"You mean..." little Ru asked, she understood what he meant but she couldn't believe it.
Because of being a girl and how she always tried hiding herself, along with how many old and experienced navigators there were in the other seven gangs, she never had the chance to play a big role in any of the Great Migrations before, so when she heard Dan's words and understood the hint behind them she couldn't believe what she had just heard, it was like a dream coming true.
And just as she expected Dan smiled at her and said:
"You have to work hard as a navigator, we will depend on you and the other navigator a lot starting from now."
"Yes I will do my best." Little Ru said happily.
It was her dream to be one of the navigators in one of the great migrations, but she also knew that that was impossible, because of her gender and how young she was, who would have thought that she would get a chance like this, and it was even to navigate on the open ocean and not just in the close shores like in the normal Great Migrations.
"Ok that's all, you can go and finish doing your things." Dan said, then he turned around and started moving away, but then as if remembering something he turned around and said to little Ru:
"And also, little Ru you don't have to disguise as a man anymore, with us no one will dare touch another person just like that." After that he moved to where Nero and the others were.
Little Ru stood there frozen, she didn't know what to say, she had been disguising as a boy since she was young so hearing Dan say that she can act normally made her feel weird, not knowing how to react she looked at Robert who said while smiling gently at her:
"I think that he meant it, our leaders seem a bit different then the other gang leaders, probably you won't have to hide it anymore... Ok we will think about that later, now let us take a look at the hold, it's the only palace that we didn't take a look at."
"... Ok, let's go." Nodding her head she started moving toward the hold with Robert.
"What is it Dan? Did you take a liking to that little girl?" When he returned to where the other five were, Nero teased him by saying that.
"No of course not... But what's more important is how did you know that she was a girl?" Dan denied at first before asking him, little Ru was still wearing her disguise and if someone won't get close to her, none would know that she's a girl.
"Her smell of course, men and women have different scents, and with a sensitive nose like mine you would be able to feel the different, anyway don't try changing the subject, you do like her don't you?" Nero answered but he still didn't let it go and asked him about little Ru, he was happy and just wanted to make fun of Dan.
"What are you talking about, first she's young, and second I'm not even interested in relationships right now." Dan answered.
"Not interested? That's just lying, or... Don't tell me that in those memories of yours you have a memory of a sweetheart, you should give it up bro, after all in my world more than four hundred years had passed, and in your most recent world probably more than twenty years passed, whoever you have memories of is an old granny by now." Nero said while sighing and shaking his head.
"No there's nothing like that, actually I can't really remember my personal life clearly but what I can member is that I... Was single in all of my lives." Even he felt sorry for himself when those words left his mouth.
"Wow... Just... Wow, you my brother are really hopeless, in twenty one lives you weren't even able to find someone, it's just… hhhhh" Nero said, and after that he started laughing uncontrollably.
Dan shook his head and looked at the others, and he saw that all of them were looking at him pitifully, especially Anie and Katherine, who were looking at him pitifully and with a hint of amusement.
Dan sighed and just as he was going to ask from them to stop messing with him, a scream sounded from the hold of the ship, it was the terrified scream of a girl.
Hearing that scream all of them turned around and started running toward it's location, while Robin disappeared from his location directly.
What they saw when they entered the hold of the ships was Robert and little Ru a few feels away from the entrance of the hold, and both of them were looking at the dragon ahead, with pale faces.
Robin was also standing there not knowing what to do, he arrived there a few seconds before Dan and the others, and what he saw was Robert and little Ru in front of the dragon, seeing that he finally understood the reason of the scream, it appeared to be little Ru who was setting there frozen on the floor.
"Anie go and try comforting her." Dan said to Anie while sighing, he totally forget how he didn't tell anyone about the dragon, after all he didn't mention it to anyone except the leaders and the blood power users, and also no one saw them bring it inside the ship, so of course if someone suddenly entered the room without knowing anything and the first thing they saw after that is the gigantic head of a dragon of course they would have the same reaction as little Ru and Robert.
Anie headed toward little Ru who was frozen on the ground, she patted her on the shoulder while saying gently.
