Captain – Chapter 350 – Life and Death Are Great, but Not Greater Than Freedom

“In the end, you’re still doing it for her. How dull.”

The terrifying light in her blood-red eyes flashed and disappeared. Vivian quickly returned to calmness, her tone as indifferent as before, though with a hint of distance due to her suspicion.

A brief silence fell over the room.

Though it was Richi who had spoken those thunderous words earlier, it was he who was stunned upon hearing the young woman’s words with their unclear emotion and even more unclear meaning.

“What?”

Richi finally spoke, his pale eyebrows raised high, not like a provoked tiger but more like a cat with ruffled fur.

“Isn’t that the case?”

Vivian’s voice remained cold, but with a barely detectable hint of uncertainty.

“Wait, wait, wait, by ‘her’… you mean Roy?”

Sensing the young woman’s eyes conveying “who else?”, Richi fell silent for a moment before being unable to hold back a light laugh. His laughter, which had shed its childishness yet remained as clean as a spring, rippled through the room, taking a long time to subside.

“You’re overthinking.”

After a while, the young man’s smile gradually faded as he said expressionlessly: “I’ve already repaid her with a life. Why would I still be selling my services to her?”

“You said earlier…”

“No betrayal, just different choices.”

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Richi interrupted the young woman’s recollection, grasping the empty wine bottle with one hand, his fingers tapping lightly on it, producing crisp, pleasant sounds: “Each person is an independent entity, not anyone’s appendage. Emotions and great favors are only connections, not chains.”

“Under the influence of these connections, I can follow her, constantly seek to please her, commit arson and murder for her, commit all manner of evil, but you must understand…”

Looking up at Vivian, who showed some understanding, the young man said seriously: “All those things must be done of my own volition, not because of her demands, much less because of so-called righteousness, morality, or ethical principles.”

“In other words, that’s my choice.”

After hearing this, the young woman remained silent for a long time before finally saying: “Although it sounds reasonable, why does it feel… so shameless?”

Everyone is an independent individual and shouldn’t be constrained by others’ thoughts.

Emotions and gratitude can be the threads connecting two people, but not chains.

The premise of making choices is willingness, not another’s words or societal conventions.

This was what Richi wanted to express. Each sentence made sense and even gave people a sense of novelty, but the problem was… when connected together, why did they become so awkward, even revealing a sense of shamelessness?

The right to choose is, at its essence, freedom.

According to his words, wouldn’t it mean that for the sake of freedom, anything could be abandoned, any principle disregarded, as long as one was willing and comfortable?

“That’s right, it is shameless.”

After saying this, Richi no longer maintained his stern face. The curve at the corner of his mouth showed a hint of craftiness that seemed entirely inconsistent with his character.

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“We pirates exist on the sea precisely because we couldn’t endure societal constraints and left civilization, either passively or voluntarily. For us, as long as there’s alcohol, money, and women, we can disregard any principle. Of course, for most people, life and death are still more important.”

Who wouldn’t value their life, apart from a handful of madmen that could be counted on one’s fingers?

“But,” the young man’s tone shifted, his expression suddenly solemn as he added very seriously: “For a true pirate, life and death are great, but not greater than freedom.”

Life and death are great, but not greater than freedom.

Just as Vivian had questioned silently, for the sake of freedom, for the right to choose freely, pirates—or rather, those truly worthy of being called pirates—could indeed abandon everything, disregard everything, including life and death.

This was romanticism unto death.

Hearing this, the young woman seemed to somewhat understand the choice of the person before her, understanding why on that rainy night, he and that Captain placed the final outcome on what appeared to be an impulsive, groundless, even somewhat childish duel.

So it had nothing to do with external matters, it was just something between the two of you.

So that betrayal, which seemed utterly unreasonable yet particularly heroic in others’ eyes, was simply your pursuit of freedom.

No wonder she was gratified.

Awakening from the moving image of the young man pursuing freedom like a bird in a cage, at the end of this revelation, for some unknown reason, Vivian’s heart suddenly produced such a sentence, which instantly diluted the distance that had previously emerged.

“How irresponsible, no different from those guys.”

The thoughts triggered by that sentence eventually transformed into a sting in the young woman’s words.

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Irresponsible referred to how Richi and Roy had stirred up that conflict, dragging countless innocent people into it, yet in the end, they treated their lives and fates as worthless chips, casually betting them on that duel.

From this perspective, the two were truly heartless.

As for “those guys” in her words, they naturally referred to the base pirates who had been judged and sent to the bottom of the sea by the Death Silence.

To this, Richi merely shrugged, unconcerned about her assessment.

Although the misunderstanding had been cleared up, the reason why the young man was willing to help the Lady oppose his former Captain still remained shrouded in mystery.

So after stinging him with a remark, Vivian continued to ask: “Even so, I still can’t figure out what reason you could have for choosing to stand beside the Lady.”

For the sake of material or spiritual freedom, or some other aspect of freedom, Richi was willing to sever the old feelings between him and that Captain, even at the cost of his life.

For a romantic like him, a true pirate, to make such a choice could not possibly be, as he claimed, to reclaim the Mermaid.

And to say it was to repay the Lady for reviving him and granting him the authority of eternal life would be even more unrealistic; that was merely a transaction.

So what was it for?

“Does this need a reason?”

Richi asked indifferently, showing no intention of explaining.

But sensing the persistence in Vivian’s eyes, and that hint of curiosity that slightly surprised even him, the young man fell silent for a moment before sighing, thinking how everyone seemed to have such a strong exploratory desire. Curiosity could kill a cat, after all.

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“It’s hard to explain. If I must say, it’s because…”

The young man paused, feeling this explanation seemed to lack persuasiveness, but unable to find a more suitable description, he said without confidence: “Because it’s interesting?”

“Hmm…”

Hearing this, the young woman nodded seriously, about to respond with “so that’s it,” but suddenly realized something was off. The “hmm” she had uttered immediately changed in tone, becoming questioning.

“Don’t look at me like that. Even if you wanted to eat someone, you couldn’t set your sights on me for now.”

Richi said with certainty: “And this really is my thought. What in this world could be more interesting than the game between the Pirate King and a deity? Not to mention Roy is also in the game and has chosen that devil, so I naturally take the opposite side, that way it’s more…”

“Stop.”

Vivian stared at the young man’s blood-red eyes and interrupted with a somber tone: “You agreed to help the Lady just because… it’s interesting?”

“What else?”

Richi uttered these two words, then pressed his hand down, gesturing for her to remain calm: “Of course, this is only the main reason. After all, having been revived from death, I ultimately need to return to living. So if I can get that ship back, I would be quite pleased.”

“You seem displeased. Have you misunderstood something again?”

“No.” the young woman said coldly.