Chapter 235: Freedom, Seasickness, Awakening

A week later, Sizar parted with great reluctance from his six prison mates. He then hoisted a large roll of iron sheets onto his back, boarded Swordfish Brother’s “Flying Fish-Head Man,” ended his brief prison life, and officially began a new voyage across the sea.

Emerging from the cramped, closed-off underwater prison, Sizar felt the ordinary sky as incredibly beautiful for the first time. Even though dark clouds hid it, a torrential downpour was imminent, he didn’t feel stifled. Instead, he felt a sense of unbound freedom.

The twenty-plus prisoners around him all wore similar expressions. Unlike Sizar, who had lived in a luxurious private room in Harm Rank South Third Zone, these twenty high-priced battle recruits were all Affliction Level prisoners.

The Divine Prison treated Calamity Level prisoners with utmost respect, caring for them meticulously like parents, granting every request. The entire Calamity zone had only two prisoners enjoying presidential-level treatment.

As for the Harm zone, it was usually approached equally, neither arrogant nor servile. If the prisoners followed the rules, even slightly out-of-line behavior might be overlooked. But if someone stepped too far out of bounds, like the eight gay brothers, violent suppression or “Slug Sister’s Lovely Bento” would be used to disgust them to death. Sizar, in the Harm zone, thought the official service attitude was quite good, worthy of four stars!

For the Affliction Level prisoners, however, the Divine Prison was a terrifying hell. Each cell crammed in eight prisoners, with at least eighty prisoners per zone. What’s worse, new arrivals were constantly sent in from outside. Every week, some weak Affliction Level prisoner, unable to endure the torment, would choose suicide.

Imagine being locked in a chaotic, stinking little space. You had to endure oppression from gang formations, torture by guards, and the timely “anal exam and massage” that arrived every midnight. What a painful existence that was! Suicide truly seemed an understandable choice.

Now, granted freedom, the twenty prisoners near the youth had varied expressions. Some roared at the sky, vowing to reform; others knelt on the deck weeping uncontrollably…

Sizar watched silently nearby without a word. Before long, Swordfish Brother walked over to the prisoner swearing to reform. He handed him a cleaver, opened a booklet, and encouraged him: “Follow me and do well! Cut people down earnestly, and you’ll definitely make big money, return home, and marry a wife! Come, look at these tattoo designs. Which style do you like? Tell me, I’ll get it done for you right away. From now on, you’re one of us ‘Coral Bug’!”

Hearing Swordfish Brother’s words, the prisoner cried even harder.

“Fish Brother! Do I need one too?” Sizar moved closer to the swordfish-headed man, eyeing the tattoo designs as he asked.

“You don’t. They’re senior enforcers, proper pirates, and have to be identified by tattoos. You’re different. For one, you’re the ship’s doctor and have a higher status. Besides, I promised Em to take good care of you. When you earn enough merit, you can choose to leave ‘Coral Bug’. No tattoo means no mark. Of course, if you genuinely like a design, I can get someone to ink you,” Swordfish Brother replied.

“Thanks, none of these styles appeal. I’m off to rest,” Sizar declined with a smile.

“No problem. I’ll have a crewman show you to your room. Turban! Come here! Take this gentleman to the Number 3 room on the second deck!” Swordfish Brother yelled towards a young deckhand.

…

And so, Sizar began his tumultuous life at sea.

Boarding Swordfish Brother’s ship didn’t mean Sizar had joined the pirate crew. Swordfish Brother was just a capable officer under Bal’s command and didn’t have the direct authority to assign new recruits. Besides Sizar, the twenty Affliction Level prisoners recruited from the Divine Prison this time included figures potentially stronger than Swordfish Brother. After officially joining the pirate fleet, they usually became squadron leaders. The most capable might even become second or third mates.

Currently, Sizar and the others needed to sail to the central region of the southern sea of the Central Continent, the City of Steel. There, they’d complete their official enlistment procedures and, following the organization’s arrangement, join one of the captains’ fleets to begin their lives as top-tier muscle.

In this unfamiliar place, Sizar wasn’t interested in chatting up neighbors or the sailors bustling about. Swordfish Brother himself wasn’t sure which fleet Sizar would get assigned to, so building connections now was a waste of emotion. More importantly, he was vomiting his guts out and had no energy for socializing.

“Hurk!” As the ship lurched violently, Sizar, pressed against the wall, couldn’t fight the nauseating dizziness. He opened his mouth wide again and emptied his meager remaining milk into the wooden bucket.

“Sizar, you’ve thrown up so much! You need some nutrition! Here, down this bag of milk!” Camilla, also clutching a small bucket and retching, handed Sizar a milk bag. Then, between bouts of vomiting milk, she drank milk.

“Stop it! It just comes back up. It feels awful,” Sizar refused, his face pale.

“Doesn’t that make two of us? Meow has drunk four bags and thrown up four! But I have to conquer this! How else can we survive at sea?” Saying this, Camilla opened her little mouth and hurked. “Pfah! Disgusting. But if I keep vomiting, eventually I’ll get used to it!”

Watching his pet leading by example, Sizar rolled his eyes, gritted his teeth, and drank. Then the ship rolled again. The youth hurriedly raised his bucket and spewed violently.

“I’m fighting this! I’ll stake my life on beating this seasickness!” Sizar declared through foaming lips as he chugged milk. “Camilla, give me another bag!”

