?"How long until we get to the frozen port bridge?"


    "In a few minutes captain. I believe that we should be seeing their ship any moment from now".


    "Okay, take the wheel" Marcus lit up his churchwarden pipe and smoke it, before he moved to theid his hands on the handle of the ship, and rxed his body upon it.


    "Hey, Great! Can you help me remember what our mission is again?" He asked, looking at his second inmand who is currently steering the ship amidst the horrid waves.


    After passing through the storm that divided the other half of the Cryptic Sea from the wrath of the dreaded Moonlight''s ice, and fighting away the mutated sea beast, Marcus who was a terrible smoker could feel a huge headache at the back of his head when he smoked the other night to relieve his stress.


    In short, he truly didn''t remember what their mission was.


    Great, his second inmand turned his head to look at his Captain. He shook his head in defeat before turning back to face the waves in front of him.


    "We have been tasked by Sir Jerry to bring back ra Davy. She is the daughter of Captain Davy and is presumed to be currently onboard the ship of Prince Wyatt- The famed banished First Prince of the Endossa Kingdom. Our first task is t--"


    "... Ah!! I remember" Marcus held his hand against his head, and pressed down on the throbbing pain "Our first task is to search the ship from top to bottom until we make sure that she isn''t taking refuge on it. Our second task is to stay with Prince Wyatt and apany him back across the Cryptic Sea when he is done... In other words, we are going to be watching him covertly and make sure he doesn''t do anything that would ruin themander''s ns".


    "Is all that I said correct?" He asked.


    "Yes, Captain. However, you forgot one thing" Great responded.


    "And what''s that?" Marcus questioned, puffing out the smoke that infiltrated his lungs into the air.


    "You forgot Sir Jerry''s main words" Great replied before stopping " He said that under any circumstances should Prince Wyatt refuse our search, and even dares to retaliate, we are allowed to burn down his ship to the ground and put him down if need be".


    Marcus'' brows rose in surprise "Put him down? I understand that we are meant to follow the orders of themander without question, but isn''t he like the First Prince of Endossa? Banished or not, aren''t they going toe for our necks when they find out that their Prince was killed by some bunch of low life Pirates".


    He paused. He inserted the pipe into his mouth and dragged the smoke into his lungs, before exhaling it out through his nose and into the open sea.


    Removing the pipe, he continued "And besides, I heard that he is a strong ascendant…. So why are we being sent if the rumours are probably true considering that it came from the main ship".


    Great steered the ship silently. A series of thoughts and emotions passed through his eyes while he nkly stared at the open sea.


    Suddenly, a cloud of white shed against his face and forcefully entered his mouth, forcing him to inhale it.


    "Cough!" Great choked, and swiftly swayed his hands in the air to ward away the smoke. He then looked at his Captain, and said "You know that I don''t like to smoke".


    His re seems to prate through Marcus''s skin, however, he just stood there and watched the waves as they ran and shed against each other. Amid the serene silence, he took in another pipe of smoke and exhaled it once again through his nose.


    Turning his head to look at Great, he ignored his displeased expression, and, smiled and said "You have already figured it out, haven''t you?"


    Greatt''s face immediately twisted. An array of different emotions was disyed on his face, until…..


    "Don''t sweat it. If this is a suicide mission, a mission that we aren''t supposed to return alive from, then the only thing we can do is go out there,plete it and prove themander wrong for looking down on us" Marcus uttered with a sharp glint passing through his eyes.


    ".…"


    "Hahahaahaha!!!" Great roared inughter while he continued stirring the ship "Well said Captain. We will show them what the 28th fleet is capable of " He dered.


    A smile graced Marcus'' lips. He wanted to reply, however, a huge object far on the horizon attracted his attention. With a frown, he took out a small pocket telescope from his jacket and ced it beneath one of his eyes, zooming in on the object.


    "Captain.." Great''s cautioning voice prated his ears.


