Water fell on the head of young man, who's life has become an uncontrollable mess.

  Looking down he saw blood, flow on his skin and yet no wound was on him.

  It was not his blood, it was never his blood.

  It was blood of those who he deemed enemies, those who saw lives as nothing more than a commodity.

  Yet tears dropped as well.

  He tried to rip his hair out, but could not.

  He tried to drown himself but was scared.

  He tried to punch the walls so his hands would bleed, he couldn't.

  So he yelled in anger at himself, he did not understand why.

  Why did he kill.

  Why did has he deemed them unworthy of change.

  Why did others cheer him on as he continued his slaughter.

  He could not understand.

  Worst of all, it felt good, it felt good to be cheered on by others.

  It felt good to kill those who deal with slavery.

  Perhaps he felt relief, like he can finally find a way to destroy his past.

  But all it did was put a chain around his neck... again.

  Worst of all, he now understood how Luka felt.

  The one person who he cursed for his actions against the very loss of morality.

  Was now the only person who's actions made sense.

  Leaving the shower and putting on a fresh batch of clothes, he looked clean.

  Especially the way his outfit was put together, expensive white shirt, waist pants and leather boots that protect against all sorts of elements.

  However he still felt unclean.

  Going to the lounge of the ship he saw a much clearer picture of what Siene did.

  Two couches, armchairs, hammocks, table, bookshelves and all sorts of other stuff for amenities.

  By the looks of it all the stuff was also bolted down so it did not move around during a voyage.

  Jean sat down on a couch, letting his worries die with him in his sleep.

  "Si-" "Sir-" "SIR!"

  *Thud* "ughhh crap, what happened?"

  "I have news."

  "thanks, uhhh" Jean could not remember her name

  "Truce"

  "Thanks Truce, now could you tell me what kind of news?"

  "We have a crew"

  Jean still laying on the ground, was dumbfounded "What do you mean we have a crew"

  "I mean we have a crew for the ship."

  "It's been one day how in the world-"

  "They are all from the captain you got rid of yesterday, we have one doctor, two chefs, one navigator, one carpenter and eleven other sailors." she closed a ledger "I believe that is enough?"

  "Y-yeah..." Jean was quite stunned, what would take him a month, took her less than a day "Could you place them around the ship and I guess, we can go sail tomorrow."

  "will do, 'captain'"

  "ughhh god I am tired, hm?" Jean noticed smoke above him. "Siene?"

  "What's up?"

  "Could you maybe not smoke or at very least don't do it inside."

  "Don't worry I am gonna purify it."

  "That is not what I meant-" he sighed "You know what I am too tired, do what you want."

  "nice."

  Jean stood up and went around the ship, he saw a lot of movement.

  The carpenter and doctor took place next to each other, chefs were on the lower deck and had been checking the state of their equipment.

  Navigator was on the very top deck, even covering some of the areas of the open deck with tent that if needed could cover the entire area.

  And the other sailors were setting up in their small cabins, a luxury not afforded on other ships where you would usually be sleeping like canned sardines.

  Jean's room was the same as the quartermaster Truce's, small but enough to rest and be comfortable.

  However the reason he had that room was because Siene took the Captain's room and made it into a personal lab.

  She kicked out Jean because he did not truly need a room this big.

  And because she is very special, so that she needed a giant room all to herself so that she can do her very evil and scheming experiments.

  Or because she is just a giant shut in that would rather be in her room for several hours, rather than go outside.

  This ship was now extremely lively, and the three Ferfolk were also seen teaching some people they chose on how to operate the machinary of the ship.

  While Jean, well he was looking outward to the endless sea from the ported ship's deck.

  "Do you think that looking all sad and longly into the ocean will somehow bring you to the love of your life?"

  "No it won't Siene, but it will make me forget about your smell."

  "Pretty sure that is just you."

  "Nah, I took a shower with soap and a shampoo." he moved his hair flamboyantly "I am clean~"

  "Yeah clean like a sewer R A T."

  "..."

  "what? are your feelings hurt? Do you need to go and cry?"

  "I am throwing you overboard."

  "nuh uh"

  "okay that's it" Jean grabbed Siene

  "Oh my~" Siene realized that she was in the air "Wait you were actually-" she was in the air "SERIOUS, OH FU-" *splash* "Would you look at that, you are finally clean, however your hair is covering up your face." Jean squinted "Although I think that is just kelp."

  Siene used her magic to float through the air to come back on board of the ship. "that was too mean."

  "Then stop being mean towards me."

  "I am not, I am a very kind and pretty princess"

  "...With issues."

