The caravan continued through the forest, the rough, uneven road slowly giving way to a path softened by thick moss and snow. The transition, accompanied by the sounds of nature around us, was enough to lull me to sleep while wrapped in the blanket. Kael remained in the front, guiding the caravan along the forest floor as the horses continued walking.

  Kael was quietly whistling to himself, his gaze sweeping across the thick and dense forest. He couldn’t help but think back to the fabricated Rakkiounk Crylla had conjured in Clifton to distract Cosette, smirking at the sheer absurdity of the plan and how it worked. Crylla had decided to head back to the Katshin Empire to accompany Ice Eyes and tend to the emperor’s needs if there were any.

  Under the premise of his doing charity work, Kael mused that the emperor would let him remain vacant from the throne until many of the local problems were tended to. Kael also knew of measures a leader would take when their greatest advisor was either missing or off-site, issuing another prominent figure to tend to such a role.

  Kael’s train of thought came to a halt the moment a strange buzzing emanated across his body. He paused for a beat, but the horses in front of him proceeded onwards. Extending his hand, he watched as crimson flames condensed to form a piece of paper—a scroll.

  He arched an eyebrow as he extended his hand, grabbing the scroll hovering in midair.

  “Usually a raven would deliver it to me,” Kael sighed to himself.

  He uncurled the paper and began to scan over the contents. It was from Perola and the other vulpurs in Seraphis Kingdom, letting him know that Francis had fallen ill and began to exhibit strange signs and symptoms. Upon scanning all the contents, Kael couldn’t help but smile to himself.

  He waved his hand, conjuring up a pen and some ink that he could write with. On the heels of that, another sheet of paper appeared in front of him, hovering midair. Kael often indulged in the pleasure of writing, whether it was a simple entry or an entire manuscript, while his duties—whether mundane or malicious—seemed tiresome and boring.

  But this time, he could simply say the words aloud, and the pen would write the corresponding sentences straight from his voice. This wasn’t an ability of the Apocalypse pathway, but simply an action—moreover, a skill or hobby—refined over many, many months of practice.

  Before he spoke aloud, Kael couldn’t help but smile to himself.

  ...

  Rumble!

  The sudden bump of the caravan reaching rocky earth again was enough to jostle me awake. My eyes shot open, and I let out an involuntary snort. When I raised my body and peered out through the small viewport, I noticed how the trees of the forest had cleared, making way for a rocky beach, but the beach was covered in snow.

  By the coast, I could make out a large, bulking shape outlined in the darkness, but I didn’t exactly know what it was. Rubbing my eyes, I adjusted the blanket around myself and looked back at Kael, who was silently humming to himself.

  “Are we... here?” I asked, my voice groggy and hoarse from sleep.

  Kael looked back at me, nodding. “Indeed, we are. Now, get yourself ready.”

  I huffed, pulling the blanket tighter around me. Kael opened the side door of the caravan and stepped out onto the snowy beach. The snow crunched beneath his boots as he came closer and closer to the back hatch of the vehicle. I heard the all-familiar ‘click’ of the lock being loosened, followed by an almost blinding ray of sunlight piercing my vision.

  The sun had begun to rise over the horizon, and the direction of the caravan so happened to face it. I winced, closing my eyes and letting out an almost vampiric hiss.

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  “Oh, I forgot to mention, after Order 7 advancement, you are... increasingly vulnerable to sunlight.”

  “So, I’m a damn vampire now? I can’t touch silver too...” I whined, raising the blanket over my head.

  “You’ll get used to it, Isaac,” Kael said as he grabbed the blanket over my head, yanking it off and rolling it up. He stuffed it into my arms as I groggily stepped out of the caravan, looking around the icy shore.

  Before I could speak, Kael had already grabbed my body, turning me around to face the object in the distance. As more and more sun rose from the ocean, I could gradually see what the object was—a ship. Its hull was dark-colored, bordering on black. The top was decorated with numerous pipes and systems that emitted constant pillars of smoke and gas into the air.

  We were about twenty or thirty yards from the ship, but even through the rusted steel hull, I could hear shouting—lots of it. The inmates in there were already this rowdy in the morning?

  I glanced at Kael, my heart sinking a little. “So you’re just gonna leave me there?”

  The man with pointed ears and crimson hair looked down at me, giving me a somewhat affectionate headpat, which I quickly retracted from, slapping Kael’s hand away.

  “You’ll be fine. If anyone touches you, I’ll know... and they won’t like what happens next.”

  “That’s... good to hear, I guess,” I shrugged, slowly walking forward towards the ship parked on the shore. As I came closer, I heard a metallic creaking sound. A small, rectangular portion of the ship's hull facing the coast gradually extruded and lowered into the snow, and a man walked out—a man with a ragged and beat-up appearance.

