Chapter 155: Chapter 154 Nancy! Nancy!
Time dripped away, bit by bit, and the threads of certain events became increasingly clear.
“Master Wizard… disappeared?” The people on the deck voiced their astonishment in a daze.
“How could Master Wizard disappear? Master Wizard must be somewhere important, doing something urgent.”
“But we can’t find him.”
“What do we do then? The pirates are getting closer.”
“What do we do? What do we do? What in the world do we do?”
The crowd was abuzz, and the atmosphere of anxiety and fear spread rapidly.
“It’s okay, we still have time.” Someone managed to speak with rare composure, “Our ship is faster than the pirates’ vessel, and although they took a shortcut, it would still take them a while to catch up with us. We still have time, we still have time to find Master Wizard and tell him. As long as we find Master Wizard, we’ll be safe, we’ll be…”
Before the speaker could finish, the entire ship shuddered slightly, and its speed plummeted from cruising to a standstill.
The pirates on the other ship cheered, their vessel accelerating and drawing ever nearer to our ship.
Everyone on board was instantly filled with despair, murmuring in a state of helplessness: “What do we do? The pirates will catch up soon, they will definitely kill us! I don’t want to die! I want to go home!”
Some still clung to blind faith: “It’s fine, it’s fine, Master Wizard surely won’t let the pirates board the ship, he will appear, it’s just not the right time yet.”
It was at this moment that a voice rang out across the entire ship.
“A bunch of fools!” the voice was cold and clear, “Stop being idiots!”
“Who’s that!” Angered, the crowd turned to look at the speaker.
They saw a beautiful girl with black hair.
Her long hair draped over her shoulders, her skin was fair, her nose pronounced, and her lips had a light pink hue.
Her eyes were blue, clear and transparent like lake water, yet within their depths seemed to harbor a sharp edge.
She held a gemstone-encrusted longsword in one hand, slowly drawing it out, its cold gleam reflected in the sunlight.
Drawing the sword slowly, Nancy scanned the people on the deck and said, “Stop fantasizing. If Master Wizard wanted to take action, he would have done so by now and never let those damned pirates near the ship. The only explanation now is that Master Wizard will not act, or perhaps, for some reason, he cannot act for the time being. So!”
Taking a deep breath, Nancy spoke to the crew with absolute seriousness, “So, there’s only one path we can take, and that is to prevent the pirates from boarding before Master Wizard acts!”
“But… but what can we do?” someone asked in panic, “They are pirates, how do we stop them…”
“Your hands!” Nancy stared down the speaker fiercely, “Your feet! With feet, you can walk; with hands, you can wield weapons. The pirates’ ships are much smaller than our huge vessel, they’ll have to figure out how to climb aboard, and we will be fighting them from an elevated position, weapon in hand. Can we not even do that?”
“From now on, everyone follows my command!” Nancy’s strong presence reigned over the crowd.
“Find weapons you can use in the shortest time possible.” Nancy began directing, then gestured, “You, you, and you, defend from that direction. You lot, over there, defend this area. You and you, take care of the side section…”
Nancy calmly assigned everyone their areas. Richard saw that she suddenly pointed towards him.
“You, and you two, keep an eye on that corner and don’t let the pirates sneak up.” Nancy instructed, referring to Richard and Gro beside him.
While Gro was still astonished at Nancy’s assertiveness, Richard nodded in agreement, “Okay.”
Being commanded didn’t bother Richard much, as facing the current situation, someone needed to step up.
As someone who boarded the ship with an Examination Exemption Certificate, he had planned from the start to conceal his strength and avoid drawing too much attention. That way he could safely reach White Stone Tower and then study quietly, away from the Wizard’s scrutiny.
Simply put, his current identity was akin to a poor student at school, aiming to maintain that facade while secretly learning what he wanted.
In a sense, on modern Earth, this could be termed an “academic hustler.”
Of course, Richard felt a dual identity would be a more apt description.
That being the case, following orders was only natural; he had to behave like most others. Of course, there was no need to purposefully act foolishly. In reality, as long as he didn’t expose his spellcasting abilities, showing some expertise in swordsmanship and combat tactics was entirely acceptable. When demonstrating these skills, he could subtly incorporate invisible spells like “Wind Light Spirit” and “Wind Force.”
To outsiders, it just looked like he was very fast and strong, with superior swordsmanship, so they wouldn’t easily suspect spellcasting. After all, in most people’s minds, spells had to be “explosive,” “spectacular,” “thunderous” to count.
Could discreet spells even be considered genuine spells?
Considering this, Richard thought that embedding Magic Runes on the Silver-White Ring to enhance physical abilities would be a wise choice due to the subtlety and significant early advantages. This might become less effective in the middle and later stages, but… who said he could only craft and wear one such ring?
All these thoughts flashed through Richard’s mind.
Nancy looked over again, instructing with gravity, “The two of you, be careful, stay alert, don’t be careless. Keep a close watch on the pirates and don’t let them sneak aboard, understand?”
“Understood,” Richard nodded, responding softly.
“Good,” Nancy said before turning to command the rest.
Ultimately, under Nancy’s leadership, every direction of the ship was defended. And she chose several dozen people who appeared capable of fighting to form three fire teams, ready to provide immediate support wherever it was needed, with herself as the overall leader of the teams.
Richard found these arrangements to be satisfactory. Without being overly critical, Nancy’s command skills were better than many. It was hard to believe that she was only a Princess—a fragile Princess, who maybe even had additional identities.
However, what surprised Richard slightly was Tyson, whom he had taught a lesson days earlier, was the leader of one of these fire teams.
Richard looked towards Tyson, who upon sensing his gaze, frowned, looked back with widened eyes, and then hurriedly walked away, clearly still afraid of their earlier encounter.