image [https://i.postimg.cc/WzXQrsJN/ch-93-vol-3.jpg]

I’d thought I'd heard him wrong, but after asking for clarification, he once more claimed we were on a large water bound vessel meant for transporting and deploying planes at sea. A subtle back and forth sway in our environment confirmed this was certainly a boat.

“Uhg…” Indena was rubbing her eyes, trying to recover from her affinity of slumber. “What’s going on? Why are we in jail?”

That was exactly what I was thinking when we first got here. Before our minds created any further rationalizations, we turned to Marek to spill the beans.

With a sigh, he was willing to talk. “After I went and lied to that audience and showed them the evidence, they turned on Mr. Lucas quickly. The guilt kept me up at night. I was losing my mind, and…” he laid back on his bunk. “Let’s just say I made a different mistake that got published into the news.”

“What mistake?” I asked.

“I’d… I’d rather not tell.” He turned his head away from us.

“Come on, Blue Boy.” Indena folded her arms and goaded him. “We’re in the thick of it, might as well call us accomplices.”

He really didn’t want to share, but Indena brought up a good enough point to convince him otherwise.

“I had…an…affair.” He turned red.

“Like a bored movie star would?” I compared, having that as my only point of reference.

“Nice one, kid,” Indena chuckled.

Marek shot me a disapproving glare. “Must you be so crude? I’m serious, no?” he grunted and rolled himself back into a sitting position on the side of the bed. “I started secretly dating someone who was of a lower social class than me. We aristocrats are not supposed to do that. In fact, I’m supposed to marry a different woman who was hand picked by my parents.”

“Why?” Indena shot him a confused look. “Just say no.”

“I can’t,” he claimed. “You don’t understand. It’s about keeping the family going strong, making allies with other families, and making sure our money doesn’t go to the wrong places. We have to marry people who are part of that game.”

“Is your awful dad forcing this on you?” Indena asked.

Something about the way she said that hit me the wrong way.

“Don’t blame him for everything,” Marek said. “He’s not nearly as bad as he seemed. He had to retire to take care of our family business after my grandmother passed away. That’s why his seat on the council opened up. The stress of both keeping the family strong and the country secure was overloading him.”

Thinking about it like that, I never did get the impression that his dad was actually crazy. It always looked to me like he was desperate and stressed. Although, I don’t know how much the demon lord was exaggerating those qualities. So it might have just been how Marek was perceiving his father at the time rather than how he actually was.

“You guys mentioned something about a war?” I brought up, thinking that would be a key factor in his father's stress levels.

“Our country has made a lot of enemies. There’s always a threat that another great war could start if tensions piqued.”

That implied that there was already a first great war to begin with.

“Does the other political party actually want a war?” Indena asked.

“If you ask anyone on their side, they’ll deny it. But…” He turned up to the ceiling. “Do you remember the evidence I brought up against Mr. Lucas?”

That evidence stated that he was selling out info to foreign countries in order to gain support for his campaign.

“I learned later that the evidence wasn't completely fabricated. Someone in their party was selling out the country for support. The whistleblower just threw Lucas under the bus. If they're doing that, there's no doubt they're setting the stage for a terrible conflict.”

“Hang on,” Indena spoke up, “wouldn’t someone have found that out and cleared his name?”

Marek shook his head. “You’d think, but the investigation launched by his party was nothing more than superficial. I believe someone wanted him to take the fall, and I was a pawn in that game.”

So not only did Marek feel guilt for ruining a man's career, but it may have also been part of a bigger conspiracy that could have led to a war. I’m starting to think Mr. Lucas was a bit more of an honest man then most.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“So what happened to this Lucas guy?” Indena asked.

“We don't know,” Marek said. “The public practically banished him from society, and the I.S.F. never found a trace of where he’d gone.”

“Dude’s probably dead in a ditch somewhere,” Indena concluded. “He probably knew something he shouldn’t have, so they wanted him gone.”

“Why do you think I couldn’t sleep for months? Even if the I.S.F. found him, they probably would have hung him for treason.”

They hang people here? That's barbaric!

“Dude, this situation is scuffed as heck,” Indena said. “Seriously, we need to get you out of politics. You’re too good for this.”

