The four friends patiently waited – with pirates drinking like this there had so be some friction sooner or later. And they didn’t had to wait for too long. One of the king Red’s former followers said something praising his former king and a guy with rune markings on his face, obviously king Black’s follower, argued that his boss was superior in some way. They both quarreled a bit and surrounding pirates didn’t pay much attention to this. Apparently it was a common topic and they discussed it regularly.

But Nick didn’t intend to let it go. He suddenly pushed Clayton, who was covered in rune markings, to the ground demanding an apology for insulting king Red’s memory and Steven, who was dressed and painted in a similar fashion as Clayton, immediately drew his sword and demanded Nick to apologize for his behavior.

Pirates were drunk enough to not notice Steven’s subtle accent while this event threatened to escalate. Few moments later two people, most likely the captains, came over with angry faces and demanded everyone to calm down and when Nick tried to argue, his own captain hit him causing his small body to fly several meters and land in the crowd.

Unfortunately Nick had a drawn weapon in his hand and by some ‘unlucky coincidence’ stabbed king Black’s follower when landing. The whole pack of forty people froze in shock, but Clayton got up and with a loud roar charged at Nick. When YunYun immediately stood in his way, he kicked her away, but the unfortunate incident repeated in an unbelievable fashion and, while clumsily trying to recover from the powerful kick, she stumbled and stabbed another pirate with markings on his face. While the drunk pirates did their best to realize what was going on, Steven charged over and few seconds later together with Clayton ganged up on the ‘poor’ Nick.

A nearby pirate with a red bandanna on his head could not stand and watch how his crew mate was bullied and drew his weapon as well, only to get instantly stabbed by Clayton.

“Stop! Drop your weapons!” Both captains shouted at the same time, drew their swords and ran to split the drunkards up, but just when they came over two unfortunate slashes decapitated them. At this moment every other pirate drew their weapons and, when Nick and Clayton shouted ‘You killed our captain!’ in unison, a chaotic skirmish broke out.

YunYun finally was allowed to draw her Katana and with a loud cheer jumped in the middle of the pack and almost in a whirlwind fashion started to massacre the drunkards while the three men carefully cleaned up from the sides not intending to let anyone go.

The whole event continued for about three minutes and in the end four friends stood on the docks in the middle of mutilated corpses grinning widely. They could have attacked openly, even trying to surround the pirates by only four of them, but this was much more effective and fun at the same time.

“That was a great idea, Nick!” Clayton patted Nick’s shoulder.

“It was so much fun!” YunYun cheered.

“We kind of killed over forty people, but, considering they were rapists and mass murderers, this time I’ll agree with you both.” Nick started to laugh and others joined as well.

Few minutes later Clayton went back to get the boat, wile the remaining three slowly piled up the corpses and lit them on fire. After that they washed up in the Paradise bay and sat on the pier while glancing at the stars. Around seven months ago they were captives here, but now they were going home and in great spirits at that. All that’s left was to cross the sea on one of the ships that was docked not too far away from them.

“I miss Aurora so much!” Steven sighed, “I wonder how it’s like after all this time.”

“When we’ll come back most likely it will be a winter time.” Nick calculated.

“How can we cross the sea during the winter? Isn’t it cold there and frozen all over?” YunYun wondered.

“Aurora has a special climate.” Steven explained, “Even if we get a bit of snow and cold, the warm currents from the south allow the weather to remain pleasant throughout the year. Aurora bay doesn’t even get covered in a thin layer of ice during the winter.”

“You probably want to get back home as well.” Nick looked at YunYun.

“Sigh, of course. Mom is probably worried sick. We’ll go right after you settle your things in Aurora.” She answered.

“We?”

“Of course! You wanted to meet my mom before our wedding, so it’s fine, right?

“Hahaha!” Steven’s laughter broke the silence above the Paradise bay. It was too hilarious to listen to these two. His own relationship with Conny not only started, but proceeded completely differently on every step. But if he had to be honest, these two suited each other really well.

Luckily the little sailboat finally arrived and Nick ran over to help Clayton get their passengers to the shore.

Contrary to the little girls, Ali woke up when Nick carried him and at first was trying to understand what was happening around him. But as soon as he saw the huge pyre still burning with red and blue flames, in addition to the unpleasant stench of the burned flesh, he felt nauseated.

“Sorry about that. We had to kill some pirates, but it is safe now.” Nick awkwardly explained.

‘Some?’ Ali gawked at the burning pile of bodies speechlessly.

“Were there any captives?” Kate asked as soon as Clayton brought her over.

Nick, Clayton, Steven and YunYun stared at each other. None of them even thought about checking it!

“Damn it!” Nick cursed, grabbed a torch and proceeded to the spot where captives were held back then and others followed. Only Conny and Beata stayed back to look after the kids.