  "Still better than a man who throws innocent women into the sea." Siene started pulling out a piece of paper.

  "I am gonna throw you again" Jean looked at the paper "what's that?"

  "hm? oh nothing" she ripped the paper and water started shooting from the to Jean's face.

  After continued failings of trying to avoid the water surge, Jean accepted his fate for 30 seconds until water stopped pouring.

  "Look at you, so very clean now"

  The two of them had to take a shower, Jean in particularly was very annoyed considering this was the second time this day.

  A giant pain, however it was fun, no denying that.

  Let's just say that having these two at the helm of the ship will be a disaster.

  With the ship being ready to set out and crew waiting, the only thing left now would be to sail away.

  "what is this?" Jean looked at a table

  "It's a hat, sir" Truce seemed to have brought a hat, that a muskateers would wear.

  "Are you sure it's not a theater prop?"

  "Why would you think that sir?"

  The hat was... very flamboyant "It has colored feathers."

  "It's a sign of nobles."

  "still is it really necessary?"

  Siene sighed "Just put on the hat, Truce got it for you and it is too much of a pain to return"

  "Why are you getting involved."

  "No reason"

  "fine I am gonna put it on" with this Jean's outfit was complete, for he now looks like a character from renessaince painting.

  "hehe" Siene laughed with Truce

  "See I told you it looks ridiculous"

  "It does, allow me to get rid of it" Truce took the hat and when she reached 4 meters away from him "OOPS"

  The hat flew straight towards Jean's face hitting him and landing on his face. "MY NOSE"

  "nice the lab experiment worked, gonna write the paper now" Siene went down to the hold to her room

  "SERIOUSLY"

  Truce laughed

  "AND YOU, don't laugh, I am now stuck with this hat" Jean sighed "Truce we are leaving in 2 hours, could you inform everyone"

  "O-Of course s-sir" Truce tried to put down her laughter "I will leave now" after leaving for the hold Jean could hear her laughter

  *sigh* "thanks for the hat I guess."

  Jean had to give a speech as the new captain, most of it was just him saying bunch of words that sounded good and explain the purpose of this entire sailing venture.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Though it was clear that most of the people were looking at his hat.

  Perhaps it was really fashionable.

  Still with the ship now sailing, Jean could finally get a feel for it.

  It felt smooth and very expensive.

  He could turn easily and the ship was steady even as the waves were hitting the hull.

  And the giant sails allowed for speeds that we above and beyond of the previous ship he was only.

  By the looks of it he was not the only person impressed by the ship.

  Many of the sailors were also impressed and felt relieved by not being on a ship comparable to a amusement ride.

  "Jean we will have to go to the island first, just listen to the navigator and you should be fine." Siene looked through her notes. "Only two of us will go ashore and Truce will keep an eye out"

  "Okay... anything else, we should know about the island."

  Siene went through her notes "Well, uhhh... other than the island being completely uninhibited by any life, there were also some reports of people trying to settle on it."

  "mhm..."

  "Apparently after two decades, all communications has stopped"

  "And no one thought to check?"

  "They did"

  "Did they find anything?"

  "We are still sailing there."

  Jean turned to Siene "So we are, the..."

  "The expedition meant to understand what happened there? yes we are"

  "Did no one try to think, to explore it before hand"

  "No, apparently the island has a strict no go, due to being a giant crime scene. Luckily though, we will be joined by invastigators from the guild." She closed her notebook "We are only there to gather the evidence, find out what happened and support the evidence."

  Jean laid on the helm "What if we find something? can we keep it."

  "no, we cannot. Due to being an official investigation anything we find will be taken and given to the closest of kin."

  "Then what is the point of being a privateer then"

  "The point is" Siene hit Jean on the head with the notes "That we are hired to do a job, and then we do the job and then we get paid in full."

  "Can't we, like leave?"

  "No because I got paid a lot AND I get to drink all day LONG~"

  "Oh wow, a drunk mage what could possibly happen..."

  "Don't worry I won't kill anyone."

  "How nice..."

  Jean heard steps and saw his navigator behind Siene. "Captain, the doctor wishes to see you"

  "OH CRAP! you scared me" Siene jumped.

  "Understood, can you take the helm?"

  "Of course captain." The navigator was a lizard like humanoid with white scales.

  "Siene, please try to not make a mess."

  As a way to mock Jean she saluted "AYE AYE CAPTAIN"

  Jean sighed as he left

  Going down the hull floor by floor, he saw his sailors resting and talking.

  Because of the ships design, it did not have to be really looked after much so sailors have a lot of free time, luckily for them Jean liked that more than them faking work for basically no reason.

