Previously:

"Are you telling me to become king, too?" he asked warily, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. "I don't think I... I don't think that's something I should be doing." He couldn't even come up with a concrete solution to stop Cassim's plan. He expected a look of disappointment or a frown, but her expression remained calm.

"Does there have to be one?" Hope asked.

"Eh?" he said. "One what?"

"A king. Does there have to be one?" she asked. Her eyes were clear and seemed to be willing him to remember something important. "If the monarchy is hurting the people, then maybe it's time for something new. I don't think there's only one choice here."

"Huh?" Alibaba said, his eyes widening a little in surprise as he stared at her. "You..."

—BOOM!!

"?!?" the two teens gasped in alarm, startled when the opposite wall suddenly blew out, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

"Whoa!!" Alibaba shouted as they dodged a particularly large chunk of plaster.

"What the...?!" Hope began to ask, coughing as she straightened up to look for the cause. Were they under attack again? Her eyes widened when she saw her sister standing on the other side of what was left of the wall with her wand pointed straight out in front of her. "What?"

Chapter 53: Magic and Mayhem

Hope's jaw dropped as she stared at the scene of destruction before her, awestruck. Holy Hell! "What?" she asked again, trying to comprehend the improbable sight. Did her sister really do that? That was amazing! But why the hell was she aiming something so dangerous in their direction?! "Did you...? That was...! What the hell...?!" was all that she could get out at the moment.

"What she said!" Alibaba agreed, equally amazed and startled. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!"

"Did... did I get it?!" Faith asked instead of answering them, panting with beads of nervous sweat on her brow.

"I should think so... The whole wall is destroyed," Ja'far replied, sweat-dropping. Sinbad was still staring at Faith, stunned. He was suddenly very afraid of this girl, especially recalling how she had aimed an explosive spell in his direction before. He could only thank his lucky stars that one had been a dud. She was dangerous enough to antagonize before, but now... He really needed to make sure he stayed on her good side!

"Will someone please tell us what's going on?" Hope asked again, getting a little irritated by the lack of acceptable explanations. "Did you do that, Faith? Are you... okay?" she asked her sister, frowning a little with concern when she noticed how pale Faith's face was and how she looked as though she had seen a ghost.

"S-Sorry, Hope..." Faith apologized, taking a shaky breath. "It was sort of an accident... I didn't mean to get you guys too. I just got startled when it appeared!"

"... It?" Hope asked, furrowing her brow.

"IT," Faith confirmed darkly with a nod, using a grave tone as she launched into a flashback. "It all started when..."

«« Flashback ««

"Yeah... Nothing's coming out," Faith said boredly after a moment of trying to concentrate on making the stick in her hand do something. "I think I have a case of magical constipation."

"You..." Sinbad said, sweat-dropping, while Ja-far wrinkled his nose a little in disgust. Was she always this difficult? "What do you normally do to get your psychic powers going? From what I've heard, they usually manifest when you're feeling extremely emotional, right?"

"Right! It's usually when I'm scared or pissed off!" Faith agreed.

"Okay, so... focusing on the emotions she had the first time she Djinn Equipped helped Hope, so maybe focusing on those emotions could help you with your magic," Ja'far suggested.

"Actually, it was thanks to my brilliant use of pop culture references," Faith corrected him.

"Right... Anyway, just try giving that a shot for now," Sinbad told her, deciding not to bother asking.

"Okay!" Faith said brightly as she sat up and thrust her wand into the air, immediately perking up. "Hmm... something that makes me feel scared or aggressive... I wonder what I should..." she mused aloud, freezing when IT suddenly appeared only inches from her face. "GYAAAAHHH!!!" Faith screamed, immediately shooting back several feet in the blink of an eye as she aimed her 'wand' at it, and fired with the dire intention of obliterating IT from the face of the earth.

"?!?!" Everyone gasped when the wall behind IT suddenly blew out from the force of the attack. Sinbad and Ja'far stared at the large hole in the wall, stunned.

»» End Flashback »»

"And that's how it happened," Faith concluded, exhaling as she finally began to relax from her quick scare. "Man, that thing really freaked me out! So dangerous..."

"You're the dangerous one!" Alibaba retorted, while Hope sweat-dropped.

