Years ago, even before Lawkey was taken in by the Phantom Rogues.
In a location long gone in the south west of Tartarus.
A giant emerald bubble was sucking in and consuming everything and everyone around it.
“GO!! Take them and leave! Quickly!!” The boy in the center of the bubble shouted, his features and figure quickly fading into the blinding lights.
“...”
Watching from a distance the pressure hasn’t begun to drag him just yet, Lawkey stood with a plain expression. Without realizing it, his hands were clenched in fists at his sides.
His weapon, a still unnamed blade at the time, was on his back, and yet, he saw no way for him to intervene.
What was a seven year old supposed to do in this situation exactly?
Besides, why would he?
The boy within the growing chaos of a bubble was just someone he had only met not so long ago…
Even though Lawkey never asked, the boy had helped him, protected him, supported him…
And now, he was sacrificing his life to free him?
Why?
Why go through that much effort?
The boy was just a few years older than Lawkey, he had his entire life in front of him.
He always smiled, grinning from ear to ear even under the daily torture he was singlehandly put through.
Not once did he let the pain show on his face, always cracking stupid jokes that no one laughed at, always acting like their big brother.
“Don’t just stand there and go! I can’t hold it much longer…”
“!” Lawkey felt a tightness in his chest he hadn’t felt before.
Although his plain expression hadn’t changed, he instinctively took a step forward while clawing at his heart.
“Don’t, you idiot! Just leave!” The boy shouted through gritted teeth, “Go and live… find something to smile about…”
“...”
“Life isn’t worth it without that…”
“?!”
Lawkey’s eyes suddenly constricted into tiny points as he watched the boy’s figure completely disappear within the bubble, consuming him whole like it did everything around him.
It merely took another second for the lights to completely disappear, then suddenly flash again.
BOOOMMM!!
The explosions took everything around it, not sparing any materials or lives it came across.
Even though he never took his eyes off, Lawkey was dragged away from behind.
That was the first time he realized how fleeting a life of someone close to him could really be.
He was a child of war, just one of many, brought up to be a weapon of the battlefield. He protected the ones he was supposed to, and killed the ones he was sent for.
It had been that simple. He did it on instinct.
He couldn’t realize it at the time, but that moment awakened the desire in him to protect the ones he cared about.
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In other words, it was the day his emotions had sparked once more.
**👑**
Back on the Galleon ship Aliarda, present time.
“But not the one I knew…” Lawkey trailed off as he looked up again, “He gave his life for me…”
“I see…” Riana lowered her gaze, not wanting to pry any further, “but that bubble, I’ve never seen it get so big. She must have been really scared…”
“...”
Riana hesitated for a second, still not able to quite understand her next words, “... She didn’t want to lose you.”
“Heh, maybe it was just the sight of you covered in blood, or this whole massacre…” Lawkey exclaimed, but in his mind, he knew it must’ve been related to the invisible voice and their implanted memories.
Even though he couldn’t directly confirm it, it was very likely that the voice had attempted something similar with Sana.
Otherwise, why would she simply allow herself to be saved by a stranger and act all friendly with him, even calling him something like dad? It was either that, or the girl had a little screw loose in the head.
“Either way…” Riana lowered her head in a bow, still holding onto Sana’s sleeping body, “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. Ask whatever of me and you shall have it.”
A single eyebrow on Lawkey’s face perked up. He felt as if the siren in front of him was really starting to show a complete other side to her now.
It was just moments ago that she was shouting and trying to kill him with every single fiber in her body.
Before he could retort or answer her, she quickly followed up.
“Oh… but I can’t let you have her… or um, m-my body…” The proud and deadly siren darted her crimson eyes left and right as a tinge of redness began to flush under them. Her fish-like ears began to twitch slightly, their color matching her eyes getting stronger.
“,,,” Lawkey was stunned for a moment, then quickly recovered, “So, you can make a face like that too, huh? But that comment was unnecessary, I’m not some pervert. I don’t need anything… I’m just glad she’s safe.”
Those were his genuine feelings. He couldn’t know if the implanted memories had really affected these emotions, but he knew for certain that he would’ve saved her with or without them.
He never wanted a repeat of the past, no matter who it was.
“Are you sure?” Riana raised her head again, a slight frown creeping in, “Either ask now, or never again.”
“Man, which is it? Are you nice or strict?” Lawkey couldn’t figure her out anymore, her mood swings were even stranger than Jun’s, “On second thoughts, take me to your Island, Sweet Scylla. I was hoping to get some Pancakes and information there.”