"Don't worry it's already died."
Anie's gentle voice and soft touch on her shoulder made little Ru turn around in surprise.
Seeing the smiling face of Anie she calmed down a little.
When she and Robert entered the hold of the ship in order to inspect it, the first thing they saw when they passed by the door was the frightening face of the dragon, not expecting to see something like that inside the ship both of them get a big shock, Robert was a little bit better but she couldn't stop herself from shouting on the top of her voice.
As she was thinking about all of that she felt a hand on her arm, lifting her head she saw Anie smiling at her while trying to help her stand up it wasn't till then that she remembered who the person standing before her was.
It was the girl who was with Dan when he came to the cave for the first time, she remembered that when she saw her for the first time, she thought of her as his woman, but from what she heard later she knew that she was actually the sister of another one of Dan's group.
Standing up with the help of Anie little Ru thanked her before turning her head to the corps of the dragon and asking fearfully:
"You said that it's died, but how did it appear here?"
Before knowing that they were going to try crossing the ocean using Barbarossa, she and Robert took a tour in the ship to inspect it, but it wasn't that precise inspection as the one they were doing then, as they only thought of it as a normal inspection before the Great Migration, and in that inspection they passed by the hold which was empty, at least the forty meters that Dan asked them to keep empty was still empty, so she simply couldn't understand how a gigantic creature like that was brought in without anyone noticing.
"It was brought here by my brother, he's Robin, the one with the ability to teleport from one place to another, he brought it here from the place where they fought it." Anie explained.
"Yeah I saw how he moved before... Wait you mean that you guys killed it?" Little Ru said in astonishment she never would have expected that they had killed it, and it took her mind a little bit of time to truly understand what Anie had just said.
"Yeah they just killed it, this is actually the reason why only I was here this morning, they left to kill it." Anie said.
Little Ru looked at the gigantic corps of the dragon and she couldn't put her mind around how they were able to do it.
"Let's go to the others." Anie's words brought her back from her thoughts.
She then looked at Dan and the others and saw that they were talking with Robert who was also looking at the dragon from one time to the other.
"Little Ru I see that you are quite good at shouting, I think that everyone in the cave have heard your voice." when they stood next to Robert and the others, little Ru heard Dan's words, which made her blush in shame.
"Don't worry, it's alright probably anyone would have the same reaction if they aren't ready for it?" Katherine said gently, after she saw how embarrassed she was acting.
After that they talked together for a while till finally old Frank come and told Dan that everyone was ready, and that they had all returned.
Dan then stood in front of all the people who were going on that journey with him, he looked at them and saw that all of them had different expressions on their faces, some were excited other were a little bit pale and some were even crying while looking at some friends or loved ones.
But deep in their eyes he noticed that all of them had a spark of determination.
"I won't make it long and I won't say anything pointless, right now as you are all here I will only say... Let's get going!"
The crewmen and all the people who decided to go for with them got on Barbarossa one by one, all of them turned their heads at some point and looked at the people who decided to stay one last time, they all knew that no matter if their journey was a success or a failure, it wouldn't make a different as they would never see them again in their lives.
The ship at that time was already outside the cave, as he saw that everyone was on board Dan turned his head to Robert and nodded.
Robert was actually one of the oldest and most experienced members in all the gang when it comes to being a sailor, so of course he took the role of the captain of the ship, well all the orders were given by Dan but he was the one controlling and starring Barbarossa.
"let's set sail." Robert shouted, and then the twenty two crewmen started getting busy.
Then Barbarossa finally started moving, starting her longest journey since she was made, as everything was finally dealt with for the time being, everyone on the ship looked at the direction of the cave were a few lights were all that was apparent because it was night time.
But even just those light seemed familiar to Robert, old Frank, Mad Dog, and all the others, they knew that they probably would never return to that place again, and that thought gave them a weird feeling, fear, nostalgic, nervousness and relief.
Dan also released a breath as he saw those lights getting further and further, and smelt the scent of the ocean along with its breeze.
It made him totally understand that they were on their way with no turning back, they had already started their journey and none of them knew how it would end.