behind me and bowed their heads, saying:
“We greet Your Majesty.”
Shit.
Did Pudding just attack the king?
What happens to me now?
If I assassinate the king in the middle of the Royal Palace… even giving up my one remaining life wouldn’t be enough to survive this.
“What’s happened?”
A flat, colorless voice sounded out.
“It appears… they were poisoned, Your Majesty…”
But from just those two sentences, I sensed my life had been spared—and I slowly turned my head.
Then the first thing to catch my eye in the darkness was golden hair that shimmered with its own light.
‘Is that… the king?’
Fair-skinned for someone from this kingdom, he was undoing his robe with a languid expression.
‘That’s—!’
A taut upper body, the head of a golden serpent piercing on his left chest, and there—a crimson Jewel.
It was unmistakably part of the treasure.
“So you were defeated by a woman like that?”
While I stared fixedly at another man’s chest, Azael, King of the Nedel Kingdom, questioned the man who’d gone pale from venom.
“The attack came from… someone else…”
The man barely holding on finally collapsed, dropping to one knee.
The man—more assassin than knight—took his leave with support from another assassin at Azael’s gesture.
“You’ve defeated my personal guard…”
The king’s gaze shifted to me.
“I sincerely apologize. I didn’t realize they were Your Majesty’s personal guard. I was attacked and counterattacked to escape.”
I readily admitted the facts and offered excuses in profusion.
It wouldn’t matter if I said it wasn’t my doing—they wouldn’t believe me anyway.
“I seem to have many guests tonight.”
Speaking as if bored, he leveled a blood-soaked blade at me.
I stared directly at him and swallowed hard.
“It is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty. I am Tatiana, and I have been staying in the Royal Palace by Your Majesty’s grace.”
“Tatiana?”
Azael, his brow slightly furrowed, let out a sigh as if now he understood.
“So you are the Pirate King.”
It grated on me at first, but the more I heard it, the more natural it became.
“That is correct.”
Yet even after I revealed my identity, the blade did not lower.
“Then why did you sneak into my palace?”
“Sleep eluded me, so I went for a walk and became lost, wandering in by chance.”
“Then why did you flee when you saw me?”
“Well…”
I glanced over Azael’s appearance.
Blood matted his hair, his face, his clothes, even his exposed chest.
“I was frightened…?”
Reasonably speaking, how could anyone not run from that sight?
He looked down at his own appearance with cold eyes, began to open his mouth again, then hesitated when he saw the guards standing behind me.
“Come with me.”
He delivered the worst possible verdict.
“Me…?”
“Yes.”
Azael turned and walked away as if there was no refusal on the table.
“Wait, just a moment!”
He turned back to look at me.
His emotionless expression seemed bored—hard to believe he’d just killed someone.
“May I ask your reason?”
“Presumptuous.”
His voice held no inflection and didn’t sound displeased, yet it somehow felt all the more precarious.
Following the king in the palace was probably safer than crossing him and then looking for a hole to escape through.
“Let’s go.”
I wept silently inside as I reluctantly moved my feet forward.
Azael passed through the Garden where I’d first encountered him and entered a magnificent palace that was clearly no ordinary structure.
And the destination was a Bedroom.
‘This lunatic isn’t a pervert, is he?’
Without thinking, I pulled my clothes tighter, and he glanced at me indifferently before heading straight for the sofa.
“Sit.”
I sat cautiously on the opposite end as Pudding, still in hiding, hovered around him in position to spray venom at a moment’s notice.
“I heard you use guns. Are you a mage?”
Unaware of this, Azael downed the Whiskey on the table in one gulp and asked.
“I am not a mage.”
“Then how did you attack?”
“That is…”
As I hesitated, he answered for me.
“It’s said that the Pirate King travels with a Divine Beast.”
Of course he knew.
Even Berto, who’d been a naval officer in an Empire with almost no pirates, knew this story.
“Pudding.”
Pudding, who’d flown to my side, revealed herself without hesitation.
“Interesting.”
He seemed momentarily curious, but even that interest faded quickly.
“Did you come seeking me to steal the Jewel?”
Azael’s gaze settled on my neck.
The Pendant I’d tucked inside my clothes had spilled out in the earlier chaos.
“It is the Divine Beast’s mission.”
Well, that much is true, at least.
“So you intend to rob my mother’s keepsake?”
This is looking increasingly like garbage.
“It is a dangerous object. It controls people. I remain unaffected because I’m bound by contract with the Divine Beast.”
For reasons unknown, this man also seems unaffected by the treasure’s influence.
But if he dies, it will pass to someone else, so it’s right that I take it.
“Controls…?”
His eyes, which had seemed indifferent to worldly matters, trembled ever so slightly.
“Are you saying my mother has been controlled by this all this time?”
“I cannot be certain, but Your Majesty seems unaffected.”
He simply had an abnormal disposition by nature—that much was clear; he wasn’t controlled by the treasure.
“How do you know?”
“You embedded the Jewel in your body, yet your actions don’t stem from obsession with it, do you? Those controlled by the treasure never removed it from their person.”
His eyes stopped entirely. And then—
“Hahaha!”
Azael burst into laughter. Quite loudly, and for quite a while.
Yet somehow his expression seemed sad to me.
“How amusing. All of it was for nothing but this one Jewel.”
He brought the bottle of strong Whiskey straight to his lips without bothering with a glass.
It was pitiful, but things seemed to be unfolding smoothly.
“Your Majesty is unaffected, but if it passes to someone else’s hands, they will come under the Jewel’s influence. Give it to me, and I will dispose of it.”
“Why am I unaffected?”
“I do not know.”
Leaning languidly against the sofa, he looked at me with slightly glazed eyes.
“Fine.”
“Thank you so—”
“However.”
Just as I was bowing my head, elated at the easier-than-expected success, Azael cut me off and added:
“I will give it to you if you continue to amuse me like this until you leave.”
What the hell is this shit?
For a moment I lost control of my expression and stared at him like he was insane, and his lips curved upward.
“What goes out must come back in.”
Was he asking me to perform like some court jester?
“I lack talent in making people laugh.”
“No, you have it. And you will need to have it. If you irritate me, I might kill you without meaning to.”
“You bastard, ugh—!”
I clamped my hand over Pudding’s mouth.
It was something I’d wanted to say all along, but I couldn’t afford to offend him if he’d kill me for it.
Azael looked at me and Pudding and chuckled—”Heh heh”—in a low voice.
The man who’d seemed utterly devoid of emotion until just moments ago was blooming, bit by bit.
“Among your crew, you have an Aura User and a mage, I’m told.”
“Yes.”
The navy had apparently made considerable effort to gather intelligence on me.
“What we’ve discussed today must not be revealed to anyone. Even an Aura User couldn’t stand against the kingdom’s military.”
Not that I was planning to tell anyone anyway.
Our combat crew could escape if they were alone, but they wouldn’t abandon Perian and me.
‘I just need to hold out two days.’
No matter how unusual this king was, his position was far too busy for me to encounter him again.
“Understood.”
His smile deepened.
“It’s grown late. I should take my leave now and let you rest well for the night.”
“Yes. For the first time in a while, I’ll sleep soundly.”
As I stood to leave, Azael spoke to the back of my head:
“Come to my chambers tomorrow morning for breakfast.”
Damn it.

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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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