Gary woke up to find his face wet with tears. He was shocked. Had he been crying? He hadn’t cried when he watched his father died; he hadn’t cried when his mother died in his arms; he hadn’t cried when he had nightmares several nights in a row when he first killed someone; he hadn’t cried in a long, long time.

He blinked his eyes, trying to recall his dream, which was probably what made him cried. But he couldn’t remember.

In the morning, he went to the shed to find Jihyo. He had to give her breakfast. He fed her silently, making no comments about the incident yesterday.

“I’m sorry,” Jihyo said softly. Gary didn’t reply.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated gently. “I shouldn’t have criticized your job. Maybe I have grown up in a sheltered environment to know how hard is it to survive.” Gary walked away, not wanting to hear anymore. But he stopped, for some reason, and stayed by the door instead.

There was a short period of silence after Gary left Jihyo’s side. Gary started to walk away, but Jihyo spoke again.

“I know you are still here. I’m sorry that I blamed you for having to kill me… it’s just…” she stopped. She wanted to tell him that for the first time in forever, she felt that someone truly cared for her when he fed her, when he gave her the medicine for sea-sickness, and when he came in at night to check on her and gave her a blanket.

Instead she said, “Even if you had to kill me in the end, I won’t blame you. I know it’s not your fault.”

Gary listened quietly, tears rolling off his cheeks.

Someone rang the bell, which signals an emergency meeting. Everyone gathered at the deck.

A scout reported that an imperial envoy is on its way to send tributes to the Chinese Emperor, and they (the pirate ship and the government ship) might cross paths.

“Why are they taking this route?” Haha asked, surprised. They usually took another route, which was shorter.

“Maybe it because the wind directions shifted,” Jong Kook sighed. “The other route that they took is too risky with the winds not in their favour, so they have to take this route now.”

“If they cross paths with us, they might check our boats, right?” someone pointed out.

Jong Kook nodded. “We can’t have them doing that, not when we kidnapped someone.”

They have three choices now. One, kill off Jihyo. Two, release Jihyo without the ransom. Three, sail further out and wait for the envoy’s ship to pass, then come back to get the ransom.

The pirates eliminated the second option without much discussion. There was no way they would let her out so easily. It would be detrimental to their ‘reputation’.

“We should just kill her,” a pirate suggested. “Sailing out and bringing her along wastes resources, especially since you said her father is unlikely to pay the ransom.”

“No!” Gary finally spoke up. All eyes landed on him, and Jong Kook watched him curiously. Gary’s confidence faltered, but he managed to recover quickly and said, “I think we should still take that risk. If we get the ransom, it would be more than enough to cov