Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?

Chapter 90: JACOBS POV.

"It’s because today’s the day we begin pillaging!" She pumped her fist into the air, her face lighting up with wild excitement.

Her white tail swished back and forth behind her like a whip, nearly smacking into the wooden rail.

She looked like she had just been told it was her birthday, completely thrilled by the thought of going out and causing a ruckus on the open water.

’Oh boy... This isn’t going to end well,’ I thought to myself, dropping my head slightly.

It was clear from what I was seeing that her perception of a pirate was one that would get us into deep trouble.

She didn’t think about the long-term problems, the laws, or the fact that real navy ships with massive cannons would come looking for us if we started robbing people left and right.

To her, being a pirate just meant sailing around, looking cool in a fancy coat, and taking whatever she wanted because she was strong enough to do it.

It was like a game to her, a very dangerous game that could get all of us killed or thrown into an even worse prison than the one we had just escaped from.

"You’re not planning on steering us off course then, are you, Captain?" I asked, trying to bring some logic back into the conversation.

I kept my voice steady, though inside I was feeling a bit stressed.

We had a deal, after all. She was supposed to be taking us to a safe port where the freed captives could finally get their lives back.

If she started chasing every random boat she saw on the horizon just to rob them, we would be drifting out here until the wood rotted away.

"Don’t worry about that, I made a promise didn’t I?" she said, waving her hand dismissively as if I were worrying over nothing at all.

She turned her nose up a bit, looking back out at the waves. "All we have to do is keep heading in that direction and we should be fine."

" I’ve already taken the liberty to ask the men which continent they’re all from so there shouldn’t be any problems."

She said, while pointing a clawed finger toward the open sea.

I wasn’t sure if she was saying the truth, but what more could I do but trust her? I didn’t know how to read the stars any better than Dinklehimer did, and she was the only one who had any idea which way the nearest piece of land was.

Even if she was a bit scatterbrained, she was our only ticket out of this blue desert.

That being the case, I knew I had to handle this carefully.

I couldn’t just tell her no, because she was stubborn and would probably just dig her heels in.

I needed to change her mind about what it actually meant to be a pirate. If I could reframe the whole thing in her head, maybe I could keep her from turning into a complete monster.

"But Captain, are you sure that’s all there is to being a pirate?" I asked, tilting my head slightly to look at her profile.

"What do you mean?" She turned to glance at me, blinking her large golden eyes in confusion.

Her white ears twitched upward, showing that she was actually listening to me instead of just ignoring my words like she usually did.

’ Great, it looks like I got her attention. Now I just have to reel her in without making her angry.’

"I’m just saying, if you intend to be a riffraff of a pirate, I guess your reasoning is correct," I added, glancing into the distance with a look of dismay, making sure to sound a little disappointed in her goals.

"Just running around, robbing poor fishermen, stealing small crates of food... it’s a bit petty, isn’t it? I just thought that perhaps you’d prefer to become a legendary pirate instead."

"Legendary..." Priscilla muttered under her breath. The word seemed to catch in her throat.

Her eyes went a bit wide, and her tail stopped its wild swishing, hanging loosely behind her.

I could see the wheels turning in her head. The idea of being something grand, something that people talked about in husified whispers across the entire ocean, clearly appealed to her massive ego.

"You know how I can become a legendary pirate?" she asked, turning her whole body to face me now.

She leaned in a bit close, though I could sense the doubt in her tone. She was trying to act tough and skeptical, like she wasn’t easily fooled by a random guy she just picked up, but the curiosity in her eyes gave her away completely.

Well, it was natural for her to be skeptical of me though. After all, I was just a former captive who had ended up on her ship by accident.

Still, that wouldn’t change the fact that I can’t just let her go about committing heinous atrocities all in the name of fulfilling her dream.

With someone as strong as her, letting her become such a wicked soul would be truly unbefitting.

She had so much raw unbelievable power that could crush a man’s bones with a single swipe, and she was fast enough to move like a blur. If that kind of strength was turned toward true evil, she would become a nightmare for thousands of innocent people.

’Come to think of it, amongst the pirate emperors from the novel, there was one known to be extremely vile...’ I thought to myself, taking a long, hard look at Priscilla’s white fur and sharp stripes.

In the story I remembered, there was a terrible figure who ruled the seas with an iron fist, leaving nothing but burning ships and weeping families in their wake.

While the chances were small, if there was a possibility that she was actually that very pirate from the future Chapters of the book, should I simply stand back and let the story take its course?

Should I just let her become that monster because that’s what the pages said would happen?