Lord of the Seas: Louis d'Avranches
Act II
Table of Contents
Chapter I
3rd of March 1132 VTE, Port of Artemis
It had been one busy year for Louis d’Avranches. He had spent it as a Naval Attaché in the Black Fleet before being reassigned upon his own request to command a scientific expedition to Hoshiyomia. He currently was the leader of a party that included several Deadbeats of note including Professor Owla, Kyouko Doctor Ulus Kaji, M. Sc. Javia Kaiji, M. Sc. Ollia Nami , and some local guides. He was familiar with Owla prior to the trip, having attended her lectures on Astronomy, Physics, and Biology during his time in Moriji. During the trip, the two talked often about science and the wonders of the world, both growing to respect each other despite her social awkwardness and the complete disagreement regarding the purpose of life. "Agree to disagree.", was the conclusion the two reached after a 4-hour debate, they held at dinner during one of their stops.
The journey itself was ardeous, with the unrest within Risu at the time posing a threat to the party at several points, most notably at Flora, where a tribe attacked the town as they were resting there. Louis found himself engaged in hand-to-hand combat with several of the tribals, cutting down 3 of them before the Kronie guards forced them back finally. Louis grew to hate this nasty pit of insects and disease with a passion by the time his party had finally made its way to Artemis.
Artemis was a sleepy town with moderate port facilities and was the base of a scientific expedition that was in Risu for the previous few years. Founded in 1128 by a joint measure by the K.A.G. and Chronobanks to provide more port facilities within the region, the town was nothing compared to it's sister across the Arcadius Channel, Demeter. It had moderate port facilities, including a small drydock and warehouse which housed many goods imported from Infinitium and the Tsukinode Empire. Her streets were currently in the process of being paved with brick and the town was starting to take a distinctive Pomeranian look that contrasted with Demeter across the channel. Many of her residents, oddly enough, were Pomeranians and Oiseaux, invited by the companies to settle in Artemis as their skill as artisans was greatly desired. The town also had some Kronies as well and a very small number of Risuners. The K.A.G. and Imperial Navy planned to turn the town into a center of research within the Central Risu, from which more botanic expeditions could be launched. She lived in the shadow of her sister for now, but Louis believed the town had a bright future ahead of her. Walking down from the Market Square to the Dockyard, Louis was feeling rather uneasy about what ships he had been assigned. He had a feeling he would get the bottom of the barrel for this expedition and held this belief until he finally approached the docks. It was there that he saw her, in her full beauty.
He stopped awestruck at her sight, it was his flagship, the brand-new Frigate Victoire. Armed with 58 guns, displacing some 2,500 tonnes, and having a length, beam and depth of 77 metres, 15 metres and draught of 5 meters. She had only been brought into service months before and this was her first operation; largely assigned for prestige reasons given that she was likely one of the most powerful Frigates in the world at the time. For Louis however, her elegant curves, beautifully crafted ornaments and innovative design features made her his love on first sight. There were also two other ships, a Chronobanks-owned 32-gun Frigate Darteronii and an Imperial Corvette, the Rapide.
As he walked towards the ships, he was shockingly greeted by his best friend, Antoine de Labouheyre. Labouheyre was assigned as his First Mate. The two hugged before he was introduced to the other important individuals for this expedition. First, the captain of the Darteronii Lisa of Apeiron, then by his corvette captain Takeda Nobunaga, and lastly Sherah, a Risuner Witch. He had no idea who this squirrel was or why she was here with the prominent people, but he welcomed her, nonetheless. As the vessels were being loaded, he invited these four to join him on the Victoire while he told Owla to make herself at home on the Rapide, where the other scientists were quartered up.
They are led into the bridge by Antoine, it is magnificent. It fits me perfectly, thinks Louis. They all gather around the chart and the map. Antoine knows procedure within the Imperial Navy that the first mate must be requested to brief by the captain of the ship. As usual, Louis puts his hand in his jacket pocket before turning to his friend and saying calm:
“Antoine… Could you please give us all a proper and clear briefing of the mission before I dive into this personally and offer my own opinions?”
Tipping his cap, Antoine with enthusiasm says “Certainly Commodore. Things have somewhat changed since you were assigned command so feel free to interject.” Louis nods and Antoine continues
“First and most urgently, we are protecting Sherah in her journey to the land of the Saplings.”
Putting his hand on his chin, Louis remarks calmly “Well this is certainly a surprise to me, but it makes more sense of matters to me.” looks at Sherah “You will find no more safe place on the sea than on my ship.”
Sherah smiles and says “Thank you, Commodore.”
He nods back and waves for Antoine to continue.
Antoine, who was thinking about something else, quickly responded when alerted “M-my apologies, continuing. We are to stop at Leontyne to pick up some of the Dirajarisuners that the Admiralty has requested we take aboard to train one an extended voyage.”
With a look of frustration, Louis says with annoyance “Bloody hell, they couldn’t have assigned that to someone else? This isn’t a training cruise but a rather important mission after all!” he sighs “Well, orders are orders. We will break those greenhorns into sea dogs by the end of this all.”
“Don’t get me started, friend!” remarks Antoine with some annoyance as well. The other captains were also quite annoyed, poor Sherah didn’t understand what the fuss was all about, but Antoine quickly continued.
“Right after we pick them up we are to sail up to Infintium to meet the Black Fleet at Kronistadt.. We will hand over Sherah to the Deadbeats there, resupply and refit briefly before heading with them towards the western coast of Alivia. Once near the Land of the Saplings, the Deadbeats will separate from our squadron.”
“What Black Fleet Admiral will be commanding, Antoine?” asks Louis inquisitively.
“I unfortunately do not know.”
“Hopefully it isn’t one of the walking zombies I met during my time down there.” Antoine and Sherah laughs. Louis turns to Sherah “Either way, when we hand you over, I can assure you that the Black Fleet will do everything in their power to make sure your mission is successful.”
“Thank you!”
He nods once again before stating “Thank you Antoine, before I give further thoughts and lay out my plan, are there any questions or remarks?”
Sherah speaks up “Ummm… Commodore? I have never been on the sea before, what is it like?”
Politely and with kindness, Louis replies “The sea is seen rightfully as a dangerous force of nature by many. But for us sailors, it is our home. My family have been sailors for generations and it runs in my blood. I grew up on ship and around ships, and take great pride in my lineage. But never mind that, for someone like you, this journey will likely be terrifying, especially when we encounter our first storm. But have no fear, because I will do everything in my power to ensure your safety so long as you are aboard my ship. We will have a deeper talk about this later, just the two of us, ok?”
Sherah looks fascinated by Louis but also in her mind is unnerved by what he said.
Lisa speaks up next “Commodore, if I may?” Louis gestures the go ahead before Lisa starts with a bit of annoyance “This pit stop to pick up these southern Risuners is a waste of time and time is money after all. We were not paid for this venture nor told of this beforehand. I demand that the Imperial Admiralty assign this to someone else!”
Louis looks at her with an intrigued expression before he says calmly “Captain, quite honestly, while I am not satisfied with the orders myself and would have the pencilneck who gave us this task a lashing of the first order; insubordination would be one of the greatest blunders we could commit at this point.” He puts his hand on his chin to think for a moment before looking her in the eyes firmly and calmly stating “I don’t know much about you, other than the famous surname and the company you work for, but I will ensure personally to you that you and your men will be paid for this wasted time in a more than appropriate manner, if not be the Imperial Navy, by me personally. If it is not gold you desire, then something else may be arranged.”
With a sigh, Lisa remarks “Thank you and apologies Commodore, twas my impatience getting the best of me.”
“No need for apologies, every voice matters in my opinion, at least in my ship and in my squadron. We can discuss the terms personally later.”
Lisa nods with a smile, and Louis asks “Any further opinions or concerns?”
Everyone shakes their head no.
“Alright I will give my deliberations and we will set sail at once tomorrow morning. This whole affair in Leontyne isn’t ideal, but it is our orders and if nothing more, just a short detour. Once we get the men requested, I will be distributing them between the Victoire and the Rapide. Takeda-san, you know what must be done and Antoine, you do too. They will be by the end of this the best damn sailors we can make of them. Once that short stop is over, we will take the winds up to Kronistadt. Should take a month if we make good time, and if the winds are favorable. The rest, quite honestly, will be discussed at Kronistadt because things will inevitably change by then. All of you, excluding our special guest, are worthy captains and mates, you know what to do and how to do it. Furthermore, I need to remind everyone here that we are ambassadors for our respective peoples and ought to behave as such, with dignity and honor to all. Keep your men in good order and I will see you all soon enough!”
They all leave except for Louis, Antoine and Sherah. Louis sits down at his desk and Antoine grabs something to drink. Louis personally hates alcohol, but he can tolerate his friends drinking.
Sherah is sort of confused about everything and she walks up to Antoine as he is preparing his rum and asks, "Where do I stay and sleep on this wooden thing?"
With a smile, Antoine replies "There is a cabin next to Louis's that is mine, it's yours now sweetie. I will bunk with the other sailors down below."
"Wow really? Thank you so much... ummm what was your name again."
"The name is Antoine de Labouheyre, but you can just call me Antoine. We are honored to take you on this important mission for your nation though I scantly know what it is about."
She gives Antoine a hug, which he returns and he asks her kindly "I need to speak to my friend for a bit, would you mind going to min- i mean your cabin for a little while sweetie?"
"Sure, thank you Mr. Antoine!"
Antoine nods and says "Pleasure."
Sherah departs with a smile on her face and Antoine walks up to Louis with his glass of Rum to find him carefully looking over the navigational charts. He sets on the corner of the desk to which Louis replies "Oi, you think because of your position you can sit on my desk now?"
Antoine laughs and says "Lighten up, Lou for a bit. Just like old times."
Louis laughs a little and says "Alright, but get off the desk, it's expensive!"
Antoine gets off and sits in a chair facing Louis as Louis puts his hands behind his head and says "We have a long journey ahead of us Antoine, but I think we started it off well. It's nice to have a familiar face as your first mate after all?"
"Yes yes, I was so happy when I found out that your father pulled the strings for this to happen. It's just like what we dreamed of as little boys."
With a surprised look, Louis replies "Papa did this? Well the old bastard has some love in his heart eh?"
"I guess he does, Takeda is looking rather healthy."
Louis twirls his quill "Quite so, albeit me and him have a rocky relationship as you know. But I hope we can keep it professional." Louis stops for a moment to think before saying "Those merchant tycoon types are so easy to read, Antoine."
"You think so?" Antoine says with a laugh.
"Indeed, she left this meeting believing she outfoxed me on that one." Louis laughs "But the reality is that she would have been paid regardless by the Imperial Navy." Louis takes out a piece of paper from his coat and hands it to Antoine. "This was handed to me back in Ceres. I didn't know the specifics of what was going on, but I knew the Admiralty was doing something stupid before we got here. That's why I had no problem telling her I would make sure she got paid, because this note says so!" He laughs
Antoine smiles and says "A good card player knows when he can bluff and when he can play his cards; that you are my friend!"
"Perhaps" Louis says with a smile. "But I would have brought it up when I gave my monologue regardless because this isn't a game of cards, but a mission that will make or break us. All of us, actually." he relaxes a bit more in his chair "Well, regardless of that, I was more than happy she brought it up because I would rather have captains like her rather then grumblers like Takeda, as you do know."
"She seems like a fine lass, pretty one too." says Antoine
"Indeed, given her position she is likely looking at me as a potential ally for her business given my name and position. We will see about that, as I am not sure how such a relationship would benefit myself." Louis ponders
"You are really dead set on reform the navy aren't you? Mate, I am telling you it won't work! You can always use connections to someone like her for yourself outside of the navy though."
"It's not about if it will work but rather that it needs to happen." a grin appears on his face "Well, if nothing else with her, a fine conquest she would be hahaha."
Antoine laughs hard "I see the horndog hasn't left you since we last met. I wish you luck with that one, she seems feisty."
"Well, a sailor has to have his fun somewhere, doesn't he? We will see about that however in due time." Louis says with a laugh.
The two continue to chat for hours about things that have happened since they last saw each other two years ago. The next day, March 4th, was departure day. All the men gathered on deck to wave off for a safe journey as Louis stood at the Quarterdeck watching stoically.
