Chapter Text
The night finally passed and a new day arised in the island. The pirate camp formed on the beach served its mission right, and the fire on it was finally cooking some recently caught fish. The two crews in the place, Ateez and Oneus, managed to work well together in the end, but there wasn’t much more time. Despite none of them getting proper sleep that night, some felt more rested and relieved than ever. Some others felt like a whole carriage ran them over, but that wasn’t new for Ateez.
And, despite all of that, someone was still asleep.
Yeosang’s brief moments of struggle stopped happening hours ago, but his body still refused to wake up. It was the church boy, San, the one revising his wounds at the moment. Next to him was the red haired from Oneus— San recalled him being called Dongju.
The church boy was carefully opening Yeosang’s shirt, he already knew which wounds he had to check. Luckily for the prince, most of them were just bruises with no actual wound, except for the one on his chest. The thing was no gunshot, thank gods, but that meant San didn’t know how to treat it. It wasn’t big, but it was deep. It had to hurt like hell.
"Can I see it?" San finally muttered, looking at the guy next to him. "The weapon, I mean."
“Uh—” Dongju doubted for a moment, then started to take the gun out; the holster was on his back and he was struggling with it. “I don’t think it will help, but sure.”
He offered it to San, who took it with care. It was… strange. It would look like a regular gun to anyone who didn’t know, but San did. Why? Well, the church illustrated and translated some books about it, and the young boy full of dreams found them quite interesting. In those books, it was explained how to recognize a modified illegal weapon (and how to treat the wounds it caused), and that was exactly the case. The barrel was completely different from the regular ones made by artisans, and the bullets… San took one on his free hand, and it didn’t feel like a bullet at all. It had the general shape, yes, but the front part of it was more like a needle. Some kind of dart?
“Where did you get something like this…?” The church boy let out, kind of amazed.
“A friend made it for me.” The red haired laughed a bit, like he just told a joke. “It’s an easy way to deliver my— Uhm, medicines.”
“So you’re a doctor..?” San muttered as he kept looking at the thing. “Do you have any kind of antidote…?”
“For other things, yes.” Dongju directed his gaze at Yeosang then, at the wound the church boy exposed on his chest. “Not for this one, though. It should be inoffensive.”
“Well, he is not waking up—” San started to say.
“It thought he wasn’t human.” The other interrupted. “He just got, uh— A very intense dose of it. Too much for his body.”
“He actually doesn’t look human to me.” San said, giving the gun back to its owner. “A little disguise can’t cover a demon.”
“What— Pfft.”
“Why are you laughing…?”
“Even if he really isn’t human, he ain’t a demon either.”
“How are you so sure?” San sounded quite outraged then. “Those horns, claws, red eyes…”
“You don’t know a lot about actual demons, do you?”
San let out a loud gasp then, taking one hand to his chest as a sign of indignation. How dare he? The church told him everything he needed to know about demons! They were evil monsters, magical beasts full of mischief that corrupted the minds of the strongest men. He even saw illustrations, and they were quite similar to what Yeosang was!
But— There were no birds in such books and lessons, he thought while looking at the crow demon from Oneus, Youngjo.
Perhaps that specific species was… more discreet.
“So, you don’t.” Dongju said, seeing the church boy’s silence. Then, he sighed. “I don’t know any demon with horns, really, and the claws depend on the species.”
“...” San was about to defend himself, but he decided to take notes on the possibly useful information. “How many kinds of demons exist…?”
“Oh— Too many to count. Most of them evolved alongside animals and have common traits with them,” He stopped for a second, for San it seemed like he just remembered something. “but there’s one kind that’s probably guilty of the image you have.”
“The image I have…?”
“Red bright eyes, usually red hair too…” He seemed to look at his own bangs for a moment, laughing. “Pure blood demons are the most feared. The church’s image of demons is their fault— Well, burden. And—” He laughed softly, pretending to be surprised. “You look like them more than your friend here does.”
“He-Hey!”
“Seriously, what’s with your eyes?”
“They’re normal eyes!”
“Hell no.”
“Yes they are!”
“As you say, sure—” He shrugged, then looked at Yeosang again. It almost seemed like he was avoiding said eyes. Did San make him nervous or something? “The most important thing isn't their eyes, but their minds.”
“Wh— Are they like… really smart? That’s their power?”
