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Chapter 39 Part 5 – The depth of my father’s love for my mother makes me cringe. Then Seraphy joins the fray and the Ruby of Destiny guides us

 

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Aquilegia

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I knew it’d be him!! I screamed.

Drowned to death!! Fell to death!! Crushed to death!! Beaten to death!! Stabbed to death!! Slayed to death! Combining it with several other deaths, a total of 13 times!!
That’s how many times I’ve been killed by this guy in my past「108 times」!
The fear and pain of my last moments burned through my head like a bolt of lightning.

Seraphy Orange!!

The head of the Orange Privateers that led the world’s fastest sailing ship, the Blanche, and has tossed and turned my life and my Queen’s army into chaos!! Seraphy the Wind Reader!! One of the five heroes!!
If it weren’t for his support, I wouldn’t have fallen into the hands of the rebel army.
Why are you here at this point in time!?
You guys should be moving your base to Hydrangea at a much later time!!

I tremblingly pointed at Seraphy Orange.

「Young miss, you are so excited. You must be very happy to see your father.」

Mary misunderstood and took my hand, waving it adorably as she said,「Duke, your daughter is here.」

You’re getting it all wrong!! My nemesis has appeared!!
Hey, hey, Seraphy! Why are you shyly waving back!!
Even if I die, I will never act amiable towards you!!
Just when I was feeling relieved that my mother had been saved, trouble just kept happening one after another…!!
Leaving aside that idiot Bradd, I have decided that I’m never going to get involved with the five heroes and Alisa, the「Maiden of Salvation」!!
In this life, I’m not even going to show up at social events, let alone aiming to become the queen!
I’m never going to stand on the front stage of history!!
There’s no way a shut-in can be a queen!!
If I don’t become a queen, there will be no tyranny at all.
Therefore there will be no reason for them to kill me!
Behold!! This flawless argument!!

And yet, why are you here!!
A guy like him should be driven out of here as soon as father gets angry at him for interrupting his love space with mother!!

However, contrary to my wishes, instead of driving Seraphy away, he even supported him.

「I trust Seraphy’s words more than anyone else. I guarantee it in my name. All of you should follow his instructions. Anyone who has a problem with it will have to deal with me.」

「…I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.」

Seraphy bowed and father smiled at him amiably.

「I should be the one to thank you. Thanks to you, I did not lose the most important person in my life. You have demonstrated with your actions that you are trustworthy, which is a factor that every merchant needs most. From now on, I will continue to help you in any way I can.」

Wha…! Father, why are you making a friendly treaty with Seraphy!?
I demand that you break off diplomatic relations!! I want to be a shut-in!!

「Oaaaaahhh!!! Oaaaaa!!」

「S-shall we get back for now, young miss.」

As if to soothe my rage, Mary turned the bow of the ship in accordance with Seraphy’s instructions.
We were on the small boat, away from the shore, and soon our eyes widened in horror.
Almost as soon as everyone on land had completed their evacuation to the edge of the cliff, we heard a horrible rumbling sound approaching. The water in the pond shook violently.
The volume of the water has risen sharply.
The water currents surged, swelling up like a living creature.
The roofs of the stables and the heads of the trees along the edge of the pond, which had been peeking out of the submerged water, were caught in the wave and were lifted up for a moment before being swallowed one by one by the rising water.
The demon of the muddy stream raged on, and the deafening sounds of objects crashing together and the rumbling of the water dominated the area just like thunder.

「Ugh!?」「Oaaahhhh!?」「Kyaaa!!」

Our little boat whirled like a leaf in a storm.
I clung desperately to the edge of the boat and held on.
Compared to the huge waves, the small boat was too thin of a lifeline.
I couldn’t even lift myself up to see if everyone on shore was safe.
My vision was filled with the rushing torrents that tried to sweep everything away as it surged.

「…They’re fine!! Everyone is safe!!」

Bradd suddenly stood up and cheerfully shouted.
Fortunately, there was only a single wave of flash flood.
The wave that had missed its prey receded from the ground.

The huge wave had receded and everyone emerged from the cliff on the other side.
Everyone was saved thanks to the fact that they were squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder on the slope just below the cliff.
They were soaking wet from the splash, but fortunately no one, including the horses, seemed to have been taken away by the wave.

It’s frustrating to admit this, but thanks to Seraphy’s advice, everyone was saved. I didn’t have to lose any of my loved ones.
But Seraphy’s expression, the person who deserved this credit, worsened and he flared up at Matzo who was beside him.

「That’s why!! I told you to throw me toward that small boat as soon as possible!! With Sir Valentine’s strength, I should be able to narrowly reach the boat!!」

What the hell is he talking about!!
Hurling him over such a muddy stream that is a dangerous water area crowded with trees and sharp branches!?
Moreover, the target is such a small boat !?
If he missed even an inch, he’s sure to fall and drown in the water!!

「L-leader, what are you talking about!?」

「That would be suicide!! Please don’t do this!!」

「Release me!! I don’t have time for this!! Throw me immediately!!」

The members of Orange Privateers that desperately tried to stop him and Matzo, who rolled his eyes at the outrageous request, froze at Seraphy’s following words. Everyone that had been dumbfounded by his sudden request was stunned, including us.

「Can’t you understand!! That!! That demon dog! It pretended to be washed away by the waves and is heading for that little boat!! It’s not dead yet!! They’ll all be killed if I don’t go!!」

The next moment, a tremendous shock hit the ship from below, and we were all thrown up into the air along with the ship.

「Whoaaa!!」

「Oaaahhh!?」

My body slipped out from Bradd’s arms and was thrown into the air.
Bradd desperately reached out to me. I also tried my best to grab his hand.
As if to tear the space between us, the surface of the water rose up and the demon dog Gallam jumped out.
It reminded me of the vertical jump of a crocodile biting into a suspended chunk of meat.

By the time that father and Matzo arrived here, it decided that it couldn’t win as it was wounded, so it pretended to be dead, even as its ear was crushed, in order to look for an opening!! It probably would have done the same thing even if its limbs were stripped off.

I felt horrified by the terrible cunning behavior of this dog that had no problem with sacrificing its own body.
That was definitely not the behavior of an animal.
Isn’t it more like the behaviour of an evil spirit!?

「You’re in the way!! Get away!!」

Bradd let out an angry voice and kicked away the muzzle of the demon dog Gallam that had attacked me.
The huge body that was in the air with no support tilted diagonally and fell back into the water causing a column of water to splash.

「Young miss!!」

As I fell, Mary leaned forward and stretched out her hands.
She was so fast that it showed how she didn’t mind jumping off the edge of the boat.
Her fingertips grazed over me, but it mercilessly slipped through the surface of my baby clothes.

「Scarlet!!」

Bradd screamed sorrowfully.
But Bradd’s scream was overshadowed by mother’s and Mary’s screams.
As I felt the impact from falling into the water, I was swept into the middle of the swirling murky stream.
It was as if I had been thrown into a washing machine. The sound of the stream and the water pressure stirred me up, and I felt like I was going to lose consciousness.
My sliver of hope that newborns could swim naturally was swept away in front of a torrent of water so strong that I couldn’t even distinguish between above and below.
I was as fragile as a marshmallow, flowing through the gaps between driftwoods that collided with each other like an execution device. If I were caught, not even a single piece of flesh would remain.

I realized that I was caught in a death trap when I caught a glimpse of the silhouette of a huge demon dog with a red gleam in its eye approaching from the other side of the murky waters.

However, it’s not in my nature to give up.

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