Episode 51 - A Proud Death



Just as he was about to name the second condition, he paused and looked her over for a moment — and then, in place of the unsettling grin he usually wore, a faint, easy smile crossed his face.
"First — I'd like you to take us back to the mainland where the new royal capital is. As soon as possible."
It was more or less what she had expected. Tide gave a careful nod.
"That much I can do for you, easily enough..."
"Good. Maengseol — what about Barnacle?"
"...He's right here."
"Hiik—! P-please spare me! We really didn't do this because we wanted to—!"
Despite his shattered legs, Barnacle had been desperately dragging himself toward the dock in a bid to survive — only to be caught by Maengseol.
With the tension on Tide's side apparently easing, he was now looking up at Maengseol with every ounce of pleading he could muster, hoping somehow to be let off the hook as well.
"Boss. This one..."
"...Heh."
Kaftin crossed back to Maengseol's ship and came to stand in front of Barnacle, wearing that particular smile of his.
"Now then — I'll give you the right to choose...!"
"Wh-what...?!"
"Option one. You hand over every last one of your crew to me. In exchange, your ship and your life pass without incident."
"......!!"
Maengseol swallowed as he watched Kaftin calmly offer up the option to abandon the crew who were practically his own hands and feet.
From the way he said it, this was not an offer of recruitment.
"A-any other options...?!"
"Option two. You give up your life... in exchange, your crew goes free."
"...Th-that is...?!"
A binary choice.
His own life — or the crew who had shared the brutal life of piracy with him until now.
Maengseol shook his head, thinking that this was very like him.
Either way, blood would flow.
"Kgh...!"
"Right then. You have until Tide finishes departure preparations to decide. I'll be waiting for a good answer."
"......!"
"Feel free to try something foolish if you like. Though in that case... I'll respond in kind, and every living thing on this vessel will be disposed of. Please do factor that in."
That leisurely smile was deeply unsettling.
Kaftin was all but inviting him to try something — hoping that Barnacle and his crew alike would give him the excuse to crush them all in his hands and watch them burst.
The two options he had offered were nothing but lip service.
The option he truly wanted chosen was the third. Try something foolish.
"...I'll tell you this for certain. You're going to pick the third. And then you'll be caught again just like this, crying and begging for your life..."
"...Kgh...!"
"I've dealt with enough people like you to be sick of it. What you're thinking — I can read it like it's in the palm of my hand."
With that, Kaftin waved a hand at Maengseol and vaulted across to Tide's pirate ship in a single easy motion.
He had her begin departure preparations, then dropped into a chair near the helm and stretched out to rest.
Barnacle bit down hard and fell into deliberation.
The pain pulsing from his knees was making it painfully clear that what was happening around him was a harsh reality, not a nightmare.
Even a glance was enough to see the damage was severe.
Even if he managed to reach a priest — whether he would ever walk properly again was another question entirely.
In the sea of the strong devouring the weak, a body that was no longer whole meant death.
"Kgh...!"
"...Kaftin."
"Yes?"
"Barnacle... what are you planning to do with him?"
"Kgh. That's not something I need to think about right now. At least not yet..."
"......"
"It depends entirely on what he chooses. I mean it — when I hand someone a choice, I intend to let them choose."
Maengseol watched him shrug with complete ease and felt nothing but genuine displeasure.
"Is that so. You just spent considerable time emphasizing that he would pick the third option. And you still claim you're giving him a real choice?"
"...Heheh... that was simply a small nail driven in."
"......!"
Wearing that particular unnatural laugh of his, Kaftin began to fidget his fingers toward the sky and explained.
"Emphasizing the third option over and over... the third option is possibility. The hopeful assumption that perhaps everyone might escape alive... but by driving in that nail — that he'll pick it — the moment he does, Barnacle's pride takes a wound."
"Then after all—!"
Kaftin shook his head slowly.
"This is simply a light verification process. Maengseol."
"...A verification process?"
"Yes. When faced with a weighty choice like this, a person reveals their true nature...!"
"Their true nature...!"
He felt he understood, just a little, where that insight of his came from.
"Heheh... if he truly picks the third, it means he's a petty fool with neither pride nor self-respect — someone who casts both aside and chases nothing but a hollow hope. In that case, there's nothing more to see."
"Kill them all..."
"That's right. If leaving them alive produces nothing — nothing at all of interest — then killing them and making them scream is the more entertaining outcome."
Maengseol's mind grew complicated.
This way of toying with people like pieces on a board — where did it come from?
Was it something learned from Vesren, the torture practitioner? Or something else entirely?
"If... he chooses to give up his own life. What then?"
"That would mean he's a man of resolve. A man who knows what pride is."
"......!"
"Well... I doubt it'll come to that... but if he truly picks that option, then just maybe, the tiniest bit..."
He was murmuring as though anticipating something — then shook his head.
This was a hope as good as fiction. A hopeful observation that had no business existing.
History was always right.
And history had proven it again and again, had it not?
