Chapter 75 - 5

Alagina 75: 5.

Alagina Seeing the showy behemoth in the distance, it wasn’t just the passengers on board who were panicking; the Captain, clutching his telescope on the bridge, was the most panicked of them all.

As the Captain of a passenger cruise ship, he was responsible to the Nali Exploration Company above and to the safety of the few hundred passengers on board below.

Any damage to the ship or passengers would be more than he could handle.

And the Four Great Pirates were among the most unreasonable existences in the great oceans, with even the governments having little to no way of dealing with them, let alone this cruise ship that was not equipped with heavy weaponry.

“It’s the Iceberg Queen, those crazy women should be appearing in the Northern Ocean by Schwali, how could they suddenly show up in the Southern Ocean?”

The Chief Officer beside him didn’t have a telescope and could only frown, placing his hands in front of his eyes to try to see the massive ship that was approaching, trying to improve his vision through this method.

“Captain, they are signaling with flags…they want to board!

What do we do, Captain?”

The Captain opened his mouth and then put down his telescope, grinding his teeth before saying,

“Tell the engine room to slow down the engine’s speed, we’ll let them aboard.”

“But what if they come to rob us?”

“What else can we do?

Either we don’t let them on the ship and get our cruise ship immediately blown open by their cannons and we all fall into the sea and become fish food, or we take a gamble that they are not boarding to rob us!

I’ve heard that they only rob Schwali ships, and even if we’re really out of luck, they take our money, at least we can keep our lives and return to Saint Nali.

Hurry up and give the order, don’t delay!”

“Yes!”

After hearing what the Captain said, the Chief Officer hurriedly ran out from the bridge to inform the engine room below.

Not long after, the whole ship slowed down, and the distant deep green ship gradually moved parallel to it.

Chains wound around the railings on the deck of the SS Lauren, linking the two ships together.

“All passengers, please pay attention, the cruise ship is now under an emergency restriction.

All passengers, please immediately return to your own rooms, do not move around aimlessly!

Follow the Captain’s command and immediately return to your rooms!”

Following the Captain’s ship-wide announcement, passengers on the deck and in the corridors all returned to their rooms, and suddenly the entire yacht became extremely quiet, with only the friction from the proximity of the massive ship next door rumbling away.

“Captain, they’ve boarded!”

Looking down the chains linking the cruise ship, numerous tall and stout long-haired women leaped onto the deck of the SS Lauren, causing a clanging and thumping sound.

Once aboard, they did not move around aimlessly, but stood in neat rows on the deck.

Among them, a fat woman dressed as a pirate first mate stepped onto the deck and scanned the area before finally shouting towards the ship,

“Captain, all clear!”

After that shout, a woman from the edge of the Iceberg Queen’s deck leaped down silently onto the deck.

This woman was quite tall, approximately one meter ninety, with snow-pale blond hair flowing from beneath a pure black Captain’s hat.

Unlike the other pirates, whether plump or thin, she had an evenly proportioned figure, wearing a pure black leather women’s coat, with a face that was strikingly handsome and refined, more akin to an elegant and handsome Duke rather than a traditional concept of a female.

However, her gaze was cool and her expressionless countenance instantly gave one the feeling of being transported to the furthest and coldest reaches of the Northern Realm.

In fact, these pirates indeed came from the Northern Realm, a continent very close to the Western Continent.

Before the Age of Discovery, the Northern Realm had always been considered part of the Western Continent.

The countries there frequently interacted with the Western Continent, more precisely with Schwali, as Schwali was the nation closest to the Northern Realm within the Western Continent.

Among the countries of the Northern Realm, Sardinia Female Country was recognized as the most powerful and famous one.

This nation was peculiar in that all females were born taller and stronger than males, leading to a cultural tradition where women were revered.

Of course, women in that region also shouldered more obligations.

It is worth mentioning that the males of that region were renowned for their delicate beauty and grace, their frail bodies and fair skin, profoundly conservative and value chastity.

