Trust

Ship | 船

A dungeon? Lucy can't imagine why a dungeon appearing would be such a big deal. Though, with the way Sinbad and Kouen were talking about it, she doubts they're thinking of the same kind of dungeon.

"Hi, hello, amnesic person here. Mind telling me what a dungeon is." Lucy butt in, completely disregarding the tense atmosphere created by Sinbad.

"So you can remember parts of your past but not basic knowledge? Strange. Usually when someone has amnesia, they're still able to remember basic, common things and instead forget about themselves and their past memories."

"What can I say, my amnesia is different for some reason."

Not looking like he believed her, Sinbad still nonetheless conceded. "Alright..." he looked at her curiously.

Feeling burdened by his gaze, Lucy asked again. "So what is a 'dungeon'?"

- - - - -

As soon as Lucy exited Kouen's room through a door instead of a window, she could feel the gaze of at least a few people on her.

"Is that her...?"

"I don't recognize her from any banquets..."

"She looks foreign... I don't think she's from Kou..."

She could hear bits of conversations and had to use all of her willpower to stop herself from laughing, struggling even more when she saw Kouen's face.

She didn't mind the gossip much, it seemed pretty harmless to her and she quite enjoyed watching Kouen go through all five stages of grief every time someone walked by and started talking about them. Similarly, Sinbad looked to be having just as much fun as Lucy was, which made her feel less guilty about finding the situation so funny.

Through one last stifled laugh, Lucy finally regained her composure and saw Kouen looking at her in betrayal.

In an attempt to pretend like she wasn't about to burst out laughing, she pretended to cough and cover her still smiling mouth with her fist. "Ahem," she forced a cough, "so how far is the ship we're taking?" She changed the subject.

"There shouldn't be a we. I was going to go alone, without both of you."

"Oh well," Lucy hummed. "I guess the plans changed."

"The plans didn't change, you invited yourself along without my consent and he... kind of followed you."

"Exactly; your original plan changed to include both of us. And in case you forgot, King Sinbad was the one who told us about it, so he should've already been included in this 'plan' of yours."

"No need for the formalities with me Lucy, just call me Sinbad." He butt into the conversation to wink at her. Lucy rolled her eyes at him but seemed more amused by his antiques than insulted while Kouen simply groaned. "He wasn't even going to come along until you stated you were joining me, and you're forgetting that, as much as I hate to admit it, he is capable of defending himself, which is exactly why you shouldn't be coming along. It could be dangerous and you don't have any way to protect yourself—you didn't even know what a dungeon was until a few minutes ago!"

"So? I know what it is now. And for your information, I do have ways to protect myself, I'm not some defenseless maiden you need to protect." She worked too hard for too long to be seen as helpless now. Even though she knows he isn't aware of much of what she can do (due to her still not wanting to tell him everything yet), after spending so long somewhere that didn't appreciate her efforts, hearing someone still think she's not able to defend herself hurts. "You won't need to worry about me. I'll take care of myself and you can take care of yourself."

Running his fingers down his face in frustration, Kouen—even though he's the only one who actually knows where they're going—followed behind Lucy's quickly disappearing figure with Sinbad looking more and more amused by the second.

- - - - -

"This is a pretty big ship." Lucy commented, looking at the ship almost twice the size as the one she was brought here on. No one graced her with a response, continuing on with whatever they were doing.

It didn't deter her though, she was used to being ignored and she knew these people weren't doing it out of spite. They were just busy. She wasn't even looking for a response either, stating the fact just to point out how incredibly large the ship is.

Humming, she turned away from it, searching around for any way to board the ship.

Thinking back, she probably should have done some more research and asked more questions about dungeons before she decided to follow Kouen to one, but she was curious! She's never heard of anything like this before and she wanted to know more! She's too interested in it to not want to immediately go seek it out!

And she's still intrigued by it now, even though she accidentally ditched Kouen and Sinbad and got herself lost.

Really, she should've been a lot more thorough when asking not only about the dungeon but about the ship as well so she could actually figure out where she is instead of continuing to wander around aimlessly like she has been.

I wonder... if I summon Loke, would he be able to find where I need to go before the ship leaves without getting himself caught?

Thinking through as many different possibilities of other ways she could get onto the ship as she could think of (most of which included asking one of her spirits to help her after she's already spent so long trying to find the entrance herself), she didn't notice a few (very conspicuous) people walking up to her.

"Isn't that...—It is! Look, it's her!"

"Really? Oh! It is! It's the Flower Lady!"

Hearing an energetic voice coming from behind her, Lucy looked around to see who they were talking to only to realize she was the only one there. "Me?" She muttered, furrowing her eyebrows.

"She saw us! Flower Lady, hi!" The same voice called out to her. 

What a weird name.

Curious as to why someone would call out to her with such a weird name, she hesitantly waved back at them and tensed, wondering why these people are coming up to her, of all people. Said group took this as an invitation to walk right up to her, the smallest amongst them practically bouncing off the ground.

She immediately recognized one of them, quickly realizing who the other two were shortly after and releasing the tension in her shoulders. Now that she knows who they are, she doubts they would attack her (hopefully).

"You're going onto the ship too? Nice! Since it's been a while since we last saw each other, I'll lead you on board."

Still cautious but glad to finally have a way to board the ship, she let herself be dragged along by the smaller boy with a slight smile, might as well fulfill the Spirit King's request now too.

——————
A/N: Writing Kouen go through existential crises every five minutes is way more fun than it should be. But in any case, enjoy :)