Fifteen years later...

The water sparkled as it crashed in waves against Little Admiral, flagship of the Joseon Navy. The sailors on board were busy with the various tasks assigned to them. And in the middle of this exclusively male commotion stood a motionless man who looked thoughtfully at the sea.

This man had always feared the sea and yet he had chosen to spend his life traveling it for one purpose.

"Admiral Kim, a wakos ship is in sight!"  a sailor yelled, pulling him out of his reverie.

Seokjin grabbed the telescope that a young cabin boy handed him and saw the boat with the black flag in the distance. He gave a satisfied smile.

"Prepare for attack. Let's go kill some wakos."

Yes, his life's goal was to annihilate all the wakos and end their reign of terror. He had worked hard to go from the boy afraid of pirates to the Wako Slayer admiral he had become.

As they got dangerously close to the pirates, the Vice Admiral approached Admiral Kim.

"Are we letting one escape today?" he asked, knowing that sometimes the admiral decided to leave a survivor to warn other pirate crews.

"No, today I don't want to see any of them escape."

"Are you in a bad mood, Jin?" the vice-admiral taunted.

"Don't call me Jin, I already told you Sanghoon. I am your admiral, not your friend."

He glanced at his second in command who wanted to be full of condescension but he never managed to stay serious for long and he giggled. Sanghoon patted him on the shoulder and said:

"Let's exterminate every last son of bitches."

The barrels of powder rolled onto the bridge, the gunners returned to their posts in front of the cannons, the riflemen placed themselves between the cannons to prepare to fire. Rifles drawn and sabers in their sheaths, everyone thirsted for the blood of the pirates who had caused Joseon to suffer so much for fifteen years. Each of the Little Admiral's sailors had been chosen by his admiral for the same reason: their unconditional hatred of wakos. There was no room for mercy on his ship when it came to these cursed pirates.

As soon as the ship was in cannon range, Seokjin yelled:

"Fire at will!"

All hell broke loose, the Little Admiral not being spared from enemy fire but very quickly, Seokjin's crew was able to board the wakos ship and the most difficult fight began. The clash of blades and the shots flying from all sides were deafening.

Seokjin was always the first to jump, and his second, delighted to be able to take his place if he died, let him throw himself head first towards the enemy side before immediately joining him followed by everyone else.

Seokjin was so fierce and implacable that he had made a reputation among the pirates, he knew it but it didn't scare him on the contrary. He looked forward to instilling fear in the wakos. He enjoyed seeing the look of fear in their eyes when he approached them.

"It's the Wako Slayer!" one of the pirates yelled in Japanese.

Seokjin didn't take long to pass his sword through his body. No remorse crossed his eyes as he pushed the pirate's body to the ground. Yes, he was the Bloodthirsty Admiral, the Wako Slayer and he was satisfied with it.

Soon there were only corpses left on the bridge, surrounded by the Little Admiral's soldiers. Seokjin was about to declare victory when he saw one of his soldiers pushing an unarmed pirate and bring him to his knees  in front of him.

"Admiral Kim, this one says he has information to sell you."

Seokjin gave his soldier a glare that made him gulp.

"I said no survivors, didn't you hear me, soldier?"

"I wouldn't have brought him in front of you if I hadn't been sure of myself," the soldier said. 

On the ship, a few crew members besides Seokjin and Sanghoon spoke fluent and understood Japanese. Sometimes it was an advantage. Other times it was just a pain because it led to pointless chatter with the enemy.

Seokjin looked coldly at the pirate who wanted to trade his life for information he thought was valuable.

"What is your information?"

"You must first swear on your honor that you will let me live. I know you sometimes let a man escape so it won't be difficult for you to accept this deal."

Seokjin looked at him with contempt but found the proposition interesting.

"Very well, I swear on my honor and that of my crew here that if I find your information interesting, I will spare you."

The pirate searched his gaze and observed the sailors around him. They seemed to have great respect for their commander. Reassured, he spoke.

"I'm sure you know Usagi the Red, right?"

"The legendary pirate who reigned at the end of the Golden Age of the wakos?" Seokjin said thoughtfully.

"Himself," the pirate agreed, pleased to see that he had piqued the Wakos Slayer's curiosity.

"Spit it out or I'm the one who's going to pull the information out of your nose," Sanghoon threatened, bringing the blade of his saber dangerously close to the pirate's nose, "literally."

"He is back," the man said quickly, staring nervously at the blade." The Emperor of the East Seas is back."

Seokjin and Sanghoon exchanged a brief glance before bursting out laughing. The pirate frowned. 

"It's not a joke! It's no surprise that Joseon is so easy to attack if those who defend it are so stupid." 

