Durand woke to the loud noise above deck. Though he was tired and still wanted to sleep, the importance of the conversations that would happen above deck was enough to wake him up before Yel and Lav.
They, too, yawned and stretched, waking up to the ear drumming cacophony above deck. Pirates were running. On a normal day they would rotate day and night duties, but now it felt like all of them were awake and talking.
Amongst the cacophony, one conversation, the one closest to them, was somewhat distinguishable compared to the rest, so Durand focused on that. Yel and Lav, too, remained silent and perked their ears.
"...The poor fellow died in his sleep from a new kind of monster. I saw it."
"What did it look like? Everybody is telling some weird shit; can't tell which one told their nightmare from last night, which one saw the real thing."
"Well... It was a creature from a nightmare, I sure can tell that. The blood, bordered between that creature and this world. And from whichever way I look, the blood was following my eyes."
A gulp sound, even Durand could hear, came from above deck.
"That forsaken Tiamat, what have you birthed this time?"
"The mother of monsters birthing new monster species is a bad omen. May the gods protect us. In this hour we have nothing but Serementine(Mercy)'s warm gaze."
"May the gods save us. In this life we have nothing but Serementine(Mercy)'s warm embrace."
The conversation ended, and other conversations were hard to listen to, so the half nymph kids looked at each other. They were supposed to play their game, but two things drew their attention.
"Big brother Durand, they described your magic right? Borders that follow the gaze." Lav said.
"Yes, I didn't want to tell you I decided to kill one of them because... Complicated."
"Killing..."
"You killed?"
There was something weird in their tone. It was directed at Durand. Durand felt like freezing cold water had splashed on his face as Yel and Lav's gaze changed to something unfamiliar. It was like a rift opened between them… but why?
"It is like in stories, a hero kills bad guys. There is nothing wrong with that."
Durand noticed he was rushing words out of his mouth. Why was he panicking? Why was the mood so strange?
"But stories are stories. I don't want anyone to die..." Lav said. "Yeah!" Yel added.
Durand's eyes widened. In his past life he was an executioner. He killed dozens of people. He never told that to the two. He always thought they would understand if he were to tell how he was forced into that duty… Would they? Durand felt his existence rejected by two.
No, that couldn't be. There was a problem but it wasn't his past life. His past life self was disgusted by his duty. The problem was current Durand. He didn't feel strong emotions about killing.
There was a ghost behind Yel and Lav. He had the same judging eyes as them, he was Durand from his past life.
'Why did you kill?'
'We would be harmed!'
'Why not just protect yourself?'
'It wouldn't be enough!'
'Kill and kill, will my every life be the same, is this my fate?'
'Shut up!'
Something stuck in Durand's throat. It wasn't something physical, nor anything he could define. Tears fell from his eyes and snot dripped from his nose.
"I am sorry! I should have thought of something else! What is wrong with me?"
Were there any options? Did he think of any options in the first place?
Durand remembered something he ignored just a few moments ago. When he had said to Yel and Lav that he killed the man, he was smiling. That smile was the main culprit that changed Yel and Lav's gaze.
"I am not a hero... I am not. Sorry."
Durand felt a warmth embrace from two sides.
"Foolish big brother, of course you aren't a hero, you are our big brother."
Durand nodded.
"From now on, if I ever kill, I am admitting I am stupid. I couldn't think of any other option so I killed, foolish Durand."
Durand called himself a fool a few more times and his breathing calmed as his tears stopped.
"Now, to important business." Yel said.
"To our game of course, it looks like there aren't many words left in the language; we are seeing fewer new words each time." Lav said, helping Yel as he tried to lighten the mood.
"But a big one dropped now."
"Serementine(Mercy), this is like a word amongst words."
"King of the words. God of words!"
Durand wiped his snot on his arm then on the wooden pillar and joined the conversation.
"That's a divine name. I think I never mentioned it in the nymph realm."
"Divine name? So you know what it means."
"I don't know much about it. I only know the name of Sarrahm(Connection). I thought He was the only god but I learned there are multiple thrones in heaven, that means multiple gods."
"Sarrahm(Connection)... Serementine(Mercy)... Hehe, it's tickling my mind." Yel said.
