At the security bureau, Cyril looked at Captain Elland, who had been notified to come bail him out, and gave him an awkward but polite smile.
"Good evening, Captain Elland. I hope this hasn't taken up too much of your time."
"Good evening, Mr. Randolph..."
Looking at the passenger he had come to bail out, Elland felt especially conflicted. His brows were knitted so tightly they nearly met.
He and his first mate had just left the Church of Storms and hadn't even had time to return to the ship when the sheriff of Bansi Harbor summoned him to bail out one of his passengers.
Before arriving, he had assumed one of the passengers had gotten into a quarrel with a local, and that things had ended up at the security bureau.
Such incidents weren't uncommon. Outsiders and locals were the groups most likely to clash.
He had already planned how to smooth things over, only to find the person he least wanted to see right now waiting there.
If he'd known the passenger he had to bail out was Cyril, nothing would have convinced him to come.
The strange scene at the telegraph office earlier replayed in his mind, stirring up the unease he had only just managed to settle.
...A strange Beyonder who couldn't even be captured in a portrait was very likely one of those legendary half-human, half-god beings.
Even if he wasn't a Demigod, he was at least on the level of a Pirate Admiral—and a Beyonder with an exceptionally strange Sequence.
Taking a deep breath, Elland made himself speak as calmly as possible.
"Before I came, Sheriff Nicolo had already told me what happened. I also explained that you were a visitor who'd only arrived on the island this evening. Once you've signed the paperwork,