“W-what? Did someone fall off the Island or someone from the surrounding ships?” Ellie asks since she knows it could happen any day. Bodies of the people could either float for days or be eaten up by some carnivorous beasts from the depth below.

William glances from the deck, and the body floats there a few dozen feet away. The waves make it quite harder to pinpoint, but he is a man for sure. He is there, floating with his front facing the sky.

“William, help me get this poor soul to the deck. That is an unspoken rule as a man of the sea.” Haggard orders in seriousness.

William nods in approval and waits for Haggard's plan.

He motions for the boat to move a bit closer, while the body of the man is getting closer. William and Ellie look at the floating body, while Haggard lifts the man's hand from the lowest point of the deck.

“Help me, boy!” Haggard shouts as he couldn't lift the hand any further. With the help of William, they pull the man's body up to the deck.

“Phew.. what a heavy person. He doesn't look that heavy at all.” Even Ellie had to help a little for the 3 of them to lift this person out of the waters.

Panting and out of breath, William and Ellie are curious about the sudden poor soul.

There lay a bare body of a man, apart from the speedos covering his private region. An utmost chiseled man with bulging yet lean muscles around his whole body. He fell laying on the floor with his face up, yet he doesn't appear dead in the slightest.

With blond hair, with brown accents made his youthful face even more beautiful. Relative speaking to each person on the deck. William and Ellie grab their courage and look at this person closer.

William notices something that surprises him quite a bit.

There, in the middle of this man's forehead, is an etched pink nail-sized pearl. As if the bullet has been shot into more than a thick steel plate, and isn't able to fully penetrate the plate. It shaped the skin around the pearl like a small cross. Almost unnoticeable from far enough distance. That's how small this Emblem is.

Both of them realized it at the same time.

“A Walker?”

“Must be a Walker. Look at that Emblem? It is still beaming with life. He must be alive!” William guesses.

“Then what are we supposed to do with him? Resuscitation?” Ellie asserts with a bit of panic.

Suddenly, the man shakes a little. His face has closed eyes, and a deadly calm face. Both of them lean forward to see whether he would wake up on his own or not, while William pokes his face for a reaction.

And he does, in fact, react.

The man's silvery eyes shot open. Watching the starry sky, they appear calmer than anything.

Forcing his upper body straight, he grabs Allan's face and shoves him away, while almost dumping Ellie's.

Like this, he shoves William away, while his attention is piqued as he caresses Ellie's face with his palm. She freezes amidst the sudden movement and obvious attraction of the man's eyes.

“Yare Yare. What do we have here? I took a nap, and I am suddenly jolted away by a starry sky? Isn't it a beautiful sky today?” the man says in the utmost sweet tone.

His mesmerizing eyes watch Ellie's flustered face.

“S-sir?” she mumbles.

“It is beautiful today. I know the answer to your question. Yet your heart is not flattering. Interesting.” The man furrowed his brows while stopping touching Ellie's face.

Getting up, he stretches his chiseled body, while cracking his neck a bit more than should be healthy.

“Yare. Yare. What a nap. I guess I overdid it again.” he sights and makes a swift motion across his chest. In the middle of the air, as if there is something.

The 3 people on the deck are dumbfounded, with an inability to understand this situation. It seems they did something that they didn't have to care for at all.

Though, it is common sense to check anything on the sea. Such as the drifting body of a person. This is a basic unwritten rule of the ocean that Haggard knows, and he doesn't regret it at all.

“A-are you alright, sir?” Haggard forced himself forward while being the adult that he is.

Glaring at Haggard with a curious glance, the chiseled man is not speaking at all. A smirk on his face indicates nothing but a chuckle.

“We thought you were dead.” William blurts out while ignoring the fact that he was shoved across the whole deck with a flick of a man's hand.

Changing the direction of his gaze, the man looks at William with distinct curiosity.

“Interesting fella.” the man says, knitting his brows together.

Walking to him, he places his hand on his chin, while leaning his face a few inches before William's.

He wanted to escape, but the gaze of this man is mesmerizing to behold. Such a silvery sheen of eyes is not natural at all. It makes him seem ethereal and unnatural. The Emblem on top of his forehead makes everything shine that this pearl sees. It is making everything more mysterious and strange.

“Such robust emotions... You are a man of conviction and a sheer fucking will, aren't you?” the man asks with a serious expression.

William gulps down while nodding with whatever answer he is unsure of. Being right or wrong doesn't matter to him.

“Clueless, and.. right? A Rank 0 Walker... no wonder. Yet your gaze is rather peculiar. Interesting. Interesting.”

