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“Did you hear that?”
The shout had come from outside through the cabins window. Lysithea looked up from her sea charts, confused. “Hear what?”
“Ignatz spotted a ship,” Leonie said as she looked out the window, trying to spot what had alarmed their friend, “and not just any ship apparently, but a Faerghus Royal Navy vessel!”
“That’s highly improbable,” Lysithea checked her charts again, “we are thousands of miles south of royal waters.”
“All the more reason to be alarmed if it’s true.” Leonie ran onto the deck, where a large part of the crew had already gathered. They all stared at a small point far off on the horizon.
Leonie shouted up to the crow’s nest, “Ignatz, are you sure it’s the Royal Navy?”
Clutching his binoculars, the crew’s scout shouted down, “It has blue sails and a lion figurehead. It’s them, I’m sure of it!”
By now even Captain Riegan himself had left his quarters and eyed the ship on the horizon with a mix of suspicion and curiosity.
Leonie addressed him, “Your orders, Captain?”
He smiled. “Well, we wouldn’t be very good pirates if we let an opportunity like this go to waste. Tell the crew to prepare for battle, we’re going to attack!”
------
The crew of the Golden Deer was, even at the best of times, a bit of an unruly mess, despite Leonie’s best efforts. There were those who were always ready for action, no matter the time or weather; you told them an attack was imminent, and within minutes they were armed and willing to fight.
And then there were people like Hilda.
“Surely you don’t need the whole crew to attack one measly ship, right?”
“Nope, every capable fighter needs to be ready,” Leonie said unamused, “and that includes you.”
Hilda was undeterred. “You don’t expect Marianne and Lysithea to fight.”
Leonie tried to remain patient. “Marianne is the ship’s doctor, the one we need to patch us back up after battle. It would be kind of bad if she were to be seriously injured. And Lysithea isn’t physically strong enough for battle.”
Hilda grumbled, “So what? I’m a delicate flower too, you know?”
Leonie couldn’t help but laugh. “Last time we were in Port Derdriu, I watched you pick up a man twice your size and hurl him through the tavern window.”
Hilda shrugged. “Those were special circumstances. He was getting handsy.”
“Oh, well that’s different then! I’ll remember that when our men are getting slaughtered left and right by navy soldiers; that one of my best friends can’t be bothered to fight unless she is personally inconvenienced!”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Hilda groaned, “I’ll go get my stupid weapon.”
Having solved one problem, Leonie pondered what to do next. So far, the crew had never engaged in battle with the Royal Navy; perhaps she should talk to someone who had been on one of their vessels before. Couldn’t hurt to get some insider info if possible.
She found Lorenz by the starboard railing, talking to Raphael.
“I just don’t see the point of the third axe.” Lorenz eyed his companion skeptically. The burly man had armed himself with three battle axes; one in each hand and the third clenched between his teeth. “I mean, you can’t reach anyone with the blade, so it seems utterly superfluous to…”
Raphael interrupted him with a cheerful “Ah thig ik ooks ool!”
Lorenz looked as if someone had spat in his tea. “I beg your pardon?”
“He thinks it looks cool.” Leonie translated for him. Raphael nodded enthusiastically.
“Well, I suppose it can’t hurt to have a back up weapon.” Lorenz shook his head as he watched his big friend flex his muscles in anticipation for the upcoming battle.
Leonie leaned on the railing as she spoke to him. “You were in the Royal Navy once, right Lorenz? Have anything useful to share that could give us an advantage?”
“Try not to get shot by the cannons.” Leonie shot him a look, but Lorenz just shrugged. “What do you want me to say? We’ve hijacked ships before; this isn’t much different, except that the crew are soldiers instead of seamen.”
Leonie nodded. “And our crew can handle a bunch of navy soldiers in one-on-one fights, right?”
Lorenz laughed. “That really shouldn’t be a problem. If that vessel is anything like the average Faerghus navy ship, half the men on board will be arrogant young sons of aristocrats, with delusions of battle grandeur but no actual fighting experience. You know, nobles.”
“Aren’t you a noble?”
Both Lorenz and Leonie flinched. Neither of them had noticed Byleth approaching them.
“Dammit newbie” Leonie scolded them, “I told you not to sneak up on people!”
