With all the lights out, the Little Admiral advanced like a shadow in the night. They stopped in an isolated cove near the port of Dengzhou but far enough away to remain unnoticed and protected in the event of an attack.

Seokjin had a rowboat prepared and changed clothes. He had changed out of his Navy uniform and was now wearing simpler sailor clothes, a white shirt with rolled-up mache, a sleeveless leather jacket, and fitted black leather pants. He did not take his soldier's saber with him either, and contented himself with a dagger which he put on his belt. In these dangerous times, no one would be surprised to see him armed like this.

"For the moment it's best to keep a low profile," he explained to his men, "let's avoid looking like we're invading the Ming Empire." I will go alone with Sanghoon to gather information. If we have not returned by early morning, it will mean that I have been arrested or killed. You will return immediately to Eobu to report. Is it clear?"

His men did not flinch. He designated the rear admiral to take command in his place and in Sanghoon's place if things went wrong and then they put the rowboat into the black sea. As it was in coastal waters, the sea was calm and the small boat moved smoothly.

Sanghoon rowed as quietly as possible and led them out of the cove. Following the steep coasts, they reached a vast bay and they soon saw a brighter coast appear where many boats were moored. It was the port of the town of Dengzhou. 

From where they were, they could already hear shouts of joy from men and women under the influence of alcohol coming from various taverns and inns that the city must have housed. As expected given the late hour, Seokjin told himself before turning his attention elsewhere and freezing.

"Sanghoon, change our course, go further east," he ordered, pointing to the other side of the bay.

"Are we no longer docking?" the other asked, surprised.

"I need to check something first."

Instead of continuing towards the lights, they approached dangerously on the other side of the bay where the water crashed against the reefs. Sanghoon didn't understand Seokjin's maneuver but he soon heard what the other had heard. The water was crashing not only on rocks but also on ships that were almost invisible in the darkness of the pitch-black night. There were at least half a dozen of them and it didn't take long for the two men to figure it out something else.

"They're wako ships," Sanghoon whispered. "

Seokjin nodded darkly.

"It's as if they were lined up in a merchant port but we are away from the city, it's strange. Do you think they arrived to attack the city?" Sanghoon asked.

"No, if they were there to plunder, they would have brought their ships closer to the docks. And what's more, they don't have the same flags, look carefully."

"Several wako crews gathered in a Ming city?! How strange..."

"It looks like we just discovered a pirate port," seokjin declared.

He felt the excitement overcome him. The pirate who had told them about Usagi had not led them here by chance, he was convinced of it. He probably wanted them to be surprised by the various pirate crews there and outnumbered. But now they had the advantage and could take out several crews at once. What to do? Take care of the one who pretended to be Usagi or attack these ships and risk never being able to set foot in Dengzhou again?

Speaking of Usagi, Seokjin didn't see any trace of the red sail ship among the other dark ships.

"What do you want to do?" Sanghoon urged him, visibly eager to take action.

"Have me dock," Seokjin decided, "I will investigate and come back. Then, we will join the Little Admiral and attack the wako ships by surprise after the three quarters of the night, when they won't expect it. We will set sail in the early morning when the job is completed, so that the Ming authorities do not realize that it was Joseon who attacked in their territorial waters without authorization."

"But if we want your plan to work, you can't spend too much time out of town. Will you have time to find what you're looking for and return before sunrise?"

"I will do it as quickly as possible."

"What if you don't come back?"

"Thank you for your trust in me, it warms my heart, Vice-Admiral."

A port full of wakos didn't scare Seokjin but he knew that Sanghoon was right to imagine another outcome than his return: if he was discovered and chased by not too many pirates, he would have a hard time getting out.

"Watch the North Star. If I haven't returned then its glow begins to fade, destroys as many ships as you can and takes the crew back to Eobu."

"Aren't you asking me to take revenge?" Sanghoon asked, mockingly.

"My father will take care of it."

Sanghoon sighed.

"I will obviously help him. How else could I hope to take your place as admiral?"

Seokjin smirked briefly, knowing that his crew wouldn't think long if they were asked to go hunting for even more pirates. That the motive was revenge for their admiral changed nothing. Many of them had already joined the Navy to take revenge for the wako attack fifteen years earlier. The spirit of revenge already animated their hearts.

"Come on, take me ashore."

"You want the rowboat to go to shore?!"

"Obviously. None of my toes will touch this disgusting water."

"A sailor who hates the sea is something I don't understand, but for you to act like a princess when my life is at stake in this story, I can't accept it. Couldn't you swim like everyone else for once?" moaned Sanghoon who did not want to risk being seen.

