Hoist the Colors Ch. 27 (Mobuseka) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Further discussion is had.

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“The Kingdom of Holfort can stuff it.”

Dorothea’s frankly treasonous words sit in the air for a long moment as Earl Roseblade sits back down rather heavily. Her father is as quiet as the rest of the table, letting her statement have all the room in the world to stand on its own and take up space in the dining room.

Truthfully, Leon might have offered some sort of rejoinder himself, just like he’d already tried to… but he’s still reeling a bit from Deirdre’s reveal. What was with these blonde noblewomen constantly declaring their undying affection for him? Angelica and Olivia were one thing… Carla wasn’t blonde nor did she actually love him. But Deirdre?

All he’d done was rescue her on Angelica’s orders! One good deed didn’t undo the years of piracy he’d engaged in against her family! And it certainly shouldn’t have had Deirdre dropping her panties right then and there like he was the only man in the entire world for her!

Surely there were better options. She just wasn’t thinking clearly… given more time, she’d probably come to her senses, right?

Of course, the problem with that is… Deirdre won’t have the chance to come to her senses if her father disowns her and her sister. At this point that seems all but inevitable too. The Earl will have no choice no matter how much he loves his daughters. In fact, it will be because he loves his daughters that he will disown them, in order to keep them as well as their House at least partially safe from the consequences of their own actions.

He has to, after all he-

“You’re right.”

Wait, what? Leon does a double take as the Earl finally breaks his silence. Not to disown Dorothea and Deirdre as Leon was expecting, but rather to express his agreement with Dorothea’s treason.

“The Kingdom of Holfort can stuff it.”

Leon chokes on his own spit. Fortunately he’s not the only one caught off guard by the Earl’s words. There are wide eyes and agape mouths all around the table. Not even the man’s daughters expected to hear their father express rebellious thoughts against the Crown.

But the Earl just takes their slack jawed expressions in with an even gaze of his own… and shrugs.

“The Crown has been unreliable for quite some time now. This latest travesty is just the last in a long line of grievances that the nobility of Holfort have against our Royal Family. That we couldn’t count upon them against pirates of all things… and pirates funded by another Noble House no less… it shows just how bad things have gotten. So perhaps it’s time to stop relying on the Kingdom… and indeed, perhaps it's time to stop considering them altogether.”

Dorothea slowly sits down in her chair, seeming quite suddenly out of her depth. She wanted Nicks as her husband… and that was the extent of her rebellious desires. Leon can see that she certainly didn’t anticipate this.

Deirdre on the other hand…

“You’re right, father. And so is Dorothea. Where was the Kingdom when we needed them the most? Absent… as they always have been. The fact of the matter was we were saved from certain humiliation and the enslavement of our people… by Sky Pirates. Because nobody else came to our aid. And that’s because the Crown is so dysfunctional. As Lady Angelica has experienced firsthand.”

Angelica jolts as all eyes turn towards her at the mere mention of her name. Blinking owlishly, the blonde furrows her brow.

“I’m sorry? I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Deirdre looks confused right back.

“You have been a victim of the Crown’s excesses, Lady Angelica. The Prince setting you aside for a Viscount’s daughter was an utter travesty. The fact that you were the one punished and disgraced for everything that happened was a distorted mockery of what should have happened.”

Staring with wide eyes as Deirdre speaks, Angelica swallows and slowly shakes her head.

“I… I don’t know if I consider that the fault of the Crown. Or even that of Prince Julius. He was taken in by that hussy Marie, yes… but I surely bear some responsibility for failing to keep her away from him. The King and Queen cannot be blamed for my failures nor for that gold digging woman’s wiles getting the better of me, surely!”

Here, Leon feels obligated to step in.

“No, Angelica.”

As she looks to him with wide eyes, he looks right back at her.