“I need to serve for my sins before that can happen,” he said in a depressed tone.

“Can we go back a few pages here?” I requested. “What exactly happened to your father’s seat on the council?”

If Marek was in the navy after the election, then that meant neither of them won, right? Well, he clearly won it eventually, but why then was he serving at sea?

“After news of my affair got out, my father decided to separate me from my lover and send me to the navy, which was a stunt to boost my public image.”

“But, you're on the council now, right?” Indena asked.

“Serving the Royal Navy for 3 years gained me a lot of respect among the people, especially since Verrenville has a lot of sailor families. It gave me just enough popularity to properly earn the seat in the last election. Lucky for us, we were able to put in a substitute who held the seat until I got back.”

“Oh…” I uttered. “So, did you guys keep the majority?”

Marek shook his head. “No. In fact, a lot of council members on our side started disappearing, leaving their seats wide open in the last election.”

“Oh my gosh…” I spoke in shock. “That’s very suspicious.”

“It was,” Marek nodded. “But nobody could prove that our opposition was involved. Bodies never turned up, nor were there any confessions. They’d just vanish without a trace and have yet to be found.”

I was sure some kind of magic was involved. But when I suggested that, Marek said the detectives and forensic teams on the case would have had ways of discovering if it was responsible for the disappearances. Nothing ever turned up.

“Before I forget to ask, it’s my turn for a question, no?” Marek sat forward with an inquisitive look on his face. “Why are you no longer a child, and why is Indena so small now? What’s going on here?”

“I might be small now, but I'll bite your ankles if you get me mad!” Indena growled, but I couldn’t take her cute baby voice very seriously.

Yeah, he probably deserved an explanation for all this. “When we got into this dream reality, I was turned into an adult. And Indena was turned into a kid.”

“Dream reality…” He furrowed his brow and nodded. “Well, I mean, no… You changed just a few moments ago.”

“Huh?” When I looked at myself, I didn’t look any different than when I first got into the dream.

“Actually, yeah.” Indena nodded with him. “You changed back into a kid for a little while when you were arguing with the demon lord.”

Huh, I guess they were right. I wasn’t paying much attention at the time, but it did seem like that was the case. It was an interesting oddity, but what could have caused it?

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring over a speaker in the room. A bell followed shortly and rang really loudly.

Marek shot up on instinct and started to dress himself in a blue camo naval uniform. It was surreal how fast he changed.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“That’s the proximity alarm. It means there’s an imminent threat.”

*BOOM!*

The whole ship shook violently as something crashed into it. There must have been a huge explosion to rock us around like that.

“Attention all crewmen, this is your captain! All hands to battle stations!”

*BOOM!*

“Ahh!” we all shouted, hanging on tight to anything so we didn’t fly around the room.

“We gotta’ get off this ship!” I said, stepping toward the door.

“You said it!” Indena supported.

I couldn’t get the door to open though, something was jamming it. Marek pushed me aside and attempted to pull it open himself, but he was too scrawny now to do that.

“Why am I so weak?” His frustration faded to depression. “Oh, this was probably just when I joined, wasn’t it?” he turned to me. “You’ve ripped doors off their hinges. You can do it again, no?”

Instead of relying on my base form, I activated my combat mode and gained an incredible boost in strength. That metal door was off its hinges like tearing a page out of a notebook.

A new issue developed however, as I found myself overlooking the sea with a pirate vessel aiming its cannons right at us.

“Evasive maneuvers!” I shouted, grabbing Indena and Marek, forcing them to the left side of the room.

*BAM!*

A cannon ball blasted right through the opening, crashing into the wall opposite of the door and causing shrapnel to fly. I covered my allies with my body and wings.

Most of the metal was blocked by my feathers, but some of it got past and punctured into the flesh of my wings. Blue blood dripped out.

“Is everyone alright?” I scanned their bodies, not seeing any significant wounds that needed attention.

“I’m fine,” Indena sounded off.

“I’m okay too,” Marek said.

I took a little damage, but making sure they’d be protected was priority one. Priority two was getting us out of here, however I planned on doing that.

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