Chapter 59
“All done, dear.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
The touch of her mother’s hand as she healed the wounds on her body.
At that, Cheshire quietly smiled at the corners of her lips.
As always, a kind and warm touch.
Right after the treatment ended, Alice Wonder Land spoke to Cheshire in a calm voice.
“You’ve been getting more injuries lately. Are the enemies that strong?”
“…No. I was fully capable of defeating them. This was just… because of a small mistake.”
In truth, it wasn’t a mistake—it was more like a limit.
Ever since the Higuma incident, frequent clashes with the Franz Kingdom military had become the norm.
And during those, she had fought the one known as the Brigadier several times.
With her current capabilities, it was impossible to come out of those encounters completely unscathed.
Fortunately, Dust, her “friend,” was always there to help.
Had it not been for her aid, Cheshire would have suffered injuries so grave she might not have recovered at all.
But…Even so, Cheshire couldn’t bring herself to speak of these things.
Her reason for existence was to protect her mother and the pirate crew. She couldn’t afford to show any signs of weakness when she bore that responsibility.
“Heh… I see… a mistake, you say…”
Alice let out a quiet chuckle. Then she set down the healing tools and, with her usual beautiful smile, spoke again.
“Be careful from now on. Go on now.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Cheshire politely bowed and left the room.
Watching her go, Alice kept the same happy-looking smile that never left her face.
In a voice full of warmth, she murmured softly:
“Soon… the next one, I suppose…”
***
“Haaah…”
A long sigh escaped Arcroyal Warspite.
Things were unfolding far more annoyingly than she had expected, and she couldn’t help but furrow her brow.
“I expected some friction… but not this much.”
The growing tensions between the navy and pirates were intensifying by the day.
Thankfully, in the case of Bennessa, she was exercising strict control, so there had been minimal issues.
The problem lay with the Franz Kingdom Navy.
There were already plenty of sources of conflict between them and the Britannian Empire pirates,
But the biggest issue was that the so-called Commander-in-Chief was utterly incapable of managing the situation.
‘Whether he can’t or simply won’t…’
From the beginning, he had been someone who couldn’t even grasp the reality of things.
It was likely he didn’t even understand how serious the situation had become.
He probably just thought, “We’re not going to see each other much longer anyway, and we’ll be enemies again when this is over…”
Even if they had come together to use one another, there still needed to be a minimum level of trust to work as allies.
The higher-ups in the Franz Kingdom who put someone that incompetent in charge…
It made her realize just how messed up their leadership truly was.
‘Still… even considering all that, something about this just feels off…’
Even if pirates and navy hated each other, they’d only been stuck together for a few days.
It takes two hands to clap.
They were in an uncomfortable alliance, and with the Pirate King looming as a common enemy—
Why would anyone deliberately stir up more conflict?
‘Well… some people are just nasty enough to enjoy picking fights…’
There’s always someone like that no matter where you go.
Especially those short-tempered types so common in the Franz Kingdom.
It might actually have been unnatural not to have any incidents.
Still…
Even considering all of that, this uncomfortable gut feeling wouldn’t go away.
Her always-sharpened instincts were giving her a subtle warning.
There wasn’t anything concrete enough to make a call yet…
‘In that case… maybe it’s better to go ahead with Plan B?’
It was something she wanted to avoid if possible—it would earn her a lot of flak.
It would’ve been different if she had joined as a mere participant, but since she had been the one to propose the alliance in the first place…
It would be a betrayal of even minimal trust.
But—
The Franz Kingdom had already done more than enough to deserve the hate.
And with the alliance already showing major cracks, she was starting to think it might not be such a bad move after all.
‘Still… no, that’s not right… there are civilians with the navy too, not just pirates…’
Even if it was effective, Arcroyal slowly shook her head.
Betraying everyone here would just be too much. It didn’t sit right with her.
‘Besides, we’re heading out soon anyway… there’s no time for things to get worse—’
-KWAGWANG!!!
