Captain – Chapter 289 – A Journey for Two

Roy was Auran, but her heart was not with the Empire.

Now that the storm had passed, her closest person in Auran—Robert—was dead, while Naren would become the confidant of the new Emperor, the royal family’s worldly representative with a bright future ahead. By all accounts, she shouldn’t have any worries left, so what was there to take care of?

In reality, though the two Governors were indeed the closest to her, there were still some people in her heart who deserved her concern and repayment.

Stars appeared and hid again, the blazing sun set and rose once more, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

During this time, the Mermaid docked at the port of Colent and resumed trading jewels and antiquities.

The ship’s doctor naturally occupied a seat, spending his days introducing treasures to the flocking nobles, setting prices, and frequently using caustic remarks that angered many would-be hagglers into walking away, leaving many self-proclaimed appraisal experts unable to hold their heads high.

As for what he had declared at the square in Elvet?

Well, after more than half a month, no one remembered it anymore. Even those with ulterior motives, seeing the trading fair reopen, assumed that the problems caused by that commotion had been successfully resolved through negotiations between the Empire and the Anderson family.

Their guess wasn’t wrong, except the Anderson family hadn’t stepped forward. The reconciliation came through letters delivered to the ship’s doctor, which he never opened—he either discarded them upon receipt or had the crew burn them as waste paper.

After “refusing” more than a dozen letters, no one came to deliver any more.

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After that, the trading fair resumed.

Of course, these scenes of disrespect toward the Empire didn’t appear before people’s eyes, as they only occurred on the Mermaid.

Therefore, in the eyes of many nobles, servants, and spectating commoners, this was nothing more than a most sincere negotiation between the Empire and the Anderson family.

Only the ship’s doctor knew what was really happening.

This was nothing more than a standard public relations tactic, a performance put on for those “fools” to see.

He didn’t need to open the envelopes to guess roughly what grandiose words were written inside, or more extremely, he suspected they might just contain blank paper.

And he knew without thinking that this was definitely the maiden’s prank—her specialty was finding amusement at the crew’s expense, especially “acquaintances.”

You two sneak off to enjoy yourselves, pushing everything onto me, which is bad enough, but then you use me for your entertainment? Truly an extremely vile and shameless “couple.”

As he brooded silently, Anderson’s expression grew increasingly bitter with his deteriorating mood.

He reached out his hand, swatting away one that was exploring the amethyst before him, and coldly scolded the sheepish appraiser: “Don’t touch if you’re not buying.”

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Hearing the displeasure in the ship doctor’s voice, two pirates standing nearby immediately turned to look.

Feeling those two fierce gazes, the appraiser’s face paled. He quickly apologized in a low voice before walking toward another wooden table, wondering why he alone was struck when many others had touched items earlier. Was it because his status wasn’t high enough? Or perhaps…

The appraiser overthought it, believing he had somehow offended the other party, unaware that he had simply caught Anderson at a bad moment and was simply unlucky.

The wooden crates piled up at the port had diminished considerably, and the jewelry in several open ones was already becoming visible at the bottom. It seemed this trading fair would soon come to an end.

The Mermaid’s supplies and the ammunition delivered by the navy warship were all in place. If anything was missing before setting sail, it was only the currently untraceable captain and first mate.

A week ago, the two of them had left the Garcia family estate without even notifying the Mermaid, only having Federo tell the crew who came looking for them to “wait patiently,” with no further explanation.

No one knew where they had gone or what they were doing.

On a flat, open road, a black carriage slowly moved forward.

Roy and Caine sat in the carriage. This journey had taken nearly a week, and they were not far from their destination.

At the end of the road was the small town called Loriton.

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The problem was, if that was their goal, the road they had chosen was not only not the shortest route but actually extremely time-consuming.

It started from Colent, went along the west through the port city of Ilruwin, then curved north, passing through a series of towns, before finally turning southwest until reaching Loriton. There was too much unnecessary travel in between, wasting a lot of time.

Roy and Caine were well aware of this.

The reason they chose this route was actually because they wanted to visit not just Loriton, but also Ilruwin and an unnamed farmstead along the way.

“These elders’ thoughts are truly difficult to fathom. We wanted to keep him company, yet he found us annoying and dismissed us with just a carriage.”

The maiden’s complaints echoed through the carriage once more, with the raven chiming in with several cries of “That’s right.”

Hearing them harmonize in criticizing the old man, Caine smiled helplessly: “Perhaps Grandfather Federo didn’t want to delay our journey because of him.”

In fact, the two had originally planned to stay at the estate longer, until everything was prepared on the Mermaid, then take the faster water route to their destination, thus avoiding the long carriage journey and being available when crew members came to report matters.

But what Roy never expected was that after staying at the estate for a week, they were actually driven out by the old man, with the excuse that he no longer had time to look after them.

Because many carriages had arrived that day, bringing several children with Garcia family bloodlines.

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The youngest of these children was six years old, the oldest not more than nine. They were all childish yet remarkably well-mannered, each with their own strengths.

Thinking of those outstanding little ones, Roy knew the old man needed to nurture and select the next head of the Garcia family, requiring much energy and time, truly leaving no capacity to care for the two of them. Still, being thrown out like this left her quite dejected.

As if you took care of us these past few days anyway.

With this thought, the maiden grew even more displeased.

Seeing this, the first mate could only continue smiling bitterly as he tried to soothe her.

The young dragon in his arms occasionally raised its head to look at the two of them, and like Alfie who greatly enjoyed stirring up trouble, seemed to be thinking: why care about such trivial matters? Better to use this leisure time to sleep a bit more.

The conversation in the carriage soon quieted down.

Because with the coachman’s command, the warhorse gradually came to a stop—they had reached one of their destinations.

In front of the carriage, beside the intersecting roads, stood an unremarkable small farmstead, from which children’s laughter could occasionally be heard.