Maelstrom - Chapter 3

“Deal. I want a deal, Barbara.”

“With what?”

In response, Barbara also became the sharp-eyed merchant she truly was.

“Nimira’s map and the Siren’s curse.”

“….”

“If you hand over the map to me, I’ll actively help you get rid of the Siren’s curse. What do you think?”

If she could hand over a map that may or may not even exist, one with practically no real presence, and break the Siren’s curse hanging over her in return, it wasn’t exactly a losing deal.

But Barbara couldn’t readily agree. Because she didn’t want to be dragged around by him under the pretext of the curse.

Even from a merchant’s perspective, it wasn’t a very good choice. If she started moving around with an admiral like him, then her dealings with pirates would practically be exposed. Naturally, it was disappointing to lose such a profitable source of amusement.

“I’ll have to think about it.”

That was what she said, but in truth, it was a refusal.

There was no way Ernest wouldn’t realize that.

“Barbara, this isn’t a proposal.”

The cruel admiral was cunning and merciless.

The towel slipped away, and those strangely transparent eyes, frightening in their clarity, drew closer. After glancing once at Barbara’s lips still glistening from their earlier kiss, Ernest passed by them and whispered against her ear.

His hot breath brushed against her sensitive skin.

The ticklish warmth flowing into her ear was enough to make her straighten her waist on reflex.

“It’s an order.”

“….”

But unlike the heated atmosphere, the words he whispered were ice-cold.

Feeling him pinning her hand against the armrest, Barbara listened in silence as his coercive words pressed against her.

“Unless you want to be arrested for illegal dealings with pirates, you’d better do as I say.”

“So in the end, it’s a threat.”

“Let’s call it an order. Hmm? I’m not a gentleman, so I’m not very good at coaxing people. You know that.”

The way he pretended to plead with her was irritating.

But setting aside her personal feelings, Barbara quickly turned things over in her head.

It was a deal she couldn’t avoid. If she had to give something up anyway, then she would do so without hesitation and take something else in return. Wasn’t that what merchants were? People who never did business at a loss.

The way he tried to forcibly suppress her irritated her, but perhaps this was also a good opportunity to fulfill the long-held wish she’d carried for years. No, considering his title of “Hound,” this deal might even be welcome.

Barbara was the sort of woman who could even empty the emperor’s treasury if it meant gaining profit.

“Right, I know. There aren’t many people as stiff as you.”

In more ways than one.

Turning her head to face Ernest, Barbara smiled seductively.

At that smile, the force gripping her hand loosened. She brushed Ernest’s hand away and gently stroked his somewhat softened expression.

“Thanks for understanding.”

Murmuring as he pressed his lips against her palm, Ernest’s cooled temperature quickly heated back up again from that single light gesture.

Barbara rose from the chair and wrapped her arms around Ernest’s neck. Her thin shirt crumpled with a rustling sound.

“There’s a condition instead.”

“Mm.”

As Barbara pressed her body against him, Ernest unhesitatingly slid his hand up along the curve of her back.

He’d missed her so much that Barbara had invaded even his subconscious, appearing in his dreams to tempt him, leaving him spilling messily in both dreams and the reality after waking.

But there was no way that could ever satisfy him. Every day without seeing Barbara had been miserable. It had gotten so bad that merely hearing her name made his lower half react.

So right now, Ernest was on the verge of losing his mind. Just the dull pressure of her body brushing against him was enough to make him feel like he could come immediately.

“Help me.”

“With what?”

Ernest, who had been about to strip Barbara’s shirt off in one motion, paused at her next words.

Without avoiding Ernest’s gaze as he looked at her as if asking what she meant, Barbara took his hand and guided him into undoing her buttons one by one.

“There are two pirates I’m looking for. Help me catch those bastards.”

As the buttons came undone one after another, pale skin like it had been dusted with pearl powder was revealed. The full mounds wrapped in her undergarments swayed like gentle waves with even the slightest movement.

Ernest, who had been forcing himself to quietly admire the sight he wanted to pounce on immediately, asked with jealousy laced in his voice, “Why are you looking for them?”

It felt as though she could hear the unspoken words trailing behind the question.

You tried so hard to run away from me.

Feeling the shirt slipping down beneath her shoulders, Barbara answered, “To kill them.”

Just like Ernest’s towel, Barbara’s shirt also fell carelessly to the floor.

Satisfied by the concise answer filled with hatred, Ernest finally nodded and grabbed Barbara’s breast.

“Gladly.”

And with that permission, Ernest stripped off even Barbara’s underwear before lifting her breast and taking the red fruit into his mouth.

“Haah….”

His wet tongue wrapped around her stiffened nipple. The sensitively awakened nerves welcomed the pleasure soaking into her chest.

