Chapter 25

“Yeah, that’s him.”

A chilling, violently cold voice cut through the pirate chatter. Accompanied by the distinct, furious sound of teeth aggressively grinding together.

“Listen up, boys. Slaughter every single person on that ship, but capture Aiden Rosley completely alive.”

“Yes, Captain! Understood!”

“After all, revenge is always the most fun when it’s incredibly petty and cruel! Plus, that’s just a pathetic passenger ship, so we hold the absolute advantage!”

Hearing the blatant, highly specific declaration of war, Clyde tilted his head.

“Well, that’s what they claim.”

“I see.”

Aiden snickered softly, casually stretching both of his arms high into the sky. Limbering up his muscles, he threw a question at Clyde.

“Your Grace. The wind is perfect, and the waves are calm. Isn’t this the absolute perfect weather to completely wipe out some pirate scum who don’t know when to shut their mouths?”

The exact second Aiden finished his sentence, Logan seamlessly stepped forward and handed him his rifle. The intricate silver foil wrapping the rugged chestnut weapon sparkled brilliantly as it caught the sunlight. Gripping the familiar weight of the rifle, Aiden addressed the nobles currently standing on the deck.

“Prepare for battle.”

As his low, deeply resonant, commanding voice rolled across the deck, every single ‘noble’ simultaneously ripped off their extravagant outer garments. Hidden flawlessly beneath the aristocratic clothing were pristine Navy combat uniforms. In a matter of seconds, they drew their concealed weapons and instantly transitioned into flawless combat formations.

“What the hell is that…?!”

Completely blindsided by the impossible scenario, the wildly confident pirates immediately descended into panicked chaos. Don’t tell me… did they completely figure out our ambush plan beforehand and disguise an elite naval squad as nobles?! The pirate captain’s eyes trembled violently with sheer terror.

How the hell did they find out…?! And from where?!

Countless horrifying hypotheses flashed through the pirate captain’s mind, but in the heat of an active combat zone, there was absolutely zero time to investigate who was to blame. Only one absolute truth mattered right now: they were currently commanding a heavily armed pirate vessel packed with cannons, while the enemy—despite being Navy—was trapped on a fragile passenger ship utterly incapable of launching an offensive attack, let alone mounting a proper defense.

“Y-You’re on a pathetic passenger ship! Do you honestly think you can defeat us?!”

Having quickly organized his panicked thoughts, the pirate captain bellowed loudly in a desperate attempt to project strength. However, perhaps betraying the profound, unidentified terror rapidly taking root deep within his heart, his magically amplified voice wavered and cracked pathetically across the open air.

“Right. If we were actually relying on the passenger ship we’re currently standing on, it would certainly be a struggle. But warships are an entirely different story.”

Muttering a lethal truth the pirates couldn’t possibly hear, Aiden casually snapped his fingers. Exactly as if they had been waiting for that specific, silent cue, a devastating barrage of cannon fire rained down upon the pirate vessel from all sides.

As massive geysers of water erupted around the pirate ship, completely blinding them, Aiden smoothly racked the bolt of his rifle. Raising the weapon, he aimed the iron sights directly into the obscuring curtain of water, targeting a completely invisible enemy.

The last time I saw him, he was standing exactly… here.

Without a single microsecond of hesitation, Aiden pulled the trigger. Bang! The bullet sliced cleanly through the air, tracing a flawless, deadly parabola straight toward the pirate ship.

“Aaaargh!”

Mere seconds later, a sharp, agonizing scream of pure pain pierced the chaos. Observing the pirate ship descend into even greater panic and disarray, Aiden lowered his rifle and offered a deeply mocking sneer.

“See, this is exactly what happens when pirate scum run their mouths.”

As the massive water pillars obscuring their vision finally collapsed back into the ocean, the surrounding battlefield came into terrifyingly sharp focus. Several heavily armed warships proudly bearing the flag of the Celton Empire had completely and flawlessly encircled the pirate vessel. The pirate captain, having just had a high-velocity bullet graze within millimeters of his face, was currently collapsed on the deck in absolute, paralyzing terror.

“Your Grace. It is highly dangerous, so please stay directly behind me.”

Aiden forcefully grabbed Clyde’s arm and pulled him securely behind his back. Because Clyde was significantly taller and broader than Aiden, he wasn’t exactly ‘hidden’ from the enemy’s line of sight, but it was an incredibly reliable, fiercely protective back nonetheless. Staring quietly at Aiden’s back for a moment, Clyde suddenly let out a pained groan.

“What should I do? It hurts so much.”

“Why?! Did you get hit by a stray bullet without realizing it?!”