“You are not to blame for anything that happened there. You certainly aren’t to blame for the actions of the moronic and small-minded. And frankly, that Marie girl is only partially to blame as well. The Prince and his friends all have their own free wills. They made their choices and damn the consequences. It wasn’t your fault.”

Leon speaks with a soul-deep certainty that makes Angelica’s breath hitch in response. But to be fair, he really believes every word he’s saying. Funnily enough, if this were the original otome game he’d played so much back on Earth, Angelica probably would bear some responsibility for her own disgrace.

In the game, Angelica had quickly stepped into the role of the villainess and tried to engage in all sorts of underhanded actions to get her fiancé away from the protagonist. It was fair to say that the things Game Angelica had done had played a large role in her eventual downfall.

But this wasn’t the game world. This was its own reality where things had gone very differently. For one, the protagonist was standing in this very room acting as Angelica’s maid. Olivia should have been the one to inadvertently seduce Julius and his friends into breaking their engagements, but she’d been usurped by this Marie Fou Lafan girl.

From everything Angelica and Olivia had said, having each other had led to Angelica being much less… aggressive and malicious in her efforts to save her betrothal to the Prince. That she’d still been treated like ‘the problem’ and ultimately banished to Tortuga… well, it just went to show the world was a supremely unfair place.

In the end, the Kingdom of Holfort was rotten to its core. But that didn’t mean…

“Captain Bartfort has the right of it Lady Redgrave. And the Prince setting you aside was not the root of the problem… it was merely a symptom of the disease. The King and Queen have failed the Kingdom. Holfort is a decaying husk of its once glorious self. And if we cannot rely on them… we must rely on one another instead.”

Angelica looks bewildered and flustered, clearly taken aback by everyone absolving her of any blame regarding her failed betrothal. Especially when one of the people doing so is an Earl. Leon, on the other hand, narrows his eyes at Dorothea and Deirdre’s father, frowning most severely.

“It sounds like you think this is some sort of rebellion in the making, Earl Roseblade.”

The older man arches a brow at him.

“Is it not? We sit here around this table and not a single one of us does not have a grievance against Holfort and the Crown. Should we continue to pretend like they have our loyalty? That’s rather rich coming from you, Captain.”

Leon scoffs in turn.

“I pretend no such thing. I am a Sky Pirate, Earl Roseblade. I hold no loyalty to your Kingdom. We came to your aid because the Winged Sharks were engaging in slavery, which is against the Pirate’s Code. But we are still pirates… not rebels.”

Earl Roseblade frowns at that, looking slightly taken aback by the mention of a Pirate’s Code. Really, Leon is just letting everyone know about it these days isn’t he? But at least the Earl doesn’t know-

“That’s not really your decision to make, is it Captain Bartfort? After all, you’re not the Pirate King anymore. Should it not fall to your Pirate Queen to decide whether you’re in open rebellion against the Crown or not?”

Leon slowly turns his eyes towards Dorothea, who sits there looking back at him with a sort of icy smugness that makes him wish Nicks had never saved the damn bitch. Oh sure, he still should have killed his Captain the moment he found out Blackbeard was in league with the Winged Sharks, but damn if Leon doesn’t wish he’d pushed Dorothea overboard right afterwards. It would save him all the headaches the noblewoman has caused him.

Of course, the real problem is… she’s right. And for a heart stopping moment Leon regrets just telling Angelica she had nothing to blame herself for, especially as he worries that she’ll actually go along with this insanity. Silence falls as more and more eyes turn towards the ‘Pirate Queen’, even Earl Roseblade eventually figuring out who his eldest daughter is talking about.

Angelica sits frozen like a deer caught in headlights for a long moment… before finally shaking her head.

“N-No… I’m sorry, but no. That title… I only took the title of ‘Pirate Queen’ upon myself to control the ruffians and scoundrels that call Tortuga their home. By forcing myself into their command structure, I’ve been able to hold Tortuga as my father commanded me. But I am still a loyal daughter of House Redgrave and my father is still a Duke of the Kingdom of Holfort. I can’t just… I’m sorry, I can’t just start a rebellion for all of you.”

