It was a cold, windy night, but it seemed like the odds were in ACE’s favor. The winds were blowing towards the target ship, allowing ACE to sneak up on the other ship quickly. 

Jun was above deck with Donghun, watching the position and response of the other ship. Seyoon, Byeongkwan and Chan were in the weapons hold, readying the cannons for fire. 

“On my order!” Jun yelled loudly for the others to hear. “...FIRE!”

The ACE fired off two cannonballs towards the other ship. Both missed and made loud impacts on the surface of the water next to the target ship. 

“Ready again!” Jun called for the next round of fire.

“Fire when ready!”

Below deck, Byeongkwan was in between both cannons, loading each cannon with a cannonball. Seyoon and Chan stood by a cannon each and rammed the ball home and also finished the prep for firing on each. It was a long and hard process, but it needed to be done in quick succession. 

Thankfully, the other ship’s crew was asleep and they had just began to awaken. ACE was able to get two more rounds of shots in before the other ship was ready to fire back. Only one of the four shots hit its target.

“What do you think, Jun?” Donghun asked Jun as they stood on deck watching the enemy. “Will they surrender?”
Jun was looking through a spyglass, trying to tell if the enemy had raised a white flag or not. “It doesn’t look like it.” He looked on deck and saw a few men running around, gathering weapons. “We should prepare for battle.”

Jun yelled to the rest of his crew. “One more round then gather on deck!” He ordered.

A minute later, he heard the last two shots come from his ship and fly towards the other. One more manage to hit, right into the middle of the hull.

The ACE was steadily sailing into the other ship, and by the time everyone made it to the deck, they were almost close enough to make contact.

“Everyone knows what to do!” Jun yelled.

The crew of five got out their guns and aimed towards the other ship. There were men on deck of the other ship doing the same thing.

Without warning, both crews started firing at each other. It was hard to see in the dark, and Jun was smart enough to have his crew turn off all the lanterns before they approached. The other crew was not as prepared, and so the ACE crew had an easier time finding their targets.

The six men on deck of the enemy ship were quickly taken out. Jun had shot two, Chan had shot two, and Seyoon and Byeongkwan got one each. 

“Seyoon, Byeongkwan, go!” Jun ordered.

The two front-liners headed towards the pre-tied ropes to swing across to the other boat. Both of them made it safely across and Chan sighed a breath of relief. He noticed more men coming up on deck from two directions. Seyoon and Byeongkwan headed one way, so Chan aimed his shots in the other direction.

“Good work, Chan.” Jun commented. “Keep your eyes out for stragglers.”

Like Jun had mentioned earlier, the other ship’s crew wasn’t overwhelming in number. There were only about four more people on deck, besides the six already injured or dead crew. 

Byeongkwan and Seyoon were taking on two men easily as they created an opening for themselves to get below deck. The other two men were gunners, and Chan had to take them on himself. 

Chan winced as he watched Byeongkwan cut through one of the men, the enemy’s blood spraying out onto the deck. The man collapsed down, and Byeongkwan looked down at his victory emotionlessly. He didn’t seem to care much for the fallen man as he turned away without a word and ran down the stairs below deck. He was shortly followed by Seyoon.

Chan shivered as he watched his best friend execute Jun’s orders dispassionately. Chan expected as much from Byeongkwan, since Byeongkwan was a professional after all, but Chan couldn’t bring himself feel good about hurting strangers he didn’t know. 

Chan flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Chan, are you okay?” Donghun asked. The older had noticed Chan had temporarily stopped his firing.

Chan took a deep breath in and regained his line of shot with his gun. “I’m fine.” He mumbled in response.

He took aim at the other side, looking around for the now hidden crew members. But before he could spot them, a bullet whizzed right by his head. Chan immediately ducked down behind the main mast where he was situated and gasped. That was a really close call. Any closer and he would have been seriously injured.

“Chan, be careful!” Donghun warned. 

Chan frowned. “I know. I’m trying!”

He waited until the gunfire stopped; presumably the others were reloading. Chan peeked his head out and managed to spot one of the men ducked down behind some boxes. 

He took a deep breath in and concentrated his aim towards the unaware target. Without breaking his concentration, he pulled the trigger. 

Chan heard a scream of pain as the bullet met the body of his target. Chan saw the other man peek out from behind the mast to check on his fallen friend. He didn’t hesitate to re-aim his gun at the other man and shoot him down as well.

The body hit the deck with an audible thunk and Chan cringed and shut his eyes tightly, as if he was shutting out the reality in front of him.

