North x Northwest
Chapter 140

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As soon as Cesar sensed the furnace-like heat, a blacksmith, who started forging, hammered his head.

– Tang! –

‘…I should hurry and stop them…’

– Tang! –

‘…I’m going to stab the man who is having fun with her…’

– Tang! –

‘…Then I have to question Liloa, who betrayed me…’

The heat had reached the crown of his head and his hand that gripped the hilt of his sword trembled uncontrollably. His breath became constricted as if he had run a long distance. But just before he was devoured by the heat, an eerie chill passed his ears.

‘…If so, should I break up with her? I can’t keep embracing an unfaithful lover… But, am I confident enough to do so?’

The cold air seemed to mock him for having such thoughts. His anxiety finally got a hold of him and Cesar cooled down like a newly forged sword submerged in an ice bath. Being hit by the cold water, he froze for a moment, before turning back and entering his own cabin.

He then glared at the messenger pigeon that arrived two days ago. For the past week, Cesar had deliberately put the perfume on him, so it came as no surprise that the bird actually flew to him.

‘Back then, I thought it would be useful someday, not knowing I would use it so early on. And at such a bad time too…’

For hours, Cesar agonised over what to write on the paper. Even when dawn was about to arrive, he hadn’t written a single line. He couldn’t bear writing the very evidence of his sin with his own hands. His maniacal rage just wasn’t enough to challenge his guilt. Although the impulse to write something came several times that night, he was unable to bring himself to act on it as he didn’t want to leave such an ugly imprint on the world. Cesar couldn’t be ignorant of his conscience. He had always lived according to the laws of the empire, which he saw as the only rightful rules to follow. Meaning a plan like this felt like he was one step closer to treason.

In the end, however, Cesar managed to convince himself.

‘If it’s just between me and Liloa, my word alone will be enough for her to believe me. She wouldn’t bother checking the communication tube. Even though I know that, it’s still a very risky plan…’

Instantly, doubts seeped in.

‘If Liloa wishes to see the correspondence, then…’

Cesar tried to muffle his self-destructive thoughts with silence and that long dark night finally came to an end…

– – – – – – – end of flashback – – – – – – –

‘By the time I had made up my mind, the day dawned. After that, I only woke up after that noisy morning was already in full swing. Liloa’s reaction was surprisingly satisfying, and the guilt weighing on my shoulders diluted and faded by the pleasurable scene I witnessed. As time went on, I became pretty convinced that she couldn’t have shared a bed with Edgar and I even blamed myself for stigmatising my innocent lover…’

But the wound that was already so big, didn’t heal easily. Similarly, the sense of guilt didn’t go away easily either. Like black oil, it remained as a stain that couldn’t be removed even after washing it countless times. Cesar not only bore the guilt of deceiving Lil but he now also carried the anxiety that Ed might actually die.

‘Clearly, Edgar is a human with a strong body and an even stronger mind. He’s a high-ranked naval officer who didn’t survive countless naval battles and deviations by sheer luck alone. It was also due to his mental strength that he was able to endure that surgery where his skin and stomach were pierced multiple times without anaesthetic… But unfortunately for him, his current state is probably worse than it was back then. If he’s not already dead, I can only imagine the pain he must be in right now…

…Just why did Courant fall into madness like that…

Anybody could have told at a glance that he was bleeding out. On top of that, he seemed to have sustained a serious injury to his head… Even so, I’ll never regret pushing for his isolation. At that time, when Liloa cried out loud and raged at her officers, she tore open that barely subdued wound of mine. I really would’ve killed Edgar myself if he hadn’t disappeared from my sight. I would’ve lost my mind if I had to see Liloa embrace and defend him for a second longer. There’s no way I could’ve stayed still watching that.’

However, there was something Cesar could never deny.

‘He was still Edgar Retiro. Although everybody here casually called him ‘Ed’, in reality, he wasn’t just some ordinary man. No matter how he may have seemed like an outsider to the sailors here, he was a Marquess of the Empire, the head of a key family, and the Admiral who led more than 40,000 Mondovian navies… And I’m responsible for the death of said Admiral…’

The weight and value of Ed’s name increased the weight of his sin.

Cesar’s gaze shifted to the other paper in his hand.

[ 5, 3, 8 – 42, 6, 1 – 37, 11, 9 – … ]

It was the original letter retrieved from the red-tailed pigeon. Cesar didn’t try to crack it because knowing the code as an outsider was equal to treason. What he did notice was that the message had no title, which made him certain of one thing.

{ “…Bring me any book you read. That will do. I’ll write using that title so you can verify the content… It’s not the official code, but it can’t be helped…” }

‘So, the title is determined by a specific set of rules. It can’t just be any book. And seeing that they’re deliberately hiding it, must mean that the title is the key of the code… If so, will the Commodore stay still?