That’s completely impossible. Terrified out of his mind, Aiden violently spun around and frantically, meticulously scanned every single inch of Clyde’s body, starting from his face. Thankfully, there wasn’t a single scratch on him.

Then did he eat something bad? Just as a dark, deeply anxious shadow began to cloud Aiden’s face, Clyde’s eyes curved into beautiful, devastatingly soft crescents.

“No. It’s just that my husband is so overwhelmingly charismatic and protective that my heart is fluttering so hard it actually hurts.”

Hah. A completely breathless, utterly dumbfounded sound leaked past Aiden’s lips. He honestly believed he had built up a solid immunity to this man’s absolute nonsense, but he was disastrously wrong.

“…Are you, by any chance, completely insane?”

Grinding his teeth together, Aiden barely managed to force the words out, syllable by agonizing syllable. Even the basic, formal respect he had desperately tried to maintain toward the Grand Duke had entirely evaporated.

“No? I am perfectly, completely normal.”

Right, attempting to apply logic and reason to this lunatic is a fool’s errand. Rapidly suppressing his exasperation to refocus on the active combat zone, Aiden whipped his head back toward the pirate ship.

“Admiral Aiden Rosley.”

“What now.”

“Look at me.”

It was a terrifyingly cold, deeply authoritative voice that instinctively made one’s body flinch in submission. Clicking his tongue in deep annoyance, Aiden turned back to meet Clyde’s gaze. The eyes that had been absolutely brimming with playful mischief mere seconds ago were now chillingly dark and heavily subdued.

“I don’t care if you completely destroy the passenger ship, and I don’t care if you sink the warships. Just ensure you do not get a single scratch on your body.”

“Is that a request? Or an order?”

Facing Aiden’s defiant question, Clyde maintained a heavy, calculated silence for a moment before offering a slow, wicked smirk.

“A threat.”

“Excuse me?”

A threat? 

Utterly incapable of comprehending the bizarre statement, Aiden tilted his head. Slowly reaching out, Clyde gently, reverently caressed Aiden’s cheek as he delivered his ultimatum.

“The absolute second a single scratch appears on your body, I will explicitly detail every single embarrassing, shameful thing you did to me while blackout drunk to every single subordinate standing on this deck. Do not damage your precious body.”

You absolute, crazy Grand Duke bastard. Even as he viciously cursed him internally, a faint, entirely unconscious smile bloomed on Aiden’s lips.

“I’ll have you know, Your Grace, if even a single scratch appears on your face, I absolutely will not let it slide.”

“Hmm? Now that you say it like that, I’m actually incredibly curious to see what would happen.”

As Clyde’s eyes sparkled with genuine, dangerous curiosity, Aiden curled one corner of his lip into a sly, mocking smirk. Right. Let’s see how you like being on the receiving end of absolute nonsense, you crazy Grand Duke.

“What do you think will happen? I’ll simply look at you, sigh, and say, ‘Well, your one and only redeeming quality has vanished,’ and then I’ll immediately abandon you.”

“Wow. I am genuinely, incredibly hurt.”

Despite aggressively claiming he was hurt, Clyde’s face was completely plastered with a massive, highly amused smile. Smoothly reaching down, Clyde drew the sword resting at his hip. The masterfully forged blade gleamed brilliantly as it cleared the scabbard.

“If I don’t want to be ruthlessly abandoned by my incredibly shallow, looks-obsessed husband, I suppose I’ll have to work exceptionally hard to protect myself.”

“Are you finally starting to understand?”

His sharply slanted eyes and deeply sullen, complaining tone should have been infuriating, yet Clyde found it impossible to be annoyed. On the contrary, Aiden looked overwhelmingly cute and devastatingly adorable. My obsession really has reached a terminal stage. Acknowledging the absolute truth of his condition, Clyde chuckled softly.

“What is it now? Were you so profoundly shocked by my threat that all you can do is laugh in disbelief?”

“No. Actually, I knew perfectly well that you were exactly this kind of person the moment you explicitly stated my face was your exact type.”

At Clyde’s effortless counter, Aiden scrunched up his face in profound, defeated irritation, clearly unable to endure the teasing any longer. The hand gripping his rifle trembled slightly with suppressed rage.

However, acutely aware that he was in the middle of an active standoff with pirates, Aiden took a slow, deep breath to forcibly calm his irritation. While doing so, his eyes naturally locked onto the sword Clyde had drawn.

“Your Grace. Do you actually intend to participate in this combat?”

“Yes, of course.”

