Like last time, we were taken to the Saltfort by rowboat. Kona rowed the two of us there, Josephine and myself. Once we disembarked at the pier, Josephine made her way into the fortress to sleep, even though it was midday. Like last time, we would set off near dusk to hide in the darkness of night. Kona moored the rowboat in place and also got off.
"Aren't you meant to go right back?"
"That's what Nigh said to do, aye? Well, I figured I could go back in the morning instead."
She knelt down and tied the rope around a bollard. Her back was to me, but I saw her ear had a faint redness to it. It had been like this lately, ever since that night last week, when she started being more direct with me. Whenever she did, her face would go red, and she would look away. Considering her size and strength, it made her shyness even more appealing and gave me an overwhelming urge to tease her.
"You are aware they only assigned a room for each of us, right?"
"þat er allr tilgangr, heimskr"
"What was that?"
She tied off the rope in a knot and stood up. She grabbed my forearm and pulled me along the pier, towards the fortress.
It was strange, I never felt this way about anyone back home. There weren't any girls there that I was really interested in. Or more like I didn't know any. Most of the people I would talk to back home were men. It's not as if I never thought any of them were pretty, but I knew that every time I saw one looking my way, it was with 'that' look. But not her, she never once looked at me like that. Maybe that's why my face feels hot when she's near? Maybe one day, when all this is over, we can go on an adventure together as my parents did. One day, I would like to see the snow with her.
Upon entering the fortress courtyard, we saw Josephine talking with a man. A man with more tan skin, a smoother face and narrow eyes. The Metonym turncoat had a guard standing on either side of him as the two spoke. I took a half step back on instinct; the last time I had seen one, they were trying to kill me.
I took a breath and walked towards him. After all, if I let that one time dictate my fear for a whole people, then I would be no better than those people back home who looked down on me for being a half breed.
As I approached, the Metonym pointed at me and looked at Josephine, who nodded. Clearly she had just told him who I was to some extent. He turned to me and bowed slightly with his hands to his side.
"はじめまして.僕の名前は海原悠真です.よろしくおねがいします"
"Uh, sorry, I don't speak any Nishigo."
"え? あ. ごめん. えと.My mistake. I thought you spoke. My name Yuma Kaibara. Call me, Yuma"
"Nice to meet you, my name is Shinya Akame." I awkwardly mimicked the bow he gave me.
"Akame!? まじ!? Akame name of… strong clan of fighters. Your father, Akame?
"Yes, his name was Takeshi Akame."
Yuma placed his hand on his chin and gazed at the sky in thought. I couldn't tell if he was trying to recall the name or perhaps fight the right words in Imperial to say what he wanted to say. I stood there staring at him, waiting for a response.
Kona walked up behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder, leaning against me slightly, watching Yuma think. He snapped his finger and pointed to me.
"はい. He betrayed! Punish. Big story."
"Is he alive?"
"はい" He said with a nod.
My father was alive and somewhere out there. But what did that mean that he betrayed? Did he betray the country by staying in Trident Wood with his mother, and was he punished for that? That's the only thing I could think of. What was the punishment? Where was he now? I wanted to bombard him with questions, but Kona placed her hand on my other shoulder and gave me a gentle nudge.
"You'll have plenty of time to ask questions on the boat. You need rest; 'till be a long night."
Josephine gave a nod to Kona and took Yuma away, speaking about the route they would sail as she took the opportunity to close the distance with him. Yuma was needed for more important things right now; I can't simply use him for my own selfish requests.
"At least it'll give you time to think of more questions you want to ask."
Kona patted me on the back as we walked into the fortress and towards my room.
Kona took me to my room, kept me company and helped me get to sleep much faster than I would have been able to otherwise. Before I knew it, night fell, and Josephine entered my room and quietly shook my shoulder to wake me up.
I woke to see her face hovering over mine, a finger on her lips. She glances up. I turned my head. Kona was still sleeping next to me.
"As much as I would love to have stolen a kiss, I fear she might wake up and behead me."
She said with a smirk as she stood upright and walked towards the door silently. We snuck out, making sure not to wake her as we made our way to the pier.
