Cabin Girl Melody

I promptly left Reginald, knowing he wouldn't remember the events and would simply see me as a pirate in the castle. Luckily, the Mansion was easy to find; it was one of the largest buildings in the city, second only to the castle.

Standing outside the gates were my crew and former classmates. It seemed Kenji encouraged them to use the mansion as a meeting place should time reset once more.

“Oh, look, Cap’n is here,” Mel commented, nodding her head in my direction.

“How come Melody is with you?” I asked, noticing the young harpy with the rest of the crew.

“Pippa teleported her with us. We are a crew after all, if it’s safe, we’ll bring her,” Túta replied.

“Pippa said we won a time battle. I wanted to be in one,” Elora sulked.

“We did win, right?” Viola asked.

They stared at me with confused expressions.

I nodded.

“Yep, we won.”

“You’re covered in blood,” Túta added.

“Awfully perceptive, aren’t you?”

I was a blood-soaked, bruised and battered, sleep-deprived mess. My hair was matted with sweat and blood.

“For the record, I noticed the blood from when you stepped out of the castle gate,” Mel added.

“Is it your blood?” Túta asked.

“No,” I calmly responded.

“Ok then I don’t care. Now that’s all sorted, we are going to have a look around the city,” Túta remarked, waving as she began to walk off.

“What? All of you?” I called after them.

“Yeah, it’s not every day we get to look around a city this large,” Viola commented, and Elora nodded in agreement.

I felt a nudge on my blood-soaked jacket. I looked down to see Melody clinging to me.

“I won’t be going.”

I placed my hand on her head.

“Then I guess it’ll just be the two of us.”

“The great Pippa will also stay with the mighty Lark,” Pippa interjected, raising her hand. With one last wave, the rest of my crew walked off.

Once they left, Miss Reiden stepped forward.

“That’s a lot of blood. I don’t condone violence,” Miss Reiden scolded, shaking her finger at me.

“Aren’t some of your students lurking in an assassin guild? The Raven Guild, or something?” I replied with a smirk.

“H-how do you know that?!” Kaguya stammered, her face red.

I slowly approached her and traced her jawbone with my finger.

“Because the Accursed Captain Lark pays close attention to his beautiful classmates.”

Kaguya's face turned red, and several girls in the class squealed excitedly.

Thanks to the time reset, this was the first time they had seen me. You’d think my classmates would be slightly curious about me. Sure, they asked some of the same questions, like how I got injured, why I was a pirate, and whether I killed Elder Rudolf, but very quickly, they shifted their focus to my crew. The female class members seemed to take a fondness for Melody.

“Oh my god, you’re so cute.”

“She seems as fragile as a porcelain doll.”

Melody looked down, embarrassed.

“My health isn’t good, so I hope I'm not a bother.”

Several girls squealed and gave her a big hug.

“Aww, you are too cute. Don’t worry, the shared bath here is filled with the best minerals for health. Come with us.”

The class members began to escort her out of the room. Melody’s lips trembled as she looked back at me.

“Mister Pirate, help,” she asked meekly, her eyes teary, looking to me for help.

I waved back at her.

“Bye Melody. It was nice knowing you,” I called out playfully.

The look on her face was that of shock, fear and betrayal as she vanished beyond the door. The moment she disappeared, I turned to Pippa.

“Oh great and powerful Pippa, can I issue you a very important task?”

“Nothing is too hard for the great Pippa,” she replied with a pose.

“Can you go with them and make sure that Melody is alright?”

“That task is but child’s play.”

She quickly ran after the female classmates.

I sighed. These were supposed to be my days of rest, but instead, I was already exhausted. I headed to the room they’d assigned me and slept for several hours before taking a bath myself. After I was done, I returned to my room. I opened the door and let out a large sigh.

“You’ve all made yourself awfully comfortable here,” I commented, looking over at the entire crew lounging around my room. I wandered over and sat with them on the bed.

“This is a mansion! Of course, we are comfy,” Túta snapped.

“The bath and linen sheets are wonderful,” Viola added.

“These beds are comfy, but it’s very tiring being here,” Melody remarked, her expression lifeless. I guess all that attention from the girls was too much for her.

“Alright, I hear you. But…” I noticed Raizel acting suspiciously. “Put back whatever you stole.”

She looked over at me with puppy dog eyes.

“Aw, but it’s shiny,” she pleaded, as she wandered over to the mantle. A silver candle holder, decorated with purple gemstones, appeared out of the mouth on her hand.

“I don’t care how… alright, it is pretty shiny,” I admitted, nodding my head.

“Captain!” Túta scolded, jabbing a finger in my face.

“Ugh, fine. Raizel, please do not steal from them,” I requested with a monotone voice.

“How does your body storage work? Is it like a bag of holding?” Elora asked, grabbing at Raizel's arms.

“Aren’t all bags, bags of holding?” I asked sarcastically, only to be met with several pillows.

“Cap’n, you don’t want to end up with another mutiny, do you?” Mel asked before taking a sip from the bottle she had.

There was a knock on the door, and several seconds later, Kenji walked in.

“Can I speak with you…” He glanced at the girls sprawled across my bed. “…For just a moment.”

“Sure, what do you want?”

“Alone?”

I sighed before reluctantly following him. He wandered into an empty room and closed the door behind him, the slight click indicating he locked it as well.

“Oh my, is this a love confession? Are you going to push me up against the wall? Look deeply into my eyes?”

Kenji walked up, grabbed me by the collar, and threw me at the wall. Not against it, at it. I slowly staggered back to my feet.

“Shut up, and listen, you bastard, it’s about Valgroth!”

“You have a crush on Valgroth?!” I raised my hand to stroke my chin and nodded. “Well, I guess you both have that dragon thing going for you.”

He looked at me with anger in his eyes.

“I swear to God,” he commented through gritted teeth.

“Don’t worry.” I gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll support you in your endeavours.”

“Forget it, I’m leaving.”

He turned to leave, reaching for the lock.

“Alright, I’m done with my jokes. What was it you wanted to say?”

He turned his head to look at me. His eyes were full of suspicion. He let out a large sigh before turning back to me with a serious look on his face.

“When I was fighting Valgroth, I asked what he was looking for…”

Kenji averted his eyes.

“So? What was it?”

He shifted his gaze across, still avoiding eye contact, and let out a heavy sigh.

“He said he was looking for the Ravager.”

“Huh? Why would he want to find the Ravager?”

Kenji sighed once more.

“That’s what I was wondering. So I stopped by the scholar hall on the way back.”

“And…” I prompted.

“They said that he was an eccentric dragon.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“Did they tell you why he’s considered eccentric?” Kenji asked, still avoiding eye contact.

“No.”

Kenji scratched the back of his neck before finally looking me in the eyes.

“It seems he is a ship otaku.”

“Huh…?”

I stared blankly at him.

“So, although I managed to fend him off, it sounds like he may come for you again.”

“Sorry, let me get this right. This big, scary dragon wants my ship?”

“It seems that way.”

I sighed and made my way to the door.

“Well, I’ll sort it if it comes up.”

I wandered back to my room and fell asleep whilst my crew partied around me.

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 54