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Chapter 54

“Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so you should smile for me. Come on, you’re embarrassing me!” he said.

“You have no shame to begin with, so I advise against such drivel,” Marianne replied. She stepped forward to block Frances from his line of sight as if to say that the likes of him had no right to speak to her.

The red-haired man put on a threatening face, enraged by her comment. “I’m trying to speak with the master, so why’s the dog getting in the way? What, are you so crazy you don’t know when you’re supposed to get out of the way?”

In the past, some had called her Mad Dog Marianne.

“Hm?”

A bloodthirsty smile spread across Marianne’s face. She typically held back when she was with Frances, but she had never lost to anyone in a verbal contest. Marianne placed a hand on the hilt of her sword.

She taunted, “Well, if you can understand the words of a dog, I suppose that means you’re one too. Oh, wasn’t there one that was famous for being the bitch* of their family?”[1]

“You fucking bastard!”

“Well, unlike a certain someone, I’m not an illegitimate child. Don’t you think that’s a little self-deprecating to use as an insult? You have to be careful, remember? If your daddy hears that you’re causing trouble, he’ll whip you again.”

He was no match for Marianne in a battle of insults, so he gritted his teeth and went after Frances instead. He knew that targeting her employer, rather than her, would get a rise out of her.

“Do you think that claiming your father’s legacy and surrounding yourself with all those treasures you don’t deserve will make you like your father?! You better nicely hand over the ship while I’m still offering money! Aquamarine deserves more than being the relic of a fallen dynasty!”

“Shut your damn mouth!” Marianne inevitably unsheathed her sword and pointed it at his neck, but the man didn’t stop.

“Even if you keep running away like a pathetic coward, you won’t get anywhere! Unless you want to politely drown like your father—”

“Lucciano Patterson!”

An aura burst from Marianne’s blade and reached his neck. A single drop of blood dripped down. Only then did the red-haired man, Lucciano, shut his mouth. Sensing her bloodlust, he knew that she would kill him if he said anything more, but his eyes remained fixed on Frances. He was still trying to provoke her.

“Shall we? We’ve wasted enough time as it is.” Despite his taunts, Frances didn’t even blink. She tugged on Marianne’s sleeve. Her demeanor was refined yet intimidating, as if Lucciano’s verbal abuse meant nothing to her.

Feeling defeated, the man simply glared.

“Yes, my lady.”

It was strange how enraged Marianne had become when the actual target of his insults appeared to be unaffected. Marianne put away the sword that had cut his throat. Though it seemed as if the situation had been on the brink of exploding, the mood settled and grew cold.

Lucciano’s posse had also looked ready to fight, but they seemed relieved. Even they were afraid of fighting Marianne.

The dock was now silent, save for the sound of three pairs of footsteps. They belonged to Frances, Marianne, and Leonard.

Lucciano spotted Leonard for the first time and gave a long, wicked smile. He taunted them again.

“Ha! You said you’d restore your father’s glory, but you’ve been playing around with a whore this whole time! Well, if you want someone this pretty, I suppose I understand why you’d be unimpressed by me. I don’t know what places he’s been in, but I bet you could make thousands in gold if you sell him as a boytoy—”

It happened in an instant. A beam of light shot out from Leonard’s waist and swung down.

Marianne turned around, looking shocked, but neither she nor Frances had seen it coming, let alone react. Neither could Lucciano’s exasperated posse.

Splat!

Lucciano’s right arm was severed at the elbow. It fell to the ground, seeping blood, a finger still pointing at Leonard. The cut was so sharp that Lucciano didn’t even feel anything. He watched dumbly as blood dripped from the stump of his arm. Only then did the pain set in, accompanied by screaming.

“Ahhhhh!”

“B-Boss! That crazy son of a bitch...!”

“Go get some potions so we can reattach it! If he loses his arm for good, we’ll be fucked too!”

As he watched the chaos unfold on the dock, Leonard lowered his bloodless sword and turned to Frances. “Fran, is it okay to kill them all?”

“Uh.” Only then did she regain her composure. “Um, it doesn’t really matter, but it would be best if we kept that bastard alive. If he dies, it’ll cause some pretty heavy consequences. As long as you don’t kill him, you can clean them up however you see fit.”

“Understood.”

“Marianne? You and Leonard—”

Leonard shook his head, cutting her off. “It’s all right. It won’t take long.”

Most of Lucciano’s posse wasn’t even paying attention to him, too busy trying to reattach their boss’s arm. The few that went after him looked like they were at the bottom of the ladder. For a moment, Leonard considered using his fists instead of his sword, but cuts were more effective at inducing fear than blunt wounds.

“Ahhh!”

“G-Guh...”

“Urp.”

Leonard moved forward as if strolling through an open plain. With each step, he cut someone’s throat, stabbed someone else’s stomach, and cut off arms and legs.

The dock, which had once been as white and smooth as marble, was now stained with blood and decorated with broken limbs and organs that spilled from abdomens.

In just a few seconds, dock No. 37 became a slaughterhouse.

