Captain – Chapter 163 – Hearts and Minds

The gunshot rang like an alarm bell, striking heavily in the girl’s heart.

The fog and haziness in her eyes instantly dispersed. Her body tensed immediately, but she made no movement, knowing that having lost the initiative, she could never dodge Victor’s fatal shot.

Although Roy had seen that damned devil, although the power taken from her was miraculously flowing back into her body, just as Cassius and the crew members thought, this war was over—ending with a bullet through her heart.

If that shot had truly been aimed at her.

A brilliant flash ignited briefly on the main mast, the deadly lead bullet cutting through wind and rain with a sharp whistling sound before disappearing into unnamed darkness.

“Puff.”

The sound was like parchment being pierced.

The sniper who had been kneeling on the crow’s nest of the stern mast, aiming his gun at Roy’s head and about to pull the trigger to end everything, trembled all over. The musket he tightly gripped slowly slipped away, falling from the high platform all the way to the deck with a dull thud.

Without struggle or screams, the sniper collapsed sideways on the observation platform, never to make another sound.

That shot, originally meant to nail the Golden-Eyed Devil, which had penetrated fierce wind and rain with astonishing precision, had cleanly shattered the sniper’s heart.

In just two or three seconds, before anyone could react, another gunshot echoed above the Mermaid.

Another sniper who had just fired and was reaching for another musket beside him paused, then fell backward, crashing heavily onto the hard deck.

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Only then did the bewildered pirates suddenly awaken, letting out angry and terrified roars.

“Traitor! There’s a traitor!”

“Victor has betrayed us!”

Watching the increasingly chaotic crew members, Fern shouted angrily: “Calm down, all of you calm down! Send ten men to deal with him, the rest…”

Before the Squad Captain could finish his command, powerful footsteps suddenly rang out, rapidly approaching him. When he turned to look, the girl, fierce as a tiger, was already at his side.

Roy leaped high, bringing her blade down toward his face.

Neither the crew nor Fern himself had consciously considered that the girl might have reached her limit, so they hadn’t specifically monitored her movements. By the time the Squad Captain reacted, he could only raise his blade in defense.

And so the situation suddenly reversed.

“Clang!”

A crisp sound of collision rang out as an unexpectedly enormous force transmitted through the blade’s back, nearly dislocating Fern’s wrist. This ferocious man roared as he retreated, crashing into more than a dozen pirates and sending them tumbling, making the already confused crowd even more chaotic.

Having barely regained his footing, Fern had no time to catch his breath or think before looking up to see those indifferent golden eyes, followed immediately by a flash of bright steel.

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The curved blade in his hand was sent flying far away. Fern’s right arm now bore a gash that exposed bone, with blood gushing out like a fountain. The intense pain made even this fierce man howl in agony.

Yet even in such circumstances, the Squad Captain didn’t retreat a single step, knowing that retreat meant death!

Fern roared like a beast, spreading his arms and lunging fiercely toward the girl before him, intending to use his physique and strength to crush every bone in her body.

Seeing this, Roy’s lips curled into a cold smile.

Instead of retreating, she advanced directly into the giant’s embrace, driving her bright silver blade into his abdomen, then quickly using both arms to block his encircling limbs.

Fern hadn’t expected the girl to make such a choice; his original intention was merely to force her back, then regroup with the cover of his crew members.

Only when he felt the coolness in his abdomen and the excruciating pain did he understand how decisive the girl before him truly was, and why the Golden-Eyed Devil had such terrifying intimidation power.

But it was all too late.

Feeling the weakness brought by his gushing blood, Fern’s eyes showed no fear of approaching death. This brutal man who had killed countless people and viewed life and death as meaningless tightened his arms forcefully, hoping to take this legendary pirate with him before departing the world.

Compared to the giant’s arms, Roy’s pale forearms exposed beyond her sleeves looked like two dry twigs that would snap in half with the slightest pressure.

Yet these seemingly fragile forearms withstood Fern’s dying explosion of strength. No matter how much he roared or exerted himself, his arms couldn’t close even a fraction of an inch.

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This scene shocked all the crew members. Absurdity and fear slowly crept across their faces. From Fern’s gradually weakening roar until his final silence, when he collapsed like an ancient stone statue, no one dared to step forward.

The pirates watched like they’d seen a ghost as the girl pulled her curved blade from the corpse and straightened up. They couldn’t understand how she, who had clearly been exhausted earlier, could still possess such terrifying strength and skill, ending the Squad Captain’s life in just a few exchanges.

At this point, Roy’s objective seemed accomplished.

Wherever her gaze fell, pirates retreated in panic, backing away until they stood before the ashen-faced important figures, only stopping when Cassius angrily barked at them.

“Bunch of fools! You’re scared already?”

Forcefully pushing through the crowd, Cassius stepped forward with a grim expression, gazing at the smiling Roy from afar with an icy, sinister tone: “Captain, you haven’t won yet.”

“Is that so? But it seems your men no longer dare to fight me. As for you, Cassius… before pretending to be tough, could you stop your hands from shaking? That’s always been your old problem.” The girl lifted her chin slightly, maliciously exposing the young man’s facade.

Taking a deep breath, Cassius suppressed the fear in his heart and said coldly: “I admit, I am indeed putting on a brave front. But aren’t you the same? I’m trembling because I fear you. Yes, everyone on this ship fears you—there’s no point hiding that. But what about you?”

“After killing more than twenty of our brothers and fighting Fern, Captain, how much strength do you have left? How many more people can you kill?”

Faced with Cassius’s questioning, Roy narrowed her eyes slightly, not bothering to refute.

“In the end, you’re just one person alone. Of course, our dear marksman still has three muskets and three bullets, but that’s far from enough, because we still have more than seventy people, and Captain Richi hasn’t even made his move yet. So, what do you have to win with?”

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Hearing the First Mate’s words, the pirates exchanged glances. The fear in their hearts diminished considerably, and some even boldly stepped forward, tightly gripping their gleaming curved blades.

“You have no chance of winning, Captain Roy. You’ve lost the hearts of the people, and on this isolated island that is the Mermaid, whoever wins the hearts wins everything.”

Hearing the young man’s hoarse, somewhat hysterical recitation, Roy shrugged: “Cassius, you may not know this, but I have a new First Mate.”

Cassius frowned slightly, not understanding the significance of the girl’s words at this moment.

“I told him that once I returned to the Mermaid, someone would surely stand with me. And the facts prove I was right—Victor chose me, didn’t he?”

Knowing this was a rebuttal to his discourse on hearts and minds, the young man sneered: “Just one, just one person who’s lost his mind. Captain, if you believe you haven’t lost the hearts of the people, then tell me, why did your loyal dog betray you, and where are your people now?”

As if in response to the First Mate’s challenge, the wooden hatch not far behind the girl suddenly shook, then was pushed open forcefully.

Turning her head, watching the old man who struggled up to the deck and limped to her side, Roy’s eyebrows rose high, showing a rare expression of surprise.

And seeing that old man, the mocking smile on Cassius’s face gradually froze. His facial muscles twitched unnaturally, and his voice seemed squeezed through his teeth.

“How can you be here… Old John!”