"Um, what 'it' are you referring to...?" Sinbad asked, sweat-dropping. "Was there something there?"

"What are you, blind?!" Faith asked incredulously, turning on him with a glare like he was an idiot. "That thing was HUGE!!"

"What thing?" Hope asked.

"The thing that starts with an 'S'!"

"What?! Where?!" she demanded, turning pale.

"Don't worry, I shot it just now with my wand. I think it's dead."

"You think? What happened to 'double-tapping'?"

"Wait... are you telling me all this fuss is over a spider...?" Alibaba asked.

"Don't say it!" Hope scolded him.

"Don't speak of it-who-must-not-be-named!" Faith snapped dramatically.

'These girls are crazy...' Alibaba thought, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"We can usually fake being calm when killing them isn't an option, as long as they don't take us by surprise..." Hope admitted a little reluctantly, feeling a bit anxious just thinking about it.

"Uh, killing them is always an option," Faith corrected her.

"Not when it makes our biology teacher cry."

"She made me cry first! She said 'hold this' and put it directly on my bare hand—bare hand!! I wanted to burn my skin off!"

"That seems a little extreme..." Alibaba commented, sweat-dropping.

"But understandable," Hope said with a perfectly straight face. "The lingering phantom feeling of those spindly little legs scrambling over your skin... Ugh!" She shuddered just thinking about it.

"Well, I guess now we know what your weakness is," Alibaba said with a crooked smile.

"Haha! Try it, and I'll bury you alive in a whole tank full of those creepy little bastards," Faith vowed darkly, radiating homicidal intent that would make even a professional assassin falter. Alibaba carefully shrank away from her with his tail between his legs, resisting the instinct to hide behind Sinbad or Hope.

"I'm sorry, but you can face armed bandits, an all-powerful magi, and dungeon monsters without a problem, yet you're scared of a little spider...?" Sinbad asked dubiously, sweat-dropping.

"We can't help it. We have arachnophobia, an irrational fear of spiders," Hope explained.

"Any bugs with legs that remind us of theirs are pretty bad, too," Faith added.

"Why?"

"Dunno."

"We just are."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"She already said it was irrational."

Sinbad didn't know what to say to that.

"If you're looking for a way to win, you're not, okay?" Faith said, blowing her bangs out of her face. "So just say what you really want to say, and let's get on with it."

"Okay, then if you girls have recovered from your scare, what I really want is for Hope and Alibaba to get back to practice."

'Saw that one coming,' Hope thought wryly with a sigh. "..." She frowned and furrowed her brow with concern when she felt a familiar sense of despondency begin to creep over her that filled her with unease for a moment, but then it passed like a small cloud across a clear sky. 'Why now...?' she wondered, feeling anxious at the ominous sensation that usually preceded a deep plunge into a low mood swing. Was it because she was tired? Sometimes physical exhaustion could be the tipping point that sent her over when she was already on the edge emotionally, but there had been plenty of times when she worked herself to the bone on this journey without major consequence. 'Don't think about it... Focus on something else... You can't afford to lapse here...!' she told herself, quickly looking for a distraction with thoughts of what she could do to avoid panicking over something she could never hope to control. She was a little relieved the others were too absorbed in their conversation to notice. She didn't think she could bring herself to talk about it just then. Everyone had enough to worry about already. But if there was a chance her illness could become a problem, or even a danger during a fight, then she would have to tell them... She could only pray that it would turn out to be a false alarm.

"What about me?" Faith asked the guys. She had noticed the small change in her sister's expression, but she had seen that face enough times at that point to know what it meant and correctly guessed that Hope didn't want to talk about it yet. So she pretended to be oblivious to keep the others distracted for her.

"You're good," Sinbad and Ja'far answered stiffly.

"Huh? You don't think I should practice more too?"

'If you practice anymore, there won't be anything left of this place!' Alibaba thought, chagrined. Why were all these girls so crazy powerful?

"Well, you haven't taken a break yet, have you?" Sinbad said, thinking something along the same lines. But he didn't want to risk her aiming another destructive spell at him after seeing what it did to the wall. "Why don't you go ahead and take a long one?"

"Well, I am hungry..." Faith said, considering it.

"Then come with me, and I'll get you something to eat," Ja'far suggested.

"Hmm... Okay!" she said brightly, tossing the stick aside to follow him.