“Th-That one! Kill that bastard first!”

“You can take care of the young master later! The bleeding stopped, so he won’t die!”

Even the people who’d been involved with dirty business for a long time were horrified. Leonard’s attacks were cruel and unfaltering, and Marianne realized why her intuition had warned her about Leonard. He purposefully maneuvered his blade to make the attacks even more painful and crush his opponent’s spirit as well.

He wasn’t just making a show of it—he was inflicting his wrath.

Even though his face was expressionless, Marianne could somehow tell that he was furious.

“...”

Frances also sensed it. The scene was so gruesome that she wanted to look away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Leonard as he continued his onslaught.

When? When had she stopped crying, stopped screaming in rage when someone insulted her father, whom she was so proud of?

She had to endure it because she had no power.

She had to focus on the future, not the present.

Countless excuses had piled up in her heart over the years, but now, this boy who resembled the sword itself knocked them all away.

Is it because of me? Are you angry on my behalf?

If he truly was from Arcadia, he couldn’t possibly know anything about her, let alone her father or the hidden story behind the Alliance. And yet, despite the fact that he’d only known her for a few days, he was more relentlessly, viciously enraged for her than anyone else.

“Oh.”

Frances was surprised when she felt the dampness in her eyes. She swiped the tears away when no one was looking. She couldn’t let her mask break like this.

Marianne noticed her small actions, and her face grew hazy.

They didn’t realize it was a misunderstanding, so they simply watched as Leonard carried out a raging bloodbath.

“Phew...” Not even a minute had passed, but Leonard had let his emotions get the best of him. He was panting a little. He took one deep breath, and his breathing returned to normal.

He turned around and took in the mess he’d made. Other than Lucciano, who’d passed out from blood loss, the entire posse now resembled slaughterhouse scraps. Even the last one had just stopped convulsing.

I got lost in the bloodlust again. Perhaps it was because they were weak opponents. He would have been able to keep his cool, but Lucciano’s posse was nothing, so he’d lost his patience.

Now that he was in a body that was only fifteen years old, Yeon Mu-Hyuk was too impulsive compared to his latter years. As the reminder set in, Leonard stroked the blade to calm himself.

“Leonard, that’s enough.” Suddenly, Frances appeared and carefully grabbed the hand touching the blade.

“Fran.”

“Have you calmed down?” She felt his pulse through the back of his hand and pulled away when she felt it return to normal. She looked up to meet his eyes but then turned away. “Um, thank you... for getting angry on my behalf.”

“It’s nothing remarkable.” Leonard thought he’d frightened her by being too violent.

On the contrary, his words made her realize something. She smiled gently. “No, I suppose it’s not.”

It’s not like she achieved anything by quietly enduring the insults. Even if she pretended to be unbothered, pretended to be the better person, she wouldn’t get any closer to her goal. She should have spit in those dirty bastards’ faces. She should have secretly let herself cry in her room.

She hadn’t even known how close it had become to crushing her, and now she felt free.

Of course, Leonard had no way of knowing what she was thinking and made some incredibly bold assumptions.

Hm. I didn’t harm her mentally, did I?

If Marianne hadn’t arrived just in time, the atmosphere would have become even more awkward between the two. The bodyguard looked around the dock, which was now covered in blood.

“You were quite enthusiastic, I see. This will be quite troublesome to take care of,” she grumbled. “There was a reason I didn’t join you.”

Even though she chided him, her voice was relatively gentle because she knew he’d helped Frances sort through some feelings even she didn’t know about. She inspected Lucciano’s arm and checked his pulse before concluding that his life wasn’t in danger.

“I believe we can leave this idiot here. His arm is safely intact, and he’ll withdraw for a bit once he finds out that all his subordinates were slaughtered.”

Leonard studied her for a moment before asking her something he’d been wondering about. “Is his father that powerful? Powerful enough that laying hands on him can be risky, even though he’s an illegitimate child?”

“Yes, he is. Incredibly.” Frances was the one who answered. She glared at one of Atlantis City’s giant towers, which was still dimly visible all the way from the harbor. It was where the Council held its quarterly meetings. “The Atlantis Maritime Alliance is governed by a council of the same name. They do everything from drawing the borders between sea districts to issuing permits to expedition teams. You could say that they’re the true rulers of these waters.”

Her blue eyes were filled with longing. Once upon a time, her father had been in that tower too. He was one of the people who had made sure the seas were upright, and he had even risen to the highest position, the chairman. Though the Kingdom of Okeanos had fallen, he was proof that their royal blood remained true.

Until that tragic day, he was a man whom many people loved and respected.

“The Council of Atlantis always has thirteen members, and new councilors aren’t elected until a seat is vacated. Lucciano’s biological father, Councilor Pablo, is one of the five most powerful people in the Council. Pablo El Orland Patterson,” she spat out each syllable.

He was the captain of the Fifth Sea District’s Rank A expedition team Moby Dick and was also one of the most powerful people in all of the Alliance.

1. In Korean, she makes a pun on the word “dog” to say “huge failure.” ☜