  However some were learning from the Ferfolk and when Jean got to the doctor, where he saw that he expanded his "office" to one fourth of the floor, with the help of the carpenter.

  The area looked more like an infirmary than an office.

  "what is with the expanding in size?"

  "Ah captain" the doctor heard Jean "It is for patients and safety of the crew, you don't want sick people packed like sardines coughing and being operated on right next to each other?"

  "no, I really don't want that."

  "I am glad" the doctor pulled out a folder with paper forms ripe for filling in "Now, I need you to do a basic tests and draw some blood from you."

  "Is that really necessary, not to mention we are on a moving ship."

  "It will be fine, unless you are scared of needles?"

  "uhhh, I don't think so?"

  "...what do you mean by that"

  "I never did this test."

  "Well there is always something new to experience."

  The doctor did some basic tests on Jean.

  His height was around 178 cm an average height for half elf, however the doctor did say that there is a high probability of growth spurt.

  His weight was around 75kg.

  In short Jean was above average but not to the point where one would consider him an anomaly.

  The fun part was with a blood test, his blood could accept any type however.

  Jean is terrified of needles.

  In fact so much that he almost fainted when the needle dug into his skin.

  Fascinating to say the least.

  But with all the tests done, and with rocking of the ship Jean felt like throwing up would fix him.

  It in fact did not fix him and only made everything far worse.

  "THE ISLAND IS ON THE HORIZON!" one of the sailors announced to the ship.

  And with it the ship started to prepare for docking to an abandoned town where the invastigators have camped out.

  When the ship docked it was clear who had more funding.

  The Investigator's ship was much larger.

  A long and wide hull made from oak, painted in colors that signify their allegiance to self sovereignty.

  However it had the same amount of guns, so the ship was strictly for transportation or to be used as a moving base.

  After docking the Jean's crew started offloading their equipment, setting up tents and heaters.

  While Jean and Siene were greeted by the what seemed like the captain of the Investigators.

  "Good Morning Madam Siene and Captain...?

  "Vane, but please call Jean how am I to address you sir?"

  "Taylor sir."

  Siene went around to check the surroundings while Jean and Taylor spoke.

  "Have you found anything sir Taylor." Jean enquired

  "To some degree, we have found no sign of animal or insect life. However we did find interesting things." Taylor guided Jean to a bunch of clothes laying on the floor. "Whatever did this, has wiped the bodies but not the clothes, we have also found that it did not happen at the same time." Taylor pointed at two sets of child clothes. "These two sets of clothes have disappeared at different time, meaning that the distance was the main difference."

  Jean acted as if he understood all that "I see... by the way where is Siene?"

  Just as he asked she appeared with her own findings "There is no ambient mana."

  "okay what does that mean?" Jean asked

  "It means that what dissapeared were not the people but mana or energy of life or soul or whatever else you call it." She looked at the grass plot "What is weird is that plant life is still alive, in fact it is growing still even without mana." she took out her notebook "It could be a drastic version of an island effect, where plants themselves store mana to survive these 'waves' of destruction."

  "waves?" Taylor noted "there were multiple?"

  "Why wouldn't there be more, if the plant life was dead, then it would be safe to say that only one wave existed however plants are still growing, which means that there were more of them in the past." she closed the notebook "I think." she looked at Taylor "Shouldn't you know this, considering you are investigators."

  "We investigate people and sadly we do not have mages nor biologists who specialize in such things."

  "Aha..." she got close to Jean and whispered "They forgot..."

  *cough cough* Taylor drew attention to himself again "We have found the origin of the wave and made a blockade around it, however it will last at most two days until it needs to refuel again so we ask that you hurry up."

  *sigh* Siene realized that she will not be able to simply laze around. "Alright we are going to go there tomorrow, for the time being I will start sampling everything I can."

  Siene left and she started to order around Jean's crew for them to take soil samples, grass, plants and flowers, so that they could be put in pots and vials for Siene to research it in her lab.

  Jean and Taylor on the other hand went around checking the belongings of people who lived in the deserted town.

  Those that could be narrowed down to their kin were put in special containers while those that had no one.

  Well their clothes were put in a separate box, then tagged and named.

  Their money would be given to those that suffered while clothes, paintings and cultural items would be given to the Lord Media, who will do who knows what with them.

  The whole town felt eerie, with no people living in it, one could easily hear the hanging signs move and waves hitting the dock were louder than a moving carriage.

  This town had no owner

  This town had lost it's people

  This town has given up on it's name

  Leaving Behind Only Silence