Gerald turned his gaze to look at Proctor. Owing to the rapidly shifting situation, Proctor's
face had gone completely ashen. The security force that would soon commence its investigation could no longer
serve as his shield.
Had not even the security captain already been bound like a bundle of dried fish? Gerald swept his eyes over
Proctor's face with a look of profound satisfaction, then quietly turned his body away. Proctor's unfocused
gaze fixed itself on Gerald's retreating back.
"You're quite an impressive fellow yourself."
"What do you mean?"
"Getting hit by a quarrel on purpose just to manufacture evidence... I simply can't tell if you're in your right
mind."
Gerald looked at the grumbling Heinrich and smiled faintly.
"But it's not a serious injury. My bones and muscles are fine. It's just a hole in a fleshy part, that's all."
"You'd be annoying even if you couldn't speak properly. Anyway, I'm curious how this will turn out. What will
happen to that bastard Proctor?"
Gerald smiled coldly.
"The situation has deteriorated to that extent, so he probably won't escape unscathed. Even if he luckily keeps
his life, he'll rot in prison for the rest of his days, won't he?"
"I suppose you're right."
Gerald and Heinrich headed toward their lodgings, chatting amicably.
Proctor's trial proceeded in rapid succession. Given the gravity of the matter, the commander of the Capital Knight Order personally stepped in to conduct the interrogation. Of course, Proctor tried to vigorously deny the charges with his characteristic glib tongue.
But even a man like Proctor had no choice but to fall silent before long. Under the harsh interrogation, his employees had confessed first.
Moreover, when the fact was revealed that Tinar, who had been sentenced to death long ago, was still alive, and Proctor's collusive relationship with the security force became widely known, the capital of Tezeros was thrown into an uproar. The Prime Minister of Tezeros, upon receiving the report of the facts, turned pale with shock.
"Are there such wretches deserving of death? Execute all those involved without mercy, if only to set an example."
Of course, the verdict also reflected to some degree an intention to appease Duke Knights. Furthermore, the judgment served as a catalyst for a sweeping purge of the capital's security force.
The trials of the arrested corrupt merchant Proctor, his henchman Tinar, and the security captain were swiftly commenced in haste. Because the evidence was conclusive, the verdict came down quickly.
[The corrupt merchant Proctor is sentenced to death for the crime of luring and attempting to murder a regular knight of the Crossen Empire, and all his property is confiscated.]
Tinar was likewise sentenced to death. In addition, the security captain who had accepted bribes from Proctor and committed corruption was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.
The members of the Lotus Mercenary Corps, who could be called henchmen, were no exception either. In particular, the crossbowmen who had fired their weapons were condemned to rot in prison for the rest of their lives. Once the sentences were handed down, subsequent proceedings advanced in rapid succession. It was decided to carry out the executions in a mere two days, to show Gerald directly. In the end, Proctor and Tinar found themselves facing the gallows in the central plaza.
"Carry out the sentence."
At the executioner's command, the sentence was carried out. A pair of cold eyes watched Proctor struggle frantically, a noose coiled around his neck.
"In the end, I was able to take my revenge through legal means."
Gerald's gaze was fixed on Proctor's face, blue and lifeless, biting down with his tongue lolling out long. With this, the souls of his father and sister who had died unjustly could finally be put to rest...
*Rumble—crash.*
House-sized waves battered everything around them. Spray whipped up by the fierce wind revealed white innards,
thrashing savagely. The open sea. No matter how far one looked in every direction, not even the shadow of land could be seen; the sea was running amok. Yet floating amidst it were three sailing ships.
A whaling ship built in the typical Arcadian style with a dragon keel structure was fighting desperately, barely avoiding capsizing despite the relentless onslaught of house-sized waves. But the strength with which the sailing ship could endure was now reaching its limit.
"This is a nightmare. A nightmare."
Raymond, the first mate of the whaling ship Princeton, shook his head repeatedly. Beside him, three sailors gripped the wildly spinning helm with all their might to hold it fast. They were sailors tempered by the sea, but because the waves were so fierce, fixing the shaking wheel in place looked terribly difficult. Just then, a sound like something snapping pierced through the storm.
*Crack.*
Raymond bit his lip hard. The auxiliary mast located at the stern of the sailing ship had snapped, unable to withstand the violent wind. It was the mast that steadied the ship's bearing. The Princeton could not endure the aftermath and began to tilt to one side. In wind like this, the rudder alone could not properly maintain the ship's bearing. Raymond screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Turn the wheel with all your strength! Opposite the direction of the tilt!"
Having given the order, Raymond hastily crawled toward the deck. But because the wind blew so violently, crawling was by no means easy. The captain of the Princeton, the one responsible for the ship, had also been caught up in the gale just moments before and blown away without a trace.
Because of that, the first mate, Raymond, had been left in charge of the Princeton... Raymond managed to reach the deck by relying on the rope tied about his waist. Already, all the sailors had fixed their bodies to the hull with ropes to prevent themselves from being blown away by the gale.
