"What the hell?" the captains of the battleships looked around at their peers with a confused look.
They hadn't expected Ning, with such a giant beast to simply ask them to imprison him so easily. 'Is he scared we will kill him?' they thought.
"Give me a rope," the captain with the thick mustache asked of the soldiers.
"Yes, sir."
Some of them immediately ran away to get a rope. When they did bring it back, the captain tossed one end of the rope to Ning.
"Tie it around yourself," he shouted.
"Uh… okay." Ning quickly did as told and before long he had finished making a tight knot.
The captain pulled on it to make sure it was properly tied and then shouted back. "Now unsummon your beast."
"Unsummon my…? Sigh." Ning understood what the captain was planning and sighed regarding the fact that so many of his pearls would sing to the bottom the moment he did so.
'I can get it back later,' he thought and did as asked.
"You're free to leave."
A massive blinding circle of light appeared underneath the turtle and suddenly the battleships shook as the water moved in the fill the gap that the giant turtle had created.
Ning fell into the water, but the captain was holding on to the other end of the rope.
"Pull!" the captain shouted and his men went up to him and pulled on the rope without wasting a single time.
Ning was pulled onto the boat like an anchor and tossed onboard.
A dozen different guns pointed at him and he had to lie there, face down with his hands far apart.
"Tie him up," the captain ordered and Ning was tied up with some crude metal cuffs.
Finally, they pulled him to his feet and the captain placed a gun on his forehead.
"Now, speak. Why do you want to be imprisoned?" he asked.
Ning smiled. "Because I didn't want to die," he said.
The captain cocked his gun again. "One last chance," he said.
'Shit,' Ning thought. 'Well, I guess there's no use in hiding it'
"I know the assassin who killed your prince," Ning said.
"You… what?" the captain was shocked. He had been ready to shoot his gun, but now… there was no way he could shoot him.
"Who?" the captain shouted.
"It's a girl named Janean from an assassin's group known as The Shadow's Anarchy," Ning said.
"It's them?" the Captain was shocked. "Those fucking bastards! They want to ruin our country."
The Captain started rambling, quickly forgetting about Ning.
"Captain," another man that was of higher rank than the soldier called out to the captain.
"Huh?" the turned around.
"You cannot simply believe what this man is saying. We need to verify the facts first," he said.
"Yes, yes. You're right, Vice-captain. Thank you," The captain said and turned towards Ning.
"How do you know this piece of information?" he asked.
'Uh… what do I say here?' Ning thought.
"I have my ways. I cannot speak of my connections," Ning said.
"Fine, we'll make you speak. Put him in a cell and keep an eye on him. Shoot him the moment you see signs of summoning," the Captain ordered.
"Yes, sir."
The soldiers took him below the deck and put him in a cage in the middle of the room. Then, four different soldiers sat around the cage with their guns ready to shoot whenever necessary.
Ning sat on the metal floor of the cage and looked around. It didn't look like any of them were willing to speak with him, so he simply closed his eyes and opened his ears.
Many different sounds came to with such intensity that Ning nearly flinched. However, he quickly got used to it and focused on the one that mattered.
The one that belonged to the Captain.
"Do you really believe it could be the Shadow's Anarchy that did this, captain?" the vice-captain spoke to the captain somewhere in the ship.
"I see this as the most possible case," the captain said.
"More than the other ones?" the vice-captain asked.
"What? Are you saying this was done by the queen to stay in power? Are you saying this was done by the young prince who isn't even 10? Who else but the Shadow's Anarchy could do this?" the captain asked.
"What about the late King's brother? Maybe he's trying to return from his exile," the vice-captain said.
"That's impossible," the Captain said.
"Is it?" the vice-captain asked.
"Yes," the captain said.
"But he killed the king, didn't he? What's stopping him from killing the prince?" the vice-captain asked.
"He didn't kill the king, that was just a lie we spread because we never figured out who killed the king," the captain said.
"What?" the vice-captain hadn't known about this at all. He thought for a moment and said, "that still doesn't get him out of suspicion, does it? He could have killed the king, the same way he could have killed the prince."
"I told you, that's impossible," the captain said.
"Why is that more impossible than the Shadow's Anarchy doing it all?" the vice-captain asked.
"Because I killed the damn man myself."
"What?" the vice-captain couldn't believe it. "You killed the exiled prince?"
"He was never exiled. I killed him and told the people he was exiled," the captain said.
"I… I don't understand. Why would you kill the previous prince?" the vice-captain asked.
"Because the king ordered me to," the captain said.
"The King ordered you to kill his own brother? How… why would he do that?" the vice-captain felt like everything he knew was a lie.
"Because the prince did try to kill his brother. The King was stabbed in the chest in the night by his brother. Fortunately, he missed his heart and the king could summon a healing beast for himself."
"He then captured his own brother and tried to kill him. But it was too much for him and gave me the job," the captain said as he remembered the day he killed the previous prince.