Yuma was waiting for us aboard a small boat. Very similar to the one used on the night ship mission. We climbed aboard as Yuma untied the mooring line.
"We go safe path between ship. Near island, look from far. Go back. Easy, safe. But, mercy of… 海"
"Umi? What's umi mean?"
He stood up after untying the line and pointed out to the sea. "海".
"The sea?"
"Yes, the sea. Maybe bad waves. Maybe calm."
Josephine walked between us.
"Then we'd best head off now while the winds are calm. We don't have time to dawdle and chatter or do something more fun, unfortunately. Shinya, you get on the main mast, Yuma pilots, and I'll push us off the come to help. Got it?"
Yuma nodded and moved towards the wheel of the ship. As I was about to turn, Josephine placed her hand on my shoulder, stopping me for a moment.
"Such a shame… two attractive men trapped on a boat with me, and I'm forced to behave. But the mission comes first, so save your questions for when Yuma isn't steering us through danger. But don't take up all of his downtime, I want to have some fun on this trip as well."
I roll my eyes and head to the rear of the ship, ready to lower the mast.
We sailed west towards the metonym lands across a wavy ocean. A distant and faint light of civilisation behind us vanished from view, and were were surrounded by the dark void of night. The lanterns aboard our vessel were not lit, and only moonlight allowed us to see. After a time, faint lights glowed on the horizon, the night ships.
As we sailed, the faint lights of the night ships moved from in front of us to either side. The only indicator we were moving at all. Aside from the rocking waves. Yuma tied the wheel down, and I did the same to the mast. He walked to the rear of the ship beside me and sat. I joined him.
"Yuma, what can you tell me about my father?"
"はい. Takeshi Akame is leader. He in West Island. Do trade with Imperials for gun. He know many about world, that why he live."
"I see. Do you know what his punishment was?"
He shook his head.
"Oh, there was one thing I wanted to know about the language. What does my name mean?"
"Your name?"
"Shinya, what does Shinya mean?"
"Uuuuuhh. Hard say. Need see writing, could mean many thing. Do you know how write it?"
"I remember it was two characters. The first one was dense, like a block. It almost looked kind of like a face with a beard."
"Can you write it?"
"Hey! Miss Baker! Do you have something I could write on?"
"Bellow deck" her distant voice replied from atop the crow's nest.
The two of us stood up, and I waved my hand to Yuma.
"You stay in case the weather gets worse. I'll be back with it written."
He nodded and sat back down as I walked down the stairs to the lower deck.
In the bowels of the ship, where there were no windows, a single small oil lamp was lit, dull enough to match the brightness of the full moon and not bright enough to be noticeable from afar. It was tucked behind a barrel so none of its light escaped to the outside.
I rummaged through some boxes next to it and found some scrap parchment and a fountain pen. I sat down on the floor, brought the oil lantern close and tried my hand at writing my name. It was something I had done before more than once, but every time I had done it in the past, I was copying the correct writing; this was the first time I had ever gone from memory.
After a few attempts, I managed to draw something I was somewhat pleased with. Just looking at it, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't do it any better without the original text to reference. Hopefully, it was good enough for Yuma to read or at least guess what I was trying to write.
Almost an hour passed while I tried to write the character. Emerging from the underdeck, I walked over to Yuma with the parchment I had written all my attempts on.
Josephine was standing close to Yuma, both her arms around his head as if the two had just been making out. As I approached, she glanced and me and stepped back as if I was only there to spoil her fun. I held out the parchment, pointing my finger to the last one I had attempted to write.
"This is the character for Shin. It's as close as I can get it."
Yuma took the parchment and looked at my poor attempt intently. He glanced back up at me a few times. He held out his hand.
"Pen"
I gave him the pen that I still held onto. He turned the parchment over and found a blank spot and wrote. After a moment, he held it out to me. It was perfect, just like how I remembered from back home. 震
"This mean shake or…uh…quake. Like earthquake."
"Earthquake?"
"'Tis a phenomenon not common in Vilta, the ground itself shakes, it's very destructive."