Chapter II
7th of March 1132, Port of Leontyne
For three uneventful days, the squadron made its way to Leontyne. As instructed by Louis, Antoine introduced Sherah into the basics of life aboard a ship during these days. He taught her many of the basics terminology of the ship, some of the basic operations that crew members would undertake and had her participate in one of Louis’ weekly emergency drills that he had all members of the crew undertake. During this latter, poor Sherah was so confused but Antoine was by her side to make sure she was able to do what was required of her. Louis ran a tight ship, Antoine told her, but he was fair. Antoine praised her for her enthusiasm and willingness to learn all of these things, and he told her that she was a natural at sea. Sherah didn’t feel the same way, unfortunately. The girl was living her life on the knife’s edge it seemed, but was grateful that Antoine and the other sailors treated her with such kindness. She didn’t know what to make of the Commodore at this point. The two talked several times, but Louis seemed unapproachable to her often. The truth of the matter was that Louis was extremely focused on the task ahead of him and making sure the crew was upright and happy.
As they pulled into Leontyne around 3 pm, they found the small but rapidly growing port to be bustling with life. Leontyne was the primary port of the KAG on the east coast of Risu. She was founded in 1127 to be both the main trading port and the main military port in the east of the new Kingdom, ruled by Joyo Cahya, formerly known as Commodus. The South was in the middle of a great societal change and Leontyne was a perfect representation of this, being a city with Pomeranian and Oiseaux influence that was also distinctively Dirajarisuner.
As the Victoire weighed anchor along with the other ships, Louis ordered all men aside from the captains and first mates of each ship to stay aboard while he handled the business he had arrived for. He wanted this whole pit stop to be over with as soon as possible and immediately walked with the others towards the recently constructed Admiralty building. Lisa approached him and opened up some small talk with him. Louis shook her hand and the two started walking with the others.
“Commodore, how has the journey been so far for Sherah?” she asked him inquisitive
“I think she is holding up well, still getting her sea legs but Antoine has introduced her quite well and I am happy that the crew has treated her with respect as well.” He glances over at her to see her attentively watching him “I would hope that her fears regarding potential danger would be eased somewhat over time however. She confessed to us that she is terrified that this one sailor, one of the more nasty brutes that we have aboard, is out to kill her.”
“Well, if the sailor is scaring her, maybe you should transfer him to my vessel? After all, we are getting paid to keep her safe and I am sure one of the Risuners we pick up here can replace him.” she asks with a bit of cleverness
Louis shakes his head before saying “That would do no good for her or us at all. I talked to him, his name is Heinz Meinhard. He is no threat to her at all, I can assure you.” He clears his throat “Her real problem, I do believe is that she believes that the fate of her whole nation rests on her shoulders and that her being alive is crucial to this.” turns towards Lisa and stops “We both know that is no way to think, Captain. Such an attitude will only lead to failure in the future.”
Lisa thinks for a moment as the two start walking again before inquiring slyly “Perhaps for us, Commodore; but not for her. Indeed, you may be limiting your own vision with this line of thinking given that she has just started out at sea. While I do think that Heinz is no threat to her, a perceived threat is as much of a problem as a real one is it not?”
Louis, knowing what she is trying to do but also wanting to test her later replies “Hmm, well we will discuss more after we pick up these rats.” points at the building 20 feet away “That’s where they are.”
Lisa, still wanting to poke into his mind says “Sure, come aboard the Darteronii once this is over, unless that is against your navy's protocol.”
Louis smirks and says “I couldn’t give a damn about protocol, I’ll take your offer up and we will finish this discussion there.”
As they head into the Admiralty, Louis is greeted by the Naval Attaché and chief naval advisor to South Risu, Vice Admiral Abe. The two salutes but Louis can already sense that something is off if Abe is greeting him. Abe is one of the classic "office admirals" that Louis despises. He has never held an actual command above that of a Frigate 20 years before and has earned his way up the ranks by being the consummate boot licker. He has no backbone at all, and at 70 years old, should have retired many years ago; but for reasons that not even Abe himself understand, he hasn't. He has the charisma of a wet biscuit and sweats profusely under pressure.
“Ah, Commodore d’Avranches, I wish we could have told you sooner but there appears to have, uhh , been some, uhh, issues about your orders.”
Louis’ premontitions were correct, and he starts to become filled with rage with every word uttered by the Vice Admiral
Abe scratches his neck “My message that was supposed to be sent to Artemis telling you that, uh, we had finally got a ship ready to take over the training for you did not arrive in time! Haha otherwise you would not be here i guess.... My sincerest ap-”
Louis restraining himself for the moment interrupts Abe “As expected… as expected” he starts to pace with his hands behind his back, his anger is apparent “Abe-san, can I ask you why you gave me such orders in the first place when I am on a long cruising mission with a VIP towards Western Alivia?”
“C-Commodore, I simply had no choice, uh, you see there was no oth-”
Now Louis cannot control himself, pointing his finger at Abe and stepping closer he says with great anger “No other options? NO OTHER OPTIONS? You cannot tell me for one minute that our navy couldn’t send one corvette here to accomplish this task! You are telling me that you couldn’t even find a damn KAG ship for this task? No wonder the Western Admiralty has stationed your decrepit old mind here where you can’t cause major problems for our Navy! The whole matter that a Vice Admiral made a mistake that a mere Ensign shouldn't make is EMBARRASSING! You-”
Louis gets interrupted by Takeda. Takeda is an opportunist and eager for promotion and smells blood in the water. If he stands up for the admiral, he is certain that he will lead the expedition himself! What glory, he thinks as he opens his mouth with a snarky tone “D’Avranches! That is quite enough! You child of nepotism! You h-” Thud!
As soon as Takeda tries to lay into him, Louis turns around and breaks his jaw. The whole room is shocked. Takeda is screaming in pain as blood gushes from his mouth. Louis stands over him and with a gnarl says “What did you call me you son of a whore? I immediately am relieving you of your command of the Rapide at once, as per Article 24 of the Western Fleet’s Code of Conduct for Commanding Officers, which reads and I quote “Any CO that find one of his subordinates to be undermining his position, dishonoring the Imperial Navy, or found to be in the act of cowardice or treachery may relieve said officer of his duties immediately and replace him with someone else.” turns to the First Officer of the Rapide, Hayashi Fumihito. “Hayashi-san, you are hereby the commander of the Rapide upon this very moment, congratulations!”
Hayashi bows and says “Thank you Sir!”
Louis turns back to Abe, having apparently calmed down somewhat and takes out the letter regarding Lisa he received. “Vice Admiral, I received this letter back in Ceres, it is regarding the payment that the Captain of the Darteronii would receive for this detour. I demand that you negotiate it with her now.”
The Vice Admiral is still in shock about the dressing down he received and is afraid that Louis will do something to him, so he replies “Yes, c-c-c-Commodore.” He drops to his knees to beg for forgiveness, but Louis just scoffs then turns and leaves. He puts his hand on Lisa's shoulder and whispers, “Squeeze as much as possible from him.” and walks out of the room. Lisa smiles and gets ready to rob the admiral for as much as she can get. Takeda is finally taken up by a clerk and taken to the hospital. He won’t forget this at all.
Louis refuses to talk to anyone and stands near a wall outside the Admiralty for an hour just looking into the distance. He lights up a cigar and thinks about how his grandfather’s memory was being besmirched by those bastards in the Eastern Fleet. He thinks about how the incompetent fools like Abe are in power while competent officers are looked over because of their “attitude” issues. One day, he thought, he would change this whole rotten mess. He was sure a court martial was coming as it had several years ago for a similar incident with another officer, but he cynically knew that no one understood the naval code like he did and that his name would save his ass too.
For 30 minutes he stood there smoking until Lisa emerged and noticed him, and was shocked to see him just standing there.
“Commodore, what are you doing?” she asks with a bit of curiosity
“None of your concern, Captain.” he says coldly
“It is my concern because you are leading this expedition and you are likely going to lose your head for this you fool! You have royally screw yourself and al-” she says with a bit of fire
“Wrong, Captain. The only ones that are royally screwed are fools like Takeda and Abe.” takes a puff “You want to know? Well, let me enlighten you despite this whole matter truly not being of your concern in the end.” he faces her “My Grandfather won the greatest victory that the Imperial Navy has ever had. Do you know who he is?”
“I am afraid not.”
“Not your fault, for his name and contribution has been downplayed since the moment of the battle itself! His name was Pierre d’Avranches and he crushed the greatest Corsair the world has ever seen, a man by the name of al-Hamid. So great was his victory that the Corsairs never recovered from this defeat in our waters! Those same corsairs that are causing such issues for the “grand and undefeatable” Black Fleet now were turned into nothing more than a mere pest by his deeds. He sank nearly their whole fleet and died a hero's death in the process. Yet he has no statues dedicated to him, nor does my step-grandfather and his best friend Admiral Ozawa, who refused to be recognized for the feats of my Grandfather.” starts to pace with his hands behind his back “Instead, the glory goes to the third in command of the fleet during that day, Suzuki, for his bravery and the man who authorized it with great reluctance, Mikawa. Sure, my grandfather and step-grandfather are recognized but they aren’t given the glory for their deeds. It is sickening to me that the men that turned the tide forever, saved our nation from slavery at the hands of the Ghazis, and turned the Western Fleet from a laughingstock into what it is now is utterly vile and disgusting.” He takes another puff of his cigar before throwing it to the ground and stomping it.
“Would you also like to know something else, Captain.”
“S-Sure…” she says, totally stunned.
“The reason why I am telling you that this was none of your business is not because I am “rude”, but rather because this is the truth! Furthermore, as you have seen, we have utter imbeciles in places of power like Abe, who wouldn’t even have made it out of the academy on my watch. I get to see weasels like Takeda undermine me. I won’t be court martialed for Abe, he won’t say a word about this, rather I will because of that son of a whore Takeda! That prick was certainly assigned to me by my enemies at home. I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to break that shithead’s jaw anytime he spoke because he has undermined me for years now! Is it cowardly or dishonorable to sucker punch a man like that? Perhaps, but a true coward and snake like him deserves it! But don’t worry about that coward, I won’t be court martialed because I know the Naval Code inside and out; and what I did is actually sanctioned by Article 156. He and most don’t know that, but you are allowed to forcefully make a subordinate shut up if you have a good reason. I have a good reason; thus, I will be safe. The real damage is to my reputation amongst the other officers, but bad reputation matters little when you get results, no?”
Lisa cannot bring herself to say a word before Louis asks, “Did you rob that old fool blind?”
“Y-Yes I did.” she says with a bit of a smile
“Good, do you still wish to discuss the matter regarding Sherah?”
“Ummm, I think your judgment in retrospect is likely the correct one! Also, believe I owe you a drink for what you did for me back there. You certainly helped me a lot if nothing else!”” she says with a warm smile
“I do not drink, so I must respectfully decline.” Louis smirks before saying “And it is too bad that you do not wish to challenge me on that, but after all that has happened, point made. But I do believe there is one way you can repay me.:”
“Oh, and what would that be?” she says with a coy smile.
“On the way back to our ships, tell me a bit about yourself, since you now know a bit of me.”
“Right! I would be happy to, after all you said.”
Lisa opens up for Louis, who clearly is someone she can trust and believes will understand her problems. She tells of her desire to become CEO and how she wants to use the opportunities provided by this expedition to give her a great claim to it. Louis is rather receptive, and tells her that he can tell that her experience and pedigree turned her into a fine captain because of her willingness to question authority and her drive. The conversation gets a little flirtatious at the end, which to those that know these two would be unsurprising. The two shake hands and finally board their vessels again.
As Louis boards the Victoire, he is met by all of his crew on deck cheering him, led by Antoine. Louis takes waves his cap stoically and thanks them, and immediately gets to work preparing to set sail. At 5 pm, all things are ready and with a flute call, the Squadron sets off from Leontyne on their first long haul of this voyage. To Kronistadt.
Chapter III
31st of March 1132, Aboard the Victoire
The past month has been relatively uneventful for the squadron. The journey was going just as planned and they had yet to run into any trouble. On the 15th, as per Imperial Navy tradition on such a day assuming the weather permitted, the officers and crews of both of the Imperial vessels washed themselves aboard their ships in massive tubs. Sea water was hoisted up by the bucket and dumped into the tubs where the men would cleanse themselves of all their sins per religious traditions. Soap was handed out and every man was sure to clean himself well, despite the fact it was salt water.
