Southampton, Drake Chamber of Commerce.
Acharin scowled and was escorted all the way to the front of Lorraine's bedroom by a cold-faced Hina.
This is very unusual.
Because the nobleman's bedroom is a very important private space and carries the special attributes of a family.
Apart from immediate family members and household servants, educated unmarried women usually only entertained their bosom friends in their bedrooms, while men basically never entertained anyone in their bedrooms.
Lorraine is undoubtedly educated.
After being captured on the battlefield, Yacharin was properly housed in a small rented manor on the outskirts of the city, where he was fed and watered well every day, with morning and afternoon teas, wines and snacks, as well as a dedicated cook and a slightly older maid.
He was even allowed to skate on the estate's lawn.
As a noble captive, Yacharin enjoyed impeccable treatment, and that impeccability itself was a testament to Lorraine's upbringing.
But how could such a cultured gentleman make such a colossal mistake in social matters?
As she was hesitating, Hina impatiently passed behind Acharin, pushed the door open, and said in a cold voice, "Come in."
Yacharin scrambled through the door like a third grandchild.
Entering the front door, the first thing was the private study, where Acharin thought Lorraine might meet him, but entering, he found that it was still empty.
Hina pushed open the bedroom door again.
Acharin's eyes widened in disbelief, "Mr. Drake wants to see me in the bedroom?"
"Enter, or die."
Yacharin winced hard.
Of all the Drake Chamber, he feared Hina the most, and had since the first day he was captured.
It was a credit to the red velvet fleur-de-lis that grazed her ear, but more than that, it was the way Hina looked at people.
With the exception of a limited number of people, she rarely looked away from the four parts of a person's body - the brow, throat, heart, and crotch - all of which were one-shot vitals.
He didn't doubt for a moment that Haina would turn her back on the honor of nobility and pinch him; her skin color and dress proved that the rules of the Catholic world held no restraints on her.
Without saying a word, Acharin succumbed to Hina's lustful power.
He entered stiffly, knocked on the door with the barest of manners, and asked softly, "Mr. Drake, I ah!"
Hina kicked him inside and snapped the door shut.
It took a moment for Acharin to adjust to the sudden change in light until he could make out the pattern of the carpet, and only then did he look up.
The house was surprisingly crowded.
Lorraine leaned against the bed wrapped in bandages, her face green and white, and to his left sat Noa in a flowery dress with big sleeves, and to his right sat Carmen in a light blue gown.
The Romans looked nothing like the Castilians, but Carmen had a Moorish mix and happened to have the same dark hair and black pupils as Noa, and now that the room was dimly lit, it looked, like a pair of gorgeous, eye-catching sisters.
Kron and Ramos were in the room, too, standing on either side of the bed, one intent on hitching a ride on the French schoolmaster's sword he'd seized from Yacharin's hand, the other simply leaning on the floor with the sledgehammer that wouldn't leave his side.
The battle was somewhat intimidating to Acharin.
In front of them, except for Lorraine, there was hatred on every face and anger in their eyes, as if they would eat him alive and flay him alive with just one suitable excuse.
What a story!
Lorraine gave a weak laugh, "Sorry Mr. Desai, I'm not really that weak. It's just that my mates had to put me on bed rest considering I'm sailing in three days."
"Are you ... hurt?"
"Yeah, thanks to your blessing, your family refused to ransom you back and ambushed about thirty people ... at the site of the talks," Lorraine thought hard, "Again, I'm sorry, there were a few too many kills last night to count them all at once. "
"Three ... thirty people?"
Frozen in his tracks, Acharin took small steps back, and only managed to take no more than two before he felt something pressed against his waist and eye.
When he turned around, Pierce had somehow gotten behind him, with more anger on his little face than anyone else in the room, and would be carrying his ivory musket, aiming it at his heart from behind.
Look at the state of the trigger, the gun is loaded ...
Yacharin swallowed hard, "Mr. Drake, is there some kind of misunderstanding going on? The family is bound to ransom me, my lineage, my skills are important to the family, there is no way they will give me up!"
"It seems you have overestimated yourself, and I have overestimated you." Lorraine smiled to herself, "Your family refuses to recognize you, so in accordance with the rules of privateering, I will hand you over to the cruising court as a pirate, and they will choose a suitable reef for you ..."
"Wait!" As if he suddenly thought of something, Yacharin trembled and shouted out, "Mr. Drake, may I ask if it is the family, the Chamber of Commerce, or the fleet that is negotiating with you on behalf of the family?"
Lorraine frowned slightly, "It's your Chamber's First Fleet Governor, Velen. Mr. Desai."
"Sure enough it's him ... sure enough it's Verum ..."
Looking at Yacharin's disoriented appearance, Lorraine became interested for no reason.
"I wonder if you and the other Mr. Desai ..."
"Mr. Drake, are you short of gunners on your ship? I have a resume of service as a third class ship in the French Channel Fleet, Master Gunner on the Awe. I am excellent and obedient and hope to ... redeem myself under your command!"
