On board the ship, which was now able to sail again, everyone was once more celebrating our victory in having slain the Siren—all eyes were on me as the captain raised my wrist into the air. "Praise the saviour! Without her, I would surely have died out there!" he announced to the entire crew, and they all began chanting my name.
"ALICE! ALICE! ALICE!" The longer they chanted my name, the more sick of my own name I became; even whilst we were celebrating, one of the crew members suddenly wrapped an arm round my neck—my hands reflexively reached out to push him away, but when I turned my head, I realised it was Liz, smiling broadly whilst holding a glass of beer in her hand.
"I thought you were planning to betray us, but it turns out you've got a plan to deal with those sirens, haven't you?!"
"Do I really look like a traitor?"
"You're right! Your face is far too sweet to be a traitor"
I didn't respond; my blue eyes glanced towards Captain Hook as he walked out of the crowd and slipped into the captain's cabin—my curiosity began to boil over; I was always curious about what the captain usually did in his cabin. I grabbed Liz's hand and wriggled free from her tight embrace around my neck, "I'm going to the toilet first," I said by way of an excuse and walked away.
On the way, I saw a man with ginger hair staggering towards me. "Alice, you—" I held out my glass of juice towards him; he accepted it, looking bewildered. "Where are you going?"
"I'll drink it later," I replied, which still didn't answer Robin's question—I didn't want any other crew members to hear what I was planning to do. My feet were already right in front of the cabin captain's door; I tapped on it gently—Captain Hook's voice could be faintly heard amid the noisy party, but I could still make out a little of what he was saying. "It's me, Alice—your right-hand woman."
"Come in!" His voice was louder now, realising I might not have heard him properly. My hand touched the cold door handle and as I pushed the door open—I found the man pouring something into a wooden glass. "What do you want, kid?"
That nickname immediately annoyed me, but I had to keep my composure—I walked closer and caught a glimpse of what he was actually mixing on the table. "I want to ask about…" At that moment, I noticed something in the interior that hadn't been there before; I turned and saw the entire body of a siren displayed on the wall. "…siren"
"Oh? That creature? What do you want to ask?" Dua asked before placing two empty little bottles on the table; alongside them was a glass containing wine that looked perfectly ordinary, though I knew full well that something had certainly been added to it.
"Ah, no… never mind," I said, slowly edging closer to test just how close I was allowed to get, and to my surprise, I was able to stand right beside her without her warning or threatening me. "What are you doing, Captain?"
"Hm? Poisoning a traitor, of course," she said casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "There's a member of the crew who wants to take the siren's body for himself and sell it."
"How do you know that?"
"Someone told me."
"And you just believed them?"
"Yes, I trust my crew completely."
There were many flaws in his reasoning, but I didn't have time to deal with them; besides, there was actually a question that was really weighing on my mind. "May I see how it's made?" The question just slipped out before I could think twice.
He gave me a sharp look, but suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a smile appeared on his face. "Of course! You're my right-hand man, after all!" It was a response I really hadn't expected to receive. "Besides, it takes hundreds of attempts before you can make it as potent as I do." That reply made me feel challenged.
To my surprise, he was able to provide an explanation that was very easy to understand. I watched his every hand movement and saw exactly what he was adding to the other glass of beer; it took only a few moments to turn that seemingly harmless beer into a poison capable of killing with a single sip.
"Amazing," I couldn't lie; his ability was exactly as I'd described—perhaps I'd been wrong to think of him as a rough sort; without warning, he forced one of the glasses into my hand.
"Give this to a man with a blond beard and a scar over his right eye," he commanded, giving me no chance to refuse. He walked over, took the wooden glass from me and hurled it out of the window, leaving me frozen in shock. "What are you waiting for? Go on."
I sighed deeply and did as Captain Hook had ordered. Once the man lay dead on the ground, I explained that this was all at the captain's request, and they believed me immediately—their trust was just as worrying as that of their captain.
After that, I explained everything that had happened to Robin and he didn't seem to quite believe what he was hearing—but he couldn't dismiss it as a fabrication when perched on my shoulder was a fairy named Tinkerbell, who was enjoying some honey from a spoon.
She made the spoon float with pixie dust and sipped the honey, eating with a broad smile. "Say hello to Tinkie," I said playfully, but Robin really did try to greet her and introduce himself—only to be ignored by the fairy.
"She... doesn't like me, does she?"
"Not everyone can like us."
"It's not that serious, you know."
We waited for Tinkie to finish the honey on the spoon so that we could chat to her more freely than before. And that took a very long time—so long that the party was almost over, as some of the crew had already decided to call it a night.
"So, may I ask why you're helping us?" I asked, and Tinkie began to make a jingling sound—I nodded, and with every high-pitched tinkle of the little bells, the sounds formed words in my head. "You just suddenly appeared and saved me—it's not that I don't appreciate it—in fact, I'm very grateful—but I can't think of a clear reason why you'd want to help."
Another jingle rang out and my eyes widened in surprise as I understood her words. "Why did you say the 'God of Space' blessed us?!" Tinkie just nodded, confirming that what I'd heard was indeed true. "Really?! You're a familiar of the God of Space?!"
I'd actually been planning to lock her away and commit further crimes, but hearing that she was one of the God of Space's favourite creatures made me second-guess all my choices. "One of the gods is meddling in our affairs?! That's completely unexpected." Even Robin no longer looked drunk, and he was able to stand up straight—I nudged him when I remembered the situation we were both in now.
We were still in the middle of the party and people could clearly hear what we were saying; we had no control over what they might do—if Captain Hook wanted to approach and kill the siren just to display and flaunt her, what more if they found Tinkie.
"They might just kidnap Tinkie and use her to demand things from the gods," I muttered to myself, my voice softer than the sound of the breeze itself—I signalled to Robin with my eyes, and he understood immediately, almost in the blink of an eye.
"For now, just say you're a fairy who's very curious about the human world," I whispered, and although confused, Tinkie nodded anyway because she didn't know what I was up to—though she could sense that I meant no harm and wanted to help. "Good. By the way, after the sirens—what sort of challenges will we face?" I turned back to Robin.
The man set his glass down on the railing and leaned back, gazing up at the night sky adorned with scattered constellations. "Monstro," he uttered the name with utter seriousness, his grip on the timber separating us from the ship and the sea tightening further.
"It's a highly temperamental sea creature—it's enormous, even far larger than a whale itself," his explanation was enough to send shivers down my spine; my blue eyes remained fixed on him until he'd finished explaining to my satisfaction. "They say it's a creature that likes to attack ships passing through its territory."
"…It's said that no one who passes through that area has ever returned," his fingers gripped the wooden plank behind him even tighter, and his brow began to furrow. "Some say they've been devoured by the monster itself."
My heart was pounding and my eyes were fixed on the horizon ahead of the ship; it would be only about three days before we reached that area—and in those three days, I had to come up with a plan to face a monster whose form I couldn't even begin to imagine.