Chapter 63

The incident took place eight years ago, during the expedition team Aquamarine’s golden days. Back in those days, they would explore countless Rifts and bring back spoils of war. They were highly acclaimed across all of Atlantis. It seemed as if they would always be successful and admired by others, but not long after Frances’s eleventh birthday, dark, heavy clouds began to gather above them.

Their downfall began with none other than the Council of Atlantis.

“My comrades, the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District are corrupting the area to a critical point. Yes, it has increased our continuous stream of income, but if we continue to neglect it like this, all of Atlantis’s territories could become Corroded. We must deploy the Alliance’s fleet and take care of it.”

Njord’s words that day made all the other councilors turn red. The person who reacted the most negatively was the captain of Moby Dick, Councilor Pablo.

“The Rifts are well under control. Wasn’t it concluded that they wouldn’t become Corroded for at least thirty years? I don’t understand why you’re digging up something we already agreed upon.”

Most of the other council members were skeptical, but it was understandable. The vast majority of the Atlantis Maritime Alliance’s wealth came from the Fourth and Fifth Sea Districts. Both the mass-harvested resources and the items that came from Rift outgrowths were in demand in the Magic Tower and everywhere else on the mainland. If they sealed all the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District as Njord suggested, it would not only cut off their continuous stream of income but also get rid of its source altogether.

“Listen! The Rifts are corrupting the area faster and more severely than we thought! When an area is about to become Corroded, it must be dealt with before it can happen! You all know that!”

“I’m opposed to it. I think your worrying is too excessive. According to my own investigations, the area is still stable.”

Eight people voted in favor of Councilor Pablo’s suggestion, and three voted for Njord’s. Two abstained.

“Pablo! Listen to me, I beg you!”

“You must abide by the rules of the Council, Chairman Njord. You signed the contract as well.

“Please, let us redo the vote. Just one more time!”

Despite Njord’s pleas, the Council rejected a mission to seal the Rifts and forbade the contents of their discussion from leaving the room. They knew just how great Aquamarine’s influence was and how many people would take action with just a word from Njord.

So, with his and Aquamarine’s hands tied, there was only one thing he could do.

“The Council is planning to allow the Fifth Sea District’s erosion to continue. It appears that they care more about the resources Rifts produce than about the safety of the Alliance.”

The Rifts in the Sixth Sea District were expanding by the day, but if Fifth Sea District Aiolos also became Corroded, all of Atlantis’s waters would become corrupted in a matter of years.

“We must take matters into our own hands.”

The expedition team Aquamarine consisted of famous, powerful fighters, and during their prime, there was no one who could compete with them. With the so-called Spirit Knight Njord at their center, Aquamarine targeted the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District in earnest.

They sealed the Kelpie’s Wave Farm in the first five days. They sealed the Ningyo’s Enclave by the twelfth day. They sealed the Deep-Sea Octopus’s Nest by the eighteenth day. Though Njord led the mission, he’d been neglectful of expeditions because the Council of Atlantis took up so much of his time. But during the time he’d been gone, the members of Aquamarine had become two or three times stronger, and it took them less than a week to seal each Rift. At their rate, it seemed they would be able to completely rid the Fifth Sea District of Rifts within six months.

But there was a problem.

“Chairman Njord! It’s not too late, so please bring Aquamarine back to land at once!”

As the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District rapidly began to disappear, there was an outcry from the powerful people who had taken a big hit to their income. They’d taken Njord’s words as delusions stemming from his desire for fame, and they believed that Aquamarine’s actions were merely a plot to diminish their wealth and power.

The expedition team received countless messengers, contacts, appeasements, and threats on a daily basis.

“What a shame.”

Njord could only feel disappointment. Thanks to Aquamarine’s mission, they significantly delayed the Fifth Sea District from becoming Corroded. However, if they didn’t take this opportunity to seal every last Rift, they would inevitably crop up again.

While he wasn’t too worried about himself, if he continued to ignore the Alliance’s warnings, he could endanger and bring harm to his comrades.

“We will return after we seal one more Rift. If we just manage to seal that huge, damned Charybdis, things will be all right for the time being.”

Charybdis was the biggest and most dangerous Rift in the Fifth Sea District. Typically, the monsters that lurked inside Rifts couldn’t adjust to the external environment and wouldn’t start leaving the Rift until it became close to becoming Corroded.

That wasn’t the case for Charybdis. It could be that its water resembled that of the outside world or that its resident monsters had the ability to survive in ill-suited environments. Whatever it was, it frequently released monsters that resembled sea serpents or monsters that were even more vicious.

“We will conquer Charybdis. It will take at least ten days!”

In Aiolos’s deepest, most treacherous waters, the strongest expedition team violently clashed with the most wicked monsters.

It took them a whole two weeks to clear it, even though they alone had three Transcendence Tier members and a Class 7 mage on top of that. If even a single one was absent, they would have failed—no, they would have been wiped out. That was how dangerous it was.

But in the end, the unexpected had happened.

“We’re going home. Aquamarine emerges victorious!”

The strongest and most highly acclaimed expedition team succeeded in their mission without a single casualty. The large Rift Charybdis was completely sealed, and it disappeared from the Fifth Sea District. If they’d left it alone, it could have become Corroded within three years, but they had quashed the peril. That was enough for Njord. He did all that he could, and he was thinking about how he would appease his angry friends once he returned.

“C-Captain! It’s an ambush! An unidentified fleet is blocking our course!”