Lorraine suddenly smells dog blood ...
...
As Acharin rambled on about himself, the story of his feud with Velen was soon dissected in front of Lorraine and his seamen.
"Verlaine and I are both peripheral sons of the Desai family, both families live in Bordeaux, in the county of Cernon, and are neighbors, and even the date of our birth I am only three days ahead of him."
"Although they are peripheral children, because of the family's business relationship, our families do more or less small businesses; my family sells candles and his family sells lamp oil."
"A small business family, not too poor, not too rich, enough to feed and clothe the children and pay for us to go to parochial school."
"We attended the same parochial school and excelled, sharing the top two in every subject, and as a result, we were seen by the family and were placed together in the French Sea Cadetry to enlist for our studies. I was in the gunnery section and he was in the command section."
"At sea school, I was first in the artillery section at the same time, and he was first in the command section. We paired up to go to a ball and fell in love with a girl together, Sophie. Labrador, and courted her at the same time."
"I won." Gatcharin looked proud, "I took the beautiful maiden's first kiss and first night. He has hated me ever since."
"We graduated at the same time at the top of our subjects, joined the Navy, and were promoted in quick succession because of our excellent performance, and were also successively inducted into the family's line of succession. I was thirty-ninth in line and he was fortieth, which is the second aspect of his hatred for me."
"Then it went round and round and we were assigned together again. In the Channel Fleet's third class battleship Awe, I was a Lieutenant Commander gunnery officer and he was a Lieutenant Commander second mate."
"He began to take revenge on me!" Hatred appeared on Acharin's face, "He ostracized me and discredited me through various methods, finally forcing me out of the Navy and into the family's Chamber of Commerce, as Captain of the Farlight."
"Who knew that a year later, he also left the military of his own accord and actually became the captain of the family's flagship, the Reindeer!"
"He completely ruined my life!" Speaking of this, Yacharin was furious, "Mr. Drake, he's been my lifelong enemy, he's been giving me a hard time all my life, and now he's actually taking personal revenge and wanting me dead!"
"I want revenge! I want to kill him, and I'm willing to make a deal with the devil if I can kill him! Please, you must take me in!"
The dogged story came to an abrupt end here, and Lorraine listened with mixed feelings.
Does his ship need a gunnery officer? No.
After Ramos's transfer to the Cattail Flower, the Buttercup was just short of a qualified Division Gunnery Officer in command of the guns, and it was still an urgent need.
Is Yacharin's resume excellent? Excellent.
The level of education at the French Sea School was slightly less advanced than that at the Plymouth Sea School, but it was also among the best in the world, and the fact that Yacharin was able to get a first there, and follow it up with a job as a gunnery officer on a third class ship, was a testament to his professional excellence.
The problem is that this is a bit too weird of a way to join ...
Could it be that Yacharin was actually a trap made by the Desai Chamber of Commerce against Drake? A spy?
Lorraine nearly laughed at herself.
Not to mention how such a complicated and raw infiltration process could be arranged, how could the Desai Chamber of Commerce have known before the Battle of Belle Isle that Lorraine... Drake.
The crux of the matter is that even if Yacharin's original intent was not to spy, that doesn't mean he would be loyal to the Drake Chamber.
How to test his loyalty? Or ... retreat.
Lorraine's eyes lit up.
"Sophie. Ms. Labrador, she's the one who started all your feuds with Verlaine, isn't she?"
"Your memory is marvelous." Yacharin hurriedly complimented.
"What happened to her? I mean, did you guys get married?"
"Eh?" Acharin froze, full of wonder, "Why would I marry her?"
"Uh ..."
Yacharin shrugged it off with a scornful look, "Sir, marriage is the great enemy of romance, the grave of love, only old farts like Velen make it all about marriage, I only seek love."
Lorraine finally heard a bit of it, "So, you guys broke up?"
"Yes, there was a breakup, but the story didn't end. Three years later, she married Veron, and during the church ceremony, I watched her in her white gown and suddenly found the flavor of love again."
Yacharin looked excited.
"You know what? I renewed my courtship of Sophie, and it only took six months to succeed; she divorced Veren and rejoined me for a honeymoon-like three months."
Lorraine looked stricken, "That was back in the Navy, and you haven't been to the Awe, have you?"
"How do you know?" Acharin was filled with different.
"Guess." Lorraine licked her lips, "May I ask, Verlaine . Has Mr. Desai ... ever remarried?"
"No, how can a dull person like him know the beauty of pursuing love!"
"Do you really think he ruined your life?"
"Yes, he ruined my life!" Yacharin cut in, "I hate him to the bone!"
"Well ..." Lorraine drew a punched gold louis from her lapel, looking unattached, "for winning the great battle for love, congratulations, you are accepted, Master Gunnery Officer ... Yacharin . Mr. Desai."
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