Captain – Chapter 178 – Undressing

“Stop shouting. Even if you beat a drum next to her ear right now, she wouldn’t respond.”

A displeased voice suddenly came from the darkness beside the bed. Only now did the First Mate realize that besides him and the Captain, someone else was present in the captain’s quarters.

Hearing that familiar, slightly mocking tone, Caine turned to see the ship’s doctor sitting in a wooden chair with his arms crossed, looking at him with irritation all over his face.

Anderson’s dark golden eyes showed heavy fatigue, evidently having just been awakened by his urgent call, and now quite angry.

Before Caine could inquire about the situation, the doctor yawned and fired complaints like a machine gun: “I’m telling you, even if you two were blinded by love and had to get intimate in such heavy rain, couldn’t you at least pay attention to each other’s physical condition? I thought she was still full of vigor, but when I came in, I almost saw a dead cat.”

“Also, if you need medical treatment, please tell me earlier. Don’t wait until I’m asleep, then send someone to bang on my door and drag me roughly from my bed. The young master’s sleep schedule is very regular, and if you disrupt it…”

Seeing the First Mate with his head slightly lowered and a guilty expression, the doctor’s voice gradually quieted, his brows furrowing even more: “Don’t tell me you didn’t know how badly she was injured.”

“I thought…”

“All right, all right, say no more. I can tell what happened from your expression.”

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Anderson sighed deeply, patting his somewhat disheveled silk pajamas—he had been brought over in such a hurry he hadn’t even had time to dress properly: “She has a total of twenty-three knife wounds, one gunshot wound, and I couldn’t even be bothered to count the bruises and scrapes. Fortunately, it seems the bullet didn’t hit directly, just grazed her skin.”

“By the time I arrived, she had already passed out from blood loss. It’s strange—logically, with so much blood loss, she should have been in critical condition long ago, yet she’s only unconscious, without any real danger to her life.”

The ship’s doctor pinched his chin, looking at Roy’s pale face, his gaze as cold as if dissecting an unfamiliar creature. When focused on medicine, this frivolous young master seemed to become a completely different person, his mind filled only with various medical theories and experiments.

“Like some kind of monster.”

This was Anderson’s final conclusion. He shrugged, pushed against his knees to stand up, and put on his polite yet distant smile again: “Since you’re back, I don’t need to keep watch anymore. Saves me from getting in your way.”

Watching the ship’s doctor walking cheerfully toward the door, Caine glanced at the medical kit on the floor and asked: “Aren’t you taking your things?”

“Oh, things? What things?”

Anderson turned around in place, looked at the medical kit, then at Caine, his smile suddenly showing mischief: “Sorry, First Mate, to prevent you, this food-guarding lion, from going mad, I didn’t remove the Captain’s clothes. I just disinfected and stopped the bleeding, bandaging her through the holes in her clothing, so…”

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“You’ve still got plenty to do tonight.”

With that, the ship’s doctor ignored the First Mate’s reaction and left the captain’s quarters humming a cheerful tune.

Taking his gaze from the closed wooden door, Caine sighed somewhat bewilderedly. He pulled over the wooden cabinet that the doctor had used to place the candelabra, lit the white candles, then took the medical kit and placed it on the bed, sitting beside the girl.

Pulling back the blood-stained silk quilt that the girl was tightly clutching, he saw the tattered captain’s uniform she wore. Caine placed the triangular hat that had fallen sideways on the pillow onto the coat rack, then began removing the bandages the doctor had applied.

Knowing these temporary bandages would ultimately need to be removed, Anderson hadn’t tied them very tightly, and the First Mate didn’t spend much effort taking them off.

Next came removing her clothes.

Caine sat stiffly on the bed for a long time, unable to bring himself to do it.

At this moment, he suddenly recalled what had happened when they had just left that lonely island and were traveling to Frans Island on a Federation merchant ship. Although the circumstances were different, he had also accidentally seen the girl naked at that time. Of course, that wasn’t deliberate…

His wandering thoughts were interrupted by the raven’s soft call. Looking at the little creature gently rubbing against Roy’s cheek and repeatedly calling “Captain” in a low voice, the First Mate shook his head helplessly: “It’s all right, Alfie. She’ll naturally wake up after some time.”

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Hearing this, the raven looked up at him, and after a good while finally blurted out: “Bandage her.”

“Yes, I need to treat her wounds quickly.”

Caine said with a bitter smile, finally resolving to reach out toward Roy, gently removing the captain’s uniform that had been soaked with blood and was sticking to her body.

The girl’s skin, once as white and crystalline as fresh snow, was now patched with blue and purple, covered everywhere with bruises from heavy blows. The still reddish knife wounds were shocking to behold, especially the wound on her left hand—though it had healed somewhat, the white bone was still faintly visible.

Not to mention those wounds inflicted by short daggers—the marks left by the blood grooves made one’s body go cold just by looking at them.

Such a broken body had no hazy attraction, but only brought an inescapable sense of tragic heroism and heartache.

Facing the enemies surging like a tide, countless curved swords and muskets, and the watchful Blood-Eyed Butcher, in that brief time, Roy had almost single-handedly opposed the will of the entire Mermaid. That perilous and desperate situation still made Caine deeply afraid even now.

Pressing his lips tight, the First Mate opened the medical kit and began bandaging the wounds.

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The doctor had treated the wounds very well. Now, all Caine needed to do was replace the bandages and wrap them more meticulously. This wasn’t particularly difficult, but doing it well required extra patience and attentiveness.

In the dim captain’s quarters, only the faint sound of bandages brushing against skin remained, along with the unconscious groans of pain when a wound was accidentally touched.

After an unknown length of time, everything finally returned to peace, leaving only gradually calming breaths and the reassuringly soft sound of raindrops hitting the porthole.

The dark night finally passed.

The torrential rain quietly ended at dawn. The morning sun slowly rose over the distant sea that had returned to tranquility, casting a golden glow that made the sea surface shimmer with light.

The two warships rested for several hours at the port specially built for the Mermaid. Only when daylight gradually brightened did they slowly set sail, heading toward Yadris.

At the same time, a ray of sunlight penetrated the small gap left in the curtains when the First Mate had pulled them aside to gaze at the sea after finishing the Captain’s bandaging. It fell on the disheveled bed, crossed over the pale golden hair, and quietly climbed onto that fair cheek.

As if disturbed by the light, the girl’s long eyelashes trembled slightly.