"Well, didn't expect us to be back here so soon, but..." I sighed with a tired chuckle, "Here we are. Back at Meridia's one and only dock."

"It's like our second home at this point, wouldn't you agree?" Adam looked excited as proudly wore his overprotective iron armor, "As the king, I often have to travel somewhere, so I've grown quite used to this place."

"Used to the stinky smell of fish and all the salt in the air chafing your skin?" Issei raised an eyebrow, "Geez, I never could understand how people got used to that, and Japan is an island country."

"Seriously, that country of yours just keeps getting more and more interesting." I remarked, "The only island country in the world is Lichtenstelle, and even then it's not really that populated safe from Arthur and the other workers."

"Don't say that. They're making the place their own." Aru looked eastward, "Yep, every time I check in on them, the place just looks more and more livelier. I even heard they're planning on making a road over the ocean to bridge the two continents with it."

"Whoa, really?" Issei asked, "Dude, that place really grew since Lune bought it. You think he'd be mad that the place is being used by a restaurant branch of all things?"

"What are you talking about? Both Grim and I owe Arthur our lives." I reminisced, "Back when we first started out, he took us in from the streets and gave us a job at his restaurant so we could get some cash for our travels. Heh, back then Arthur's was just a small local restaurant in Stringwood..."

"Huh? Is that the case?" Adam raised his eyebrows in astonishment, "To think that that food chain had such a strong connection to you two, what can I say? I'm impressed."

"Right, right." Aru wanted to immediately get down to business, "Feel as impressed as you want, but please consider multitasking and solving the issue at hand at the same time."

"Right, we came here for a reason, and that reason is to ask around about the recent attacks." Adam spared not even a second in doing just that.

"Whoa, you really switched gears so fast?" Both Issei and I asked.

"The king of this land should be capable of nothing less." He replied stoically, "Now, an important thing to note is that there weren't really any notable attacks on this dock. It's just the place we assume the problem came from."

"So now you wanna ask the dock workers here if they have any records of any suspicious people that came to this dock in the first place."

"Ohh, good idea." I nodded, "Then, there's a captain over there. Let's go check in with him."

Everyone agreed, so we walked on over to the rugged old man that was busying himself with tying knots around a pillar. Noticing on our faces that we had intentions of interrogating him quite early on, he clicked his tongue and angrily turned around.

"What? I don't do private voyages." He immediately shot down what he thought we wanted to ask him.

"No, we're not here for that. We just want to ask a few questions." Adam struggled to turn around with his heavy armor to show him the royal blade on his hip, "I'm sure you know who I am."

"His Highness?" He looked a bit flustered before bursting out guffawing, "Bah! What's such a great man doing talking to a lowly captain like me?"

"Did anyone suspicious perhaps come to this dock recently?" Aru asked, "Someone who had a certain... affinity towards animals."

"Little girl, lots of suspicious people come to this dock. It's the only dock in Meridia, after all." He shook his head, "Sorry, but you're gonna need to be more specific."

"Well, we don't really know either." I shrugged, "We just need someone who was so suspicious that they're above the other weirdoes that come here."

"Heh, so not even you fellers know who it is you're looking for?" He chuckled, "Well then, I can name one. Real scary fellow, I was there when he came here."

"Can you remember what he looked like?" Adam began asking questions, "What ship did he come from, and what direction?"

"Dunno any of those." He ominously explained, "The feller swam to here. No boat in sight."

"Huh?" We furrowed our brows, "Swam? But there's no land for dozens of kilometers."

"Exactly, that's the scary part." He continued, "When he made it to the dock, everyone obviously went to ask if he was alright, thinking he was a survivor of a nearby shipwreck or something, but he didn't say a word. He just kept on stammering forward, like some sort of zombie or something. Real spooky."

Turning to Aru to have her check the validity of the story, she nodded with a worried look on her face, "There was indeed a guy like that. In my visions, he's blacked out just like the other one. Without a doubt, they are one in the same."

"Wow, that was easier than I thought..." I then turned to the captain, "So, can you tell us what he looked like?"

If this mysterious person is blacked out in Aru's visions, that means he's not of this world, just like Issei is. But still, if we can see Issei face-to-face, that means that this person has to have an appearance as well. Having a description would help us immensely, but it's a shame he didn't even say a word. We can't get a name like that.

"Covered in kelp." The captain laughed out loud, "The lad swam across the ocean from Allucius knows where."

"I don't-" She tried correcting him, but we shut her up before she made the conversation even more confusing.

"Still, a random guy swimming to the dock that's covered in kelp and doesn't say a word sounds pretty remarkable." Adam asked one final time, "Do you at least know where he went?"

"I didn't bother following him, since I had my ship to tend to, but the others were quite curious, so I heard from them where he went." He gladly explained, "They followed him to the edge of town. He went down the path that leads to Sabljevo."

"Sabljevo, got it." He then gave a friendly salute to the old chap before bidding farewell, "Thank you for your time."

"Anytime, Your Highness." He waved back with a wry smile.

"Hold on, why even bother to ask if we already knew he went to Sabljevo?" Issei tilted his head as we walked away.