Seokjin and Sanghoon immediately stopped laughing and hit the pirate at the same time in the jaw, Sanghoon with the hilt of his sword and Seokjin with his fist.  The man grunted in pain and spat blood angrily.

"Watch your mouth," Sanghoon said before he had the audacity to provoke them further.

The pirate swallowed his curses and instead insisted:

"I'm telling you that you should be wary of Usagi."

"Nonsense, Usagi the Red is dead and his body lies at the bottom of the sea," Seokjin replied.

"Oh yeah? And who killed him?" the wako asked with a smirk.

"A Ming general," Seokjin said, shrugging his shoulders and starting to get annoyed by this man who had nothing to offer him but seemed to want to take him for an imbecile..

"This is what the Ming made Joseon believe to get credit for his death."

"That doesn't stop him from being dead," Sanghoon remarked.

"He's not dead, that's what I'm trying to tell you!" the pirate got angry.

He desperately wanted to be believed by the Joseon soldiers.

"Let's assume he's alive," Seokjin agreed, emphasizing the assumption. "He must be so old that his rotten carcass is of no interest to me or Joseon. What made you think I might be interested ?"

"The red-sailed ship returned and began to terrorize the Yellow Sea and the Ming coasts. He will soon arrive in the Japanese Sea to attack Joseon, it's only a matter of time. And then at that point, it will become your problem."

"I'm not afraid of a legend," Seokjin replied.

"You should. It is said that he gathered around him an evil crew to reconquer all the eastern seas. And to achieve this, it will inevitably go up towards the Sea of ​​Japan. And then, I wonder which admiral of Joseon he will attack first: Admiral Kim senior who protects the North of Joseon as close as possible to Japan or Admiral Kim junior, who protects the South and is well closer to the Yellow Sea raids?"

A glint shone in Seokjin's eyes upon hearing the pirate mention his father. In Joseon, only the nobility had a surname, and most of those who did were called 'Kim'. The fact that two of the greatest and famous admirals in the Joseon Navy were named Kim in no way indicated that they were related, but despite that, Seokjin didn't like hearing pirates threaten his father. 

"That's suddenly a lot more interesting, huh?" the pirate said, satisfied.

Seokjin nodded to his men who were holding the pirate and they lowered their weapons, walking away from him. The pirate seemed to breathe a little easier as if he felt that his liberation was near.

"Where is he? Where is the ship with the red sails?"Seokjin asked.

"I don't know that for sure, but the last place I heard about him was in Dengzhou."

"A Ming city?"

"Yes."

Seokjin thinks about what he should do. Even though it was a city located in Ming territory, very few miles separated it from the coast of Joseon. However, if he wanted to patrol the Ming maritime zone, he would have to be very discreet or have a very good reason. He looked at the pirate.

"Don't you have anything else to teach me?"

"No, I gave you what you wanted so release me." You swore on your honor and that of your men."

"Pfff, as if pirates have honor," Sanghoon grumbled, releasing the wako from its chains on Seokjin's orders.

"No, but the navy soldiers have one, too bad for you," the wko replied in a mocking tone as he saw his irons fall to the ground with a metallic crash. "I'll take a rowboat, you can keep the ship, I won't be able to maneuver it alone anyway."

Sanghoon laughed wildly upon hearing this.

"What are you laughing at, Joseon dog?" the pirate said with hatred.

"We don't keep wako ships, they stink of Japanese," Sanghoon said with equally great hatred, tinged with the most explicit contempt.

"What did you say?!"

"Commander, could you explain this to him? Besides being stinky, they are completely stupid."

The pirate was about to retaliate when Seokjin's sword passed through his body.

"Wh-what..." the pirate stuttered before spitting blood, almost choking. "Y-you swore on y-your honor and that of-"

"I have no honor," Seokjin cut him off. "As for my men, they only have honor towards their own homeland. It is a shame that this ignorance led you to have ridiculous hope."

Around them the Little Admiral's men displayed an approving smile which finally convinced the pirate that he had been fooled. Without giving him time to respond, Seokjin pulled his blade from his chest and slit his throat.

"Now we're done," he declared, shaking his sword to rid itself of the blood dripping from it. "Burn this ship, we have only been here too long."

As they walked away from the burning wako ship fanned by the same wind that propelled them away from it, Sanghoon asked Seokjin:

"What is our next course? We were supposed to go back to Eobu but now I guess you want to change plans."

"We're not going back," Seokjin agreed. "We are going to the Ming. It is time that the legend of the wakos disappears for good this time and with it, all those who would become the new Emperor of the Eastern Seas."

He was going to ensure that the Eastern Seas became a safe haven. And for that, he would kill every last wako, that was the goal of his existence.

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A/N : Here are the images that inspired this story: