Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Too Late, But...
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Frankling leaped in front of her in an instant.
She shot forward like the wind and swung her butcher knife straight at the man who called himself a bounty hunter.
It was hard to believe this was the same Frankling who usually seemed a bit sluggish.
Watching it all, Ambasha felt her heart start to pound without realizing it.
'So cool...'
The butcher knife glowed with some fierce, blazing light.
She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it sent an instinctive chill down Ambasha's spine.
Somehow familiar... yet stirring something deep in her consciousness.
Engraving the sight firmly in her mind,
she began to fiddle cautiously with something tucked inside her clothes.
'Should I... use it now? The thing Father gave me...'
The item he'd pressed into her hands, telling her to use it if anything dangerous happened.
But soon, she let go of it and focused on the scene unfolding before her eyes.
The tingling sensation that rippled through her body every time Frankling's knife clashed against the man's sword.
It felt like...
something inside her was trying to awaken.
A piercing screech rang in their ears.
The clash of mana against mana made the hairs on everyone's necks stand on end.
This was no mere collision of iron weapons.
Mana swirled around the swords at ultra-high speeds.
Compression—the foundational technique considered the alpha and omega of all mana manipulation.
In the hands of a skilled warrior, it could fell a massive tree with a single strike from a rusty blade.
Faced with this tremendous clash of power, Mazelan couldn't help but grimace.
'This woman... she's strong!'
The woman who had closed the distance in a flash and struck first.
He couldn't see her face clearly under the hood and her small stature, but Mazelan—a renowned bounty hunter and battle-hardened warrior—knew it from that single exchange.
The mana infused in the butcher knife pushing back his beloved sword,
Caladbolg.
This blood-red, blazing power clashing against the mana flowing through Mazelan's sword was at least on par with a 7th-grade upper-class warrior.
That level of skill could take down hundreds of soldiers single-handedly—equivalent to a general or knight commander of a nation. Even Mazelan couldn't afford to underestimate her.
And beyond her raw strength, this pirate had something distinctly unusual about her.
She swung the butcher knife again with ferocious speed.
He'd faced countless foes, but her attacks felt profoundly alien.
Far removed from the forms or elegance of conventional swordsmanship.
Like butchering meat—crude, yet surprisingly free of wasted motion...
More like knife work than swordplay.
Her brutal, efficient swings aimed at stripping flesh from bone forced Mazelan into a defensive struggle, yet he felt a strange freshness in it all.
'Not bad, huh? Makes sense... the duke wouldn't have shelled out that much coin otherwise... but...'
He had to admit her skill was no joke.
At minimum, she was his equal.
However...
Mazelan had no intention of losing.
The reason was...
"!!"
A sudden gunshot.
She swiftly swung her knife to deflect it.
Even though her position made it unlikely to hit her, she deliberately twisted her body to defend.
The reason was simple.
Standing behind her...
was the girl in question.
From her earlier dive to block a bullet, they knew it.
No matter the reason, this pirate cared deeply for the girl.
Which meant any attack aimed at the girl would force the pirate to defend.
Fair play? That didn't fly in their world.
Win by any dirty means necessary—that was the rule.
Exploiting the opening created by ditching fair play, Mazelan swung Caladbolg and dove in precisely.
"Ugh!"
The pirate woman barely blocked the descending black blade.
But with that, the flow of battle shifted. Mazelan seized the momentum and transitioned to offense.
Her speed edged him out, but in raw power, he had the advantage.
To deny her room to swing, Mazelan ramped up his mana output and pressed the attack.
"Ugh!"
Mazelan swung at the faltering opponent.
The blade sliced into her shoulder.
Red blood spurted out.
Recognizing the battle had fully turned, a thick smile crept across Mazelan's lips.
'This... damn it...'
The sharp pain in her shoulder.
Frankling was gripped by deep dismay and regret.
At the start of the fight, she'd been confident enough.
Timid as she was, her combat prowess was on par with the Pirate King's top lieutenants.
With a bounty of 2,530 talents,
she was a 9th-grade upper-class warrior on the cusp of 10th-grade grand master status.
She could sweep away most foes in seconds,
and she'd assumed this time would be no different.
Especially since, for the first time, she was protecting someone else... Ambasha.
The desire to show her little sister a cool big-sister side had led her to choose immediate battle over a clumsy escape...
But she'd overlooked two key variables.
One: the opponent was among the strongest she'd ever faced.
Mazelan was a big name on the seas.
At least among Mediterranean pirates, nearly everyone knew of him.
The problem was that Frankling was one of the few who didn't.
If she hadn't been the gloomy homebody stuck in the kitchen, she surely would've heard his name.
'Of course... to target a Pirate King's lieutenant, they'd have to be that strong...'
They wouldn't dare attack Ezra Drake's daughter without confidence in taking her down and escaping clean.
And the second variable compounding his strength: Mazelan's crew was even dirtier than she'd anticipated.
Openly firing at a little girl to tilt a supposed 1-on-1.
Even though their real target seemed to be Ambasha, not her head, judging by their earlier talk.
Unforeseen variables led to her looming defeat.
Regret flooded in.
Her rashness had endangered not just herself, but Ambasha too.
A clean escape might've prevented this mess.
Careless greed had backed her into a corner.
But...
Instead of despair or panic,
Frankling gripped her crumbling resolve and tightened her hold on her knife.
'I... have to take responsibility... No choice now... at least for Ambasha...'
She couldn't collapse here.
Her legs trembled, dizziness hit hard, but she endured.
Falling meant danger for Ambasha too.
She steadied her mind and sorted her thoughts.
There was a way.
If she used 'that method' to buy time...
she could get Ambasha to escape.
Steel resolve firm,
grateful to Ambasha for letting her fragile mentality even consider this in the heat of battle.
And for the first time in her life,
thankful for possessing this face of hers.
Frankling slowly,
slowly pushed back the hood covering her face.
That was when...
"...?!"
A sound from behind, and something rocketed into the sky.
A familiar memory flashed, and Frankling's expression changed in that instant.
The opponent clearly cornered.
In other words, mission success and a fat payday in sight—Mazelan shouted with thick excitement.
"Looks like it's over. Why not call it? Surrender nice and quiet, and I might let you live."
Of course, with her hefty bounty, he'd hand her to the navy—but not kill her himself, so it wasn't a total lie.
Then...
"..."
The pirate slowly turned to them, hand on her deeply pulled hood.
He'd been curious about her face throughout the fight, so with victory all but sealed, curiosity piqued.
She was a woman, after all.
How pretty might she be?
But...
"...Gasp!"
"Hic!"
The face revealed as the hood slid back slightly.
The moment Mazelan glimpsed the eyes amid her disheveled hair, his first emotion hit.
Just... scary.
Pretty or ugly aside, it was the kind of face that might make you faint if spotted at night—or at least jolt you badly.
The shadows from the not-fully-pushed-back hood made it even creepier.
But before the shock faded... an ominous feeling crept in from something else.
"...W-wait... that woman, no way..."
"Huh? No way what?"
"N-no, it's just..."
Fear hit first, then a strangely familiar vibe from the face.
As one of Mazelan's men puzzled over its origin...
"!?"
A firework-like bang erupted.
The moment they saw the golden smoke soaring skyward...
"Ah..."
"Shit..."
One figure finally crystallized in their minds, too late.
"...Pi... Pirate... King...?"
"Why?"
Already too late.