Captain – Chapter 103 – Would You Regret It?

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The captain was playing with fire, the captain was playing with fire again, but this time no one would burst through the door, startling the first mate away like he’d been electrocuted.

Feeling the warm, delicate body pressed against his back, no matter how inexperienced Caine was with matters between men and women, his body gradually grew hot. He turned his head expressionlessly, grabbed the captain’s wrist, and pinned this maliciously teasing little wildcat to the soft bed.

“Captain, do you really think I wouldn’t dare?”

Looking at the young man who was acting contrary to his usual self, the captain immediately changed her malicious demeanor, putting on the appearance of a pitiful young girl being pressured by a noble young master. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and crystalline moisture welled up in her dark golden eyes.

She turned her head slightly away, speaking in a quivering voice that could break one’s heart: “What would the young master of the Howard family not dare to do? It’s just that this really goes against a gentleman’s etiquette…”

At this point, the captain paused, her tone suddenly becoming much more sorrowful: “Oh, right, you’re a pirate now. Neither imperial laws nor gentlemanly etiquette can restrain you anymore. But, but could you really bear to…”

“Bear to commit such a violent act against a defenseless, fragile young woman like me? If you do, what choice do I have but to accept it unwillingly?”

What the captain said was undoubtedly false. No one would consider Captain Roy a helpless, fragile young woman. If anyone did, they would have already paid a terrible price for their blindness.

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However, although the captain was speaking nothing but falsehoods, when paired with that pitiable expression on her exquisite face, along with her nearly flawless acting, it somehow made the first mate—who knew this was a deception—feel inexplicably guilty and reluctant.

Sighing deeply, Caine released the captain’s cool wrist. He took off his outer garment and placed it on the coat rack beside the bed. Then he pushed Roy—who was grinning without any remorse for her malicious behavior—to the other side of the bed, before turning over and getting under the covers, showing no intention of removing his trousers.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to sleep in trousers?” Roy, pillowing her head on her hands, looked at the tiny gemstones embedded in the canopy. In the candlelight, those colorful gems emitted a faint glow, like a brilliant starry sky.

“No.” Caine lay with his back to the young woman, impatiently responding with just two words, clearly still angry or, to put it another way, immersed in a strangely awkward atmosphere.

“Oh, are you…”

Seeing that the captain seemed to want to tease him again, the first mate wearily interrupted her: “Stop asking so many questions. Didn’t you say we have important business to attend to tomorrow? Why aren’t you going to sleep earlier?”

“No, I was going to ask, Caine, have you forgotten something important?”

“What?” Caine was silent for a moment, then turned around to look at the young woman who was slightly tilting her face toward him.

“You forgot to blow out the candles,” the captain said with a serious expression.

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The first mate pursed his lips, thinking that all the important matters in the captain’s mouth were indeed trivial details in others’ eyes. Her comment jolted him out of the previous atmosphere, and he asked with a bitter smile: “Why don’t you go blow them out?”

“Isn’t it a natural law that whoever gets into bed last blows out the light?”

“Alright, alright, I got it.”

After extinguishing the candles, the room fell into peaceful darkness, with only an occasional star’s light entering through the curtains when lifted by the wind.

Caine returned to the bed, looking at the young woman who was slightly squinting, her breathing soft and steady, as if she might fall asleep at any moment. He smiled somewhat wistfully.

The captain was just like this—always full of energy when facing major issues, with neither storm nor pain able to defeat her. But in a comfortable environment with nothing to do, she would be easily defeated by sleepiness, able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime.

Moreover, in his rare recent observations, Caine discovered that Roy’s sleeping posture seemed to have changed. She no longer curled up tightly as when they first met, when the slightest noise could wake her. Instead, she gradually relaxed, and though still vigilant, at least now had somewhat of the appearance a young woman her age should have.

This was perhaps a good thing.

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Caine gently closed his eyes, thinking thus. What he didn’t know was that only when he was by her side would Roy relax, rather than remaining vigilant like a fierce beast ready to bare its fangs at anyone who approached.

In her words, with an equally vigilant lion on guard, she could perhaps be a little lazy.

The cool night breeze occasionally brushed past the curtains hanging at the bedside, falling on their faces. In this comfortable environment, neither spoke again, allowing heavy drowsiness and fatigue to take over.

Just when Caine thought this somewhat absurd yet warm night would pass like this, the captain, who should have already fallen into dreamland, suddenly spoke, pulling him back from hazy drowsiness to reality.

“Caine, are you asleep?” The captain’s voice had no fluctuation, her emotions undetectable.

“Not yet. What is it?”

“I’ve been thinking, and I feel it’s quite unfair to you that I’ve been keeping certain things from you.” Before long, the young woman’s voice sounded again, this time with more gravity in her words.

Caine was silent for a moment, trying to soften his voice: “Everyone has their secrets. If you don’t want to tell me, you can wait. It’s not too late to tell me when you feel it’s appropriate.”

“No, I think it’s already a bit late.”

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The starlight, broken into tiny fragments by the violet patterns on the curtains, fell on the young woman’s face, outlining her smile of indeterminate emotion: “Because I never expected that you would truly… fall in love with me.”

The topic of love and affection, after many probing conversations between the two—some joking, some serious—was no longer hidden behind a thin veil, but could be brought into the sunlight without changing expression.

The captain never cared about such things and wouldn’t feel awkward because of them. And the first mate, who was initially quite shy, had also seen into his heart after facing the ghost-like Victoria and the possibility of life-and-death separation, no longer considering such matters something to be embarrassed about.

Caine silently listened to the captain’s words, hearing a seriousness that had never been there before. He gazed at that exquisite face in the starlight, quietly waiting for the young woman to continue.

“Great commander of the Auran Navy, dear first mate, Caine…”

Roy softly murmured about the young man’s past and present, calling his name, then turned her face to look into those sea-blue eyes, as if returning to the moment they first met, when she gazed into those eyes.

“If I told you… that I was once a man, and in the days to come, might possibly turn back into my original self, would you regret…”

“Having once loved me so deeply?”