The ship groaned as it cut across the waves, each crest rising and falling in endless rhythm beneath a pale sky.

Razeal stood near the bow, his gaze fixed on the horizon where sea and sky blurred into one. The salt air pressed cool against his face, the silence between crests strangely calming.

"So," he said at last, his voice low, steady, "what about it? Feeling anything strange, stepping onto this ship with me?"

Levy sat a few paces away, perched on the edge of the bow with his legs hanging over the side. The sea wind tugged at his crisp brown suit, his glasses glinting faintly as he stared into the unending blue. He shrugged faintly, almost carelessly.

"Strange? Not really," he said. "Feels… alright, I suppose. Thought honestly, I get the sense my already short life's about to get shorter." He chuckled dryly, eyes still locked on the sea. "Not that I mind. I wasn't living much of a life anyway."

For last ten minutes, they had sat like this ..not quite together or quite apart their conversation drifting as aimlessly as the waves.

At the far end of the deck, Yogiraj and his daughter spoke in low tones, their voices carried away by the wind. Father and daughter, deep in some personal exchange. Razeal and Levy hadn't bothered to interfere.

As for Maria

She just leaned against the rail midship, her aqua-blue hair lifting faintly in the breeze. She hadn't spoken in some time, her gaze fixed on the sea as if the waves held secrets only she could hear. Her expression was calm, unreadable, a rare moment of quiet reflection.

Razeal let out a soft chuckle at Levy's words. "You sound old. Like there's nothing left you want from your life."

He didn't know why he was entertaining this conversation. Maybe it was the rare quiet.. no blades, no schemes, no idiot's breathing down his neck. Maybe it was the first time in years he felt he could actually breathe freely.. without being running for survival or hiding. He wasn't sure.

Levy tilted his head, his voice distant. "Maybe I am old. Or maybe I just don't see the point. Everything ends. Doesn't matter what I do today it'll end tomorrow, or the day after. Maybe it won't matter to anyone. Not even me." His words carried no anger, only weariness, like a man drifting without a rudder.

Razeal clicked his tongue. "So you're one of those bullshit types." His gaze never left the sea. "What's the reason behind all this melodrama? What makes you think there's no point?"

Levy exhaled, his shoulders slumping slightly. "What's there to live for? I've got no one. No family before me, none after me. If I disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice. No one would even care." He hesitated, his voice softening. "Sometimes I wish I had… something. A girl. Maybe a wife. A family. But I know I can't. Don't deserve it." His lips twisted in a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Better to stay alone. Better than dragging someone else into my emptiness of suffering curse."

Razeal's jaw tightened. His reply was sharp, his voice cutting. "Excuses. Just dumb bullshit excuses. Not having family doesn't mean there's no reason to live. Life isn't about others it's about you. If you want to live the life you wanna live, then just live the life you want to live, Just go and take it. Don't sit there whining about what you don't have while you reject every chance you get. Pathetic.".... Razeal ofcourse could relate to it.. Like his family is fucked up so should he just not see in point in living his life?

His tone carried no sympathy, only blunt dismissal.

Levy's smile faltered. He turned his gaze back to the water. "Live the life I want, huh? I don't know if I can. Doesn't feel possible." His voice was barely above the waves now, almost lost in the wind.

Razeal's eyes flicked toward him, irritation prickling. "What is it you even want? What could be so big it's beaten you down like this?"

Levy hesitated again, his hand brushing over his chest as though trying to hold something inside. His eyes glimmered faintly in the light.

"I can't change the family part," he admitted, voice quieter. "But what I really want? What I've always wanted? Someone to love. Someone who loves me back." His lips curved into a fragile smile, almost boyish in its longing. "They say love makes a person stronger, don't they? Maybe if I had that, I'd be different. Maybe I'd have the strength to push myself further. To become more."

He shook his head slowly, his smile fading. "But I don't. And I won't. And that's why I am what I am."

Silence fell over the deck. The waves slapped against the hull, gulls crying faintly in the distance.

