The two days aboard the Golden Dream had been unusually peaceful.
Still, Lorne kept feeling a faint, scrutinizing gaze fall on him from time to time.
He casually glanced toward its source out of the corner of his eye and spotted an unexpected "acquaintance."
It was a man with brilliant blond hair and a rather devil-may-care air. He was none other than Anderson, whom Lorne had briefly met aboard that passenger ship that had suffered a disaster at sea.
Anderson? What was he doing on this ship?
Just as Lorne was puzzling over this, Cattleya silently appeared beside him and called him aside.
"What is it?" Lorne asked.
"Be careful." Cattleya looked at the blond man's retreating back in the distance. "That man is no good."
"Anderson Hood is a treasure hunter."
"A treasure hunter?"
"Yes, and a bounty hunter as well." Cattleya nodded and continued, "Some people even call him the Strongest Hunter."
"I didn't expect him to turn up on Vice Admiral Iceberg's ship."
The Strongest Hunter... That guy must be pretty powerful, Lorne thought.
"With the captain here, he probably won't do anything out of line, right?" Lorne asked uncertainly.
Cattleya pushed up her glasses and said evenly, "The two of them might well be in league."
That... probably wasn't the case, right?
Seeing the disbelief written all over Lorne's face, Cattleya added, "The world at sea is far more dangerous than you imagine.
"You trust people too easily."
By that logic, aren't you pretty suspicious yourself? Lorne silently retorted.
She paused briefly before continuing, "If you run into a problem you can't solve, you can come to me."
"Oh..." Lorne nodded.
"Good."
Cattleya adjusted her glasses, apparently satisfied with his response, then turned and left.
*Strange... Why did she seem so hostile toward the captain? Was