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Chapter 4

"…Shut up!"

James wanted to claw at his own head for hesitating, but it was too late. That one beat of hesitation had made him the laughingstock of everyone in the room.

The burst of laughter quickly spread to the next table, and all their pointing fingers and gazes fell squarely on him.

James wanted to slap the man in front of him, but the thought that the brute's lecherous suggestion might actually be carried out made his courage evaporate entirely.

Just then—

"Hey, hey! That's enough."

The chaotic atmosphere was broken by two familiar faces. Pushing open the half-closed wooden door, the men waved their hands.

It was the pair who had gone to the baron's house to collect the gambling debt. Sean, still wearing a grin, asked them.

"You're back? Did you visit the baron? Does he actually have a house?"

"Uh, yeah. He does."

"Well, that's a relief! We still need to collect the rest of the money—"

Before he could finish, a maid with a pale, starved-looking face silently stepped up beside Sean.

"How much?"

Her dry voice reached his ear, carrying the chill from outside before it even touched his skin. Sean unconsciously rubbed his arm, which had broken out in goosebumps, and looked sideways.

'They said they'd bring the young lady, but it's a maid? Well, I suppose it'd be difficult to bring a noble lady to a place like this. So that man really is the baron? Tsk, this household is falling apart in no time.'

As if he'd instantly assessed the entire family, Sean set his beer mug down with a thud.

"How much? You're going to pay it?"

"Let's hear it first. How much is the debt?"

"Alexa!"

Unlike her flat, emotionless voice, James shrieked as if he'd found a savior. Tears welled up with joy—but Alexa only looked at the chips on the table, the money, and Sean in turn.

The more she looked, the colder and sharper her eyes grew, and in the end, her gaze settled on James.

Sean glanced back and forth between the maid and James, then spoke readily.

"Two hundred nets."

"…Two hundred nets."

Two hundred nets was enough for commoners to live lavishly for over two months—or stretch to three or four with frugality.

But Alexa earned three nets a day—ninety nets a month. That meant this sudden debt of two hundred nets would take nearly three months of saving every single coin.

Alexa gasped in disbelief. Her eyes, now even colder, turned to James once more. He frantically waved his arms and spewed excuses, as if he were the victim.

"Th-they tricked me! It was clearly a winning streak, but somehow they hid cards and—"

"Hah! Did I tell you to raise the stakes? Wasn't it you, Baron, who wanted to up the ante?"

"Th-that's because you lot kept egging me on…"

Alexa winced as a tension headache set in.

Gambling always played out the same way. Let them win a few small sums, then lure them into bigger games. Once they lost, they'd borrow money to keep playing, hoping to win it back.

And the end was always like this. Over and over. This wasn't anyone else's fault—it was James's own greed. And the aftermath always fell on Alexa.

She clenched her bony fist, then released it.

"This is all I have right now."

Alexa pulled money from her loose coin purse. She held out a mere ten nets, her hand ashamed—but hesitating wouldn't make the debt disappear.

Now she wouldn't be able to buy oil, let alone firewood, and she'd have to go hungry this month. And to pay off the remaining one hundred ninety nets, she'd have to endure the same for months to come.

Her chest tightened with suffocation, and her vision began to swim.

"Do you take me for a fool?!"

Sean rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Did she know what it meant to sail the seas around Chelburg? Half your life was practically shoved into a monster's mouth—and he was supposed to accept partial payment? He might be dead by next month!

"Forget it! Bring the full amount, then we'll talk."

"Please, just take this for now—"

"I said forget it!"

He roughly shoved Alexa's hand away. She lost her balance and staggered, the coins scattering across the floor with a clatter.

The laughter-filled gambling den fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The other gamblers shook their heads, looking at Sean as if he were the worst kind of scum. But no one was more flustered than Sean himself.

"Ah, no—I barely touched her…"

His voice trailed off. He hadn't been careful, sure, but he'd only pushed her as lightly as swatting a fly—just a flick.

"Alexa!"

James stared at her, aghast. To lay hands on a noble's daughter—the world had clearly gone mad.

And James instinctively knew: this was his last chance to have the debt forgiven. He quickly hardened his expression and glared at Sean.

"No matter how uncouth you are, how dare you lay a hand on my si—"

His words died in his throat. In the tense silence, Alexa was bending down with an expressionless face.

