“Blues?” Garlan laughed. “That’s some unique way to address the sea.”

I shrugged and pushed the door, and my lady beckoned both of us inside, her face forlorn at seeing my company. She didn’t complain, and Garlan shamelessly settled down on the chair against the table.

“It’s an exciting journey, bread lad. You don’t get to feel the sea breeze often in the capital, let alone the ports. The stench is too dark at the harbor, but the ships are different. Though this one stinks just as bad, and a squall might break the creaky mast before we intercept other boats. But otherwise, the sea is our good mate when we are out in the open, songs are our good companions when we are homesick, and ale is a good nutriment when our appetites are rotten with stale bread. A different life, Rudolf; that’s why sailing is. And it’s not just a walk in the blues. It’s an adventure of the world beyond, a world unseen and dangerous.”

“That doesn’t help make seafaring any more enticing, bread lad,” I waved my hand. “I don’t like water, I am a bad singer, and I prefer stale bread to ale. Adventures? There are enough places on land to help with that. A different life? You’ll get bored soon. World beyond? Let’s not debate on that.”

My lady giggled as she tramped through the creaking floorboard and reached beside me at the door. The room was small, so Garlan was right before us, on the stool that had depressed under his weight.

“I like seafaring, but I know my mongrel never will. He hates rain, mutt, so you can’t ask him to like the blues.”

“True,” Garlan folded his hands behind his neck. “He is too restrictive in his likes and dislikes, lady Letitia. He likes bread and me. Nothing else. That’s his problem. I want–“

“Wait!” My lady glared at my bread lad. “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Did he ever tell you that, lady Letitia?” Garlan grinned.

My lady snickered and turned to me. “Rudolf!”

“Don’t ask me to lie, my lady,” I said, ruffling her head.

“You don’t like me?!” she raised her eyes, her head bobbing under my weight.

“I don’t hate you,” I sighed.

“See?” Letitia puffed out her chest and slapped my hand away. “Has he ever told you that, mutt?”

Garlan laughed. “I don’t like men, my lady. Though, Rudolf can always be an–“

He earned a hard punch on his bulging tummy.

“exception as a friend, lady Letitia,” he finished, unaffected by the punch. Letitia’s face contorted, and she whirled her wrist, not forgetting to grunt at my bread lad.

“Heard anything from them?” I asked, leaning against the door. The idle talk had to wait because I was about to witness some slaughter in the blues. That, and that alone, kept me excited for the journey. A [Ward] was an absolute necessity because the wall had ears at times. So, I quickly nibbled the final piece of the loaf in my hand. Yes, and not because I couldn’t hold myself back from finishing the last bit of fresh bread.

“They don’t trust me,” Garlan shrugged. “Stole their cog last time and sold it for shins on the port. Bitter grudges, Rudolf. Though, they work both sides.” He turned to Letitia with a smile, “Are you having fun, lady?”

Was he trying to avoid the conversation? That was a surprise, but judging from his face, he wasn’t. Was I overthinking?

“Your stink is not helping, mutt,” my lady said. “And I want to see the blues!”

“It’s the sea,” Garlan chuckled, scratching his stubble. “You need to maintain decorum, lady Letitia. The guards are better than dogs at sniffing, so that old prince might slit their heads first and then let you out. It might take some time, but you’ll get to see your ‘blues’. The window is right here if you want.”

“Can I open it?” My lady looked between the two of us, and I shrugged. Garlan peeled the curtains open and grunted in denial when he noticed the attached glass in place of a window.

“Hard luck, lady Letitia.”

We indulged in idle chatter, ignoring the clammer of the sailors outside, who were cleaning the main deck with unseen enthusiasm. The ship wobbled at times, and I wondered if there was a gyroscopic mechanism to keep the cog stable. If the wind mage was managing to keep the cog aloft and balanced all this while, then she was commendable. I would retch as soon as I use wind mana for a few minutes. Again, the passive ability of wind mages that I hadn’t bothered to master.

The first clouts on the main deck attracted my attention, followed by sounds of swords being drawn out. Garlan nodded as I glanced in his direction, and I ambled out. I smiled as I settled against the stairs on my left and sent my [Devil eye] closer to the scene.

“…killed a fucking fleet officer!” Pedro yelled, aghast, moving closer to the three officers who were alive. Their swords glinted in the mana lamp at the bow, and moonlight helped in lighting up the vast endless blues. One officer’s head was crushed in the palms of the sturdy man, his long hair mangled with the blood of the said officer. He pulled back his hands, the whipped liquid exudes mixed with blood leaving tiny filaments of slimy material as the officer fell with a thud.

“Lykan! This man! One of yours, ay?!” Pedro shouted, but the second fleet officer didn’t wait for any reply from the man drinking the mead leisurely. Or probably ale. He charged with a shout, and an arrow lodged in his throat, leaving him lifeless before he could trudge a step closer to the frenzied man. Nuva smiled from the top of the mast, the basket encasing his presence in the faint light of the moon.

The sturdy man charged with a roar, two more crew members joining him in the scuffle with their cutlasses. A strike descended straight across the sturdy man’s torso, the officer little worried about the accuracy of his cut. The man on the right, with a bald and scarred head, parried the bow, while the second lean man pushed the sturdy man out of the range with much haste.

“He’s frenzied! Hold him down, Milan!” Lykan shouted. “Vule, on the sails! The wind’s changing course. Everyone else, bring some rags to clean this mess. The mycats will nip our sails if we don’t get rid of this stench. Work those legs faster, men and women of the sea. I will keelhaul anyone daring to slack.”

Lykan turned his head toward the top of the mast, “Nuva, see anything?!”

Nuva stared at the endless ocean using his monocular that he had fished out from his pants. “Nothing, cap. No fleet ships in sight.”

