Holly herself did not know whether what she truly missed was the food from back then...
or the people she had been with.
She let out a long sigh.
"Ah... life as a rich person really is boring."
When Holly had been given two privileges to choose from, she had selected her starting location and social status.
Who could have imagined that after entering this competition world, she would become the only daughter of the Lord of Esca City?
Within the aristocratic circles of Esca City, her status stood at the absolute top.
And Holly’s family was far from ordinary.
Generations of her family had produced commanders within the naval forces, as well as governors stationed in cities across the kingdom.
Several senior members of the family also held positions in both the Upper House and the Lower House.
They were an old and deeply rooted noble house of the Heller Kingdom.
Even compared to the royal family, they were hardly inferior.
Holly’s daily life was practically no different from that of a princess.
All she needed to do every day was enjoy the finest ingredients and delicacies.
Her clothes were personally tailored by the kingdom’s finest craftsmen using rare and precious materials.
Even the cloth she casually used to wipe her hands was woven from exceedingly rare silk.
One could say that every aspect of Holly’s life was a luxury ordinary people could only dream of.
Yet none of it made her happy.
Even if she had truly been a princess of the kingdom, she would have been too lazy to think about something like a political marriage.
Strangely enough, her parents had no objections to that whatsoever.
If anything, they seemed eager to pamper her until she became an unmarried noblewoman well past the usual age of marriage.
For an ordinary person, such a life would undoubtedly be considered unbelievably fortunate.
They might even wonder whether they had saved the entire world in their previous life.
But Holly had already grown tired of everything.
She only wanted to finish the competition as quickly as possible.
Though, truthfully...
whether she completed it or not did not matter that much.
If there were something delicious enough to make her truly happy, she would not trade it even for first place.
Holly sighed in frustration.
"Ah... Guild Leader John, when are you finally coming?"
The maid standing beside her could not understand.
"Why is the young lady so unhappy?"
"She is living a life most people could spend their entire existence dreaming about."
"How could she possibly have worries?"
"Aren’t worries supposed to belong only to ordinary people?"
"So even the young lady can have them..."
The maid genuinely envied Holly.
If she herself could live such a life, she felt that even dying tomorrow would be worth it.
...
Meanwhile.
Within the Seal Kingdom, at the headquarters of the Dragonfang Pirates...
a battered little boat slowly approached Pirate Island from the distance.
Standing proudly aboard it was a single figure.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman—
yet one who radiated an unmistakable sense of danger.
Almost every word in existence associated with beauty could be used to describe her.
And yet somehow, even those words seemed almost disrespectful when applied to her.
She possessed the face of an angel and an aura capable of captivating the heart.
Any ordinary man who saw her would probably find it impossible to look away.
She could make hearts race with nothing more than her presence.
But she was also terrifyingly dangerous.
More dangerous than the monsters lurking in the deepest parts of the sea.
More violent than the fiercest storms and waves.
Even within the Dragonfang Pirates, where powerful fighters were everywhere, there was not a single man capable of withstanding one of her punches.
She was the legendary powerhouse of the Dragonfang Pirates—
Serra.
The two privileges Serra had chosen were Background and Skill.
Her exclusive skill had granted her overwhelming strength.
How powerful was she?
Powerful enough that within the Dragonfang Pirates—the largest pirate faction in the entire Seal Kingdom—she could effortlessly become one of its strongest fighters.
And she had only used one percent of her true ability.
At this moment, Serra slowly sailed her small boat toward Pirate Island.
Traces of gunpowder smoke stained her appearance, giving her beauty an even wilder and more untamed edge.
It only made the surrounding men even more fascinated.
Unfortunately for them...
Serra was not some playful little wildcat.
She was a wolf capable of devouring people alive.
At the harbor, the gathered pirates looked toward Serra with complicated expressions.
Her admirers and pursuers stared at her with concern.
Others, however, could not hide their schadenfreude.
"Ha!"
"Did our Wild Rose fail this time?"
"Looks like it."
"She came back alone."
"The several hundred men she took with her are nowhere to be seen."
"She probably failed the raid."
"I told you already!"
"Women aren’t suited to being pirates."
"The pirate business belongs to men!"
"Wait!"
"What’s that?!"
One pirate suddenly pointed toward a tiny black dot appearing behind Serra.
The wind was currently favorable.
The black dot rapidly approached the island, growing larger and larger.
When it finally became fully visible...
every pirate watching was stunned.
It was a massive ship!
A large-masted warship.
It had once been a main battleship of the Seal Kingdom before being retired and transferred to a merchant guild for use as an armed merchant vessel.
The massive warship carried ninety-seven cannons.
It was equipped with three different types of artillery—
high-arc cannons, heavy high-arc cannons, and conventional heavy cannons.
Its firepower was formidable.
But behind the massive warship...
was a heavily damaged pirate sailing ship being towed through the water.
And behind that were several armed merchant ships.
It was an entire fleet.
An armed merchant fleet!
Serra had sailed out with only several hundred men...
and returned with an entire fleet.
"This..."
"Am I dreaming?"
"How did she do that?"
"That fleet alone must have several thousand people aboard!"
"She left with only a few hundred men!"
"How the hell did she capture an entire fleet?"
"That’s impossible!"
"I can’t understand it either."
"This makes no sense!"
"It’s practically a miracle!"
The pirates at the harbor stared dumbfounded at the complete fleet appearing behind Serra.
Then someone suddenly reacted.
"Wait!"
"If she accomplished something like this, doesn’t Wild Rose already meet the qualifications to become one of our leaders?"
"Qualifications to become a leader?"
"Are you an idiot?"
"With an achievement like this, she could compete for the position of Captain of the entire Dragonfang Pirates!"
"That’s right!"
"Among our seven leaders, which one of them could possibly capture a fleet this large?"
"Each leader only commands a few medium-sized warships at most!"
"Wild Rose has captured a large warship and several medium-sized armed merchant vessels!"
"With that kind of force..."
"She is definitely the strongest individual faction within the Dragonfang Pirates!"
The pirates stared with wide eyes.
"This..."
"Wouldn’t she be the first female leader in the history of our pirate crew?"
"Think bigger."
"With Wild Rose’s current strength..."
"She might even become the first female Captain in our history."
...
Meanwhile—
within the Seahorse Kingdom.
Aboard the Dawn Battleship of the First Naval Corps.
The Dawn Battleship was one of the Seahorse Kingdom’s battleships comparable to a Heller-class warship.
In other words—
a true battleship-class vessel.
It was an enormous monster of the sea.
The ship was gigantic, equipped with hundreds of cannons, and staffed by more than three thousand personnel.
At this moment, all three thousand naval soldiers and sailors stood in perfectly ordered formations.
They were waiting to welcome their newly appointed captain.
Two senior officers stood side by side.
Their bodies were as straight as spears, though their lips moved slightly as they quietly conversed.
"I’m guessing our new captain must be some veteran admiral with decades of naval experience."
A scar-faced officer spoke in a low voice.
"Only an old general like that would be worthy of commanding our ship."