Chapter 248

Chapter 248: The Invitation.

The shopkeeper of the Rose Doll House had been rummaging in the storeroom for a long time before she finally found what she wanted. But when she squeezed back out, she saw that the “guest” who had been standing at the counter was already gone.

“…So impatient…” After she confirmed that Tyrian had left, the old woman could not help muttering, “No wonder the younger sister became a scholar, while the brother ran off to fight wars…”

Tyrian had no way of knowing what that elderly elf madam was grumbling about behind his back. By then, he had already rushed out of the doll shop and stepped onto the street outside.

He stood in the open space in front of the shop and looked around, but he still could not find any trace of that blonde lady.

The sailors who had stayed outside to wait saw their captain come out and look around. They hurried over and said: “Captain, we’re over here.”

“I wasn’t looking for you,” Tyrian said quickly, his eyes still sweeping the nearby streets and alleys. “Did any of you see a lady with long golden hair standing by the window just now? About… half a head shorter than me, wearing a purple dress.”

The sailors looked at one another. Then all of them turned to Tyrian with the exact same stunned expression.

Tyrian frowned: “…What is that look supposed to mean?”

“Captain…” One sailor gathered his courage and spoke, sounding hesitant. “Love at first sight is a good thing, but I think a romance that crosses city-states is…”

Tyrian looked calmly at his subordinate and said: “If you keep talking, I’ll stuff you into The Sea Mist’s six main guns one by one and fire you in six different directions.”

The sailor fell silent on the spot.

Tyrian had already started thinking quickly.

He was certain he had not seen wrong. Just now, outside the window, there really had been a blonde woman whose face was exactly the same as Her Majesty Ray Nora of Frostholm, knocking on the glass.

In a crowd, if it were only someone whose features were somewhat similar to the Queen of Frostholm, Tyrian would not have reacted much. Over a half-century of life, he had seen plenty of people with similar faces. But the woman knocking on the window was different.

She had obviously come for him.

A woman who looked almost exactly like the Queen of Frostholm appeared near this doll shop as if she had planned it, knocked on the window to draw his attention, and then ran off the moment he appeared. This whole chain of actions sent a very clear signal.

Tyrian frowned slightly. It felt as if something faint had flashed through his mind. He raised his head and looked at the men he had brought with him: “All of you, go back to the Cathedral first.”

“Huh?” The sailors froze. One of them spoke in surprise: “But…”

“No buts,” Tyrian waved his hand. “I have some things to deal with. You leave first.”

Another sailor still could not hold back and said: “But, Captain, the few of us…”

Tyrian’s expression turned serious: “That’s an order.”

“But we didn’t bring any money,” the third sailor finally finished his sentence. “We don’t even have enough for the carriage fare—getting from here to the Cathedral isn’t close.”

Tyrian: “…”

A moment later, the “Steel Vice Admiral” threw a pouch of small coins at his subordinates and almost ground the words out between his back teeth: “You lot, get lost.”

The sailors left. Tyrian finally let out a small breath of relief. He glanced around, thought for a moment, and then walked toward the quietest corner of an alley within sight, where he silently waited for the other party to appear.

If his guess was right, she would come out on her own. He had just dismissed the men he brought in order to send a clear signal that it was “safe to meet.”

And things went just as he expected.

He waited in that deserted alley for less than a moment before he suddenly heard footsteps nearby. He looked up toward the sound and saw the blonde lady with the Queen of Frostholm’s face stepping out of the shadows not far away.

Even though he had already seen her once through the shop window, Tyrian still could not help feeling shocked now—it was just too similar.

He had indeed seen people with similar faces before, but this degree of resemblance… already went far beyond common sense, beyond imagination.

Precisely because of this extreme similarity, Tyrian’s first reaction after that instant of shock was caution and wariness. He stared at the mysterious blonde lady as if she were a dangerous person who deserved his full attention. In that careful observation, he also noticed a few strange details.

Her movements carried an elegance and restraint that did not belong to an ordinary person. Her face was delicate and flawless, yet lacked a certain… “living breath.” An ordinary person might not notice anything, but as a captain who commanded a legion of Living dead, Tyrian gradually sensed from her a trait that felt very wrong on a living being.