He opened his eyes after a second and looked down at his hands. He was still gripping the gun tightly, but his hands were shaking.

“Look!” Donghun interrupted.

Seyoon and Byeongkwan emerged from below deck, each with a hostage in hand. Seyoon was holding captive a young lady, while Byeongkwan had his sword to a young man’s throat. 

Jun, who was standing a little ways away from Chan and Donghun, motioned over to Chan.

“We are heading over to talk to them. Come on.”

Chan followed Jun and set down a plank between the two ships, allowing a path between the two. Jun and Chan approached the hostages.

Chan widened his eyes in surprise when he saw who it was. 

“Greetings, young lady.” Jun bowed. “A wonderful night, is it not?”

“It isn’t.” the girl replied. “I’m sure you don’t know who I am, so let me introduce myself. I am Kang Minhee, Viscount Kang’s eldest daughter. And this is my knight, Kanto. I don’t know who you are, but you will not get away with doing this to a Viscount’s daughter.”

Chan immediately ducked behind Jun’s figure. He had seen Minhee at parties before, and he was worried that she might recognize him.

“By the looks of it, the Viscount doesn’t seem to be around. I wouldn’t depend so heavily on someone who can’t save you.” Jun replied.

She frowned but remained silent. Jun was right.

“I’m going to be very clear. I only want one thing. If you make things easy for me, I will make things easy for you.” Jun explained.

Minhee scoffed. “And I’m suppose to believe a lowly pirate?”
Jun shrugged. “You have no choice but to believe me. You and your subordinate’s lives are in my hands.”

She struggled against Seyoon for a second, but the pirate was too strong.

“What do you want?!” Minhee scowled.

Jun stabbed his sword into the planks below loudly and Minhee flinched at the sound of splitting wood. “I want all your money, but you can keep the valuables. I want all of your food supplies except for three days worth. You will give us all of your tradables, including cloth, grain, or anything else you might have. We will confiscate all weapons.” Jun stood firm. “If you try to hide anything from us, I will kill you all, one-by-one.”

Minhee looked really shaken by Jun’s threat. 

“Alright, I will give you want you want.” Minhee cried.

Chan peaked out from behind Jun’s shoulder. Minhee was clearly shaken and crying profusely. Chan remembered Minhee as a bright and beautiful girl, but here, she only looked pitiful and broken. Chan felt immensely guilty looking at her. 

“Chan, I want you to go back and receive the goods. This girl’s crew will bring them over.” Jun said. “Byeongkwan, tie the knight to the main mast and guard him. Also, order around the crew on deck.” 

“What about you?” Chan asked.

“The captain, Minhee and I will have a nice chat in the captain’s quarters.” Jun stated.

Jun turned to Seyoon. “You will guard the door while I am inside.” 

Chan slowly turned around and walked back to his own ship, his back hunched over. He still felt really bad about what had happened to Minhee, even after the whole ordeal was over.

They had taken mostly everything from the other ship except enough supplies for the ship to reach dock. They had also taken all the weapons. Given that there were storms, other pirates, and many dangers out on the sea, the other ship would need some luck to reach dock safety.

Even though Jun and the rest of ACE was nice enough to let them go alive, Chan still felt wrong about the whole situation.

As everyone else aboard the ACE were enjoying their spoils of war, Chan sat alone in a corner of the deck. He watched the other four enjoy themselves on fresh food and new alcohol.

Byeongkwan eventually walked over with a cup of wine and handed it to Chan. “What’s wrong Channie?”

It wasn’t hard to tell that Chan was upset.

“I don’t know, Byeongkwan.” Chan stated, “I feel really guilty.”

“What do you feel guilty about?” Byeongkwan asked.

Chan sighed. “We took things from innocent people. We injured and killed their men.”

Byeongkwan shook his head. He knew this would happen. This is exactly why Byeongkwan didn’t want Chan to partake in the infiltration in the first place.

“But because we did that, this ship can survive a little longer.” Byeongkwan explained. “Channie, this is a way of life. A method of survival. Are they wrong for trying to survive?”

“No.” Chan replied, “But it still doesn’t feel right.”

“We can still escape if you want to.” Byeongkwan said.

Chan paused. “No, I don’t want to leave either.”

Byeongkwan sighed. “You are going to have to decide if what we did tonight is something that you can live down. If all this is acceptable to you, then we can stay. But if you can’t accept this way of life, we are going to leave. Okay?”

Chan sipped the wine in his hands slowly. “...Okay.”