Back at the pirates' point of view, everyone is now in Hooves Village ready to interchange boats again and to give a proper healing for those who need it. The ones who need to be healed are Vek and some more pirates, those are just slightly injured compared to Vek. Before getting out of their actual boat, Gwenchlan gathers everyone around the main mast to announce something pretty important :

-"The king might be looking for who freed his victim, so we need to hide for now."

Vek, the king's victim, obviously just wants to kill his father right now mainly because he is a really bad person, not because he tried to kill his own and only son. But the demon wants to share his thoughts about the king with Gwenchlan now, wanting to get rid of his majesty forever.

So Vek walks to the captain, helped by Symone, the demon asks to the captain :

-"Why do we have to hide ? Can't we just eliminate him ?"

Gwenchlan is quite surprised by what she just heard. She turns to face him and says :

-"What ? No, we can't just let you venge yourself like that. It is –"

But Vek doesn't let her finish her sentence, he explains himself :

-"I don't want to kill him because he did hurt me. I want to get rid of him because he is hurting the entire kingdom and hiding pretty big things from the citizens for a really long time. But I never realised until I met you all."

Then he goes away letting Symone and Gwenchlan together. The demon goes and sits on the dock, he needs some quiet time right now. He also looks around him and sees no one, so he starts using some healing enchants on himself, as he did at the beginning of their adventure.

Now that the captain and the green elf are alone, Symone takes advantage of this moment to ask something he has on mind since the beginning of the adventure :

-"Can I ask something ?"

-"Yeah, go ahead."

-"Well. On my first day on the crew, we all went treasure hunting. You remember ? Vek saw you looked like you weren't feeling that good and told me. What happened ? I'm curious."

Gwenchlan takes some time to think about what Symone is talking about. Then she remembers clearly and struggles :

-"Erm... it is that.. Erm."

Symone, seeing that the captain is struggling to talk, cuts her off, trying to reassure her and making sure that she consents to talking about it :

-"If you don't want to talk about it at all it is fine, I understand."

-"No, I'm fine with it. It's just that I'm a bit worried. Back on this day, I was anxious about crossing paths with an old friend."

-"A friend ? Why would you be anxious about meeting a friend ?"

-"Well, he is not my friend anymore and maybe never was. He is the actual most powerful pirate in the kingdom and he tried to kill me and the crew once. So I don't want it to happen again..."

***

Vek is now sitting by himself in a quiet place, where nobody or almost can see him. After finishing healing himself, he stares at the water, wondering what he can do to protect Symone and the crew in case the king finds them back. Then, a weird blue-coloured shape appears in the water.

Vek frowns his eyebrows, trying to see what this stain could be, then he remembers seeing the same type of thing right before being kidnapped by the royal guards. He softly says, so no one around can hear him talking to the water :

-"You again ! Why are you always around me ?" Then the creature lets its head out of the water, so Vek can see a blue-skinned merman with an eyepatch. Vek keeps talking softly, realising the one in front of him is wearing the same eyepatch as some pirates of the crew :

-"So you were part of Gwenchlan's crew for real ?"

The one in the water talks with a surprisingly deep voice, making Vek flinching a bit :

-"Yes, I was... Until she kicked me out for loving someone I'm not supposed to." He kicks the water in an upset way with one of his fists.

Then the merman looks at a far distance towards the crew, as if he is looking at one of the pirates but Vek continues talking by asking :

-"But now you are with the one you love, right ?"

Before the blue-skinned creature can talk, a familiar voice is getting closer :

-"I knew I'd recognize that voice ! Byoryth you are finally showing yourself !"

The merman do not greet the one who just spoke, he just warns :

-"You all better hurry to find a way to never cross paths again with the king or anyone working for him. I spied on some of them and from what I heard, they are all actively looking for the one who saved the demon."