“No. Only the strongest demons can actually use their magic, by the way.” He said, just to make it clear to the idiot he was talking to. “Blood demons are usually strong fighters, but their mind isn’t as strong. They have a strange trance-like condition, they can go really blood thirsty when feeling things they can’t handle.”
And it was then when the situation stopped being funny for San.
“Like— Their brain just collapses and their senses go back to pure instinct.” After a long tense pause he chuckled again, nervous. The guy was talking too much to his own liking. “So, don’t worry about your weird eyes—”
And when he turned to see San, the church boy was… pale. Too pale.
Uh.
“Are you sure Seonghwa isn’t one?”
A third voice cut whatever was coming next, Yeosang’s voice. The guy remained in the same position, eyes closed and all. San slapped his arm softly, offended. For how long had he been awake?
“I, uhm— Didn’t want to interrupt.”
“I thought you were going to die— What do you mean you didn’t want to interrupt?” The church boy pouted.
“The conversation seemed important, I don’t know!” Yeosang finally opened his eyes and slowly sat down. The pain on his chest wasn’t as bad as he expected. Last thing he knew, he got shot. He expected nothing but death, and there he was, sitting next to San and the guy who shot him. And he was being honest, he didn’t want to cut the conversation just because he woke up, but he finally got tired of faking it. “Glad to know I’m not a demon anymore, though.” He said, laughing a bit.
“What are you, then?” San joked, getting to his feet. “I’m sure there’s worse things.”
“Worse than demons?” Dongju got up too, offering his hand to the ethian prince. “There’s a lot, actually.”
“Oh, really?” Yeosang added, mocking the church boy a bit.
“I can’t hear you.” San shaked his head and started to get away from them, on his way to join the rest of the pirates around the campfire.
“Yeah.” The red haired nodded. “The masked spirits would be an obvious answer, but we also have species like elementals— Light elementals are the living image of mischief, trust me.”
“Wait, what—”
“There’s also ancient beasts, monsters from legends— They’re more real than everyone thinks.”
“Like… angels?” Yeosang narrowed his eyes a bit. His mind was still clogged, but he managed to think about the guy they met, Dino. His terrible curse perfectly fit the definition of such creatures.
“Angels are the worst, gods.” He sounded like he really knew about them, huh. “But there’s also the, uh— Unique ones. You know, the Kraken, the original sirens… I’ve also heard stories about the Eternal Flame. Now those are monsters.”
He paused for a moment, looking at San. He was sitting next to the campfire, probably getting some warmth to fight the night’s cold. And, not far from him, Youngjo was the next that got stared at.
“Demons are not. They’re just people trying to stay alive, like humans and many other species. Like us.”
“But those— They have nothing to do with what I could be.” At least, he hoped so.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” He shrugged, looking at Yeosang one last time. “The Kraken himself became a warlord long ago, but the Army doesn’t want you to know that.”
And, right after dropping such a bomb, he joined the rest of the people. The prince just stood there, processing the information. A warlord? The Kraken became one of the greatest pirates? That… made no sense.
So, did he look stupid enough to believe that? Why did everyone see him as some kind of naive rich boy? He was so tired of it, man.
“Look who’s awake!”
And speaking of the devil, Wooyoung’s voice was the thing taking him out of his thoughts.
“Did the prince sleep well? I hope so, your majesty!”
“Yeah, I slept well!” Yeosang shouted back, not as loud as his crewmate though. “Perfectly fine without you in my dreams!”
Wooyoung just laughed at that, then took a seat around the fireplace too. Everyone was there, right? The two different crews were easily separated, each to a side of the circle, and then them. There was something weird inside the… Ateez area. Like there was a wall between them and the rest of the crew, Hongjoong and Seonghwa felt like they were in a whole different world. The lieutenant sat a bit further from the fire, just so the captain could fit and sit between his legs. They were also sharing the captain’s huge coat, which made Yeo realize how badly damaged it was; bullet holes, sword marks, even a huge cut from the Specialist captain's axe.
At first Yeosang thought it was great, they were enjoying each other, then he saw Seonghwa rest his head on Hongjoong’s shoulder. And right after, his hands on the captain’s thighs. Now they were enjoying each other too much.
“What happened while I was asleep…?” The prince muttered, taking a seat between Mingi and Jongho. If he had to choose a safe spot in the mess he saw next to the fire, that would be it. At least the blacksmith wouldn’t accidentally -or not- throw him into the fire. “Did they— You know. Talk?”
