Groups of sweaty men huffed and puffed seemingly endlessly, their breath turning visible every other second. Their muscles strained, and they could feel their backs being pushed to the limit thanks to the load they had been carrying.
“Ahh… ahh…” Tan J. Rene moaned, taking a seat on the grass in a random home’s front lawn.
“Captain, why’d you have to choose something so physically demanding?”
Walking into his line of sight was Fin, carrying a large crate with nothing but his two bare hands. Unlike Tan J. Rene, he didn’t seem the least bit exhausted. It was like he was born to do this kind of work.
“This was the only job available,” Fin answered. “Plus, if you hadn’t made a scene two days ago, we would have had a better chance at finding work. Everyone in the town thought we were weirdos because of that incident.”
“You can’t blame me for that! If that cursed woman, Maria Lemonia, hadn’t punched me, we would have been off the island by now!” He flailed his arms. Desperate for work, the two crewmates had signed up to work as movers. Their first client was someone who had recently switched homes.
Their new house was nothing impressive to note, as it was a two-story, square stone home with pink paint on the exterior. The wooden door creaked open, and a person emerged from the house they were standing in front of.
“Is that the last of the crates?” the slim man, who had short black hair and casual loungewear, asked.
“This is it, Mister Rus. Where did you need this crate to be taken?” Fin asked.
“Oh, that one? I think that belongs in my daughter’s room. I’m sorry, but could you take it up to the second floor?”
“Don’t apologize, sir. You’re paying us to do this, so I’m happy to oblige.” Without breaking a sweat, Fin casually carried a crate weighing the equivalent of three cannonballs into the home and up the flight of stairs.
By the time he found the room he needed to get to, the door was closed. Using his knuckles, he knocked as best as he could. Immediately, he heard movement from inside the room as a high-pitched female voice called out.
“C-Coming! One sec, please!”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been standing so close to the door, because when it swung open, Fin wasn’t fast enough to dodge the incoming hit, especially with something so heavy in his arms.
Thrown off balance, his body fell backward. Though the wall was just behind him, there was no guarantee he’d be able to hold onto the crate. “Ah-!” the female voice exclaimed upon realizing her mistake.
For a moment, Fin thought about using magic to soften the blow. However, if he did that, there was a chance the contents inside would be destroyed, which would mean his pay could be docked.
Using his body as a shield, he protected the crate. Its heavy weight slammed down on top of him, pancaking him to the ground. Thankfully, the floor was made of stone, so there wasn’t much of a crack.
As he contemplated his life decisions up to that point, he felt the heavy crate slowly slide off him, the girl’s strained grunts catching his attention. Fully pushing the crate aside, she let out a labored sigh.
Getting up, Fin took a look at her appearance. She seemed much younger than anyone else he had met on the island so far. He, Yuna, Maria, and Tan were in their twenties. E-CAT was a complete mystery, and the people who hired him, the girl’s parents, were clearly in their forties.
Like her father, she had black hair that fell to her shoulders. Her light blue eyes matched the color of the sky. Unlike Yuna or Maria, she wore a pink sports jacket and an athletic pink skirt.
“Are you okay, mister?!”
Holding back tears as best as he could, Fin met the young girl’s gaze. “Y-Yeah. Somehow I didn’t end up too hurt. Though, I have this little scratch now.”
Raising his arm, he showed the long cut across it.
“Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.” the girl hissed, as if she felt a portion of the pain.
“It’s not that bad. How about you, are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m completely unscathed!” she flexed.
“That’s good to hear,” he said with a smile. “You’re Mister Rus’ daughter, right?”
“That’s right! My name is Nanaki Okihura. I love sports and sports. And sports.”
Why’d she say sports three times?
“Well, I’ll get this crate moved into your room. Can you step aside a bit?”
Before he could resume his work, Nanaki stepped forward in a flash, blocking him from approaching the crate.
“Sir… before you do that, I have an important question,” she said, head lowered, eyes peering through her hair.
“You can call me Fin. And sure, go ahead.”
There was sudden tension between them. It was the kind that Fin had grown all too used to during his two years as a pirate. Nanaki planted her feet harder, as if bracing for an immense impact.
Fin couldn’t help but also be on guard. He instinctively tried reaching for his pistol, but it wasn’t there. Nanaki, whatever she was about to ask, was extremely serious about receiving an answer. If he were to answer wrong, there was a chance he could be killed.
