Chapter Ninety-One: Navy Lieutenant Colonel

“They’re gone!” Long Cheng, standing at the stern rail with another spear in hand, let out a long breath. He looked at Lin Qi in surprise and asked, “Didn’t you say they were religious fanatics? Shouldn’t they have hunted us to the death?”

Lin Qi tossed the heavy cleaver in his hand to a sailor. On deck, the crew was busily stowing those unspeakable weapons into a hidden compartment deep in the hold, while bringing up the sailors’ usual fishing knives, daggers, battle-axes, and harpoons, handing one to every man aboard.

At Long Cheng’s question, Lin Qi replied irritably, “They are religious fanatics, not religious idiots!”

Long Cheng blinked, then bared his teeth. It did make sense, didn’t it? Religious fanatics, not religious idiots. With twelve warships already bearing down on them, if they still wanted to fight the seaborne windmill to the finish, that would truly be gambling with their lives.

With a faint, odd smile, Lin Qi snorted. “But you, honored Mister Long Cheng, these people may not care about the seaborne windmill, but they will absolutely not let you go. Two temple mages were killed by your hand, and even if they were only the lowest-ranked soul-level mages, this will certainly alarm the monsters in the Odin Temple. You’re in big trouble.”

He gave a disdainful laugh, then handed the pure-steel spear to a sailor. Long Cheng threw back his head and laughed arrogantly toward the sky. “Am I supposed to be afraid of them? A bunch of uncivilized savages, the likes of them I’ve killed more times than I can count. They still dare to trouble me? Then I’ll kill them all. Heh, when I return to the East, I’ll go by land. I won’t pass through here again.”

Lin Qi’s face twitched at once. What a shameless fellow. In the first part of his speech he had been so heroic and fierce, as though the Odin Temple was nothing more than a pile of rotten straw in his eyes. But that last sentence had exposed his true nature completely. He meant to return to the East by land? The utterly shameless wretch would simply shake the dust from his rear and leave cleanly, while the people of the Western Continent would be the ones to bear the brunt of those alien races’ revenge!

Still, as long as Duncastle was spared, with so many port cities in the northern part of the continent, let those foreign brutes wreak havoc wherever they pleased. What did that have to do with Lin Qi?

He gave Long Cheng a thumbs-up. In the distance, the warships were already closing rapidly under the wind. Lin Qi ordered the sailors to put away the murderous looks on their faces, and each man put on an expression of a law-abiding citizen. A few sailors even slashed themselves lightly here and there, then lay groaning on the deck, pretending to be gravely wounded.

Captain Joaran even had other sailors splash fish blood over these “critically wounded” men, so that they looked as though each of them was covered in gore and on the verge of returning to the bosom of the gods.

At the masthead of the leading imperial warship, a signalman raised a flag demanding permission to board. The seaborne windmill immediately slowed under the flag signals and continued south at normal speed. The twelve warships formed a pattern around it, ready at any moment to meet whatever enemy might come. From the command ship at the head of the formation, a small boat was lowered.

Six fully armed soldiers rowed, with two officers standing in the boat. After being tossed about by the waves for a while, the little craft carefully approached the towering hull of the seaborne windmill, which rose several stories high. Joaran ordered the sailors to lower a rope ladder, and before long, two imperial naval officers, accompanied by four soldiers, came aboard.

Joaran and Lin Qi went to greet these two young imperial naval officers. Joaran chatted with practiced ease, while Lin Qi narrowed his eyes and studied the pair closely from head to toe.

Enzo was, after all, a top student from the Imperial Army Academy, and he also had some understanding of the imperial navy’s organization. A patrol sub-fleet made up of twelve medium warships should have been the core force responsible for wartime patrols in the waters around Duncastle. Since this was not a main battle fleet, the commander ought to have held the rank of navy major. Yet the man standing before Lin Qi was plainly a navy lieutenant colonel, with an aide in the rank of captain, clearly the fleet commander and his deputy.

That a patrol fleet commander should be a lieutenant colonel, and one who did not seem to be even thirty years old, was suggestive indeed. Especially since pinned to his collar was a commemorative badge in the shape of an iron anchor and sword-shield, wrought with silver-thorn ornamentation, and on his right chest hung a deep-blue ribbon. All this showed that the lieutenant colonel must have come from a distinguished family line.

Looking again at his neat uniform, gleaming boots, and the slightly worn belt of beast-hide with gold trim, one could imagine this promising young lieutenant colonel had climbed to such a high position at such an early age only by relying on the lingering influence of his family. But clearly the power left behind by that family was no longer especially strong, for though he held the lofty rank of naval lieutenant colonel, he could command only a patrol sub-fleet.

In particular, that worn gold-trimmed belt of beast hide looked ancient and mottled, obviously another remnant of his family’s former glory. With such a spotless uniform, yet wearing a somewhat worn belt, clearly his current circumstances might not be very good. Young officers always paid close attention to their military bearing; they would use every means available to dress themselves up splendidly, just as Enzo had done in Berleley.

A worn belt — a young officer from a wealthy military clan, one who had attained a lofty post while still so young, would never wrap such a thing around his waist.

So Lin Qi pounced forward with enthusiasm, took the lieutenant colonel’s hand in a tearful smile, and shook it vigorously. “Lieutenant Colonel, thank you for saving us. You saved everyone aboard the seaborne windmill! Good heavens, if not for you, those damned, brutal, savage, filthy alien lowlifes would surely have carved our skulls open and turned them into wine cups!”

Still clasping the lieutenant colonel’s hand in warm, tearful enthusiasm, Lin Qi cried out loudly, “Brothers, send some good things over to our noble, heroic, fearless naval brothers. Hmm, send over thirty hammerhead sharks, along with the fine wine, tea, and lemons we brought. Give them all to our naval brothers. We’re turning back at once, but our naval brothers still have many days of sailing ahead of them to protect our safety!”

At an angle invisible to others, Lin Qi deftly slipped a small, pliant slip of paper into the lieutenant colonel’s sleeve. Smiling, he said, “May I ask the honored lieutenant colonel’s name? I will send an official commendation to the Imperial Naval Ministry praising your brave rescue of us from the fanatics of the Odin Temple!”

The navy lieutenant colonel paused slightly. His fingers unconsciously touched the slip of paper hidden in his sleeve, and a trace of a smile appeared on his stern face. “Navy Lieutenant Colonel Navi. I’ve just been transferred here under orders to oversee daily security in the thousand-mile sea region around Duncastle.”

Lin Qi’s smile grew even brighter. He shook Navi’s hand again and again, saying warmly, “Lieutenant Colonel Navi, I am Lin Qi. It truly is a joy to have made your acquaintance!”

Long Cheng smiled thoughtfully. Only he had seen Lin Qi’s little maneuver clearly.

The more he saw, the more he liked this little bastard.

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I slept too well and got up late... my apologies