"H-how, why are you here?" Reo asked as he looked at Eric's pale face.
Eric looked at all the men sitting there. Reo asked them to move out of the cell immediately. The three officers that were supposedly guarding, opened the door as per Reo's commands and took other men to separate cells.
Eric was surprised after seeing all this, but he didn't say anything about that. In fact, he told about the thing that had happened to him.
"I was betrayed by my most trusted man.", Eric replied as he coughed weakly.
"What? Who would dare to betray you, Master Eric?", Reo asked.
"He's part of the Anti-Pirate Federation now. It's too late to pursue this matter further.", Eric said.
Reo clenched his fist in anger. "Don't worry, Master Eric. When I get out of here, I will do something about it."
"It's fine. Don't trouble yourself, Reo."
Reo frowned. "Why did you not escape, Master Eric?"
"I was going to escape with my sister and her newborn child. I had Vino prepare a ship for me. I wanted to bring my frail sister to a safer place. She had just lost her husband, and she was very weak after labor.", Eric answered, his voice getting softer and softer.
When Reo heard about his reasons, his mind traveled back to the newspaper he read the other day. He remembered very clearly, the headlines were 'Shawn found dead'.
"I-I'm sorry, for your loss, Master Eric.", Reo replied sorrowfully. "At least your sister and her child had escaped this disastrous place."
Eric held back the urge to cry.
"They're gone, Reo. Every single one of them is gone.", Eric whispered.
Reo bulged his eyes. "What do you mean? Gone to another island, right?"
"I stayed back to prevent the people from the Anti-Pirate Federation, from attacking my only kin left in the world. Then, I saw an explosion from afar. It was my ship, the traitor had planted a bomb on the ship."
Reo gasped, "This..."
"But don't you worry…"
"I still think that my nephew has survived…"
"I don't know why, but I get this feeling that he couldn't just die yet…", Eric said immediately as if he has gone crazy.
How could a newborn survive the explosion? Eric didn't make any sense right now.
Eric laughed as a single tear rolled down his cheek, "But my sister… I don't know about her…"
"I'll get through it. Slowly, but surely."
Reo gave Eric a small smile, an encouragement for his dear friend.
"How about you? Why are you here? Why were you arrested?"
This time, Reo sighed heavily.
"After Master Shawn was declared dead, the Anti-Pirate Federation went looking for every last living relative he had. Unfortunately, they found me."
Eric kept quiet, giving space to Reo to continue his explanation.
"They captured me, framed me, saying that I had done something to oppose them. When in actual fact, I had not. It was one of the darkest days of my life, haha, it was a few days ago, our lives turned upside down.", Reo rambled.
"Did they also capture the rest?", Eric asked.
"Indeed. However, some of them had nothing but bad luck. They were killed by the people in the Anti-Pirate Federation.", he said as his blood boiled in anger.
Eric bit his lower lip, and a spark of anger filled his body.
"They had my hometown, Goldmond burnt to ashes. I witnessed it right in front of me, and I couldn't do anything about it.", Reo said, an evident crack in his voice.
"Y-your wife?"
"Dead. My child too.", Reo said. His eyes were brimming with tears.
Normally, he would be able to control those tears. However, he was currently talking about his treasured people, both of whom he loved dearly.
Eric could not do anything but watch Reo cry. His heart sank at the sight of a strong man breaking down, revealing a fragile side to him.
"I'm going to kill them.", Reo said softly while tears continued to pour down his face like a waterfall.
"I. am. going. to. kill. Them.", Reo growled, enunciating each syllable angrily.
He had the scariest expression on his face making him appear like a devil!
Reo had mixed emotions. He felt enraged, not only at the people from the Anti-Pirate Federation but also at himself. He was angry at the fact that he was so helpless when it came to protecting his loved ones.
Not to mention, he failed to protect his dignity and honor as a fellow pirate.
Suddenly, Reo looked at Eric with a newfound goal, imprinted on his face.
"Why don't we try to escape this place?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, I have my members here-"
"Wait, Reo."
"-and I am still quite strong. Now we have-"
"Reo, listen to me.", Eric tried to stop Reo from babbling whatever came to his mind.
He was somewhat unstable right now so deciding anything right now would be the worst thing he could do.
"-you! With our strength combined, there is no way the people from the Anti-Pirate Federation would be able to defeat us."
"Reo!", Eric sternly called out.
Reo looked at Eric with bloodshot eyes, "What do you say?"
"It's a terrible idea, Reo. Our escape would only give them an excuse to kill us all.", Eric reminded him.
"Furthermore, this place is the Devil's place. No God's powers would work here. Yes, no God's except those that sat on the pinnacle of the creation…", Eric continued.
"We would just die…"
"We will get killed Reo, everything would be futile!"
"Kill me? Hah! What is there to lose?", Reo scoffed.
"Reo, I understand your feelings now. But, the both of us need to live in order to get revenge for our loved ones.", Eric told him.
"They have already fixed my execution date.", Reo muttered.
"Come again?", Eric asked as if he didn't hear what Reo said earlier. He just didn't or couldn't believe his ears.
"I said, I am going to be executed three months from now.", Reo said a bit louder. He didn't want to look at Eric when he said that.
He himself could not believe that his end was near. There were still so many things he wanted to try for himself, but now that he was going to die, all his hopes and dreams were in vain.
"Reo, how- how did you know?", Eric asked because usually, they wouldn't reveal such a thing to a pirate or criminal.