Soon the weird pair caught the attention of the nearby dock workers and they called over other boat owners they knew.

“Madam, what exactly are you looking for?” A local warehouse manager with a sly smile approached them.

“I want a pretty boat!”

“But mom …”

“And it has to have a big, white sail as well – me and your father always wanted to sail around in such boat!”

The warehouse manager was stupefied by the criteria, but soon enthusiastically started to offer different boats he owned. Not only a couple of fat sheep came over, they were stupid as well! The dock workers were laughing at the pair while forgetting their own duties and the other boat owners kept running over in case they could be the ones to ‘win the prize’. Everyone wanted to earn a good coin from the clueless couple and did their best to persuade describing how their boat was the ‘prettiest’ and had the ‘whitest’ sail.

In the end Nick finally picked one and agreed to the price, just to ask the previous owner to teach him how to sail correctly. The previously happy man almost fell in the water while the surrounding spectators laughed themselves to death.

Finally, after an hour of instructions and persuasions, Clayton was ‘allowed’ to board and clumsily raised the sail. On its way out of the harbor, the boat multiple times almost crushed into others and in the end, to the big relief of the locals, left southwards while the sun was beautifully setting in the sea. Only then people went back to their duties betting with each other on how soon the boat will sink.

When they were in a safe distance from the port, Nick and Clayton could finally laugh their tears out as well. The performance wasn’t really necessary, but they have been too tense for the last couple of hours and this was a great way to lift their spirits.

It was already dark when they reached the approximate location of their camp and, while under the cover of the night Nick ran to the shore, Clayton held the boat freely floating without dropping anchor. Both of them already changed to their earliest pirate attire and wore red bandannas signifying their allegiance to the former king Red.

After Nick arrived, his friends could finally confirm their guesses, but it was just a bit weird to see him dressed like the people they deeply hated. Despite that within few minutes they changed their attires as well and, in front of the terrified eyes of Ali, a scary pirate crew appeared.

“So … so … you’re pirates?” He stuttered in shock.

“How dare you say such things to your grandmother?” Nick replied in his creepy, old woman’s voice and widely grinned.

“Stop scaring him!” Conny barked and squatted besides little boy, “We are just changing our attire like we did back in Ulum, don’t worry.”

“Alright, now for the serious part.” Nick squatted down as well, “As per our arrangement we only had to get out of Ulum safely. If you want, we can part our ways now and I’ll pay you as promised or, if you want, we can wait till the morning and I’ll arrange a home for you in a nearby village and all three of you will be able to safely grow up and then still have plenty of money left to live long and happy lives. There is another option, but it’s dangerous and you’ll have to decide for your sisters – you can come with us. We will attempt to leave this country, but I can not guarantee your and even our own safety.”

Ali looked around in panic. During the past weeks these people had become almost like a family to them, but the tense atmosphere and grim looks on their faces told him this really was a serious endeavor.

“I …” He really didn’t know what to say.

The campfire reflected in the faces of the girls that were painted in a darker color. They really felt for the kids, but also understood why Nick acted this way.

“Sigh, you want to come with us, but are scared?” Conny tried to help out.

“Y … yes.” Ali continued to stutter.

Knowing Conny would gladly grab these kids and not let go until they arrived in Aurora, Nick sighed and tried to help out as well.

“I understand that you are anxious, scared and worried. Let’s do it like this. While I bring them away one by one, you can stay here with the rest and make your decision, alright? YunYun, let’s go!”

The two of them darted towards the sound of the waves that could be heard in the distance while Ali sat frozen in shock. He began to recover only five minutes later when Nick came back and took Beata away. In his mind the little boy already made his decision, but it was just too scary to voice it out.

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Soon Nick brought away Conny and Kate one after another while they grumbled about him being a heartless bastard. But they understood it well that the little boy only had to voice his confirmation. They, coming from the Sun kingdom, couldn’t bring someone away just because they wanted to. In fact, everything Nick did was correct. If there were only two girls, they could save them without asking, because at that age no one would remember what happened, but the boy was different.

To the big relief of the four young women, Nick brought the three kids to the boat instead of Steven what could’ve been the last ‘tour’ and dashed away across the waves to get his friend.

“He … he’s a Qi master?” Ali was still in shock. This evening was too much for his little heart.

“Nope.” YunYun shook her head.

“But how? It’s not possible to run on the water like that!” Ali was in disbelief – what he saw was against the common sense and he would rather believe his young guardian was a Qi master.

“He trains a lot and because of that he’s much stronger, faster and smarter than others.” YunYun explained in simple terms so the kid could process.

