The Slave Is Too Handsome - Chapter 28

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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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The slave is far too handsome!
028.
‘Is she insane?’
Brick, running through the Cabin Corridor like a thoughtless child, glanced back over his shoulder. Eloise was stumbling after him at a sluggish pace.
‘What on earth for?!’
An hour earlier, Brick had received a stern warning from Lucian.
He had defended the woman by pointing out how well Eloise had looked after him, but it was not something Brick wanted to hear.
The captain’s conclusion was simple: he would send the woman back by any means once they reached the next port of call. Until then, Lucian had insisted he behave himself.
‘Send her back, you say? Can he really do that?’
Brick swallowed the words he wished to speak.
In any case, his plan to treat Eloise as invisible—as the captain desired—quickly fell apart. The woman was remarkably persistent.
“Talk to me!”
Why should I?!
Brick eventually fled outside to shake her off.
The chase continued even on the Deck.
“Stop following me!”
They found themselves at a standoff near the bow, where waves were crashing down.
Lucian’s face twisted as he worked alongside the crew to furl the sails.
He saw a swaying blonde figure on the Deck. The moment he glimpsed the enormous wave surging toward it—toward Eloise—his body moved before his mind.
“Eloise!”
Understanding the danger, Eloise spun and bolted inward. The slick deck sent her staggering.
“Ugh.”
Unable to watch any longer, Brick seized Eloise’s arm and shoved her bodily inside. Eloise’s eyes went wide in shock.
“Hnngh!”
Eloise tumbled across the Deck, only to be caught up in Lucian’s arms. His other hand gripped the rigging rope with all his strength.
……!
Eloise’s face drained of color. Her insufficiently filled stomach churned, and the world spun.
“Ugh.”
Bile rose in her throat, and Eloise clapped her hand over her mouth in haste.
Lucian recognized the signs immediately. She had been picking at her food since morning, but now she appeared to be suffering from seasickness.
Meanwhile, the storm was abating. The ship still swayed gently, but the waves were settling as if they had never been turbulent at all.
“What a mess.”
Brick, drenched to the bone, walked toward the pair.
***
“Drink this.”
Lucian handed a warm cup of tea to Eloise, who was draped in a large Towel.
“It’s good for seasickness.”
Eloise accepted the cup and sipped the tea. They had settled in the Makeshift Dining Hall to escape the rain.
A sharp gaze pressed against Brick. Having stripped off his shirt to dry, he was rubbing his head with a dry cloth when he dropped into a nearby seat. His body was covered in scars.
“True to form for a noble lady—causing trouble for everyone.”
“Brick.”
Lucian shot him a warning look, but Brick paid no mind.
“Am I wrong? In this storm, we nearly lost both the captain and the first mate. Because of one woman!”
Eloise sat quietly, listening to his words. He was not wrong. She had known how to manage servants at the Separate Residence, but this was her first time aboard a ship.
‘I own several Merchant Companies, yet I knew so little. Perhaps boarding this ship was the right choice after all.’
Lucian, unaware of such thoughts, watched Eloise’s reaction carefully.
“Eloise, Brick doesn’t truly mean—”
“There’s no hidden meaning. This is exactly what I think!”
Brick disliked the way Lucian fussed over Eloise constantly. When he saw the woman hanging her head, he let out a hollow laugh.
Crying? This is why I hate nobles—weak and pathetic.
“I’ll earn my keep.”
Eloise straightened her back and lifted her chin, meeting Brick’s gaze directly.
The clarity in her eyes made Brick flinch.
“I will.”
“Yo—, Eloise.”
“Don’t speak of it as charity when it’s only a given!”
Brick fired back her words without hesitation.
Lucian exhaled a low sigh and ran his hand through his hair.
“If you can’t earn your keep, I’ll throw you overboard myself.”
“Brick, please!”
Brick tossed the cloth to the floor and rose from his seat.
“I’ll demand a very high price for you. After all, you’re a lady of the La Croix Duchy Family, and they’ll surely pay well to—ugh!”
Lucian shot to his feet and struck Brick across the back, then shoved him outside.
Then, his face heavy with exhaustion, he returned and sat across from his liege lord—no, Eloise.
‘Liege lord, of all things. How foolish of me.’
The speech patterns from his days at the Duchy Residence still clung to his tongue.
Eloise carefully set her empty cup down on the table.
“You weren’t serious about earning your keep, were you?”
“I was. I meant it.”
“Eloise, why are you too—”
Lucian’s words trailed off. Eloise’s eyes, fixed on something distant, shone with determination. He had to accept that he could not break this strange lady’s stubbornness.