It’s hard to guess, I never had a close connection to Viktor Sagastar… Other than that we both resided in Sesbron around the same time… I do remember that Sagastar was well known for his hot-blooded personality ever since his aspirant days… It’s more likely that he won’t be staying still then… In addition, Sagastar received a full promotion by the recommendation of the Admiral, took over Grignard, and became Mondovi’s second-in-command. Since that promotion was purely the Admiral’s decision, many are envious of him, making his position unstable. The Western Navy has a lot of other Captains who are much more experienced in long naval battles than him. Meaning that even if Sagastar possesses the title of second-in-command now, chances are that he’ll be demoted to a senior officer when the Admiral disappears. Once an officer is degraded, the probability of receiving an edict again is close to zero. For that reason alone, he’s probably brimming with personal and political motives to keep pushing for this search… He still needs the shade that Edgar provides for him after all…

When I think about that personality of his some more, it suddenly isn’t unimaginable to assume he’ll take over the Legardon fleet in the process. He probably doesn’t even have to threaten with his title of Vice-Admiral as his fierce presence must be enough to push for it. What also isn’t unheard of in the South are those vacant spots left behind by higher ranked officers setting out to sea, if that’s the case, Sagastar only has to deal with some Lieutenant who is way over his head anyway… After that, the next step is obvious. He’ll set up a medium-sized operation and exclude all their large ships, thereby improving their speed immensely. If I was the Commodore, I would reorganise the squadron around their sloops to increase mobility and explore the nearby islands…’

Cesar instantaneously raised his head. Quickly erasing the loads of sloops joined for the search party from his mind. Masts that were spread out like nets all disappeared from his imagination in an instant.

{ “If you’re the commander*…” }

The words he’s heard countless times from his father rang in his ears while his palms covered his face and rubbed his tired eyes. Even since he was a young boy, he had always thought that he was bound to become a commander someday.

‘Commander, the brilliant star with the rank of a Commodore.’

That title, which he threw away like trash when he chose Lil, suddenly trampled on his insignificant self. The more he thought about it, the more aware he became, and the harder such dreams scoffed him.

He glared straight ahead through the gaps in between his fingers. Along with the ship’s old wooden walls, the narrow desk in his executive’s office looked shabbier than ever. While cupping his chin with his hands, Cesar pressed his head down harder.

‘With reality as miserable as this, the past I left behind is nothing but a mirage now. I expected it to be insanely enchanting and brilliantly evocative. But that’s all I could think of. I never imagined that this would happen to me. I thought I’d be happy, that every moment would be filled with joy and affection… I really knew nothing…’

Cesar clenched his fist.

‘However, I knew what I got myself into, so this is nothing new.’

He tried to divert his thoughts.

‘The fleet might be nearby. It would be a stretch, but it’s not impossible for them to get to Edgar if they conducted their search properly. Nonetheless, will they be able to rescue him in time? Even if I send them a message right now, I’m not sure if they can arrive within 12 hours. If Sagastar’s unable to arrive in time, they’ll only end up recovering their Admiral’s remains… Once his body is found and the cause of death is identified, they’ll look funny upon the message. Anyone who will see Edgar’s state, will replace it highly suspicious and ask themself how a battered body like his could’ve sent a message like that…

But I have no choice. Contrary to my initial expectations, Edgar’s condition is far too critical. If there’s something I can do to increase his chances of survival with my own hands, I’ll have to do it. Because once the Admiral is officially declared dead, his fleet will be relentless in catching the culprit, and their determination to replace us will even be fiercer. Sesbron won’t sit idly either. I have no choice but to hope that the dying Edgar can be found…’

Cesar wrote a message and put it in the communication tube. Awakened by the movement on its ankle, the pigeon visibly started to struggle. Cesar ignored its flapping wings and silently nodded his head toward the window. At first, the pigeon appeared to peck its beak menacingly, but soon lowered its head and flew out of the window…

***

– – – – –

Footnote:

Commander: So this is a bit of an odd one. From the conversation between Cesar and Ed in the inn, way back in volume 1, we learned that back in Cesar’s Navy days, he was ranked Captain. When we looked at the ranking system in the Navy, we saw that ‘Captain’ was ranked above ‘Commander’. Making it weird that Cesar’s father had this dream of his son becoming a ‘mere’ Commander. We then dived a bit deeper and learned that besides the typical ranks as Admiral, Commodore, Captain, Commander, Lieutenant etc. there are also different posts. One of those posts is ‘fleet commander’. Wikipedia describes it as; “The Fleet Commander is a senior Royal Navy post, responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the Naval Service.”

To make it more complicated, between the rank of Admiral and Commodore, are some more ‘Admiral’-named ranks as Admiral lower half, Rear Admiral and vice-Admiral. What we see is that those three (and the rank of Commodore according to some sources) can be bestowed the title of Fleet commander. So far we never heard any of the other ‘Admiral’ titles, so it can be that they’re omitted in the story and that only a Commodore can be a Fleet Commander. We have no idea why the author used the term ‘Commander’ instead of ‘Commodore’ as we aren’t knowledgeable in this field. It can be that it just got lost in translation, English – Korean translations aren’t that straight forward and we already found a lot of Army terms/ranks instead of Navy terms/ranks as General, Colonel, Major and also Sergeant. During our little research we found out that Sergeant isn’t a Navy rank either, but an Army rank. So Sergeant Sorola should actually be Petty Officer Sorola. But, we never questioned this as at that time we followed the names and titles from the Webtoon.

We hope that this explains a bit more about the different navy ranks you read about in the story. For the readers who are interested, somewhere this weekend we’ll probably post a more extensive explanation, when it’s up, you can replace it in the chapter page. 🙂

Disclaimer; we’re not knowledgeable in this field. This text was written after some shallow research. When we post a further explanation, we’ll make sure that we researched it more. It can be that we revise this footnote after learning some more. 🙂