"If you complain again, I'll take the rowboat alone and you'll be the one to swim out and take care of your mission," Seokjin replied.

After that, the vice-admiral no longer flinched. He managed to bring the rowboat closer to the edge discreetly and let it tap gently against the stone wall of the dock. From there, Seokjin pulled himself up with the strength of his arms and in a flash, he was on the hard ground. He heard voices coming dangerously close to him.

"Do you understand what you have to do?" he whispered one last time.

"Yes," Sanghoon simply replied in the same way, before quickly walking away, sinking back into darkness in a few discreet strokes of the oar in the water.

Seokjin got up and started walking as if he had always been on dry land and was a passerby like the others, just in time to pass a giggling couple walking in the opposite direction. He ignored them and they did the same. Obviously he didn't look suspicious. So much the better. 

He walked for a while along the facades of the buildings with curved roofs characteristic of Ming architecture. Hearing voices coming from the houses, his brain automatically began to think in Chinese. It was one of three languages ​​he spoke fluently, along with Korean and Japanese for these were the languages ​​spoken in the East Seas and mastering them was a necessity.

After a short moment of reflection, he headed towards the brightest and noisiest building around, a tavern without a doubt .

He entered and was greeted by humid heat and a mixture of smells of various alcohol, opium and Ming dishes. From inside, the sound of shouting was even louder and Seokjin hoped he wouldn't have to spend the night there. 

He sat down at an empty table ideally located against a wall where he could see everyone, both those who entered and those already present. 

The room, which suddenly seemed smaller, was full and the atmosphere was suffocating. A waitress brought him the Chinese sake he had ordered. It had been a long time since he had spoken Chinese and he realized that with such an accent, he could hardly hide that he was from Joseon, but that didn't matter. A national of Joseon, although despised by the Ming who held Joseon under their control, had every right to be there. He would only have to pretend to be a passing traveler or a merchant looking for new finds.

He began to sip his drink while discreetly observing the room. The Ming present seemed to care little about the presence of Japanese pirates in that place, as if they were used to it. They mingled with each other indiscriminately, playing cards, drinking rum, passing women between them who seemed like merchandise in their hands.

Seokjin, for his part, was not a regular visitor to the place and he was even less accustomed to seeing wakos calmly treading the continent. He barely held back from getting up to do his usual job: killing wakos.

After long minutes spent observing and a new pitcher of sake ordered, he suddenly saw a strange group appear. Strange was the word that best described them because even though they had the visible appearance of wakos in their crude way of walking and ordering drinks, in the paraphernalia which served as weaponry and in their annoying confidence which exulted from them, their ways of dressing seemed to be a mixture of Japanese, Ming and Joseon customs. Even their faces seemed marked by this mixture. 

Seokjin met the gaze of the only young man who had the full traditional appearance of a Japanese but not really a pirate. It was a samurai in a kimono, armed with a katana and a wakizahi stored in their sheath. Unlike most wakos, his head was not shaved and his skin, almost entirely covered by his kimono, did not have any tattoos. Her loose hair was long and silky and only part of it was gathered into a bun behind his head. He definitely didn't look like a pirate.

The man was starting at him intently, like a curiosity to be studied but also with a hint of disdain in his eyes that Seokjin did not appreciate. He didn't want to seem intimidated so he continued the staring duel with the samurai.

"Hello, handsome!"

The voice startled him and he looked away from the samurai to turn towards the man who had just addressed him in Korean. He frowned as he recognized his native language in a Ming tavern.

"I knew you were from Joseon the minute you walked in here," the man continued cheerfully before to sit at Seokjin's table without being invited. He emptyed the glass in his hand and pouring more from the bottle of rum which he held in his other hand. "I know how to recognize a compatriot. I'm Namjoon by the way."

The fact that he did not give his last name probably suggested that he did not have one. And if Seokjin had any doubts, his vulgar way of approaching him - certainly he was handsome, but his beauty was appreciated with discretion - as well as the disgusting drink he was drinking, a cheap and bad-tasting drink popular with pirates, told him that Namjoon was not a Korean from the nobility of Joseon. And since he was there, to get drunk in a Ming tavern, that meant he wasn't a peasant either.

"What are you doing here?" Seokjin asked without any form of politeness, ignoring the other's invitation to introduce himself. He was suspicious: what was a Korean alone doing here? His question was undoubtedly hypocritical since he was also a Korean alone here but, well, he was the one asking the questions.

Namjoon's smile widened and his intelligent eyes gleamed as he studied Seokjin with his gaze.

"Be careful, the distrust that exudes from you will not please all the pirates in this place. They might think you're a Joseon spy soldier and kill you."