Sherah was quite bemused by the sight of all of the naked sailors and was caught by Antoine peeping on them. He laughed and explained the tradition to her and invited her to participate in it. Somewhat embarrassed, she decided to take part and was quite surprised by the lack of care that the sailors showed to the fact that a woman was bathing before them. Not one of them looked at her with ill intent nor lust, it was so much different than home. When she was finished, she asked if it was normal for women to bathe with men around in his people, to which Antoine replied that it is actually sacrilegious for a man to look upon a woman bathing. He laughed saying that sailors are a superstitious lot, and they all believed, him included, that the kami would strike the ship down if they committed such a sin! Sherah laughed at first until she saw the sincerity of Antoine, who said he believed it himself and that it would be a deadly combo given that a woman being on a ship was considered to be bad luck already. He told the Risuner about several tales which are the reason for this from the past, including one of an Admiral doing it right before a battle that saw his whole fleet destroyed. Superstitions don’t seem so funny and unreasonable when such stories exist, thought the squirrel!
Sherah had integrated into the crew rather well, Antoine was her closest confidant but she had talked plenty with many other of the sailors aboard. Louis’s plan of hiding her in plain sight worked to perfection in that regard, as he rightfully predicted that her status would not be suspected if she was integrated into the crew effectively. He knew the deadbeats would likely not use this method, and honestly felt like it would have been best for his own ships, along with the Chronobanks ship, to handle this mission alone. He confided this to Antoine one night, and added that “The Black Fleet believes itself to be the best fleet in the world, undefeatable in battle, and that presence alone will assure that this mission is a success. The latter may very well be true, but those boneheads couldn’t understand discretion or wisdom if their skulls were shot off with it.”
He had grown to dislike the Black Fleet in particular during his time as an attaché the previous year. When he departed, he believed it would be the standard of how to run a navy, but he was proven quite wrong during his time there. By the time he left, he had come to the conclusion that if they had ever faced an opponent like al-Hamid, they would be utterly crushed. Their tendency to want to be in everyone’s affairs was their greatest weakness. He watched as the Prince of Tsushima, nothing more than a Pirate King, had managed to humiliate them twice years before and how the corsairs did while he was there. He had made great pleas of advice about fleet composition and tactics, but was immediately brushed off by the Deadbeats as coming from an inferior fleet which couldn’t compare with the glorious Black Fleet. He didn’t take lightly to insult and was sure to make sly remarks about it just before he departed, once he heard the news of their own defeat. He had come to the ultimate conclusion that if the Black Fleet was faced with a foe of true brilliance and power, it would be completely annihilated and it would crumble like a giant bird that overstretched its wings. Nonetheless, he was a professional and understood that he could not give off his true feelings to them whenever they reached Kronistadt.
But the peacefulness of this journey was about to end when a massive storm hit the squadron. Louis knew the storm was coming beforehand based on the barometer readings and had his men prepared, sending word back to the others to batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst. When it arrived on the 31st however, it was worse than Louis imagined. The first sign of its strength was the size of the waves that were starting to form around the ship. Louis quickly ordered everyone to man all stations and prepare for the worst as the ship was suddenly hit by gale force winds. Rigging was ordered to be cut down immediately and the bilges pumped. Louis positioned himself like a lion on the fore castle, manning the wheel himself. He actually took an odd amount of pleasure in these types of storms and relished the opportunity.
In the meantime, Sherah was scared to death of it all. She hid in her cabin only to be found by Antoine.
“Rah, there you are! Captain’s orders, you must come join us in weathering this storm together!” said Antoine with a smile
“W-wa-what do yoo-you mean?” she said with a shrieking voice.
Antoine walks over and sits on her bed with her and puts his arm around her before explaining. “Look, I know this is terrifying but you have to do this. We all have to do this, regardless of our status, regardless of our importance, regardless of our own feelings, because our own personal concerns must be set aside for the survival of us all.”
“M–Mr. Antoine… Y-Y-You don’t understand though….I have to live, I NEED TO LIVE OR MY NATION IS DOOMED!”
“Your nation will be doomed if Louis finds out you didn’t help us here!” he grabs her by the hand “Look, you will be fine. I will make sure nothing bad ever happens to you under my watch. You are out of your nature but remember that I am here and so are all the other sailors and Louis too. Will you please come?”
“Sure….”
Sherah holds on to Antoine for dear life the whole time, Antoine gets her to help pump water with him.
The storm lasts all day, and doesn’t seem like it will let up. Sherah is dying inside but Antoine remains by her as he takes her to meet Louis. She sees Louis, who has scarcely moved and looks like a man possessed at control of the ship and is utterly shocked. Was he even human or a demon? But this demon when he sees her says that he is happy she is doing her part for the sake of her shipmates and that he will make sure that she receives a medal for what she is doing. Sherah doesn’t even understand what this means but her and Antoine get back to work when shortly after this the storm finally subsides. The crew all cheers and start to chant their silent prayers aloud, praising the Kami for their survival. Not one man was thrown overboard to his death on any of the ships and by some miracle, only minor damage had been suffered by the Rapide, with a top sail having to be cut off.
Antoine while cheer finds Sherah still holding on to him for dear life. He looks down and laughs
“It’s ok sweetie, we made it through and you are a hero!”
“I am?” she says with confusion.
Putting his hand on her head, he says “Yes you are, you braved this storm like the toughest sailors about this ship, ain’t that right boys?”
They all cheer her name and she breaks into tears when Louis comes down and gives her a gentle hug.
“You have become quite the sailor, Sherah, I will be sure to make you the first Risuner to earn a medal from the Imperial Navy.” Louis says with a smile.
“I-I-I don’t understand what that means.”
Louis laughs and explains “It means you will be remembered in our history books as a hero. You did well! I am proud of you and so are all of the boys here. You’ve become one of us.”
Sherah is overcome by happiness and the meal they all share was a moment she would remember for the rest of her life as was the night.
Before she went to bed, Antoine, as had become a habit, came over to talk to her.
“Antoine!” She hugs him “I am so happy that you exist and have been so kind and gracious to me.”
“As always, you are welcome. It is truly my pleasure, little one! Haha”.
He sits down on the bed and she asks him “What did you mean earlier when you said you would ease my concerns about my mission?”
“I know you have felt this way since the moment we met, and Louis knows well too, you have the weight of the whole world on your tiny shoulders mentally and…” He takes a moment “and I just want to let you know that you shouldn’t feel that way at all about your mission.”
“But us Risuners will be doomed if I do not succeed!”
“It may seem like that right now, but that’s not true at all.” he says calmly
“What?”
He holds her close “Let me explain. You have been thrust into this situation and have handled it better than anyone could possibly handle it. But you will not be able to continue to handle it as well as you have by yourself alone. You have to trust that Risu will place others in your life that will provide you success that your nation needs. Even if you do failure, you have to trust that it is the will of Risu herself.” He smiles at her as she watches him doe eyed “You wouldn’t be anywhere without your friends, do you trust me when I say that I have been sent by Risu into your life to guide you to success?”
She continues to look at him doe eyed and suddenly kisses him. Antoine is totally shocked by this but embraces her as she says to him. “You have meant so much to me, Antoine. You always know what to say and I have never felt like I have ever trusted someone as much as I have grown to trust you over the years. I love you so much. Make love to me! I don’t care if you think it is sacrilege or not!”
Antoine, feeling it, says back “Fine, but if this ship goes down then we all know it's your fault!” She laughs at him and starts to undress. They would make love all night, much to the annoyance of Louis who had to hear it. He eventually decides to go sleep with the other sailors that night. What a night it was for Sherah and Antoine!
Chapter IV
19th of April 1132, Port of Kronistadt
On the cloudy morning of April 19th, the squadron at long last caught sight of Kronistadt through the fog. Louis had ordered the ships to remain steadfast yesterday evening when a thick fog had moved into the region, making any progress impossible. Lisa protested this call and came over to say as much to Louis, but Louis maintained that regardless of whether she could personally navigate into the harbor in her sleep or not as she claimed, he wasn’t going to run the brand new frigate aground in an act of impatience when they were perfectly safe waiting. Sure enough, when the fog lifted at around 800hrs, they saw that they would have indeed run aground on the course Lisa had plotted. It wasn’t her fault that her dead reckoning was off as was the optical illusion of the lighthouse being where it wasn’t.
Either way, around 1000hrs, the 3 ships pulled into the busy harbor of the island city. Louis was rather unimpressed by the city itself upon first sight. The practical building style of the Kronies lacked refinement and taste, it just looked like things were just thrown together without any care for style at all. Nonetheless, he wasn’t here to admire the sights of the city, this was a rather important stop and a much needed one. After being guided into a dock by a tug, Louis had a lot to accomplish with this stop and wanted to make the best use of his time. First thing, first. He needed to hand over the VIP and the Risuners over to the Black Fleet.
Giving his men shore leave for the rest of the day, he disembarked walking with Antoine and Sherah, along with a few Imperial Marines as guards to hand her over to whomever was in charge of the Black Fleet’s part in this venture. The moment he set foot on dry land; a courier met with him. It was a Deadbeat and he hand him a message before departing.
TO: Commodore Louis d’Avranches of the Imperial Tsukinode Navy
FROM: Vice Admiral Kamus Hyouka, Black FleetCommodore,
If you have received this message, I wish you well and thank you for carrying out your end of this mission. The Black Fleet is more than happy to take over from here and will send good word to both your Admiralty and ours for your safe conduct during this mission. I personally invite you to join me with the VIP for some Mount Moriji Wine on my flagship, the MMS Abyss. I await your arrival and expect it as soon as practicable for you.Yours,
Vice Admiral Kamus Hyouka, Black Fleet
Lisa had just walked up to him while he was reading this and when he finished he remarked to all of them that the Commander had invited him to join him with the VIP on his ship. Louis that this was likely a private meeting but that she was welcome to come along for now. As they walked down docks towards the Black Fleet, they all engaged in small talk. Lisa insisted that Louis and Antoine come to see the city with her over the next few days, to which both agreed and she pretty much talked their heads off the whole walk about the city like some sort of guide. Louis wasn’t very interested, he was more interested in the meeting ahead of him and the exchange. The sooner this is over the better, he thought. This was far more complicated than it really needed to be, but it was what it was.
To no surprise to Louis, but to everyone else, the Abyss was a Ship of the Line, a M-12 Battleship in fact. Louis was familiar with this class, and was even more unsurprised that the Black Fleet would waste such effort with such a ship on what could have been accomplished with much less. Nonetheless, Louis was greeted by the Ship’s First Mate.
“You are Commodore d’Avranches aren’t you? My name is First Mate Avidius, it is a pleasure to meet you.” asked the Deadbeat formally.
“Indeed, It is a pleasure” shakes his hand and gestures towards Sherah “Happy to hand her over intact and in good health.”
“Good… The Vice Admiral has invited you and her to join us immediately aboard the ship. I am afraid that your entourage cannot join us.” he says with a firm tone.
“Wait! You must allow Antoine to come aboard with me!” says Sherah with emotion.
The Deadbeat looks at the Risuner with a bit of disgust, probably because it would be against his orders, “I am afraid that I cannot allow that to happen. My orders are my orders.”
“That’s unfai-”
Antoine grabs her and says “Sweetie, you must follow what this man says. I love you and will miss you but I cannot come with you.”
Sherah starts to cry “I-I-I do-don’t know if I will make it without you.”
Antoine smiles and says “You will, remember to trust in Risu. I am sure the Deadbeats will treat you with as much love as I have!”
Still teary eyed, she remarks “If you say so, but I want to see you again!”
Antoine smiles and grabs her by the hand “You will, I promise.”
The two hug before saying their goodbyes. Lisa is quite bemused by this for whatever reason, but they both wave as Louis and Sherah climb aboard the ship.
Aboard the deck of the ship are all personnel in full dress and in salute as they pass through to the cabin quarters. Here, Sherah is separated from Louis for the moment and shown her quarters. They are of top quality but she is still extremely sad about being separated from her love, Antoine. Louis gracefully enters the Captain’s Quarters to find Vice Admiral Kamus Hyouka at his table waiting for him when Louis enters the room, Kamus walks up to him.
“Greetings! I am happy you could make it Commodore.” shakes his hand “How was your trip?” the two walk over to the table and Louis responds as he sits down
“Quite well, we hit an awful storm on the 31st that lasted most of the day. Fortunately, we came out rather unscathed. Just some light damage to our corvette.” Louis says calmly.
“That’s great news. Enjoy a glass of wine with me, I want to know more about you given your family actually.”
Louis respectfully declines “I must decline, I do not drink.”
Camus looks at him with a bit of confusion before it comes to him and he replies “Ah, that is fine. Some others would see this as an insult, but I don’t hold foreigners to our standards haha.”