"For good measure." Adam elaborated, "Of course we have just enough info to piece together that the mystery person went to Sabljevo, and that this mystery person is the same as that one, but what if the captain said something else? In these situations, you can never be too sure, so what's the harm in asking just in case?"

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Smart, I guess you can't be the king of the entire continent without asking around. Who asks wanders not, so to speak.

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***

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We didn't really stay all too long in the dock town, instead opting to waste no time and immediately set off to our second location - Sabljevo. Flagging down a nearby transport wagon, we sat inside and told the driver where to. He was kind of grumpy at first, probably because he seemed to have just gotten back from a long voyage himself and was just about ready to find an inn to rest up in, but he quickly changed his tune when he noticed the Grys crest on Adam's hilt.

"Right, Sabljevo, not that far from here, so I don't mind at all!" He talked a mile a minute, "We'll be there in a jiffy!"

"At ease, we're not in any rush to be there." Adam smiled back over to us, "Instead, how about we share our thoughts on our findings so far?"

"The captain... It's way too convenient that he both knew of this mystery person we're looking for and was more than willing to share the info with us." Issei seemed skeptical, "We should have asked more people."

"It's because of my favor." Aru chalked it up to that, "Surely the luck following our group pointed us to the exact person we were looking for first try."

"Yeah, there's that, but also: What more could you ask?" I figured, "He told us a lot about this person: They're someone with seemingly unnatural strength and durability to swim through such waves, someone who has a set goal and blindly walks towards it, not even minding the people around him, and finally, someone who didn't even seem to be conscious of his surroundings, so much so that he was completely enshrouded in kelp to the point of it being difficult to identify him."

"In other words - We don't know his origins, we don't know his name, we don't know his end goal or motives and we don't even know his appearance." Issei then reclined before sarcastically asking, "Really, what more could we ask about?"

"W-Well, when you put it like that, I guess..." I kind of regretted rushing to the next location so much.

"No, that line of thinking is wrong." Adam refuted him resolutely, "We now know for certain that we don't know anything."

"What a profound way with words..." Aru smirked.

"Please listen." He continued, "Knowing that you know nothing is just as, if not more important than knowing in and of itself. We have reaffirmed that this person isn't violent, nor does he have any clear terroristic intents, judging by the way he quietly and calmly left the scene the moment he arrived. We also got a gender, which even in the worst case scenario narrows down our search by half of this world's population."

"I don't know if what you're saying is extremely smart or extremely optimistic." Issei tried understanding all the words coming out of Adam's mouth before just giving up and tossing him a hearty thumbs up, "But I agree with you nonetheless!"

"That's no good foreigner! Argue a little, don't be a pushover!" Aru tried egging him on, but to no avail.

"Argue with the king? And what am I gonna do when I get a huge bounty placed on me?" He asked, "I'm no captain of the Straw Hats or anything, so I definitely don't take pride in such things."

"Another story... Geez, just how many of those have you read?" I asked, "Are books such a commodity over there? Isn't printing expensive?"

"Nah, I actually heard it's cheaper to print manga than toilet paper in Japan." Issei then recalled, "Oh, I think I still have a chapter of One Piece saved in my cache, actually! Wait, lemme show you!"

"Huh? Whoa, so it's like a picture book!" Aru and I gawked at the art displayed on the phone's screen, "The proportions feel kinda off, though."

"That's Oda-sensei's signature style!" Issei defended it, "He draws wacky and cartoonish characters to set his manga apart from the rest! It's genius!"

"That device..." Adam grabbed Issei by the wrist, stopping him from putting his phone back into his pocket, "I've seen it before..."

How come? Issei's phone is something only he has. In other words - It's the only one in this world, so how can he claim that he's seen it before? Is he maybe confusing it with something of a similarly funky design? No, he's no fool. Adam is someone smart enough to rule the continent, and even make it thrive at that. If he claims he's seen it, then he's seen it, which can only mean one thing... Issei showed his phone to him in the past.

"T-This old thing?" Issei desperately tried to lie his way out, "I-I bought it from some traveling merchant."

"You did?" Adam wasn't quite convinced.

"Yeah, during our travels." Issei continued, "He mentioned something about it being a travelers best friend, so I went against Othelia's wishes and bought it instead of buying myself some clothes. She was really pissed at me for doing that..."

"Pheh, seriously dude?" I chuckled to lighten the mood and to help make his story sound more believable, "That's so irresponsible."

"To think she still loves a guy like you..." Aru commented as well.

"Yeah, but I don't regret it for even a second!" Issei defended the choice he made in this imaginary cover-up story, "This thing was well worth the extra month of wearing the same torn clothes!"

"Hmm..." Adam stared him down before ultimately letting go of his hand and smiling, "Is that so? I do believe we've met the same vendor then, since he had offered to sell me one just like that?"

"I didn't-" Issei almost corrected him, but quickly course-corrected, "I-I mean, I didn't think he was here in Cardina before that. I bought this in Simpleton."

"Ah, the land of budding technology, of course." Adam nodded, still smiling, "Then I have no doubts that that device is of the highest quality."

"Yep, the best there is." Issei left the conversation at that.

Man, this guy says he's foreign, but he's a master of the Rules of Lying! He went through all four steps like it's nothing!