The doors of the hall were opened and the pirate crew of the Shining Devil entered the room. "And look at that, the fire dancer saved us again from a terrible situation," Key said sarcastically. "This is the first time, Captain," Baekyun corrected him, the captain just shrugged. To Taemin's surprise, the queen understood Korean and even spoke the language. Well done, Lee Taemin, you could have spoken Korean. "The fire dancer?" She asked, her Korean sounding like she always spoke the language. "That's my name," Taemin explained, "pretty sure the captain saw the new wanted posters in Kyong-Ju." "Yes indeed, and it's quite suitable for you, kid," Jonghyun said.

"One last thing, your Grace," Taemin said, turning to his aunt. "Just call Aunt Boa," the Queen said, surprising Taemin by winking at him as well. "Um, Aunt Boa, can the Shining Devil get some supplies? We continue from here north," he asked. "Of course," his aunt replied and motioned for her servants to do as requested.

An hour later, everyone had already returned to the ship with a refill that filled the shelves in the belly of the ship. Boa and Taemin stood next to each other, Tae was about to go, the queen stopped him, and said, "Remember that this mark on the back of your shoulder is a family symbol, remember that you have royal blood in your veins and do not be ashamed of it." Taemin nodded. "Tae, are you coming?" Jongain shouted at him. "Yes, one moment," he shouted back. The pirate looked at his aunt one last time, "Thank you," he told her, bowing and turning to get on the ship.

The Shining Devil sailed north towards Yohoku, one of the greatest kingdoms of Japan. They were supposed to reach the city of thieves Aomori. Their time at sea had stretched and they needed information about the forthcoming war. The ship sailed not too close to land, so it looked like a blur in the background. 

When dusk fell, they could hear one of the older pirates, Kim Heechul, telling his crazy stories. A group of younger pirates sat around him listening to his childhood stories from thirty years ago, when he was their age, while his friend Shin Dong-hee, with his bottle of alcohol, injecting words from time to time about unbelievable his stories are. "Nonsense," he used to say, as well as, "Are you sure your memory is okay? I do not think mermaids really exist," or something like that. The duo usually sat together, telling stories, and drinking which was surprising because there was no damage to the ship's movement, neither of the captains doing anything with the two.

It did not feel like they were in a hurry to one place or another, planned an exact route of their journey, or the fact that they will join a war. Taemin was among the young people sitting in front of the two older and more experienced pirates admiring Heechul's unrealistic stories and Dong-hee's reactions. It helped everyone forget what was coming, from the real world, and enjoy themselves a little.

Key, looking at the horizon, saw out of the corner of his eye another ship that was sailing slowly behind them. When he looked through his telescope he noticed the flag of the ship. The Captain immediately knew something was going to happen, not today but tomorrow. "Something happened?" Bling-Bling stood next to him and leaned against the railing. "Yixing," Key replied. "Tomorrow, now go to rest," Jonghyun took his hand. "Tomorrow."

The pirates whose shift was on board at night went up and the younger members were sent away, disappointed by not being able to continue hearing fairy tales. Most of the ship members noticed the ship behind them but knew not to do anything, if they had to do something they would have already received instructions and acted upon them, because who hadn’t seen Key looking over to the horizon and sighing if tired or something else.

The next morning all the pirates rushed to the deck because of an unbearable sound. Of course, Dong-hee did not wake up from the noise. There have been protests from some team members over the unexpected waking. A certain city was seen on the horizon, and beside it, the Shining Devil sailed Way-V. Key and Jonghyun, who had been awake for some time, stood by the railing and looked at the other ship. The two ships sailed at the same speed but looked as if they were competing with each other over who would arrive first at the nearest port. Thanks to the wind that reached the two ships, they accelerated and approached the shore. According to Heechul, they reached Miyagi of the Tohoku Kingdom.

"We will talk when we stop," Jonghyun said to Yixing, and the other captain nodded and after half an hour the ships stopped at the port. The city was unfamiliar to any of them because they had never stopped there, the port looked so old and unused despite the number of people and stalls that were around the area. No one cared about the pirate’s ships parking in their port. "What's new, Yixing?" Key asked. "Hokkaldo is going to join North Koguryo in the war, King Park is trying to get more help to bring in King Yang, the war will start a week from tomorrow. The armies are getting ready to attack Inchon." 

Jonghyun looked at Kibum who looked back but when he came to say something an outcry was heard. The crews looked around to see where the sound was coming from, but it did not come from their ships, but from the pier.

Groups of foot soldiers were heard running over the crumbling deck of the harbor and crying in Japanese, "What did I do? I'm an innocent," were heard. What happened next happened so fast that most of the people on the ships did not notice the fact that eventually, a boy was swinging on a rope between the two ships. The rope was tied to one of the ropes of one of the ships. The hanging boy noticed the situation he entered and shouted, "Ahhh, pirates." Most of the pirates looked at him not understanding a word of what he said. "Taemin, translation," Jonghyun asked. "He just said, ah pirates," Taemin repeated after the boy's words only in Korean and then also in Chinese. Saying the word pirate in Chinese has not been that difficult.

"Ask him who he is and where he is from and who he is running away from," Yixing asked in Korean, they could hear his accent. Taemin did as he was told and the boy spoke. "He says some crazy alcoholic is chasing him because he stole money from him, but he said he did not think he would be caught at all, and then he started running and more people joined the chase because a man has friends and by the way, his name is Yuta Nakamoto and he is an orphan," Taemin translated. The boy who now everyone knew was called Yuta, said something else and then pointed in the direction of the Chinese ship. "what did he say?" Someone asked. "He thinks this boy is cute," Taemin translated. All the pirates sent glances in the direction of the boy in question. Said boy blushed. The boy looks very young, perhaps even the youngest boy on the Chinese ship.

Another cry could be heard from the hanging boy who looked up and looked in horror at the rope that was beginning to tear. "Captain?" Taemin turned to his captains, one of them, it did not really matter who. The two captains looked at each other and then at the captain of the ship next to them, "Ask him which ship he would like to join if he would like to come with one of us," Key ordered. Taemin nodded, after all the two ships would happily welcome a new crew member. Tae told the boy what he was asked to ask, but before the boy had time to answer, the rope tore and he fell on a pile of nets near a threatening cannon on the Way-V ship. There were giggles from both ships.

The boy murmured something that Taemin had heard, "It seems to him that he will stay where he is." Before the captains could say anything more, Taemin asked Yuta if he would rather be on a ship where someone will understand him, which led to Yuta saying in broken Korean, "I'll try to get along," and then adding in Japanese, "Besides, there are cute pirates here," Then he took a look at the one he had previously pointed out and made an eye contact with him, which caused the two to blush. "So he decided," Key said, shrugging.

"Where are you going from here?" Yixing asked. "North to Aomori Bay, from there we will continue to Korea to help in the naval battle in the east," Jonghyun explained in Chinese to the captain of the second ship. "Then see you in battle," Yixing said and winked and immediately afterward sent his crew to prepare for the voyage south. "We're leaving too," Jonghyun said, the Shining Devil crew started to work and the ship headed north.