Most of the sailors were clinging to the structures on deck with all their might. Raymond shouted at them at the top of his voice.
"Unfurl the main mast's sails! We have to catch the wind and control our bearing!"
But Raymond's shouts could not be heard properly inside the storm. Only after he screamed repeatedly did the sailors barely manage to understand the order. Yet not a single one tried to move. It seemed they could not muster the courage to step out and unfurl the sails in such a gale. Sparks flew from Raymond's eyes.
"Do you all want to become water ghosts here? If we go on like this, we'll all be sent to the bottom!"
Only then did the sailors begin to move. The boatswain encouraged the sailors and crawled toward the main mast. In the midst of this, one sailor was caught by the wind and sent flying.
"Aaaahhh!"
The taut line snapped powerlessly. As soon as the rope supporting his body broke, the rough sea swallowed the sailor in an instant. The faces of the remaining sailors turned pale.
But the remaining sailors clung to the mast with all their strength.
They understood that if they could not control their direction with the sails, they would inevitably sink.
The sailors tried to loosen the ropes fixing the sails while keeping their bodies as low as possible, but it was no easy task when they could barely keep their balance. At his wit's end, the boatswain grabbed an axe and struck the line. Fortunately, the taut rope snapped powerlessly with a single blow of the axe.
"Pull!"
At the boatswain's command, the sailors began pulling on the ropes all at once. It was a matter of life and death, so the sailors were exerting every last ounce of their strength. In the midst of it all, one more unfortunate sailor met the fate of being swept away, but fortunately, the sail was unfurled. Once it had risen to a certain height, the sail caught the wind and spread wide as though it would tear.
*Flutter.*
As the sail pulled taut, the Princeton, which had leaned so far as to nearly touch the gunwale, regained its stability. Raymond strained to guide the ship's stern toward the direction the waves were coming from. They had to meet the waves head-on, or the ship would capsize.
The waves struck the bow, drenching the sailors in spray, but the Princeton fortunately escaped the danger of capsizing. A sense of relief flashed across Raymond's face after weathering the crisis.
"It's fortunate no bigger waves are hitting us."
Suddenly worried about the other ships, Raymond turned his head. But inside waves far larger than the ships, it was impossible to make anything out. He could not even conceive of returning to port like this. He had no choice but to keep the bow turned toward the direction of the waves and wait for the storm to end...
Raymond recalled the circumstances that had led to their silent departure. The moment the thought reached him, curses burst through his clenched lips.
"That damned shipowner. To think he drove us into a hellish storm like this... When I get back, I'll wring his neck."
Because of the storms, Arcadia's whaling industry was on the verge of collapse. Countless whaling ships had sunk due to the storms that had begun some time ago, and no more sailing ships were putting out to sea. The sailors stubbornly refused to go out to sea. Money was good, but their lives were far more precious.
The sailors who had barely survived the storms and returned had altogether abandoned their lives as seamen. Because of this, Paylyut was experiencing an unprecedented shortage of sailors, something that had never happened before.
But the owner of the Princeton could not leave his ship idle in port. Having incurred enormous debt to acquire the Princeton, he tried to set sail by any means necessary. By nature, a thing that cannot be used is bound to lose its value. Because the ship could not sail, the value of the whaling ship had already plummeted as far as it could; even if he sold the Princeton, there was little hope of repaying his debts. On the contrary, the price of whales had skyrocketed to unprecedented levels.
The price of a single whale had jumped to ten times what it once was, so the shipowner desperately tried to persuade the sailors. Several other shipowners in the same predicament joined him.
"Surely we cannot simply idle about and eat? Though the storms are fierce, the Princeton is the newest large-class vessel. Moreover, with experienced men like you, I believe you can withstand an ordinary gale."
The captain of the Princeton naturally refused to depart.
"But I have heard that several large ships like the Princeton also sank. I have a duty to protect the sailors' lives."
"Those ships were manned by inexperienced greenhorns. They cannot possibly compare to you, who have spent half your lives at sea. If you bring the men around, I will treat you all to a grand feast. Hmm, that would be good. I will double your share of the whale catch."
"But..."
"How about triple? Is that not enough? Besides, many shipowners besides myself have decided to send out their ships. Even if you encounter a storm and the ship sinks by some chance, you can be rescued by those other vessels, so do not worry."
At the shipowner's persistent persuasion, the captain could not help but nod. And after calling the sailors and persuading them, the Princeton was finally able to leave the port. It formed a fleet with three other whaling ships placed in the same circumstances.
The beginning of the voyage was relatively smooth. Because there were no particular signs of storms, the fleet gathered its courage and headed for the open sea; before long, the Discovery was able to spot a large sperm whale. Subsequently, a joint operation of four whaling ships was launched, and the sperm whale died, having been struck by dozens of harpoons.
And it was tied fast to the flank of the Discovery, which had first spotted it. But that was the beginning of their misfortune... Emboldened by the success of the whale hunt, the whaling fleet ventured a little further out into the distant ocean. But what awaited them was an enormous storm the likes of which they had never experienced even once before...