novelraw Chapter 271: Disciplining the Iceberg Queen (Two-in-One)
Chapter 271: Disciplining the Iceberg Queen (Two-in-One)
"Ocie, she... is very unaccustomed to the life after leaving the Sardin Matriarchy and boarding the Iceberg Queen."
"Unaccustomed?"
Hearing Fisher's words, Alajina's expression appeared somewhat surprised. Just as Ocie had said, only at this moment when Fisher brought her up did she realize the dilemma Ocie was currently facing.
Alajina had to face many things every day and put her mind in many places. It was understandable that she had somewhat neglected this always reticent and utterly loyal guard by her side. Conversely, when Ocie privately complained a bit about Alajina, it was naturally beyond reproach.
Fisher didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He sealed all the used herbs and placed them on the table beside him.
"Did you really think Ocie likes staying alone on the mast every day?"
"I mentioned this matter to her, and she also came down for a few days, but very quickly went back again."
"That's because she has no way to communicate normally with others. She tried, she needs your help, but you didn't notice."
"...She should have told me directly."
Fisher glanced at Alajina and calmly shook his head, saying,"Although it sounds somewhat contradictory, for many people, not every sincere word can be easily spoken aloud. She was afraid of causing you trouble, afraid of not conforming to the straightforward personality of you Sardin Matriarchy women... There are many, many reasons, but the result is that she ultimately said nothing to you."
"Alajina, when she was in the Sardin Matriarchy, she always played the role of your most loyal guard, helping you complete your rebellion against your mother back then. But after boarding the ship, she felt you had lost your goal, making her also become confused along with you. After all, a pirate captain no longer necessarily needs a demi-human guard following her around at all times, right?"
Eimhart, resting on the table behind Fisher, widened his eye slightly, looked at Fisher's back, and then glanced at the thinking Alajina's expression. He opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but ultimately gave up again.
This guy Fisher didn't mention a single word about Ocie wanting to try dating him and wanting him to touch her wings. Truly extraordinarily sinister!
But Eimhart was timid after all. Doing his utmost for duty, he could only shoot a meaningful glance at Alajina. As a result, Alajina completely ignored him, merely pursing her lips and lowering her head, not knowing what she was thinking about.
Goal...
Earlier, her elder sister Heliana seemed to have also spoken to her about this matter, seeming to deeply despise her adaptable self.
But Alajina herself genuinely had no grand ambitions, and naturally nothing that could be called a specific goal either.
She merely wanted to let every subordinate who left the Sardin Matriarchy with her live well, while she herself could find a favored man to live in seclusion with together. Was such a thought wrong?
"I understand."
Only after being silent for a second or two did she seemingly remember that Fisher before her was still looking at her, so she spoke thus as a response to his words.
The words were spoken, but it didn't mean the ripples stirred up in her heart by Heliana and Fisher had subsided. At this time, the tattoo on Alajina's back spine began to radiate a bit of cold air along with her depressed mood at this moment. That cold air invisible to the naked eye slowly spread, solidifying the slight moisture at the tips of her hair that hadn't completely evaporated.
Fisher keenly noticed the slight drop in the room's temperature, as if an invisible ice block had suddenly appeared in the room, freezing the surrounding space.
"And what about you, Fisher? Earlier when you returned, you seemed to have some matter you wanted to tell me. What is it?"
"Are you sure you want to hear it right now?"
Alajina looked at the Naris man wearing a white shirt before her, hesitated for a moment, and nodded expressing agreement.
"Mhm."
"Alright... I temporarily cannot travel with you guys by ship to the Pirate Harbor anymore. I have to make a trip to the Northern Border afterwards."
The temperature of the room dropped a bit more again, even transparent ice crystals slowly grew on the window behind the curtains. And exactly after this sentence, Alajina miraculously stood up from the bed expressionlessly, pressing heavily on Fisher's chest and pushing him against the wall.
Her body was quite tall and sturdy, but due to her injuries and her special feelings towards Fisher, the strength she exerted was actually quite small, reluctant to hurt him. Yet the "fragile" Fisher was pushed backward directly by her until he was close to the edge of the wall, dumbfounding Eimhart on the table beside them.
