They stood silently in realisation looking at eachother "wait" Yeosang told them "they wrote some description of him" Yeosang told them, hoping it's not what they think and they focused on him "he has a pale skin, big black eyes, freckles on his nose" Yeosang stopped a little "it's the same as him" San said putting a hand on his forehead "wait, it says he's blond, the one on our ship is brunette, case closed" Yeosang told them closing the newspaper "you're right, it must be a coincidence" Valerie said chuckling a little bit.
"The food is ready!!!" Wooyoung shouted from the kitchen door informing everyone "let's go eat for now" San told them and they agreed.
Everyone gathered around the table, Hongjoong at the head of it and Seonghwa opposite of him, on Hongjoong's right Yeosang, Valerie, San and Wooyoung, and on his left Mingi, Yunho, Neil and Jongho.
At first they where silently eating "did you know, we received new posters" Yeosang told them and handed them to Hongjoong "finally, a decent photo, and 20,000 golden coin, I'm rocking it" he said proudly "the other is San?" Mingi said surprised "why are you so shocked?" San asked offended "I just thought I might get one first, that's all" he said sulking "don't worry, you'll get one too" Yunho comforted him.
Valerie looked at Yeosang and San, and so did they "should we tell them?" She whispered so low they almost couldn't hear her "are you crazy, what are you going to say 'we found an announcement of a missing prince from your country who has the same name as you, stole a national treasure and has almost the same features and with a prize over his head' ?" San whispered sarcastically "yeah" Valerie and Yeosang answered in unison, he sighed in exhaustion "but we can't tell him that now, he is still warming up to us" Yeosang told them.
Hongjoong noticed their odd behaviour "is there something wrong?" He asked them, they straightened their backs "nothing" they answered in unison making it more odd "really?" He didn't believe them.
They looked at each other "I'll tell you later after we finish eating" Yeosang told him "is it something important?" He asked eating from his plate "no, just checking on something" he cleared his throat and continued eating.
After they finished eating, Neil was the first to go to his cabin, so the three of them took their chance "we found something about Blackbalt's prince on the newspaper" Yeosang said handing the newspaper to Hongjoong "his name is the same as Neil, as well as his features except the hair, and he stole a national treasure" San told them "it's published by the prime minister" Hongjoong said looking at the minister's photo, he is a middle aged man with wrinkles all over his face, he has a white hair and a beard "should we ask him?" Mingi asked "don't bother, even if he was the Prince, I'm sure he can't open to this easily, even after he spent a week with us" he said putting the newspaper down and massaging his forehead.
It was silent, no one spoke a word "what should we do?" Yunho asked "for now, don't speak a word until we are sure of his identity, Yunho go and keep his company, and the rest, you do your usual choruses" he ordered and was followed by "Aye Captain!!" From everyone.
Yunho went to his cabin to find Neil looking through the window "is there anything wrong?" He asked curious, Neil was still looking through it "I was just looking at the sky" he said and sat on the bed, Yunho looked at the sky too, it was cloudy "you like cloudy weather?" He asked him "I like the sky in general" he told him "I see" he smiled at him.
They heard a knock on the door then it opened revealing Valerie's head "hi" she waved at them, Yunho looked at Valerie "is there something wrong?" He asked concerned "no, it's just a medical question" she said shrugging her shoulders and walking in "well, what is it?" He asked curious "how do you run tests on blood?" She asked "come over here" he went behind his desk and pulled a bottle that has Neil's blood in it in front of her "I'll show you how to know the blood type first" he told her sitting on a chair behind his desk, Neil was curious, so he stood next to Valerie, observing Yunho.
Yunho pulled a microscope from under the desk and put it before them "first, you take one drop from the bottle and put it on the glass under the microscope" he said doing the process "do you know how many blood types are there?" He asked them "there are four" Neil answered "and what are they?" Yunho asked again "C, H, CH and Z" Valerie answered "correct" Yunho said pulling his thumb up for her, she smirked at Neil proudly and he looked away annoyed "Z is a very rare type and there is only one on this ship that has it, and its Wooyoung, remember that" he told them, Valerie was surprised to know that.
Yunho looked through the microscope at the blood sample "your blood type is CH, you'll be able to receive blood from everyone if you ever had a blood loss, unlike the Z type" Yunho assured him still smiling "why unlike the Z type?" Neil asked him "you see, Z type can give any other blood type, but they can't receive from others than his own blood type" he said, moving aside and letting Valerie look through the microscope.
After Valerie have finished looking at the blood sample, Yunho pulled other bottles from under the desk "I made other tests, to make sure you are completely fine" he told them, showing four different bottles "this one is for the glucose, and its normal" he said pointing at the one on the left "this one is for your kidney function, it's also good" he said pointing at the one next to it "as for your calcium, you have a shortage on it, I spoke to Wooyoung about it, so he can give you food with calcium in it" he said pointing at the next one "and for the last one, is for protein, you also have a shortage in it" he told them and then put it down.
Yunho looked at Neil concerned "you really need to eat if you want to survive at least" he told him, Neil looked down feeling guilty "I'll try" he said "it's not 'I'll try' it's 'of course, I am going to' " Valerie told him smiling softly "plus, if you don't eat, this handsome face of yours will get weaker" she said showing a painful look on her face, they looked at her in disbelief, Yunho sighed "anyways, I showed you how blood tests goes, now you can go and help Yeosang with the helm" Yunho said kicking her out undirectly, she sighed "yes sir" and left closing the door behind her.
