Captain – Chapter 492 – Awakening

The sound of breathing gradually became clearer. Early morning light filtered through the porthole, bringing a touch of warmth through the eyelids. Caine felt his senses rapidly returning. With a slight struggle, he naturally opened his eyes.

Habitually covering his forehead, it wasn’t until the young man sat up against the headboard that he realized there was no hammer-like headache this time, nor any aversion to light as if he’d been in darkness too long. Everything felt refreshingly normal, as if that journey had truly been just an illusory dream.

The night had passed, and naturally the dream had ended.

However…

After a brief moment of confusion, the First Mate remembered the purpose of entering the dream and everything that happened before the page collapsed. He immediately became fully alert, turning to look beside him, wanting to first confirm the girl’s condition.

But one glance made him involuntarily freeze.

Because there was no sign of the captain on the large bed, only a Siamese cat curled up into a furry ball in deep sleep. Although its fur was as disheveled as before their separation, its expression showed no fatigue. It was sleeping very sweetly, occasionally purring as if having a pleasant dream.

It didn’t look like something trapped in a dream at all.

Seeing the cat’s peaceful appearance, the concern in Caine’s heart diminished somewhat. He reached out his hand to pet it, but hesitated for a long time without actually touching it, as if afraid of disturbing it.

But someone clearly wasn’t so considerate.

“Bang!”

The door to the captain’s cabin was pushed—no, rather forcefully kicked—open. The strengthening sunlight accompanied by cold wind entered the room, dispelling any remaining drowsiness. Along with it came the girl’s noisy voice.

“Up, up! Haven’t you spent enough time in dreamland? You used to be the one preparing breakfast.”

Reаԁ on ΚаtReαdіոɡСafe

Already unable to make up his mind about petting the cat, this sudden interruption made Caine instinctively withdraw his hand. He turned his head somewhat helplessly to look at the captain walking in with a tray, accompanied by the young dragon and raven flying in as if cheering her on, and shook his head with a bitter smile.

“Captain, we should indeed be awake, but ‘someone’ still needs rest.”

Clearly having noticed the First Mate’s earlier small gesture, Roy set the tray on the wooden table, casually took a piece of white bread, and sat on the edge of the bed. She jerked her chin toward the cat and said indistinctly while eating: “If you want to pet it, just do it. This fellow won’t wake up anytime soon anyway.”

“Won’t wake up?”

Hearing this, Caine was slightly stunned, then experimentally touched the cat, finding that it truly had no reaction at all, like a doll. His heart, which had settled, suddenly rose again. Looking at the girl, he asked in a slightly grave tone: “What exactly… is its condition now?”

He had thought that when he heard the captain’s soft laughter before leaving the dream, it meant she had found the cat and would bring it back to reality, to wake up like him. But now it seemed the situation wasn’t so simple.

Knowing her First Mate was overthinking, the captain tore off a piece of bread to feed the raven that had jumped onto her knee, while saying: “Don’t worry too much. Its current condition, if compared to a human, would at most be exhaustion from overwork, needing a good rest for some time.”

“But… it’s not an ordinary spirit after all.”

Looking at the soundly sleeping cat, a gentle light appeared in Roy’s pupils, vastly different from her past disdain and antipathy. She said softly: “Even in the dream, I couldn’t see through its true nature, nor could I fully understand the price it paid.”

“I only know that it should be fine, but how long it will sleep remains unknown.”

Listening to the girl’s explanation, the First Mate let out a slight breath, unconcerned about the secrets hidden beneath the cat’s appearance, only smiling and saying: “That’s good to hear. If it needs to sleep, there will always be a place for it on the ship.”

Getting up, dressing, having breakfast together.

Rеаⅾ οո КаtRеаⅾіոɡСаfе

Everything seemed to have returned to normal. The news of the captain’s awakening was immediately announced to the entire ship by herself, and from what she understood, that long dream had actually lasted only one night.

As if she had truly just gone to sleep.

The door to the captain’s cabin opened and closed, closed and opened. Besides the ship’s doctor who came for the routine check, and the siren who knew the situation and came to take the cat back, the rest of the crew, though without any proper reason, all wanted to come and see the captain’s condition to ease their hearts that had been suspended for a night.

