Yoongi wiped his bloody sword on the last enemy pirate who was still on the ship and whom he had just killed after extracting the information desired by his captain, notably the number of pirates remaining on board their ship. He was always the one entrusted with the task of torturing the enemy for information, and he did it with an undisguised pleasure.

Hoseok and Jimin took care of throwing the pirate's body overboard and returning it to the sea, like all the men who died that day, including the members of their own crew. Then, like the rest of the crew, they set about tidying up and cleaning the blood-soaked ship that did honor to its name. Normally they would be exploring the enemy ship and grabbing its resources and perhaps its treasures but because of the admiral, they only had blood to clean up.

Aside, Taehyung, who had been found alive, shamefully reported what had happened to him to Wakaï while the doctor of the crew, a Ming named Zijing, bandaged his injured head. Namjoon had given him back his wakizashi or rather, Taehyung had snatched it from his hands when he discovered it in his possession.

"The little admiral took the first opportunity to escape, and he succeeded brilliantly," Namjoon remarked not without a touch of admiration.

"Don't praise him or I might get angry," Taehyung growled.

"You're grumpy because he defeated you and disappeared with your katana, but if you were objective for five minutes, you'd agree with me."

"I don't need my katana to rip out your tongue, Joseon Peddler," Taehyung threatened.

"You two shut up and listen to me," the captain ordered, "we're going to give chase."

"Really?" Namjoon wondered. "Are Taehyung's katana that important?"

Taehyung agreed: 

"It is." 

 Yet, Wakaï denied:

"It has nothing to do with your katana."

"We have to catch him and skin him alive after what he did," Yoongi intervened, approaching. "Some members of our crew died under his katana blows. We must not let him escape with impunity."

"Don't pretend to be sad, everyone knows that only your life matters to you," Taehyung retorted. "You just want an excuse to skin a rat from Joseon."

"Why deprive me of it?" Yoongi said, a predatory smile stretching his lips. "I'm fed up with hunting Japanese wako, Joseon's soldiers as tough as this one are more interesting to chase and kill."

"He humiliated the captain by refusing to obey him, it's the captain who will kill him," Taehyung replied menacingly.

"We'll see what we do with him," Wakaï said. "In any case, this admiral must not join Joseon so we're going to chase him."

A touch of excitement that his men had never known inhabited him. But it was a dangerous, frightening excitement. He did not seem to be following a conscious objective, he gave the impression of being a predator who must by instinct set out in pursuit of the prey he was stalking with carnivorous pleasure.

"Can we really catch him? His ship is faster than ours and no offense captain but he is a better navigator than you," Namjoon argued.

"He's on an enemy ship and he probably killed the pirates who were left on board. We will just have to keep him within cannon range, not catch him at first. Since he is alone, he will not be able to defend himself if he has to navigate at the same time."

Namjoon nodded. The captain was right, a single man could do nothing in the face of an enemy attack on the open sea.

"For my part, I will remain at the helm until the end of this hunt. So go to your posts, all of you!" Wakaï ordered with a smirk. "It's time to catch up with this pretentious admiral."

The pirates nodded and followed their captain's orders. They had never seen him so eager to hunt someone and knew that if that's what he decided, then he would succeed, even if it meant staying up for days and nights.

Seokjin didn't take long to kill the few pirates who remained on the enemy ship called the Sea Shogun. Most were the gunners and had not seen him board the ship. He was therefore easily able to surprise them inside of the hold and take control of the Shogun.

Now, he was speeding towards Joseon, putting as many nautical miles as possible between him and the Red Princess. He had found enough to eat and drink as much as he wanted and now, he alternated between holding the rudder, correcting the orientation of the sails and monitoring the horizon.

It was exhausting work for one man and even though he promised himself he would stay awake, he ended up falling asleep.

To his great relief when he awoke, he saw that the ship had not turned away from its course. However, the wind was blowing little, and the Shogun had slowed down, which worried him a little. He did what he could to make him go faster but he was no magician.

He looked at the horizon through a telescope and to his horror, he saw a ship in the distance.

A ship with red sails that was recognizable among all.

"Not now, not already..." he complained, aware that he was still too far from Joseon.

"Captain, he slowed down," said Yoongi, who was observing the Shogun using his telescope.

"The wind died down and suddenly, our heavier ship became faster than his," Wakaï explained. "We'll catch him easily. Namjoon and Hoseok, take care of the frontal cannons, we will only use those," he added.

Namjoon and Hoseok went down into the hold and joined the two cannons which were on either side of the figurehead which represented an entirely red and beautiful mermaid, crowned princess whose carved pattern was visible from the inside.

There they prepared the powder and cannonballs, and positioned the cannons in the opening. They were ready to fire when the time came, and the captain ordered it.

Namjoon wasn't particularly thrilled with what he was about to do. The Joseon little admiral had done everything he could to flee and had single-handedly managed to sail his stolen ship to Joseon. He would have liked to leave him this victory and let him go home. He deserved it.

He understood the desire for revenge of some, even if he did not share it because on his side, he knew that it was fair game that they had lost and that the other had won. Besides, he had only been captured because he was a soldier who protected these seas from pirates after all. Although Namjoon was a lawless peddler who turned pirate, he found it commendable that others like this admiral lived according to their values.

And he did not understand the captain's desire to pursue this Joseon admiral at all costs. Was it just a game for him? It wasn't his habit though.

"Do you think we're right to do this?" he suddenly asked Hoseok.

Hoseok had a simple mind and didn't think too much. Sometimes this made him surprisingly more perceptive than the others. The latter shrugged his shoulders, a sign that he had no personal opinion, but for once, he wasn't smiling.

"Why wonder if it's right? If the captain wants it, then we have to do it."

Namjoon sighed.

"So it's that simple..." he murmured with a sad smile.

"I saw him spare your life when he could let you be killed during the battle. If I were you, I wouldn't want to kill him either," Hoseok said.

Namjoon looked at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yes," the other agreed. "If you want, I'll take care of both cannons and you won't have to blame yourself for what happens to him, nor to be scolded by the captain."

Namjoon felt like he was rediscovering the man in front of him. He wasn't surprised to not know much about him because he had joined Wakaï's crew after Hoseok and he knew nothing about his past that the other had always kept quiet.

"Why are you willing to do this for me?"

"Just like that," Hoseok said simply.

"Obviously," Namjoon smiled. "One day, will you tell me what you did before becoming a pirate?"

"One day, but I don't know which one yet," Hoseok replied wisely with a laugh.

Namjoon didn't insist but refused to allow Hoseok to fire alone. He would take responsibility for what was going to happen. After all, he had just discovered that Hoseok, behind his nonchalant and mocking appearance, hid empathy.

"Sorry,little admiral, but I don't make the rules of the game," he whispered.

A few minutes later, the Shogun and the admiral on board were finally within cannon range.

_________

A/N : It's already chapter 20 so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the readers who have embarked on this odyssey alongside me, taking the time to comment and vote for the chapters that I publish.

Thank you so much !