The Blonde Maid noticed nothing unusual behind her. All her attention was firmly fixed on the black suitcase before her.
She walked over to it, crouched down, and undid its clasps with the excitement of someone about to discover whether she had won a prize.
Click.
The lid slowly opened. Curled up inside was a man's corpse, its eyes wide open, its face still bearing traces of agony and terror,
and it came into view before her.
Though she was nominally a maid, she was still someone who made her living aboard this pirate ship. She had long since grown accustomed to blood and death. Rather than feeling the slightest fear at the sight of the corpse, she began examining it with interest.
Looking at the expression twisted into something almost savage by extreme pain, she even showed a flicker of genuine delight. Looks like he suffered quite a bit before he died.
Serves him right!
She reached out and poked the corpse's cold, stiff cheek with a disgusted finger.
Still, looking closer, he wasn't bad-looking. Deep-set eyes, a high nose bridge-a typical Loen man, clearly.
So this was the face he used to lure the captain? That damned homewrecker!
The thought that the captain might have caressed this face with the same hands that had caressed her kindled an uncontrollable blaze of jealousy and anger in the Blonde Maid's heart.
How should I get rid of this eyesore of a corpse?
She stood and began pacing around the room, considering her options.
Throw him straight into the sea to feed the fish? No, that would be letting him off too easily.
Or should I chop him up and burn him?
Just as the Blonde Maid was racking her brains over which way of disposing of the corpse would best