"Rare name but stong. Mean… how say… the quake that awakens the red eyes"
"Awake the red eyes?"
At the thought crossed my mind in the deep and distant shadows of the night, I saw him. A pair of red eyes looking back at me from the deep darkness. Wrath had been quiet in my mind for months now, why what that the thing that got his attention.
"What does that mean?"
"Red eye are close to magic, demon, rage maybe. You shake world. えと. クソ.難しい. I hard to translate."
"That's okay. I think that's enough."
Josephine turned back to me.
"Any other questions you can think of? Or can I get back to enjoying my downtime?"
"Other than him teaching me the language, no. And I don't think we have time for that."
With a sigh, she walked away to the underside of the ship to grab a spyglass to look out for land. Seeing her reemerge with it in hand and heading to the front of the ship, I turned back to Yuma.
"Are we close?"
"We get to land in a few hour. Sunrise come soon."
"Sunrise? How are we meant to get back in the day?"
"We stay all day, this look like fishing boat. Goto fish town. I pretend be fish hunter."
"A fishing town? On the eastern coast? Isn't the coast filled with fortresses and defences like back in the States?"
"No, our defence is Night ships. Only small defence on coast since no big army can make it that far. Only small ship can sneak past like us. Still, must be careful."
The ship rocked as we crested a big wave. The sea was growing louder and more aggressive. Yuma rushed back to the wheel to hold it as I moved back to the masts to make sure we weren't blown off course but the sudden gusts of wind.
We battled the sea for an hour straight, without rest, and as the sky behind us began to glow a soft orange hue, land was in sight. We had done it, we had crossed the sea.
As we came up to the small island, we sailed to its side, turning to keep it on our left, and we ended up between the island and the southern tip of the eastern main island. The metonym isles are comprised of four main islands, one to the east, the west, the south and the central island where the capital is located. Alongside this, they also have many smaller islands; this was one of them. If we kept sailing up with the eastern island to our right, we would come upon the central island.
Yama moved the ship closer to the island of Goto, and we lowered the anchor as the sun began to rise.
Josephine climbed the crow's nest and lay down with a spyglass to gather information, and Yuma and I retrieved some supplies from below deck to make it look like we were fishing. As someone who looks half Metonym if seen at a distance, I wouldn't look to suspicious.
As we readied the net we had a moment to talk.
"Is this place safe? Are there many army men?"
"Most army at South Island, not far but not close. East island protect by night ships, that why there gap here, between islands. Most army go from south to here then out to sea. Big supply camp."
"But this is also a fishing village?"
"Yes, fishing village here first. When army came they build base on empty land to not disturb locals."
Half of the island was a small, quiet fishing village; the other half was a major military supply outpost.
An hour passed, and we tossed nets into the water. Josephine climbed down from the crow's nest and went below deck, where she would sleep until nightfall, when it would be safe to continue observations.
After another hour of tossing nets into the water, waiting and then pulling them back, I started to get tired and went below deck to sleep as well. Yuma said he could stay awake and would come and wake us if anything happened or if he needed to sleep.
There were no beds on board, but there was a small pillow and a blanket each. Josephine had already fallen asleep, sitting against the wall with the pillow under her. I opted to lie on the ground with the pillow under my head.
As I drifted to sleep, I thought about what Yuma said about the meaning behind my name. Was it a coincidence that thing about the red eyes? That part of my name came from my father, so it had to be the first name. The fact means the quake that awakens the red eyes. That can't be a coincidence. And the fact that Wrath showed himself to me at that moment as well for the first time in months, that shows it caught his interest, too. What have you been doing all this time?
As I drifted to sleep, I dreamt I was in a cave, chained to the wall. I dreamt that I was stuck there for years, decades, centuries. I felt my strength wither and fade with time to the point I could hardly even speak. Then one day, from the mouth of the cave, a sound rang out, a voice. The,n from the darkness, a boy. I was so hungry, so desperate, I lunged forward towards it so hard I ripped the metal chains from the walls and as I gripped the boy around the neck and went to bite into his flesh. I woke up.
Yuma stood over me, shaking me awake frantically.
"Trouble. Soldiers are coming."