Chapter 160. Let's have a talk

"Light, why do you keep leaving all your redstone stuff in the middle of the lawn? It doesn't even make sense, what are you trying to make?"

"Don't worry about it, it's a project I'm working on, and hopefully I'll finish it soon."

"Yeah, but why do you keep working at night?"

"...Preference?"

"If you don't want to tell me, just say so, for the love of System, I'm going to get a drink, don't expect me any time soon."

She said that and left through the front door.

It's been a few days since Siren moved with me, and things got a little more lively around here.

For some reason, Violet is mad that I brought a stranger to live with us and tries to make her life as uncomfortable as possible.

Every time Siren wakes up, her blanket is gone and neatly folded beside the bed, she wasn't pleased, to say the least.

Also, Violet started to do her redstone machines, which was fine since I gave her permission to do it, but I know what she's capable of making, and what she left on the lawn is just littering.

What's worse, is that I didn't give her any Redstone items, so that means she stole those from somewhere else.

Where did she get them?!

I tried to talk to her, but she didn't respond, I tried to look for her with my monocle but I couldn't see her since she kept teleporting away.

But I have to put my foot down since there doesn't seem to be any trust building between me and Siren with all of this going on.

The only reason she's putting up with all of this is because she saw my riches in iron and doesn't want to lose a 'friend' like that.

But now she was gone to the pub, and won't be back for a while, and I intended to confront Violet once and for all.

I took off my armor, put the monocle on, and looked after Violet's aura with no luck.

But I knew she was near because of the particles left behind.

"Violet, if you don't come here to talk like adults, I'm going to have to kick you out of my home."

I stood there for a few moments in silence until I saw her dark aura appear in front of me before revealing herself.

She was tall, had her arms crossed, and looked to the side instead of me.

I felt like a parent scolding their teenager.

"Ok Violet, let's talk now. Do you like Siren?"

I got a strong NO.

"Why don't you like her? Did she do anything bad to you, or maybe you saw her doing something that could endanger us?"

We stood there in moments of silence with no response.

I let out a sigh prepared to be more 'rough' only to hear something.

"Why...her...?"

"Why did I choose her?"

I got a small nod.

"Because I need help for what's to come, actually do even know why we're here in the first place?"

She finally turned her head and looked at me with a confused face.

This made me realize, that while she was always beside me, that doesn't mean she always knows what I'm doing, she can't read minds even if she's powerful now...or at least I hope so.

So it feels unfair to her to be dragged all around not knowing why we're doing it in the first place.

And since we are in the city most of the time, she didn't have a lot of opportunities to appear and speak with me.

I let out a sigh of disappointment at me, I was too caught up with what was to come, and ignored what I had.

"Ok, I'll put the armor back on just in case the System would be back."

She got serious once I said that.

I quickly put on the armor and looked back at her.

"You know the Piligers are trying to get the fake System and do who knows what with it."

Violet looked at the sky from side to side before nodding her head in understanding.

"Well, I want to find it before them and ask it a few questions, like why I'm here, can I go back, how can you get out of the System's control, and such questions? But the System is hidden underwater, guarded by monsters called guardians. Siren is someone that met those monsters and can lead me to them."

While speaking about this, I placed down the map and drawings I found in the ancient ruins.

"But when I went to mine underwater I found an abandoned ruin, where I found the trident you know, and some warnings on what's ahead."

She looked intensely at the drawings on the ground, especially at the schematics of the guardian, she seemed fascinated by such complicated inner workings.

"This made me realize that I wasn't taking the dangers seriously enough, and I don't want to repeat what happened at the outpost."

Once I mentioned that, her face turned ugly at the unpleasant memories.

"That's why I thought I should get more help with this cause, I don't intend on telling her the full truth, but I do want to gain her trust enough so she won't betray me after the ship is done. That's why I brought her here so I could judge her character better."

She sat for a while in silence thinking about it.

"Me?"

"What about you?"

"What...me?"

"Where are you in all of this?"

She nodded her head as a yes.

"Well, where do you want to be? You're not like Siren, while I don't know too much about you, I trust enough to know you'll be on my side no matter the cost, so you can have whatever part of the plan you want. I was just afraid you won't come with me since you don't like water in general."

She uncrossed her arms and smiled wildly while having a shade of purple around her face.

"Trusted?"

"Yes, I trust you."

"Then...reveal."

That confused me.

"What do you want me to reveal?"

Did she want to know more about my past? Maybe to give her all the knowledge I have on Redstone?

But what she said next took me by surprise.

"Reveal...me...her."

"Are you sure about that? I can't guarantee that she would be accepting, even for me it was hard to accept it at the beginning."

But she stood firmly with her answer.

And I could only let out a tierd sigh.

"Ok, let's do this."

POV: Captain Mad Siren

I got out of the noisy bar, feeling the dizziness clouding my judgment.