“I wasn’t sneaking.” They spoke in the same tone of voice they always used, detached and devoid of any emotion. It was entirely possible that they were telling the truth; they had an uncanny ability to walk without making much noise that had startled many other crew members over the last few weeks.
They were now staring at Lorenz expectantly. “I was a noble, yes,” he explained, “and woefully haughty and arrogant, I am loath to admit. I took the nobilities’ privileges for granted, never realizing that they came with responsibilities until it was too late. I should have looked after the poor instead of flaunting my riches!” His voice had taken a dour tone, but now it perked up again. “I may not be able to change my past, but I can be a better man right now! I shall do my part to teach all the wayward noblemen the lesson that I learned too late! That is now the noble duty of Lorenz Hellman Gloucester!”
Saying that, he unsheathed his rapier and struck a presumably heroic pose. Leonie rolled her eyes behind his back. It was true that Lorenz was a bit of a pompous braggart, but he was a reliable pompous braggart. Once the fighting started, she knew she could trust him to watch her back.
She wished she could say the same about the newbie.
Being suspicious of the latest addition to their crew was not unreasonable in her opinion. The circumstances were just a bit too weird to be ignored. First of all, you don’t fish many people out of the water in these parts. The seas around the Leicester archipelago were famously filled with some of the most dangerous sea-creatures in the world. Souls lost at sea never survived long.
And that was the next weird thing; they had found this stranger floating in the middle of nowhere. No island in sight, no signs of a shipwreck, just a single person swimming alone in the ocean, apparently just waiting to be rescued.
So the circumstances were pretty odd, but the rescued stranger was even more so, with their pale face and their pervasive stare, and a voice that never showed any emotion stronger than ‘mild annoyance’. And to top it all off, they claimed to have amnesia. Said they couldn’t remember more than their name, Byleth.
Leonie felt she was justified in being a bit wary around them, all things considered. Sure, they claimed they didn’t remember anything about their past life, but they clearly remembered how to fight. Leonie hated to admit it, but they were good, one of the best fighters in the whole crew in fact. And the way they fought seemed… strange, but Leonie couldn’t explain why. It was as if watching Byleth fight was somehow… familiar.
Lorenz had finished his sermon and excused himself to find the captain, doubtless to offer some more invaluable insight. That left Leonie alone with the newbie. They both looked out at the enemy ship they’d soon be attacking. Byleth’s expression betrayed no emotion, as ever.
“Nervous?” she teased them, trying to get any kind of reaction.
“No.”
“Maybe you should be, a bit of apprehension before battle is a good thing, keeps you from getting reckless. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid and I still get the jitters before a big fight.”
Byleth shrugged. “I don’t, I know I’m a good fighter.”
“What, and I’m not?” It probably wasn’t their intention to rile her up, but Leonie always had a problem with her temper. “I didn’t get this job training the crew for nothing, you know? I am the best fighter on this ship, because I learned from…”
“Captain Jeralt, yes, you told me before.”
Something about the nonchalant way they talked about her former captain only made Leonie more furious. “That’s right, I sailed with Captain Jeralt himself, and he was…”
“One of the greatest pirates of his time, yes, I remember.”
“Oh, do you?” Leonie snapped, “What a miracle! I thought you can’t remember anything, but suddenly you know who Captain Jeralt is? Why’s that?”
Byleths face changed slightly, from expressionless to… what was it, surprised? They sounded a bit startled when they said, “Because you told me once before. I wanted to remember it because it seemed important to you.”
“Oh.” And just like that, Leonie’s anger was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and she felt like an ass. “I see. Umm, thanks.”
Well, this was awkward. It wasn’t the first time that Leonie’s temper had gotten the best of her, and it probably wouldn’t be the last either, no matter how hard she tried. Sometimes her emotions took the reins of her mind and went off, and there was nothing she could do about it.
What she could do, however, was owning up to her mistakes.
“I’m sorry about yelling at you just now,” she finally managed to say, “Captain Jeralt is… still a bit of a sore subject for me, but I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. I’m sorry!”
“Okay.”
That was apparently all the reaction she was gonna get. “So, we’re good? You’re not mad at me?”
“No.”
“Alright. Good.” And then the two of them just stood there, awkwardness hanging in the air like thick morning fog. Feeling like her apology was still insufficient, Leonie attempted another conversation with the latest member of the crew. “You know you can come to me if you need help with anything, right? I’m not just here to keep the crew in fighting shape; it’s also my job to make sure you are all cared for. If you have a question about anything, you can just ask me!”