'Food trumps all for her, huh?' Sinbad thought, sweat-dropping as he watched her go.

"Sin. How is Alibaba and Hope's training coming along?" Ja'far asked later on that evening, after their practice had ended for the day.

"Ah, yes. Their progress isn't bad," Sinbad replied. Alibaba was still behind Hope, but she was really winded after her little game of tag with Faith, and she couldn't move beyond a partial Djinn Equip yet. In fact, she had only managed to pull off a full weapon equip during practice just that once. One a day, that appeared to be her current limit. "It's not possible for them to completely grasp the technique within a day, so I will still continue to train them tomorrow."

"Sin, just what are you trying to make them do?" Ja'far asked.

"Obviously, I want to make Alibaba this country's king," the king replied. "But that isn't a simple task. Making Ahbmad step down and making Alibaba the next king requires more effort in the political areas. I will be discussing this matter with my allied countries."

"I see," Ja'far said. "But, if it goes like that, then there isn't a need for Alibaba to become stronger, is there?"

"That isn't necessarily true. Strength will boost his confidence. And there wouldn't be a need for him to worry about being assassinated after becoming king," Sinbad pointed out. "Although I say it that way, I'm not planning on having him do all the work by himself. Starting tomorrow, I will also start to move."

"So, what are you planning to do?" Ja'far asked.

"Good question," Faith said over her sister's shoulder as Hope opened the door with one hand while balancing two plates of food on her other arm like a pro. Faith carried the third with her good hand.

"Sorry, for barging in like this," Hope apologized politely. "We thought you guys would want to eat while it was still hot."

"Thank you. In that case, we're grateful," Sinbad said, returning her pretty smile.

"Is that meat?" Ja'far asked as the girls set the plates on the table, surprised when he saw what looked like brown patties of ground beef.

"It smells like vegetables," Masrur said.

"Ah, that's because it is," Hope confirmed.

"Yeah, but the flavor is pretty close to the general ballpark, and people with less sensitive noses can't tell the difference," Faith added with a shrug, "so tonight's supper of veggie burger patties and mushrooms with roasted root vegetables is going fast. The mere illusion that they're being fed red meat is giving morale a nice boost." Sinbad thought that was fairly clever of them.

"So, what were y'all talking about just now?"

"Ah, yes! To answer your question, Ja'far, I am going to have a talk with that Kou Empire's princess," Sinbad replied confidently, getting back on topic.

"Why her?" Faith asked, while Hope moved to pour him a cup of water after noticing that he was drinking wine again. He really needed to hydrate better.

"She is Ahbmad's fiancee," he replied. "I feel that it would be better for me to talk to her about this country's situation instead of Ahbmad."

"But, it's not going to be that easy to convince her, right?" Ja'far pointed out.

"We did have a fight with her and her entourage, after all," Hope mused with a small frown.

"It's all right," Sinbad stated confidently without any doubt and a perfectly straight face. "I feel that she would listen to me."

"..." Ja'far, Masrur, and the twins all stared at him for a moment, recalling how the princess had blushed and quickly shuffled off to make a hasty retreat after staring into his eyes while he held her hand. Every single one of their faces fell into a deadpan expression.

"You might be right," Ja'far told his king as he and Masrur abruptly picked up their plates and turned to leave with them.

"What's wrong, Ja'far?" Sinbad asked innocently. For some reason the twins were still staring at his face, as if searching for something. Once again, Hope had the feeling that he reminded her of someone familiar, and Faith suspected the same.

"... Lady killer of the Seven Seas..." Masrur muttered.

'I really wish I my phone was still working so I could pull it out and play 'Womanizer' as his background music right now,' Faith mused. She thought that would be hilarious.

"Eh? What are you talking about—" Sinbad began to ask him, when he was suddenly cut off by a loud gasp from Hope.

"Ahh!" she exclaimed abruptly, hitting her fist against the palm of her hand in an 'Aha!' gesture. "I just figured out who you remind me of! You see it too, right, Faith?" she asked brightly with a closed-eyed smile on her face.

"Now, that you mention it," Faith said thoughtfully, "he totally reminds me of..."

"Dad!!" they concluded together, making the two aides stop short to glance back at them, enjoying the priceless expression on their king's face.