He said it nonchalantly but it was obvious that there was nothing inconsiderate in his remark and Seokjin gritted his teeth. He briefly turned his attention to the rest of the room and saw that a few people were looking at him, returning his suspicion. He forced himself to look less feverish and turned to Namjoon.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Namjoon."

"You already said it. I want to know what a Korean is doing at a Ming tavern so far from Joseon. »

"I am a peddler. It is my job to travel the lands available to me to find new goods to buy and resell."

It was a very good reason for traveling freely in a foreign country, Seokjin thought. But that was what anyone could have said, even a a bandit who was waiting for him to get drunk so she could steal his money so he didn't let go of his suspicion. The only thing that made him less virulent was the certainty that Namjoon wasn't Japanese. After spending time with Japanese wakos, he no longer had any trouble telling a Korean from a Japanese. That didn't mean there weren't dishonest Koreans as well as criminals.

"For your part, you don't seem to want to share many things with me so let me guess," said Namjoon who seemed in a playful mood, "you're suspicious as if you don't belong here. Anyone might think you're just nervous because you're from Joseon, but given your authoritarian questioning, you seem used to being respected. I would say that you are..." he pretended to think before whispering: a Joseon soldier."

Seokjin was annoyed to be unmasked so easily and he couldn't hide his expression and Namjoon burst out laughing.

"You really are an open book. I saw it right then: you are a soldier and to come here, you had to take the sea because crossing Ming territory on horseback would have been damn dangerous. So I guess you're not just a soldier but a navy soldier. One who shouldn't be there and who is at great risk. I imagine that your presence in Ming territory concerns the charming people who frequent Dengzhou."

Seokjin understood very well that he was talking about wakos. Everything he said was so insightful that it was very annoying. Was he clairvoyant or just devilishly intelligent? Seokjin wondered, however, if he could benefit from the sagacity of this Mr. Know-It-All to get the information he wanted.

"To tell the truth, I just discovered that this town had opened its doors to wakos," He admitted to guide the conversation where he wanted.

"You must have been in shock," Namjoon laughed. "It has been a few years since the Ming decided to make certain ports free trading posts. Dengzhou is just one of them."

"Pardon?!" Seokjin said, stunned before lowering the sound of his voice out of caution. "Joseon strives to protect the East Seas all so that the Ming can establish agreements with them?!"

Namjoon shrugged.

"The Ming figured out how to take advantage of what they couldn't get rid of. Maybe Joseon should do the same and agree to finally see the wakos as potential economic partners."

"That's out of the question!" replied Seokjin, who felt anger rising within him. "If the Ming decide to ally themselves with these despicable beings, then Joseon will remain alone but will continue to fight according to our values."

"Wow, you seem really passionate," the other remarked.

"I'm not passionate, I'm determined. I'm going to rid these seas of the vermin that roams them," Seokjin grumbled before finishing his glass of sake.

"I see. You are devoted to your cause, it is honorable of you. For my part, I am not so scrupulous and I deal with the most interesting party, even if it is the Ming party which trades with pirates."

Seokjin glared at him. This man was starting to tire him. What time was it? He couldn't forget himself here, or Sanghoon would abandon him after starting a war.

"Ola, don't look at me like that," Namjoon said, raising his hands in a peace sign. "I am only a merchant, I have not dedicated my life to doing good, I have dedicated it to getting rich, so I don't- What is it?" he asked, seeing Seokjin grimace and put his head in his hands.

"Nothing, this noise is starting to get on my nerves," Seokjin said, noticing a group of dirty men who were dancing on a table, throwing their empty bottles of rum on the floor in the sound of shattering glass and shouting at the top of their lungs. Further into the square, a man was playing a stringed musical instrument that made what sounded more like a squeak than music.

He looked away from this pitiful spectacle. Too quickly probably because his migraine seemed to increase. On top of that, he felt nauseous. What had he eaten, already? He remembered this when he licked his bitter lips and added with a grimace of disgust, "This sake is disgusting, that's probably the problem."

"You have luxury tastes, I hear. I'm sure you're not just an enlisted soldier. You must be a nobleman's son, right? Even if you wear common clothes and you are a sailor living under the sun, your face is too well-groomed not to be that of a country nobleman. I even bet you're a Kim."

"Stop playing with me," Seokjin grumbled, his mouth thick. He wasn't going to tell Namjoon that he was right again. "Tell me instead, you who are so wise, do you know Usagi the Red?"

Namjoon looked surprised for once.

"Everyone in these lands knows him. Why ?"