“They did more than talk.” Mingi laughed a bit. “If we weren’t here they wouldn’t be just cuddling, am I right?”
“Gross—” Jongho didn’t hesitate to show absolute disgust, his expression was priceless.
“It’s even worse when you have to hear it.” Yeosang laughed too, clearly more nervous than Mingi moments before.
“Oh fuck, I forgot about that.” The blacksmith said. “Is your hearing also amplified now? Because it would really suck if you suffer this shit during night too.”
“I— I think I do, actually.” Yeo replied, clearly worried about it. “It shouldn’t be here during the night…”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad.” Mingi let out another chuckle.
“Oh, do you think so? I’ll gladly swap places next time if you wanna be the one hearing it.” The prince was beyond offended, he even turned around a bit to stare at Mingi eye to eye. “You don’t wanna know what I heard that day. You really don’t.”
“Aren’t you being too dramatic? Are they this weird…?” The pirate started to sound kind of scared. Kind of.
“Oh, you’re a saint now?”
Someone said, suddenly resting his hands on Mingi’s shoulders from behind.
“I could floor you right now.”
“Oh hell no—” Jongho sputtered when he heard the soldier. He didn’t expect the soldier to join the conversation in such a way and he fucking hated it. “Whatever it is he's into, I don’t wanna hear it.”
“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Wooyoung asked, only to get stared at by four guys in absolute silence. He had been talking with San since he sat next to him, but the scene became too obvious to not be curious. Should he keep pushing? Should he accept the nervous silence of the four idiots? He decided to go for the last one, he'd get the info later. “Anyways, we’re all here now—”
“Not all of us.” San said, looking at the missing guy. The one with the black messy ponytail from Oneus, Seoho. “He’s not going to join us, is he?”
“You better let him rest.” One of the lonely boy’s crewmates was the one to answer, Geonhak. “It happens from time to time.”
“Uh—” San frowned a bit. Seoho proved himself to be a strong man, but he didn’t feel like a lonesome person to him. Perhaps he was dealing with some demons inside his head, just like the lieutenant and San himself. “Alright, I guess.”
“Let’s start with this, then.” Hongjoong finally joined the conversation, taking a moment to sit properly in Seonghwa’s lap.
“Wait, start what?” Yeosang asked, clearly confused. Did they make some kind of weird ass deal with the guys so they didn’t kill Ateez?
To be honest, he should have questioned it earlier.
“What are we gonna talk about here?”
“Our next stop, basically.” Seonghwa clarified, his voice quite softer than everyone else’s. He seemed to be still tired. “For both Ateez and Oneus, we’re sharing some information that can be valuable for the other side.”
“Last thing I knew, we were enemies. Now we’re having a sharing and bonding time?
“Well, a lot of things happened on your way to being drugged.” Wooyoung chuckled.
“Oh, now you’re laughing at me. Very mature of you.” Yeosang rolled his eyes. “At least you’re not trying to sell—”
“Focus!” Hongjoong frowned. “We need to get somewhere— Like, we have no clue right now.”
He said, rubbing his eyes a bit with one hand. It was right, every time they found something that seemed relevant, something else made them move away from it. Every. Single. Time.
“So, long story short for Oneus, uhm. Do you know anything about Ciarmyr…?”
“You mean the story?” The crow demon instantly asked, perhaps even too fast.
“Yeah! Well, no—” The captain corrected himself. “There’s many different stories, we’re going for the real one.”
“Because… you know which one it is. Of course.” The red haired, Dongju, added.
“We are close to it, we just need to figure out some things—”
Joong couldn’t finish talking before something scared him. It was Yeosang suddenly getting up and running to the Aurora, almost falling from running in the sand. He decided not to question it, he would just find out what it was about.
“So, uhm— Yeah. What was I saying…?”
“The real Ciarmyr.” Seonghwa reminded him.
“Right. Thank you.” The captain nodded. “We are going to find it, but we need more clues right now.”
“I mean, it wouldn’t be a legend if it was easy.” Yunho said. “I’m afraid I can’t help, the Army treats it as a childish fairytale.”
“Everyone does, you’ll find nothing looking for the legend itself.” It was the blue haired, Keonhee, who spoke then. “I heard the name, Ciarmyr, comes from an ancient language. Whoever started it, they didn’t want the story to tell what actually happened.”
“An ancient language…?” San frowned, none of the ones he saw in the old archives had a single clue about the legend. “Which one? Where did you learn it…?”
