“Do you recognize me?”

Melvin’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked Rosetta up and down. His face turned ghostly pale in an instant, as if he might faint at any moment. He clamped his own hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. The hand covering his mouth trembled violently.

“I-is it r-really you, C-Captain?”

Rosetta grinned.

“Yeah, kid. It’s me.”

Sometimes, life flowed in directions unimaginable. This time was no different. Rosetta had long pondered how Melvin would react when she revealed her identity. She hadn’t expected a tearful embrace or anything dramatic, but she certainly hadn’t imagined this kind of reaction either.

The moment he learned her identity, Melvin, like a pirate vulnerable to superstition, nearly fainted. Then, trembling all over, he pulled out a talisman tucked into his undergarments.

If Rosetta hadn’t lightly slapped his cheek, he might have started sprinkling salt everywhere. Why are the people around me always so uniquely insane? Rosetta frowned.

In any case, Melvin didn’t seem in any state to continue the conversation, so Rosetta waved him off. Before sending him away, she pressed her thumb and forefinger together and drew them across her lips, signaling him to keep quiet. He nodded frantically, his face pale as a corpse, clearly too terrified to blab about her identity.

Even if he did talk… who would believe the words of a pirate without a status medallion? Rosetta stretched, calmly calculating her next move.

But no sooner had five minutes passed after Melvin left than Cardier opened the parlor door, catching her off guard. He spotted Rosetta and flashed a charming smile, his eyes crinkling.

“Ah, there you are.”

“What? When did you get here?”

“Just now.”

Cardier, his cravat loosely undone, crossed the parlor with elegant strides. He must have passed Melvin on his way in, given the timing, yet he showed no sign of recognition.

“You doing alright?”

Cardier slipped his hand into the hollow of her neck. Bending down, he gently kissed her forehead. His embrace carried the scent of the wind, as if he’d just ridden hard to get here. Rosetta tugged sharply at his coat hem. Cardier’s eyes widened in surprise before he pulled her into his arms.

“Today’s welcome is awfully warm.”

“You said you’d be late for a while…”

“Sadly, I have to head out again. Just came to grab some clothes.”

“What? At this hour?”

“Lately, privateers have been rampant.”

Rosetta, instantly understanding, slightly furrowed her brow. Privateers. In Esperanda, where naval power was overwhelming, arming civilian ships as privateers wasn’t necessary. But in the neighboring kingdom of Tilsen, across the coastline, it was a common tactic.

If it were just about arming merchant or private vessels, it might be dismissible as trivial. The problem was Tilsen’s reckless recruitment of mercenaries. And in most cases, mercenaries meant pirates.

When Rosetta held significant influence in the Maritime Alliance, she strictly regulated privateering. When pirates got involved in conflicts between nations, suppression orders became frequent, leading to heightened tensions among navies and, inevitably, war.

If the principles Rosetta had established remained unchanged and the agreement of the twenty-one pirate captains was still upheld, there’d be no reason for privateers to be rampant now.

Thus, this recent situation was undoubtedly the doing of Nick, who had become the de facto leader of the Maritime Alliance after her supposed death. That wretched Nick. His greed must run bone-deep.

“Is it getting serious?”

“It’s been like this every year for the past few years. It’s not a big deal, so don’t worry.”

“When’s the departure?”

“Dawn, four days from now.”

“…”

“I could be back in as little as twenty days.”

He adjusted his hold on her, continuing his response. His warm breath grazed her neck before dissipating. From Cardier’s words, everything seemed to flow naturally. He was acting smooth as cream to make her believe it.

But Rosetta wasn’t fooled. If it truly weren’t a big issue, a minor admiral like Montrosa wouldn’t be dragged out in the middle of the night.

“…War’s going to break out within a few months.”

“…”

“There’s already danger, and now you’re sailing at night? Suddenly, without even showing it? It’s got to be a special operation to breach Tilsen’s coastline.”

Cardier’s lips curved into a smile at her words. Even though she’d seen through information he’d likely wanted to keep hidden, lying wasn’t even an option for him. Rosetta wriggled out of his embrace. Then, grabbing his cheeks with both hands, she pulled him down and pressed her forehead earnestly against his.

“It’s not dangerous, right?”

“No.”

“If you come back with even a single scratch, I’ll kill you myself.”

Cardier couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Her small frame, oblivious to itself, glared threateningly like an angry little animal. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss the commanding presence of Rosetta, but compared to her current absolute safety, that was a mere speck. At his nonchalant laughter, Rosetta glared again and issued another warning.

“Promise you won’t get a single scratch.”

“I promise.”

The warmth spreading through him deepened Cardier’s smile.

“It’s not just to ease your worries—there really won’t be anything dangerous. It’s not even a difficult operation, aside from the fact that it’s near the border.”

“No one knows until it’s over.”

“And you know the rule: my father and I don’t sail on the same ship. The commander’s ship always takes the lead, so I’ll just be trailing behind somewhere.”

“What?”

Rosetta’s eyes widened.

“The Admiral is going too?”

At that, Cardier’s warm smile flickered briefly.

“Yeah. It’s unusual, I’ll admit.”

Deep down, he found it odd too. A sudden deployment could be overlooked, but… in terms of difficulty, this mission wasn’t much different from usual. The only added risk was crossing Tilsen’s coastal border.

But no matter how dangerous the mission, it was exceptionally rare in the empire’s history for both an admiral and a vice-admiral to deploy together.

“Is something… happening at sea that I don’t know about?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. His Imperial Highness is about to get married, so he probably wants to clean things up at home and abroad beforehand.”

She furrowed her brow. It hit her that she hadn’t yet shared with Cardier that the Crown Prince knew about Nick. Swept up in the chaos of recent events, she’d let it slip her mind.

Rosetta moved her lips but then pressed them shut. There’d be plenty of time to talk later. She couldn’t burden someone about to deploy in a few days. But recalling that chilling memory… it was hard to bear.

“I don’t like that guy. Or that fiancée of his. There’s something off about both of them.”

“I don’t like them either.”

Rosetta grumbled heavily. He replied casually, pulling her back into his arms. As if trying to soak her with his scent before his departure, he nuzzled her like a big puppy. Untangling her wavy hair with his fingers, he added,

“But when he was younger, he was a bit better than now.”

“…I doubt he was much different back then. His eyes looked like he was born unhinged.”

“Not quite. Since Her Majesty the Empress passed two years ago, he’s been a bit more impatient.”

“Oh, right… He’s not the Empress’s child, is he?”

Diego Augusto Sarmiento de Esperansa. Though the Crown Prince Diego bore the Empress’s surname, Sarmiento, he was the son of the First Consort, a commoner. She was a woman picked up from the estate of Count Velastie, who guarded the Emperor’s hunting grounds, and was passed off as the Count’s daughter to become a consort. The unnaturalness of that process was a major scandal of the time, still occasionally mentioned today.

Especially since the Crown Prince insisted on getting engaged to Lady Audrey, whose origins were unclear, it had only grown worse.

Come to think of it, it seemed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, with father and son pulling the same stunts. While Rosetta inwardly chewed on that thought, Cardier gently nibbled her earlobe. Startled, Rosetta flinched and her shoulders shook.

“What’s that for? Are you actually a dog?”

Rosetta was ready to trade playful jabs. But Cardier’s voice, settling by her ear, was utterly serious.

“Promise me one thing while I’m gone.”