"Why?! You want to leave? Are you also disappointed in me like Ocie? I said before I would take you to the Northern Border... Why do you have to leave now?"
Although her expression still hadn't changed much, the speed of her speech had clearly increased considerably, and the cold intent emanating from her became denser and denser, seemingly bringing Fisher back to the Northern Border in an instant.
This was the appearance of Alajina truly becoming furious, completely different from other hot-tempered Sardin Matriarchy women. With her senses frozen by the Ice Prince, even her anger appeared exceedingly restrained, but the sense of danger it gave people was not a bit weaker than others.
Fisher didn't touch her body at all. At this time, the cold sea salt aura on Alajina was constantly stimulating his senses. Even though the room's temperature had dropped several degrees, it hadn't cooled down the scorching heat within his body. He adjusted his breathing with difficulty, saying to Alajina,
"I have a very urgent matter that needs to be handled. Waiting until I reach the Pirate Harbor with you to return to the Northern Border would genuinely be too late..."
"A very urgent matter? Is it the kind you can't tell me again? Fisher... You said you'd give me a chance to pursue you, but why can't you tell me anything about your affairs? Did I... do something wrong? Or is it that your attitude towards me is just wanting to play with me? You've completely not taken me to heart at all. In your heart, there are actually other ladies, and you fundamentally don't like the women of the Matriarchy either, even if I respect you so much. Is that it?"
The overbearing Alajina suddenly erupted with a piercing desire to attack. As a series of her words slipped out, the atmosphere in the room also grew precarious.
The Eimhart beside them usually clamored fiercely, wishing Fisher would be macheted by that group of ladies any day now. But seeing Fisher approaching the brink of capsizing the boat at this moment, he still immediately and frantically opened his mouth to defend Fisher.
"Captain Alajina, Captain Alajina! You absolutely must not misunderstand! The matter this guy is going to do, he won't even tell me. One can imagine it absolutely has nothing to do with being disappointed in you or other ladies! This brat usually... uh, that, maintains his integrity quite well, is quite honest. He's absolutely not the kind of person you think he is!"
As a result, Alajina completely didn't even look at him, merely staring fixedly at Fisher, seemingly wanting him to give an accurate answer to her questioning.
And Fisher, pushed against the wall by her, took several deep breaths wanting to calm down but found no way. Until finally, when he opened his eyes again, his originally gentlemanly, restrained gaze also became extremely scalding, like a beast roaring as it broke out of its cage, furiously assaulting the prey before its eyes.
"Alajina, you really think I'm a man from your Matriarchy, right?"
"I..."
Just as Alajina was about to open her mouth to speak, the hand of Fisher before her that hadn't detached from Alajina violently grabbed her arm, like a pair of irons heated to a scalding degree, making Alajina feel that scorching heat through her clothing.
The next second, he fiercely dragged Alajina and spun her around, pressing her tightly-honed body against the wall with her back to him.
"Ugh..."
Completely different from the questioning but still extremely polite distance Alajina had maintained just now, Fisher excessively pinned her cold wrists behind her back, and his face leaned against the edge of her gradually reddening earlobe. That suddenly closing breathing collided with her skin, making her tremble slightly like an electric shock.
It was hard to say clearly. Compared to the current rough Fisher, the previous Alajina truly seemed more like a proper gentleman.
Feeling Fisher's scorching body temperature from behind, Alajina's lips pursed slightly, causing the temperature of the entire room to begin rising along with it. The frost on the floor and windows also gradually receded.
Eimhart, whose wasted breath just now was completely useless, watched helplessly as the bad man Fisher's rough actions miraculously eliminated the frost in the room. He opened his mouth, as if seeing an out-of-syllabus knowledge never recorded in his body before.
"What kind of idiot are you? How does me leaving suddenly become me being disappointed in you? Isabel and Old Jack are still on your ship. I cannot take them away together, so I need your help looking after them... You saying this now, instead makes it somewhat difficult for me to trust you and hand them over to your care."
"No... I..."
Fisher's breath struck directly against Alajina's neck, like a raging fire burning her words into stutters. His hand inadvertently squeezed his own fresh wound just now while shoving. The feeling of pain, shame, pressure, apology, and the itching sensation brought by the healing magic all bloomed in Alajina's heart like a hodgepodge at this moment.