A divine name, when pronounced or thought of, the world itself would react with meaning. Just by pronouncing these two gods' names, the world responded with the words Connection and Mercy directly to the minds of everybody that heard it.
"I don't know much. Just that it is a miracle proving the god's existence. The world itself responds by translating or correcting what's been said."
The response that came to his mind didn't have gender, age, or tone. It couldn't be called a voice. It was just pure meaning planting itself in his mind.
"Why did they only pray to Serementine(Mercy) in name? Not to other gods?" Lav said.
"I guess when you pray it makes most sense to pray to the goddess of mercy."
Durand didn't care much about gods, which was much different from his past life. He had been a zealot enough to be recognized as the town priest's pupil. Though that didn't put him in the priestly class, it just meant some private lessons. But all those private lessons were for nothing. Durand heard a second divine name, so everything the temple claimed about there being only one god was proven to be lies, and their every teaching connected to that too.
"Hmm... There isn't any word we can't play on..." Lav sighed. "Big brother Durand, should we pass to another game. It is evident I am going to win anyway but you being the winner feels right too, big brothers should win over their little brothers… If we continue, I would feel sorry when I beat you."
"Damn brat, don't pity me!"
"Yes, yes we should choose another game. I didn't like this anyway; it was stupid." Yel said.
Durand could understand Yel's enthusiasm as he had only seven points. Durand regretted that they didn't make fun of that. Durand was the big brother here so he wouldn't bully Yel. And Lav was someone that would only give some snarky comments. If it was anyone else this bad at the game, Yel would make him a laughingstock all day but divine justice didn't fall on him. It was regretful.
"What should we play—"
Durand's words were cut by the deck hatch opening. The light shone into the cargo area and the snake drawing he did last night illuminated.
Ah yes, Durand did that... What was he thinking? It didn't seem like a great plan now that he passed his late night tiredness. It was something he did absentmindedly, now it was revealed, Durand felt embarrassed, artistically it wasn't one of his good works too.
The pirate who opened the hatch was the food guy; they called him this as he was the one who always delivered their food. He got rid of their shit and piss buckets too, but they didn't want to call the man who gave them food, shit bucket guy.
The food guy was going down the ladder, his back facing them so he couldn't see the drawing. Lav and Yel looked to Durand for an explanation on the drawing, but Durand just avoided their gazes instead.
The food guy finally got down and turned. He fell on his back; his eyes widened.
"What is this?!"
The food guy got up and looked at them. Durand and the two looked back expressionless. Durand wasn't sure how to get away from this situation. In the first place, for an outsider what did this drawing even mean? Yel and Lav could tell Durand drew something to use his magic later, but what about the food guy, what did he think? Durand observed his reaction, Yel and Lav joining him in expressionless observation of the food guy.
"Hii!"
The food guy backed away obviously scared. Were they that scary? Probably being dimly lit helped, but they were just three young boys.
"I knew that creature was no monster of Tiamat but a magicborn. Please have mercy on me noble mages! I was ignorant! Please exempt me from your blood ritual. Take lives to quench your hunger, your anger, but even if only me, have mercyyy!!!"
The food guy prostrated himself to the ground.
Durand looked to Yel and Lav as they looked to him. What were they gonna do with this?
Durand inwardly sighed and quickly tried to think what he could do. He didn't have much time; at any time the food guy could raise his head to see three confused children so he had to be quick in his thinking.
Three confused children... He needed to be the opposite of that.
"Raise your head, miserable one, My grace surely will fall on those who seek."
Durand did his best acting performance he could muster. The food guy raised his head as ordered and looked to Durand with awe in his eyes.
"A nymph spoke a sentence... Ohh noble one, all my doubts are erased!"
The food guy once again put his head to the floor. Even though Durand said 'raise your head.' he didn't listen… The food guy had never seen them speak before. It must be a shocking discovery.
