The man with the pipe shot a dart at Tal, who had been struggling against the other man who was holding him down.

After a few more seconds of struggling, Tal finally calmed down and then laid motionless on the grass.

Both of them wore a black bandanna with red uniforms. I had seen two or three other people in town wearing the same type of clothing, but I had no idea what the uniforms were for.

“Hey Reginald, check it out. That one over there is a demon,” the man with the pipe pointed out.

The guy called Reginald was a tall man with dark skin and a mean face. He wasn’t as tall as Lewis, but he was a lot more muscular. Right as he finished tying up Tal’s hands, he moved over to pick up Lewis and Chris.

He spoke in a deep voice, “Don’t just stare at them. Talk to them.”

“A-ah, right! Hi there, kids. Um…” he seemed nervous and was awkward in his approach. “You’re not one of them, are you? I mean, you were getting chased by them, so I doubt it, but I’m just making sure.”

“One of them? You mean the ones with their mind controlled?” I asked.

“Yes! Yes, that’s what I meant. Mind control, huh, I guess that really is what’s happening,” he pondered on.

He suddenly clapped his hands, “Oh! My name is Ralphie by the way. Big guy over there is Reginald.”

It was weird how he called Reginald big guy since Ralphie himself was quite a big guy. He was even bigger than Reginald, but it was more from fat than muscle. He had blond hair and appeared timid despite his looks.

“My name is Din.”

“And who’s the demon over there?” Ralphie asked.

“Stop calling me demon! I’m Mun! And I’m not a demon, I’m a Spirit!” Mun yelled at the man.

Ralphie took a step back with a shriek, “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know! I was told people with black eyes were demons, I swear I wasn’t trying to be rude!”

“We’re standing around for too long. Let’s go back,” Reginald, who had finished typing up Lewis’ and Chris’ hands, instructed. With Chris over his right shoulder and Lewis under his left arm, he easily carried the two into the forest.

“Oh right!”

Reginald picked up Tal and placed him over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s go. Just follow us.”

I looked over at Mun, who seemed to be waiting for my call. I nodded over to her to follow them.

It took a bit of hiking up inside the forest, but we finally reached what seemed to be their camp site. There were about five people in the camp before we’d arrived. There were four women and one man within that group.

At the first sound of us exiting the forest, the man and one of the women turned towards us. Their happy faces soon turned to concern when Mun and I followed behind them.

“We ran into them on our watch,” Reginald explained. He gently placed Lewis and Chris on the grass. Ralphie tried to be gentle as well with Tal, but he ended up just dropping Tal on the grass.

“Who are the ones behind you?” The man asked.

“They were getting chased by these three,” Ralphie told him. “But don’t worry though, they don’t seem to be one of them, the mind-controlled ones.”

“Mind-controlled ones? Is that what you’re calling them now? Anyways, whether they can stay or not is up to Scarlett to decide. Take them to her.”

Ralphie nodded and then turned to us, “Come. Right this way.”

We followed him into the camp and then stopped inside an open tent with a table with a map and multiple round rocks.

“Hiya Scarlett, reporting back from our watch!” Ralphie greeted.

Judging from how different Scarlett’s uniform looked, she was most likely their leader. She wore a large black hat over her long pink hair. Over her red uniform, she wore a large black coat that went down to her knees. From just one look, I could tell that she was a powerful leader.

She turned towards us with her sharp blue eyes and inspected us top to bottom. Then she switched her glance to Ralphie, “They normal?”

Ralphie nodded, “They’re not mind controlled!”

Scarlett tilted her head slightly.

“The kid told me the people in Lanport are mind controlled, right?” He turned towards me. I nodded.

For a moment, Scarlett placed her hand on her chin as she thought about it. Then she gave a slight nod.

“That would make sense.”

She suddenly moved towards me and then reached out her hand.

“The name’s Scarlett. I’m the captain of my ship and these are my men. I look forward to cooperating with you.”

I was taken aback by her sudden introduction but managed to recover enough to shake her hand.

“I’m Din. Thank you for helping us.”

“What can you tell me about the situation in Lanport, sir?” She asked.

I decided to tell her all about Crowell and how he is controlling people to become less violent.

She pondered on the idea for a moment before giving a nod.

“I had planned on kidnapping the man, but that’s too dangerous now. We’ll just have to be content with taking back our mates.”

“Taking back your mates?” I asked.

“Yes, much like your group, some of our mates are under his control as well. We arrived in Lanport about a week ago. We had planned to spend the night in the city to restock on food, fuel, and weapons. We sent out four of our specialists to collect those materials, but by the time they came back, they had already changed.”

She gave out a long sigh before continuing, “I knew something was off when I noticed our ship was slowly getting surrounded. Luckily, the rest of us were able to steer the ship out of the city. We have the ship hidden now on a small island nearby and came here on a smaller boat. Our original goal was to get our mates back and also to capture the fool who went against us, but that doesn’t look possible now without taking unnecessary risks.”

While pointing at the rocks on the map, she explained, “These are the spots our watch has spotted our old crewmates at during certain times of the day every day. Hugo in the kitchen around 6am, Jenson at the cliff range around 12pm, Tommy at the docks around 5am, and Betty in the medical supply room around 9am. As long as we move in at those times, we should be able to capture all of them and leave the island before it’s too late. With your help, our plan should go smoothly.”

Ralphie suddenly jumped, “C-Captain! They’re not new recruits. We just rescued them during our watch!”

“What? My, that’s quite a misunderstanding I had.”

“I’ll help!” I stepped in.

“If you’re not new recruits, what reason do you have for helping us?” She asked.

To be honest, I wanted to help them to repay them, but she seemed suspicious of me at the moment and she would be even more suspicious if I didn’t give an actual reason.

“I need a ship.”

“Hm?”

“I need to get to a place called Aegis. If you can promise to take us there on your ship, then I will help you get your friends back.”

She smiled and gave me a pat on the side of my arm, “That’s a deal, then. You and your friend there will come with me to the medical supply building. Betty is our only nurse; she is our top priority.”

She then walked towards the center of the group and instructed, “Hector and Ralphie, you’ll go after Hugo. Reginald, Aegis, you’ll go for Jenson. He’s a fast little shit, but I know you two can handle him. Tilly and Zoe, you’ll be after Tommy. We will commence the operation tomorrow in the groups I mentioned. We can’t afford to fail. If any one of them escapes, the entire operation will be in jeopardy. We will get our mates back and we will get out of this island together!”

A loud roar erupted from the rest of the members.

I was excited being part of this group, but I still had no idea where Lorelei was.

I had to find her before we start leaving Lanport. There was no one I could ask for help on finding her.

It was hard being the only one that could see her.