“It would have, it did many times when I served as an attaché last year.” Louis said bluntly
“As it would! But I would rather not worry about such matters! Quite funnily, they sent me a report regarding you before our meeting. They said you were quite the knowledgeable fellow, but to put it nicely “Too outspoken for your own good.”” he said with a degree of heart.
“That would be an accurate assessment, fits me quite well. Shocked they didn’t include my nasty habit of refusing most of the seafood they served me.”
With a laugh, Kamus remarks “Oh you better not get me started there, I hate nearly all types of Seafood. Can’t stand the bloody stuff. It’s good to find another sailor with similar distaste to it.”
“Quite so. Shellfish is the most disgusting food known to man in my opinion” leans back in his seat “But back on topic, you wish to know about my family do you?”
“Yes, yes! But we have to make it quick!” Kamus remarks with some enthusiasm "You-"
The door opens, “Admiral! A great storm has rolled in off the coast according to local fisherman. We likely will not be able to set sail today!”
With some disappointment, Kamus says “Very well, the SEA gods do not wish us to move. Better to be safe than sorry.”
The messenger closes the door and Kamus, despite being a patient man puts his head of his hand before stating “Blasted! Wanted to get this underway as soon as possible given the urgency of this mission.”
Louis quips back, “Well, it can’t be help then. Do you still wish to hear about my family, I can give you more details than you could ever imagine.” Kamus eyes light up and then Louis says, “Under one condition.”
“What?” Remarks Kamus sensibly.
“That my First Mate Antoine de Labouheyre be allowed to visit Sherah whenever he wants. Be patient with me here please. Sherah was devastated when he wasn’t allowed to join her for a little bit here. While I know why that procedure was taken and it was wise, given that she is likely still crying over this and that you might be here for a while, I suggest that you allow this provision.”
Kamus thinks, knowing this would be against the rules before stating “I see no reason why not given the circumstances, but you better have a lot to tell me Commodore! Antius! I have a message to deliver to Antoine de Labouheyre."
Kamus gets the message written down and off it goes. Louis then is more than happy to talk at length, for over an hour and a half about his family much to Kamus’ bemusement. Antoine, in the meantime, makes haste to come aboard the ship and see Sherah again. As he is welcomed aboard and led to her cabin, she is still in tears over this whole matter. Then surprisingly, Antoine opens the door. She jumps into his arms and kisses him.
“I never felt like we had a proper goodbye, so I came over to spend some time with you now. And it appears as if we will be here together for some time, the weather is too rough.” Antoine says with a jolly laugh.
The two sit down and Sherah has one thing on her mind, sex. Thus, as Louis continues to humor Kamus about his family, two love birds are at it again nearby. Coincidently, as soon as Louis says his farewells to Kamus, and promises they will talk again soon, the door is kicked open to the cabin where he sees Antoine and Sherah engaged in intercourse. Louis, stone faced as ever, just shuts the door and moves on. Both of them were stunned but continued. Louis likes Kamus, he is different from the Deadbeats he met down south. As he is walking back to his ship, he is caught by Lisa, as if she had been waiting this whole time for him to return. Truth was it was just a coincidence.
Chapter V
19th of April 1132, Port of Kronistadt
Like a hawk looking at its prey, Lisa swoops down on him.
“Well Commodore Lou, how did everything go?” she says teasingly knowing he hates being called that.
“Now I told you not to call me that!” he snaps but as if nothing happened, he then says “It went well, Kamus is a good man and Sherah ought to be in good hands with him.” He opens his cigar box and offers her one “Want one?”
“Sure! What kind is it?”
“Antiocheia No. 1 blend, best stuff in the world in my opinion.” They both light up.
“Pretty good!” she says as she puffs “The C.I.O.’s knows what they are doing.”
“Yep.” he puffs “Probably hard for most of you to get, but those bastards know a thing or two about driving the price up on amazing products.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” she puffs and then poses to brush her hair back flirtatiously “Come spend some time with me~! I need to pick that brain of yours more.”
He teases back “Looking for something to use against me in the future, are we?”
“Perhaps!” she says while twirling her hair “But in truth I just want to spend some time with you. No ulterior motives, I promise!”
Teasingly, he says “Oh I don’t know about that now, I have a lot of things to get done regarding logs and stuff. You know how it is.”
“You bugger! No that won’t do at all! You are coming with me tonight. I am taking you to the Story House and you are going to have fun, you stiff!” she nudges him
Laughing, Louis says “Alright alright, you win, let’s go to this place.”
The two head to the story house, it starts to rain heavily along the way so they end up running the rest of the way. By the time they get to the place, known as Stororonii Safehouse, they are dripping wet. Immediately noticed from appearance as an leader within Chronobanks by the stewards, they quickly approach the two who are laughing from being soaked and offer them towels and offer her a spot VIP spot in the balcony of the storyhouse. As they head up the stairs, she slips but Louis catches her before she falls down the stairs. Something struck her in the heart like a timeloop emotionally when she looked up and saw him holding her, a feeling she had never truly felt before and she didn’t quite understand it. With a light shining down on him, with his piercing blue eyes staring into her soul and his firm grasp. Damn holy shit she thought immediately.
“Are you ok?” askes Louis.
“Y-Y-Yes.” she breaks away flushed “I am fine, but thank you Commodore.”
The two reach their seats and the talkative Lisa is oddly quiet as Louis is handed a menu and begins to browse it. A waiter comes up.
“Welcome to the Stororonii Safehouse, I assume you are Lisa of Apeiron and this gentleman is your guest tonight?”
“Y-yes.” she mutters
“How may I serve you tonight?”
Louis, hungry, orders a dish not even on the menu. The menu just says steak but Louis knows his steaks extremely well. “I want a Châteaubriand, medium rare with, umm whatever Kroniimilk is.”
“Okaaayyyyy And for you Madam.” he had no clue what Louis wanted but would tell the chef.
“Uuuuhhh Kroniimilk, Rum and salmon.”
“Alright, it will be coming as soon as possible.”
Silence for two minutes. Louis doesn’t mind silence at all, despite being rather charismatic, but he looks over to see the extrovert next to him in some sort of trance.
“Captain.” he says calmly but no response comes she is lost in here thoughts.
Louis then shakes her “Oui, Elisabeth. Snap out of it. What is wrong?”
“Ummmm.” she says a little shyly “N-Nothing at all.”
“Now don’t be getting all shy on me now, You brought me here with a lot of eagerness and it is suddenly gone.” He laughs “You aren’t even trying to get me drunk so I can spill secrets to you.”
She looks at him rather embarrassedly and says “Sorry, I just was suddenly feeling a bit ill, sick y’know. I probably ate some awful food earlier!”
Louis has been on this ride before, he knows when a woman has fallen for him when he sees it. It comes in different forms, but the ever perceptive Louis gets it immediately and replies with a smirk “Lovesickness.”
“What do you mean?!?” she asks inquisitive
“Elisabeth, you will realize what I mean soon enough.” He takes a puff of his cigar. “Would be happy to cure it.”
Lisa finally starts to get over her odd feeling as time starts to go by and stories are told. But she feels like she needs to ask Louis a question that has been bugging her, even before this.
“Commodore, can I ask you a question?”
Puts his finger up asking for a moment “Send it my way, let’s hear it.” he says after he finishes chewing his steak.
“How…” She turns to him “How do you fucking do it?”
“What do you mean?” he says calmly
“You puzzle me more than any man or shit, anyone I have ever met. I have never met someone who can read people as well as you can, hell, I have never met anyone that just has it as much as you do. It’s like…. It’s like ummm… You know how to manipulate the world itself to favor you in some way.” She pauses for a moment to take a giant swig of rum “I have never been so impressed by anyone in my life, it’s hard to explain honestly.” Puts her finger on her chin glancing over at him “Put it this way, I feel totally outclassed by you in every single thing under the sun. I am honestly jealous of you the more I know about you. You make me look like a mere pretender, while you are the real deal.” looks away and puts her hand on her cheek “Normally, I dominate the room with my presence, but your presence is so dominate that I am starting to feel like a little girl, and not the woman I am around you. Do you understand what I mean? I feel like you are two steps ahead of me in everything.”
Louis thinks for a moment with his hand on his chin before leaning in “Elisabeth, quite honestly. Much of what I do is a front to my true feelings. All you said is true. I can do these things because I have been blessed to have such abilities and the hard knocks of my youth taught me all of these things rather well.. But I am not who you think I am.”
“Oh bloody hell, don’t lie to me Louis!” she says with some emotion “You made me look like a total fool this morning when what you said about the fog was true. If I was in command, we would be in a tub of dung! Yo-”
Louis comes over and starts to massage her neck he whispers “Calm down, dear. Not everything is a battle.” her tenseness leaves her body as he uses his “magic hands” on her neck and back. “What keeps you from being a master of your craft is not that you lack the ability, rather its your impatience that gets you. Take it from a bellicose soul, caution and risk taking are best exercised together! There is no need for taking a risk in all situations, rather as my step-grandfather taught me, you must know when to take risks.”
“Y-you even have god hands… how the!!!”
“Shhh…”
She moans, his hands really are magical.
“Listen, Wisdom comes not from age but from other wise souls. I learned everything I know from others and I want to teach them to you, Elisabeth, if you will let me.”
She stands up and grabs him “You better be teaching more than that you damn man of sex.”
Louis laughs and pulls her in and whispers in her ears “Damn right I will, you won’t get it better from anyone, that I can assure you as well.”
The two kiss passionately and she jumps into his tender arms and whispers into his ear “Behind you is the bedroom that comes with this suite. You take me in there, and you make me scream like I have never before you rude arrogant prick!”
“Heh. I think I can do that.”
As night fell on the city, one thing was sure. Louis was a man of his word in this regard and the screams could be heard out on the streets. The waiter thought someone was being murdered and rushed up the stairs, only to realize what it was before he could reach the door.
Chapter VI
20th of April 1132 VTE, Port of Kronistadt
Louis wakes up at dawn to find Lisa snuggled up against him like a puppy. What a night it was, he hadn’t had sex that good since he was in Suzuhara! In any case, he relaxed in bed waiting for her to wake up. Louis may be a philanderer but he wasn’t a rake! Besides, he understood that mucking it up by leaving her would be a great way to poison the well of the business relationship the two shared and the bonds of comradery between two captains. No, he would never truly love her or be able to return the feelings she possessed for him, but he would deal with that whole matter later.
Gently rubbing her silky hair, he felt pity for the poor girl. In the cutthroat world of business and politics, she seemingly kept drawing the short straw of the lot and had to fight for everything she had. No wonder she was so intent on trying to turn him into a tool for her own purposes and seemed motivated by ulterior motives a lot! It reminded him of himself in some ways, trying to live up to her name. He truly didn’t know if she had what it would take to win the rat race, but he at least hoped she would be able to find happiness along the way. Deep down to him, she was like many people. Just seeking validation and happiness. She deserved it, and Louis hoped he could help her find it eventually, even if it wouldn’t be through him.
Lisa woke up about an hour after Louis to find him just looking at her while stroking her hair. She smiled at him and snuggled closer and closed her eyes smiling for a few minutes as they snuggled.
Louis broke the ice “Good morning, Lapin.”
She giggles and replies, “Morning to you, handsome. How are ya feeling?~”
“Dandy.” He kisses her on the lips and puts his hand brushes her cheek. “Twas a wonderful experience last night.”
She twirls her hair and blushes “You certainly blew away all of my troubles and more. Hehe.” she sighs and then says coyly “Would be quite embarrassing for my boys to hear that about this whole matter.” she kisses him.
“Indeed, but I think they will be able to put two and two together.” Louis sits up “Either way, from the look in your eye, I think we can wait a bit longer before we return.” she blushes and giggles “Shall we?”
She grabs him and they have sex again. Afterwards, the two get dressed. Lisa needs a bit of help, or says she does so Louis helps her get dressed and ready to return to their men. Before they depart, Louis tells her his birthday is tomorrow and that he would like her as his present. She giggles like a girl and kisses him. It’s certainly a go and she begins to think about where she will take him as they go separate paths for the time.
Without thinking, Louis ends up getting himself lost on his way back to the docks and soon finds himself in the seedy part of Kronistadt. No matter, he thought, I should be able to find my way back regardless. In a back alley however, he is met with some brutes looking for a quick buck from someone that looks like an ideal candidate for a robbery.
“Stop righ’ ‘ere you fop!” says a giant man. Louis remains composed and has no reaction but to turn and face the thief. The large ruffian pulls out a butcher’s knife and grabs Louis by the coat “Yere mone’ or yere life!”
