North x Northwest

Volume 6 Chapter 178

Lil held up her trembling eyelids, for some reason it was hard to open her eyes.

The blinding light stung her eyes miserably. As she widened them further, an unknown substance flowed out of them. In her current state, Lil was still unable to distinguish it as her tears. She tried to rotate her head, but her neck didn’t turn properly. So instead, she tried to cover up the light with her hand, but it didn’t move either. 

“Ugh…” 

Lil, still struggling, eventually closed her eyes again. Unfortunately, the persistent light even dug into the smallest gaps. She closed her eyes even tighter, causing her forehead to wrinkle. Meanwhile, she concentrated on every part of her body. Efforts to move were continued, but none were successful, including her legs. She didn’t even seem to be able to wiggle her toes. 

When she realised her cripple condition, a terrified feeling crept in. 

‘Where the hell am I?’ 

She took a deep breath. 

‘Elegant scent… it smells like furniture, pleasant air in a large space. Damn it! I don’t know…’ 

“Looks like you woke up.”

“..!”

Startled, Lil’s breath hitched. She opened her eyes reflexively but immediately closed them, spitting out curse words. 

‘I didn’t realise someone else was here. I can’t afford to be ignorant unless I’m determined to die… How could I not have known with him being so close…’

“Is it too bright?” 

“..?”

‘A man, Sesbron accent… Damn it, what happened? Am I lying in front of a nobleman?’ 

Lil desperately began to retrace her memories. 

‘I don’t understand what’s going on.’ 

She couldn’t grasp the situation. 

‘Damn it! Why am I like this… Why can’t I move? What happened? I can’t move… I can’t…’ 

“Let’s turn off the anaesthetic incense first.” 

‘Anaesthetic incense? For what?’ 

With no time to think about it, an unbearable pain started, spreading all over her body. Lil tried to suppress making any sound but ended up letting out a shriek. When her limbs in response to the pain started to tremble, she somehow tried to raise herself. 

“Ugh! Ugh, damn it!” 

Her reckless attempt, of course, failed. Even though she concentrated all her nerves in her body to follow her instinct and somehow get out of this unfamiliar place, in the end, she could only breathe heavily.

“So you can talk.”

“…”

No matter what the man said, she was too distracted. It felt as if the skin of her stomach had been torn to shreds. And judging by the vividness of the pain, that really seemed to be the case. However, she couldn’t remember when or how she had sustained such an injury.

“You don’t seem to be interested in me at all.” 

“…”

‘The man’s words are so strange. From the annoying tone to the content, it isn’t something to say to someone clearly writhing in pain…’ 

Lil struggled to turn her head. But as expected, it still didn’t move properly, and she only managed to shift the angle a bit. Since there was no movement, she began to have various ominous speculations. In addition, the tormenting feeling was spreading all over her limbs, making her wonder if her whole body had been mutilated.  

The man looked at her confused face and explained kindly. 

“Oh, I administered some poison a few days ago. I’m sure your muscles are stiff because of that. Seeing you struggle to get away, I think it was an excellent choice. I can’t just let you run away, right? After all, it was my mission to capture you.” 

“…”

 ”It’s only some Maltine*, so that must be fine, right?”

‘What nonsense is he talking about?’

“Mad…”

“Oh, don’t say that, I’m not a coward. It was either this or cutting off one of your limbs. I’m actually quite proud of myself, especially if you consider my infamous reputation.” 

Only then did the hazy memories begin to stir her head. The recollection, that came to mind like a shipwreck, showed the sight of her being stabbed by a dagger.  

‘Yeah, it was a total mess. I recall being anxious because of the fog, but I never expected them to hide their ship so perfectly…’ 

Looking at her current state, she thought that she was at least beaten half to death. 

“…Retiro.” 

The man seemed to laugh. 

“It’s an honour you remembered, Captain Lil Schweiz.” 

“Madman… get out and die…” 

Lil moved her pupils to find the admiral through the cracks in her eyelids, but her vision was still not functioning the way it should. 

“If you hear that kind of curse every day, it’s not so impressive anymore. Can’t you come up with something new?” 

“…”

She didn’t have the energy to respond to such a childish question. Not knowing when her body would lose consciousness due to the strange drug, she concentrated on her own thoughts.  

‘All right, focus.’ 