“What’s Faerghus?”
It took Leonie a moment to process the question. “You don’t know what Faerghus is?”
“Yes. Everyone is saying that it’s weird for a Faerghus ship to be around here, but I don’t know what that means or what the big deal is.”
Leonie nodded. “Well, Faerghus is a nation on a big island far up in the north. For the last five years or so, they’ve been at war with another nation on that island, the Adrestian Empire. From what we hear, the war is at a stalemate right now; Faerghus may conquer territories inland with their unequaled ground troops, but the empire dominates the coastlines with their superior navy fleet. Their ships are bigger, faster, have more fire power and can be manufactured quicker. Simply put, Faerghus can’t afford to waste a single of their ships, or they’ll risk tipping the power balance in the empire’s favor.” She looked to the horizon, watching the other ship get ever bigger as their own advanced. “So why is one of their vessels all the way down here?”
A voice behind her answered, “That’s the big mystery, isn’t it?” Captain Riegan had approached the two, now wearing his full captains’ ensemble; the sash, the tricorn hat and various daggers and flintlock pistols tucked under his belt. He had a glint in his eyes that Leonie recognized; it was always there when the captain found something that intrigued him.
He sauntered up to them, with the serenity of a man who wasn’t about to attack a whole boatload of enemies. “As far as I know, there are only two explanations for why our lionhearted friends would come to our neck of the sea!” He turned to Byleth and asked, “Can you imagine what those would be?”
The new recruits face barely changed. Leonie almost didn’t notice the slight wrinkle in their forehead that indicated they were thinking hard. After a while, they simply said, “Deserters?”
“Possible.” The captain nodded as he contemplated the answer. “Five years of war and no end in sight has got to be demoralizing, doesn’t it? Perhaps our friends are tired of fighting and fled, I couldn’t blame them.” He turned to Byleth again. “And the other explanation?”
This time Leonie could definitely tell that the newbie was struggling. Their face had an almost panicked look as they tried to come up with an answer. She was tempted to answer herself and put the poor thing out of their misery, but the captain shot her down with a look before she could. Apparently he really wanted to hear Byleth’s answer.
Eventually they answered with a half-hearted “Not deserters?”
The captain laughed. “I mean, yeah, that’s one way to put it.” He pulled out one of his daggers and used it to point at the enemy ship. “Basically, if those are not deserters, it means that this vessel of the royal Faerghus navy is this close to Leicester waters on purpose!” His grin widened, and the glint in his eyes seemed to intensify. “And I am very curious what that purpose might be…”
------
The attack was imminent.
The crew of the Golden Deer had assembled on deck, armed and ready to battle. Hilda had slung her big axe over her shoulder, Raphael still had a smaller one clenched between his teeth, and up in the crow’s nest Ignatz had prepared his bow and arrows. Their voices filled the air, all of them brimming with excitement and fueling each other’s fighting spirits. The crowd was so rowdy they barely noticed their captain trying to address them; Leonie had to shout “Everyone shut up, the captain’s talking!” before they quieted down.
Captain Riegan thanked her briefly before he recommenced his address. “My friends, this could be an important historical day for all of us; we might be able to cause an international incident! It seems a little lion ship got lost on its way and ended up in our waters. I think we should give it a warm welcome!” The crowd roared in response. “So I say, let’s teach those lions why they should fear the deer!”
The sound of daggers, rapiers and cutlasses being unsheathed filled the air along with the raucous noise of unruly men and women ready to ruin someone else’s day. Leonie looked over to the newbie, who had their own weapon in hand but whose face was as devoid of emotion as always. She walked over and asked, “You good?”
They nodded briefly. “I know how to fight.”
“Yeah, no doubt about that,” she said, “but we have to do something about all the stuff you don’t know besides fighting. You need to have at least some basic knowledge about, you know, life and stuff. So how about this: once we’re done with the pirate business for the day, I’ll invite you for a drink, and then you can ask me anything you want to know. Deal?”
They smiled one of their rare smiles. “Deal!”
The attack had begun. The first wave of their crew had already boarded the enemy ship. Their weapons in hand, the two shared a last look.
“Fear the deer?”
“Fear the deer!”