"How did he escape from the island?" Elizabeth asked, still puzzled. "It was deserted, wasn't it? Who could have rescued him?"
Gibbs scratched his beard, clearly pleased by the question. "Ah, now that," he said, lowering his voice, "is one of the great mysteries. There are all sorts of rumors."
He leaned closer, already warming up. "Some say smugglers found him half-mad and raving. Others swear he tied sea turtles together and sailed away on their backs."
Elizabeth frowned. "Sea turtles?"
Gibbs shrugged. "That's the story."
"I know how he escaped," Daniel said suddenly, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Gibbs paused mid-sentence. "You do?"
Elizabeth turned toward him. "You do?"
"I do," Daniel replied.
"That isn't much of a mystery," he continued calmly. "The island Jack was marooned on wasn't empty. It was a rum storage stop—used by merchants to stash barrels before pickup. He waited it out and hitched a ride when they came back for the cargo."
Elizabeth blinked. "…That's it?"
Her voice carried clear disappointment. Somehow, she'd expected something more dramatic.
Even Gibbs looked faintly deflated.
Jack, who had just walked over, paused and then gave a short laugh. "He's right," he said. "That's exactly how it happened."
Jack studied Daniel more closely. "But now I'm curious, mate. How did you know that?"
Daniel smiled faintly. "Trade secret."
Jack snorted. "Figures."
Elizabeth shook her head slowly. "All that buildup… for rum."
Jack spread his hands. "Never underestimate rum. It's saved my life more times than I can count."
"Now, mate," Jack said casually as he leaned against the railing, "how about you give me that gold you promised? We're halfway through the journey."
Elizabeth frowned and looked at Daniel. "Umm… are you blind?" she asked Jack. "He left Port Royal empty-handed. I've been with him the entire time. He's not carrying anything."
Jack glanced at her, then back at Daniel, unimpressed.
"You still don't know?" he said. "His coat's the trick."
Elizabeth blinked. "His… coat?"
Jack nodded toward Daniel's trench coat. "Magical. Pulls gold out of it whenever he feels like it."
Elizabeth looked at Daniel again, more curious than shocked this time. After everything she'd seen so far, it hardly seemed impossible.
"…Really?" she asked.
Daniel sighed, as if this conversation had happened far too many times already. He slipped a hand into his coat and, after a brief pause, pulled out a gold idol size of Jack's head.
Jack grinned. "See? Told you."
Daniel handed the gold over. "Happy?"
Jack weighed the gold idol in his hands, nodding with clear satisfaction.
"Very good," he said. "That makes this voyage much more pleasant." With that, he turned and left.
Elizabeth, however, was staring at Daniel's coat.
She glanced from the idol to the coat, then back again, curiosity getting the better of her. Slowly, she reached out and touched the fabric, pressing lightly as if expecting to feel something hidden beneath it.
"I don't understand," she murmured. "There's no space for something like that…"
Her hand shifted slightly as she examined it more closely.
"Can you stop touching ?" Daniel said calmly. "That feels… strange."
Elizabeth froze.
Only then did she realize where her hand was.
Her eyes widened as she pulled back at once. "I— I wasn't— I mean—"
Daniel raised an eyebrow, more amused than bothered. "It's just a coat," he said. "Mostly."
Elizabeth looked at him, then at the coat again. "Then how are you able to do that?" she asked. "You pulled out a solid gold idol as if it weighed nothing."
Daniel hesitated for half a second, then shrugged. "If you want the honest answer—I'm a demigod."
At least, that was what his system status currently claimed.
Elizabeth blinked. "…A god?" she repeated slowly. "As in—half god?"
She studied him closely, clearly trying to reconcile the word with the man standing in front of her. He didn't glow. He didn't radiate light or thunder. He looked… normal. Too normal.
"You're not joking," she said finally. "Are you?"
"Hm. No," Daniel replied simply.
Elizabeth studied him for a long moment.
"Then prove it," she said at last.
Daniel blinked. "What?"
"You said you're a demi-god," Elizabeth replied. "So… prove it."
The words were out before she fully thought them through. Curiosity had gotten the better of her. She had grown up on stories of gods and curses, but standing beside someone who claimed such a thing was different. Part of her wanted to see what that meant.
Almost immediately, doubt crept in.
Was it wise to ask something like that? If a stranger demanded she prove she was human, she would be offended. Gods—if he truly was one, even partly—might not take such challenges lightly.
She wondered, a little belatedly, whether she had just crossed a line.
"Haha "
Daniel laughed, a short, genuine sound.
It wasn't the reaction he'd expected—not awe, not fear, not disbelief frozen into silence. Compared to Evelyn's complete dumbfounded shock when she'd learned the truth, Elizabeth's response was… refreshingly human.
Curious. Skeptical.