That cold heart enveloped by the Ice Prince for an extended period began to beat wildly at this time. The pain of the wound didn't make her feel uncomfortable, but instead stimulated a certain pleasure and happiness that she herself was unwilling to admit.
Therefore, she didn't open her mouth to ask Fisher to release her hand, merely pursing her lips and tilting her head slightly, looking at the Fisher who was only an inch away from her.
Too close... And the posture was also so strange...
How could Alajina, who had never had romantic experience, have seen such a formation? She had to hastily answer Fisher's words, while also feeling that continuous sensation. The complex senses threw her decisions into chaos, making her legs go slightly weak as she leaned into Fisher's embrace. Her height, clearly considerably taller than Fisher, was also miraculously completely lower than his at this moment, completely completely controlled by him in her movements.
"I was just... a bit afraid... afraid that you would also be disappointed in me just like others are."
Fisher greedily breathed in the fresh fragrance transmitting from her body. As her somewhat flustered words sounded, he finally opened those dark eyes that looked as if they wanted to swallow her whole.
And Alajina's words continued to sound, causing his forward-demanding movement to pause slightly for a moment.
"I am a Matriarchy woman without grand ambitions... Perhaps Heliana is right. My ambition falls far behind my talent. I only want to let my crew members obtain a good ending and want to be with you. Other than that, making a name for oneself and leaving a mark in history holds absolutely no temptation for me..."
"But perhaps it's precisely because of my adaptable thoughts that I caused my father's death, and made the crew members who could have originally stayed in the Sardin Matriarchy run around with me. It might also make you look down on me... I know, Elizabeth is an Empress of Naris. Being with her is much better than being with a pirate like me who has nothing, isn't it?"
Perhaps it was exactly today's encounter with Heliana that made Alajina sink back into the quagmire of the past again. She failed to prevent her father's suicide, failed to change the situation of the Hammond Fiefdom, and couldn't even hold on to the people beside her... This made her tangle with self-contempt and lack of confidence, making her display sensitivity and suspicion for the first time...
But letting Fisher look back and search from a bystander's perspective at this time, had Alajina really not done well enough?
Perhaps for a minority of people, it was so, for example, Heliana and Ocie.
In Heliana's eyes, as Edlas's daughter, Alajina clearly had countless better opportunities to save Edlas who was her father, yet she didn't have the ability to turn the tide. In Ocie's eyes, Alajina, as the person closest to herself previously, failed to notice her little thoughts, so she produced a sliver of complaining emotion...
But these words were all hindsight. Heliana only saw the areas where Alajina didn't do well as Edlas's daughter, but didn't see that within the Hammond family, she was constantly enduring the same humiliation and bullying as her father. She had to stand up, had to train, had to defeat her sister, had to defeat her mother...
Ocie also only saw that Alajina who was the master of a guard, but neglected that she was also a captain, the leader of a group of fleeing suspects...
Alajina had many things to consider. At least from Fisher's own level, Alajina had already reached the extreme. Yet she was still reflecting right now, and would feel lost because of others' evaluations of herself...
The so-called "beneath a great reputation, it is hard to reside long" spoke of precisely this reasoning. Fisher believed Alajina had already done very well.
"Perfect people do not exist. You, as a woman of the Sardin Matriarchy, being more restrained and having lower self-esteem than ladies from other countries simply will not do..."
The low words sounded. Fisher simultaneously reached out and pulled her cheek to look at each other. Only when his face completely appeared in her azure eyes did he continue,
"No matter what others say, no matter what you think yourself, in my view, the so-called Iceberg Queen should be exactly you... Your crew members trust you so much and have never been disappointed by your actions. You should maintain a basic understanding of this and continue to make efforts on this foundation."
"At least that's what the gentleman Fisher Benavides from Naris thinks, opinions are for reference only. But having said that, your suspicion and questioning of me just now made me very angry, so I must give you some discipline."
"Discipline?"
Alajina's earlobes became increasingly ruddy. She seemed completely unable to understand what the "discipline" in Fisher's words meant, but her heartbeat grew faster and faster. The frost in the room was also completely melted, turning into drops of water constantly dripping down from the window sill, making "tick-tock" sounds to accompany her accelerating heartbeat.