Sinbad spat out his drink in a fine mist that created a rainbow in the light.

"Wow, what a great spit-take!" Faith praised him. "And, yeah! I can definitely see the resemblance," she told her sister, grinning deviously like a Cheshire cat. "No wonder I feel like teasing you mercilessly every time I see you!"

"Excuse me!?" he said incredulously.

"Even that indignant response sounds like him. Your behavior patterns are so similar it's kind of scary!" Faith laughed, looking far too amused for his liking.

"Yeah, it's amazing," Hope agreed with a small affectionate smile (at the memory of their father), even though she felt a little fed up just remembering.

Sinbad stared at the two girls in shock, frozen like a statue with wide eyes and white as a sheet, feeling absolutely appalled. He couldn't believe they said that. For some reason, the king particularly disliked the idea that Hope might be viewing him as someone old enough to be a father figure rather than a potential love interest far more than he would have coming from any other girl. Was their likeness really that close? Just how old did they think he was!? He wasn't even thirty yet! Still clinging sturdily onto his twenties! A small snort escaped Masrur while Ja'far shook with suppressed laughter, but Sinbad was too shell-shocked to do anything about it. "... H-How old do you think I am...?" he asked the question again out loud. His eyes widened again as he quickly thought to try to corral that dreaded question back into his mouth before they could give him another cruel answer, but Hope beat him to it.

"Huh? You're in your mid to late twenties... aren't you?" she asked, furrowing her brow slightly in confusion, wondering why he suddenly looked so pale. "Ah, we didn't mean it that way!" she said quickly when she realized what the problem was, recalling other instances when his behavior had suggested he was sensitive about his age.

"Yeah, don't worry. Our dad's way older than you, and you guys don't look a thing alike, except for your eye color," Faith added with a smirk, deciding to take pity on him since she had been thoroughly entertained by his priceless reaction.

"Then, how...?" Sinbad asked, beginning to recover a little.

"It's your behavior," Hope answered wryly.

"Yep!" Faith agreed with a grin. "Your general profile matches his: a ridiculously good-looking lady-killer who happens to be a functioning alcoholic."

"Pfft!" Ja'far said, coughing to cover his escaped laugh, while he tried to hide his amused expression behind his hand.

"Heh," Masrur laughed quietly. Sinbad shot both subordinates a dirty look in response.

"You seem more reliable, though," Hope added, to be fair, grimacing slightly as she recalled one particularly spectacular failure to be a responsible parent on their father's part. "A lot more reliable. He's the gold standard for irresponsible parenting."

"Haha, that's for sure," Faith agreed with a snort. "Remember that time he accidentally lost us in a poker game, and we had to win ourselves back? Or the time he fell in a cenote, and we had to pull him out? Or that time he held me over the guard rail at the zoo because I wanted to see the tigers better, and he dropped me? You were that close to becoming an only child."

"How could I forget that? So glad you weren't eaten! It's a good thing the zookeepers were competent people and acted so swiftly..." Hope responded with a sigh, feeling a little drained just thinking about it. "There were a lot of moments like that. I almost fell down the Grand Canyon when he patted me too hard on the back while we were standing near the edge at the top, remember?"

"Oh, yeah! You cried so much that he finally agreed to let us ride the mules if we promised not to tell Mom."

"At least I didn't scream like I was being murdered when he came after us on the beach wearing clumps of seaweed to make him look like a sea monster. I think that was actually one of his finer moments, until he he cut his foot open on some broken glass, and we had to call an ambulance and spend the rest of the day in the E.R..."

"Hey, that disguise was legit! And, now that you mention it, I think he was actually sober that day..."

"Yeah, he only had one cup of spiked coffee with breakfast, because I switched the rest of the vodka with water."

"Haha! He was so pissed when he found out you poured it all down the drain!"

"How was I supposed to know it was a special brand you could only buy in Russia? I was seven. Besides, it's not as bad as the time we went glamping, and you opened up a can of the world's most expensive caviar and threw it into the fire to 'kill' it, because you mistook it for canned tuna and thought it had been infected by some kind of alien spawn."

"Yeah, well, it's Dad's fault for letting me put strange mushrooms in my mouth."

They both thought Caviar was gross anyway, like little intense beads of smelly fish-flavored salt. The girls only liked it in small amounts on the dainty smoked salmon canapes their grandmother and her friends liked to serve at their charity events.