Amber approaches, wondering and just sits right next to Vek. The blond pirate is about to ask something to the merman that he's getting pulled into the water by Byoryth himself. The demon is quite surprised by what's going on but he thinks it might be normal for the merman.

So the blond one yells out of surprise while the other one is saying, splashing Amber :

-"I missed you buddy. Why are you never coming to me when I'm showing up ?"

-"I've been so busy these days. You know, I took your place as first mate, I hope you can come back."

The both of them converse a bit more before some footsteps get closer to where they are but Amber and Byoryth don't give it any special attention, they just keep on having fun and talking after a long time not seeing one another.

Vek turns his head to see that those footsteps' sounds were coming from Gwenchlan and Symone. The demon obviously smiles when he sees the green elf, the latter didn't notice, he is focused on the two having fun in the sea. Then Vek crosses gazes with Gwenchlan, he instantly understands that the merman can't be there, so he tries to tell him discreetly, whispering as much as he can :

-"Psst, psst. Merman !"

But Byoryth doesn't react, he just keeps on playing with Amber, who really seems to be his best friend. They are both really happy to see each other after such a long time.

Gwenchlan suddenly clears her throat, spits and scolds the two in the water :

-"You ! I knew you would come back ! Get out of here !"

They both suddenly stop moving, turning their head to the captain, Amber gets out of the water and stands up right next to Gwenchlan. The captain expects Byoryth to flee from here but he doesn't, instead, the merman just struggles to get out of the water until sitting next to Vek. He looks at the captain, as if he has something to tell or ask her.

-"Please Captain, can you let me go back to your crew ?" He is begging her.

-"I already told you NO. You had a close relationship with the merpeople, our enemies and look at yourself now. You are cursed, you'll never be as you used to be. Plus, if you come back, you'll get the others cursed as well ! So NO !"

-"Oh come on. You are not gonna refuse every time I'm asking you. This pirate job was my entire life, you can't just take it away from me !"

Vek is curiously looking at the merman and sees some details on him, some tattoos on his fishtail. Byoryth has damaged fins, so the demon instantly thinks about fighting against sharks and other monsters like that, plus this merman seems quite strong.

-"Ok then. Find a way to stop having that fishtail and you can come back with us." She says, crossing her arms and looking at the sea, hating that she had to say that he can come back under some conditions.

She internally obviously wants him to come back, he is really good as first mate but the other pirates can't accept that some merpeople are actually nice. They are, historically, supposed to be enemies.

After getting scolded by Gwenchlan and being all wet because of the merman, Amber goes back close to the boat and walks to a pile of old clothes to dry himself. Piere, newly renamed Guard, sees the blond pirate struggling not to mess with that pile of pieces of fabric, so the partially new crew member decides to help him by taking one of those pieces of fabric and giving it to the smaller one.

Amber looks at the brown elf and takes the towel, thanking the one who is helping him :

-"Erm... thanks. You didn't have to do that for me, eheh." He awkwardly laughs, then he first wipes his face.

-"It's fine. It feels nice to help out other people than, you know.. the king... By the way, why are you all covered in water ?" Guard takes another towel to help Amber wiping his hair, this action slightly makes the blond one blushes.

-"Well, my best friend came back for a bit so I had fun with him." He smiles, really happy to hear someone getting interested in what he likes.

Guard keeps softly drying the pirate's hair while listening to him passionately talking about his best friend, the merman.

While all of this happens, Gwenchlan and Byoryth, the merman, keep on conversing. The blue skinned one says :

-"As I said to the one directly concerned. You better quickly hide from the king. If he catches the one who freed this demon, you are ALL going to die."

Hearing that, Symone starts to internally panic, his eyes becoming discreetly wider. He is in fact the one who directly saved Vek, who took him back from the execution place. So he thinks it would be his fault if everyone dies by the king's hands.

The demon notices that so he decides to get up and to stand next to Symone to discreetly hold the green one's tip of the hand, meaning "everything will be fine, no one will die".