"Mm... Do the things you promised me previously still count?"
"The things... I promised you?"
"Mm, regarding whether you are on the bottom or on top."
Only upon hearing Fisher's reminder at this time did Alajina suddenly seem to remember the shameful words she had said previously. The redness of her earlobes also spread towards her beautiful profile like a runaway horse, decorating her originally frost-like face with an inviting pinkness.
She pursed her lips, and the azure blue in her eyes also melted from Fisher's heat at this time, revealing a moving aqueous charm,
"It... counts."
The white hair on Alajina's profile hung down a bit, but failed to conceal her slightly pouting red lips. That pure shyness unable to bear looking at itself, that increasingly distinct fresh sea salt fragrance, that dodging gaze all made Fisher's breathing increasingly heavy.
Alajina was simply too cute.
Thinking so, Fisher gently reached out and held her chin, aligning her profile towards himself. He also simultaneously lowered his head slightly, kissing her icy-cool lips.
"Mm..."
Alajina's body, originally with its back to Fisher, imperceptibly turned around. At this time, leaning against the wall, her other hand not gripped by Fisher proactively embraced his waist, constantly shortening the distance between him and herself, tasting his flavor as if reluctant to release him.
It was hard to say clearly whether the Sardin Matriarchy woman came out ahead or the Naris gentleman came out ahead. Or was this exactly a true win-win situation?
"..."
The two people in the room won completely numbly, only the book brain Eimhart staying on the table beside them was dumbfounded.
He fiercely opened his mouth, his eye staring widely. Just as he wanted to open his mouth to reprimand this matter detrimental to public morals, Fisher distractedly reached out and grabbed his body.
The next second, before he could even react, he was roughly tossed out through the door of the room, breaking away from the fiery atmosphere within the room.
Eimhart's square book body spun several times in the corridor. Then he stared blankly at the ceiling until obvious sounds of wooden sleeping furniture came from inside. Only then did he blankly sit up from the floor, softly cursing towards the direction of the room,
"Fisher! You beast of a human! I helped round out your lies like this, and this is how you treat me! You just wait, later I will tell your evil deeds to any lady you encounter! Regardless of whether it's a demi-human or a human! I said it!"
Eimhart, in impotent rage, looked at that tightly shut door, pausing for a second or two. Just as he wanted to float up and find a place to quiet down, he turned his head and surprisingly looked outside the corridor, where the Cangniao-kin second mate Ocie was similarly squatting, her face flushed and half her face hidden within her wings.
Earlier, she went to notify the offshore Iceberg Queen to leave the sea area for Alajina to avoid conflicting with Mya. As a result, upon returning and just preparing to tell Alajina about this matter, she heard the conversation between Fisher and her.
Everything was very normal at first, especially regarding Fisher being able to convey her inner thoughts to the captain; Ocie was extremely grateful.
It wasn't until slightly un-child-friendly contact sounds came from inside that the pure Ocie realized after the fact that something seemed to be happening inside.
That kind of thing...
However, if it's romance, doing that kind of thing should be very normal, right?
Unclear if it was for learning or due to other reasons, anyway Ocie surprisingly hadn't left all along. Instead, she squatted at the doorway with a flushed face, listening clearly to the situation inside.
When Eimhart was thrown out, her quite shy gaze looked toward him. One demi-human, one book, and one parrot exchanged glances across the space, and the atmosphere in the corridor became bizarrely quiet.
It was still that parrot Steel Knife who didn't understand worldly wisdom that first opened its mouth breaking the deadlock, greeting Eimhart,
"Idiot... Idiot..."
"Your mom! I am the great Sir Book Artifact Eimhart! You curse again?! Do you believe I'll headbutt you to death!"
"Shh! Steel Knife, and... uh, Mr. Sir Book Artifact, please lower your voice a bit. If we are discovered we'll..."
Exactly how ambiguous the discipline for the Iceberg Queen in the Patlusion Island hotel was, outsiders naturally had no way of knowing.