I looked at the sky and saw the moon already out illuminating the world.

"It's late *hik*, I should go home."

Yeah, my new home where the owner is a weird guy who likes to walk around the house with his weird armor and takes your blanket when you sleep to fold it.

The weirdly rich guy, that nobody has heard about.

And let's not talk about his hobby of littering in the garden.

He says those are his 'projects', but even I who don't know a thing about Redstone, understand enough to know those 'projects' are a bunch of nothing.

But the house was nice overall, he's a rich man who doesn't know about the world and probably has fallen in love with me.

I'll play the game for a while until I get my ship and leave him in the dust.

I stopped In front of the sandstone wall that separated the house from the streets.

I took a deep breath, and let it out.

"Here we go again."

I opened the gate and saw the lanterns beautifully lighting the property and its house.

The house was beautiful, the owner not so much.

I intended to pass Light and go straight back to my room, block it, and sleep without a blanket.

But as I entered the living room, I saw him sitting on the couch In a serious mood.

Something is about to happen, and I don't know if I want to be a part of it.

"Siren! You came back, I am glad to know you're well. Come here and sit across please, I need to tell you something important."

Oh boy, it's too late to back down now.

With a sigh, I walked to the chair across the table and sat down.

"I prefer if you were sober for this discussion."

Then he put a bucket of milk on the table.

I rolled my eyes but still drunk it feeling the dizziness washing off me.

I looked again at the man in dark armor across me and felt shivers down my spine.

It was always like this, if I don't look specifically for him he's invisible, if I do see him, my instincts are screaming for me to run since I'm in danger.

How can one man be so silent and scary at the same time?

"So, what do you want to talk about?"

"First thing first, I need to come clean in front of you with some facts."

That got my attention.

He raised his hands and took off his helmet, revealing a pale face with big eyes and no nose.

It looked human but not at the same time. Clearly, it wasn't a face I was going to fall in love with.

"My name is not Light but Trader."

Ok, so he's telling me his name, that's not so shocking, I'm still more interested in his face, what happened to his nose?

"And I didn't come here to hunt the one-eye fish, instead I want to reach the ruins that it guards it."

Now that got my attention.

"So you're saying that fish is guarding a treasure?"

This made my pirate blood start pumping.

"Not the kind you expect, it's more of a research facility from the ancient civilization and I want to take all the information that's left from the System purge."

System purge, what's that?

Probably something related to the Great War, but if what he says is true then I don't want that kind of treasure.

Sure information can get a higher price than normal treasure, but it's harder to do it since only rich people can afford it and they would rather kill you and take it from your corpse than buy it normally.

Too high of a risk.

"So that means I'll get something in compensation."

He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I think the iron ship would be more than enough as a payment."

I slumped down since he was right, the ship was pretty expensive after all.

"While I appreciate the honesty, I don't see a reason why you had to tell me this. It would be the same results if I knew or not."

"That's what I thought as well, but recently I came in contact with a map and some drawings that made me think again."

He then placed on the table a map and a few drawings. I was shocked at what I saw.

Just to be sure, I took out a map from my inventory and put it besides the one he placed, and it was identical with the exception that his was more preserved.

So the old woman didn't lie to me, there was a treasure out there!

"Where did you get that one?"

"Wha- oh, I got it from an old woman for a couple of emeralds claiming that it was the map of a great treasure."

"I see... do you think you can find the old woman again?"

"What? No, I saw her in another port and who knows if she's still alive."

His shoulders dropped in disappointment.

I looked over the drawings and saw something familiar, but couldn't quite put my mind on it, the eye was especially familiar.

"That is one of the guardians that attacked your crew."

Yes, I rember now, but at that time it was underwater and the figure was distorted. Is this how it actually looked?

Wait, why is its insides so wierd, and did he say one of the guardians?

"Looks like you realized that it's not a living being, or not fully. This is a loving weapon created by the ancient civilization and it tends to attack in groups."

"W-wait, so your saying that we don't have to fight just one monster but multiple?! Were nowhere near equipped for that!"

"Don't worry, I have a plan for this as well. I just want to know before I tell you more, are you in or out?"

I bit my lip in frustration, I wanted to have more time for this decision, but from his expression I could tell it was now or never.

I looked at the map, at the drawings and taught of my ship.

This is my only chance to get revenge for my dead crew.

I either die in glory or die living as a simple guard.

I made my choice.

"I'll join you."

His shoulders were not tense anymore and even gave a relived smile.

"Then I'll introduce you to my friend as well, Violet this is Siren, Siren this is my friend Violet, she's a bit shy so don't try to overwhelmed her."

Suddenly from his side a huge dark humanoid figure appeared, with a big smile and sharps claws capable of ripping anything to pieces.

I got up and ran towards the door.