North x Northwest

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“Are you crazy?”

“Why has it been so difficult to find you?”

“Get your hand off me!”

“I’m just trying to take a proper look at your face. To see if you’re really the Liloa I remember.”

“I told you to get your hand off me.”

“Do you know how long we had to chase after you like a bunch of dogs?”

“How filthy. If you felt like a dog, then does that mean the Regent put a leash around your neck after ordering you on your knees…”

Maxwell’s grip suddenly got stronger, so Lil could no longer continue her sentence and had to keep her mouth shut. The man’s flushed face then came in front of her nose.

“What do you know? You were born a daughter of a great nobleman and have lived your life in luxury. So, what do you know, when you didn’t even realise your own good fortune and chose to kick yourself out to run around as you please!”

“..!”

As Lil was slowly being strangled, her throat felt like it was about to burn. Her vision became increasingly blurry as well. She tried to fight it by blinking, but even her mind began drifting off and became hazy. At one point, all she knew was that Maxwell had released her throat forcefully.

“Seize her.”

The other men grabbed Lil’s wrists and used a rope to tie her hands behind her back. In her faint state of mind, Lil tried to resist, but it wasn’t easy due to the two people clinging to her. Even though her efforts seemed futile, she raised her head in an attempt to stand. At the same time, a black sack was placed over her head, immediately containing Lil in darkness…

***

The Devito Harbour was quite busy. The men of several merchant ships couldn’t rest even after midnight. Workers came and went, constantly carrying wooden cargo. Ed got off the coachman’s seat and pulled down the tent of the luggage compartment. Jericho, who was crouching between the wooden boxes, glanced up at him and they eventually made eye contact.

Ed then pointed to the dock with his chin.

“Take the box and walk across the plank to board the Bell Rock.”

“W-what? The Bell Rock?”

“There is no time. You can hear the details from your Captain.”

Jericho put the box away and faced Ed.

“The Captain?”

Ed, who was now looking around, answered without turning back to Jericho.

“Lil Schweiz. Your Captain.”

“Is he still alive?”

“Yes.”

“How is that even possible? He clearly had his stomach pierced… Was it you? Did you save his life? Because you’re a doctor? Is that what happened?!”

Fully emerging from the luggage compartment, Jericho grabbed Ed to nag him for an answer. Ed, however, simply removed Jericho’s hand and turned his back.

“As I said, hear it from your Captain when he arrives. It’s a pity that a skirmish ensued, but I won’t hold it against you.”

Joe came up next to Jericho and whispered something to him. Jericho then froze upon remembering how Ed had been removed from the Bell Rock. Ed, on the other hand, was surprised by the sudden anger that started to invade his reason, for he thought he had buried it long ago.

‘Jericho, Alain and Courant haven’t yet served the punishment that will always be insufficient even if they paid it with their lives… After all, I was never a generous person. But…’

As Ed slowly stroked his face, his fingertips smoothed out the scar on his forehead that started just above his brow. He pressed down his eyes and shook his head, making Jericho stammer.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, doctor. We…”

“To avoid suspicion, you must board pretending to move boxes. I would appreciate it if we could end this conversation now.”

Thankfully, Jericho stopped talking to him after that. Ed briefly considered if he was being petty and that he should at least greet them properly, but then decided to be open about his feelings. These unfamiliar concerns were ultimately caused by his awareness of Lil, but she never asked him to be courteous or generous.

‘After all, these men probably didn’t throw me into the sea with the intention of meeting me again and finding proper closure either…’

When Lil’s wagons arrived, Ed’s party had all boarded and were ready to set sail. Although the appearance of the ship had changed slightly, the Bell Rock’s structure remained unchanged, so Ed didn’t need to board and command it. In addition, the sailors were the ones who were the most familiar with this ship anyway.

Leaning against a stake, Ed watched as Alain got off the wagon. The way Alain jumped from the coachman’s seat and led the crew still in the cargo hold to disguise themselves as labourers carrying boxes was very natural. Moreover, since there were already a lot of people around the Bell Rock, it seemed like Alain had no trouble finding it.

However, no matter how long Ed waited, Lil was nowhere to be seen. Since she wasn’t in the coachman’s seat, he thought she must be in the hold. But still, she didn’t show up even after all the boxes and crew had been removed from the hold.

Ed agonised for a moment. While hesitating, the Bell Rock’s square sail came flapping down and the sound of sailors winding the mast rope could be heard overhead.

Ed approached Alain, who was guiding the sailors to the ship. When the latter saw Ed, his gaze wandered, unable to find an appropriate place to rest his eyes. Ed guessed that Alain was embarrassed for a similar reason as Jericho.

‘After all, who wouldn’t be embarrassed when the person he killed with his own hands appears before him again?’

“What about the Captain?”

“D-doctor…”

“…”

Alain looked like he was about to apologise, but Ed shook his head after a bit of silence.

‘Although I was innocent at the time, I never actually was a navy deserter and eventually appeared in front of the Bell Rock with my fleet. It brought about a different ending than I intended, and although I’m correcting the faults from my end now, I have no intention of explaining all that to Alain. There’s no time to individually examine the entanglements of how things had been or decide between what’s right and what’s wrong. Moreover, and more crucially, I’m not a compassionate enough person to be able to have a friendly conversation with the person who threw me into the sea to die. Benevolence is a word that only fits Liloa. In that regard, I still can’t believe how she forgave Sagastar like that. Her generosity is so vast that it’s impossible to understand…’

It became terribly clear to Ed that he was too petty to ever catch up with her.

“We did a terrible thing to you. I don’t know how you survived, but I’m so glad you did. And you’re even helping us this much…”

“What about the Captain?”

Alain glanced at the alley they had exited from.

“He stayed behind. He said he needed to check if something had caught up.”

“Is he suspecting the prison guards?”contemporary romance

“No, that wasn’t it. But he just wanted to make sure.”

“This wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What can I say, that guy is so meticulous…”

Alain hesitatingly tried to pass by Ed. But Ed found the whole situation rather strange and grabbed Alain’s shoulder. Feeling that Alain kept avoiding his gaze, Ed gripped the old man’s shoulder more forcefully.

“That’s not what the Captain told me he would do, so what do you mean when you said he stayed behind to check?”

‘Liloa wouldn’t tolerate even the smallest flaw in her plans. Not just today, but in all of her missions. As a result, even for this one, we planned not only for possible changes in our execution but also for what to do if our plan fails. However, there was never an option for her to vanish without leaving a signal.’

“I’m sure about that! That’s what he told me. He was going to check the perimeter. So, he got off the wagon to do that. He can be here any minute from now.”

“But did he leave a message for me?”

“He told me that you should watch the port until the end. Until the Bell Rock safely leaves the coastal waters.”

After Alain twisted his shoulder and slipped out of Ed’s hand, Ed went to the side of the wagons and lingered.

‘All luggage compartments are empty… There are no suspicious marks on it. No bullet holes or knife sheaths… One thing Liloa could definitely have said is for me to watch the Bell Rock until it disappears over the horizon… Yes, because that was actually part of the final stage of our plan. But I can’t help but feel anxious…’

Ed kept looking back and forth between the dock where the Bell Rock was anchored and the alley where Lil was expected to appear…

The Bell Rock raised its anchor. The dull sound of heavy chains being wound up echoed through the port. Still, there was no sign of Lil showing up. There wasn’t even the sound of horse hooves getting closer. Ed was concentrating all his attention on her possible presence in the alley, but when he felt a hand tapping his shoulder, he turned around in surprise…

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