A bead of sweat dripped down his temple. The clock ticked. Only five seconds had passed, yet it felt like an eternity.
Time seemingly stopped as her question finally reached his ears.
“Do you like romance?”
“…”
Fin lowered his guard, staring at Nanaki silently. He couldn’t help but wonder why she was making such a big deal over such a simple question. The last time he was in a situation like this, he had to fight for his life. Literally.
“If you mean books, yeah, I like romance. My teacher used to force me to read, and her favorite genre was romance,” he answered casually.
“OKAY THEN! How about this?! I love romance, so if you tell me your greatest romance story, I’ll let you off the hook and not tell my father that you dropped that crate!”
“Wait, but you’re the one that…”
Nanaki widened her eyes like a puppy, pushing her lower lip out like a poor child begging for a single bite of someone’s food. He had no problems shattering through armies of pirates, but sad faces were something he could never counter.
Sighing, he gave in, “Let me see. I’m not a very romantic guy.”
“But I do love someone named Maria. She’s sweet and…” before he could shower her with compliments, his mind replayed over and over the violence she often induced not only to him, but her close friends as well.
“Yeah. She’s sweet.”
Nanaki hung her head. “What the heck? That’s it? You’re kinda lame.”
Despite her hurtful words, Fin seemed rather unfazed. “What about you? If you like romance, you probably fall in love and stuff easily, right?”
“Hehehe, take a look at this!”
Nanaki slowly slid away from the crate and backed up to her door. Bending her arm backward, she twisted the metal doorknob leading to her room. When it opened, Fin was met with a sight he never could have imagined.
Scattered and plastered all over the walls were drawings of countless random people he had never seen, even in the city.
“Erm… what’s this?” His question was one that anyone would have asked in that situation. It wasn’t that he was judging her, he was just genuinely curious about what he was looking at. For all he knew, they could have been commissioned portraits.
“I draw beautiful romantic stories in hopes of publishing an artbook someday,” Nanaki said proudly.
“I needed a baseline reference for two characters in love, but nobody in this dang city ever falls in love like they do in the novels! Where’s the running with a piece of toast in their mouth?! There are no clichés here at all!”
“It’s always just old men and women coming for vacation!” Nanaki’s face fell into despair, her head hanging low.
An idea flickered inside Fin’s head. “If it’s people to use as reference, I know two ladies who are really good friends with each other. If you swing by the estate later, you can probably meet them.”
“Are they in love?”
Fin scratched his chin. “Hm, maybe. I can’t tell at this point. But you probably have a better eye for that kind of stuff.”
“O-Oh I see. I’ll definitely swing by then.”
Upon sharing location details, Nanaki stepped aside from the doorway to let Fin do his job. Catching on to the hint, he bent down, lifted the crate to the best of his ability, and moved it into her room.
“There we go.” He proudly said to himself before promptly walking out of the room and back to the front lawn. Despite having spent upwards of ten minutes inside, Tan J. Rene was still laid out on the ground, this time in a starfish position.
“I’m going to take some of your pay.”
Those words were enough to bring the lazy first mate back to life. “Like hell you will! I worked blood, sweat, and tears for that cold hard gold.”
“I think if worst comes to worst, I’ll just sell you off to the navy.” Judging from his tone, he was probably going to look into doing that later.
“I’m going to start heading back now. What about you?” Fin asked while casting water magic to wash his hands. Scratching the back of his head, Tan pondered his question, eventually deciding to head back as well.
Unlike Fin and Maria, Yuna refused to give Tan access to the estate. He had met her, sure, but their first interaction left a bad taste in the noble’s mouth when he made an inappropriate comment about her “assets.”
They split ways, Fin heading back to the small hills where the Yuzu Estate was located, and Tan going back to the small, cramped room he had rented with the little resources he had.
Unfortunately, he had to do house chores just to afford a night there, so there was no rest in his future anytime soon.
As the sun began to bleed orange after a hard day’s work, Fin finally made it back to the estate.
Upon creaking the door open as quietly as possible, he suddenly saw a human-sized silhouette leaping toward him. Extending his arms, he caught Yuna, holding her tightly to prevent them both from falling over.
“Oh, Finny~! My knight in shining armor, welcome back home!”
“Thanks. How’s your day been, Yuna?” he replied, almost like he was unaware of the noble’s obvious advances. In the distance, he saw the striking green hair belonging to a certain rival captain. But what surprised him the most was her clothing.