"Oh, ignorant one. You did right to bow before my mighty visage, albeit late. My might is undeniable like a mountain, yet you pirates are blinder than any. Your fellow who died today only tasted a fraction of that mountain. If I wanted to destroy and kill anyone on this ship, I could do that in a matter of moments, but I did not seek further bloodshed. The grace in my noble nature told me to avoid it…"
There were some of Durand's honest feelings in his words so it added the final and needed push to his acting to make his acting believable.
"Oh merciful and noble being. I shall inform everybody of this; we shall repent together."
"Stop!" Durand noticed his tone was panicked so he coughed to hide it. "Stop."
"As you wish... May I learn why?"
Durand's head heated up. In a moment he thought of dozens of possible answers. He didn't even know his mind could think this fast.
"...Because... You don't understand the envy of people... I am impressed by the respect you have shown... For that I shall reward you with knighthood and that might put a target on your back."
It was bad, Durand would admit. Did it make sense? Kind... Of? Might be? If one looked at it a certain way? Durand inwardly shrugged and decided what had been done was done. And for some reason the food guy was shaking.
"My lord, this fool, Bolb, all his life did nothing but clean shit... Knighthood, I can't express my gratitude!!"
"Pitiful one..."
It came from Durand's heart... To think he was so miserable to believe in such a bullshit excuse.
"Pitiful one... all you need to do is be our loyal servant. Our stay here was entertaining as we saw it as nothing more than a new experience. But boredom started to creep in. We would like to escape but without bloodshed so we must do it with secrecy. This is your first mission as our knight, do it well so you may grab the life of your dreams."
"Thank you.. Thank you..."
After that, Bolb went to grab better food for them instead of the porridge he came with. Durand, Yel and Lav were left alone to discuss.
"How could we use this to escape?" Lav said.
"We are in the sea, so we need to escape by boat..." Yel said.
"So we need a reason for him using a boat and for him to sneak us inside the boat. Or perhaps we need to wait until the ship arrives to land then escape." Durand said and thought of an idea.
He tried to remember the pirates' conversations for a clue. He could remember all of them so clearly because he already analyzed them for the game. The conversations flowed through his mind, and connected with each other, with that he understood the current state of the ship.
Durand came up with an idea that might work and told it to Yel and Lav. The two boys agreed with his idea, Yel even clapped, saying it was brilliant.
Bolb came back with some salted fish. Yel and Lav's faces soured with the taste of salt. It was their first time tasting it in food instead of accidentally drinking sea water when swimming.
Durand was in a slightly worse state, that annoying sense of deja vu was scratching inside his head, but a sudden sense of nostalgia cleansed his mind. He remembered the first time he caught and cooked a fish for the two. It appeared Yel and Lav were thinking the same as they had that same smile.
After they were done with their meal, it was time for the planning. First, Durand cleared his suspicion that when they arrived on land, the pirates would be more on watch to not let them escape.
"Yes, my lord, currently the captain only ordered me to take care of your lordships, but the moment we land, multiple people will be here. Between three and five with changing shifts just for the cargo area. The more would be on the deck watching around for anything suspicious. They are doing this not to prevent escape, though. They believe nymphs are stupid and can't escape on their own. They do that to prevent someone stealing the nymphs instead."
"Understood, so secretly escaping with a boat is the better option."
There were three pieces of information that created Durand's plan.
First, the crew was sexually frustrated from the long travel without stops. They passed their usual stops, famous for their whorehouses.
Second, the crew saw a weird monster they had never seen before, a new monster species birthed by Mother of Monsters. The unknown was scary and they didn't know anything about this new kind.
Third, the crew was unfamiliar with the nearest human town, they had no connection with the officials there beforehand for safe anchoring.
The first and second points reinforced the idea of stopping at the nearest town, to get information about new monsters and for the crew to release their buildup of sexual frustration. But the third information prevented that; the ship wouldn't stop at the nearest town because they didn't have connections there; the pirates couldn't land in any harbor they saw, their existence would alarm the guards. In some towns they had connections to the officials there to use their ports; those were their safe towns and the nearest wasn't one of them.
But they could build new connections now... All they needed was a push. If the first and second information wasn't enough to win the conflict against the third information, Durand could strengthen one of them. If just one little mosquito wasn't enough, he had something bigger at hand. Durand looked at the snake drawing on the floor and smiled.