Following his previous proclamation of not being a pervert, he chose to withhold his desire to meet the mermaids. It was simple curiosity, so he didn’t want to give her the wrong idea.
No, really! I’m just curious! He affirmed inwardly.
“Pancakes?” Riana gently put Sana on the floor and got up, immediately pushing her arms in the air and stretching her body, “I don’t know how much luck you’ll have there, but sure, I’ll take you to our humble little island.”
“Luck, huh?” Lawkey muttered as he got up too, following her lead.
Riana trotted over to a motionless body, grabbed it by one foot, and began to drag it all the way to the edge of the ship, where she had first made her appearance.
“?”
Without hesitation, she flicked her wrist and threw the corpse into the sea.
Seeing that, Lawkey tried to follow her lead and grabbed on a leg next to him.
“Your injuries?” She asked, noticing him doing the same.
“Heh, I’ll be fine. I’ve seen worse.” The previously dehydrated prisoner assured with a scoff.
“If you say so.”
“What are you doing, anyway?”
Seeing her kick another body over the edge, Lawkey couldn’t hold his curiosity any longer.
“The sea knows all, let them be judged by Nimuë herself.” She said, dragging yet another body.
“Nimuë? Who’s that?” Lawkey asked, having just thrown his first victim. A slight sense of urgency was beginning to creep up within him, as if urging him on to keep up.
“She is the lady of the lake and sea.” Riana explained, throwing her third body, “It’s believed she died centuries ago, but we of the Undine Clan still believe in her presence and pray to her.”
“Nimuë, huh? Cool name.”
Lawkey tossed another body and immediately grabbed two at the same time.
“It’s not a name, but a title.” The siren corrected with a slightly confused expression while watching him rush the clean up, “Speaking of which, I’m Riana of the Undine Clan. Sorry for earlier, um…”
“It’s Lawkey, it’s best we leave it at that.” He sent his two victims on their way to Nimuë and turned back with a cocky grin.
“...?” Riana raised an eyebrow as she dragged two new bodies behind her, “I see. That name, those markings on your chest, and your current predicament… It doesn’t seem like you’ve had an easy life.”
After everything that went down, Riana had chosen to believe his first words to her. Although she didn’t know the details, it was now clear to her that he was a prisoner on board Aliarda too. He had attempted to save Sana before he even knew her situation as well.
The waves haven’t been kind to him and yet…
The siren was still trying to make heads and tails of his actions. After all, they were all on the same miserable rock named after the endless abyss in the afterlife.
“Does anyone on this continent have an easy life? I don’t know about outside of this place, but- WAIT!!!”
“?!”
He quickly cut himself off as he ran to stop Riana from throwing one of the bodies she had been dragging.
“Those are my clothes! I knew it! Someone stole them and was wearing them!!” Lawkey was torn at how to feel about the perpetrator who was already dead. He would’ve liked to gently smack him over the head a few times, with the sharp edge of his blade.
You got off really easy buddy… He inwardly addressed the departed miscreant.
“Really? You usually wear clothes like these?” Riana tilted her head slightly and asked with a raised brow.
“What? You think I just walk around half naked like you all the time?” He retorted back.
“Huh? I-I’ll have you know, I only wore this to help me swim faster!” The proud siren stumbled through her words again, blushing slightly.
Of course that hadn’t been the truth. After hearing about Sana’s kidnapping, she didn’t take any time to change clothes before jumping into the sea.
That was simply what she had on while coming back from completing her daily diving tasks.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Just let me get my clothes.”
“Heeheehee~”
“?!”
The two immediately turned back to face the source of the giggling.
Sana had woken up some time ago and was spying on them. She was laying on her stomach, supporting her chin with both hands, all the while kicking her feet with a smug smile on her slightly blushing face.
“Sana!” Her auntie wasted no time and immediately ran to her, giving her a tight hug, “if you were awake, you should’ve said something! Do you know how worried I was?!”
“Heehee, auntie got a boy-”
“I did not!!”
Ignoring her auntie’s outburst, Sana quickly squirmed through Riana’s arms and ran towards Lawkey.
“Daddy!”
Oh, no!! Lawkey’s eyes widened as he gulped, knowing full well what was coming next.
“WHAT DID YOU CALL HIM?!”
A grayish blue spear was already picked up, ready to taste Lawkey’s blood again.
“EH?!”
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]