Louis, who sort of saw this coming once he spotted them, coldly replies. “Get your hands off me, I will give you the money you wish.”
The brute drops Louis and as soon as he does, Louis draws his knife and plunged it into the stomach of the giant. The giant screams in pain “You bastard!” coughs up blood “Ye just messed with tha wrong crowd.” Louis takes his knife and then immediately draws his saber. 4 other hoodlums approach from the shadows as the Giant falls to the ground in pain. Two of them have pistols, one has a cutlass and another a spear. Louis, cracks his neck, and calmly says “Last mistake you cretins will ever make.”
The one with the spear charged at him and Louis dodges the blow only to find the cutlass wiedling thug nearly take his head off. He deflects the blow and kicks the scoundrel back before dodging the shot of one of the pistols. As the spearman prepares for another lunge and the cutlass bear for another strike, Louis takes his knife and throws it at the other gunman. It hits him right in the throat, and his comrades turn to see him screaming in agony. Everything pauses for a moment and Louis regains his fighting stance. He could flee now, the way out is right behind him but doesn’t. He instead cockily goes “Heh, that’s the best you knaves have?”
This pisses them off further, and now they all charge at him with weapons draw. The other gunner pulls out his own saber, and once more Louis dodges the spearman's attack and parries the other two. “Not bad fer a pretty boy.” says one of the thugs, but “yer luck will run out soon!”
“Au contraire.” says Louis as he parries once more. The Spearman realizes he is at quite the disadvantage and drops his weapon to pull out a shev. Louis still smiling, now fends off all three with his excellent swordsmanship, the thieves can hardly believe this dandy actually knows how to fight and this enrages them further, the former spearman is particularly mad and screams at the top of his lungs and charges in recklessly to stab this fancy douche in the throat. This was the last mistake he would ever make as Louis impales him with his Saber as his two comrades watch in horror and rage. “So close!” says Louis to the spearman as he then kicks him off his sword.
Louis now goes on the attack, running at both of the remaining men and backs them both back. He then delivers a mighty slash to the former gunman and he falls to the ground in pain bleeding profusely from his chest. The last one however starts laughing, and calls out “Makeus, come down, we have a fighter!”
A nimble man jumps down and starts to display his skill with his sword by spinning it in front of Louis as the Cutlass thug watches eagerly. “I will kill you!” shouts the swordsman but Louis just pulls out his own pistol and shoots him in the skull.
The survivor can barely believe what has just happened, the notorious Clockside 6 has just been destroyed by this pretty boy and he is the only one not bleeding out or dead. He gets into full kneel and begs for mercy. “P-p-p-please spare me! I-i be-beg you!” Louis walks up to the man and kicks him in the side. The man shrieks in pain as Louis then walks up to him again, grabs him from the ground and looks at him with his stoneface.
“I am a Commodore in the Imperial Tsukinode Navy, did you fools think that your little street gang was going to scare me at all? I have fought stray cats more fearsome than you in Suzuya!” He punches him in the face, breaking his nose. The man is paralyzed in fear and in pain. He sees the whole gang, the terror of this side of town, dying or badly wounded.
Then, Louis walks up to him again and picks him up again. “Where are your authorities at?” says Louis with a monotone voice.
“I-I T-h” stuttering the man
Louis punches him in the gut and holds on to him “I asked you where the police are, you simpleton, if you do not tell me where they are at, I will personally take you and whomever is still alive here to my ship and flog them.”
Before the man can utter another word, the constable arrives at the scene. He heard the gunshots and came as fast as possible. He thought for sure the Clockside 6 had claimed another victim only to see Louis holding the one they call “Nasty Ned” by the shirt against a wall asking him that question. Shocked by the scene, the Constable runs up and demands “What is going on here? Put that criminal down civilian!”
Louis looks at Ned in the eyes, smiles and releases him, not replying quite yet to the Constable, he brushes dust off himself and makes himself proper.
“Civilian, this is an order. What is going on here?”
Louis lights up a cigar, takes a puff then with his hand stretched out replies “These fools must have thought I was an easy target, but little did they know…”
The Constable, still surprised and somewhat scared himself of this man in front of him askes “I-I see, but do you know who these crooks are?”
“Afraid not, officer. Seemed like a normal band of ruffians to me.”
“No, no they aren't!” says the Constable with excitement “These 6 are, well were the Clockside 6, the baddest gang on this side of town! They have caused us so many problems in recent times that we have had to double the watch in this area alone! But who are you?”
Louis extends his hand “D’Avranches, Louis D’Avranches, Commodore of the Imperial Tsukinode Navy. It is a pleasure to inadvertently help your city!”
“I am Constable Lalieus, thank you and I mean thank you Commodore! You have done a great deed for the precinct. We must reward you somehow for this deed.”
Louis replied bluntly “I am not interested in a reward, Constable. I just want to find my way back to the harbor.”
“O-of Course, Commodore but I insist on some kind of reward being given to you before you leave! We will provide you with some worthy of your deed!”
“If you insist, sure.” says Louis with his stone face.
“Very well, I will show you the way back to the harbor now. I must know how you managed to pull that off!” shouting to his rear “Men, take count of these bodies and escort the living ones to prison immediately!”
Louis and the Constable walk back to the docks. Louis gives him the full story and the Constable is amazed not only at Louis’ skill but the recklessness of the Clockside 6. He explains that they likely have got cocky over their success and that they used to be the Clockside 7 until one of them was killed a month ago. Louis reckons that his attack on the giant, who was their leader Tiny Tom, likely made them act like that. Once they arrived back at the docks, it is noon and the Victoire is being scrubbed of barnacles in the drydock. Louis shakes the hand of the Constable and climbs back on his ship. He had a lot of paperwork to get done, along with telling Antoine and the other officers about everything that happened for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.
Chapter VII
21st of April 1132, Port of Kronistadt
Louis woke up early on the 21st, and looked outside. It was quite the beautiful day, only hampered by the disgusting architecture of the city around him. No matter, it was his 24th Birthday and he planned to make the most of it. He was immediately greeted by Antoine, who made it clear that Louis was to spend the whole day celebrating off the ship while he attended to the business of the ship. The night before, Louis was given a party by the men on the ship and Antoine. Twenty-four Petals from a cherry blossom, as was custom, was dropped on his head and it was an evening of solemn prayers before the men enjoyed themselves. Louis, despite his desire to get more work done, joined in for the sake of his men before retiring later to get things done that night.
Louis eagerly awaited whatever Lisa had in store for him today, but had also received an invitation from the City Hall inviting him for brunch and his reward for his service to the city. It was far from a shock that the moment he stepped off his ship and took a drink from his canteen, Lisa walked up behind him and tried to scare him by grabbing him. Louis, also as expected, was not surprised at all by this and feeling a bit playful, flipped her over. The two laughed and he helped her up from the tumble. She seemed like she was about to come in for a hug and a peck, but Louis, teasing her, remarked that it would be best if the men didn’t get jealous of him. She laughed and the two started their walk.
With a somewhat cheerful yet hesitant tone, Lisa asks him about what happened with the gang. She knew what had happened, and was on an emotional rollercoaster about it all, being worried about him being hurt, being pissed at him for going into the wrong part of town and then just as pissed at the law enforcement. Louis, ever casually, told the story as if it was no big deal, in fact, he said that at the end.
“No big deal?” slaps Louis “You fucking dumbass! You are lucky to be alive” twirling her hair with one of her hands on her hips she says “I hope you said your prayers, because if it was the Ouroboros, you would have been killed ya oaf!”
“Easy there,Tigresse!” He faces her with his typical confident pose and with a bit of bluntness in his tone remarked “Perhaps, it was luck, perhaps it was the will of the divines, but I live without fear. Knowing that my time of death is ordained from the divines allows me to live in peace. Furthermore, it wouldn’t matter if it was the Ouroboros, the Death’s Fairies that operate in Pomerania or the organized crime fiends that roam in my homeland. I would approach it the same and win regardless.”
“You cocky son of a bitch!” she laughed “But seriously, take better care of yourself! You mean a lot to people…” stops for a moment “in this expedition!”
“Right.” Louis says with a smile and then puts his arm around her “I understand.” He then shares a kiss with her.
Red faced, Lisa then says “W-Well, I am still quite pissed at the police for not dealing with this hooligans!”
“Well, as a matter of fact, I am headed to City Hall right now on their request. Was going to invite you to join me.” says Louis
“You better have, I want to give them a piece of my mind!” she says with passion
“Hehe, please control yourself there Tigresse... It is an honor to be invited and I would not want to see your reputation ruined over some incompetant police work, no?”
“R-Right, Let us go then!”
The two arrive at the City Hall around 1030hrs. They are greeted by the local guards, who were expecting Louis.
One of the guards approaches them “Ah, I assume this is Commodore d’Avranches? We have been expecting you!”
“Thank you, this is my err friend, Elisabeth of Aperion, a rather important lady within the Chronobanks enterprise.”
“Ah, Madame Lisa, you are welcome to join as well!”
“Thank you!” says Lisa with a smile.
“Well, let’s not delay this any further, follow me
The City Hall to the Kronies was an impressive building, but to Louis it was just another example of their poor taste in architecture. He would keep his mouth shut for obvious reasons, but for a nation that prides itself on its technology, Infinitium has little taste, he thought. No matter, he was here as an honored guest and would act as such. Walking down the grand hall to the chambers, Lisa smiled at him. This girl was smitten with him, just as he thought and he had no doubt that she would fulfill his birthday present later on. Heh.
Either way, upon entering the chambers. Louis was greeted by the chief of police, a man by the name of Paulinus Timelooper.
“Ah, it is the man himself! I am happy you came, Commodore, uhhh what do you prefer to be called?” he asked with enthusiasm and hesitation
“Feel free to call me whatever you feel, Sir. I prefer Commodore around my men and junior officers but I will go by my given name, Louis if you wish.”
“Given your rank, it is only appropriate for me to call you Commodore. I, uh, just like to make sure that an honored guest feels comforted.” he walks up to Louis to shake his hand and notices Lisa, someone he is familiar with “Ah, Lisa. It is quite the surprise to see you here with the Commodore. What brings you here?”
“Ohh.. he is my, umm, commanding officer and friend.” she says
“Well, you certainly are lucky to have such a gallant and brave man as your commander! My apologies Commodore, got a little distracted!” He shakes Louis hand “I am Paulinus Timelooper, the chief of police and the man in charge of our many private police forces.”
“Indeed a pleasure.” replies Louis calmly
Paulinus signals for the confectionaires and tea to be brought out. “Cake and Tea, for you Commodore.” he laughs “Can’t go wrong with that can you?”
“No.. Not at all, Monsieur.” Louis sits down with Lisa next to him at the table Paulinus across from them. The butler brings in the treats and beings to give them to the guests.
After making some small talk for an hour, Paulinus gets to the matter. He calls on another servant to come out bearing Louis a present.
Standing up, Paulinus takes the present into his hands and walks over to Louis to present it to him. Louis stands up naturally, as the Chief stands before him.
“For your services, I am proud to present you this present. Please open it” hands the package to Louis
Louis opens it and its a finely crafted watch. One of the most prestigious and prized items in Infinitum. Louis gives it an appropriate reaction “Why, this is quite the gift. It’s beautiful, I cannot thank you enough for such kindness you have shown me!”
“No, once again, it is a fitting reward. You are as gracious as you are brave!” The Chief shakes his hand and tells him “You are always welcome in our city, Commodore.”
“Thank you, It has been a pleasure to meet you and an honor really.”
Paulinus starts to walk away and stops once more to say “Commodore, Salutations! Have a wonderful time and I hope to share the honor to talk to you again one day.”
“Quite.” replies Louis.
Louis looks at Lisa after the room is empty and remarks “Quite the odd fellow, but a good man. You know him.”
“It’s a long story.” says Lisa who seems somewhat apathetic to Paulinus.
“Seems like you don’t have fond feelings towards him.”
Lisa states “That’s putting it mildly, but I will not make you listen to me bitch. It’s your birthday after all, Let's have some fun!”
The two leave city hall, both of them are hungry and stop by a local restaurant for lunch for an hour and a half. In the midst of a conversation there, Lisa asks him if he wants to go anywhere special for the afternoon.She mentions she knows the town like the back of her hand, and knows all the joints. Louis simply, and perhaps shockingly to Lisa tells her he would honestly like to get out of town and into the countryside. Find a place to relax in nature and swim. Lisa says she knows a place, it’s a secluded little lake known as Lake Blueronii. It would be an hour journey by horse, but Louis doesn’t care. At 1330 hours, they rent two horses and ride off to the lake.
