Volume 0 Chapter 7 - Demise of the Expeditionary Fleet (2/2)

“Eh? Pirate nee-san, don’t leave! I can give you anything else!”

“I’m not a pervert, what else can you give me?”

Bella gulped when she looked at the princess’ explosive body; sadly she was a girl and couldn’t do anything to her even if she had wanted to.

“If you help me… I’ll stay by your side until my father ransoms me.”

Actually Alf Dolores had ran away from her home to escape an arranged marriage. Her father had disliked her, as she was not of pure demon descent; and had arranged for her to be married to the crown prince of the Mephyr Empire, Mephyr Derek, in order to obtain some political benefits.

This crown prince was a renowned playboy in the four demon empires, and Dolores naturally did not want to marry him, so she ran away from home.

“No, I have morals too; I don’t take people, only money. I’m a pirate not a human trafficker!”

“Miss Pirate, if you help me I can promise you anything!” Dolores was panicking, afraid that Bella might actually leave.

“Oh well, I’ll take some losses this time…” Bella wasn’t cold-hearted enough to leave Dolores, after she saw that tears were forming in her eyes. She decided to lend her a hand.

“Felia! This is your last chance, get away from the demon. Don’t get tempted by the devil!” It was Nicholas’ turn to panic as he saw that Bella was actually going to help Dolores. He knew that the demon princess’ power was at least on par with that of the dragon knight Shawn, and if her seal was removed her first target would be himself.

“I’m nothing more than a mere pirate, things like holy knights are none of my concern, get out of my sight if you don’t want to die.”, Bella walked up to Dolores’ side and studied the flashing golden cross in front of her chest. It was probably key to whatever was sealing her power. It was a question of how she wore it as a necklace in the first place.

“Are you mad, woman? This demon sealing cross was personally blessed by the pope, Croft VI, it is not something that a holy knight whose soul has been lost can so casually desecrate…”, Nicholas almost laughed when he saw Bella reach towards the cross attached to the necklace, but his words were cut short by what happened next.

Bella easily pulled the cross of the necklace on Dolores’ neck. She then turned around and crushed the cross into powder.

“Oi, mister archbishop! I think your cross is a fake. It seems that the church is rather short on funds if they are giving their archbishops such useless equipment.”

“You,… remember this!”, Nicholas flew back to his warship when he saw Bella easily destroy the demon sealing cross that he had been so confident in, and once Dolores recovered her power she definitely wouldn’t let him return to the church alive.

“Why did you let him go? This human doesn’t look like one to be able to put down his grudges, aren’t you scared that he will trouble you after he gets back?”, Dolores easily broke through the sealing array on the ground, if it wasn’t for the demon sealing cross she would have been able to break through it long ago.

“Why would I let him go? That guy doesn’t even realize that his ship had already been taken.” Bella pounced on Dolores and pushed her to the ground while saying this, just as Dolores was about to question, a large explosion rang throughout the sea. The ship that Nicholas had just boarded had been broken into two pieces by the force of the explosion, one piece had already sunk and the other was inside an inferno.

Nicholas had stored quite a bit of strong alcohol on his ship, Bella had already let Mia and Angel board his ship to turn the alcohol into an explosive compound before she boarded the demon’s ship. They had been waiting for Nicholas to return to his death. The archbishop never suspected that his ship would be tampered with, and was killed on the spot by the explosion.

Dolores looked at the sunken ships in the distance, then looked around her. The remainder of the human fleet that had surrounded them was now fleeing, many of their number were now either enveloped in fire or sinking. The one who had done all of this, Bella, was standing right beside her observing her accomplishments. At this point Dolores felt as if she wasn’t the demon here.

“Pirate sister, how did you do it?”

“It’s a secret of the trade! Take care, I’m going to take my leave…”

“Can I ask something of you please?”

“What is it?”

“Take me with you!”

___

After quite a while, the dragon knight Shawn finally made it back to see the remains of the fleet, and the demons’ ship had long left. This naval battle later became the spark that lit the fuse for the eighth Human-Demon war. Humans lost four holy knights including Felia and the two that were thrown overboard, and an archbishop along with several thousand capable seamen.

On the demons’ side they had lost the 3rd princess of the Alfred Empire, Alf Dolores, whose location was currently unknown. According to the surviving demons who had managed to flee before Bella arrived, the Church of Light’s archbishop had already boarded their ship. It was most probable that the princess had already met her unfortunate demise.

Although some of the human sailors claimed that they also saw a female holy knight, when the Church sent Archbishop Stanley to investigate, they all simultaneously changed their claims and nothing ever came of it.