Barbara pulled Ernest’s head against her and let out a languid sigh.

No matter how much she pretended otherwise, her heated body wanted him.

The only disappointing thing was that it wasn’t night right now.

For some reason, whenever she took Ernest into her body, the Siren’s curse that only appeared at night no longer tormented her. That was why they usually met in the evening and tangled their bodies together. Since nighttime was when the curse exerted its power, accepting Ernest then made her violently pounding heart return to its proper rhythm as though she’d been injected with a sedative.

Once their intense acts ended, the curse wouldn’t come for her again for several days.

It wasn’t that daytime had no effect at all, but compared to night, the difference was insignificant.

“Don’t worry, Barbara. Since I agreed to help remove your curse, we should make up for everything we’ve missed until now.”

Like a ghost, Ernest instantly noticed Barbara’s concern and declared that he had no intention of letting her go easily.

Undoing the buckle of Barbara’s pants, he laid her down across the table he’d been sitting on earlier. Seeing her curly red hair spread widely over the tabletop, he murmured in admiration, “If I said I hope the curse never disappears, you’d get angry, wouldn’t you?”

“You already know the answer, so why ask?” Barbara lightly brushed over the reddened skin around Ernest’s eyes as she asked back.

“Because I don’t want to be apart from you.”

After removing her pants along with her underwear beneath them, Ernest lowered his body himself.

Spreading Barbara’s legs apart, he let out a strained sound at the sight of her heated pussy. The hidden place glistening with slick fluid seemed to give off a sweet scent.

“It makes me want to kneel in worship to the Siren who cursed you.”

“To a monster that’s already dead?”

“What a shame.”

Propping herself up halfway on her elbows, Barbara looked down at Ernest burying his head between her legs.

Did the pirates know that the immortal monster they feared was actually a man so devoted to eating out a woman beneath him?

Even if they did, nothing would probably change. Maybe they’d simply laugh boisterously and call him a man after all. Of course, at the end of that laughter, they’d still raise their swords intending to butcher him.

Lost in those pointless thoughts, Barbara threw her head back at the sudden sensation that struck without warning.

“Haah…!”

The moment the tongue that had been teasing her nipple moved lower and touched the peak below, a moan escaped her before she could hold it back.

She could vividly feel thick fluid spilling from below as if she’d made some kind of mistake. And she could also clearly feel Ernest greedily drinking it down.

“Maybe because it’s been a while, but you’re sensitive.”

“It’s because you’ve been seducing me this whole time.”

“With this?”

Straightening his body, he deliberately rubbed the head of his cock against her slit as if showing it off. Thick and burning hot, it dug into the parted flesh and slowly traced the long path between her folds.

As both her tightly closed entrance and clit were rubbed at the same time, strength drained from her arms.

“Mmh, yeah. With that.”

Barbara, now lying flat against the table again, moved her hips along with him.

The wet slapping sounds echoed rather loudly through the captain’s cabin. Their swollen heated flesh endlessly spilled precum and slick. Because of that, the slickened path made their movements even easier.

“Ah…. Barbara, I feel like I’m going to come before I even get inside.”

“I think you’re the more sensitive one.”

Their panting breaths tangled together. Ernest barely answered before biting down on Barbara’s lips.

“I’ve always been like this.”

And this time, it was Barbara who invaded his territory. Rubbing against his thin lips, she immediately sought him out.

As the sensation of rubbing together above and below continued, Ernest pressed his lower body even harder against her, and the crushed flesh of her pussy produced a stinging pleasure.

“Mmh….”

A moan rising from her throat slipped out through their locked lips.

Watching Ernest’s tightly shut eyelids, Barbara tried to match the rhythm of his rapidly thrusting hips with movements of her own.

Though instinct had already far overtaken reason, Barbara was still barely holding onto her rationality.

Even amidst the overwhelming pleasure, one question surfaced in her mind.

Why does Ernest want Nimira’s map?

Nimira was the name of an island. It had once been known as such a mysterious place that people called it a legendary island. Rumors claimed that treasures worth enough to buy half the continent were hidden there, on that island that welcomed no human footsteps and could only be reached once the sea route opened.

Because of that, Nimira’s map had once sold for enormous sums in the past. But after people realized the rumors were exaggerated nonsense, the map faded from memory.

So why now?

Why the island of Nimira?

What could possibly be hidden there?

“Barbara, you can do your calculations after this.”

As if he could see straight into her complicated thoughts, Ernest suddenly scolded her for not focusing entirely on what they were doing. Then he abruptly pulled his body back. And before she could even respond, he shoved himself all the way into her loosened dripping hole in a single thrust.

“Ahh!”

As he pierced through her tight entrance and pushed inside, Barbara’s thoughts were cut off completely.