It wasn't long until the islands leader led us to the main building. Although small, you would've never expected this discreetly draped tent-like-house to be where a leader handles business; but I guess it made some sort of sense.
Looking around the decently cramped place-which prompted a large quantity of our sailors to wait outside, I noticed the array of woven cloth and make-shift lanterns around us. The leader was sitting across us with two guards by her side. The guards were clad in chain mail hauberk and lamellar armor. Leather shields protected a part of them as well.
Only the king and I sat in the room with this woman.
"So, how can I be of aid?" She asked nonchalantly, resting her hands on her lap. We took a few moments to answer seeing that the current situations atmosphere was fairly off, but the king proceeded nonetheless. "Food, basic supplies, water. It might sound like a lot but if there need be a price-"
"Oūv Chömmuar."
An amused glance took over her whole countenance as she purred out those words. Not recognizing the language, I was about to ask her why she interrupted the king until she leaned forward and placed her chin in the palm of her hand. We stared in silence at the smug smile that played her cerise lips and the dull glint that sharpened those two pink hues.
For a second, I thought it was foolish that I actually kind of trusted her. But thinking again, if she were really a threat, all of our men would've been killed by now.
The woman soon ran a red painted fingernail over her matching lips, explaining, "If you're wondering, I just said sweetheart in my native language." Listening to her words, my eyebrows narrowed with confusion as I struggled to figure the woman out. Her face was made to look so innocent and benign, but we could both tell by now that that wasn't the case. "Surely you really didn't think I would've helped you so easily. Of course there was going to be a price darling."
The king straightened up a little more in his seat before continuing to listen. The woman leaned back and crossed her legs, grinning, "I have two things I've been needing for a long time. Get them to me and I'll consider your plea." With a frown now entirely on my face, I spoke up, "your majesty I object. Something's not right with her or this village." The king upon hearing my opinion, waited a moment before scooting forward in his seat towards the conceited leader. "Ask me a few questions, not only will I reply to them truthfully, but it'll help me in deciphering you and your intentions."
"Oh?" The woman let out a chuckle, amusement spilling from her every pore with a hint of pure enjoyment. "I'd never think to interrogate somebody that way. You're just full of surprises royal."
I looked back and forth between the two in bewilderment as I also fell into a state of shock by the kings decision. Forcing a bite back and keeping my trap shut, I watched the conversation roll before me.
"I've only seen sailors, no guards... do you harbor some back on your ship?"
"No, I have no guards with me on this journey. But the sailors despite their unarmored appearance, are actually on the same or higher combat level than the guards I have back home."
"Is this the first island you came across?"
"Yes."
"And despite being raided by bandits you trust me?"
"Yes."
The woman cocked her chin up creating a shadow overcast her cheekbones by the length of her thick eyelashes. "What an interesting man." The comment seemed far from a compliment to me seeing that she merely wanted something back out of us in exchange for resources and that 'something' might be severely risky.
"My turn to start asking the questions here," I finally spoke up, hardening my glare, "you want us to fetch you these two things—-these two things that you yourself nor anyone else in this village has managed to get. And I hear it's something you've been wanting for a long time..."
"Why have you failed to obtain it?"
The leader finally looked at me for once, but her sickening smile still remained. "The fire burns bright in this one," she leered, "more specifically speaking, it's one thing that you or one of your sailor men will be fetching. The other thing will be revealed later on." I tightened my fist at her complacent attitude, lowering my voice in a deadly tone, "later on? We're not here to play games miss, and we're not a bunch of fucking dogs either."
In reply to my sentence, she merely grinned. "Ÿosūef dį Mėeãrre."
"...I like you."
Flashbacks of the male ghoul back at the cavern entered my mind and I immediately grimaced. "Yeah... a lot of people do." She laughed at my comment and turned back to the king, shrugging her shoulders. "Do we have a deal?"
The king fed her a few seconds of silence, but eventually agreed to the arrangement.
"We do."
The leader of Nechakri later told us that we'd have to venture out into the jungle north of this island to find an ancient tomb which held some valuable that originally belonged to her and her people. As recently told, she intends to reveal the second item later on although I'd prefer to get both items over with now, but deciding to play along with her childish games, it was up to one of the sailors and I to retrieve this first item.
Once the ship was anchored north of Nechakri by the relatively close jungle, I hopped off onto the sandy coastline as the sailor followed me. Before all of this, the king had actually argued with the Nechakri leader to let more sailor men accompany me on this mission, but she threatened to break off the deal and insisted I go with only one sailor. Currently, we had sailors on the island with the king, sailors on the ship with Ayato, and one sailor with me on the coast of the jungle. Ayato protested as well in plea to replace the sailor and be my partner instead, but I objected and managed to reason with him that the sailors needed his leadership. I could handle this objective on my own and I will do so alive.
The single sailor who accompanied me though, wasn't an ordinary one. The burley ghoul had years of strength on him and his muscles weren't a crazy show but they were definitely visible to the naked eye. For what it's worth, the male ghoul was also fairly experienced in combat and has an insanely strong Kagune—-one that I have yet to witness.
Feeling pretty safe with the extra security by my side, I patted the wet sand underneath my footwear and realized that the waves have been reaching farther than it's original shoreline not too long ago.
"Tide must've gone down." I muttered to myself, lost in thought.
"(Y/n)!" Hearing my name, I turned around and looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun. Ayato was looking down at us from the ship, cupping around both sides of his mouth. "Be careful out there, and you big bastard! If you come back here without that girl I'm beating the shit out of you myself!" I laughed a little at his yelling although I knew very well that he wasn't joking even the slightest.
The sailor quietly nodded in affirmation and I simply yelled back up, "aye aye captain!"
Watching the ship drift off into thin fog since Ayato had to deliver news back about our arrival, I faced the tall sailor beside me and locked gazes with him. "Now lets find this stupid valuable."
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A/n: hey guys, I wanted to get this thing out of the way real quick and explain something I've slipped up on a long time ago during the making of this story.
On chapter 4, there is a part where Ayato is helping with (y/n)'s wounds. The problem is; she is a ghoul and shouldn't need aid in the way I made him give aid. To explain better:
If it was a shallow cut, it would've been healed a while ago, since she is a ghoul.
She wouldn't need any bandages either.
So basically, I just wanted to touch up on a pretty important detail that's valid to the basic concept of Tokyo Ghoul. I apologize for so foolishly writing that way and it won't happen again, I believe this has actually happened twice before when Ayato treated (y/n)'s wounds after touka's attack. So I hope you guys understand my mistake and know that I'm not oblivious to it :)
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