Just as the man had pointed, I followed, finding my way through the strange labyrinth of wooden halls, trying to locate my boy Po.

There was no one around anymore at this point. The crew were probably locked in their respective rooms or gathered outside on the deck, talking and gisting about some goddamn thing I couldn't even follow up on. The ship creaked beneath my feet, a constant groan of timber against water that I was starting to tune out.

As I stood in the center of the cabin — an open space where a wooden staircase connected to the upper floor — I heard a small creak of a door and glanced up.

It was Levi who had just come out. He was holding a brown roll of paper with a lighter in his hands. The moment he saw me, he slipped the roll into his sleeve and put his arms behind his back.

All of these were minimal movements I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't training myself to use Enhanced Hearing and Seeing, hoping somehow it would make Enhanced Movement easier for me. The practice was paying off in unexpected ways.

He flashed me a smile from above, leaning casually on the wooden railing — and now the lighter was gone too.

"What're you doing out here? Tired of the room finally?"

I answered him from below.

"I love the company of the room. I'm just hungry."

My tone was straight and shameless.

"Oh? Hunger, a teacher of lessons." He tilted his head. "I'm surprised you lasted an entire day without having anything, gods. Poland should've saved something for you. Have you… oh right, he's in the meeting."

I stared at Levi for a moment, watching how disheveled he'd become from the effort of hiding what was so obviously a smoking habit.

'You're not slick.'

"You should come up," he said, gesturing with a tilt of his chin. "Join the meeting. It'll benefit you. Then you can just ask Po whatever you want afterwards."

I raised a brow.

"Isn't it like a… private meeting?"

Levi scoffed, waving his hand dismissively.

"Yes, but I'm the boss. Come on in."

I sighed internally.

'Nepotism, hi.'

With no better options, I climbed the stairs. Each wooden step groaned softly under my weight, the sound swallowed by the ambient creaking of the ship around us. When I reached the upper floor, Levi gripped my shoulders and together we entered back into the room he'd just come out from.

The room was nothing like I had imagined when he'd said they were having a meeting. I'd somehow pictured a broad conference room — a proper table, chairs arranged in some semblance of order.

But Derry alone made the space feel cramped. He sat on a single bunk bed, and the bed looked like it was begging for mercy beneath him. The wooden frame sagged visibly toward the center, but Derry didn't seem to mind — or maybe he'd simply stopped noticing. There was a small table in the middle of the room with a couple of papers spread across it. Maps, on a closer look.

Tristan was seated on a lower bunk bed opposite Derry's, and Po occupied the higher bunk above, his legs swaying freely over the edge. The moment I stepped in, he glanced at me and his whole face lit up.

"Mr. Cade! You're finally awake!!"

'Did this guy swallow a speaker?'

"I believe I am, yes."

Levi entered behind me and closed the door with a soft click.

Derry raised his large head. Eyes, brows — everything about this guy was large. He looked at me first, then at Levi, his expression shifting to mild suspicion.

"Where's the water you went to get?"

Tristan also turned to Levi, waiting.

Levi froze for a moment. Then he chuckled and casually gripped my shoulders again, squeezing just a bit too tight.

"Oh, for the Six's sake! Cade here literally had me downstairs asking so many questions. So I just said, you know what, why not bring him to the meeting so he can learn stuff." He gripped tighter, his fingers digging in slightly.

I looked at the others, gave a lame "help me, I'm not doing this of my own volition" chuckle, and added:

"Haha… I'm a very curious bastard. A curious cat, aha!"

'This man is using me as his alibi. Unbelievable.'

Derry sighed, a deep rumble from his chest, then tapped the tilted space beside him on the bed.

"Come have your seat here, kiddo."

I studied that seat carefully. The mattress sloped at a dangerous angle toward Derry's considerable mass, like the whole bed had given up and accepted its fate. One wrong shift and I'd be sliding into the man like cargo in a storm.

I gave Derry one restrained smile.

"I've been sitting all day. I want to stand for a bit."

It was only half a lie. I had been training with Kassie all day — my body ached from the exertion — but that ache was preferable to spending the rest of this meeting slowly drifting toward whatever center of equilibrium Derry's weight had carved out.

"Or you can just join me here! Come here, Mr. Cade! You can see the map better from up here!"

I released an internal sigh of relief.

'Po, my life saver.'

"Oh, really? I'm not so tall, I guess that's not a bad idea. Excuse me." I made my way over and climbed up while Po shifted to make room, clearly delighted to have company.

As we settled, Levi cleared his throat.

"Okay, I should really get the water now. Let's hope I don't get talked off to the realm of forgetfulness this time."

'Liar.'

I glared at him. But the bastard only smiled with his eyes closed and slipped back outside.

Derry cleared his throat — the sound so thick and resonant I could've sworn the metal bunk actually trembled beneath me.

"Let's not drift too far from the point. The Boss already knows how all of this is going to go. You know how he is. It's up to us to match his expectations."

Po kicked his legs with renewed energy. "Hmph! The boss is very sneaky!"

Derry began to slide a couple of maps toward the center of the table, arranging them so everyone could see. All of them had light blue surfaces with lines drawn across them — sea charts, I realized. Routes, maybe. Or territories.

The meeting was starting, and I still hadn't gotten anything to eat.

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