That wars staked on hopeful assumptions were always lost.
Barnacle would never pick that option.
No — he couldn't.
"What about the second...?"
"A perfectly ordinary, run-of-the-mill human being unfit to call himself a captain... just another wretch thrashing around to survive."
"......!"
The contempt dripping from Kaftin's murmur made it clear in an instant.
Of the three options, only one led to survival.
The option where the captain himself made the sacrifice.
Any other choice — and both Barnacle and his crew would die.
Kaftin was a madman who moved entirely by his own interest.
Anything that failed to interest him — only killing it and listening to the screaming and begging for life held any value to him.
"Ah, and of course — no coaching this time."
"......!"
Kaftin's words, delivered as though he already knew everything, made Maengseol's back stiffen.
"I have a rough idea of what you said to Tide earlier."
"...Then why did you allow it?"
"......"
The way he went silent and turned his head away at a critical moment — Maengseol felt something off about it.
This wasn't like him.
There had to be some other reason behind it.
"Tell me. Why, exactly? Given your nature..."
"...Because I don't particularly want to use violence on women and children if I can help it."
"......!"
Caught off guard by the unexpected answer, Maengseol went still.
"If the other party comes at me with a weapon as an enemy, I'll deal with them as an enemy. But otherwise..."
He let the sentence trail off — but inwardly, the thought of striking a weeping woman or child held not the slightest appeal for Kaftin.
A frail existence that could never be a threat to him. That could never become one.
To strike such a being — to him, that was an act that scratched at something more important than anything else. His pride.
"Truly... unexpected. Until now I had thought of you as nothing more than a killing machine that had thrown away all humanity."
"Hahah... that assessment is basically correct. No — if anything, it falls short."
"......"
"But even I have things I cannot give up. Things I want to protect. I'd like you to at least understand that much..."
"......!"
In the middle of their exchange, the careful click of heels announced Tide's return.
"Departure preparations are complete. The crew has... come to terms with the situation."
"Heh... come to terms is a generous way to put it. More like resignation, wouldn't you say?"
"Kgh..."
Kaftin watched her struggling to hold back tears and let out a small sigh, scratching the back of his head.
"Sorry. That was a bit much. But the fact that your crew member died is..."
"...I, I know. It was a short time, but I've seen enough of you to understand..."
"......"
Watching her try to accept what had happened even through her tears, Maengseol shook his head.
"Kaftin. From here on, would you at least consult with me before resorting to violence?"
"...I'd rather not, but I'll take you up on that sometimes."
"...Good."
Shortly after, Barnacle was helped across from his pirate ship by his crew, supported on either side.
He collapsed down onto the deck and slowly looked up at Kaftin standing before him.
"Well... I'm a little disappointed you didn't run. I was genuinely betting on that one."
That smirking reminder of the third option, right up to the end — Barnacle ground his teeth against it.
Truthfully, he had been ready to go for it at first.
By some stroke of luck his own ship was in fine sailing condition, and his crew had been urging him that way too.
But...
"My name — they call me Barnacle...! I'm a pirate who runs down every mark he's locked onto and takes them for everything they've got...! I don't turn tail and run like a coward...!"
"Oh? And so?"
With that smirking face goading him toward an answer, Barnacle let the tears fall and forced the words out like something torn from inside him.
"My choice is...! Kill me! But swear on your honor as a man — not a single hair on my crew or my ship gets touched!"
"......"
Maengseol saw it.
The way Kaftin's expression visibly hardened.
"C-Captain...!"
"Enough. All of you, go. Stay here any longer and this lunatic might break his word and go after you too. Go — now!"
"B-but...!"
"Now! I've already settled on a new captain for you, haven't I — go! Just remember — you know what we agreed, yes?"
"...Kgh...!"
Kaftin, who had been watching in silence, spoke in a flat tone.
"Right... the drama's over? Then the rest of you clear off. I have no more use for you. The trap you set for me, the cannonballs you fired — this man here is taking responsibility for all of it as your captain... so there's no need to see any of your blood."
"......!"
Kaftin — surprisingly true to his word — slowly reached into his coat and drew out Number Twenty-Five Knife.
Maengseol quietly closed his eyes.
What that knife signified — having experienced the Torture Martial Arts firsthand, Maengseol knew it all too well.
Release without pain.
Kaftin was genuinely acknowledging the resolve of this seemingly hapless captain called Barnacle.
Seeing the blade of the knife catch the light, Barnacle's crew clenched their teeth, gave Barnacle one final salute, and crossed back to their own ship.
"Before I finish this — let me say one thing."
"......?"
"Barnacle... you exceeded my expectations. In respect for your resolve and your pride — I'll end it as quickly as I can."
"...I appreciate that."
Barnacle squeezed his eyes shut as the words left him.
The thought of that knife coming down on him — it was frightening, no matter how he tried to steel himself.
For the sake of the crew who were like family to him, yes — but being frightened was being frightened.
Still...
Crack — crack — crack!
"Wh — AAAARGH?!"
—To be continued—