After navigating for a few hours on the Golden Ocean and almost arriving at the capital, Symone notices something strange, a piece of land linking the Kingdom of Ahulia to a 'non-explored' land. He talks to the first person he sees, it is Amber, he asks :

-"Why is there a desert here ?"

The blond haired pirate looks around the ship and seems to not notice any desert or similar things here, just a vast ocean :

-"Uh.. there's nothing but the Kingdom. You must be hallucinating because of the loss of your boyfriend."

-"I am not hallucinating, I swear there's a huge desert right there." He says pointing at nowhere in the sea, then continues angrily but discreetly talking while turning red "And stop calling Vek my boyfriend, they're not my partner !"

Indeed Symone isn't hallucinating, there's really a piece of desert in the middle of this sea but he is the only one who can see it, apparently. Even in official books and maps this part of the land does not exist or at least isn't represented, it may have something to do with that nameless king but who knows.

Now that the entire crew arrived safely and discreetly in the capital of this rich kingdom Symone is still destabilised by what he saw, he indeed never saw it in any books and he used to read a lot to prevent the loneliness he faced all his childhood and teenage years too. So the elf keeps thinking about it while he is thinking about Vek as well, his brain is really busy right now.

They are now all sneaking off the boat and discreetly going into the city, trying to find a way in the castle's jail, where Vek has probably been locked up for two days, if he hasn't already been killed by the king.

The green elf isn't really following the rest of the pirates closely, he is in fact totally head in the clouds and is almost losing his crew more than once but Amber is always here to guide him, guessing that his emotions are taking control over him with what he is going through.

While the crew is walking through the city, someone suddenly and strongly grabs Symone's arm and say :

-"You ! Come here !"

When the elf turns around he sees a guard looking tired then Symone starts to panic, not knowing why he got caught, Amber tries to make that guard goes away :

-"Let him go !"

-"I can't, he has to come with me !"

-"What has he done ? Nothing !"

A verbal fight starts between Amber and this guard, who is a basic elf but with brown hair and a beard, he looks like he's in his 40's, he also has some white hair here and there. He weirdly looks exactly like Piere, it is indeed him. Symone doesn't want any more conflict around him so he tries to stop the fight, while still being held by the guard :

-"Please, both of you calm down. Mister guard, why do I have to come ?"

So the guard let go off the elf's arm, seeing that he is ready to cooperate, Piere simply explains :

-"Well, you have been missing for multiple days. I believe your family is bothering the highest authorities available in this city in a daily way."

-"Oh no..." Symone mutters, indeed he thinks that this is really not the right moment for this to happen, the only thing he wants to do right now is to save his new friend.

The guard heard those words and wonders, since family is really important for him, as seen a few hours ago inside the castle. By the way, he transported and buried the two bodies in a cliff, close to the ocean before going to work again, he now has to obey the king even though he doesn't have any more reason to be alive right now.

-"Is there something wrong with your family ? Do they treat you badly ?"

-"No, of course not. It's just that I have something important to do now and I don't really want them to interrupt me."

The guard doesn't really know what to say, so he just suggests :

-"But you should maybe go and see them, so they won't be worried anymore. What do you think ?"

Symone agrees with this suggestion, thinking it won't take that long to just go back to his house and say something like 'hello, see I'm good, now let me go away again please'. So he just walks to his parent's house followed by the guard and Amber. The blond pirate wants to know how it is to be rich and to have a big house while making sure everything will be ok, in case any conflict happens between the green elf and his own family.

They all quickly arrive at the place in only a few minutes, it wasn't that far. Right after the guard knocks at the door, in order to return Symone to his parents, an anthropomorphic lizard shows up with a depressed looking face but as soon as he recognizes Symone he hugs the half-elf and exclaims :

-"My son ! You are back !"

Right after the guard explained that he found their son back, they all (Symone and Amber) enter the big house and sit around a table. While Symone is sitting, the elf's father is looking for his wife.

Amber is just wandering around the luxurious house and quickly spots a huge wooden library, curious, he takes a look at every book. Despites he struggles to read, he can easily read some words, he still tries to read more. After a few seconds looking at the books, he spots a weird yet really interesting book, it is about demons from what he thinks. So he takes the book named "Everything about Demons" and hands it to Symone, thinking it might be useful to save his friend.

-"Here, I think it can help us to save Vek !"

Symone opens it and looks at the chapter's name, nothing really interesting for now but around the 10 and more chapters, a title makes him curious. So he opens at this page and reads the title 'The perception filter' he quickly looks at this page and silently reads a part of it '... it is a power possessed only by demons, it is usually used to do bad things such as hiding places or changing what their victims are seeing'.

After reading this he thinks about the weird desert he saw earlier and thinks, why would a demon want to hide this part of the world and how did Symone see it if no one other than demons are supposed to see it ?

Then he continues reading a bit farther in the same chapter '... if anyone has a special link with a demon, the perception filter will break' he suddenly stops reading, having a flashback about him and Vek kissing and immediately thinks "What ? But I just kissed him to try. We can't have a special link already !", he continues wondering "Does he know about it ? Did he accept kissing me on purpose ?".

