The Ninja and the Pirate Ch. 31

31 The Trio Return
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The solitary pirate ship sailed across the sea on its way to the Eastern coast. It had been years since they had headed to said lands, but they had heard a rumor that Arthur and his crew had been captured by the emperor of the East. And now they were headed for the East in order to figure out a way to help them escape from the emperor.

"Are we headed in the right direction mon ami?"

"Of course we are! The awesome me never gets lost!"

"Twee!"

"I swear the only one backing you up is your bird." Antonio said as he joined them.

"Why shouldn't he?" Gilbert asked as he lifted his telescope again. "He has been with me for far longer than you guys."

"How do you even know where we are supposed to go?"

"I don't."

"What? Then why are you in charge!?"

"Because I am the only one that has an idea where they could be. Either in the dungeons of the Imperial Palace or the prisons of the northernmost territory of the Eastern Empire. There's a third option but it's best if it's not that one."

"Why not?"

"Because it will mean our search is useless and they are dead already."

"What!?"

"¡¿Que?!"

"Why do you say that? And so calmly too." Francis said as Gilbert turned to stare at them.

"You two remind me of Arthur. None of you know what the east is capable of doing if they catch an outlaw, especially if they are pirates."

"To be honest no."

"Eso si es cierto." Antonio said as he looked out to the sea. "It is true. We haven't been in this business long enough to say we know what is going to happen."

"Nothing at all? Not even rumors?" Gilbert was staring at them as though they had lost their minds.

"There was that one rumor regarding-"

"Lifeboat ahead of us!"

"Huh? A lifeboat?" Francis said as he swiped Gilbert's telescope.

"Hey! I still need that!" Francis ignored Gilbert as he used the telescope to look. "There is a lifeboat and…!"

"¡Dejame ver!" Antonio said as he made a move to get the telescope.

"Bring us closer!" was all Francis shouted as he headed for the front of the ship, Gilbert and Antonio following him. Once the other two noticed what was going on did they start shouting orders as well.

"Here's the ladder." Antonio said as they threw a rope ladder and it was caught by one of the occupants of the boat. Several other ropes were thrown in order to haul the lifeboat aboard as its passengers quickly, but securely tied it before making their way up the ladder. Both passengers were helped onto the ship and the lifeboat followed them.

"How in the world did you two end up in a lifeboat? And where's your older brother? Why isn't he with you?" Francis demanded before the two passengers could recover.

"Give them some time to recover." Antonio said as he handed them blankets.

"It's alright, we aren't hurt."

"No we aren't, but do you have food? We haven't eaten in a while."

"¡Claro! Be right back!" Antonio said as he quickly left.

"How did you two end up in a lifeboat?" Gilbert asked after Antonio came with the food and the twins ate their fill.

"Well…"

"We were captured by the emperor of the east."

"That much is already known. Someone noticed and you know rumors spread fast." Francis said Gilbert inspected the lifeboat.

"We know," Alfred said with a sigh as he wrapped the blanket closer around himself. "We were taken to the dungeons that are located in the Imperial Palace."

"We aren't sure what happened to the others that were taken by the other ships that were there. But…" Matthew frowned as he concentrated. "One thing we do know is that they were taken elsewhere. The Russian Lord took them with him to the North."

"We were kept there for a couple of months," Alfred said as Matthew nodded.

"And Arthur?"

"He was with us at the Imperial Palace. But we didn't see him because he was kept apart from everyone and he was usually heavily guarded."

"A couple of months later some of the prisoners were saying we were going to be transferred to the prison ships of the Russian Lord."

"The death ships?" Gilbert asked as he looked up from his inspection.

"Is that what they are called?" Alfred asked as he glanced at Gilbert. "Because no one referred to them as that."

"Except that one prisoner that kept saying we were all going to die." Matthew reminded Alfred.

"The 'Death Ships' or the 'Ships of Death' is what those vessels are called in reality." Gilbert said as he leaned against the lifeboat. "'Prison ships' is what they are called in order to fool people."

"That explains a lot." Matthew murmured.

"We were transferred the day after the rumors started. The emperor and the Russian Lord were there to see us get sent aboard the ships."

"There were two of them, and there were people in them already."

"Not a surprise," Gilbert said with a snort.

"Twee!"

"The King has the tendency of sending the most notorious criminals to Ivan Braginski." Gilbert continued to talk with a smirk on his face. "Ivan is well known for having the best prisons in the world."

"I told you that was Ivan!" Matthew exclaimed as he looked at Alfred.

"I know," Alfred said with a sigh. "So Ivan is the emperor's consort."

"The emperor couldn't have made a wiser decision," Gilbert said with a shrug.

"Having the Russian Lord as his consort gives the emperor the upper hand since Ivan has control of the most militaristic territory in the east." Francis explained as he joined Gilbert.

"And being sent on one of his ships is totally unawesome." Gilbert said with a sigh as he touched the scorched surface of the lifeboat.

"We have no idea for how long we were onboard." Alfred said as he looked at Matthew. "But it was probably a week."

"And the conditions in the dungeons were far better than those on the ship."

"Oh and Arthur wasn't with us. We believe he was sent to the second ship."

"About a week later I woke up to the sound of screaming and smoke." Matthew said as he closed his eyes as he remembered. "Someone said that the ship was on fire and I could have sworn I heard the crackling of the fire."

"It became clear at that moment what the prisoner had been screaming about."

"We panicked with everyone else because there was no way we could escape."

"Apart from that we weren't anywhere near each other."

"I was trying to break free in order to get to Matthew since I was the closest to the flames." Alfred said as he wrapped an arm around his brother. "I never noticed the person when they approached me but next thing I knew I was blindfolded and someone spoke in a voice I didn't recognize. The person told me that he was going to help me escape with the condition that I didn't take the blindfold off."

"Someone liberated you?" Antonio asked looking surprised.

"Yeah and they kept such a tight grip on me that I ended up bruising." Alfred said as he took the blanket off and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and showed them the vanishing bruise. "Anyway the person at some point told me to stay put and they left me alone for a while."

"Unlike Alfred I noticed that someone was approaching me but I couldn't make out many features other than the fact that the person was shorter than me," Matthew continued as Alfred wrapped the blanket around himself again. "And they blended in with the dark. I couldn't see the flames yet but the smoke was becoming unsupportable. The person blindfolded me as well and they led me to Alfred."

"Then he told us to grab on to each other as he led us to the upper deck. By then the sound of the fire had become louder."

"We have no idea how close we were to the fire but we could feel the heat it produced."

"Then he told us to climb aboard something that moved a lot when we got into it. The person told us to count to thirty before we could take the blindfolds off."

"Which we did and we could feel the thing moving as we counted. It touched some sort of surface and then we could feel it moving in a different direction."

"When we took the blindfolds of we realized we were in that lifeboat and that the ocean was taking us away from the burning ships."

"We could see two other ships in the distance going on their way back to the east."

"Both prison ships looked like burning pillars."

"We don't know what became of the person or who they were."

"And we don't know Arthur's fate either and we are deeply worried that he didn't manage to escape."

"¿Ahora que hacemos?"

"Do you remember from what direction the lifeboat took you?"

"Yes that way."

"Then let's go! The awesome me is still in charge!"

"But not for long mon ami."

"Si. No por mucho."

"Kesesese! We'll see about that!"

"Twee!"