When he fell asleep in the little cabin, Ali was still confused. Luckily his little sisters were asleep all this time and he didn’t have to take care of their anxiousness in addition to his.

To Ali’s big surprise, in the morning his sisters were not anxious at all. They enjoyed the boat swaying in the waves and cheered at the warm water spraying in their faces from time to time. The people around them looked a bit different, but their voices were the same and brother was nearby, so they were safe.

This boat was of a similar quality to the one they used to come from the pirate base to Berin. Clayton sailed through the night and, with a good wind, they could go back to the Paradise city in two days. It was pivotal for them to arrive during the night, thus they decided to rest somewhere between the surrounding islands if the time of the day was inconvenient.

And it turned out to be the case. The way back was a bit longer and in the morning of the third day they anchored between two smaller islands, and went ashore to have a good meal. The kids screamed in joy when Clayton and Nick brought them from the boat wile running over the waves and couldn’t wait for the trip back.

The group spent the day chatting and from time to time swimming in the warm tropical waters. Initially YunYun and Steven wanted to practice their water walking technique, but Nick reminded them to be in their top form for the evening. Thus the main force of the squad Clayton, Nick, YunYun and Steven mostly practiced their Qi techniques and calmed their minds before the inevitable upcoming battle.

Everyone was of the same opinion that some pirate group would definitely come back there, if not – a new one would make the beautiful and convenient spot their home. And, in the worst case, if no one was there at this moment, they could just wait for the pirates to arrive – it was safer and much more convenient than in any other place on the Nestri continent.

With dusk the cheering kids were brought back to the boat and two hours later they anchored behind the island where the pirate base was on. The plan was simple – the kids, Maxwell sisters and Kate will stay on the boat while the four real fighters of their group dealt with the situation on the island, whatever it may be.

They decided to approach from the north, or the right side of the bay looking from the Paradise city’s perspective. Then they would investigate first and decide on the following actions.

The squad stealthily entered the jungle that was covering a small hill and ten or fifteen minutes later already could take a look over the Paradise bay – there were two ships anchored in it.

“Are we good?” Nick whispered to Clayton. He didn’t have as good vision as a real Qi master and, in addition, Clayton was the only one present who could have a reasonable opinion on the ships.

“They’re a bit big for our crew, but we’ll manage.” Clayton grinned in response.

“Great! Let’s deal with the guards on the ships first, you take the one on the right and don’t forget to pay attention to the pirates – we have to understand what teams are here.” Nick instructed, then darted towards the dark bay waters and Clayton followed.

“Damn!” Steven cursed.

“I know, I still need at least a month to be able to do that.” YunYun pouted beside him while they watched the distant silhouettes of the two ships in the dark.

While whispering, they complained to each other for twenty minutes until Clayton came back, carrying a dead pirate on each of his shoulders. He was a bit out of breath, but happy noticing he was the first to return and even managed to bring some evidence of his performance for them to analyze. Few minutes later Nick arrived in a similar fashion and got startled seeing Clayton’s idea was similar to his and his older friend was even faster. The two of them glanced at each other and giggled, holding back the laughter.

A short inspection showed there were two different groups of pirates and one was dressed in king Red’s followers style while the others had the paintings of the king Black’s pirates.

“Alright, wait here, I’ll quickly check the situation in the city.” Nick quietly instructed, put on his red bandanna and disappeared between the trees.

When he arrived at the familiar docks, he saw around forty pirates drinking, chatting and laughing. The pack consisted of both groups they met on the two ships. After taking a look around Nick sneaked inside the grotto with the intention to check the situation in the Paradise city only to realize that there were no more buildings there, at least not habitable. Apparently the captives they released those months ago, burned down and destroyed everything they could and the few pirate crews that were left didn’t bother to reconstruct anything, at least not yet.

‘Interesting, do they have new kings?’ Nick grinned and another playful idea sprung to his mind.

“There are around forty pirates, they’re drunk and I am sure we can clean up easily. Maybe their captains are Qi masters, but I’m not certain and it doesn’t make much of a difference.” Nick shared his findings, “But I have an idea on how to make this more fun, what do you think?”

Despite the last twenty days being more relaxed, all of them had been under quite a lot of stress and wanted to fool around, especially YunYun who didn’t get to take part in the last ‘liberation party’ that took place on this island.

Nick quickly explained his plan, then corrected their respective attires and the four of them infiltrated the former Paradise city. From there one after another with booze bottles in their hands they slowly joined the pirates on the docks and formed their own small group that discussed women and their own feats just like the rest. No one even noticed the arrival of the four colleagues since they were dressed exactly the same way and behaved like the rest.