The first thing in the morning that Sin had to do was to go to the market and purchase some clothes for Hiyori, who was peacefully asleep in the bed and was not going to wake up for several more hours. He had exhausted her to her limits before she fell asleep.
Sin quickly freshened up and wore his clothes from yesterday, and then he came downstairs to ask the maids who had arrived to do their duties to prepare breakfast.
Thankfully, the markets opened early in the town, and he managed to get back to the residence within half an hour, having bought clothes for Hiyori and some for himself.
Sin passed by the living room on his way upstairs, and he instinctively turned to look towards the room where he could hear Yamato's calm breathing, and he could even hear her muttering in her sleep that she was Kozuki Oden.
Sighing, and deciding to wake her up as they had to head out, he walked towards the room she had picked for herself, and he immediately froze at the scene he witnessed.
There, in the centre of the room, on top of a rug, Yamato was sprawled on the ground, surrounded by 12 bottles of Whiskey and Wine. And it was her dear club that was resting peacefully on the bed that was supposed to be for her.
He saw two gift baskets, and when he read the notes of them, he sighed.
Patrick had sent them housewarming gifts last night, with the Whiskey and Wine from the town of Aligoth that he had told them about at Supper.
And Yamato, God knows what was running through her mind, decided to finish them all and doze off to sleep in an intoxicated state.
He slowly approached her, crouched down by her side, and a smile crept on his face at how adorable she looked in her sleep. He curiously stroked her beautiful horns before tracing her cheek with the back of his fingers.
Something that he noticed was that despite having drunk so much alcohol, there was no smell of it on her. She still smelt as good as yesterday.
His action caused her to groggily open her beautiful orange eyes, and seeing that it was him who was stroking her cheek, she just closed her eyes again and went back to sleep.
"Wake up. I am going to explore the Island." He told her and then stood up.
By the time he reached the door and glanced at her, she was sitting up and stretching her arms, cutely yawning.
"Breakfast will be ready soon," He informed her right before he left.
Sin arrived inside his bedroom and walked over to the bed to place the bags next to the side table. He then leaned in and planted a light kiss on Hiyori's head before heading to the bathroom to take a quick shower and change into a fresh set of clothes.
An hour later, he and Yamato walked out of the house, having taken their breakfast, and the Oni-Girl was brimming with excitement.
She wanted to see the beasts that Sin talked about yesterday, and she wanted to test herself and beat them all up.
Her excitement was quite infectious and he could not help his smile as he sensed her emotions.
"Captain" He was taken aback by her sudden call when he was looking at his pocket watch.
He turned to her and watched her take out a book that she was hiding in her clothes, close to her bosom.
"Look!" She quickly opened it up, searched for a specific page, and then showed it to him.
It turned out that it was a Logbook, and it belonged to none other than Kozuki Oden. And Sin was a little shocked by it.
However, there was an entry on the page that she was showing him, and it was titled Star Island. His attention was soon drawn to it.
Sin took the book from her hand and then carefully went through the entry, reading about Oden's visit to this Island and what they found inside the Temple.
What truly piqued his interest was that Oden had failed to decipher the inscriptions inside the temple as they were not written in the language of the Great Kingdom. However, he did manage to figure out the name of the Country that once existed here.
"Westoria?" He raised his brow as he failed to recall the name in any of the books he had read in his life, and he had never heard about it either.
"Yes!" She excitedly nodded her head. "There's nothing really in the Temple, just a Golden Statue, so, let's go fight those beasts!"
"Don't cause trouble." He tapped her head, making her wince. "We must not make enemies out of the Beast on the Island or they will harm the people that live here after we leave."
"I will just have a friendly duel." She grinned. "Oden defeated a giant tiger in a battle here, I want to do the same!"
He sighed at her words and then looked at the book in his hand.
"I will keep it for a few days." He told her, and Yamato unhesitantly nodded her head, trusting him with her treasure, which made him smile a little. "You are not allowed to get into any fights on the Island without my permission. Let's go." He said and wrapped his arm around her waist before shooting up into the sky.
Sin managed to find their destination in a few minutes when he noticed a small flash of gold from the temple that was covered in snow, and once you looked at it, it really became apparent to you.