“Incredible,” the blonde lady spoke just as Tyrian’s wariness grew. “You actually came. So luring someone out is this easy.”

Even her voice was exactly the same as the Queen of Frostholm’s.

Tyrian felt no joy or excitement at all. Instead, he grew even more guarded: “…Who are you?”

“My name is Alice,” the blonde lady said with a calm smile.

“…I’m not asking your name.” Tyrian frowned. “I’m asking what you are, and what you intend to do. Why did you insist on meeting me?”

“Captain wants to see you,” Alice answered very seriously, responding to his question point by point. “He said that while you stay in the Cathedral, there are too many people around, and it’s hard to discuss many secret matters. So he had to lure you somewhere quieter so you could talk.”

A mysterious captain wanted to talk about secret matters and sent someone to lure him out.

Tyrian frowned, but for some reason, he actually felt more relaxed inside. He had been a pirate on the Frost Sea for half a century. He had seen far too many situations like this. Compared to Her Majesty Ray Nora of Frostholm suddenly coming back from the dead to look for him, a secret meeting and conspiracy between captains was what he was more used to.

But he still had no intention of going along with it.

“I’m not interested in people who hide their heads and show their tails,” Tyrian said casually once he recognized this “scene.” “Go tell your master this: if he wants to meet the captain of The Sea Mist, he can come openly and find me at the Cathedral. If it’s shady business he can’t show in the light, then sorry. Outside the Frost Sea, The Sea Mist only does legal work.”

When he finished speaking, he was ready to turn and leave. But the blonde lady who called herself Alice suddenly said: “You don’t want to know who I mean when I say ‘captain’?”

“Hmm?” Tyrian frowned. “Who?”

“Your dad,” Alice said honestly.

Tyrian’s expression changed at once: “Sorry, that joke is not funny at all. Excuse me.”

Alice thought for a moment and said: “Ah, Captain also said you might react like this, so he has another invitation plan…”

Tyrian was just about to turn and leave, but when he heard that, he instinctively hesitated: “Another…”

He had only muttered a couple of words when he suddenly felt the air around him change. A surge of warning rushed up inside him. He jerked his head toward the source of the feeling, and saw only a little girl standing there. He did not even know when she had appeared. She swung her arm in a wide arc and threw something at him.

It looked like a dog.

For less than a second, Tyrian felt he still had a chance to dodge. Even though the other side had launched a sneak attack, and even though that strength and speed were clearly extraordinary, he still felt he could avoid it. But in the same instant he tried to move, he found that all his limbs had stopped responding. It was as if countless invisible threads had wrapped tight around his bones and muscles. He lost control of his own body.

The only thing he managed to do was to barely turn his head and glance at the blonde lady, who was smiling harmlessly. In the next second, a hideous dog head swelled to fill the edge of his vision.

With a loud bang, the Pirate Lord flew several meters away and did not move again.

Shirley stared at the result, a little dazed.

“…He just went flying like that?” She looked at the chain in her hand, then at Tyrian, who had been smashed away. As she walked over to check on him, she muttered: “I thought there would at least be a fierce battle. So this is the legendary Pirate Lord… I didn’t smash him to death, did I?”

“I don’t think so,” Alice also walked over. She looked at the unconscious Tyrian and muttered with Shirley: “Captain said Tyrian is a child who can take a beating.”

“Why didn’t he dodge just now?” Shirley squatted down, picked up a stick, and poked Tyrian’s face. “Even those Enders earlier could dodge a few times at least…”

“I don’t know,” Alice shook her head. “I don’t know how to fight.”

Shirley thought for a moment and then had a new worry: “…If Captain sees his son’s head swollen like this, will he be angry?”

“I don’t think so,” Alice shook her head again. “Captain said that if he doesn’t cooperate, you should hit him with Dog and make him spin like a top…”

“Did he spin just now?”

“I think… he did. He spun a lot of times in the air.”

Shirley finally relaxed and clapped her hands: “Then it’s fine. I’ll call AI over to move him.”