Captain – Chapter 150 – Tell Him the Truth

“Alone? This is simply madness.”

Caine paced back and forth, his face dark with concern.

Beside him, Cecilia stood with her arms folded, her gaze following his movements: “If none of the people blockading the council hall saw them, then they must have left before the operation began, or deliberately concealed a secret passage. But whichever possibility it is, anxious pacing won’t solve anything.”

Just moments ago, Harriet had brought back news of their successful seizure of the council hall, but predictably, there was no sign of Roy or Old John in the old sailor’s study.

“I’ve already had Harriet send people to search, but if what you say is true, then any search in Yadris would inevitably be futile. She didn’t leave me even the slightest clue. Please tell me, Miss Joyce, what else can I do in this situation?”

At these words, the young man stopped and slowly turned to face the proprietress: “Perhaps you should have told me earlier, rather than attempting to mend the fold after the sheep are lost.”

Hearing the first mate’s slightly rapid breathing and his barbed words, the proprietress’s expression remained unchanged: “If I had informed you earlier, then what? Do you think you could have persuaded her, stopped her, or would you have had a big argument with her and parted on bad terms, ultimately affecting or even derailing her plan?”

“It’s useless, Mr. First Mate. Even if I could guess her current location, even if you could intercept her before she boards the Mermaid, it would all be meaningless.”

Caine remained silent for a long time, pressing his hand on the round wooden table beside him, and letting out a soft sigh.

He knew Cecilia was right. Given Roy’s strong-willed personality and her style of never wavering once she set a goal, whether discovering her plan beforehand or intercepting her at the last moment would only lead to arguments and disagreements, just as when they had been at odds before.

The first mate pulled out a wooden chair and sat down, his face finally showing signs of fatigue and dejection: “Then, what exactly should we do?”

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“Wait, wait patiently and quietly.”

The proprietress walked to the wine cabinet, took out a bottle of wine, then came to the table and gently placed it in front of Caine: “Wait for her to have a change of heart at the last moment, to tell us the exact time and location of the Mermaid’s arrival. And that will be the time for you to set sail.”

“A change of heart… will she really have one?”

Gently stroking the raised characters on the wine bottle, Caine murmured softly.

This was the first time since becoming a naval commander that he felt certain things had completely slipped from his control. It made him uneasy and powerless, exactly like the feeling he had many years ago when he watched helplessly as the hellish fire gradually consumed the entire manor.

“I believe she will. But even if she doesn’t, we still have a little helper, don’t we?”

The corner of Cecilia’s mouth turned up slightly, her beautiful face showing a rare hint of cunning.

Caine raised an eyebrow: “You mean… Alfie?”

The proprietress nodded slightly, but before she could continue, the hall curtain was roughly lifted, and Harriet, with a gloomy face, strode in quickly, approaching the two: “First Mate, we have a problem.”

“What?” Caine frowned instinctively.

“The imprisoned woman is gone. The room only contains a collapsed secret passage. At least for the time being, we cannot trace where the passage leads.”

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The woman Harriet referred to was, of course, the old sailor’s daughter, and now her quiet disappearance—what exactly did it mean?

Hearing this sudden bad news, Caine and Cecilia exchanged glances: “Was she rescued in advance?”

“No…”

The smile on the proprietress’s face had vanished when Harriet approached. Her tone was very heavy: “Perhaps worse.”

The sea was full of mad dog waves and whirlpools, and waterspouts connecting the sea surface to the horizon. Brilliant flashes of lightning followed the wind and water downward, thunder roaring like wild beasts, as if it were the boundless disaster recorded in the holy book, about to swallow all ships and islands.

At the center of this storm, a huge black shadow was sailing silently.

Fierce winds, torrential rain, huge waves, or whirlpools—these natural forces that could shake vessels and challenge even experienced captains seemed to have lost all their destructive power before that warship. They even became aids to its advance, allowing it to achieve an unimaginable speed.

The warship passed the edge of a waterspout, broke through an oncoming huge wave, and passed through a whirlpool without wavering. Finally, it approached land, approached that white shore.

A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the mermaid figurehead on the ship’s bow, as well as the elegant characters carved on its stern.

“Mermaid.”

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As if admiring a work of art, Roy squinted at the warship, her dark golden pupils rippling slightly, her face full of enchantment: “Finally… my treasure has arrived.”

“Then I’ll board first, Captain. After confirming everything, I’ll come back to report to you. But before that, I hope you have enough patience.”

The old sailor’s voice reached her ears, and the young woman nodded lightly, watching his aged figure disappear into the dark rain curtain, vanishing among the gaps between the nearby buildings.

“It’s a trap, Captain.”

Only after Old John’s figure was completely out of sight did the raven on the captain’s shoulder lower itself and coldly warn her.

“I know, good girl. I know it all.”

Roy smiled dismissively: “This old fellow’s acting skills are indeed not bad, befitting his former role as the most concealed and sharpest eye of the Auran Empire. But in attempting to deceive me, I think he has underestimated me too much.”

“However, I must say, without him, it would be very difficult for me to board the Mermaid. From this perspective, he’s not entirely useless. When I end this farce, I’ll choose a good place for him—an isolated island that might not see a ship pass by in ten years.”

The captain smiled coldly: “Think about it, Alfie, with his most beloved daughter, on a desolate island, either starving to death or giving his daughter a bullet before dying alone in regret and despair. Isn’t that the most hopeless punishment?”

“Well deserved! Well deserved!” the raven called with a slightly shrill voice.

“You know, Alfie, I’ve always been reasonable. I’ve given him a chance, but damn it, this old ungrateful dog is even more shameless than I am. So, he deserves what’s coming to him.”

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Roy muttered a few words, then looked at the quiet little creature and said softly: “Now, you should go, good girl. Before everything ends, make sure you’re not caught by anyone familiar.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Alfie’s small eyes flickered a few times, and just as she was about to flap her wings to fly away, the young woman grabbed her in her hand.

“You’re also an ungrateful little creature. Tell me honestly, once you leave, are you going straight back to Yadris to leak information?”

The raven blinked, but unusually, she wasn’t intimidated by Roy’s mischievous gaze. Instead, she pleaded softly: “Tell him the truth, Captain.”

Looking at the pitiful appearance of the little one, thinking of the first mate who might still be kept in the dark, busy preparing for tomorrow’s non-existent battle, the captain fell silent. She gazed at the warship she regarded as a treasure, her hands holding the raven gradually loosening.

“But that’s deception, isn’t it?”

Roy sighed softly, imitating the former military officer’s tone perfectly.

After a long while, the young woman gently tossed the raven into the air, and facing the cold raindrops, laughed heartily and freely, beautiful like a blooming rose.

“Damn it all, then go tell him, Alfie! Tell him the truth!”