They clashed swords with other explorers who had come to kill them in their utterly exhausted state.

“They’re strong! These bastards are at least a Rank B team!”

“That ship is moving so smoothly... What?! They’re Rank A! Moby Dick! The White Whale is coming! Prepare for impact!”

“They’re too strong! And we’re too fatigued! If the battle continues like this, we’re all going to die!”

“They came here planning to kill us all in the first place! Those bastards won’t let us go even if we raise a white flag!”

If Aquamarine had been in perfect shape, they would have been able to escape with only a few casualties while doing substantial damage to their opponent and slowing them down. However, because they were attacked immediately after sealing Charybdis, they were completely exhausted. They could typically handle five or six opponents on their own, but now they collapsed after just one or two.

In the end, Njord made an order as he shed tears of blood.

“Get the seriously injured and non-combatants on the ship. We’ll stay behind and hold these bastards here until they can escape.”

Their boat,

Aquamarine

, was a masterpiece of magical engineering, specializing in high-speed navigation and defensive features rather than combative capabilities. If they managed to stall Moby Dick and the Rank A vessels, it was unlikely that there would be a ship that could chase after them. As Aquamarine’s main fighting force, which included four Masters, fought tenaciously with their lives on the line, they actually began to turn the tide despite being outnumbered.

As Frances’s eyes stayed transfixed on the back of her ever-dependable and resilient father, a bloodied Marianne hugged the girl to her chest and carried her to the cargo bay.

That was all she remembered.

“My lady, the captain and the expedition team, they’re all...”

Her father did not return. Neither did the members who had doted on her like relatives.

The only members of Aquamarine who had survived that day were Frances, Marianne, and a few seriously injured people who’d been moved to the cabins.

***

“Thus, Aquamarine crumbled, and Marianne was the only one who stayed by my side. Most of the survivors had trouble recovering from the loss of their comrades, friends, and family,” Frances concluded.

“And Bermuda did nothing?” Leonard asked.

“Indeed,” the girl said calmly. “It may have turned out different if my father and the others returned alive, but Bermuda is not kind-hearted enough to fight the Council in the name of the dead. There were a few people who raised the issue, but it was buried not long after.”

It was cruel, despicable even, that an eleven-year-old had to go through such an experience. The name that everyone had once admired was now trampled to the ground, and no one helped the girl. All they did was coldly turn a blind eye or glance at her with pity.

That was when Frances realized that the Atlantis her father had loved so much was vastly different from the one she knew now. The Council of Atlantis, which was supposed to lead them with righteousness, was rife with corruption, and Bermuda, which was supposed to protect the rights and interests of the explorers, had turned into an organization that was busy making profits.

“Since Marianne and I were the only ones left, we were unable to keep up with the requirements of a Rank A expedition team and were demoted to Rank B. We’ve been living like this ever since.”

They were only able to stay in their position because

Aquamarine

was such a fine vessel. Otherwise, they could easily drop to Rank C or below. Lucciano’s greed for the ship wasn’t for nothing. It was so exemplary that as long as a team could operate it properly, they could easily reach Rank B and perhaps even Rank A.

“One day...” The still look in her eyes wavered for a moment, as if tears were about to spill, but the hardness quickly returned. “One day, I’ll find the traitors in the Council and make them pay. And then I’ll seal all the Rifts in the Fifth Sea District as my father wanted. That is why I have refused to give up on Aquamarine and taken up the role of captain, even though it’s just a superficial title.”

“Do you think it’s possible?”

“Who knows! I’ve never thought about the probability of success,” she said right away. She tightly balled her hands into fists. “I’m going to do it! Even if I have to lay down my life, I made my decision. So, I’m going to do it.”’

Leonard was impressed when he saw her true self. She’d lost the father she’d admired so much to a nauseating plot at a young age, but instead of losing herself to the thirst for vengeance, she’d created a cause for herself and never stopped pursuing it.

Her level of determination wasn’t something a girl less than twenty should have. Even if that fatal loss had forced her to mature early, her resolve came from something special.

She is destined for greatness. If that incident wasn’t as extreme as it was, she would have already made a comeback, and if she had been born at a time when Okeanos was still alive and well, she would have been a queen whose name went down in history.

Even Leonard, who’d met countless people, hadn’t seen many people like her. Aside from prodigies who excelled in martial arts or had genius intellect, there were also those who were born to lead.

Frances was one of them.

“Leonard,” she said, looking at him with careful eyes. “You are Aquamarine’s third member and the first person whom I’ve told this story to. I don’t want you to join me just because I saved your life. If that’s your only reason, you wouldn’t stick with us to the very end, considering that we’ll have to fight the Council and Bermuda.” She puffed out her chest. “So, I hope that you’ll join me out of your own will. Most importantly, if you do, I’ll take you on exciting adventures!”

“Hm?” He raised an eyebrow and looked into her beautifully sparkling, ocean-colored eyes.

Frances Ler von Okeanos, the final descendant of the Kingdom of Okeanos's royal dynasty, held out her hand. “Wouldn’t you like to scour these seas with me?”

Leonard smiled at her valor. He couldn’t say that he was completely unmoved when he saw the tiniest tremble in her fingers.

“Sounds fun.” He took her hand. “Where will we start?”

“Well, we’ll have to gather comrades first!” Frances exclaimed, her voice sounding even more cheerful. “It’s time to go recruiting!”