Chapter 76: 70: Bargain

Kai blinked. He didn't know why his body was colder than before, but there was a biting numbness eating him all the way to his soul. Fear. Raw fear.

Kai gulped. "Y-you are. . ." if he wasn't mistaken, she saw the girl with Ryu's group. She must be a slave from one of their group, just like Ryu.

"Answer my question first."

Kai didn't know why he was intimidated by a slave girl. A halfbreed at that. It was just .. . something within him was trembling and tried as he might, he was compelled to answer at the sight of her dilated eyes.

"Y-yeah. . ." Kai gasped for air when he almost passed out from the biting cold. Why did it turn cold all of a sudden?

His affinity was ice, but it felt like it was the first time he knew coldness.

"Hmmm. . ." Ferris tilted her head, and her creping smile sent a shiver to Kai's very bones, and his souls almost left him just to escape that biting fear.

"Then how are you alive?" Ferris asked, smile creepy when her dilated eyes squinted crescent.

Why? Why? Kai lamented. Why him? Wasn't he tormented enough by the sea? Now this. .. a loli half-demon was torturing him on deck.

"I. .. anchor saves me." 

Ferris's smile widened. "That's hard to believe considering that the storm should have washed you last night. Not to mention that no ordinary mortals could escape Myrmen's clutch once they dragged you into the sea. Are you. . ."

Ferris wet her lips and grinned. ".. . Hiding something?"

Kai was crying now. Not on the outside, but his inside was full of silent tears.

Ferris went to her knees when she sensed that Ryu was coming, and Kai breathed easy.

"Listen, human," Ferris warned. "If you, by any means, hurt Ryu. . ."

Bam!

"Eeek!" Kai shrieked a pathetic scream when Ferris hammered her little feet on the floor near his head and the broken planks scattered in all directions, and some even grazed his face.

"You'll wish that you have been swallowed by the ocean and turned into a Myrmen instead."

Ferris was gone before Kai could squeak another sound, and Ryu appeared at the corner with Fifi in tow.

"What's wrong with you?" Ryu asked when Kai was ghastly pale and almost dead like a corpse.

"What happened with the floor?" Ryu asked when there was a gaping hole near Kai's head.

Kai was too exhausted and scared that he passed out there and then.

----

Meanwhile, Lucian was having a conversation with Skull in the captain's office.

"Ye're offerin' hundred golf bars fer ye 'n yer scallywag's safe passages?" Skull asked.

Lucian nodded. "I think it's enough gold for you to last a lifetime."

Skull leaned against her chair and folded her arms. "I assume that ye're no ordinary mercs then?"

"Is it important?"

Skull chuckled. "No. I don't care who ye be, but gold ain't the only currency in this world, ye know."

"You're human, and you mostly spent your time in the mortal realm."

"Why do ye reckon I became a pirate in the first place? I wanted t' sail into different realms through the Nightmare Sea."

Skull gave a half shrugged. "If I wanted gold, I would 'ave jus' asked one from the start. But this voyage in the Nightmare Sea be me adventure. Ye, the mercs, 'n the gold are jus' extras."

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Lucian leaned, elbow resting on the table, and said with a harsh voice and face, "Don't force me to resort to violence. You won't like it."

".. ." Skull looked Lucian in the eyes for a moment before she burst out laughing. "Ye mighty don't wants t' thread thar, lad." 

Skull changed her position and leaned to Lucian, eyes glinting in malice and face twisting in a warped grin. "I warn ye, didn' I? 'tis no longer the Mortal Realm. 'tis the nightmare sea 'n no rule, but mine be e code o' conduct here."

Lucian wasn't the least bit frightened nor intimidated. "I can kill you and your crew right here. Right now."

".. ." Skull's scar covered hands covered her face as she doubled over in laughter. "Har har har! I like ye, sprog! Ye 'ave guts!"

Though irritated, Lucian didn't show it on his face. "Do you think I'm joking?"

"Oh. Ye're definitely nah." Skull grinned. "'N ye're nah the only scallywag who said that t' me. Most already became bone reefs in the bottom o' the ocean."

Lucian huffed a laughed. "You really have no idea who you're talking to?"

"The thing be, I don't care who ye be," Skull spat, and her face turned serious. "As I said, 'tis the Nightmare Sea. If ye scuttle me, wha' will happen t' ye? Ye 'n yer crew goin' t' swim back t' the Mortal Realm?"

"Well, find another captain."

Skull's shoulder trebled, holding her laughter. "The thing be. .. ye can nah." She leaned to Lucian and whispered, enunciating each word, "Do ye know how we survived that storm last night or how we survived every deadly storm in the Nightmare sea? Every attack that came our way?"

A creeping doubt knocked into Lucian's heart. He wondered it too. He thought it was a unique Pirates skill until Skull continued.

"It's 'cause we gave part o' our soul into our galleon. In short, this ship be a livin' thing. Me mighty body!"

At Skull's word, her body turned hallow like that of a ghost, and Lucian did everything not to gasp.

Skull floated in mid-air and smirk, "So ye see, if ye scuttle me, this ship will sink in the bottom o' the ocean, draggin' ye all wit' me."

Lucan bit his tongue not to groan. Now things have become more complicated. But whatever doubt and anxiety he felt, he hid behind a smirk. "It's fine. We could just fly off."

Skull closed her eyes for a moment, and Lucian thought he won, but the slight smile on the edge of her lips told a different tale.

"Maybe ye can, but wha' about the rest o' yer crew? Or the rest o' the humans? Ye're goin' t' sacrifice 'em too?"

Lucian inwardly groaned. He and Rosa could fly, but Cecily and the other certainty couldn't, and he certainly couldn't sacrifice many humans at his expense. He could bluff, but it was too late since Skull already took his brief silence as affirmation.

"The proof be that ye're in the sea instead o' in the sky. 'n unless ye can summon flying beast, big enough t' carry yer party, then ye're stuck here wit' me."

Lucian couldn't hold his emotions, and it showed on his face in the form of a single sweat dripping from his forehead.

It was checkmate. Gold and threat were his trump card against Skull, but that didn't work. .. then. .. "Then perhaps a rare item would change your mind?" Lucian wager.

The bead of sweat on Lucian's face dropped on the floor as the second passed that Skull didn't answer.

A short silence and a creepy smile from Skull made Lucian clenched his fists.

"Thar be. .. one item."

----

A/N

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