"I'm really impressed you girls have managed to survive this long..." Ja'far said, finding their father's record for child endangerment appalling.

"Pfft. That isn't even the worst of it," Faith said dismissively.

"There was even an episode where one of his girlfriends accidentally set my hair on fire..." Hope added dismally, depressed just thinking about how close it had come to burning her scalp. "Thanks so much for dumping water on me while he was panicking," she told her sister. She was also grateful that Faith had shaved and chopped off her own hair to match hers so she wouldn't have to feel like such a freak while it grew back. They did have fun picking out wigs to wear in the meantime, though.

"No prob!" Faith responded with a cheeky grin. "But... you really still think that was an accident? I'm pretty sure that bitch did it on purpose. She was weirdly jealous of us, you know."

"No, she was just a klutz," Hope answered with a shrug. "If Dad had suspected for one second that she had done it on purpose, he would have had her arrested or sued her into oblivion."

Sinbad, Ja'far, and Masrur couldn't imagine what kind of scenario would lead to an accident like that, but going by the twins' previous experiences with their inept father, it had to be something crazy.

"Right," said Faith, trying and failing to cross her arms when she remembered one was in a sling. "Because only he's allowed to expose his children to reckless endangerment. It's funny how, despite Mom being the one with a mental illness, 90% of our dysfunction comes directly from him."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure it's more like 70%, since 20% came from our school... But it's days like that which actually made me glad he put us in a boarding school. At least we had some form of stability there..." Hope sighed. "His idiocy was good-natured, and we know he meant well, but... how did that saying go again? 'The path to hell is paved with good intentions'?"

"Hah! That sums it up perfectly," Faith agreed. "I guess in retrospect, it's a good thing we only see him once a year. It wouldn't kill anyone if he picked up a phone and at least sent us a text once in a while, though..."

"Wait a minute, can we back up...?" Sinbad said, holding a hand against his head as he felt a stress headache coming on, pausing to take another sip of wine to calm himself down. Was that the image they had of him? "I'm really not that bad! And I'm not an alcoholic—"

"Bullshit," Faith called with a straight face. "You've finished off five whole jugs of wine on your own in the last 48 hours alone."

"Wow, Pot, way to call the kettle black," Hope remarked wryly.

"Hey, I'm not that bad," said Faith.

"Oh, no, you're worse—especially when you're with Dad," Hope retorted with the most jaded expression they had ever seen. "Don't tell me you forgot about that still relatively recent time you two geniuses got so drunk that you decided it would be a brilliant idea to try to illegally cross the border into Mexico—who does that?! I had to call the family lawyer and hire a driver just so I could go bail you idiots out after y'all got caught by the border patrol at three in the morning!? You're lucky those officers could be bribed! You're lucky it wasn't a drug cartel who found you! And I still can't believe the two of you each managed to polish off an entire bottle of tequila without getting alcohol poisoning. What kind of father encourages his underaged daughter to drink that much hard liquor? He's supposed to stop you, not supply you!" The occasional small sips of beer their grandparents allowed here and there over the years, and the single glass of wine or champagne allowed on special holidays like Christmas and New Year's Eve once they became teenagers were one thing, but come on. He could have at least waited until they were eighteen.

"Yeah, that was fun," Faith said with a grin, recalling the few fragmented memories she had of the incident. Every time she woke up, she was in a new place; it was like teleporting. "—I mean, it was his idea!"

"It was both of you, fueled by alcohol, bad decisions, and poor parenting. The only upside was that you were so focused on the tequila, that you didn't have any water while you were down there."

"Yeah, that would have been pretty miserable to have to deal with a case of 'Montezuma's revenge' on top of a hangover..." Faith agreed, sweat-dropping. Puking her guts out was bad enough on its own.

"You're also lucky that you weren't killed or kidnapped and sold as a victim of human trafficking. Mom warned us before it wasn't an accident when pretty girls with fair skin and fair hair went missing in that part of the world, remember?"

"Yeah, I know we're 'white gold', but then you'd have tracked me down and gone all Taken on their asses."

"I really think you're overestimating my tracking skills here. I'm not some ex-special ops veteran with contacts in foreign governments and other federal agencies."