Yunho sighed, he left to the kitchen and came back after five minutes, he was holding a cup in his hand "here" he said giving it to Neil "what is this?" He asked sniffing it "it's tea, it can help in relaxing" he assured him smiling, Neil sat on the bed and took a sip from it "it's tasty" he said smiling, Yunho sighed in relief "Make sure to finish it" he told him and went back to his work.
Hongjoong went to his cabin and put the newspaper on his desk, he took the necklace and started examining it, it sure is one of the five elements, it was shining so brightly even in the evening, he was cut by a knock on the door "come in" he said putting the necklace in the drawer of his desk, it was Neil which made Hongjoong surprised "is there something wrong?" He asked him "no" he said walking in and closing the door "I'm here just to thank you, for letting me stay on your ship, even though it's a little bit late" he said standing before his desk, Hongjoong was surprised by his gratitude, he stood up "no problem" he said walking to him and putting a hand on his shoulder "you should go and rest" Hongjoong told him walking towards the door and opening it.
When he turned around, he saw Neil holding the newspaper, he only saw his back and couldn't see his face "what's wrong?" He asked but he didn't respond, Neil was frozen in his place, Hongjoong had to put a hand on his shoulder to react "what is it?" He asked "N-nothing" he answered putting the newspaper down, he was sweating "I..I'll be going" he said running out of the cabin.
Hongjoong took a deep breath "San!! Yeosang!! And Valerie!! You come here!!! RIGHT NOW!!!" He shouted, and with less than a minute, the three of them were lined up before him "what is it?" San asked clueless "it seems like your guess was right" he said handing them the newspaper "how are you so sure?" Valerie asked "he was here a while ago and saw the newspaper, he had a mixture feeling between anger and fear towards this prime minister, and I'm sure the fear grew even more when he read the post" he told them, Valerie was confused "how did you know how he felt?" She asked "Hongjoong has this power, that makes him know people's emotions, of course if he wants to" Yeosang explained holding the wrinkled newspaper "that's amazing" she said surprised "it's not time to be amazed, go and check on him, maybe he'll tell you something" he ordered them, San and Yeosang left except for Valerie.
Valerie stayed silent for a minute "what do you want?" Hongjoong asked "you asked for my origin and I told you, but how come none of you ever told me about theirs?" She asked annoyed "everyone has their reasons" he said sitting behind his desk "well, I had my reasons too, but I still told you" she was angry, Hongjoong frowned "when time comes, I'll tell you all, now go to the quarterdeck" he dismissed her.
Valerie went to the quarterdeck annoyed, she found Yeosang and San lying next to each other and being gloomy "I think I know what's wrong" she sighed and took over the helm "we screwed up" San said about to cry "we surely did" Yeosang told him "what happened?" She asked curious "when we went to ask him what's wrong, he started trembling and was clearly afraid of something which made Yunho angry, so he scolded us and kicked us out" Yeosang told her "do you think he'll hate us?" San asked Valerie "I don't know, but what I know is, he really needs to eat" she told them and they sat up straight "why is that?" Yeosang asked "from the tests Yunho have took from him, he seems to be lacking of protein and calcium, it looks like whoever was in charge of him didn't give him much food" she said grabbing the helm tightly "AAAAAHHHG!!!" San shouted "why is getting closer to humans so hard" he sighed lying down on his back "you weren't hard to approach at first" San told Valerie "first, I'm not a human, and second, you tried to kill me on our first encounter" she said glancing at them "whatever" San sighed.
After a moment, Yunho came to the quarterdeck, Yeosang and San rose to their feet when they saw him "how is he?" San asked running towards him "fine, but it would be great if we don't open this conversation with him again, he needs some time to adjust" he told them, San looked down from guilt.
Yeosang took the map and stood next to Valerie "if we continue on this lane, we'll arrive at Blackbalt Snow in a month" he told them, they looked at him surprised "are we going there? Did Hongjoong order that?" Valerie asked looking at him, he shook his head "no, I'm just saying" he told them "San, you and Yunho go fold the sails and on your way, tell everyone to gather at the main deck, we'll stop for a little bit until we decide our destination based on what Neil wants and Hongjoong decides" he ordered them and they went flying.
After the ship had stopped and the crew gathered at the main deck with Neil, Yeosang sat on the wood with everyone circling around him "there are total of ten islands near us now, the closest one is a day away from here" he said pointing at an island named IceLake "if we move now, we can reach it by morning" he informed them, Hongjoong knew what Yeosang's up to "why do you want to go there?" He asked Yeosang "I want to help Neil and to help him, we need information about Blackbalt" he said looking at a confused Neil "so I thought about going through some islands that are relatively close to it, so we can gather some information" he told Hongjoong starring right in his eyes, he sighed "fine, but first, everyone needs to agree on this" he told them "I'm in" San said raising his arm next to his head "me too" said Valerie and Wooyoung in sync "and the rest?" Hongjoong asked "of course, we are in" Seonghwa said rising up from his seat smiling at his captain "and you Neil? What do you think?" He asked looking at him, he looked at the map taking a deep breath "I'm in" he said looking at Hongjoong "then its decided" he said and they stood up "to IceLake!!" He shouted "Aye captain!!!" They shouted.
Everyone took their position on the ship while Yeosang and Valerie where at the quarterdeck redirecting the helm to the East towards IceLake "good job" Yeosang complemented Valerie for her great control over the helm "thanks" she sighed in relief because he didn't instruct her this time "we'll have to stay awake through the night, so we can arrive tomorrow at IceLake" he informed her and she nodded in understanding.