Tail’s Curse Chapter 15

“Besides, that girl may call herself a commoner, but her bloodline is completely different from ours. They say her real father is a high-ranking duke!”  

 

“Oh dear. Seems there’s nothing we can compare to.”  

 

Miss Brandy, her face flushed red, shouted:  

 

“You sound just like my mother! Just wait and see! I’ll prove myself in the capital, no matter what!”  

 

“That’ll only be possible once you receive a marriage proposal from the famous Sir Noah Tudor.”  

 

The laughter grew louder. Even the toothless old woman cackled, making Miss Brandy seem pitiable. 

 

Cordelia, feeling sorry for her, finally spoke up with difficulty.

 

“Miss Brandy is always so positive and adorable. I’m sure she’ll succeed in whatever she does.”  

 

“At best, she’ll end up a maid.”  

 

“Thank you, Cordel.”  

 

The simple-minded Miss Brandy pretended not to hear the sarcasm and quickly changed the subject, chattering about the glamorous life in the capital, scandals, and handsome men. 

 

Of course, the main topic was the great hero, Sir Noah Tudor.  

 

She praised his noble lineage, immense wealth, and the achievements he earned himself despite his privileged background—his merits as an admiral, his astonishing talents as the head of Raven Bank, and more. 

 

Though these tales, like heroic epics, were surely exaggerated, Cordelia, then deeply fascinated by Katisha, listened with interest.  

 

Strictly speaking, even among nobles, he seemed to live in a completely different world. 

 

Well, the gap was as vast as heaven and earth. Someone living that life would never understand the struggles of hunger, violence, debt, or the constant fear of not knowing when death might come.  

 

So, was she envious? Hmm… 

 

She didn’t know. The difference was so unrealistically overwhelming that no reaction came to mind except awe.  

 

“How would it feel to be loved by someone like that? Can you even imagine?”  

 

Cordelia shook her head. No, not at all.  

 

“Ha, just seeing that handsome face up close would be a dream come true.”  

 

Just then—BANG!—the ship lurched violently. 

 

Luggage tumbled, and the old woman staggered, tripping over her feet. Cordelia quickly caught her, startled, and turned to the commotion outside. 

 

Amid panicked screams and shouts, someone’s ominous cry rang out.  

 

“D-disaster! Pirates! Pirates are here!”  

 

“What? Pirates?”

 

As they say, words become seeds. 

 

Everyone turned pale and sought divine help. 

 

The deck thudded loudly, and as the echoing shouts sent people into a frenzied panic, chaos erupted. Her heart sank violently. 

 

Cordelia hurriedly gathered her belongings, shoved jeje into her bag, then with trembling hands, searched for her medicine and gulped it down. 

 

If she had a seizure now, she’d be as good as dead—even without the pirates’ hands finishing her off. Was there even a doctor here who could look after her?  

 

“Everyone, hide!”  

 

“Where do we go? What are the navy doing?!”  

 

“Help us!”  

 

“Stay calm, passengers! Please remain in your seats quietly! Damn it, don’t come up!”  

 

A crew member, snarling curses as he blocked the stairs in front of the protesting passengers, suddenly had a bullet hole appear in his forehead. 

 

As the corpse tumbled down, the passengers who had been squabbling in panic flinched and backed away. 

 

In an instant, everyone fell silent, and a heavy stillness descended.  

 

How much time had passed? Two hours? Five? 

 

The ominous clamor outside—curses, screams, gunfire, and the clashing of weapons—faded into an uneasy silence. 

 

When a pale-faced crew member staggered down, everyone brightened for a moment—only to freeze again at the sight of the gun barrel pressed against his back.  

 

“No foolish moves. Only the women, come up.”  

 

“W-what is the meaning of this?! Do you think the Imperial Army or the Admiralty will stand for this?!”  

 

A gentleman protested, but the armed man only scoffed.  

 

“Of course, all hell will break loose. But you’ll all be dead before that happens.”  

 

He brandished his gun at the shuddering crowd. Do you want to die now, instead of in a few days? 

 

Whimpers of terror spread like wildfire. 

 

Cordelia felt detached from reality. As she numbly climbed the stairs with the other terrified women, she thought about how one shocking event after another had piled up over the past few days.  