Men ran to the underdeck and returned with buckets of water. Probably from the sea because I saw roped dangling from the side of the cog as I peered past the gunwale. Vule, the puking man, replaced Milan and the latter rushed toward the sturdy man, who was slamming his head against the gunwale, rocking the cog with his momentum, and obviously [Strengthen].

Another clink of metal and Pedro fell on his butt, watching the limping Lykan terrifyingly. “The meaning, Lykan?! Thought you were a comrade.”

“Shut up, fucking commoner!” Lykan watched the sails swaying sails and walked to Vule to support the man as the latter collapsed on the floorboard, down on his knees. Somehow, he kept casting, helping the cog stay on course, despite his ardent retches. “Stop Ungaln, Milan! And fast. We need you back..” He rubbed the man’s back as the cog rocked in the dead of night. Even I almost tumbled down the stair owing to the unsteady motion.

Milan climbed on the sturdy man’s man and locked his neck in her hands. Ungaln ran across the deck like a maddened bull trying to get the woman off his neck, but his thrashing didn’t help the strong grip of the woman. He collapsed right before me, and Milan jumped off, clicking her tongue in my direction before rushing to the sails, and relieving Vule from his nightmares.

The lean man was better than the fleet officers in combat, and he slid sidewards, avoiding another slash that lodged the sword on the wooden inlay. A kick sent the man flying till he rammed his head against the gunnel. The lanky crew member pulled out the sword from the floorboard, and my [Devil eye] saw his blackish teeth as he grinned with enthusiasm.

“Never killed a fleet officer before!” he shouted in his cracked voice, that varied tones irregularly. Weird voice, but my ears didn’t seem to have any problem registering the words.

“Out! Out! No getting blood on the ship, Hauser!” Nuva shouted from the topmast as another arrow stuck the last fleet officer who had managed to land a slash on the scarred baldy.

“Arses!” the lean man cursed, removing his bandana, and in a single swift motion, wrapped it around the neck of the officer. The latter thrashed his legs aimlessly, tried scratching the man’s face, punched him, but nothing seemed to loosen the grip on his neck.

A haughty cry of a single bird resounded in the distance, and Nuva turned his head in the direction. “Mycats, Cap! Leeward, more than ten Fathom.”

“Move your asses, crew!” Lykan limped toward Pedro, who was lying in a pool of blood after the scarred baldy had slashed across his neck. “Clean, Clean, Clean!”

“Vule,” Milan tapped the shoulder of the man who hadn’t stopped puking. “Fucking stand up, Vule! Summon that wind and take the blood stench.”

“I-I will try, lady Milan,” he puked out more bile but somehow managed to stand up and cast [Gale] in the direction of the bodies. More Mycats cried in the distance, and but the crew members were fast on their feet, quick with their hands, and threw the bodies to the blues beyond in haste. The second round of seamen followed, flushing water to remove the blood from the floorboard of the bow, some of which had dripped to the underdeck through the gaps.

“Warded them, ay!” Nuva shouted from the topmast, and I got up and nudged open the door beside me.

Unglan stared at me, his fierce eyes replaced to their regular color, and sat up. That was [Beserk] curse, and it would haunt him whenever he saw blood for the rest of his mortal life. An excellent tool to have in scuffles, but not so much for war, and never on a ship. Adding to that, earth attribute beserk mages with [Strengthen] sounded dreadful.

“They succeeded?” Garlan asked as I closed the door behind me. “I heard shouts about mycats from the basket boy.”

“Sadly, yes,” I said, watching my lady raise her eyes in question. “They are similar to ravens, my lady. We call them portgulls in the capital, by the seamen call them mycats. Smell blood better than most natural predators and are credited to have capsized hundreds of ships.”

“That’s just a rumor, Rudolf,” Garlan said, waving his hand.

“Well, rumors are my sources. Give me a few more years, and I’ll filter the rumors from facts,” I shrugged, leaving out the fact that I needed a few hundred years. Mortal life span was too short to conclude anything accurately. Their books contained ill-informed things from distant tales that they never had witnessed themselves. “But the fact stays that they destroy sails. Lykan, I mean the old prince, was talking to his crew about protecting the sails.”

The cog rocked harshly, and I held my lady by her shoulders and leaned against the door.

“True,” Garlan nodded, almost tumbling down the stool. “I’ve hunted a few before. While on a quest to guard the merchant cogs. The meat is tender and tastes really well, but cleaning the black features is a grueling task. They fly in flocks too, so it’s tough to shoot one down. They see blood, and you got a whole assemblage of blood thirty blackbirds clawing you. Cannibalism or not doesn’t make much difference to them.”

“They sound interesting,” my lady nodded. “They are so many things about the world that I am unaware of.”

Her pout had us laughing, but my lady only puffed her cheeks more. “Stop laughing!”

“You are still seventeen, my lady,” I crossed my arms and leaned against the door, still smiling. “We’ll visit distant parts as you grow up.”

“Yes,” Garlan pitched in. “I’ve paced around the whole Kingdom of Arlikia and have visited a few major cities of Halurath Isles, but there is a lot of unexplored lands that await Garlan’s grace. I need to see the miraculous breasts of women from Rynak too. Heard they are much bigger than the ones in the capital.”

He eyed my lady and sighed.

“Why the condescending look, mutt?” my lady smiled instead of reprimanding him. “Even if they were bigger, I wouldn’t let you stare at them.”

She was growing up, I reminded myself and leaned back to the door. Mortals grew up too fast for this undead to catch up. But then again, she had learned to come to terms with her own body, which was a good thing. After all, a villainess should hold herself in the highest regard because all others were no different from moths before her.

“I know, I know,” he waved her hand. “I’m tired of staring at noblewomen from the capital, so I needed a change of scenery.”