    "I know" He replied. Quickly, he poured out the remaining tobo into the sea and stuffed the pipe in his pocket. Taking back the control of the helm from Great, his visage gained a much more serious expression as he steered the ship forward.


    "Raise the red g and alert the 29th fleet. Let them know that we have found our target" Marcus expressed.


    "I don''t think that is necessary Captain" However, Great pulled out his pocket telescope and stared in the direction of their associates "Their red g is already up to warn us about the target" He responded.


    "That''s good" Marcus responded before he looked down below and addressed his crewmen with a loud shout "ALL MEN TO THEIR POSITIONS!! WE ARE APPROACHING OUR TARGET, SO EVERYONE BE ALERT AND BE READY!!".


    The crewmen nodded their heads in tactical understanding, and immediately, they all went towards their assigned post and got ready for what is toe.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Meanwhile, Marcus kept on staring at the broken ship as he steered towards it. Although theirs were smaller inparison to it, but, that didn''t mean anything to him.


    The only thing that drummed, echoing deep within his mind and heart was that no matter what happens, they were going to finish their tasks and make it out alive.


    No matter what happens!


    …....


    "Ssh!!" The bucket tumbled on the floorboard, spilling water all around it.


    "Damn it!" ra cursed. Immediately she held it back up before picking up the mob lying near her to clean up the mess.


    After a few minutes of thoroughly scrubbing and dragging the mob against the floorboard, she paused and used her blouse to clean off the sweat dripping from her face.


    Afterwards, she stretched her arms to relieve the tension in them before heading back to work again.


    "MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE DIRTY SPOT LEFT" Mad John''s voice sounded from above, prating her ears.


    She turned her head and stared straight at him before nodding in understanding and going back to work.


    "...Are you sure that we should be doing this?" Meanwhile, standing near the helm, Seadog asked hesitantly. His eyes still twitched in disbelief unable to fully ept what he was seeing or whatever was currently going on.


    This - - Right there was ra Davy, daughter of a famed pirate, leader of the poisonous maid''s crew, a former friend of the now-dead Knight Camille, and the previous progenitor of their daily torments.


    Need he to say more?


    She oppressed and tortured them to an extent that a week without her weekly dose of brutal punishments felt unreal and weird.


    And now, there she was, happily mobbing away the dirt on the floorboard while beingmanded to do so by Mad John, and only cursing a few times when she made an error, which signified how painfully obvious it was that this was her first time to ever do something like this.


    And this was just after she had woken up from sleeping on the open floorboard after a long and ufortable night.


    He rubbed his eyes with his hands and blinked at the scene again. This was the fifth time he had repeated this action, and he still couldn''t believe what he was seeing.


    "Don''t worry, she can''t do anything but oblige and wait for the captain to return" Mad John replied.


    Seadog nodded his head in understanding. But still, since yesterday night, the figure of Mad John in his heart had grown so big that he didn''t even dare to say whatever was in his mind, and instead, buried them deep within his thoughts.


    For now, there was nothing wrong with just enjoying the show!


    "What that?" Mad John expressed. Immediately, he pulled out his pocket telescope from his shirt and zoomed in on the ie object.


    "What is it?" Sea dog questioned. His gaze peered through the horizon, and he too could notice an approaching object heading towards them.


    "Seadog?" Mad John''s voice was grim and rigid.


    "Yes" Seadog responded, feeling a deep pit brewing within his gut.


    "Ready the cannons.."


    "For what?"


    "We have visitors. Two ships are approaching, and from their gs…. Well, it resembles that of Captain Crimson eye''s own".


    Seadog gulped. The ominous feeling in his gut was growing stronger.


    ".… So, what are they here for?" He asked warily.


    Mad John pocketed his telescope before taking a nce at ra, and with a stern voice, he replied "They might be here for her".


    Seadog knew who Mad John was talking about, and couldn''t help but cursed out loud "SHIT!!!".