Maria, standing a little to the side with her arms folded, frowned faintly. Her aqua-blue eyes narrowed as she blinked at Levy, who was busy sulking about women and fate as though the universe had conspired against him. Just how stupid and unreasonable is this person? she thought. Weak-minded, placing every failure and excuse at the feet of something so ridiculous because he doesn't have a girl to motivate him? Pathetic.

She exhaled through her nose, a sharp sigh that vanished into the wind. The judgment in her gaze shifted then, sliding toward Razeal. He was the one who had brought this man aboard. And Maria, no matter how much she tried to bite her tongue, could not help but silently question that decision. Why him? Why would someone like Razeal choose someone like Levy? Like she literally had to begg to come here? why this spineless fool be personally invited anyways? Still, she said nothing. Her silence was not agreement it was restraint.

Razeal, however, did not share her restraint. He leaned lazily against the rail, his white hair shifting with the wind, and looked at Levy with a flat indifference.

"Excuses again," he said, his voice calm but edged with disdain. "If you're this desperate to get a girl, then get one. Why blame everything on the fact that you haven't? I don't think it's that hard to find women. If you tried, you'd get one." His words came like the snapping of a dry twig: effortless, dismissive.

Levy, however, seemed oblivious. His expression was dead serious, like a prophet declaring eternal truth. "As they say," he repeated stubbornly, "all successful men have a woman behind them. I am not successful because I don't have a woman behind me."

The silence that followed was brief, taut, and almost fragile before Razeal shattered it with a sound that was half snarl, half laugh.

"Fuck off," he growled. His voice dropped cold, cutting through the salt-thick air. "Shut the fuck up before I throw you off this ship."

The deck trembled slightly under his grip. His hand closed around the wooden rail so hard that the old timber beneath his palm cracked, splinters bursting loose like brittle bones. For a heartbeat, even the sea seemed quieter.

Then Razeal turned. In one motion, his hand shot out, fisting into Levy's collar. With a strength that seemed to ignore reason, he hauled the man into the air. Levy's legs kicked, dangling helplessly above the deck, his boots thumping against each other as the sudden rush of gravity tugged him down.

The sea yawned below them, dark and merciless. From this height, the rolling water seemed like an open mouth, eager to swallow whatever fell.

Levy's hands flew to Razeal's wrist, clutching desperately. His heart pounded so hard he swore Razeal could feel it through his arm. He looked down, the vastness of the sea stretching beneath him, and his face drained of all color. Panic carved itself into his features.

"Look," Razeal said, his voice low but carrying across the deck, "behind every successful man, yes, Lets say there's a woman. And behind a failed man? There's a woman too..I had.. I know. The difference in both? Its just no one stands behind failed person.. But does it matter? Look at me i don't care or give any fuck?? Where is my fucking women? I am here because of fucking I..Me and Myself.. Not by fucking any coincidental women.. So did i because a fucking failure? What fucking brain.. Its no one fault that you are fucking failure" He shook Levy once, sharply, like a dog snapping the neck of prey. "You've already failed by blaming your life on this pathetic excuse. You think the world will respect you because you whine about women? Just like sometimes to earn respect, to earn honor, you must first burn.. work hard by yourself.. Feel the pain.. go through suffering.. Cut yourself by your own hands and any pain feeling and emotions inside you. Even in starting you will be shamed looked down upon you must take the insult.. because thats what you fucking deserve, the weight of work until you become something the world cannot ignore... Only then will the world bow its head. Not by crying like this. Not with reasons as stupid as yours."

The silence after his words was heavy, broken only by the groan of the ship's timbers. Razeal's hand tightened on Levy's collar, pulling him slightly higher, until Levy's shadow fell thinly against the deck.

"If you are going to have this kind of stupid reasoning," Razeal spat, his eyes cold as steel, "then you don't deserve to be on this ship."

Levy's throat closed. His body shook, half with fear, half with humiliation. He opened his mouth, tried to summon words, to defend himself. But when his gaze locked with Razeal's, the words died. Those eyes..icy, indifferent, utterly devoid of pity.. told him everything. This psychopath might really throw me overboard.