Thank fucking God. Leon can’t help but be relieved… only for Angelica to keep talking.

“B-But that doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas for how to handle all of this. Because I do. I think… I have a solution.”

Tensing up again, Leon watches carefully along with everyone else as Angelica folds her hands in her lap and squares her shoulders.

“It’s simple enough… we merely fabricate a bit of a story in which Nicks here was discovered among the Winged Sharks as a prisoner o-or a slave. You can even tell a bit of the truth and say Dorothea was captured for a time and forced to labor alongside him until he managed to get them both out so they could escape together in the fighting. That way you can still keep Lady Dorothea as your heir but also let her marry Nicks, since he will technically be Lord Bartfort as the only ‘living’ male of his House.”

Blinks are had all around the table at the simple yet also elegant solution. Dorothea looks particularly pleased while Nicks… Nicks looks as though he’s contemplating the idea. And indeed, after a moment he nods.

“I could renounce any and all claims to House Bartfort and say it was a consequence of my time as a prisoner making me feel like I am… unfit to lead a Noble House. I can take on the name of Roseblade as well, to quiet any dissent or complaints. Let that hag in the Capital have the name Bartfort if she wants it. Leon has ‘tarnished’ it plenty anyways with his escapades.”

Heh, true enough. And it looked as though Nicks was coming around to being Dorothea’s man. Interesting, that…

“Yes, and in the meantime… Deirdre can act as House Roseblade’s liaison to Port Paix. I cannot promise you that you will be Leon’s second wife… but I can promise you the opportunity to try and earn a position at our sides, Lady Deirdre.”

Leon blinks as Deirdre perks up. Oh goddamnit… did Angelica’s solution have to include that bit? On the one hand, he should be able to mostly dodge Deirdre’s advances if they’re back on Tortuga… home field advantage and all of that. On the other hand, if Deirdre went through Angelica, he wouldn’t be able to dodge her forever…

Of course, all of this was still contingent on one thing… or rather, one man. As Angelica’s ideas hang in the air, all eyes turn towards Earl Roseblade. The man had already made it clear he would rather rebel than disown his daughters, but if he didn’t agree to this new plan or found it faulty in some way, it would make it difficult to pull off. They would need his help to smooth over the rough edges of Angelica’s idea.

Brow furrowed in serious contemplation; the Earl seems to consider Angelica’s proposal for a time. Long enough that the silence begins to grow awkward, uncomfortable, and a bit tense. But finally… he nods.

“I suppose it’s the best of a set of bad options, isn’t it? House Roseblade will still take a bit of a hit, but not nearly as bad of one as we would have if Nicks Bartfort was known to be a Sky Pirate. Fortunately he doesn’t have the reputation of his brother, so this plan of yours should work. And I can leverage any guilt or shame, even manufactured, over not being able to come to our aid to keep anyone from looking too closely into matters.”

Then, he sighs.

“Of course, there’s still the issue of House Offrey. They’ve been bloodied quite a bit by their failure here, especially if Stephanie Offrey is dead. However, they have not been properly punished. I want to see them attainted for their actions and with the pirates my men should have captured, we can probably get enough confessions to bring the evidence before the Crown. However… our demands might bring just the sort of scrutiny on to us and our plan that we do not want at a time like this.”

Leon sees the problem. Push for House Offrey to be justifiably punished for their crimes… and risk having the Kingdom look more closely at just how House Roseblade was saved and whether Nicks was really a prisoner of the Winged Sharks or not all this time. Don’t push and everything will go smoothly, but House Offrey will mostly get away with it…

It’s obvious Earl Roseblade is fishing for advice here. But truth be told, even Leon isn’t entirely sure what to tell the man at this point.

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m08bxH9_a6jDKPcE8gmrMyTQtrW3ASBlc1dlT8EmmG4/edit?tab=t.0