“This crate’s yours! Meow stakes its life too! I refuse to believe Meowmmy can’t break the curse of seasickness!” Camilla, covered in spit-up milk, patted the two crates of breakfast milk beneath her, which she’d gotten from the sailors.

After vomiting for a whole day, the storm outside finally ceased, and the ship steadied. Exhausted, Sizar lay pale on the floor, surrounded by empty milk bags. Camilla lay weakly on him; her once glossy fur had dehydrated into dry, flattened Bandage Cat form.

“You’re hideous! My Camilla couldn’t possibly be this shabby!”

Pushing the Bandage Cat off his chest, a touch of nostalgia filled Sizar’s eyes. He had slept using that very Bandage Cat as a pillow for years before. After Camilla’s first evolution, she gained the overpowering ability “Private Laboratory” and was upgraded from a pillow to a genuine leather bath towel infused with fragrances.

“You ain’t no better!” The Bandage Cat-Meowmmy rolled its big eyes disdainfully.

“Says who? I feel way better! At least half the seasickness is gone!” Sizar insisted stubbornly.

“Hah, cut the act. I won’t discriminate. But… so happy! Finally free! Open the window, I want to see the stars!” The mummified cat pawed at Sizar’s head, urging.

“Yeah… finally free. The air smells alive!” Sizar raised a hand. Demon flies streamed out, pushed open the window, and pale moonlight spilled into the room.

…

“Sizar, wake up! Little Cheeky, quit sleeping, come take a bath with me! Keep sleeping, and I’ll change your clothes for you…”

The next morning, Sizar, still dreaming, was jolted awake by a familiar yet distant voice.

“Elsa, don’t go!” A startled Sizar cried out.

“Why the racket? Don’t you know disturbing a lady’s sleep is a major crime?!” Elsa’s voice emanated from the Sin Mark. “So… where are we bobbing around?”

“You’re finally awake! We’re at sea. The Blue Sea, south of the Central Continent,” Sizar pulled aside his clothes, seeing the lively Sin Mark, answering with surprised joy.

“At sea? Are we on a flight to the Eastern Continent? Are you free?!” Elsa asked in shock.

“You didn’t know? Didn’t you tell me to refuse Kane? So I joined ‘Coral Bug’ because you wanted me to stay away from the Central Continent,” Sizar replied.

“After that time I possessed your body, I could no longer observe your every move. I only woke occasionally, catching snippets of mostly useless garbage information,” Elsa lamented, her tone resigned and defeated.

“What exactly happened?”

“Well, that’s a long story! It all goes back to when you were little. Remember my modifications back then?” Elsa inquired.

Hearing this, Sizar was at a loss for how to react. Back when he was innocent, Elsa could bribe him with a lollipop to wear a dress. Clearly, the Serpent Demon had long since altered his body beyond recognition – installing a life safety alarm, engraving Magic Runes for exact tracking, and loads of other bizarre things.

When Sizar remained silent, Elsa declared with pride, “I had a plan since you were very small – to remodel your body to be like mine. It was a lengthy process, but one day, you’d have the same blood as me! This plan has already succeeded!”

“And that’s something to be proud of?” Sizar asked, exasperated.

“Don’t you get it? I did it all for you! Only an identical body can reliably host a soul without rejection. I poured all that effort into making your body like mine, just so if you ever met disaster, I could host your soul. That way, I could bring you back!” Elsa explained loudly.

Hearing the serpent demon’s words, Sizar was both touched and had a headache. That she spent over a decade methodically rebuilding him from a devil hybrid into a serpent, just to increase that tiny chance of resurrection, deeply moved him. Yet her bizarre thought process and irrational crisis awareness gave him a migraine. She’d spent years experimenting merely on a wild, unprovable idea. Heaven only knew how many similar projects she’d secretly run on him?

“So your modification worked. But how could you make sure you’d arrive in time if I got into trouble?” Sizar asked curiously.

“In Aken City, I monitored you constantly. If danger struck, I’d have reached you within twenty minutes. After you left Aken, things got trickier, but I asked Tata Mors to look after you. He’d alert me if anything happened, so I could prepare. After graduation, I planned for you to go to the Central Territory and join a dear friend’s organization. Under her care, you’d be equally safe. In short, I always planned to watch over you.”

Elsa calmly stated the horrifying degree of control that made Sizar’s scalp crawl. This serpent demon was undoubtedly the controlling type. Before, Sizar just thought Elsa was clingy, monopolizing his time whenever she visited. The naive youth believed things might improve when he grew up, unaware the serpent had mapped out a detailed, airtight plan.

“A pity! Reality is unpredictable. I ran into an accident before you graduated, duped by that little assassin girl. My backup body wasn’t near at the time, and I’d sent Emma away. I thought I was a goner. Who knew you turned up? Then, well… you know the rest. If my body could preserve your soul, logically, your body could preserve mine,” the Sin Mark twisted slightly, sounding awkward.

“So you pretended to be dying back then, talking about an ‘ultimate gift’? That was quite the surprise!” Sizar’s expression soured further. How rotten, pretending to be at death’s door just to toy with his feelings. “After that? Why didn’t you contact me?”

“You think I didn’t want to? I used all my power enhancing your abilities, boosting you from unranked to Mid-stage Calamity. My energy was spent. I had to hide in the Death Energy Pool, slowly gathering power. Just as things were improving, you picked a fight with that big guy. I had to intervene. Before that, I could observe your surroundings. But after possessing you that time… disaster struck,” Elsa’s voice grew fainter, ending utterly dejected.