And for some unknown reason, this quality reached the Nobles of Schwali, immediately triggering their insatiable desire.

With demand comes supply.

Unexpectedly, the Slave Capture Team of Schwali dared to venture into the Sardinia Female Country to capture local males, causing all the women of the Female Country to be filled with national outrage.

Their cultural instinct was for females to protect males.

To have their country’s men humiliated was a national disgrace.

Consequently, they became adversaries of Schwali in all avenues—political, military, and scholarly—leaving the Schwali Official unable to explain, as they were well aware of the individuals who craved such things…

The crew of the Iceberg Queen all hail from the Sardinia Female Country, and even though they are officially wanted by the authority of their own country, they only rob Schwali’s ships.

It’s a situation of “you issue your warrants, and I’ll do my robbery, without interfering with each other.”

And leading this iron-blooded maritime vessel is Captain Alagina, known as the Iceberg Queen.

She’s worth a bounty of seven and a half million Narliou, placing her among the “Four Great Pirates” alongside the other three who also have the same bounty on their heads.

Seeing the stunningly beautiful female pirate, Alagina, scan them with her icy gaze, cold sweat spontaneously trickled down the foreheads of the captain and chief officer of the SS Lauren.

They felt as though they were under immense pressure, but after a second or two, the captain still managed to ask with some effort,

“We’re not sure why Captain Alagina has stopped us.

We are a passenger liner under the Nali Exploration Company, simply carrying passengers between the South Continent and the Western Continent.

There are no valuable goods aboard…”

“Not…

robbing you.”

Alagina’s expression did not change, and she spoke in somewhat awkward Nali Language, while the plump female first mate glanced at the extremely young male crew member behind her, and couldn’t help but crack a slight smile.

However, she had business to attend to, so she spoke up for the captain,

“Our ship has been stolen from.

We are in pursuit of the thief.”

“Theft?”

The captain and the chief officer exchanged glances, then swept their eyes over the boundless ocean surrounding them, momentarily at a loss for words.

It’s not like you’re on the streets of Saint Nali where you could just catch a thief around the corner – this is the Southern Ocean, the second largest ocean in the world!

With not a hair in sight, why are you coming to us instead of searching your own ship for the thief?

“Could you be more specific?”

With the gun in the other party’s hands, the captain’s tone remained quite friendly and gentle.

The pirate first mate threw a coquettish look at the crew member behind her, and her greasy, chubby face induced a pale retreat from the crew member into the captain’s room.

She laughed it off nonchalantly and continued,

“The person jumped into the sea and swam towards your direction.

We have been chasing for quite some time, and only saw your ship in this direction.

The stolen item is quite valuable, so we would like to inspect your passengers for our treasure.

If there’s nothing, we’ll leave right away.”

“Wait, are you saying your ship chased a living thief at full speed on the sea and never caught up?”

The chief officer of the SS Lauren struggled to keep a straight face, as though hearing an incredibly amusing joke, and barely managed to pull the muscles of his face down with his finger to produce an expression uglier than crying.

If he had laughed, he was sure his head would’ve blown open with a big hole, he assured himself.

But once this remark came out, an awkward silence immediately fell over the scene until the first mate realized the others’ displeasure and seemed to offer an explanation,

“It could’ve been Magic Items or some mechanical device!

I’ve heard there are many such new things at the Saint Nali Royal Research Institute…”

The captain also coughed, turning to look at the dense crowd of armed pirates behind Alagina.

Those uncivilized women were eyeing the ship’s construction, and with the firearms and weapons in hand, they seemed capable of plowing through the tourists’ heads several times over.

He nodded and addressed the icy Captain Alagina,

“I will instruct the crew to comply with your search, but you must ensure that neither the passengers nor the ship suffers any damage.”

Alagina nodded, her cold demeanor unchanged, and added,

“Search…

whether we find it or not, we will leave.”

It seemed she had lost something very important.