Chapter VIII
21st of April 1132, Lake Blueronii
The beauty of the countryside contrasted greatly against the bleak feeling of Kronistadt. Louis was far happier to be in the fresh air of the countryside than the stuffy air of the city. Lisa could tell this and learned something more about him just from looking at him. She asked him what he loved about nature and Louis went on a long tangent about it. It was not only a personal taste, but it was a religious experience too. He remarked that his fondest memories came from wandering around the countryside back home and that if there was one thing he missed, it was easy access to this area which he described as a place where all anxieties could be left behind. Lisa personally did not understand this, but connected in her own mind that it was sort of how she felt in the city. It explained even why he got lost in her mind (which wasn't true, Louis knew Suzuhara just as well as she did Kronistadt.), it was kind of cute to her.
When they came into sight of the lake, Louis marveled at the sight. With some thick pine forests nearby and some mountains, it was picturesque and reminded him of home. He stopped for a minute just to look, Lisa smiled at him. She hadn't seen this side of him but loved it as much as any part.
"Come on, natural man~! Come down here on the ground with me please~!" she said flirtatiously
“If you so insist, but this is my birthday, you know?” he says coyly
“And we are going to make it extra special, Lou. hehe” she says with a giggle and takes him by the hand “Come with me.”
The two frolicked towards the Lake, and undressed. She joked about someone catching them, seeing them in the nude, and how embarrassing that would be. Louis jokingly said it would be quite embarrassing for our men to hear about the two captains skinny dipping. Both of them jumped into the gleaning blue watch of the Lake. It was somewhat cold, nothing Louis was personally unaccustomed to but made Lisa shriek “Ahhh i-its so cold in here.” only for Louis to start splashing her with water and the two splashed each other laughing. Louis came in and embraced her and the two kissed.
“You are something else, Lou!” said Lisa
“Damn right I am.” laughed Louis “They don’t call me Tueur de Cœurs for nothing.”
Louis then grabs her and dunks her underwater laughing. The two were like children out there, messing around and being goofs. Except for the sensuality and eroicitsm that this whole encounter was surrounded by. By the end of their fun in the lake, Lisa was feeling it especially. The coldness of the lake was countered by the heat of this burning lust and love she was feeling. She grabbed on to him, and filled with passion demanded “Pick me up you wild beast, take me and give me the best fucking I will ever get, now.”
Obliging, Louis picked her up and carried her out of the water onto a blanket the two had laid down as they were undressing. He placed her down on the blanket and she bit her lip while looking at him with eyes that burned with desire. Louis brushed back his hair and then came down to deliver what she wanted to get so badly. Her fingernails scratched his back and drew blood and she bit him lovingly on the neck as the two made love.
When finished, Louis got his cigars and a blanket, and offered her one. Both of them lit up and cuddled. Louis gently massaged her whole body with his “magic hands” and caressed her. He told her how beautiful and lovely she was, and how happy he got to spend his day with her. She returned the remarks with a special present for him, Fellatio.
After more hours of sex, cuddling, sweet talk and personal talk, poor Lisa had fallen asleep. Louis took the opportunity to take an actual bath in the fresh waters of the lake. As Lisa woke up from her nap, she saw Louis writing poetry under a tree, curious she came over, still nude and asked him what he was doing. It was here that Louis explained his love for poetry and the arts; something Lisa did not understand. She felt inadequate for him the more she thought about all of this, and perhaps it was her own intuition but realized that this magnificent man before her, was likely to never love her as much as she was in love with him.
“Lou, can I ask you a question… I don’t mean to get all serious and ruin your day but… I don’t know..” she says timidly with a towel wrapped around her.
Louis puts down the quill and parchment and puts his arm around her, pulls her in and massages her neck “No, no. Please do tell me. What’s on your mind Lapin? “
With hesitation she asks “Ummm… how should i put this..” she turns towards him “Do you plan on getting married one day?”
Louis, knowing where this is going and how to handle it gets into gear and replies “Absolutely! It is a dream of mine to have children with a woman that I dearly love with all of my heart.”
Getting pale and embarrassed Lisa replies “Ummm…” twirls her hair “What kind of woman do you want to be your wife?”
Louis leans back and ponders how to say it. “Elisabeth, I will be truthful with you. The type of woman that I will marry, if the divines are willing, will be like my first and lost love. The girl that I still miss to this day, because I truly did love her with all of my heart. My dear Mimi.”
“What’s the story Lou?” she asks caringly.
“Mimi, or Marie, was my childhood sweetheart. We were friends from birth and our friendship turned into feelings of affection and love when we got older.” Louis stares off into the distance, you can sort of see her in his eyes when he speaks. "She was everything I could ever want in a girl. She was pretty, well educated, witty, proper, feminine, pure as a flower and above all loving. We were actually engaged for two years until I got into a fight with another boy and nearly beat him to death.” Louis starts to tear up “She ended the engagement there and then. She couldn’t be with someone like me.” Louis regains his composure, that old wound wasn’t going to bleed any further “So to tell you the truth, dear. I will never settle with anyone less than someone like my Mimi.”
Lisa understood this well, in spite of her feelings, she understood how much this hurt if this rock of a man was tearing up because of it and sighed. She then said “Lou, I am sorry about all that…”
“No, it’s quite alright, I am sure you understand what this means about my feelings about you.” he replied with some degree of sympathy
“Yes…” starts to tear up a little “Yes I do, and I am not going to be selfish here.” She starts to cry, and Louis brings her close and lets her cry.
He consoles her for a few minutes as she explains how she had never met any man who she felt fit her profile of what she wanted in a man perfectly until she met him. Though she had been with other men, no one came close to him. Louis caressed her gently, and wiped tears from her eyes. He then lifted up her chin and looked her into the eyes. With a warm voice he told her how great of a woman she was, how beautiful she was and how lucky the man who was fortunately to land her would be. He reminded her that, just because he had unrealistic standards, did not mean she should too. There are many fish out in the sea, many men he knew that would love and appreciate her like she deserved and that furthermore, he would be happy to provide her with what he could while their paths were crossed currently.
She kissed him passionately and remarked “Well, if that’s the case, you make yourself free for good loving while I am around!”
Louis smiled and said “That’s right, if you ever need, services from your Commodore, we will find a way to fulfill those services haha”
“You sly dog, hahaha. You are the best man for the job, so as your subordinate, I would be sure to, as you desire, use my own initiative in these orders. But if my commander were to ask of me, orders are orders right”
The two laugh. Lisa however almost forgot to give him his gift. She runs over and retrieves it from her sack. It’s a brass stopwatch with a chain that he can put into his pocket.
“When he gave you that watch earlier, I wanted to kill that bastard because he stole my thunder.” she said with a laugh
Louis replies “No matter, both are useful in their own ways.” He kisses her “Thank you, Captain Lapin.”
After another heartfelt hug, Lisa finally gets dressed and the two ride back into the city. It was quite the afternoon, filled with sex, fun, happiness and tears. Lisa’s girl-like love for Louis was gone, but the passion for the flesh was still there. She demanded on the way back for Louis to introduce her to the men he knew that would love her and told him that she would look for what he wanted as well. A true bond of friendship had been forged between the two in all of the intense passion of their love and the mutual heartbreaks they felt that day. Lisa wouldn’t forget this day easily and treasure it for the rest of her life. Louis would too, for different reasons as time would show.
Chapter IX
23rd of April 1132, Port of Kronistadt
The time had come to finally leave Kronistadt and set sail. It had been a rather eventful stay in the city for both Louis and his crew. His crew enjoyed their time rather well, with many men talking about the beautiful women they nabbed, the booze they consumed and the money they spent. One of the more notable things that came out was a fight between 5 crew members, Three from the Victoire and two from the Rapide on the 21st. While Louis was getting his rocks off, these men got into a violent argument that resulted in punches being thrown and even someone getting stabbed. The new Captain of the Rapide Hayashi Fumihito, being the most senior officer on the scene, swiftly dished out punishments to the perpetrators. 4 of them would receive 100 lashes and be dropped 3 times from the yardarm while the man who stabbed another man was executed.
Hayashi Fumihito was a 42-year-old son of a bricklayer from Izumo. His father was a cruel man that regularly whipped his children over the most minor of offenses and an alcoholic. Hayashi, being the oldest, was the most abused of all of the children and his body still has scars from his father’s wrath. It is thus no surprise that Hayashi ran away from home at age 14 and quickly joined the navy. His way to First Officer and now Captain was a hard one, as his tendencies to get into brawls when he was younger gave him a bad reputation. He was even marooned when he was 21 after one particular brawl, but managed to miraculously make it back. It was then and there that he changed his ways and made it slowly up the ranks.
He is a rather cruel but even keeled man, known for his willingness to deal out severe punishments on his crew and officers alike. But Hayashi is also known just as much for being rather down to earth and approachable with other sailors, never having forgotten his roots. This has given him a rather mixed reputation with his crew, but one that has been improving since he became the captain of the Rapide. He is not much for conversation with many and his lack of education has sort of made him an outcast amongst his other officers. Nonetheless, his abilities as a sailor turned officer are great and his hard work shows with how well his ship is run. Standing at 180 cm, and being a rather heavily built man with a natural scowl, Hayashi is a rather imposing and terrifying man to many outsiders. As some would say, he just looks like a mean son-of-a-bitch. He dresses rather sloppily and without much care, starkly contrasting to Louis.
But the oddest thing about Hayashi is that he and Louis actually get along quite well despite being rather different people. Louis has known him for 4 years now and their relationship actually started off rather rough, with the two nearly getting into a fight when Louis had Hayashi as his chief boatswain on his first ship, the Découverte. But any hostilities between the two quickly evaporated as their time together went along. Hayashi grew to respect Louis for his willingness to treat all sailors the same, regardless of rank, and Louis respected the abilities of Hayashi and how hard he worked. It is thus no surprise that when Takeda was relieved of his command, that it was given to the Hayashi, someone that knew the crew of the Rapide and was someone Louis could trust.
When Louis heard about what had happened, he immediately went over to talk to Hayashi about it. Louis was worried that this might be a bad sign for the journey ahead but Hayashi insisted that the matter had been taken care of with cruel efficiency. He also asked where the Commodore was during this time, to which Louis blunty told him he was fucking the Captain of the Darteronii. This was quite bemusing to Hayashi, who remarked that Louis was a lucky son-of-a-bitch. The two continued to talk about other things, before Louis went back to Victoire for the night. Louis’ trust in Hayashi continued to prove itself to be wise and would only grow wise as time went on.
Preparing to cast off and fit the open ocean once again, Louis thinks about everything that had happened in his short time in the city. He thinks in particular about the events of the 20th and the 21st. He thought about the whole affair with the gang he ran into and how dangerous that situation really was, and how it could have been the end of him. He thought about all the honors stacked on to him, and the rewards he got for his recklessness. But most of all, he thought about the time he spent with Lisa. He knew this woman would never be the one to live up to his standards, but by the divines, was she quite the woman herself. The deep conversation that had at the lake in particular stuck with him. In perhaps a moment of his own loneliness arising again, he wished he could set aside the pain of the past and would have made that poor girl that had grown to love him happy. But even more, it made him miss his lost love, Marie. “One day” he thought to himself “I will find myself another woman that would live up to Marie’s greatness. I just have to keep looking.” He prayed about it, before he finally readied himself to order the casting off of his ships. Now wasn’t the time to be getting lovesick again, he had to get his mind back on the immediate job in front of him.
After checking to make sure everything was ready, and the crews of his ships praying for a safe journey, the ships cast off with the Black Fleet and Darteronii following them. Everything went perfectly, and when out on the open sea, the ships got into formation, with the Victoire in front of them all. However, as a peaceful night fell on the 23rd, and as Louis was writing his nightly report on everything, he found it hard to press through it like normal. His mind was elsewhere, back on Marie again. Shit, he thought, this was getting into the way of his professional business yet again. Slamming his fist on his desk, he yelled “Get out of my head you damn demon. Curse you!”
“Lou” yawn “What’s the matter.” asked Antoine in a rather sleepy voice.
“You ought to know, Douceur” he said with a meek voice.
Antoine knows immediately what he means “It’s Mimi again.”
“Naturally… this demon haunts me again!” Louis replies with grief and starts to tear up.
Antoine goes over and pats him on the back “There there, Lou. You know I am here for you.”
“Of course… but why does this pain still haunt me, friend?” still tearing up he takes his handkerchief and wipes his eyes and blows his nose.