“?! Wh-What was that?!”
Suddenly, a loud crash and a flash of light.
In that instant, Arcroyal hurried to look out the window.
“That place… no way…”
Flames shot up into the air, and chaotic voices rang through the space in between.
It was the dead of night, but Arcroyal Warspite could tell. She knew who was over there.
And…
She understood what this situation meant.
‘It’s begun… Plan B…’
***
Blue Queen of the Blue Shark Pirate Group.
She was deeply irritated by the increasingly frustrating situation around her.
She had felt an ominous premonition ever since tensions flared between Alice Wonder Land’s White Shark Pirate Group and the Franz Kingdom military.
And sure enough, it hadn’t taken long for the flames to reach her as well.
To those Franz snail bastards, whether it was Alice or Blue Queen, they were all just the same Britannian Empire privateers.
“I don’t like it. Dirty navy bastards. Can’t even go a few days without causing problems.”
Of course, she’d never expected to get along with those worthless navy dogs from the start.
They might be privateers, but their range was limited to Britannian Empire territory.
Navy forces from other nations were simply enemies—predators and prey.
Still, even with that in mind, wasn’t it outrageous for things to get this bad in less than a week?
The current hostile mood was troubling enough—
But the greater issue was whether they could even trust this alliance enough to fight together properly.
“Captain Blue Queen, are you really okay with this? I know it’s late to say, but I’m growing more and more uneasy about entrusting the vanguard to those bastards.”
“I agree. But what, are we going to be the vanguard instead? You think we can entrust our backs to them while we take the brunt of the cannon fire?”
“…Er… well…”
“If someone’s going to backstab, let it be us. Just hold on a little longer. When they start getting pounded up front, we’ll swoop in and take only what we want.”
“I understand what you mean.”
“No mistakes allowed. There’s only one goal—the Pirate King’s treasure. We can’t risk bloodshed by getting caught up in anything else.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Capta—”
“!”
-BOOM!!!
Suddenly, an enormous explosion.
The inn where Blue Queen and her officers were staying burst into flames in an instant.
“W-What is that?!”
“I-Isn’t that where Captain Blue Queen is?!”
“Damn it! Put out the fire!”
“Save the captain!”
As chaos erupted, pirates rushed toward the burning inn.
And at that moment, they caught sight of a group of people fleeing in haste.
“W-Wait! Those people—!”
“Isn’t that… the Franz Kingdom navy?!”
Though they couldn’t see the faces clearly, the uniforms unmistakably belonged to the Franz Kingdom.
The fleeing soldiers threw bottles of liquor to the ground and vanished in a flash.
“Those insane bastards… How dare they…!”
“W-Wait! We don’t have time for them right now! Save the captain first!”
“Grr…”
Though burning with rage, the immediate concern was the blaze engulfing the inn.
The pirates desperately fetched seawater or used Magic if they could to extinguish the fire.
And a short while later…
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
“C-Captain!”
“A-Are you alright, Captain?!”
Through the dying flames, Blue Queen and her officers emerged.
They were covered in burns across their bodies.
A few were even seriously injured, but thanks to the use of magic to protect themselves, no one had died or sustained fatal wounds.
However…
“Those sons of bitches dared…”
“They went too far this time… attacking the captain herself…”
This incident added fuel to the fire of those already disgusted with the Franz Kingdom Navy’s tyranny.
This wasn’t just irritation or annoyance anymore—
It was a real danger.
“This is unacceptable. At this rate, we’ll be taken out by them before we even get to the actual battle!”
“I agree! And this time, they even attacked the captain directly! This cannot be tolerated!”
Whether it was a deliberate plan or not no longer mattered.
Attacking the Captain was a line they could never forgive.
In national terms, it was like attacking the king of a country.
No matter the reason…
This was nothing short of a declaration of war.
“Send word. To Alice.”
“Yes, Captain!”
—
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