With the help of many spare and not so spare parts ranging from wall panels to parts of Julius’ precious kitchen, the Sundance Crew managed to keep Going Sunny’s main mast upright as they sailed for the past eight days.

“Land ho!” A voice, presumably from the Crow’s nest announced.

The five members who were taking a nap on the deck jumped up and the others who were inside ran out to the edge of the ship. The outline of the island’s southern end could be seen. The ship just made it into dock and after making sure everything valuable was locked up, the crew headed out.

“Baise, Maes, Yuto, and Tori, go and find us some jobs. One that we can do on this island and a few others that will be on our way to Beghonia. Morgan, Alzono, Kiyiya, Julius, and I will go get our ship fixed. Alzono you’re in charge of watching Morgan. Meet up back here when you’re done and we’ll find a place for the night. Any questions?”

“No ma’am!” Everyone said and saluted Elena.

“Um… what am I supposed to do?” L’Roux said. As usual, he was waiting for his name to be called only to be forgotten about.

“Whoa, when did you get there L’Roo?” Maes asked.

“I’ve been standing next to you the whole time. Oh course you wouldn’t notice. No one really does. Should I even be surprised? Well it’s more of being hurt than it is about being surprised. Oh look, they’re all leaving without giving me a job. I guess I’ll just guard the ship. It’s not like they’ll even notice me gone.”

Just as L’Roux narrated to himself, the crew had split up into the two predetermined groups without him and headed off to find jobs or shipwrights to fix the ship.

The self-proclaimed Find-A-Job Crew headed to the various job requests boards around town and accepted a few jobs that be completed in Beghonia but none that could be done within a day or two.

“What about this one Baise-dono?”

Yuto held up a poster which asked for a bodyguard service for a night. Apparently there had been a string of beatings all over the kingdom for the past month.

“Let’s see,” Baise said. He took the paper from Yuto and examined it until his eyes landed on the payment. His eyes looked as if they turned into the fiore sign as he turned to his crew. “Let’s take it.”

The others, who were dubbed Fix-Our-Baby before Elena turned the name down, headed out to the west end to find shipwrights.

“We need fix our ship, any contenders?”

“What’s the damage?”

“The main mast, we got into a bit of a scuffle on our way here. We did some temporary repairs with leftover parts but some professional work would do it nice.”

As Elena explained the situation, the workmen’s ears perked up. Before she could even continue to the second part, offers were being thrown out like crazy.

“I’ll do it for.”

“No me!”

“Pick us instead!”

“I’ll do it for a five thousand fiore but it’ll change depending on the amount of damage.”

“I’ll do it for four and the price will only go lower if not the same after an inspection.”

“We’ll do it for three-fifty with no inspection charge.”

“Three thousand base pay, no deposit needed. We’ll have it done within three days.”

“Damn it Karina.”

“I can’t go lower than that.”

“Same, I’m out.”

“Over here too.”

“Karina of Karina Co. take me to your ship and we’ll talk.” Karina the shipwright said.

The unofficial Fix-Our-Baby crew waited for the Find-A-Job crew to return from request hunting. Karina had finished examining Going Sunny with two workers and gave a breakdown of the repair process.

“Oi! Lane! Zono! Mo! Jules! Doc! We got a job!” Thomas shouted as he ran towards the ship holding the request paper.

“A bodyguard request eh?” Elena took the paper out of Thomas’ hand and scanned it. “Yuto and I can take care of it. The rest of you watch the ship when they’re doing the repairs. We’ll be fixing the main mast and reinforcing other parts of the ship. We can set sail tomorrow afternoon.”

Elena led the crew to the place they’d be staying for the night before heading out to perform the request with Yuto. Victorian stayed in her room for the rest of the day catching up on some much needed sleep while the men went out to the nearest tavern as they were finally, though temporarily, free from Elena’s wrath.

The following day, the crew, expect for Elena and Yuto who were resting after completing the request at dawn, headed out to check up on the status of Going Sunny. They arrived at the warehouse to see a new mast being hauled up onto the ship.

Noticing the crew’s appearance, Karina handed her rope to someone nearby and jogged over to where the crew was sitting.

“We’ll be done the mast by today and the reinforcements tomorrow. Bring the money when you pick up the ship, three thousand fiore.”

“Got it and take good care of her,” Baise said, referring to Going Sunny. When Karina returned to working on the ship Baise turned to his crew. “The payment for yesterday’s job should be ready by now so Tori, as your first official assignment as a crewmember, you’re going to pick up the payment. We’ll put aside the three thousand for the repairs, save half, and the rest we’ll feast. Sound good men?”

“Yes sir!”

While it was a simple task, Victorian took it very seriously. She knew that the crew, Elena for sure, were cautious around her and she wouldn’t blame them. But if she could complete the job and prove them wrong in believing she’d run away with the payment, she would be able to sail with them at ease.

The Earl of Thistle was happy to hand over Victorian the payment and even added some local ingredients as a thank you for the amazing service. While there were no attacks from the recent beatings but the old Earl was a victim of multiple attempted robberies throughout the night.

“Young lady, if I were to request thy services again, how may I contact thou? Those young lads performed an amazing job.”

“My apologises Earl but we shall be departing from the island by noon tomorrow. However, I shall see to it that your complements reach my companions. I thank thee again and bid thou goodbye.” Victorian added a smile before quickly running away. It had been so long since she had met an aristocrat and she automatically reverted back into proper speech. She kept her head down as she exited his estate hoping that the Earl couldn’t piece together the pieces.

Keeping her head low as she made her way through the busy streets, Victorian tried her best to dodge people on the very crowded street. There were a few shoulder nudges, arm brushes, and foot steppings before Victorian finally stopped after bumping into someone full force.

Looking up at the brick wall which turned out to be a noble’s guard, Victorian tried to go around him only for him to side step and once again blocking her path.

“The Duchess of Viridian has a few words for you.” The guard turned Victorian around to face an angry woman who was made her way in front of Victorian. Like the Earl of Thistle, the Duchess of Viridian wore bright multilayered clothes to indicate her noble status.

“Thou dare think thou can step on thy foot without a punishment?”

“My apologies duchess but I must be on my way.” Victorian internally applauded herself for speaking informally and once again attempted to leave.

“I was not finished.” The Duchess eyed the bag of fiore Victorian earned and said, “That bag in thou arms is acceptable. Thou shall not be punished if thou hands over thy bag.”

The duchess gestured for the guard to receive the money sack only for Victorian to tighten her hold on it. It was her chance of receiving the crew’s trust, there was no way she was going to hand it over to an already rich noble.

“Punishment it is. Guard make her regret her decision.”

The Duchess turned away and signaled for her umbrella carrier to catch up with her. In the now cleared street, a trembling Victorian’s cries were ignored as the guard whipped, punched, and kicked her to her limit. Just before passing out, Victorian brought the sack of fiore closer into her chest making sure no one would take it, not even over her dead body.