Around sixty people were lifelessly sitting and lying in two bamboo cages. Couple hours ago they heard a commotion on the docks and it sounded like the pirates were fighting between themselves. But then it fell silent again and judging by the smell they calmed down and were having a feast.

After some time those who were conscious and awake heard several people approaching.

“You four idiots! How can you be so selfish!” A young girls voice nagged, “And you, YunYun! I didn’t expect much from those three, but you? At least you should have a heart! That kid is having too much of a bad influence on you, so don’t marry him, alright?”

“I’m sorry.” Another girl answered.

“Look!” First girl shouted, “There are people there! What if we left them here just because you were to lazy to look around?”

“Fine, fine! Stop it already.” Annoyed youth cut the blabbing off and approached the closest cage, “Alright, who wants to go home?”

The captives where already confused by the conversation, but the last question stupefied them completely.

“Sigh, Nick, let me.” Clayton was captive here himself and remembered how exactly he felt when he got freed. Therefore he knew Nick’s casual approach wasn’t the best.

“My name is Clayton Evans, from the Evans family. We are here to bring you home. Please wait while we open the cages and let you out, also, please don’t run around and make ruckus. The few people who are alive on this island are civilians like you despite being dressed in the pirate clothing. We will prepare water and food for you, just proceed slowly to the docks.”

While talking he opened the cage and started to cut the ropes and others helped as well. Clayton’s voice was infused with Qi and, even if there was someone sleeping before, all people woke up soon after. Only few were unconscious and Nick immediately tended to them.

The girls could witness how the captives back then were released, only on a miniature scale. Clayton gathered everyone on the docks, explained who he was and where they are going, pointed at the remains of pirates and assured that everyone is safe for now, and explained the fact that they had to leave as soon as possible. Meanwhile Nick finished treating the weakest and started to cook.

Captives, similar to back then, were cheering and crying at the same time. Then they washed and drank water while patiently waiting for the first real meal in a long time. Clayton counted up everyone and made a small crew out of the remaining capable people, few of which were actual sailors and soldiers. All sixty two people were from the Sun kingdom and had heard Evans’s name, and didn’t even ask any questions before agreeing to Clayton leading them back home. Unexpectedly seventeen were capable of forming the new crew.

After they ate, Clayton persuaded everyone to have a calm and healthy rest before they set the sails, and then he, together with Nick ran over to the both ships for a closer inspection. Of course, the main objective was to choose the best of the two for their voyage, but they had to consider the organization of provisions and cargo as well.

In the end the ship named “Southern Pearl” was chosen and almost till noon the new crew kept transporting over the cargo from the other one, and provisions from the docks as well. The large three mast ship was, in fact, a former property of the Evans family which was seized by pirates around five years ago.

The cargo on the both ships consisted mostly of robbed valuables and Clayton, learning from his previous experience, promised to split it between the released captives after their arrival in Aurora, therefore everything was transported and stored in an orderly fashion.

While some elderly captives were taking care of confused Ali and his sisters, the seven friends energetically helped in preparations and no one even suspected the famous princesses to be present thus people heartily received them as their own. This was something new to the ‘flowers of Aurora’, but didn’t feel improper in the current situation so the Maxwell sisters and Kate didn’t care at all.

Nick learned from his experience and stacked all the free space in his wristbands with barrels of water since the fresh water was the biggest problem during the long travels on the sea and, while the products in spacial treasures could be stored fresh almost indefinitely, the fresh water on the ship will become stale in around ten, fifteen days. He already planned to cook for everyone on board decent meals every day, but the people, other than his friends, would mostly have to drink diluted cheap alcohol to quench their thirst after ten or so days, like the regular sailors do.

“Southern Pearl” set sails shortly after midday. Former captives, currently passengers and the crew, were gathered on the deck and watched the remaining ship burning in red flames while Nick quickly caught up under the amazed gazes of the onlookers. They already understood that the seven friends who saved them were not simple, but actually seeing someone so young freely run on the water surface was an incredible sight.

After Nick climbed on board, he smiled awkwardly and turned to YunYun, “So, do you wan to cook with me?”

And the two of them wend down to the galley and started peeling vegetables. YunYun was long used to his non-traditional training methods and didn’t mind. Both of them chatted while still concentrating on infusing the small knives with Qi when suddenly realized that the spacious galley has become really crowded. The both princesses, Kate, Steven and even the three kids were present, leisurely chatting and laughing as if they were all still sitting on the wagon, just like couple of weeks ago.

Nick quickly reorganized the duties and few minutes later princesses were cutting vegetables while trying to understand what does it mean to infuse Qi in the kitchen knives and how should that even work. Kate and Steven were not excluded, but the latter had, of course, better results and quietly gave tips to the Conny. Nick and YunYun were managing the big pot on a larger fire exactly the way he had done before, only on a smaller scale.