The Undead Captain Takes No Living - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The moment the Red-clad Woman grabbed the stern, the Shroud Sail was torn in half.

The wind formed by the Bone Navy scattered.

Victor suffered a backlash and coughed up blood.

Leon rushed over to support him.

Victor glanced at him.

“I thought you hated me.”

Leon said, “Hate’s hate, but dying next to me would bring bad luck.”

Victor smirked.

“Your mouth is really annoying.”

“Right back at you.”

Gloria hurled a bronze bell.

The bell’s ring crashed into the black water, blasting cracks in all directions.

Yet the Red-clad Woman only smiled.

“Little girl, I was the one who fished you out of the sea back then.”

Gloria’s face turned pale.

The second bronze bell in her hand never left her grip.

The Red-clad Woman’s voice softened.

“Come back.”

“You’ve always been a child of Ghost Port.”

Gloria’s eyes began to glaze over.

I called out to her immediately.

“Gloria!”

She didn’t respond.

Leon tried to go to her, but tripped over a chain.

Cedric couldn’t leave the helm.

I gritted my teeth and drew the Soul-Crossing Blade.

The moment the formation eye at the bow loosened, the entire ship slid backward nearly two meters.

Cedric’s voice deepened.

“Ilya!”

“Get back here right now!”

I rushed to Gloria’s side and smacked her wrist with the back of the blade.

Gloria jolted awake.

“Ouch!”

“Wide awake now?”

She saw she was already at the edge of the ship, her face whiter than paper.

The Red-clad Woman regarded me coldly.

“Mind your own business.”

I pushed Gloria back.

“She’s one of us now.”

“A Ghost Ship doesn’t take the living, nor does it take traitors.”

The Red-clad Woman laughed.

“Ask her then. What is she?”

Gloria stood behind me, her fingers trembling.

I asked, “What are you?”

She didn’t speak.

The Red-clad Woman drew out her words.

“She is the first skin I peeled off.”

Gloria closed her eyes.

My heart sank.

Gloria wasn’t a drowned little girl.

She was a skin that escaped from the theater.

No wonder she feared seashells, feared Face-Stealing Ghosts, and feared people addressing her too familiarly.

She might not even be sure if her own face was real.

The Red-clad Woman continued, “Without me, she wouldn’t even have a name.”

Gloria’s eyelashes trembled violently.

I suddenly remembered the first time she tied a white thread for me.

Quick and deft, sharp-tongued, yet her knots were firm.

I asked her, “Do you like the name Gloria?”

She froze.

“What?”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll change it for you right now.”

She stared at me.

The Red-clad Woman shrieked, “She has no name!”

I ignored her.

“Gloria sounds pretty nice,”

I said.

“Like burnt paper, or the sea before dawn.”

Gloria’s eyes slowly reddened.

“Your naming sense is awful.”

“Then name yourself.”

She sniffled.

“I’ll stick with this one.”

She raised her head and looked at the Red-clad Woman.

“My name is Gloria.”

“My Captain gave me a name, my crew taught me to tie knots, and I chose it myself.”

She grabbed all the remaining bronze bells.

“It has nothing to do with you.”

The bronze bells slammed into the red shadow together.

The Red-clad Woman let out a pained scream.

The giant hand clutching the ship loosened for a moment.

Seizing the chance, Cedric turned the helm.

The Ghost Ship charged toward Sunken Bell Reef once more.

I ran back to the bow and thrust the Soul-Crossing Blade into the formation eye.

Just as it was secure, the deck planks beneath me suddenly cracked open.

Black water reached out a hand and seized my ankle.

I pitched forward.

Cedric couldn’t leave the helm.

Leon was too far away.

As I was dragged halfway off the bow, only one hand caught me.

Victor.

He lay sprawled on the deck, gripping my wrist tightly.

I was too stunned to speak.

He ground his teeth.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“I’m a Navy man.”

“Saving people is the right thing to do.”

Leon lunged over, slashing at the black water with his blade.

“Cut the crap!”

Together, the two of them hauled me back.

The Red-clad Woman shrieked with laughter in the water.

“None of you are getting away!”

Just then, Sunken Bell Reef rang out.

Not three times.

But one long, drawn-out toll.

All the sounds of Ghost Port were suppressed.

Cedric looked ahead.

I followed his gaze.

The colossal Sunken Bell rose up.

Beneath the bell stood a figure.

The person wore old cloth clothes, salt stains on their sleeves.

I recognized him.

Though he was older and thinner than in my memories.

I still recognized him at a glance.

My father.