“Let me go! I have to… go cook lunch for… everyone…!”

“Hugo, stop struggling so much! You’re making this a lot harder than it needs to be!”

The man named Hugo was a big fat man with a bald head and a long and messy brown beard. He was trying to break free of the ropes that were tied around his arms and his legs. Even with both Ralphie and Hector working together, they were having a hard time just holding him down.

Ralphie didn’t seem like a strong man, but he was chubby enough that Hugo should be having a hard time moving the big man off of him.

Meanwhile Hector was quite muscular, but he wasn’t as tall as the other two, so he was having a hard time pushing Hugo down.

“This must be what happens if you’re unable to follow the orders given by Crowell,” studied Betty.

She was the only one out of the ones controlled that was free to roam about. And that was because she was the only one that had completed her task for the day.

Tal, Lewis, and Chris were ordered to capture me and because they hadn’t done that yet, they were still a possible threat. They weren’t struggling as much as Hugo, but it was possible they were just waiting for the right time.

I tried talking with them, but aside from them wanting me to free them, we couldn’t really go anywhere else with the conversation.

For the ones from Scarlett’s crewmates, aside from Hugo, we had Tommy, who had been ordered to check on the ships every morning, and Hugo, who was ordered to cook for them at certain times.

Tilly and Zoe had captured Tommy in the middle of his morning ship inspection so there was still a chance he was under Crowell’s control.

Even though he was as large as Hugo, maybe even bigger, he remained calm. It was actually frightening seeing a large man with curly black hair look that calm when we knew he was under the control of another person.

“He’s still at it?” Scarlett sighed as she returned.

She had been working together with Tilly to figure out a plan for after Reginald and Agnes get back. Zoe had gone out earlier to scout around the forest and she reported that security was intense between the forest and the city.

I saw Mun from the corner of my eye. She was looking at Tal from afar with a sad look on her face. It was different seeing her like this, so I approached her.

“You holding up alright?” I asked.

She nodded but made no sound.

“That light bomb Tal made sure did its trick,” I laughed. “I was so surprised when one dropped right in front of me.”

Still no response.

“I’m sure we can get them back to normal. Maybe someone from Aegis will know how to deal with this. That way, we can help Lorelei and everyone else at the same time!”

It was hard staying positive when Mun looked so down, but I tried my best.

I was glad to see her finally let out a smile.

“I wouldn’t know what to do if my brother never returned to normal. He’s the only family I have left and he’s annoying sometimes, but he’s still my brother.”

I think that annoyance goes both ways. I kept that thought to myself.

“Oh, looks like Captain is about to do something,” Mun pointed out.

Taking a deep breath, Scarlett pulled her right arm back. Having noticed her stance, both Hector and Ralphie got off of Hugo in a rush.

“Stop struggling, you pig!”

She screamed as she landed a deadly punch onto Hugo’s face. That punch knocked out Hugo and his struggling was over.

Everyone from Scarlett’s group sighed in relief of not having to deal with Hugo for a while longer. Meanwhile, we were shocked at what had just happened. Was this something normal for them?

The loud crack I heard was definitely worrying, but everything was okay, right?

I wanted to ask someone, but it was like everyone else just moved onto doing something else now that that situation was taken care of.

What was with this group?

—Not too long after that, Reginald and Agnes arrived at the camp with Jenson. Jenson was a skinny man light enough for Reginald to carry with ease. Although Reginald shouldn’t have trouble carrying most people, judging from his looks.

Standing next to Reginald, Agnes didn’t stand out, but she was quite muscular as well. She had short blond hair and was almost built like a man.

“You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to catch him,” Agnes complained as Reginald set Jenson down on a bed.

“We had to knock him out, but he gave us a hell of a time. We were only lucky there were not a lot of guards around at the hill. It looked like they were mostly stationed on the road outside of Lanport. It did make it harder for us to find a way back to camp though,” Reginald pointed out.

Scarlett stepped forward, “We have everyone here now. We will set out after the sun has set. Looking at the sky, it will be a dark night so we should be able to use that as our cover to get to our boats. We’re going to need to be sneaky so we have to make sure to use the sleeping darts on the ones under Crowell’s control.”

At that, Ralphie nodded. He was the one with the pipe that shot out those sleeping darts at Lewis, Chris, and Tal.

“Get some rest while you still can, we’ll have one last meal before we will finally be off this goddamn port city,” Scarlett announced as she began to move back to her tent.

My heart became anxious as the realization that we would be leaving Lanport tonight came in. Lorelei was still missing, and I would have no time to look for her if I waited.

As I was trying to make my way out of the camp, I was stopped by Tilly.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

“I have a friend still in this city,” I replied. “I have to go find her before we leave.”

She grabbed my shoulders as I turned around.

“Are you stupid? Didn’t you hear what Reginald said? Security is tight between the forest and the city, there’s no way you can make your way to the city without being noticed by the guards. And in the first place, how do you know if your friend isn’t under Crowell’s control?”

She stepped in front of me before continuing, “Crowell is bound to know that we’re planning our escape now that we got all of our old crews back. If there is anyone out there that he knows we would try to get back, he will make sure they stay in a place that we will have no chance of reaching while unnoticed.”

“I still have to try.”

I tried to move past her, and she held me back.

It wasn’t like she was strong enough to hold me down, but after the fact that she saved us, it felt rude to just walk over her, so I stood back.

“There are times when we have to give up on some things so that we can survive.”

What did she mean by that?

“You can come back here on your own if you’d like, but I won’t let you go into the city today. With how dangerous Crowell is, we can’t afford to take this risk.”

She seemed ready to fight me. She was even pushing me back into the camp as she spoke.

“I won’t let you jeopardize the plan just because you have one person still left in the city,” she cried out.

I understood why she was doing it, but Lorelei is my childhood friend, and I couldn’t just abandon her like this. Especially since I was the only one who could see her.

“What’s going on here?” Reginald called out.

Everyone else was turning their attention towards us now as well. There was no way I could leave the camp now.