She decided to list the places that roughly come to mind. 

‘The Admiral’s fleet…’ 

“Captain” 

“…”

‘So, it can either be the Southern Sea…’ 

“Lil Schweiz” 

‘Or….’ 

A gust of wind brushed through her hair and Admiral Retiro’s face suddenly appeared right in front of her. 

“Agh! Ack! Ah… ugh…”

While her whole body trembled and twitched in surprise, Lil barely managed to swallow the rest of her screams. 

She then glared at the admiral. Although his face was neater and much more human-like than the bloodied one from her memory, she still wanted to spit at it. However, in this state, it was almost impossible to even reach the tip of his nose. She’d be lucky if it didn’t slip straight down her own chin. In the end, she had no choice but to lay there stiff as if locked in a coffin, watching the admiral push his face closer and closer to hers. As his breath touched her cheek, she felt sick to her stomach. 

‘No, I’d rather die!’ 

Lil tried to turn away from him with all her might, making every part of her body scream.  

“Argh! Argh…” 

Her terribly distorted face was suddenly caught. His touch felt as if needles were piercing her skin, creating terrible goosebumps.  

“Let go… You bastard!” 

“…”

She bravely raised her arm. The movement, however, was too straining for what her body could handle, so Lil had to bite the inside of her cheek to endure the pain. The admiral’s hand easily fell off as if he hadn’t thought she could move this much. Unfortunately, the pain that followed engulfed her as if to devour her. 

“Aww! Damn it… Damn it, damn it!” 

“Oh no. I’d stay still if I were you…” 

“You fucking bastard… let me out of here!” 

“…Because the Bell Rock won’t be safe.” 

“..!”

Her feet, that she was kicking around like a madman, suddenly stopped. Bloodshot eyes turned to the Admiral. He was observing her with an amusing gaze.  

Lil couldn’t make a sound and was panting like an old dog. 

“That’s more like it.” 

“…”

She was out of breath and unable to move, with messed up hair and sweat flowing down her forehead. To the man standing in front of her, she looked shabby and helpless. When Lil’s heart started to pound and it almost felt like it was going to burst out of her body, a very relaxed voice hovered around her head. 

“So please cooperate, your Bell Rock is safely anchored in Devito. However, your crew was brought to Gualthiero.” 

“Gual… thiero…” 

‘The famous prison.’

“Then this is…” 

“This is my house on the Mondovi Peninsula, and you’re all alone. Why, do you want to go to Gualthiero too? I’d rather stay here.”

At the same time, he silently glanced over her body. His gaze went down before he met her eyes again. 

Suddenly, the Admiral waved a necklace with a crude red jewel in front of her face. Only then did Lil realise where he was looking at and a cold shiver ran down her spine. 

“Who knew that Lil Schweiz…”

“…”

She wanted to cover her chest. 

‘Am I wearing clothes right now? This fucking bastard…’ 

“Is in fact a woman.” 

“..!”

‘No way…’ 

“If you don’t want to be exposed to the whole world…” 

“What did you… what did you do…”

Lil caught the hem of his clothes that had flowed down onto the bed, but her fingers, which only contained a ridiculously small amount of force, couldn’t pull it well. In response, the admiral, or Ed, struck away her hand like he was getting rid of a bunch of worms. His face that was looking down at her was horrifyingly expressionless. 

‘He’s angry.’

The anger that was wriggling to strangle Lil at any moment felt so hot. 

The situation suddenly felt vastly different from just a while ago, when Ed responded with a snort or snicker every time Lil attempted to do something. Now, she became terrified of the intimidation brought by his title and the unfamiliarity of facing each other. Moreover, a dreadful realisation dawned on her.

‘I made a mistake.’

At this point, the sense of betrayal she felt upon knowing that Ed was the admiral has diminished to nothing. The fact that Ed cheated on Lil wasn’t even worth crap. 

Ed, who watched her changing complexion, slowly opened his mouth.

“I guess you remember now.”

‘Ed is only thinking of the pain and betrayal he has suffered. Time must’ve stopped when he was abandoned in the sea on a cold night with near-death injuries. Otherwise, there’s no way he was so determined to follow me. There’s probably only one word running through his mind right now… Revenge…’

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Footnote:

Maltine: medicinal preparation made from or containing malt.

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