The Temple was situated on an elevated platform, right on top of a small mountain, and it was surrounded by much taller mountains on all sides.
It was extremely cold here, almost as cold as the weather on the Drum Island. And Sin curiously looked at Yamato when he found her not in the least bothered by it. In fact, she seemed even more energetic after coming here and looked at the massive Temple with sparkles in her eyes.
"Let's go!" She excitedly said as she rushed inside, and he signed at her enthusiasm.
Was she not the one who said that there was nothing of interest inside the temple?
"Woah!" Yamato exclaimed when she saw the walls that were made out of Gold and were covered in beautiful inscriptions all over them, and then she finally saw the majestic statue of a Tiger with a cloudly mane and an overbearing look on its face.
Sin, however, was busy looking at the writings on the walls, and he had an excited smile on his face as soon as he realised that it was a language he had never come across before.
However, there were a lot of symbols and inscriptions that he recognised as they were present in other languages as well, and he got straight to work to decipher them.
"What are you doing?" Yamato curiously asked when she saw him tracing the inscriptions on the wall with his fingers.
"I am going to decipher this language." He told her and then flashed a smile at her. "Be right back."
20 minutes later, Sin returned to the temple carrying a backpack, and Yamato frowned as she watched him take out a notebook and start writing down the inscriptions on it.
Now, she had no interest in any of these things, but seeing the excited smile and the deep frowns that appeared on his face from time to time, she could tell that it was something that he was very passionate about.
She tried looking a the symbols all around the hall, trying to find something of interest. But it was all so boring ning to her.
Yamato debated if she should go out and search for some Beast, but then she just walked over to the statue and jumped on its back to take a nap.
Her actions had not gone unnoticed by Sin, and he smiled at how understanding she truly was. And she was much smarter than she appeared to be.
For the rest of the day, Sin kept working on deciphering the language, and Yamato finally woke up when the last few minutes of daylight remained.
She found him sitting on a step with a few notebooks scattered around him, and he was deep in his thoughts as he scribbled something on a page at a blinding speed.
"Found anything?" She hopefully asked, and when she saw him nod his head, an excited smile crept on her face. "Tell me!"
"The temple was built around 6000 years ago. A country called Westoria exited here, and the Island bore the same name." He informed her. "The statue belongs to one of the Four Celestial Beasts, the Beast of the West, Byakko. He was worshipped by both the Minks and the Humans on the Island, and also by Beasts that lived here. According to the texts, Byakko was hailed by its worshippers as the strongest of the Four Celestial Beasts, even stronger than Seiryu. And in these thousands of years, he incarnated in people several times, and they ruled the country to glorious days."
"Seiryu?" Yamato tilted her head curiously. "My father is the Azure Dragon." She told him, and Sin nodded to her.
"I know." He smiled. "Those incarnations that these texts speak about were likely people who ate Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Byakko. A Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit."
"Oh..." She nodded in understanding. "What are the other two Celestial Beasts?"
"Suzaku, the Vermillion Bird, and Genbu, the Black Tortoise. They were believed to be the Rulers of the South and North respectively. Seiryu was believed to be the Ruler of the East."
"What happened to Westoria?"
"No idea." He shook his head. "There's no information about it in these Inscriptions. However, there's something very interesting that I have learned."
"What?"
"There's likely a city under the mountain that we are on." He grinned. "Each of the Seven Rivers has hidden a passage that leads to the city which was built three thousand years ago inside this mountain. We will check it out tomorrow."
"You are awesome!!!" Yamato exitecly lunged at him, hugging him, genuinely awed by how he managed to decipher a language that even her hero, Oden, failed to decipher.
"Thanks." He chuckled and then started collecting the notebooks. "Let's go. Hyori is becoming a little anxious right now."
"You can sense her from this far?" She surprisedly looked at him, and he nodded to her.
"Yes.
"Teach me!"
"I will help you improve your Observation Haki, but I am a little special."
"I will still beat you one day." She grinned, and he laughed at her words when he sensed that she was very serious about it.
"We shall see..." He spoke but stopped when he suddenly heard a cry of a young boy and a commotion that ensued outside the walls of Petra.
"What?"
"Let's go." He packed everything up in a second and then grabbed her before rushing to the location.