On the Sunia Sea, shrouded in mist year-round, a pirate ship with a black hull and white trim rode the wind and waves. A skull flag bearing Paradox Double Pupils flew high from its mast, declaring the ship's identity.
The ship was constantly hurled up between the massive waves before crashing back down, yet pleasant piano music rang especially melodiously through the storm.
The sound seemed to spur everyone who heard it onward, urging them to take their first steps into adventure.
In the dining room, two young men with black hair, brown eyes, yellowish skin, gentle features, and what seemed to be a trace of elven blood sat on either side of a bubbling hot pot of red broth, dipping all manner of rare and common ingredients into it.
The storm outside seemed utterly incapable of affecting the hot pot in the cabin. No matter how often the ship was tossed into the air and dropped back down, the steaming pot remained perfectly steady.
Feng Xue glanced at Old Huang, who had suddenly shown up to freeload, picked up a slice of tender lamb with his chopsticks, swished it through the pot, and opened the conversation:
"Weren't you back home visiting your family? What are you doing here?"
"Don't even mention it!" Huang Tao looked a little embarrassed at Feng Xue's question, but he did not avoid the subject. He merely spread his hands and said:
"There are some things you miss terribly when they're gone, but find annoying once they're back. It was nice seeing my parents again, but I hadn't even been home for a few days before my mom started arranging blind dates for me. Bernadette is already so grown up that I couldn't exactly have her pretend to be a child, so I introduced Nana