Captain – Chapter 707 – The War for the World

Since they couldn’t be certain until reaching the end, Enzo’s matter could only stop there.

What followed was the main event of this meeting.

Which was, of course, how to attack Devil’s Island.

After Roy announced they would move past the matter of that curtain of night, she didn’t immediately continue, but led everyone’s gaze to first look toward her father.

Because in the conference room, and even looking across hundreds of years of the new world and old era, he was the only one who had fought against those ghost ships and the devil himself.

He surely must have gained something.

Faced with this scene, Gerard wasn’t surprised, but his expression was no longer as gentle as before—it had become much more stern, and he immediately doused them with cold water.

“Although the ghosts on those sunken ships have lost their memories and their bodies are unstable, their combat and fighting skills are still deeply ingrained in their instincts.”

“And as puppets without knowledge or awareness, they simply don’t care whether they perish or not.”

“Add to that those ghost ships affected by the underworld—though they can’t heal themselves, as long as the main body exists, they can sail and operate. This fleet won’t be easy to deal with.”

Saying this, emotions stirred slightly in the man’s eyes. After a moment of silence, he said to Roy: “With just our current two or three ships, I’m afraid we can’t handle those things.”

These words, falling on the pirates’ ears and even on those like Caine who knew some inside details of Gerard’s war with the old world over a decade ago, found no fault.

Though they didn’t know the scale of that ghost fleet, there would surely be no fewer than dozens of warships. Add to that fighting on enemy territory and the possibility that powerful figures like Enzo might be hidden among those ghosts—no matter how they thought about it, they couldn’t manage with just their forces.

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No matter how capable the giant ship was, or how much the skeletons and water ghosts could kill, they would probably be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

From this perspective, the man’s viewpoint was naturally correct.

Only Roy didn’t think so, because compared to others, she knew more.

She not only knew from the islands’ leader about the great deeds her father had accomplished single-handedly in the old sea, but also from the constantly emerging images that flashed before her eyes during the recent wind and snow battle, she had seen that confrontation on the nameless island.

She knew he had relied on his own strength and that of one ship to drive back the ghostly blue covering the entire sea.

And now, the ancestor’s old dynasty was nearly destroyed, and the power they possessed must be much stronger than that solitary expedition ship of the past—how could they be unable to do it now?

So the man’s earlier judgment was intentionally made to sound worse.

“That doesn’t make sense, because you…”

After frowning and thinking for a moment, Roy guessed his intention in doing this, but still wanted to expose it. However, halfway through speaking, thinking of the Ark which had changed beyond recognition, she paused and changed her words: “You and your crew members accomplished it before.”

The hidden meaning of these words wasn’t complex—everyone present understood.

Seeing the insistence in the young woman’s eyes, thinking of those departed old friends and confidants, Gerard was silent for a long time before saying in a low voice: “But that time was too tragic.”

“So tragic I don’t want to remember it.”

Hearing the man’s soft murmur, everyone present suddenly remembered something they had always overlooked—that if it was war, people would definitely die.

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Constantly dying, many people dying, and that wouldn’t happen in an instant.

Those people’s deaths weren’t the inevitable result of Gerard’s defeat at the devil’s hands, but the tragic scenes constantly appearing during the expedition.

And that could very well affect the outcome of this journey.

“On the way to that lonely island, my ship kept losing crew members, and in the end, when we finally approached the destination, only I remained aboard.”

Gerard was unwilling to remember and wouldn’t elaborate, using just one passage to describe that bitter journey. But everyone seemed to truly feel the cold wind coming toward them.

They saw the scene of the man standing alone on a desolate, quiet deck, facing alone the ghosts and ghost ships surging like a tide, crashing toward the nameless island.

What a lonely sight that was, and how tragic the previous journey must have been.

You must know that in that era belonging to the Ark, those who stood beside Captain Gerard were all first-rate figures, their brilliance approaching legend.

Yet such remarkable people all perished in the war against the old era.

They burned their lives to pave that path—the narrow path leading to the Pirate King.

Clearly, he didn’t want his daughter to repeat the same mistakes.

After a brief silence, Gerard’s voice rang out again: “At that time, I exhausted all my strength to barely land on the lonely island and have a chance to fight that person.”

“But you must know that during my breakthrough, that devil never lifted a hand against me from beginning to end—he must have had absolute confidence in himself.”

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“Because that was just an assassination by a cornered beast at the end of its rope.”

Looking at that face he couldn’t see enough of since being freed, the man said to Roy in a deep voice: “But you should understand that such a thing won’t happen again this time.”

“Because that person knows very clearly how great a threat we pose—he won’t hold back anymore. And once he acts, that lonely island will become a true eye of the storm.”

“With just our people and ships, even if we can charge through, we’ll inevitably suffer heavy casualties.”

The man’s words stopped there, not explicitly stating the most important point.

That was, to achieve victory with fewer forces and resist the devil’s great power, even with him present, Roy would inevitably have to participate in battle, which would exhaust her spirit and possibly wound her.

How could she then fight the devil? That wind and snow battle had already explained everything.

In other words, Gerard also wanted her to bring the present world’s assistance into this.

The captain naturally understood her father’s meaning.

But hearing these words, her emotions fluctuated slightly, and she couldn’t help asking quietly: “If that’s the case, why didn’t you bring more people when you set out on your journey back then?”

“Wouldn’t that have given you more hope?”

That was his era, and the islands then were naturally his islands too.

With his reputation, if he had raised the call, the pirates—at least his supporters—would have followed him on the expedition. That way, the fighting wouldn’t have been so difficult.

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But… more people would have died.

After listening, Gerard was speechless for a moment.

After a long while, he sighed softly and smiled bitterly: “If you want to hear the reason, it’s because I saw that battle as our lineage’s own affair—I was fighting Edward for you, so I didn’t want to involve more people.”

“But this time is different. Since the old covenant has already been torn up, this is a war for the world.”

“It’s a war between our world and Edward alone, so of course we should borrow external forces.”

If it were hundreds of years ago, that continuation of the world war, except for the islands, Auran, the Federation—everyone who had connections with Edward couldn’t escape.

These words were also reasonable.

But the man who knew the devil’s intentions understood in his heart that this was still almost an excuse. However, because of his daughter, he wouldn’t truly reveal everything.

For her sake, bearing any burden was worth it.

Perhaps for this very reason, after explaining, Gerard added words like a sigh.

“To put it plainly, I still couldn’t bear to use those people who trusted me unconditionally. But now it seems… perhaps this is why I lost to him.”

After all, who could be as heartless as a devil?