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Chapter 39 - The Decision
🕑 Added 2025-04-30 18:25:29 +0000 UTCGovernor Swann was descending the stairs of his mansion with the servant following behind him.
Upon reaching the ground floor, he saw a well-dressed young man, though with slightly lower-quality clothing, holding a long box under his arm, waiting for him. The young man was handsome and had a certain deep, contemplative look on his face almost all the time.
"Ah, Mr. Turner! It's good to see you again!" The governor said with a friendly smile.
Will stepped forward and returned the smile politely, placing the box he was carrying on the table as he greeted him.
"Good day, sir. I have your order." He spoke, and under the governor's curious gaze, he opened the box, revealing a beautiful, finely crafted sword. Holding it with both hands, he presented it to the governor with a slight bow.
Governor Swann admired the beauty of the sword the moment it was revealed. He brought his hands out from behind his back and took it.
Unsheathing it, even he—who didn't know much about swords—had to admit it was a fine blade.
Will began to explain while the governor examined it.
"The blade is folded steel. That's gold filigree laid into the handle. If I may…" He ended the sentence, extending his hands to ask permission to hold the sword.
The governor simply looked at him and lowered the sword, handing it to Will in silent agreement.
Will took the sword and balanced it on one finger by the blade just after the hilt.
The sword remained still on his finger, showing its perfectly balanced weight.
"Perfectly balanced. The tang is nearly the full width of the blade," He said, trying to hide his pride, then looked at the governor, wanting to see his reaction to the sword.
Seeing the interest in his eyes, satisfied, Will then tossed the sword into the air, startling the governor slightly, before catching it skillfully, spinning it, and returning it gracefully to Governor Swann with a slight bow.
"Impressive... very impressive." The governor took the blade back and admired it a little longer before returning it to its scabbard.
"Commodore Norrington is going to be very pleased with this," He said and smiled faintly at Will, handing the sword back to him.
Will smiled, pleased by the compliment, and prepared to place the sword back in the box.
"Do pass my compliments on to your master," Governor Swann said with a smile, making poor Will freeze slightly.
He lifted his head and looked at the governor, trying to hide the bitterness on his face.
"I shall. A craftsman is always pleased to hear his work is appreciated…" He said with some difficulty, but still managed to disguise it with a weak smile.
The truth was that the work was his, and his master was nothing more than a useless drunkard. But he could get into trouble if he revealed that he, a mere commoner and blacksmith apprentice, had forged the Commodore's sword. Besides, others might not believe him, and if they asked his master, he would certainly take the credit for himself.
So, he was forced to let his worthless master take the honor for his proud work.
But as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the stairs, and he instinctively turned his gaze there, falling involuntarily silent, stunned by the beauty of the woman descending them.
The governor also saw her and smiled more genuinely upon seeing the delicate figure.
"Ah, Elizabeth, you look absolutely stunning." The proud father praised, which drew the girl's attention—she had been focused on descending the stairs and struggling with the shortness of breath from the extremely tight corset.
She smiled back at her father, but then saw the figure beside him.
"Will! So good to see you!" She smiled in surprise at him, and unconsciously brought her hand to the medallion hidden in her neckline.
The medallion that, in truth, belonged to Will.
William Turner just stared at her in awe, unable to say anything properly.
Elizabeth smiled and approached them.
"I had a dream about you last night," She said, recalling the dream she had.
Governor Swann looked worried, displeased by both her gaze and the things Elizabeth was saying.
"A-About me?" Will was also surprised and managed to squeeze out a sentence through his daze.
"Elizabeth, this is hardly appropriate…" Governor Swann interrupted, reminding his daughter of what was appropriate.
He didn’t want his daughter to be embarrassed by getting involved with a blacksmith’s apprentice—not that he disliked young Will, but he doubted Elizabeth would truly be happy in a relationship with someone of such a different social standing.
Ignoring her father, she kept her gaze on Will with a smile.
"About the day we met. Do you remember?" Elizabeth explained what the dream was about and asked.
"How could I forget, Miss Swann?" He replied, looking at her gently. His gaze was clearly filled with love.
