Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?

Chapter 111: THIRD POV.

Flounder said nothing. He let out a sharp hiss of pain as Rudwig’s grip squeezed his injured side, but he finally stopped shouting.

He slowly slid his iron blade back into its leather sheath, though his dark eyes never stopped staring at Jacob with a deep, silent anger.

He was still furious, but he wasn’t completely stupid; he could feel that the giant tiger-woman above him was just waiting for an excuse to crush him.

"Good then," Jacob said, nodding his head once as if the whole matter was completely settled.

He smoothed down the front of his vest, his expression returning to a professional polite one.

"Also, please keep in mind, if you intend to live on our ships for the duration of this journey, you’ll have to behave accordingly. We have rules on this vessel, and respect for the captain is the absolute first one."

" But I’m sure that should be easy for highly educated people from the royal house like yourselves," Jacob ended, his voice carrying a polite but very sharp warning that left no room for arguments.

"Yes, yes, of course! We understand completely. Again, we are truly grateful for your magnanimity and your incredible kindness," Rudwig said, bowing his head as low as his round body would allow. He never failed to show how grateful he was, his voice full of genuine relief as he realized they weren’t going to be thrown back into the water.

Jacob watched the old attendant handle the situation, letting out a small mental sigh. If only that blasted protagonist could learn a thing or two from him about basic manners and survival, their trip back to the main battleship would be a whole lot easier.

Turning this trashy story around was going to be a lot of work, especially with an idiot hero like Flounder running around making a mess of things.

*******

Douglas glanced through his spyglass and smiled. He adjusted the brass tube, focusing his good eye on the dark speck floating on the horizon.

The sun was beating down on the open water, creating a bright glare, but he could clearly see the black flag fluttering from the mainmast of the distant vessel.

He pulled the glass away from his face, grinning from ear to ear as he looked back at his tired crew.

"We finally found one, lads," he said, his voice full of excitement. " Our luck is finally turning around!"

" Hahaha, those seadogs won’t know what hit them." Douglas laughed with fatty and skinny joining in.

"Is he on that ship?" Persephone popped out of the water with a sharp splash, staring at the pirate ship in the distance.

Her long hair, plastered against her neck, and her pale shoulders glistened in the sunlight.

Her eyes were sharp and filled with a cold, desperate impatience.

She had been swimming for hours, driven by a single, burning goal, and she was getting tired of looking at nothing but empty blue water.

The ship Douglas was pointing at wasn’t a large warship by any means, but it was adequate in size.

It had two sturdy masts, a decent hull that sat high in the water, and enough deck space to hold a proper crew. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

It was exactly the kind of vessel a band of sea robbers would use to hunt down helpless merchant boats.

"Not quite, your ladyship," Douglas said with a nervous yet polite tone, tipping his hat slightly toward the terrifying sea creature.

He knew exactly what she was capable of when she lost her temper, so he chose his words very carefully.

"But with a ship of our own, it’ll be much easier to find the one you seek. The ocean is simply too vast to search on foot...or by fin, if you catch my drift."

" No I do not..." She replied plainly.

" Ahem." Sensing an awkward atmospheric coming on, he cleared his throat.

" All i’m saying is that there’s a very high chance he might’ve already been picked up by a passing trading ship too. If he’s drifting out here, someone would have spotted him by now."

Persephone narrowed her eyes, her lips pressing into a thin, annoyed line. "And how does having a wooden box help us find him any faster?"

"You said he’s human, so I reckon he must be making his way to the mainland," Douglas explained, leaning over the side of his own small craft.

" Since it’ll be far too hard to look for the boat of you instead."

" Since that’s the case, all we have to do is head toward the port town I mentioned earlier. It’s the closest one within our path, and every ship in this sector eventually stops there to trade. If your man is alive, that’s where he’s heading."

"But to do that, we need a ship first," Artria popped her upper body out of the water right next to her sister and said.

Her expression was much calmer, but there was a dangerous glint in her eyes as she stared at the pirate vessel.

"Exactly!" Douglas clapped his hands together, pointing toward the distant target. "But please, whatever you do, don’t harm the ship itself."

" We need it to be in one piece after all. If you poke holes in the hull or smash the masts, we’ll just end up sinking right along with them pirates."

"Fine, leave it to us," the both of them said in unison, their voices sounding smooth yet incredibly chilly.

Before Douglas could even nod in response, the two sisters vanished underwater without a sound or ripple , leaving Douglas and his men staring at the innocent-looking sea cow floating nearby.

The crewmen on Douglas’s boat looked at each other, some of them shivering despite the heat.

They knew that whatever was about to happen on that pirate ship was going to be absolute chaos.

******

Not too long after, a massive explosion of water rocked the side of the pirate vessel.

Two bright, shimmering figures shot out of the ocean like flying fish and landed heavily on the wooden deck of the ship. The impact made the entire boat tilt slightly to the side, the wood groaning under the sudden force.

"What in tarnation is going on?!" one of the pirates yelled, dropping his rope in surprise.

"Where’d those women come from?!" another shouted, his eyes popping out of his head as he pointed a dirty finger at the center of the deck.

The pirates on deck hollered and screamed, completely caught off guard by the sudden intrusion.

One second they were enjoying a quiet afternoon, and the next, two beautiful women were standing in the middle of their territory.

The moment both sisters landed on board, they turned into human versions of themselves, their long, powerful fish tails vanishing into thin air before their feet even touched the wooden deck.

It happened in a split second, a sudden flash of bright light masking the transformation.

By the time the light faded, they looked like ordinary human women in blue and crimson attire, save for their striking beauty and the fierce, unnatural look in their eyes.

"Who cares who they are! Someone get these stowaways off my ship!" the captain shouted from the upper balcony, his voice echoing across the deck.

He was a large man with a thick beard and a fancy coat, and he looked thoroughly annoyed by the interruption.

It seemed it never occurred to them that the both of them weren’t even human to begin with. Since the sudden flash of light had completely hidden their true forms from the eyes of these simple pirates, the crew just assumed they were some weird sorcerers or crazy women who had jumped from a hidden boat.

Artria glanced around the deck, counting the number of men holding swords, guns and machetes.

She looked completely relaxed.

"You take the ones on the left, I take the right?" Artria suggested, turning her head slightly toward her sister.

Persephone merely scoffed, a look of pure disdain crossing her face. She didn’t feel like sharing, and she certainly didn’t feel like playing a game with these filthy humans.

Before Artria could even move, Persephone raised her hand, her fingers curling toward the sky.

The ocean completely answered her call.

A massive wall of water rose up from the sea, lifting high above the ship’s railing before crashing down like a heavy hammer right through the center of the deck.

The wave swept through the wood with incredible force, tearing away loose barrels, crates, and ropes.

"ARRGHH!!" the pirates on deck screamed, but they weren’t even able to react or draw their weapons.

The water dragged them off their feet, carrying them away like small sticks in a river.

Before washing them over the side and into the rough sea.

In less than three seconds, more than half of the captain’s crew was bobbing helplessly in the ocean, screaming for help as the ship drifted away from them.

"Darn it! One of them is a magic user! Lads! Open fire!" the pirate captain commanded from his high perch.

AN: For the next few days, I’ll be uploading 1 Chapter at 1.5k words. Need to stock up for next month’s privilege plus study... Sorry guys, I hope you understand. Been getting an ear full lately plus I feel guilty for not giving my best, so yeah, I’ll be uploading one. Really sorry everyone. But it’s for your own good. Ok... Maybe mine as well, but I care about you guys too.