At Clyde’s confident answer, a deeply worried shadow crossed Aiden’s face. He knew perfectly well that Clyde was an exceptional swordsman who regularly ventured out to slaughter monsters. However, maritime combat was fundamentally, wildly different from land combat. Simply dodging the chaotic barrage of cannon fire and bullets was difficult enough, but the aggressively unpredictable swaying of the ship made fighting on the deck incredibly treacherous.

Furthermore, Clyde was a Grand Duke. He was the highest-ranking individual present in this entire warzone; he was the VIP that they were absolutely required to protect, even at the cost of their own lives. No matter how flawlessly Aiden had designed this strategy, the battlefield was entirely defined by unpredictable variables.

Accurately reading the deep, genuine anxiety swirling in Aiden’s eyes, Clyde smoothly slid his sword back into its scabbard.

“I absolutely hate the idea of our dear Admiral losing his focus during a battle because he’s too busy worrying about me. Therefore, I will stay perfectly hidden right here, and I will only slaughter the pirate bastards who manage to spot me.”

With that, he unhooked the entire scabbard from his belt, holding the sheathed weapon in his hand.

“I am allowed to do at least that much, correct?”

The low, incredibly neat voice pleasantly tickled Aiden’s ear. It was a dangerously sweet, entirely irresistible tone.

Right. I’ll leave the main combat to my subordinates, and I’ll personally ensure these pirate bastards don’t even get within breathing distance of the passenger ship. Rapidly finalizing his tactical adjustments, Aiden nodded firmly.

“Thank you.”

The eyes holding the vast blue sea curved into beautiful, breathtaking crescents. It was a sight so staggeringly gorgeous that Aiden’s desperate vow to never be bewitched by his face felt entirely pointless. Feeling a dangerous, burning heat rushing to his cheeks, Aiden cleared his throat awkwardly.

“T-Then, I suppose it’s time to do some long-overdue pirate hunting.”

Whipping his head away to hide his flush, Aiden marched briskly toward Logan and his subordinates. He could clearly hear a low, highly amused chuckle drifting from behind him, but he aggressively ignored it.

“Current status report?”

As if the flustered, blushing man from mere seconds ago had never existed, Aiden’s face and voice were now chillingly cold, completely devoid of even a microscopic trace of amusement. Logan quickly synthesized the continuous stream of tactical data being relayed from the warships and delivered a concise report.

“As ordered, sir, the pirates are currently being captured alive. However, despite their sails being shredded and their vessel being rendered completely combat-ineffective, several highly stubborn individuals are violently refusing to surrender. It appears the subjugation will take slightly longer than anticipated.”

Accepting a brass spyglass from Logan, Aiden meticulously surveyed the situation aboard the pirate ship. Despite the chaotic symphony of cannon fire and screaming, the Navy personnel were moving with terrifying calm and methodical precision.

They effortlessly overpowered the charging pirates, systematically binding them tightly with heavy ropes. It was the exact kind of highly moderate, non-lethal combat method the Emperor so deeply loved.

“Logan, you will continue to monitor the situation aboard the pirate vessel. The rest of you, return to your designated positions and—”

Cutting his own order short, Aiden swiftly racked the bolt of his rifle. He aimed the deadly muzzle directly over the side railing of the passenger ship. A fraction of a second later, a heavy rope equipped with a vicious iron grappling hook rocketed up from the ocean below.

Smirking wickedly, Aiden pulled the trigger. Bang! Accompanied by the sharp crack of the rifle, the thick rope was instantly severed mid-air. Witnessing their Admiral’s always-astonishing intuition, terrifying reaction speed, and flawless marksmanship, the subordinates tightly clenched their fists in awe. They couldn’t exactly erupt into wild cheering in the middle of a battle, after all.

“Maintain absolute, impenetrable surveillance to ensure not a single pirate bastard manages to board this passenger ship.”

“Yes, Admiral!”

“And do not forget: fish them all out of the water before they actually drown.”

“We will keep that in mind, sir.”

Equipping themselves with heavy ropes and whip-like weapons, the subordinates dispersed to their assigned tactical positions. Clearly entirely unwilling to surrender, another grappling hook violently shot up toward the railing.

“They certainly are diligent.”

Muttering the sarcastic compliment under his breath, Aiden calmly and effortlessly severed the second rope with another precise shot. Then, pulling a small, unidentifiable object from his pocket, he casually walked over to the ship’s railing.

“Hello there, pirate scum.”

Delivering a cheerful, completely unheard greeting to the enemy, Aiden casually tossed the mysterious object over the side and into the ocean. A tiny, almost cute plop echoed as it hit the water, instantly followed by a chorus of horrified, agonizing screams.