 

It was as if, after enduring a tolerable stretch of dull misery, a barrage of violent stimuli had come crashing down.

 

And of course, none of it had anything to do with good fortune.  

 

Was misfortune really following me?

 

After mustering every last ounce of courage in her cowardly life to come this far before dying, it felt unbearably unfair for it to end like this. 

 

Out of all the countless ships, why did hers have to be the one attacked? More than fear, she resented the world so much it brought tears to her eyes.  

 

“Just obey, and nothing will happen to you.”  

 

Cordelia knew words like those all too well. And she also knew that if she simply obeyed, she’d end up doing nothing but obeying until the very end.  

 

When she stepped onto the deck, she saw noblewomen and wealthy women from first class being dragged out among the others. 

 

Their crumpled dresses and tear-streaked, ruined makeup made their pitiful pale faces resemble tropical birds with wings broken in a storm.  

 

“Only unmarried young women aged 16 or older, step forward.”  

 

Everyone’s faces turned pale. That alone told her exactly what filthy, disgusting things they were planning. 

 

Noticing their reaction, a tanned pirate smirked and said,  

 

“Don’t worry, it’s not what you’re imagining. Well, you’ll be sold as slaves, so I guess it’s not that different.”  

 

“How dare you! Do you know who we are?!”  

 

“His Majesty will not stand for this!”  

 

As one noblewoman shrieked sharply, he licked his lips and clicked his tongue.  

 

“Then state the names of your families—those who can pay your ransom. The ones who pay the fastest will be released first.”  

 

Mixed emotions erupted. The upper-class women, frozen in fear, sighed in relief, while those without wealthy families to pay their ransom looked as if they had been cast into hell. 

 

Half would return home, the other half would become slaves.  

 

Listening to Miss Brandy’s stifled sobs, Cordelia stayed silent.  

 

State her family’s name? Would her father—who had attacked his own niece and whose daughter had fled—really pay her ransom? 

 

If he had the money, he’d waste it on gambling rather than saving a useless child. No, he probably didn’t even have the money to begin with.  

 

‘The family’s only wealth is all right here.’  

 

Cordelia looked down at the paper where she was supposed to write her name and origin and smiled bitterly.  

 

How fitting. A perfect way to reconfirm her own wretchedness.  

 

If she was just going to flee all this way only to be sold as a slave, what had she resisted for in the first place?  

 

Yet, absurdly, she felt no regret. Even if she were to go back, she knew she would do the same thing again.  

 

In the end, Cordelia wrote only her first name—leaving out her surname.  

 

“What’s this? Why didn’t you write your family name?”

 

As the pirate checking each person’s identity one by one asked, all eyes turned to her. In the suffocating air, she replied with an eerie calmness that even she found strange.  

 

“I don’t have a family name.”  

 

Could this be called detachment? Or perhaps resignation—giving up.  

 

Naturally, the other party grew angry. Gripping Cordelia’s chin, he turned her face side to side and sneered.  

 

“No family name? Are you a gypsy?”  

 

“I’m an Imperial.”  

 

“An Imperial with no family name? That doesn’t make sense. Hey, if the ransom isn’t paid, you’ll be just another item in the slave market in a week. Got it?”  

 

Staggering from the unpleasant jabs of fingers poking her shoulder and forehead, she clenched her teeth. 

 

Of course, she wanted to cling to something—but so what? Even if she wrote down the name of that hollow family, all she’d hear were whispers about how it was a worthless house that abandoned its own daughter. 

 

And after finally escaping, did she really want her family to know how miserably she’d ended up just to be mocked? 

 

More than anything—did she really need official confirmation that she’d been ‘discarded’? The result would be the same anyway.  

 

The man, eyeing her silence, laughed as his gaze slid over her with disgusting intent. 

 

Cordelia already knew what that sticky look meant. A rough hand groped toward her waist.  

 

“Well, suit yourself. That pretty face will sell well. Or… how about you and I have some fun first?”  

 

Biting down on her tongue to suppress the rising disgust, she tasted blood. 

 

Compared to all the humiliation she’d endured so far, this was nothing—yet strangely, it felt harder to bear. Maybe her family was right—maybe she really had gone mad from a deathly illness.  

 

“Oho, feisty. Haha, look at those eyes!”