Until the girl felt like a wild beast in a royal zoo being pointed at and marveled over by passing nobles, she finally couldn’t bear it anymore. She pushed open the door and simply let the pirates have their fill of looking at her.

After this, the captain’s cabin finally regained its peace.

“So, the Great Captain isn’t watching us anymore?”

After hearing the captain’s account, Caine knew they had only slept for one night and hadn’t delayed any important matters. Also, after leaving the dream, for some reason, she no longer felt anyone watching her.

Hearing the question from behind her, Roy, sitting at the desk and fiddling with the unknown waters sea chart, twisted her mouth and said without turning back: “Who knows what that old man is thinking? Maybe he just drank too much last night and hasn’t woken up yet.”

The girl’s tone was nasty. Although in the past, she hadn’t been very polite when referring to the emperor of the Southern Islands, she had still been quite respectful deep down. Now, however, she sounded like a stranger.

And harbored intense wariness.

To be honest, even now, the captain couldn’t discern what role that man, who had cast his gaze from the south and forced her to enter the dream prematurely, had played in this affair.

He seemed to have made a deal with the devil, handing over her fate and future to her ancestor. Yet in the end, not only was she not swallowed by the black mist or assimilated by the great power, but she had used this journey to find her own solution on that forbidden path.

Read oո ΚаtReаdіոɡСαfe

Fate choosing her seemed implausible and coincidental, yet it might not have been without deliberate arrangement.

If Roy were to choose, she would naturally lean toward the latter, hoping this dream was a path laid out by the Great Captain, a plot he personally arranged to sever the devil’s hand reaching into the present world.

But there was no reliable basis for this, just an empty thought.

Even her ancestor couldn’t resist fate; no matter how remarkable the Great Captain was, there was no reason he could either.

Furthermore, he wasn’t of the devil’s lineage, nor was he an anchor point in the dream. The reason he could guide her into the dream was probably just by lending a hand to her ancestor. How could he influence the world within the dream?

Being so, orchestrating fate would be even more absurd. Perhaps from beginning to end, he had merely been coldly observing.

And since she couldn’t determine his intentions, the captain naturally couldn’t discern whether he was currently a friend or foe. Her wariness was understandable, though she hadn’t completely closed off all paths in her heart.

For various reasons, she would eventually have to return. She could question him face to face then.

With this thought, Roy suppressed the impulse to immediately return to Providence and brought her attention back to current matters. In her dark golden eyes, the shifting light and shadows on the sea chart were reflected.

Finally, the clouds dispersed, the boundless storm subsided, and the image in the girl’s eyes fixed on a solitary island with strange rocks standing all around, barren of vegetation, looking exactly like black reefs.

It was located in the center of the Death Silence Triangle, the meeting point they had arranged with the Taranhof.

Having determined the route, Roy gently stroked the ruby at the bottom of the sea chart. The light and shadows gradually faded, quickly disappearing completely. She rolled up the sea chart and put it away, then as if remembering something, turned her chair and asked her First Mate: “By the way, have you felt any discomfort since waking up?”

Rеaԁ on КatRеаdiոɡСаfе

She was asking about the curse.

Caine bringing the pocket watch out of the dream meant he would inevitably be marked by the devil’s brand. But as Roy was still not fully “awake,” she couldn’t know the truth, and First Mate Isaac had never mentioned it, so her concern was inevitable.

“For now… there’s no effect.”

Slightly furrowing his brow as he assessed himself for a moment, the young man shook his head lightly in response.

“That’s good. I just hope it won’t become a hidden danger.”

Seeing this, Roy breathed a sigh of relief, then snapped her fingers and smiled: “Oh right, I just announced to the crew that there will be a celebration banquet tonight. You should make the arrangements.”

“A banquet? For what?”

“The annual festival.”

After a moment of silence, the First Mate said puzzledly: “But Captain, the annual festival is still two weeks away.”

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll just celebrate early.”

The girl crossed her arms, comfortably leaning back in her chair, saying proudly: “Hasn’t Lance mentioned it to you? In the past, the Mermaid frequently held banquets because…”

“I could always find reasons to have banquets. Who cares if they’re appropriate or not?”