"Will, how many times must I ask you to call me 'Elizabeth'?" She smiled and asked again.
She also liked Will—not quite to the point of love, but she had always had a great interest and curiosity about him, believing he was a pirate, or at least of pirate origin, because of the pirate medallion she had found on him.
"At least once more, Miss Swann, as always." But Will didn't dare. Their social statuses were too different.
Elizabeth's face showed slight disappointment at the answer.
She expected Will to be bolder and more daring, as she always imagined his true self to be.
"There, see, at least the boy has a sense of propriety. Now, we really must be going." The governor was pleased with Will's proper response and thought more highly of him, urging his daughter along.
"Good day, Mr. Turner." Disappointed, she no longer smiled and politely bid him farewell before following her father and the servants to leave.
Will followed her with his eyes as she left and took a small step toward the door, watching her get into the carriage.
"Good day… Elizabeth." He said the first part out loud, and the latter quietly, to himself, as the carriage departed.
The last thing he saw was Elizabeth's fleeting glance back at him before she turned to face forward.
…
Days of travel had already passed, and the pirate ship of Puss and Jack was approaching Port Royal.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jack looked oddly at the orange cat who was finishing tying the ropes that bound the entire crew, who stared at them pitifully with their black eyes and some claw marks from the beating they received before ending up in this position.
"They are not good people and are full of sins. They're not even as good as you, Jack." Puss said, finishing the knot, unfazed by the pleading eyes of the crew.
"Are you complimenting me or not?" Jack looked at him, confused, but Puss just smiled at him.
"They're still lucky. I could have killed them, but I'm only handing them over to the authorities, gracias to the fact they helped us get here." Puss smiled.
"Sure, sure, now they'll just be imprisoned, and then hanged for piracy—that gives them, what, a few more days of life?" Jack said ironically, taking a swig of rum.
But his words made Puss freeze. He had forgotten that part.
Scratching his head, he grew confused about what to do.
"What do you think we should do, then?" Puss looked at Jack, unsure.
"Let them go?" Jack shrugged and suggested.
"But won't they do evil if we let them go? Why would I trade innocent lives for the lives of pirates who will just take those innocent lives?" Puss frowned, dissatisfied with the answer.
Jack pondered and thought it made sense—but he didn't really care. In this life, he only cared about himself.
Puss furrowed his brows slightly, and even with the pleading cries of the pirates, claiming they would never do harm again, he was unmoved.
"Okay, my greatest act of mercy is not killing you right now. Now everything will depend on your luck after you're imprisoned. You chose to be pirates and knew the risks, so now accept the consequences." Puss said firmly, locking eyes with each one of them.
He would not cower before the eyes of those whose fate he was deciding. Puss didn't know if there was any innocent among them, but if there was, it was simply bad luck.
At the very least, when they tried to kill him, he saw no innocent faces.
"Well, if that's your decision," Jack said, grabbing a few bottles of rum and placing them in the ship's dinghy, according to the plan they had agreed on.
"Jack, lock the ship's heading toward the coast and lower the sail intensity. We don't want it causing damage or hurting anyone due to its speed. Then aim for places with no people or boats. After that, come down with Tornado in the dinghy." Puss ordered Jack, pulling a cloak over his body.
"Hey! I'm the captain!" Jack protested, annoyed at being given orders.
"And I'm the guy helping you get your ship back and paying for your rum." Puss said, covering his head with the hood of the cloak.
Jack raised both index fingers to argue, but his nose twitched as no good counter came to mind, so he lowered them in defeat.
Resigned, he went to do what Puss asked, grumbling.
Puss approached Tornado, who was standing there beside him, slightly dispirited.
He jumped onto the railing to be higher and got beside him.
Patting the horse's neck, he smiled helplessly.
"Lo siento, mi amigo. I know you miss running free, and you've been stuck on this ship for a month. But you just have to hold on a little longer. It won't be long now." Puss said, patting the horse's neck again.
"Snort!" The horse just snorted and nodded its head up and down, reluctantly accepting with its big eyes.
Then Puss's eyes focused on the distance, where the shadow of a large island began to appear.
'Port Royal… we've arrived!'