“D-does something matter?” William voices his suspicion of whatever is the problem with this man.

“Nothing at all. I am just looking at your soul.” The man says with all so calming voice as if he is watching a coil fish in the pond.

“Heheheh. No flick whatsoever. You are good. Good.” The man chuckles while backing off from William's face.

He stops with his gaze while flicking his 5-inch long hair out of the droplets of the residual water.

Rubbing his hair back around his scalp, he remains a dignified appearance from his natural actions.

As if what he did is of utmost commonality, yet the 3 people on the deck find it rather strange.

They never met someone like this at all.

Stepping in front of Ellie, the man lifts her hand, and with lightness, kisses her palm, as if he is in the 18th century.

“Let your dreams be a reality, young lady. Have a good night, in these especially dazzling stars.” the man glares back at everyone, and a burst of a single step jolts everyone in the ship, as he disappears from the spot.

A singular fast jump leads him to the top of a building on Assembly island.

It leaves everyone on the deck speechless, but not surprised, as this Walker should be someone from the Assembly Island.

“Heheheh...” Ellie chuckles in nervousness, as she couldn't help but get a shaking feeling in her knees. Falling short to the ground, she is glad this moment is over.

“W-who in the world was that?” Haggard asks in a turmoil of wonder.

“Obviously a madman of a Walker.” Ellie lets out while kneeling on the ground.

“A strange one indeed,” William says in a calm tone, with hidden curiosity. He felt not feel a bit afraid when that person went closer to him. He was like a star, that he wanted to marvel at. William would have no problem with that, but his feelings got quite shakedown. Like Ellie, he needs to calm down his mind.

“Uncle, let's get out of here,” Ellie mutters, as she no longer wants to stay in these waters any longer.

“R-right...”

On top of the residential building of Assembly Island.

The man who took a nap in the ocean sits cross-legged on top of the building.

Gazing forth, as if he watches the sky, ocean, and the Central Island that is before his bare eyes to see.

“A new starlight is being born yet again. With a flicker that has yet to shine. It will flicker or die. That is up to the lie.” He sings a song of meaning that only he could understand.

Flickering his finger up into the sky, he snaps them in one moment with a word that follows.

“Butler.”

A moment.

Second moment.

A gust of wind and dark Vectors reveals a person standing behind the chiseled man's back.

“Master called?” a lady in pitch black clothes says in a polite way.

“I wonder about something.”

“Master is wondering about a lot of things.”

“Do I?”

“I would dare to say so.” Lady indifferently says.

Swish!

A finger is placed around her neck, with the second, that caressing her lips. The chiseled man is standing behind her back in less than a moment from his seated position.

She could appear as indifferent as she could, but that would not help against this person. Fluster, a slim embarrassment or excitement that could only be called arousing is left on her mind.

The touch of her master, something that she loves to imagine, yet would never happen, happens.

“I am curious, Rave.” The man whispers in her ears.

“S-sir is always curious.”

“I know. The Examination, and The Awakening. Would you inform me of a youth with an interesting soul?”

“I can't watch the soul, master.”

“Right...” the man travels his finger across her cheek, downwards. Finding bones, or whatever there is. There is no special reason why he does this at all.

“Right-hand Emblem, Crimson,” he says.

“I will inform you.” Rave asserts, while arousal intensified all so suddenly, as her anticipated moment came. The touch of her master is gone.

As he too, is gone from the roof.

Rave is left all alone, yet with a goal in mind. She would finish it until the bitter end of her life. That is a goal of Butlers, after all. A gust of wind, in these starry sights beyond the Assembly Island, left no one and nothing there. Rave disappears, as she too has places to be in.

The single boat on the horizon goes with the tactical retrieval or straight-up fleeing pattern. Not like there is a difference, as the people on the boat have different feelings about the whole situation of the strange man.

William and Ellie are seated beside each other, but they are not speaking to each other. Even when they could, the sounds are not so clear beneath the roofed deck.

Haggard looks at the pair from time to time, and couldn't think about what happened as well. He speeds up the boat quite more, as they want to get away since Haggard got a hunch of that man's origin. Anyone from Assembly Island... especially the Walkers are not the folks he meets very often. Yet, when he does, it isn't pleasing.

That playful smirk of that man. He does not know what sort of thoughts were behind such a person.

Without much talk or ado, the boat returned to its rightful place. Ellie long ago places the hat on her lap. She had this hat on top of her head all this time. For the lack of interest, or the reason why it ended up on her head in the first place.

“We are back,” Haggard tells the passengers before they noticed the arrival back at his place.