Antoine knows better than anyone his feelings, he had lost his fiancée to illness just before their wedding. But he also understood that his own pain didn’t compare to his friends in how it was applied. You see, Marie married one of Louis’ most hated enemies, Marcel Trottier shortly after they broke off. Antoine may have seen his beloved die, but he knew she was in a better place. He couldn’t fathom the pain Louis feels about seeing his beloved reject him for his greatest enemy. Antoine knew there wasn’t much he could do at this point he thus simply replied with a bit of hesitance “Every pain… serves its purpose… it is up to us to figure out what purpose the Divines have given us such burdens…But please, take some rest for tonight, Lou. Sleep is the cure for many pains. I will finish your log for you."
"Very well." Louis says as standing up "Sleeping it off could help me!"
Antoine nods and Louis heads to his cabin for some much-needed rest.
Chapter X
June 6th, 1123, the Heavenly Sea
ItIt had been a slow month and a half from Kronistadt. The fleet had made moderate progress across the Heavenly Sea, but the winds had not been kind to them. They were now halfway to Indeia but Louis' calculations and they would likely reach there by the end of next month. Life on sea could be so boring and menial or intense and exciting. The former was very much true for the expedition thus far. Sailors sat often playing cards or dice underneath and the officers passed their times in their own way. The Second and Third Mates, Benedictus van der Zouwen and Dietrich Grützmache, both spent much of their time not on watch with the other sailors below deck sharing in merriments. The Chief Boatswain, Okamura Takao, focused himself on his tasks or reading poetry. Antoine spent his time between his duties trying to converse with everyone on the boat, but he was growing worried about Louis as time went along.
Louis wasn’t right mentally it seemed. He did his duties perfectly as expected and was there for the crew when needed but often locked himself in his quarters in deep thought, writing poetry, tending to his bonsai, or sitting in silence at his desk staring into space. Antoine had tried to get him to open up, he knew what was bothering him but he knew that pressing Louis anymore than he already had would lead him to snap at him more. Antoine had tried 3 other times during the trip thus far and each time was met with increasing hostility from his friend. The most recent attempt had resulted in quite the tongue lashing and Louis telling him that he would have him flogged if he did it again. He apologized to Antoine later, and said he didn’t mean it, being in a bad place and all; but Antoine got the message. Even at the dinners shared with the other officers, the normally talkative Louis was pecurily quiet and sullen. All the officers knew something was off about him but did not dare open their mouths. Dietrich and Benedictus asked Antoine what the matter was on May 20th but Antoine simply replied that Louis was off in his own world mentally, and that they should pray he finds his way back. Antoine feared that Louis’ lack of presence and clear distraction could lead to actual problems on the ships should they run into storms or heaven forbid, get separated from the rest of the convoy. Antoine and the other officers could certainly handle things now, and Louis did his duties but his mental state was clearly growing worse, and none of the officers were truly capable of taking charge of the ship in the case of his total incapacitation. Antoine prayed and prayed that whatever was troubling Louis would pass, because as June came, the crew themselves sensed something was off and that was not a good sign.
As Louis finished up his reports on the night of June 6th, his heart labored through it. “Why on earth is this witch from so many years ago haunting me like a ghost?” he thought with fury. Louis had grown tired of being interrupted by concerned officers, all of them at some point had come to ask him what was wrong and he had decided to just lock the door to his office and cabin at this point. He slammed his fist on the table and shouted “Get out of my fucking head you vile she-devil, Mimi! You fucking left me for my worst enemy and I shall never forgive you for it!” Louis drank a shot of rum. His struggles had compromised his own morals when it came to the “devil’s medicine” and he was now drinking it to calm his nerves. After pouring and downing another shot, he threw the shot glass across the room and shattered it. Benedictus, hearing this, rushed to his cabin and shouted “Commodore! I came at once, what is going on?!?!”
“Zouwen, go back to your cabin at once! I am fine, leave me alone you minge.” Louis said with scorn
“B-but Commodore, something is-”
“Silence! Leave at once or I will drop you from the yardarm tomorrow in front of the whole bloody crew!”
Benedictus was enraged at how his CO was acting but Antoine put his arm around him and walked him “Zouwen… Forgive him… He is not doing well and you must remember what I told you…”
Calmed down, Benedictus started to tear up a little “Antoine, it is just hard to see, y’know? And this has given me great stress because I fear the worst with him…You must understand that I have seen this before wit-”
Antoine interrupts him “Zouwen, my dear Zouwen. I have heard this story many times.. No need to repeat… come and let’s talk it over on the deck…”
«In Syrenian, ja Antonius?» replies Benedictus in his native tongue.
«Jawood! We are the only ones on this crew that knows your language anyway!» Antoine laughs and grabs some rum .
The two leave with their rum to talk it over as friends and for Benedictus to vent. Louis in the meantime is seething in the back in his cabin bitterly, he didn’t know how much he could take. He prayed every day for guidance and a clear mind, but nothing was coming. He sat in his chair for two hours until Midnight, when finally decided to head to bed. He had been getting poor sleep when he was getting it, and he expects tonight to be no different. As he got into his night clothes, and slipped into bed he fell asleep rapidly…
????? Kingdom of Helesta
Louis was shaken awake by a Knight in a pile of straw.
“Get up you vile wretch!” shouted the Knight “This is the royal straw pile, and you are lucky I found ye and not a more cruel man!”
Louis gets up immediately and brushes himself off “A royal straw pile? Am I in the Candy Kingdom?”
“The what? I guess I have a joker on my hands. No matter, you look like a man of noble status so I will let you off the hook for this offense!” said the Knight with a bit of displeasure
he kissed Louis on the lips and Louis squirmed away “Excuse me!” shouted Louis “But I do not swing that way!”
The Knight is perplex and tells him “What do you mean? You should know that is the common greeting here. Who are you anyways?”
“Louis d’Avranches, Commodore in the Imperial Tsukinode Navy. My apologies, such a greeting is only reserved for close friends and loved ones for me.” he says politely
“I have no idea what the Imperial Tsukinode Navy is, sir, nor do I know what a commodore nor have I heard your name before.” he laughs and then with a cheerful smile says “My name is Sir Roland, a man of great rank even if I do not understand the rank!”
Louis goes to shake his hand but Roland looks perplexed “What are you doing… umm what should I call you.”
“Call me Louis, and I was going to greet you as a fellow man by shaking your hand.”
“Handshaking? What do you take me for, a fool?” the Knight gets somewhat angry “That is an insult in these lands, and a mortal sin!”
Louis is utterly confused but rolls with it “Ah, I see, I apologize for not knowing.”
“That is fair, you clearly are not from here so it is fine. Had you been a local, I would have had to place you in chains.” Roland says
“Either way, It is a pleasure Roland”
“Sir Roland, Louis.” he snaps
“Yes, SIR Roland.” says Louis, his own anger is starting to build up.
Roland sternly replies “What brings you to our Kingdom, traveler?”
“May I know what the name of the Kingdom actually is, Sir Roland.”
With spite and some degree of haughtiness, Roland replies “You don’t know where you even are? How is that even possible…You are in the most famous and glorious realm under the sun and you never knew it? You come here, not knowing the basics of our culture either. You seem like a conman to me, and a trickster trying to get one over on her Majesty’s great knights.” Roland grabs Louis “You are going off to the Dungeon, spy!”
Roland is a large man but Louis manages to wrangle himself free. The two soon struggle on the ground, Roland trying to pin Louis while Louis trying to do the same. After 5 minutes of struggles and shouting at each other, Louis manages to come out on top and holding his poignard holds it right over Roland’s throat. An intense rage fills his eyes which strikes great fear into Roland. “N-non-no-no need to do that” he says nervously “P-p-p-please spare me!” he then shrieks.
Louis looks at him with pitiful disdain for a moment before getting up off Roland. He sheaths his poignard but then draws his saber and stands over the Knight, who is paralyzed with fear. Holding it at his neck, Louis with his rage burning says “You will tell me where I am, why you tried to take me into custody for my ignorance and why one of the “Greatest Knights” of this realm lost to me in a tussle. Tell me, who are you really now!”
In terror, Roland replies “Th-the Kingdom of Helesta, Sir Louis. But I truly am Sir Roland! Y-yo-you must believe!”
Louis sheaths his sword and picks up Roland, and dusts him off “I do believe you, but I have no clue what's going on. For all I know, I could be in the depths of Hades, the heavenly realm with the Kami or in a dream."
“The Kami?” asks Roland, still terrified
“Hard to explain that but do tell me... Who rules over these lands?” Louis says calmly
“Her Highness, Lize Helesta, she is the Queen of our Kingdom!”
Louis stops and puts his hand on his chin, looking at the Knight who is still terrified before putting his hand back into his jacket and saying “Sir Roland, may I meet your Queen?”
“Absolutely not! That is reserved for only the most honorable subjects of Her Royal Majesty and is not allowed for outsiders.” says Roland sternly “You will have to kill me and many others before you do such a thing!”
Louis cleverly remarks “Well, you see Sir Roland… It seems my memory was a bit jogged from my sleep. For I am actually a high ranking dignitary from a foreign nation.”
“You know that isn’t true!”
Louis draws his sword again and walks over to Roland and says “It is true, and if you value your own life and that of others in this fair Kingdom, you will listen to me. Otherwise I will have to reveal my true identity to you.”
“Wh-h-hat is that” says the Knight filled with fear.
Louis simply replies “I am Hanabatake Chaika, in the form of a weary traveler to your lands, and you have gravely insulted me.”
The knight falls to his knees and sobbingly says “I am so so so sorry Lord Chaika. I will take you immediately, her Royal Majesty would want to see you!”
Louis sheaths his sword and says “Very well, but you will refer to me as Louis this whole time, Sir Roland.”
“Y-y-YES!” He scrambles to hit feet. Allow me to bring you a horse that we may ride together!”
“Thank you.” replies Louis with a smug look on his face. He truly had no idea where he was, if this was a dream or if he had been sent to another dimension but surely Lize, his kami, would be able to tell him. He prayed in quiet as Roland brought him a fine golden unicorn. Roland was riding a white one, Roland helped Louis on to his new horse and the two rode off. T
The speed at which they were traveling was ridiculous and Louis felt sick from it. He saw many strange things in the distance and along the road. He saw a mountain that was upside down, its summit being at the ground while its base was high in the sky. He saw a river that was flowing backwards up a hill, and cows that looked made out of silver. He asked Roland about these and Roland was totally puzzled about why Louis found them odd. What was normal in Louis’ world clearly wasn’t in this world. The sun itself didn’t even look the same, it was reflected far more than the back home did and Louis was quite bothered by it. Riding through a town, he saw Centaurs, Minotaurs and Elfs engaged in normal conversation as if it was normal. He couldn’t wrap his head around any of this, but he just accepted that this must be the way things are in this world.
The ride seemingly never ended but in the distance was the most beautiful, magnificent and utterly huge building he had ever seen in his life. It was made out of quartz, gemstones and finely cut stone. As they approached, it’s glory only intensified with the beautiful, lush and grand gardens becoming visible.
“Here is the Palace, Louis.” Roland said
“Ah it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, it will be nice to meet Lize… again that is.”
“Yes yes, she has already made herself ready for you.”
They both dismount at the golden gates in from of the palace, where two guards with silver armor approach and ask “Sir Roland, whomst is this man that is with you? Has he been requested by the Queen?”
“Y-Yes.” says Roland
One of the guards crosses his arms and replies “Well then, let us see if his name is on the list. What is his name?”
“Louis d’Avranches” said Roland as Louis stood there confidently. Fake it till you make it, he thought.”
“Louis… Louis…” the guard mutters “Ah yes, Louis d’Avranches. Welcome to the Helesta Place.” saluting Louis.
“Thank you.” says Louis as he walks past them. Roland tries to tag along but the Guards cross their halberds and tell him “Your name wasn’t on this list, Sir Roland.”
“Poor guy!” thought Louis “A nice fellow but unfortunately not the brightest. But why was my name on the list?”
Louis enters the Palace and is greeted by a spectacular sight. The tiles on the ground were black and white, in a checkerboard pattern. In front of him was a golden fountain that had sparkling water pouring out of it. Behind it was a grand staircase that would outmatch anything in his home world. Quartz and Marble columns rose to the sky itself it seemed and as he looked up he saw beautiful iconography of Lize and the rest of Sanbaka. He was led up the staircase to a room with a massive but beautifully carved wooden door. When it was opened for him, he was blinded briefly by what he saw. On a golden throne with many precious gems engraved in it was a woman that was glowing with brightness. It was Lize Helesta herself.