  This rough-looking man immediately looked in my direction, his expression borderline unreadable.

  “Your friend told me you’d look less like a field mouse.”

  I froze mid-step, immediately looking at Kael, who stood with his hands clasped neatly behind his back. The latter only smiled with the innocence of a child who didn’t know the dangers of the world around them.

  “Did he tell you I crush people’s skulls for fun or something?” I grumbled.

  I felt a large wave of satisfaction knowing I’d have him executed by my own emperor soon enough.

  The gruff-looking man sighed, a small trail of fog leaving his mouth and dissipating into the crisp, cold air around us. He plucked a few stray pieces of food from his beard and flicked them into the snow.

  “He told me you’re one tough cookie, that’s for sure. But... I don’t think that’s true.” He cast me an almost condescending smile.

  I rolled my eyes. “If Kael told you something along the lines of me liking to murder people or something, his opinion is as credible as a snake's.”

  “Wow, look at Mr. Grammer over here.” The gruff man's expression brimmed, lips twitching and eyes shining with an almost mocking allure.

  “I know, he does tend to... run his mouth in many situations,” Kael said as he approached, grabbing me by my hair and smiling down at me, exposing his twin fangs perched in his mouth.

  “I know the perfect cell for those who love to... run their mouth. Hell, from what I’ve heard, I believe it comes with a muzzle, just like you’d find on a dog.”

  My eyes widened in horror as my heart sank to my toes. Upon seeing my expression, both Kael and the ragged-looking man burst into laughter.

  Through the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, the man chuckled. “We’re kiddin’, kid. But, we do know exactly where to keep you...”

  “I wish you the fairest of travels, my dear calamity,” Kael shouted at me as the hatch closed behind us. The interior of the ship was warm and moist, much like a sauna—except this ‘sauna’ wasn’t much of a sauna at all, but a hub of the most dangerous and vile people one could imagine.

  As we made our way through the ship, the ragged man couldn’t help but look down at my attire, scoffing to himself.

  “Look at you and yer’ little fancy getup. I’m sure you’ll love what we got for you.”

  The two of us came before a room sealed by a thick metal door. In the faint illumination brought by the gas lamps, I watched as the man twisted a code into the padlock of the door. After the code was successfully entered, the padlock fell to the floor below, echoing across the hallway with a dull clang.

  When we entered the room, the illumination made me see most of the interior. It was a changing room, small and square-like in shape. Unlike the rest of the ship, it was bitterly cold in here, almost as cold as outside.

  The gruff man stood in the doorway as I entered, his attention focusing on the dark-colored uniform roughly folded on a bench nearby.

  “The room is so cold because it doubles as the washroom, y’hear? The hole in the bench leads right to the ocean.”

  Feeling a pang of slight curiosity, I climbed onto the bench and peered down into the hole. And sure enough, there was a circular hole cut into the bench, leading down into the ocean—a void-like, murky pool.

  “But if you wanna do your business, I recommend you be careful. One time, someone came in here to take a shit, next thing y’know, he was rushed to the medical wing because a leech got sucked into his anus. Heh, you shoudda’ seen all the blood by the time the damn bug was removed; it looked like supper in there!”

  I backed away from the hole in the bench, my stomach already flipping. I looked at the black uniform folded on the bench. It was a collarless shirt that could be slipped on easily, alongside matching black pants with folded cuffs.

  “Now, get changed before I call over the warden.”

  They closed the door behind them, leaving me alone in the room.

  After I got myself changed in under two minutes, I opened the door and stepped out. The humid, mucky air of the ship assaulted my face, making me wince and grit my teeth.

  The man from before greeted me with a smile before guiding me to the main prison hall. It was a long, narrow hallway lined with matching cells, all sealed off by thick metal bars that extended top to bottom of the cells' perimeter, allowing no inmates to escape or even reach their hands out.

  I could already hear shouting, bantering, alongside insults and slurs being hurled in all directions like vocal projectiles. Some of the things I heard—either towards me or other inmates—were enough to make my heart speed up.

  We stopped before my cell, which was quite large for my bodily stature. It came accompanied with a bench, a basic kitchen—to my shock—and a stuff-looking bed topped with a firm pillow, stained mattress, and a blanket. I still held the blanket Kael had offered me in my hand.

  “Who’s this?” A gruff voice sounded within the cell.

  I immediately looked to the corner, where a large man with messy dark-colored hair, large muscles that throbbed as if they struggled under his flesh, and eyes that shone in the darkness.

  “Your new friend, William. Now, I’d recommend you introduce yourself.”

  I had been in a similar situation like this with the medical facility back in Seraphis Kingdom, but here, I could already feel like my life was at risk.