He swallowed hard and shut his mouth.

From the far side of the deck, conversations faltered. Maria stood rooted, staring wordlessly at the sight, her frown deepening. Even Yograj and his daughter, who had been deep in their own private exchange, turned their heads toward the confrontation. Their voices died out, leaving only the tension humming through the sea air.

Yograj tilted his head slightly, lips curling in something like a grim smile. He glanced sidelong at his daughter, who crossed her arms tightly, her golden eyes narrowing with dangerous fire. "So well," Yograj murmured under his breath, "it seems like he really was… gentle with you."

His daughter said nothing, but the way her gaze fixed on Razeal's hand gripping Levy's throat hard, merciless.. spoke enough. Her eyesnerrowed with weird light

Levy, however, could only stare back at Razeal, hands clutching at his wrist, knuckles white, legs dangling helplessly. For a long moment, they simply looked at each other: Levy's eyes wide with fear, Razeal's flat and merciless. The world seemed suspended, balanced on the edge of decision.

Then

"...Tch." The sound slipped sharp between Razeal's teeth. With a flick of his arm, he released Levy. The man dropped like a stone, slamming onto the wooden deck with a heavy, graceless thud. The impact rattled through his bones, forcing a pained gasp out of him.

Razeal turned away, brushing his hand off as though he had discarded trash. "Useless," he said coldly, his voice echoing across the ship's deck.

No one replied. The silence that followed was stark and suffocating. But still all seemed to understand something in that moment: Razeal was not a man to be tested, nor one to indulge weakness.

Levy lay on the deck, coughing, clutching at his chest where his breath had been stolen. His face burned with humiliation, his pride shattered into fragments as sharp as the wood beneath him.

Levy lay on the deck, breath heaving, fingers pressed to the hollow of his chest. Above him the sky opened wide and merciless; the ocean beat a steady, indifferent rhythm against the hull. For a long, suspended moment he didn't move only the salt air filled his lungs and the world narrowed to the ache behind his ribs.

"You won't understand," he murmured finally, voice raw as rope. "It's not because of anything you can fix. It's… because of my heart." His fingers tightened against his shirt as if to hold that confession in place. "I am different from you. I can't have anyone in my life. That's my fate." He swallowed. Tears tracked warm lines down his face and splashed onto the weathered planks. "I know what would happen if I let someone in. I know what it costs. I just… I don't want to make them suffer the way I would."

The admission landed like a thrown stone. For a second the world stilled: gulls cried somewhere far off, a loose rope snapped against the mast, a single creak of wood echoed like a verdict.

Razeal's face didn't move. He watched Levy with that same flat, unblinking gaze that had become his armor. For a heartbeat there was something almost like curiosity in his eyes, and then he shook his head once a deliberate, dismissive motion that cut like cold water.

"Bullshit," he said simply.

There was no cruelty in the word, no grand thunder of scorn just a precise, practical dismissal, as if he were throwing away a broken tool. Levy's shoulders jittered as the sound hit him; shame flushed his cheeks hot beneath the salt-streaked tears. He had been stripped naked before the sea and this boy in the shadow had slapped a label on his wound and walked on.

Razeal stepped past him without offering a hand. The shadow at his feet did not ripple, and he did not bother to wait for reply. "Excuses," he added under his breath, not looking back. "If you want something, stop dying over the idea of fate and Whatever.. Do something about it."

His tone was hard, iron-laced not sympathetic, not kind. But in its bluntness there was a kind of command: stand up, or be swept away. Levy watched him go and for the first time since the ocean's roar began filling his ears, something like a choice a jagged, uncertain thing made itself felt beneath the grief.

Maria turned her head away, jaw tight. Yogiraj's daughter said nothing, but the way she set her chin told you she had catalogued Levy's confession and Razeal's verdict both. The ship moved on, sails creaking, as if nothing profound had happened; yet each of them carried that small broken confession with them, tucked away where the sea breeze could not reach it.

Levy watched the spot where Razeal had stood and hugged his hands to his chest as if to stitch the pieces back together. The tears dried in the wind. The world went on.

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