"I met someone who told me about a rumor about him. Apparently he is still alive and ready to reconquer the East Seas aboard his ship with red sails. It was this someone who guide me to Dengzhou."

"A wako?"

Seokjin nodded and did not dwell on the fate that this man had experienced. Besides, Namjoon probably wasn't fooled.

"And you believe it?"

"I don't think it's Usagi himself. I think he's someone who's having fun pretending to be him to scare people using his reputation, but I'll get rid of him soon enough and burn his boat so that no one ever pretends to be him again."

Namjoon's eyes widened and Seokjin bit his tongue. He always talked a lot, that was his character, but alcohol made him even more talkative and that risked compromising him. He looked around to make sure no one else had listened to the conversation.

"Forget what I just said, I better stop talking. Besides," he said, tilting his head to look at the sky through the window, "I should leave now. I don't really know what I expected to find when I came here but even if I didn't find Usagi, I did gather some interesting information about the relationship between Ming and the wakos."

"Does that mean that if you can't burn Usagi's ship, it's Dengzhou's wako ships that you'll burn?" Namjoon asked curiously.

"Namjoon, I'm grateful for the information you gave me, but don't try to find out more about what I'm going to do."

He stood up but immediately felt dizzy which made him lean against the table to avoid falling again. The sake was definitely bad. He was not unhappy knowing that he would never come and drink in this tavern.

"Are you sure you're able to walk?" Namjoon asked, looking intrigued.

"I didn't drink that much," Seokjin grumbled sure of himself. The sake must have really been very fermented.

As he looked up, he inadvertently met the gaze of the waitress Ming who gave him a dirty look before looking away. Then he understood.

"Oh, no..." he moaned with a hand on his stomach, certain this time that the sake was going to be his undoing. His field of vision was dangerously blurry.

"Hey mate, do you need some help?"

"Namjoon, the waitress, I think she got me pois-" but he stopped abruptly, hit by a detail. "What did you just call me?"

Namjoon's face was blurry but he clearly saw him smile.

"So you understand, mate?"

It was a term pirates used, not peddlers.

"But you... you're Korean..." Seokjin moaned, his breath getting shorter and shorter. He didn't understand, Namjoon wasn't a wako, it was impossible.

"It's your trust in your people that will ruin you," Namjoon said, getting up and coming to stand in front of Seokjin. "'He's Korean, that's impossible' that's what you said to yourself, right? The world is changing, little admiral, but not in the way you think."

Seokjin's eyes widened at his childhood nickname and that he had given to his ship as a provocation to all those who had made fun of him in his childhood. But Namjoon didn't belong to his childhood memories. 

"Oh, sorry, I haven't informed you yet: my crew found an interesting ship full of marines but whose captain and admiral was absent. This boat is called – sorry, was called...

"No...," Seokjin breathed, struggling not to lose consciousness.

"...Little Admiral!" 

Namjoon had laughed at him. He hadn't guessed everything about him, he knew who he was from the moment he came to sit at his table.

Enraged, Seokjin grabbed his dagger to plunge it into Namjoon's heart but, too weak, could not hold back his momentum when he took a step away. He fell hard on the ground, his dagger slipping from his hands and he was unable to get up.

"There's no point in getting agitated Little Admiral, you'll only spread the poison faster through your body."

He was going to die, Seokjin understood that. But he refused to die when his last act on earth was to drink ming sake. He would die killing a wakos and let Sanghoon avenge him and their crew.

He felt Namjoon's gaze on him, reeking of confidence and no doubt waiting to see him die with satisfaction. After all, Seokjin had no strength left and he had nothing to fear. Slowly, Seokjin let his fingers slide across the dirty floor and in a split second, he grabbed the dagger and threw it toward Namjoon's throat.

The pirate obviously didn't expect it and Seokjin, convinced that his blade was going to hit his target with a shocked face, smiled. At least he would die in style, smiling at the scoundrel pirate he had killed.

But it didn't go as planned. A shadow intervened with formidable speed between Namjoon and Seokjin and grabbed his wrist roughly, earning a grunt from him and preventing him from throwing his weapon before fixing him with its disdainful gaze. Seokjin recognized him: it was the samurai who had been looking at him intently earlier. Probably a member of Namjoon's crew. 

And now, there were two wakos watching him take his last breath.

Everyone around them ignored them, as if it were an absolutely normal scene. The man at the back of the room continued to play music, the others continued to dance on the table, the rest continued to laugh, drink and have fun.

Seokjin was wheezing, his breath quickly fading. With a last breath of temerity, he gave them a smirk and whispered:

"Joseon will settle your score soon. See you soon on the other side, fucking pirates!"

Then he sank and everything went black.