***
After the storm passed, clear skies persisted as if nothing had ever happened.
“Good morning!”
Eloise became busy as well. From morning onward, she was poking about everywhere.
“Eek!”
The crew, meanwhile, fumbled in the presence of the intruder. Since none of them knew how to treat a noblewoman, many simply avoided her when she appeared.
Lucian followed in Eloise’s wake like a shadow. Now he understood something of Mary’s suffering.
“Truly, the lord has become a pet to the noble lady.”
Brick, observing the scene, clicked his tongue and walked away.
***
Eloise’s strategy departed from Lucian’s expectations.
She approached the crew first to speak with them—behavior altogether unlike a proud noblewoman, the last thing Lucian would have anticipated from her.
“Baron Rodwell defaulted on his debts to you?”
“Yes, and unfortunately the captain—I mean the captain was away at the time……”
Eloise approached a crew member tearing his hair out over an Accounting Ledger and heard an unexpected story.
It appeared that during Lucian’s absence, they had failed to collect payment from a transaction.
“I’ve faced something similar, and there’s a way to handle it that works well.”
When Eloise offered solutions, the crew members’ eyes lit up.
“If you still don’t get paid, mention my name. I’ll settle it.”
“Th—, thank you so much!”
From that point onward, the crew gradually warmed to Eloise.
She listened to their grievances and taught them effective Negotiation Techniques.
Soon the crew seemed to live only for the moments they could speak with Eloise.
All except Brick.
***
“Wow, how fascinating.”
Eloise’s efforts bore fruit. Before long, she gained entry to the Wheelhouse. The young Helmsman explained the ship’s workings to her in detail.
“Would you like to try your hand at the wheel?”
“Yes, I would.”
Eloise placed her hands on the wheel and gazed forward.
Beyond the window, at the bow, she could see Lucian in conversation with his crewmates. Whatever he was saying, they laughed openly and freely.
‘He’s never shown me a smile like that.’
Now that she thought of it, the crew called him captain and leader with easy familiarity. Their connection seemed less like business and more like family. All of them worked together to grow the company.
Lucian truly was a man made for the sea, living up to his name.
Eloise’s expression darkened suddenly.
‘Is it right to trample on another’s freedom in pursuit of my own?’
What was she thinking? Eloise was startled by her own unconscious thoughts.
‘I can’t help being selfish. I need Lucian.’
“Um, miss.”
“Yes?”
“Are you perhaps… the captain’s betrothed?”
“What?”
The young Helmsman scratched his cheek shyly and mumbled on.
“Well, they said you came chasing after the captain, who’s never cared for women, so I thought you two must share something deeper than usual.”
A noblewoman and a common ship’s captain burning with passion. An impassable divide of station. A sorrowful parting. A lover’s escape.
Eloise could see exactly what was playing out in the young Helmsman’s mind.
“We’re not betrothed, but something far deeper than that, I’d say.”
“Pardon?”
Eloise smiled enigmatically. The Helmsman wanted to ask what she meant, but a timely interruption arrived.
“Eloise, are you busy?”
Lucian entered the Wheelhouse with a bright smile.
Hours later.
“Done.”
Eloise stretched after finishing the organization of Documents. Lucian reviewed what she had arranged.
The two sat across from each other at a table in the Makeshift Dining Hall, absorbed in their joint work.
It was a matter of filling in the gaps left by Lucian’s absence.
“This quickly? How impressive. Truly, if it were you, Eloise, you would also excel at managing a household……”
Lucian caught himself too late. He had let slip the very topic he had been careful to avoid.
Fortunately, Eloise was asleep, sprawled across the table. Days of excessive exertion had caught up with her.
Lucian watched her for a moment, then draped a Blanket over her shoulders. Her face, soft and open, was fully visible.
He brushed the strands of hair clinging to her cheek back behind her ear.
‘She’s truly a strange woman.’
Lucian smiled faintly without thinking. Over these past days, Eloise seemed to have adapted perfectly to life aboard the ship.
Her clothes, which had looked absurd at first, her hair tied up high in a careless knot because she found it troublesome, even her makeup-free face—all of it seemed to shine with a strange radiance.
‘Eloise can achieve her dreams even without me.’
When his thoughts reached that point, an odd expression crossed his face, and he rose to leave.
Knock-knock.
The dull sound of knuckles on wood jolted Eloise awake. She blinked and looked around—the dining hall was empty. Through the window, the sunset was fading.
“Hey, talk to me for a moment.”
Brick stood in the doorway, his expression cold. When Eloise smiled brightly in agreement, he scowled.
She had been waiting for this moment. For Brick to approach her first.

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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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