With authority she said “Guards, you may leave us alone please.” Turning to Louis she with a voice of both calmness and authority ordered “Come forth, Louis.”
“Y-Yes, Goddess.” he says nervously
Lize looks at Louis long and hard with a bit of scorn on her face it seemed. She clearly wasn’t pleased with him at the moment and it showed. Louis was terrified but tried to remain poised. Lize then spoke up “Louis d’Avranches, you have insulted the Kami themselves by your trickery you showed towards Sir Roland….But Chaika was pleased by your deception…so we will forgive it….” she then stood up and began to walk to him “Your name was already on the list of guests for me today, before Sir Roland found you. I had sent him out in search of you and sure enough…he found you…Perhaps I should have been more direct with that fool, never mind that. I am glad you are here…”
Louis fell to his knees in front of her and said “Thank you, Goddess!”
“Ah, most welcome… But, I am afraid our business today is not of a friendly type…” she brushes back her hair and then draws her sword “For I brought you here to fight me, Louis d’Avranches!”
Louis is stunned but Lize with greater authority in her voice shouts “Stand up!”
Louis rises to his feet, and composes himself. What was going on? Why was he fighting Lize herself? Well, Kami or not, he was going to give it his all. He brushes himself off and then draws his saber, kisses it and then gets into a fighting stance. With confidence, he replies “Very well, but do not think I will hold back because you are my personal Kami!”
Lize laughs and says “Louis d’Avranches, you fool. You stand no chance in this fight, but I admire your confidence.”
The two approach each other and Louis immediately finds himself on the defensive. Lize overpowers him with a flurry of attacks that he can barely hold off. She silently looks at him with a face full of disdain as she continues to press him. Louis finally manages to counter attack and force Lize back. The two break apart for a moment and Lize utters “Impressive, very nice…But you are truly in over your head Louis d’Avranches. Your head is in the clouds with your arrogance and I haven’t shown you my true power.”
Louis, steeled and in the zone replies “Well, you truly haven’t seen my power yet.”
Lize laughs and says “Very well.” before striking towards him. Louis parries each attack with finesse and strength as Lize’s power quickly is shown to be rising. Her speed increases and her eyes are filled with power. Each strike she throws forth is harder and harder to counter by Louis. But his own desire for victory rose with each parry and his fury grew as well. Quickly, the tides turned and now Louis was on the attack. He struck forward with viciousness and power towards Lize but she countered them easily. She smiled, as if satisfied by the fire and desire burning in Louis. No matter, he would lose and Lize thought the time for playing with him was over. She quickly managed to counter one of his attacks and knocked the sword out of his hands.
But as if nothing happened, Louis drew his poignard and stopped a strike that would have been the end of him. He kicked Lize back and slid to pick up his saber. But Lize caught up to him and now had her sword over him.
“You did well, Louis d’Avranches, but still lost. Now you will meet an honorable fate, being slain by me!” she says with a poised but cruel voice.
But Louis wasn’t done, he rolled away as she struck down towards him, picked up his saber as he rose to his feet. His hat was struck by the near miss but Lize smiled at him, she knew he wouldn’t go down that easy but she saw in his eyes a determination that was remarkable as she gathered herself. Suddenly, Louis came at her with even greater force and vigor than he had ever shown before. His strikes were made with such precision, force and raw passion that Lize herself was finding it hard to fend them off. He was a man possessed!
With each parry, Lize was forced backwards and even as she fought with all of her might, this mere mortal was unstoppable it seemed. She was impressed but not about to be defeated. She ran backwards and then charged at him, striking towards him with all of the force that she possibly could, with her strike being barely visible by its speed. But to her shock Louis countered it and with the strength that was inhuman managed to push it off and send her sword flying.
In a bit of déjà vu from earlier, Lize slid to retrieve her sword only to find Louis over her and unlike he kicked the sword away across the room and stood over her holding his saber right to her throat. But then suddenly, Louis sheathed his saber and reached his hand out to Lize without saying a word. She grabbed it and he pulled her up. The two looked each other in the eyes for 5 seconds before Lize spoke up “Come, follow me Louis d'Avranches.”
The two walked over to another door into another room. It was a room with a fireplace with the head of a Cherub and a Griffon mounted over it, with velvet armchairs and a table between them with fine porcelain tea cups and everything else for tea time. They remained quiet as they sat down and a servant poured both of them tea. Grabbing a saucer with her tea on it, Lize sipped from her tea and remarked “This tea is quite fine, is it?”
Louis taking a sip replies “Quite so..”
“Indeed, this tea is famously grown in our own gardens. You will never find a better tea in your world, Louis d’Avranches.” she says calmly
“No doubt.” Louis replies silently.
Lize takes another sip of her tea before sitting it down and turning to Louis “I wasn’t truthful to you earlier, Louis d’Avranches, somewhat at least. I indeed wanted you to fight me, but I also brought you here for another purpose…”
“What may that be Goddess?”
“If you want peace in your heart, look not for perfection where such perfection does not exist.” she said cryptically.
“What do you mean?” he said with confusion.
“I said what I said…” she says sternly “You will understand one day…but remember my words…You fought better than any other mortal could have, I held back because had I used by true power I would have shattered your blade with one blow…But that wasn’t the purpose of our struggle…”
“What was it then?” asked Louis
Lize laughs and replies “The ways of the Kami are truly impossible for you mortals to understand. You have no way of understanding it nor do you have any way of knowing what our will is…. But that too, you will find out one day as well…” takes another sip of tea “It will all make sense in due time, Louis d’Avranches… Farewell, I will be with you…”
Suddenly everything surrounding Louis turned into clouds and he saw nothing but light shining into his eyes blindingly. He heard a voice call out “Lou, Lou, Wake up! LOU!” and suddenly he was shaken awake by Antoine.
“W-hat?” said Louis with confusion
“Lou, it is 900hrs. This isn’t like you!” said Antoine with concern
Louis is completely confused about everything that just happened and needs time to process this. “Antoine, fake coughs I am just feeling a little ill. Must be the weather. fake coughs Give me some time to come to my senses, you are in charge for now. fake coughs”
Antoine immediately says “Ah, Lou I am sorry for waking you! You need some rest, I will get you some soup immediately!”
“Fake Coughs Thank you, Antoine.”
Antoine leaves the room to get him some soup and Louis spends most of the day in bed thinking about what he had encountered. He wrote it down in vivid detail in his journal before he “felt” well enough to return to duty in the evening. He still needed some time to think of what Lize told him and to think of the purpose of it but was feeling out of his funk. Time to resume business as usual, for now at least.
Chapter XI
29th of June, 1132, Harbor of Cape Leopold.
It had been hell at sea for the last 4 days for the Victoire and the rest of the convoy. A typhoon struck them on the 25th and scattered the fleet around 100 nm from Cape Leopold. It was a particularly dangerous location for many ships because of the combination of storms, and the vicious rocks that many ships could find themselves blown into. Louis was all too familiar with this area, having experienced a near shipwreck on voyage with his father when he was younger. He informed Kamus that the best course of action in the case of the classic storm that happened around this time of the year was to cut his rigging in case of a storm and try to wait her out. He also said it was likely they would get separated from each other and that all should, when the storm lets up, report to Cape Leopold to rendezvous. Kamus, trusting the instincts of Louis had agreed in advance and like poetry, the storm came and did separate them.
The Victoire was separated on the first night and was pushed hard towards the land. The skill of Louis as a sea captain was vital in her survival as his knowledge of the rocks saved them on numerous occasions. On the morning of the 29th, the Victoire finally escaped the tempest into the friendly waters of Cape Leopold. The port had many ships waiting out the storm in it, including an Imperial Corvette and three ships from the Royal Navy. Dropping off the wharf, Louis scanned the surroundings to see a longboat approaching him and hailing his ship. Louis quickly signaled for the nets to be dropped that the personnel could board the ship. A rather stout red bearded man, a woman that was clearly a high-ranking admiral in the Royal Navy and other personnel border the Victoire
The lady demanded immediately to meet the captain, as she had urgent questions for him. Louis hearing this from the aft quickly came down.
“I am the commander of this ship, Commodore Louis d'Avranches. What brings you...?”
“Grand Admiral Elaine Smirk, pleasure.” she coldly remarks “I need to ask you some questions.”
Wonderful, this is going to be lovely thought Louis “Go ahead.”
Turning to face him and putting her hands behind her back, she stares at Louis with this glare of frost in her eyes. She pointed her chest out at him as if she was trying to prove a point, but Louis didn’t care for whatever point that was.
“First, I need to know if you saw the Black Fleet Convoy by any chance. If so, tell me where you last saw them.”
Louis calmly replies, “I was part of it, 100 nautical miles from here but we got separated during the storm.”
“How bad was this storm, Commodore?” she asks bluntly
“A typical summer tempest around here.” he remarked dryly with some chuckles “Which means it is hell.”
She looks at the Red bearded man and says “Impossible then” before turning back to Louis “I still have some more questions for you, Commodore. I never heard about the Imperial Navy being part of this mission.”
“Well, Grand Admiral, it is just how things happened.” he lights up a cigar “We got bottled up in Kronistadt with the Deadbeats and our mission is in Hoshiyomia anyways so no harm sailing with them for a bit.”
“Ah, I see, do you have any other information to relay?” she asks in a monotone voice.
“Well, you would probably like to know that I have good faith that they will arrive here eventually. This was our backup meeting place, and my captain Hayashi can lead them here. Furthermore, I think the storm should let up by tomorrow according to my readings, but I will have to check again later.”
“Good good.” she replies “I recognize your name. Quite famous.”
“It is, I know yours as well.” puffs his cigar “Our father’s fought together 30 years ago.” Louis points to his cabin and says, “Grand Admiral, it would be an honor to discuss this with you in my cabin.”
“Sounds good to me.” shouts at her sailors “Help these lads fix up their ship while myself and the Commodore talk in private men!”
“Aye Aye!” they shout.
The two walks into the bridge in silence. Quite the odd one, Louis thinks immediately. But it will be interesting to talk to the daughter of someone who fought with my father many years ago. Louis sits down at his desk with Elaine sitting right across him with her death stare. Louis opens up by talking about his family, telling her all of the many stories he has about his ancestors. He could do this all day but Elaine sort of gave that she was either out of it completely or wanted to kill him.
“Pardon me, Grand Admiral, but I have to be honest with you. You look like you either are trying to infiltrate my mind with your intense stare or that you want to kill me Haha” Louis says cheekily
Elaine flatly replies “"Neither is my intention, is it not proper in your culture to keep eye contact with the person you are conversing with?"
“No, not at all. It's just a simple observation. You probably scare the daylights out of many with those death rays of yours.” he says teasingly
"I... I don't quite follow how this is related to anything." she says after hesitation
“I am just teasing you, my apologies. I like to keep it light sometimes.” Louis says
"That's fine, well since you told me so much of your Family, let me also share some of mine. It seems only fair." she says with a smile.
“Go on.” says Louis with keen interest.
She then tells him about her family, how she was raised in the navy, her father and life. She was immensely proud of her old man but when asked how she got the job from him, much to the disgust of Louis, she revealed how she forced her stepfather, a national hero and her “idol” out of command for her own gain. He never would respect someone who would do this to a war hero for their nation, it reminded him too much of his Step-Grandfather’s struggles. As much as Louis hated the Admiralty, he still respected the seniority of the men above him and the time they had put in. He only had issues with the deadwood at the end of the day. He kept his emotions secret, but this left a bitter taste in his mouth that wasn’t going to go away. By the end of her ramblings, Louis simply said that it was a pleasure to meet her, and she did the same as she left.
Louis went back on deck to supervise the efforts of his men. He was happy that the Retros were willing to help, at the end of the day but he had more important things to think about. First off, he needed to get this ship ready to sail as soon as possible and that needed to be done tonight. Secondly, he prayed that Hayashi would get the fleet here ASAP. The longer it took, the more chance a disaster had happened. Louis was levelheaded about things like this, but all sailors have that doubt in their mind about such things. He would keep himself in some degree of prayer constantly until the masts of the fleet were spotted entering the harbor the next morning. In front was the Rapide, that beautiful bastard Hayashi did it again! Some of the ships were worse for wear, but all looked seaworthy, and any repairs could be done this day. When the Rapide pulled up next to the Victoire, Louis smiled like he never smiled before when he saw the old seadog, Hayashi at the wheel. Long live the Imperial Navy!