I followed behind Lisa as we snuck through the ship’s lower decks.
Even though I had spent some time on this ship back when we were on our vacation, the places that Lisa was guiding me through were entirely foreign to me.
It looks like this part of the ship was rarely used and we did not even come across a single guard while we were moving through the corridors.
The fact that she had even pulled her hood down meant that she was not expecting to run into anyone here in the first place.
She pulled me around the corner and we found ourselves face to face with what looked like a dead end.
I kept my mouth shut since I was expecting this to be one of two reasons with one of them being that Lisa had forgotten the way.
My second guess was, of course, that there was a hidden door.
Lisa went towards the wall and pushed it in a certain way before tapping some parts of it in some kind of pattern.
The wall then silently slid open to reveal what looked like a study room behind it.
I felt the air shift before I saw the movement and my instinct made me reach for the Light Sword at my waist, only to stop when I realised it was Emilia rushing up towards us.
She was also in the midst of drawing her sword until she realised it was us and stopped halfway, relaxing herself with a wry smile.
“I should have known it was you… You’re the only one who would use that secret passage Lisa…” Emilia sighed.
Lisa went up to her, “What’s going on Em? I heard you were attacked by some assassins?”
Emilia went to the study table and sat down heavily, pulling out a bottle of what looked like whiskey and three glasses to set on the table.
She leaned back on her chair and placed her feet on the table, “Ugh… Should have known that’s why you came… Got within my blade’s reach the morning I came into port. One of my guys is dead and three others are still being healed as we speak. Bloody fuckers.”
Lisa tilted her head at the Nekomata, “Eh? That doesn’t sound serious enough to stop people from coming on your ship?”
“You’re right, it’s not. It’s a long story so why don’t you sit down and pour yourself a drink? Those motherfuckers are costing me a ton of potential business!”
Lisa went to take a seat in front of the table while I took the other unoccupied seat, letting Lisa pour out the alcohol for herself though she left my glass untouched.
Well… I’m not really a drinker… Plus I’m not in the mood for drinks now which I guess Lisa knew so she kept my glass empty.
That got Emilia’s attention as she finally noticed me.
“Wait, who’s this? Lisa?! Did you seriously show off our secret route to someone else?!”
Lisa giggled, “Oh, Em~ Who do you think I would trust with such a secret?”
I took off my mask and Emilia immediately moved her feet off the table and stood up, her demeanour suddenly switching to a more ‘proper’ one.
“Oh by the Gods! It’s Lady Aster! Please forgive my rudeness and my lack of hospitality!”
That’s a very big change from the way she was behaving just a moment earlier…
I waved my hand at her, “It’s ok, you can’t help your circumstances right now anyway.”
“Thank you for your understanding, Lady Aster!”
I noticed that she gave Lisa a complicated look as though questioning her why she even brought me here and my Infrid simply smiled at her without saying anything else.
“Erm… So what’s this about an assassin?” I asked, trying to change the topic.
That made Emilia sigh again before she sat back down, though she made sure that she was sitting like a lady this time.
“It’s quite complicated… I’m not sure if I mentioned this… But I have… Other family whom my parents passed over to let me take over the ship.”
Ah…
I grimaced, “You may have mentioned it… Let me guess… One of them felt that they would do a better job than you or were jealous and thought that killing you would grant them the right to take over your position?”
She sighed, “It is as Lady Aster guessed… The only problem is that I don’t know who. It might not even be someone close to us and just someone else that is somehow related instead. I have a feeling that this incident might also be related to those Mermaid Pirates and even Merrick betraying me… Whoever is behind it is hiding their tracks really well…”
Lisa took a sip from her drink, “So what’s so special about this assassin that made you close up shop like this? Last I remembered, you wouldn’t even close even after half your crew mutinied on you.”
Emilia picked up her glass and glared at it, “The truth is… The reason I’m cordoning off the ship isn’t to keep people from coming in…”
I blinked at her, “Eh? Then you’re preventing people from going out?”
She nodded, “The assassin is still on the ship… And I believe they aren’t going to leave until they complete their mission. This whole ship is currently a hunting ground for that assassin…”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
She knocked back the glass and leaned back in her chair, “Because that piece of… Ahem… That assassin had the guts to steal my money and rub it in my face…”
𝐎𝑽𝓵xt.𝑐𝗈𝓶
…
Lisa gave her an incredulous look, “Really? Someone managed to steal your money?”
The Nekomata captain nodded seriously, “That’s right… I found one of my safes completely cleaned of any gold and left completely empty… They even managed to slip past all the security measures I had put in place too…”
“How much money was there?” I asked, feeling curious.
She let out a deep sigh, “It’s one of the smaller ones so it wasn’t a lot. Only around a million and five hundred thousand Creas.”
…
That’s not a lot?
And here I thought I was rich with my current savings of thirteen thousand Creas… This is really making me question if I’m the one who has their sense of money skewed…
Lisa frowned, “Are you sure this isn’t just a matter of a thief breaking in and trying to attack you because you caught them?”
“Oh, that’s definitely not the case. They’re holding my gold hostage just so that I can’t run away. That bastard… They left this in my damned safe…”
She tossed a note on the table, prompting both Lisa and I to lean forward to look at what was written on it.
‘I am amongst you. Leave the ship and not only will this gold be tossed into the sea, but I will also break open your other safes and empty them out too. Let’s have a good hunt.’
I looked back up at her, “Err… Is this guy alright in the head? Why would this assassin even go out of their way to do something like this?”
Emilia scoffed, “Hmph! Because if they were to get the accomplishment of killing me, their own fame will skyrocket within the underworld.”
“Then isn’t it not a problem if you just run away and take the rest of your money with you?”
“And give up on a million and five hundred thousand Creas? No way! Absolutely no way! Even if he took just a single Crea from me, I wouldn’t give that up either!!”
Oh man… She really loves money to the point that she wouldn’t even care if it placed her own life at risk…
Lisa pointed a finger at her, “You really want to risk this for money? Did you already forget that the reason you ended up in that trouble with me was because of money too?”
“Oh shut up, Lisa. You’re the one who got the most benefit out of that meeting so I don’t want to hear it from you. The main thing is that this stupid assassin is practically taunting me at this point and I don’t even know who they are. If I were to let more people come on board it would just make it even harder to find them. I’m already losing so many potential sales because of this and I’m not letting them waste another Crea because of this!”
I tilted my head, “Does that mean you already have a plan for dealing with the assassin?”
“Of course I do! I was even just about to put it into action before Lady Aster showed up here with Lisa.”
Lisa puffed her cheeks, “Well sorry for trying to help you, you ungrateful Neko.”
She waved her hand dismissively, “I don’t mean it like that. I really thought the assassin caught on to my plan by appearing like that and I had to scrap all the planning I did to get them.”
“So what was your plan?” I asked.
“Heh, the most simple one of course~ I hide my guards around and then I simply walk up onto the deck of the ship alone! Once that assassin sees me out there by myself, they’ll jump in to attack me and the others will also jump out and take them out! Simple and easy plan!”
…
Is she really alright?