“Cult.”
It was the first word coming from the lonely Seoho, who finally approached them to sit with his own crew.
“I bet he learned it at the cult where he got his stupid magic.”
“My magic is not stupid!”
“Oh, right, you can throw people into the forest. How cool.”
“I can do a lot more!”
“Can you? Right, you can heal! Cool, but is it worth joining a cult?”
“I could spill all your secrets, rat boy! Dig into your past and future!”
“Oh, now you can see the future? Come on, do it.”
“You don’t believe me!”
“For the gods’ sake, can the two of you shut the fuck up?” Seonghwa finally interrupted. “This has nothing to do with us, keep it for later.”
“Yeah,” Seoho said. “Keep your lies for another moment.”
“I’m not—” Keonhee went silent for a second, clearly forcing himself to cut the bullshit before someone else did. “I’ll show you, then I’ll keep explaining what my cult teached me.”
He made some strange gestures, writing something in the air with his hand. The blue haired started it looking at his own crewmate, but at some point made up his mind and restarted the spell looking at the lieutenant.
“Hey, hey— Why me?” Seonghwa tensed, moving just enough so Hongjoong could feel the sudden cold at his until then covered back. “Look at the soldier’s future, not mine.”
“Hey!” Yunho instantly reacted. “Stop throwing everything at the soldier!”
“Everyone stop talking, I see something! I need to focus!” Keonhee said, his eyes closed then.
“This whole conversation is useless.” The merman muttered.
“Should we do something…?” Mingi said, looking at Jongho. “What if he’s doing something weird—”
But he didn’t even finish talking before he got distracted by something else. Yeosang finally came back from the ship, running like a bastard with a huge ass book in his hands. When he was about to stop, he stumbled in the sand and fell, taking the blue haired cultist to the floor with him.
“... Nevermind.” Jongo said, holding back his laughter.
“Eek—” The prince softly cried, still on top of the other poor guy. “My bad, my bad… But I have something that could be helpful.”
And just like that, everyone’s attention fell on him and the book.
It was the one he stole for Hongjoong, the Ciarmyr tale from Oxpass. He carefully explained how he got it and the story it told. But the most important part wasn’t the text, it was the illustrations. Like he did to the captain back then, he showed the page of the mysterious hero with black hair. Everyone wanted to see, from genuine interest or just curiosity, but nothing special happened until the demon did.
Youngjo gave himself a moment to think, then finally said something.
“I’ve seen this guy before. Like— Not in person, but in a statue.”
“The statue in the shrine, yes. We saw it too on the island we come from, but we didn’t get anything from it.” Yeosang clarified. “They were too old, the inscriptions were probably messed up too.”
“No, I saw it somewhere else.” The demon shaked his head a bit. “And they were in perfect condition, I can give you the location.”
“Are you… serious?” Hongjoong asked, his voice hoping to confirm the little hope he just gained. “That would be awesome, oh my god.”
“And I can pay for the information.”
As soon as Yunho said that, everyone stopped looking at the prince and the book to look at him. He didn’t expect that, actually.
“I bet you guys will love some answers from the Army, right?”
“Oh, you could just lie about it.” The merfolk laughed, clearly suspicious of the man in uniform.
“They only know two of you exist, it’s such an achievement given how annoying Oneus has been to them.” He laughed too, much more relaxed. “I bet it’s difficult to track traffickers who allied with nobles, it would be such a shame if you got rid of them before the assholes who used to be my superiors.”
“...”
“Or you could just, uh—” He pointed at Mingi. “Maybe this guy knows more than me, sure.”
“. . .”
The Aurora had a course to follow, all of Ateez was getting ready for it. The ship was setting sail, all eight members of the crew working together, soldier included. No one really trusted him, really, but he helped them enough to not send him to jail. With at least a little part of the rest they needed, they were ready to start another episode of their journey.
Perhaps one day someone would write about it, tell their tale to all kinds of people around the world.
Wouldn’t that be amazing?
As the Aurora finally left the island behind, the fellow pirates they met in such strange ways were getting ready to do so too. Between them, one seemed especially worried.
“Are you alright, Keonhee?” The blond strong one approached him, noticing something weird.
“I… really saw something.”
“What?”
“His future. I saw something when I casted the spell.”
“Oh—” Geonhak didn’t know what to say. “Was it that bad…?”
“I saw his death. I saw him die by his own sword.”