"Oh god... What are you doing?!"

From the eyes of his mother, nothing was making any sense at all. How was it possible for her son to be wearing the same clothes that her husband wore to abandon her in?

On top of that, she was afraid of what the meaning behind this was.

Would she be abandoned by her son too?

Roseus wasn’t sure what to say at first. In truth, he did not even know what he was doing himself.

Yet at some point, he had subconsciously made a decision.

"I think I’m going to set sail tonight and chase after father. He sent a message to me, Mum... I think he’s alive!"

Saying the words out loud made him happier than he would like to admit. From the look on his mother’s face, it was clear she didn’t share the same sentiment.

Her face scrunched up, and her eyebrows furrowed. "I don’t care if he’s dead or alive. You are not leaving me alone like he did, Rose. Who will provide for me, huh? Who will look after me whilst you are both out dying to sea monsters?"

"..."

With every word, Roseus was starting to realise just how spiteful his mother was.

It had always been like this. He couldn’t count the amount of times he had been beaten by her just because he was not growing up to become the man that she wanted him to be.

He began to wonder whether looking after her was worth it.

"I’ve heard brother is on land at the moment. Send a telegraph to him. He will give you enough money to look after yourself, as long as you don’t spend it all on alcohol," Roseus responded.

His words only enraged his mother further. Her fists were clenching tight.

"You are not leaving me... I raised you better than this!" she growled.

Roseus had already turned away from her, looking back over the stretch of the sea. He rested his hands in his pockets as the wind blew in his face and rustled his red hair.

He felt like a pirate, standing on the deck of his ship, looking ahead at the adventures that awaited him.

"Father has sent me a few treasures..." he started explaining, trying to ease his mother’s worries. "It’s not much, but it will help me survive. Dawn and her crew are waiting for me, so I’ll be sailing with them... Any extra treasures that I don’t need, I’ll send back to you. You can sell them, and—"

*Shove*

His words were cut off as he suddenly felt himself falling through the sky. His body twisted in midair, forcing him to catch a glimpse of what stared down at him from above.

There he saw his mother looking down at him with that same scornful look on her face.

Roseus would have cried if he didn’t have to focus on surviving the fall. The wind rushed against him violently as he fell.

Luckily, the cliff face was not entirely vertical, so when his body first crashed into it, it began to roll down the incredibly steep hill. He bounced off the hill and fell for a few more moments before eventually crashing into it again.

This continued for what felt like ten seconds. His body felt battered and bruised by the time he fell onto the sandy beach below.

...

A few minutes later, he was finally able to push himself back up to a seated position. He felt sore all over, but luckily, he didn’t feel like any bones were broken.

His mind didn’t allow him to focus on what his mother had done to him, as at that moment, he was more focused on finding his possessions that had fallen from his body, and getting out of there.

Laying on the sand, he saw his father’s sword, revolver, and hat. He limped over and retrieved them all, putting them back on his body.

Not thinking straight, he also put the captain’s hat back on.

His logic from before was that he was not near the sea, so the treasure’s negative effect would not affect him.

This time, however, he was right next to the water.

A few moments after placing the hat back on his head, he heard a fierce, guttural noise coming from the ocean.

Roseus looked over. There was a man slowly walking towards him, arms outstretched but hands limp.

The man’s skin was pale as death and seemed to be peeling from his body. His clothes were torn and tattered; all that remained was loose-fitting black pants.

It took a while for Roseus to realise that this was one of the things he had seen depicted in artwork. A common threat that often attacked the many islands scattered throughout the First Ocean.

A sea zombie. A result of a man or woman drowning in the seas, unable to receive a holy burial at the hands of the Halo Empire’s many churches. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

They rarely ever made it close enough to the Halo Empire’s continent, as it was the navy’s job to deal with such threats. However, sometimes they managed to slip through the defences.

"Grrhh... arghh..." the sea zombie groaned as it slowly approached.

Roseus reacted fast, removing his hat and hoping that the negative effect would go away. Unfortunately, it was too late. The sea zombie had already seen him and decided that he would bring him to the afterlife with him.

"Shit!" Roseus cursed.

Then he drew his father’s blade and held it in a tight grip. He felt his body becoming more agile and his mind adapting to the new combat experiences that entered it.

"I’m faster than you... a better fighter than you too," Roseus said, trying to psych himself up and forget about the various pains spreading throughout his body from the fall.

He couldn’t worry about pain now.

"Come at me!" he growled.