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Chapter Twenty Six: Enamored

Seonghwa POV
I see the others getting dragged away.
Their leader observes them for a few seconds before he turns to me. Immediately his face softens. With his rough big hands he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and caresses my cheek. It feels like someone is rubbing my skin with sandpaper. What the hell is happening?
"What's your name?"
I nervously look around. Everyone here is armed. I saw what happened to the others when they didn't cooperate, so the best is probably to answer his questions.
"S-Seonghwa."
"That's a pretty name. Let's talk more at home."
Their leader takes off the rope around my wrists. I see the other pirates look at him confused and whispering to each other. He takes my hand and we slowly go back to his house.
"How old are you?", the leader asks me.
"I'm turning 23 tomorrow."
"Oh then we have to throw a birthday party! I am 28 years old by the way."
Really? He looks older than that. It's probably the beard. Also why is he talking to me like that?
He rocks our hands back and forth like a little kid and smiles at me warmly. I try to smile back at him. I don't want to be disrespectful...

We reach his house. He knocks at the door and his butler opens.
"General, you're back! Who is this?"
"How often do I have to tell you that you should just call me Ba'huen. You too, Seonghwa.
Seonghwa is going to live with us from now on. He came with a ship today."
We enter the house. It looks slightly messy. It's decorated with several things that the general or his ancestors must have gotten on their raids. On the walls hang a few family pictures.
"Do you want to eat something?"
"Ehm... I-I... am very hungry."
"Savron please bring us something to eat."
"Yes, Sir!", the butler says.
We sit down on a sofa in the general's living room. Why did he bring me here? Should I just ask?
"Why am I here? What am I supposed to do?"
"I am just a bit lonely and need some company. As a general I don't usually have much time for love.", he says while staring into my eyes.
Love? Does he want me to be his boyfriend? How do I reject him without making him angry and getting thrown off the island?
"I'm not sure that I'm ready to love someone right now. I just lost my fiancée."
"I am sorry to hear that. I'll wait until you're ready. I won't do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Just tell me if something bothers you."
He puts his hand on mine to comfort me. Okay that worked. I hope the others are okay. I have to find a way to free them. I can't let them kill Hongjoong and I don't want to know what happens if Yeosang is brought back to the Nekra Kingdom and what they would do to Jongho. Haneul also seems to have no luck. We just saved her from her horrible husband and now she is in the hands of another *******. Same with San, he had such a horrible childhood and now he has to live through these things again. And Wooyoung! He is still wounded. It might get worse if they punish him for acting up. Mingi and Yunho surely won't get treated good either.
I have to find a way to sneak out of here.

"What are you thinking?", the pirate leader asks.
"Hmm?"
"You've been staring at my family portrait for a while now."
"Oh, I just wondered what happened to your parents."
"We used to have a treaty with Wajasi's king where they saw us as independent, so we could have our own rules and didn't have to pay taxes, but we had to patrol the border and we would trade with them to get the things we need. So we were still kind of dependent of them. Anyways my parents were supposed to patrol the border but their ship had a malfunction and it fell down and they died. I was 15 when it happened."
"That's sad. I'm sorry to hear that. But why do you have a treaty with the Nekra Kingdom now?"
"They promised us that we will get to be fully independent if we help them to conquer Wajasi."
"Fully independent? How exactly does that work? And why would they let you be independent? King Nekra's goal is it to rule over every millimeter of Wolkmaar. He surely wouldn't just let you do your own thing."
"I did not ask how that works. But how would you know what King Nekra's goal is?"
"From Yeosang. Besides that he is very moody and selfish. If there something or someone he doesn't like he gets rid of them. He kills and tortures people for fun. How can you trust a person like that? And how can you just blindly follow his instructions and do the same."
"Who is Yeosang? And how do you know so much about the Nekra Kingdom? Also I never killed anyone. I just say that to intimidate people. In reality we bring these people to the next island."
"Prince Yeosang Nekra. The one with the longer hair and birth mark that you wanted to sell to the Nekra Kingdom. Also I thought these things were generally known. Has no one taught you about the different countries? And you still torture people."
"Of course we can't just be super nice, otherwise no one would take us seriously and we won't be able to help the Nekra Kingdom conquer the country. I will release the prisoners after three months, we just released some three days ago. I will be a little nicer once we got a bad reputation. I know about the different countries but my parents always said I was to young to know about the Nekra Kingdom. And do you mean your friend is the prince who ran away?"
"Well, they probably said you were to young because the king is so cruel and yes, Yeosang is the prince who ran away."
"Hmm, maybe they did. I guess your friend will tell me about the Nekra Kingdom tomorrow then. I should probably learn more about it."
"Since when do you have a treaty with them and why do you want to be independent so badly?"
"I met with king Nekra three months ago. The reason? We used to be independent a long time ago when Wajasi wasn't unified but then it was but we wanted to still be independent. It was very important to my grandfather who I was very close with to become fully independent."
I see where he's coming from. He also doesn't seem like he is such a bad person. He clearly doesn't like to kill, torture and steal from people, so he only does it to some small extent, so he gets to his goal but he would rather not do it? I guess? He overall seems just very naive, gullible and a little bit dumb. Maybe I can somehow get him to release my friends and maybe even work together with Wajasi again.
"I think the treaty with Wajasi wasn't bad. It wasn't completely what you wanted but you still were able to live in peace without many worries. The treaty with the Nekra Kingdom seems very stressful and risky to me."
"Hmm, now that you told me about king Nekra I am also not so sure about it anymore."
He sighs and hugs me.