“I like your maid uniform, Maria,” he said in a matter-of-fact way, like it was an everyday occurrence to see a rising pirate captain dressed as a maid. By the time Fin called out to her, Maria’s face was beet red, matching the color of the carpet.
“OOOOHOHOHOHOHO!”
“When my dearest Finny is out in the city working as hard as he can, I couldn’t possibly, in good conscience, let a delinquent captain freeload.”
“T-THIS IS A RIDICULOUS OUTFIT!” Maria protested.
“Oh my, but weren’t you the one who begged me for a job? If you wish to sleep in the forest now, feel free to do so. You’d fit right in with the trees.”
Maria’s gaze shifted from Yuna to Fin. To her confusion, his eyes sparkled brighter than they ever had before. He hadn’t stared this intently since they reunited.
“W-What do… you think…?” she sheepishly asked, giving him a few twirls.
“Amazing!” Fin excitedly shouted. Neither Yuna nor Maria had ever seen him so animated before. Normally, they’d expect such a monotone answer, but his tone made it seem like all the emotions bottled up inside him had suddenly burst out.
A satisfied smile curled on Maria’s face.
“Hmph! I’m glad you like it, or whatever.”
Then, there was a knock at the door behind Fin. He turned to answer it, but was promptly stopped by Yuna. “Finny,” she said sternly, “it is a maid’s job to do such menial tasks. Please step aside.”
Waving her hand, Yuna signaled for Maria to come closer. She did so, her feet trembling with each step. Upon reaching the door, she gripped the handle, but for some reason seemed extremely hesitant.
“H-Hey… Yuna. Do I have to do this?”
“Miss Lemonia, that’s not quite how we practiced.”
Maria bit her lip to stop herself from emotionally exploding. “Y-Y…”
“Y-Yes… m-m-m-mas… ter…”
“Ohhh!” Fin’s eyes sparkled even brighter.
“Ghk!”
“You’re such a weirdo Fin!!!”
With a hard pull, she opened the wooden door. Behind it was Nanaki, holding a large bowl of marinated meat in her hands. Having heard everything behind the door, she was utterly terrified of Yuna and the pirates.
“Um, I brought some food as an apol- OOOUGHHH IS THAT A MAID?!?!?!”
Her sudden shift in personality startled even Fin. Breathing heavily through her nose, the nimble young lady bolted around Maria, inspecting every crevice of her dress and clothing. “THIS IS SO NICE! YOU LOOK SO ADORBS!!!”
“W-W-W-WHO IS THIS CHILD?!” Maria embarrassingly asked, trying to hold her dress down as much as possible.
“Oh, Nanaki. Is that for us?” Fin stepped forward, accepting the gift without hesitation.
Momentarily stopping, she nodded. “I felt bad for causing your injury, so I decided to apologize with this. I hope you enjoy it.”
“If you’d like,” Yuna added, “feel free to stay for dinner. It’d be a shame for you to bring that all the way over here, just to not taste the fruits of your labor.”
“I’d be glad to join you!” said Nanaki excitedly, left in awe at the very sight of luxury scattered across the estate. She then inched closer towards Fin, whispering in his ear as quietly as humanly possible.
“Psst. Fin, is that maid your girlfriend over there?”
Fin shook his head, “nope. Why?”
“Well, she’s super duper cute, you should try your best to hitch her, hehehe.” For some reason, a notepad and a pencil appeared in her hand without Fin noticing, as she started sketching down their faces.
“I thought you were going to observe Yuna and Maria?”
Nanaki happily dismissed his question, “Yeah, but they’re clearly just friends! I don’t need friendship inspiration, I need ROMANTIC inspiration!!!”
This girl was going to be a problem, so before she could cause any unnecessary misunderstandings, he pushed Nanaki towards two two ladies.
A few minutes had passed, and Nanaki had thoroughly introduced herself to both Yuna and Maria. Seeing as everyone had settled down with one another, Fin chimed in, “Okay. I’ll go get the kitchen ready.”
Two hands gripped his shoulders before he could get far, pulling him back and keeping him in place. He then felt his body get dragged over to Nanaki’s side, as if he were a lightweight piece of wood.
“Nanaki. We’ll handle the food. You make sure he DOESN’T leave your side.”
Their feet stomping in determination, the two ladies stormed into the kitchen. Within seconds, both Nanaki and Fin could hear their angry arguments echoing throughout the house, louder than the sounds of boiling water or sizzling oil.