Without a word, she quietly picked up the fallen coins, one by one. After gathering all ten, she straightened up and approached Sean again.

"When do you set sail again?"

"Why do you ask? Stop stalling and give me the money."

Flustered by the awkwardness, Sean raised his voice. Something landed on his table with a soft thud. He glanced at it.

"……!"

Alexa gazed silently at the necklace now lying on the table.

She'd known this day might come and had steeled herself for it many times. Of course, she hadn't expected it to be because of her older brother's gambling debts—but this necklace was all she had left.

"It's an Ocelton. The finest gemstone, found only in the deep waters of the Zakhar Sea. And this black variety is exceptionally rare—as someone in the seafaring trade, you must know that."

At the same time, James's face went white as he stared at her.

"Alexa! How could you—!"

A hush fell over the gambling den.

A black Ocelton. Not only was it rare in itself, but black Ocelton was found only at the very bottom of the sea, where no light reached—a gem so precious that one might never see it in a lifetime.

Amid the wave of murmuring onlookers, only Alexa remained as calm as the deep sea.

"I'll leave it as collateral. I'll come back with the money within a week."

"L-look here! Do you know how much that's worth?! A baron's household with a maid can't scrape together two hundred nets?"

"What? Maid?"

James shouted furiously. It was shocking enough that Alexa had produced such a gem, but to dare call a noble's daughter a maid—

"Who do you think you're calling a maid…"

Only then did he take in Alexa's attire. She must have just come from work—her uniform was rumpled.

James stammered and then turned his head away. He couldn't possibly introduce Alexa, dressed as a perfect maid, as his sister in front of these lowlifes.

While he dithered, Sean shot up from his seat and spat as he yelled.

"What if I take this and run? What if I sell this gem—so priceless it can't even be valued against a mere two hundred nets!"

"Sell it."

Her resolute answer made Sean flinch.

'No—no sane person would accept this.'

He stared at the black Ocelton on the table.

Perfectly black, with not a single flaw, the round gem seemed capable of swallowing all light. Suddenly, he recalled the pupil of a deep-sea kraken he'd once encountered and nearly died from—goosebumps ran down his limbs.

But it was James who trembled and shrieked uncontrollably.

"Y-you're insane! No! You there—you who live by the sea's grace—you'd sell an Ocelton? Have you gone mad with death wish?"

He scraped together an old legend from his shallow memory.

The taboo of those who made their living from the sea.

"I once sold ten of these Ocelton at once! And what happened every time the captains who bought them returned? They came back with overflowing catches, treasures, their ships so heavy they nearly sank!"

"Ocelton brings fortune—you believe such groundless talk? Just keep this between us. I heard this from a captain, you see…"

The story went that after a captain sailed wearing an Ocelton, monsters that would have attacked instead began to avoid his ship.

This happened two or three times. The captain realized the Ocelton was the key and ventured into all sorts of dangerous waters unchallenged.

"It's true! Not a single monster in sight—he went all the way to the deepest, most treacherous part of the sea, where no other ship dared go, and made a fortune! A fortune, I tell you!"

"I'll buy it!"

"I was first!"

Just as expectations were rising to the heavens—with some even spending their entire fortunes to buy Ocelton before voyages—

"He died."

"Disappeared."

"He was gone when they woke up!"

The captains who bought Ocelton were never seen again. The returning sailors only brought news of their deaths.

"You bastard! I won't let this go!"

The captains' families stormed the merchant who had sold the Ocelton—but what they found was his dried-up corpse, dead so long they couldn't even tell when.

Ironically, the more such horror stories spread, the more nobles paid higher prices to acquire them.

They were naturally rare, and their profound, mysterious luster was unattainable by any other gem.

Since the nobles never went to sea anyway, and paying merchants enough to outweigh the risk wasn't impossible—except that the goods were almost never available.

Sean, who certainly knew all this, clicked his tongue in displeasure.

"That superstitious nonsense is all rubbish."

"Yes, perhaps. As long as you don't take it to sea, it should be fine, shouldn't it? So do as you please. Sell it or don't."

He looked into Alexa's unyielding eyes—showing not a trace of regret.

Feeling inexplicably choked, he slumped back into his seat, gulped down his now-flat beer, and slammed the mug down.

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