The night came early. The winds were already starting to feel chilly as they blew past the sails.
The sounds of a flute playing filled the entire deck. The pirates sat around in a circle, telling jokes and laughing with each other.
Harley stood at a corner, looking at them all with a dark expression. He really felt like he was back in a time of war. He never did army training in his past life cause he was a cripple, so he couldn't imagine wiping out an entire village and coming to sing the next day.
Harley went into the basement, looking at the six people in all the cages.
"Are you all ready?" he said, his expression cold.
"Aren't you nervous? Have you killed a man before?" The lady in one of the top cages spoke.
Her voice was even worse than before; this time it sounded like rocks clashing with each other.
Despite the sound of her voice, Harley took offence to what she said. He didn't reply to her; instead, he walked out of the basement back to the deck.
Only a person who hadn't experienced some magical crap like reincarnation would be feeling nervous at this time. He didn't have the luxury of even thinking about if the plan didn't work.
He was on steady fight-or-flight mode.
Harley looked around the deck, seeing the pirates roasting parts of the shark in the fire. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"Hey! Clown boy! Pull the barrel of beer up, will you?" The bald pirate said, chuckling as he pointed to Harley with a stick.
"Can he even lift it up? He looks too skinny for that."
"Don't underestimate the boy. I think it would be a good exercise for him." The bald one spoke once more, making Harley bow lightly.
He walked towards the place where the barrels were kept. The ones containing the ash were in brown barrels while the wine barrels were black in colour. And there were only two of them.
The pirate waited for over a minute and the clown hadn't come up from the basement. He got frustrated and he went down.
"What's taking you so long?" The bald pirate showed his face.
Then he chuckled as he saw Harley struggling with a single barrel.
"Hahaha, come get a load of this! The barrel isn't even full." He smiled, and another pirate joined him in laughing at Harley.
The young purple-eyed man smiled and let out a nervous chuckle.
And behold, they didn't even help him pull the barrel up the ladder. Harley had to drag it up himself.
As he pulled it finally onto the deck, he fell on his butt, panting for breath. The bald one laughed, kicking Harley on the head.
"I wonder why the captain kept you around. You're useless." He spat on the ground, lifting the barrel with the sides as if he was carrying an empty pot.
Harley winced, touching his head to see that the kick left a tear on the side of his head. He didn't complain or speak out and he looked at the bald pirate very well. He stood up, smiled and went to stand in front of the railings.
He observed the pirates one by one, looking beyond calmly. His face contorted into a frown when he noticed one of them not drinking and enjoying like the others.
He pushed himself off the railings, walking over to a young man that stood guard in front of a door that seemingly kept all the treasures that the pirates gained in this conquest.
Harley grabbed an empty cup on the ground and got close to the young man.
"Jin! What are you doing all alone here by yourself? Come have a drink." He staggered, putting a hand on Jin's shoulder.
Jin looked at him with a disgusted look, then he shook his head, standing straight.
"The captain told me to watch this door at all times. I can't drink; I might get drunk." He spoke, glancing around at the festive-looking environment.
"Come on, the captain killed a echelon creature at the top of the echelon. Isn't this worthy of celebration?" Harley spoke, using hand gestures to exaggerate the entire thing.
Jin wasn't looking like someone that would drink anytime soon, so Harley pointed at the ground.
"Sit with me for a bit."
The two of them sat in front of the door, looking ahead in silence. Harley let out a breath, gazing around the deck.
'I wonder if, the beer would have the same effect.' He squinted his brows, looking at Jin.
"Do you have parents?" He asked, making Jin shudder.
Harley wondered if he said something wrong, but Jin only replied in a lower tone than normal.
"They're dead."
There was a moment of silence between them after that declaration. Harley only sighed, looking at the little bit of beer inside the cup he carried. He was really tempted to drink it right now.
'Just a sip won't hurt ri—'
"You know, I'm doing this because of them." Jin's voice snapped Harley out of his thoughts.
"My parents taught me to always see the positive in everything. Just like how I saw a positive in the village raid we did. No offence, friend, if one kingdom would win then all this violence and suffering would be over." Jin began to smile again, getting into his thoughts.
"They told me that I can be whatever I wanted, hah. Where? In this world?" He chuckled. "It would be stupid if I even said that I want to be king and I want to rule the right way."
Harley had a deep frown on his face; this person he was looking at was very twisted in the brain.
"You can probably achieve it. The first person who became a king wasn't born a king. So you can do it too, or at the very best, be a close advisor to the king." Harley encouraged him, patting his back.
"I'm your friend. I believe in you, alright."
Jin let out a breath, looking ahead as if having more motivation to do his thing than before.
"Do you want to see your parents again?" Harley asked, making Jin look over to him.
"Watch out!"
Someone's shout reached their ears and the both of them looked forward to see a wooden cup flying towards them. The cup landed above their heads, splattering to splinters on the door's surface.
They looked forward, seeing that the rest of the crew went back to whatever they were doing.
"Bunch of maniacs—"
"You were saying something." Jin's calm voice cut into Harley's sentence.
"Yes, I have an artifact that can make you see a past memory. But I'm not sure if it would work. Do you wanna try it?" He proposed, bringing out the wish locket.
Jin nodded his head in excitement, looking at the silver metallic locket in his hands.
"Where did you even get this?" The boy asked, stretching his hand to take the locket.
"I've hid it away for a while. The verse is 'Show me what I wanted'. Try it." He gave the locket to Jin, having a small smirk.
Jin repeated the verse, and instantly, tears began to stream from his eyes. He stared at the mirror-like surface of the locket and more and more tears poured out of his eyes.
"You really let me use something this valuable?" Jin's voice cracked, and Harley patted his back.
"Because we're friends. Now, let me watch for you. Go and have a drink!" He slapped Jin's back, pushing the young man to stand up.
"Can I hold the artifact?" He asked, fiddling with his fingers like a child.
"Yes, I trust you." Harley gave him a thumbs up.
Seeing Jin walk away to join the circle and celebrate, Harley glanced back at the door that he was supposed to look after. Now that he was so close to it, he could feel a strange energy emanating from it.
Over thirty minutes had passed before the pirates found themselves falling asleep one by one.
"That took a while." Harley mumbled, waiting until everyone was asleep.
Another ten minutes passed, and by now, every pirate had their eyes closed and they were deep in sleep.
Harley stood up, walking towards Jin. He grabbed the bunch of keys on his waist and walked down into the basement. He was deliberate with his movements, not caring about making a sound.
"Are you all ready? It's time." Harley announced, opening Eman's cage first.