Captain – Chapter 212 – Unwritten Rule

As the captain had promised, in about a quarter of an hour, she returned to the Mermaid, accompanied by the ship’s doctor who looked far from satisfied.

“I say, Captain, if you wanted to return, you could have returned alone. Why drag me back with you? You know that nighttime is when nobles’ desires are strongest, whether for purchasing or… If we could utilize this time well, our gains would at least double.”

Anderson’s incessant complaints reached Caine’s ears from afar. He raised an eyebrow and walked toward the two who had just climbed onto the deck.

When the First Mate approached them, Roy was raising her hand, gesturing for the ship’s doctor to be quiet: “Alright, alright, stop nagging. You’ve been talking non-stop since the square; my ears are nearly calloused. I called you back because there’s something more important than making money.”

“Oh?”

The ship’s doctor examined her with the look of someone meeting her for the first time, and said skeptically: “Now that’s fresh. In your eyes, Captain, there’s actually something more important than gold coins? If you ask me, I think you have some ulterior motive.”

As if her thoughts had been exposed, Roy’s mouth twitched slightly before she righteously declared: “What ulterior motive could I possibly have? It’s all for legitimate business.”

“What legitimate business?”

The First Mate’s sudden inquiry from beside her startled the guilty-feeling girl, making her shudder.

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Blinking rapidly, Roy took a deep breath before turning to look at the First Mate: “Starting today, you’ll temporarily move out of the captain’s cabin. Until the engagement is over, you’ll sleep in… Anderson’s room.”

“Why?”

The First Mate and ship’s doctor asked almost simultaneously.

Caine was merely puzzled by the girl’s decision; his tone remained calm, though with a hint of confusion.

Anderson, on the other hand, erupted like a volcano, questioning in a tone of complete incomprehension: “Please, Captain, you need to understand—my room is just a single, and the bed only fits one person. It’s not as spacious as the captain’s cabin bed. You want such a…”

Glancing at the cold-faced First Mate, the ship’s doctor’s eyelid twitched a few times as he retracted the derogatory words that had nearly escaped his lips: “…vigorous young man to move into my room? Where am I supposed to sleep? Let me be clear, I’m very averse to intimate contact with the same sex!”

At this point, Anderson seemed to suddenly realize something. He narrowed his eyes, examining the unnaturally-faced girl with a creepy gaze.

“Oh… Captain, you’re not trying to use this as an excuse to force me off the ship, are you? Don’t forget, the crew’s monthly wages and most of the expedition’s funds come from…”

“Hey, what are you imagining, young master? Calm down, calm down. Think about it—how could I bear to drive away such a patron? If I were to drive you away, it would only be after squeezing out the last gold coin from you…” The captain smiled awkwardly, making the situation increasingly awkward.

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“You!” The ship’s doctor pointed a trembling finger at her nose.

“Alright, both of you calm down.”

Caine interrupted their foolishness with a cold face. After both fell silent, he asked the girl: “What exactly happened? Making me move out so suddenly—there should be a reason, shouldn’t there?”

“That’s because we pirates, especially pirate captains, rarely marry. Firstly, in this blood-licking business, we never know which day we’ll be buried at sea, never to return. Such risks ultimately fall on the partner or even the children. My experience with my mother is the best example.”

Roy’s eyebrows dropped slightly as she spoke in a low voice: “Secondly, once married with family, we become attached, which causes us to have concerns during battle commands or life-and-death struggles. These concerns can sometimes become the most fatal weakness.”

Listening to the captain’s explanation, the First Mate fell silent. Only after a long while did he softly ask: “So… you actually don’t want to get married?”

“No.”

Gently shaking her head, Roy tilted her face slightly, gazing at the gradually appearing stars in the night sky, a smile blooming at the corners of her lips.

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“Do you think someone as heartless as me would let such matters occupy even a tiny bit of my thoughts? For me, whether to marry or not actually doesn’t matter much. If someday I perish at sea, then it’s your own misfortune for having a wife like me. But what does that have to do with me?”

Turning her gaze back to the First Mate, the girl shrugged: “Of course, let me be clear—if stability cannot be ensured, I won’t have children in this lifetime. I don’t want my descendants to continue…”

“I say, if you want to talk sweet nothings, could you not do it while I’m present? Your conversation is really sickening.”

The ship’s doctor, unable to bear it any longer, interrupted the captain’s narrative. With an ashen face, he said: “Let’s not even mention that you’re just getting engaged. Captain, if you have no objections to marriage, why are you driving out the man who will become your fiancé in two days, and driving him into my room at that?”

Tapping her fingers, Roy put on an embarrassed expression: “Actually, we pirates aren’t absolutely forbidden from marrying. It’s just that most married people leave the pirate ship and the sea to live peaceful lives on land. As for those who wish to stay, they must maintain distance from their fiancées a few days before the wedding to prevent being blinded by those intense emotions.”

“As you know, pirates don’t really distinguish between engagement and marriage concepts. So to set an example for the crew, we’ll keep some distance before and after the engagement—just these two days, okay?”

Looking at Roy’s seemingly reluctant yet bound-by-unwritten-rules troubled expression, Caine seemed to both sigh in relief and resignation: “So that’s how it is. I understand now. If there’s such a rule, Captain, you should have told me earlier.”

“I only just remembered it. I wondered why the crew had been looking at me strangely these past few days, then I realized there was this issue.”

Seeing the First Mate’s understanding, the captain “gratefully” let out a breath and patted his shoulder lightly: “Then I’ll have to trouble you to stay with the ship’s doctor for two days.”

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“What do you mean trouble him? This is clearly troubling me! Given my status, when have I ever needed to cohabitate with someone?” the ship’s doctor grumbled discontentedly.

“I thought about it for a long time and felt that given your relationship, living together would be relatively less awkward. So I can only trouble our young master.”

Roy clasped her hands in front of her face and smiled apologetically.

“That’s more like it.”

After hearing about that strange rule and receiving the captain’s almost pleading statement, Anderson’s anger subsided considerably. He folded his arms and glanced sideways at the First Mate: “But given our relationship, living in the same room is not normal. Anyway, seeing how troubled you both are, I’ll let you have the room for these two days. I’ll stay in the medical room myself.”

Before leaving the deck to follow the ship’s doctor, who was warning him about the “guest stay guidelines” one by one, to familiarize himself with his lodging for these two days, Caine cast a final glance at Roy.

Seeing her relieved expression, as if having solved a major problem, the suspicion in the young man’s azure eyes finally completely dissipated.

What he didn’t know was that as soon as he turned away, the captain’s face revealed a victorious, extremely mischievous smile.