Lady Sora. Zeff repeated the name in his thoughts. The familiarity of its name rings loudly in his ear but it landed at the tip of his tongue and has been racking his brain, trying to point where he had heard of it. The lady, in front of him, interrupted his thoughts with concern.

"Are you alright?" The lady in frilly light pink dress pressed his hand across the table. Her hands remained pale even after recovering from starvation. She must be from an aristocrat family where daughters are kept inside the mansion waiting to be wed to power and money. The peculiar thing about her is the way she covers half of her pretty face with her blonde locks.

"I got little distracted. sorry. who are you again?"

She beamed at him with a smile and replied.

"You can call me Sora." Zeff waited for more information but silence and her awkward smile blanketed the room. He only wanted to know their destination and the kind of person he's dealing with but it felt like his patience with woman is being tested.

"I'm Zeff, the captain of the Cook Pirates. Pirates we may be but we mean no harm. We were here for the loot, nothing more. As you may already know, we have taken the payment for the food. I have to warn you that I don't want a fine young lady like you to starve again to death after all my efforts. If you don't mind telling me your destination and if you have called for emergency that would be a great help to both of us."

"I understand." then she began to generally explain their situation. "I am to be wed to someone but we have to meet somewhere here in the North Blue. I couldn't tell you where for I'm not aware myself. They call to check on my location and only to be given instructions. I'm only assuming that we'll meet halfway. It is my fault that our food supply diminished quickly. I called for help 2 weeks ago and was instructed to wait for them here but it has been more than 2 weeks and I have no news from them. I couldn't even get through the line"

"I hate to burst your bubble, pumpkin but I have my doubts. If there's no call then they might have been swallowed by the sea or worse, abandoned you. I suggest that you come with us. Lucky for you that we've doubled our stock."

"Thank you for your concern but I have to wait. I need to meet them. Now that I'm recovered, I'll call them again and report what happened. You don't need to worry about me. We owe you big enough and I don't think I could repay your kindness."

"My conscience will kill me if I leave you here with your current situation. How about this? I stay here with my 2 comrades and let the rest of the crew restock on next island. They'll come back to me after 3 weeks. If there's no sign of your friend within those 3 weeks, you have no choice but to come and deal with me like real pirates we are."

Lady Sora felt helpless and could do nothing but to take Zeff's offer. She has to take care of her crew even though she was in a mission. Life is more important than mission but Life is the reason why she needed to succeed. She clenched her fist, hidden under the table, while smiling and saying these words. "It is an honour to meet such chivalrous man like you. Please take care of us."