Only, at the same time, within a fiefdom called "McDowell" on the southern coast of the Sardin Matriarchy, a story entirely different from peaceful days played out in a fishing village so quiet it didn't even have a name for over a dozen kilometers around.
"Come quick, look! Today Old Maude seems to have fished up some treasure from the sea!"
"What treasure? A huge fish? Or some seashell that can produce pearls?"
Many, many villagers who hadn't seen much of the world put down the work in their hands. Even the house-husbands and young men washing clothes at this time of day came to the center of the village, looking quite curiously at the item erected in the center of the village.
It turned out to be an egg with layers of bizarre patterns above it. There were also a few burnt and blackened marks on the eggshell, resembling having been ironed by a husband's iron.
They had naturally seen the eggs of sea beasts, but they were seeing a giant egg like this, twice as tall as an ordinary person, for the first time.
"This must be a Sea Ghost's egg! Old Maude, your family is going to strike it rich! Can Little Maude go to the city to attend school today?"
"Nonsense, if it's a Sea Ghost's egg, buying a house in the city would all be... From now on they are city folks, congratulations, congratulations."
"Congratulations, ah, congratulations."
Listening to the villagers' complimentary words, the white-haired, ruddy-complexioned old woman standing beside the giant egg smiled out of embarrassment.
"Sigh, sigh, don't mention anything about going to the city. I tell you, after I sell this egg, I'll marry a husband for Little Maude, then change to another boat... With the remaining money, I'll treat you all to a meal."
Just as Old Maude was speaking, the huge egg beside her started shaking gently. The very next moment, a flesh-and-blood tentacle, far thicker than an arm, fiercely extended from within that giant egg.
That bizarre tentacle instantly pierced through Old Maude. But from her body which had a large hole torn open, not a single drop of blood flowed down; instead, it all flowed towards the direction of that tentacle.
Everyone present didn't react to this sudden turn of events. Only when a man behind them watched helplessly as Old Maude was drained of her blood by that tentacle, turning into a shriveled mummy, did he scream out fiercely.
"Ah!! Monster!!"
"What is that thing?!"
"Run!"
But everything was already too late. When Old Maude salvaged this giant egg onto the boat as a treasure, the ending was already doomed...
Because this wasn't some Sea Ghost's egg at all, but the true body of the Lord of Life Erwinde, who had defected from the Creator's Society.
Innumerable times faster than anyone else, dozens of identical flesh-and-blood tentacles simultaneously darted out from that giant egg, precisely aiming at every single villager about to run away. As screams, the sound of blood being sucked, and the sound of corpses falling to the ground successively rang out, more and more tentacles appeared from that egg, until they had completely devoured every single visible living thing in this small town.
The entire process took less than ten minutes. This vibrant little fishing village plunged into deathly stillness again. Only that huge egg standing amidst the ground full of shriveled corpses became increasingly restless.
"Bang!"
The next second, that giant egg burst open like a squeezed pustule. Inside it burst forth scattered, incomparably viscous blood.
That rain-like blood scattered in mid-air, yet miraculously converged towards a spot in the center. With no skeleton, no obviously recognizable human tissues, it merely reconstructed in some unknown manner until it turned into a recognizable humanoid figure with a gigantic bird beak.
That was an entity of indistinguishable gender, wearing heavy classical clothing, with a face seemingly embedded with a bizarre bird beak mask.
"The Lord Cardinal is indeed the one who counters me the most. Clearly just a robot without even a Completion Handbook, to think he was actually hiding a Cardinal capable of taking effect on the soul."
Erwinde extended their hand. As the mana circuit on their body lit up—that twisted mana circuit already completely detached from relations with humanity—it continuously snaked around, but produced a distinct gap at the location of their lower abdomen.
Their soul was still too weak. If their soul had been a bit stronger, the Lord Cardinal would absolutely not have been their match...
Erwinde fell silent for a moment, their mind suddenly recalling the scene they had seen within the True Ice on Patlusion Island back then.
Amidst the sky-filling snowstorm, a pair of frost wings unfurling within the snow mountains, blotting out the sun and sky. That kind of oppressive feeling, that kind of life tier... it was not the Phoenix-kin, nor the legendary Mythical Species, but the key to their own transcending of everything and achieving detachment...
That was the God of the Sky.