Amber is looking at a blushing and internally panicking Symone, wondering what is happening in his head and what he is reading. So the blond one simply asks :

-"What's wrong ? Why are you all red ?"

-"No, no. It's nothing !" Symone violently closes the book and just holds it close to his chest so no one can take it.

Just after violently closing the book, Symone's father is back with his wife. She is a ginger middle aged elf but she seems sick, not as usual, indeed she is usually really smiling and cheerful but not today and maybe not the previous couple days as well.

They both walks to were the two pirates are and sit with them, Symone's mother smiles at her son still in a difficult way because of her actual condition :

-"My son. You are back !"

Seeing that his mother doesn't look so good, Symone let down the book on the table to take the other elf's hands, he worries :

-"Are you ok mother ? You don't look as usual."

She takes some times before answering him in a way so he wouldn't worry about her health :

-"I'm fine, it's nothing. I just got sick because I worried too much after you left the house." Then she notices that Symone is wearing different clothes from what he was wearing when he left, she continues :"Oh, you got new clothes, what are those ?"

Symone explains what it is and that he is now a pirate, for the moment he doesn't talk about Vek and just tells his parents the wonderful adventure he had lived with the crew. His father is really cheerful even if he was really worried about him leaving the home by himself.

His mother doesn't answer, she lets her eyes going down on the table, then she notices the book and remembers :

-"Right ! I just remembered that tomorrow afternoon a demon will be executed at the public place by the king himself ! I can't wait to see what his majesty looks like and of course I can't wait to see a demon be killed ! Those bastards !"

Symone is shocked, not expecting it would be that early and even done by the king himself. Vek already told him that he could be killed only by another demon, so he will be dead for sure. They have no more time to lose. The half-elf exclaims :

-"No ! It can't be possible !".

The father talks as well, thinking his son has the same way of thinking as him :

-"Yes you are right ! How a demon can intrude this highly protected city ! I am sure this thing wants to kill all of us !"

Amber mutters to Symone, trying to calm him down as much as he can :

-"Don't listen to them, we'll go and save your boyfriend."

The green elf doesn't even have time to yell at the blond pirate about the word "boyfriend" that his mother just heard the last part of what the pirate told him :

-"What ? Did this stinky pirate just say 'we'll go and save your boyfriend' ? Is it true ? Is this demon your boyfriend ? I'm ok with you having a boyfriend but not having a DEMON as a boyfriend ! They are bad people !"

Symone turns red, not out of shame but out of anger, he wakes up and yells, before leaving the house again :

-"WHAT BOYFRIEND ? HE IS JUST A FRIEND ! I LIKE HIM AS A FRIEND, THAT'S ALL !"

Still in the house, the three people are looking at each other, not knowing how to react after the half-elf escapes his parent's home again. A few seconds after this loud silence Amber mutters but not really discreetly :

-"Oh no. I just remembered, he doesn't like it when I call Vek his boyfriend..."

Symone's father slowly turns his head to end up looking at the only pirate left in the room and asks :

-"Why would you even call the demon his boyfriend ?"

The blond pirate answers without hesitation and not muttering any longer :

-"Well I saw them kissing like two days ago in the hold of the galleon. And I mean it wasn't that hard to tell it wasn't their first kiss together, I even think they did more than only kissing that night." Amber says the end of the second sentence without really realising what he is talking about.

-"No more details please ! Oh no, our son is in love with a demon... it can't be true." Symone's mother first exclaims then calms down on the second part of her sentence, she also hides her face with her hands.

The anthropomorphic lizard says something that shocks everyone around this table. He says something that indeed isn't respectful at all :

-"How do you think they did it ? I don't want my son to be fucked by a demon."

Amber doesn't like it when people are judging others without really, or at least a bit, knowing them. So he explains to each of the parents :

-"Well mister Nehemiah, you can keep your pictures in your head, it is not something you are supposed to ask. And miss Nehemiah, I suppose, what is wrong with him loving someone you hate ? I mean Vek is a really nice person, he even saved us from a megalodon."

Symone's mother is quite impressed by the last thing Amber said, even though she doesn't know what a megalodon is. But she won't change her mind that easily since she grew up being taught that demons are bad people. Amber continues talking but this time discreetly muttering :

-"Well we couldn't eat for the rest of our journey..."

***

Outside of the house, the green elf is sitting down, trying to calm himself down but the only thing he can do right now is to cry out of a mix of anger and panic. Because his brain is currently busy with so many emotions as said earlier.

A bit later, the same guard as before, the one who accompanied him to his house, stands straight in front of him and asks :

-"Something's wrong with your family ?"

Symone does not answer, he doesn't even take a look at Piere, he just keeps on angrily crying. So the one wearing golden armour sits right next to Symone and keeps on talking :

-"You know, you can tell me everything, I'm here for the safety of everyone. So, what's wrong ?"

The elf takes some time before answering aggressively, not as he is used to :

-"If you are here to protect people, then why do you want to kill Vek ??!"

The guard is surprised because he doesn't understand what Symone is talking about. So he lets the elf know that he doesn't get what he was trying to say, not knowing who that Vek is.