Sailing

The azure waves rippled across the sea.

A steam yacht belched black smoke as it plowed through the waves. Nearby, white seagulls skimmed low over the water, calling leisurely.

"Steven, want to go fishing?"

Vidi and Philip wore garish beach shorts, their shirt buttons undone to reveal most of their chests. Straw hats shaded their heads, and the blazing sun had already begun to turn their skin a healthy wheat-brown.

"No, I'm going to read!"

Wu Ming raised the hefty volume in his hand.

To anyone unaware of its secrets, the illegible scrawls in the Book of Endings would have been dazzlingly incomprehensible. Wu Ming had hardly bothered to hide it.

"How boring! Alice really wants you to help her put on sunscreen, you know..."

Vidi grumbled, "And... according to Captain Victor, we'll reach Lover's Sea, the Red Coral Sea, in another week..."

That was the main destination of Wu Ming's trip. It was a famous tourist attraction, but through Vixen Diya's connections, he had learned that a mysterious ruin was hidden there as well.

"I know..."

Wu Ming waved a hand without even looking up.

"Honestly... you have no sense of fun..."

Vidi pursed his lips and went out with an arm around Philip's shoulders. "I'm going to catch a big fish today. Just wait till tonight—you'll feast like kings, hahaha..."

"Simple people really are happy, aren't they?"

Watching Navi and the others playing on deck, Wu Ming smiled. Then his finger traced several scarlet symbols on the page.

"'Crimson Hand,' a dark organization that's existed since ancient times... It seems to have fallen into decline, though..."

Two figures instantly surfaced in Wu Ming's mind: Joseph and that beautiful woman.

He could have killed the minotaur with a single punch. The reason he had spared its life for