Trust

Dungeon | 拘置所

"So much for a peaceful journey." Sinbad grumbled. It's barely even day two and yet they've already been attacked.

"It's not that bad," Ja'far tried to reason. "It wasn't even anyone we need to worry about this time, just some bandits."

"Shhh! You're going to jinx us." He silenced him. "It may have been pirates today but it might be another Medium tomorrow!"

"I highly doubt that's going to happen."

"But it could."

"Sin."

Watching Sinbad and Ja'far talk amused Kouen. He knows first hand how cunning, smart, and (though he'd never say it out loud) amazing Sinbad was, but seeing him acting so childish around his advisor was extremely humorous and definitely helped lighten the tense air surrounding everyone.

"Ja'far is right," Alibaba piped in after setting the pirates' course for... somewhere far away from them. "That was just a few bandits hoping to get lucky. I doubt it'd even happen again. Besides, we still have at least a week before we even get to the dungeon and we can't spend all that time being on edge."

Lucy doesn't know Alibaba as well as she does most of the other people on the ship but she wasn't expecting him, out of everyone, to be the voice of reason. Huh, she may have just gotten a newfound respect for him.

Unfortunately, the two people actually arguing completely ignored him—and everyone else, continuing to bicker even as the deck slowly cleared as everyone made their way back to what they were doing before the unexpected attack.

Lucy, having nothing better to do, trailed behind Kouen like a lost puppy and somehow found herself eating breakfast with Aladdin, Morgiana, Alibaba, and of course, Kouen.

"This food is much better than I thought we were going to have, seeing as there's no way to properly preserve food here." Oh how Lucy misses refrigerators. "It's almost as good as the food in Kou." Putting the etiquette lessons drilled into her to good use, she lightly dabbed the sides of her mouth with a napkin then picked up the largest piece of food on her plate and shoved the entire thing into her mouth.

Kouen looked disgusted but resigned (he's too used to it at this point) but the other three sitting with them were shocked.

"What—how—"

Staring at them directly in the eyes, she dared them to question her.

"Never mind."

The five of them didn't say anything afterwards, content to just continue eating... until Aladdin grew curious about something something. "So, Flower Lady, are you and Mister in a relationship with each other?" Almost instantly, Kouen choked on his food. "I mean, you're staying in his room and you two are all anyone in Kou is talking about." Aladdin innocently explained.

Lucy had to restrain herself from laughing by gripping onto a napkin. "No, we aren't in a relationship, I only stay in his room because of an arrangement we made."

Kouen, after coughing for a while, sat back upright. "Exactly, there's nothing happening relationship-wise between us."

"Okay..." though reassured by both of them, he still didn't look like he believed them.

After that, the rest of breakfast passed by quickly enough and so did the next week spent on the ship. With only one storm, three more easily dealt with attacks, and a lot of time spent in the Spirit World, before long, they arrived at what looked like a fortress of some kind in the middle of an otherwise deserted island.

This is a dungeon? Lucy thought to herself. She's seen her fair share of them but they're usually more... underground and less menacing. No wonder Sinbad thought it was a big deal for something as intimidating as this to appear out of nowhere.

"So... do we just walk in?" She gestured towards the eerie looking opening gated by two pillars at the top of far too many stairs. Not wanting to seem too unknowledgeable in front of so many people, she didn't want to ask what they were going to do from now on, so instead asked a question that seemed more reasonable.

Lucy may have gotten a brief lesson from Sinbad on what a dungeon is, but it was just that: a brief lesson. Everyone else with her has at least been inside of a dungeon before so they all know what to do, to a certain degree, but she wasn't going to let them think she was in any way useless. Not if she can help it.

"I mean, it looks like the only way to get inside it..." when no one answered her, she started to feel embarrassed. Was her question really that stupid after all?

But once again, no one answered her, instead looking at each other with varying degrees of bewilderment and then at her like she was insane.

"Okay, what is going on? You're all looking at me like I grew an extra limb."

"Lucy..." Sinbad started, "we have no idea what you're talking about."

"What? I'm talking about the dungeon right here." She gestured to it as a whole. "The massive, scary looking fortress thing, right here."

"No, Lucy," Kouen grasped her by her shoulders, getting her to focus on every word he said. "The only thing all of us see here is more forest. There is no dungeon."

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A/N: Another consist update? :o this hasn't happened in WHILE. This is completely random, but there are so many translations for what Aladdin calls Kouen, it's insane. I was just gonna use the original but after spending wayyy too long on deciding which one fit best, I actually made a decision for once in my life lmao. Hope you enjoyed :)