"You found me here, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't because I tracked you down."

"You had the right idea, though. You totally would have found me either way."

"Ugh. You're giving me a headache..." Hope groaned, massaging her temples. "You take after him so much, it's scary. I'm so glad you haven't become an alcoholic, too..."

"That's because you take care of me," Faith answered with a brilliant smile.

Ja'far began to feel a very strong affinity toward the more responsible twin. He could sympathize completely with her plight, given his own experiences performing damage control in years of service to Sinbad.

"Ugh! Well... I will say this for him, though... he never drinks and drives or drinks and flies," Hope admitted, feeling utterly exasperated. "At least he can be relied on for that... I think his problem is he uses up all his remaining brain cells for work."

"Yeah, he may suck at everything else, but he's a great pilot," Faith agreed.

"Flies? Pilot?" Sinbad asked curiously.

"Ah, a pilot is someone who operates and flies an airplane. An airplane is type of flying machine that carries passengers and cargo from one place to another," Hope explained helpfully, keeping it simple.

"A flying machine? Without magic?" Ja'far asked, stunned.

"That's amazing!" Sinbad said. He wondered if they would be able to replicate one for him.

"..." Masrur was impressed.

"Yep. He's taken us to work with him before and let us sit in the cockpit and pretend to be his copilot for few minutes. The old man is actually pretty cool when he's flying," Faith admitted with a shrug.

"Yeah," Hope said, and they both smiled a little proudly, despite the major bashing they just gave his character only moments ago. Even though he often made them cringe in embarrassment and want to punch him in the face, they still loved their father. "And he's also a nice guy who can't ignore people when they're in trouble. Even if it's inconvenient, he'll go out of his way to help them. I like that part about him."

"Yeah, that's true," Faith agreed again. "Even if it does usually mean we end up getting dragged into trouble too... I think I'd lose all respect for him if he wasn't like that."

"Your father is lucky to have such tolerant daughters..." Sinbad remarked, sweat-dropping. Even if some of their comments sounded a little harsh. He had no idea Hope had such a sharp tongue. Not that he could blame her. But it was clear they still loved the man, whatever his faults. "It must have been hard to hold your tongues."

"Not at all," Hope responded immediately with a blunt tone and frank look on her face.

"Because we always complain straight to his face," Faith finished with an identical tone and expression.

"Ah, I see..." Sinbad said, sweat-dropping again. There was zero respect there. Any wisps of pride they might have been feeling for their father had evaporated in an instant. It was a little scary. "But... am I really like that person? I feel like I should be apologizing now, for some reason."

'You definitely should!' Ja'far thought, recalling similar misadventures they had shared together because he dragged everyone else into trouble with him.

"No, like I said, it's only a superficial resemblance," Hope told him. "Your mannerisms my be similar, but from what I can see, you take responsibility for your actions and think things through. I feel much safer with you."

"Totes," Faith seconded. "Even though you do remind me of him in a very basic way, you don't give off that same 'walking disaster' vibe."

"I know he's your father..." Ja'far said, not wanting to speak too ill of the man in front of the twins since it was clear they still cared for him, "but how is it he continues to get away with such things? Hasn't anyone else tried to stop him?"

"No, he gets out of everything because he's charming and charismatic," Hope replied with a sigh.

"And rich. He also knows how to pick a target. I think the only people who can rein him in now are probably Hope and our grandmother," Faith agreed wryly. Their mother used to be on that list, but she was gone.

"I don't think he listens to me at all," Hope replied dubiously, raising an eyebrow.

"No, trust me," Faith told her. "You two are the only ones he finds intimidating enough to think twice about offending." Most likely because receiving a look of disappointment from Hope was like being stabbed in the heart. Or running over a kitten. Especially because she resembled their mom so much, in personality as well as looks.

Sinbad looked at Hope, the beautiful, sweet, well-behaved girl who went above and beyond to help others and didn't seem like she would hurt a fly, and decided that he probably didn't want to find out why. He made a mental note to be sure to stay on her good side.

"But it's still on the list," Hope rejoined to her sister's statement, sweat-dropping.

Sinbad noticed the pointed way Ja'far and Masrur were staring at him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, starting to feel insulted. There was no way he was as bad as all that. He would never endanger his own children that way, if he had any.

"No particular reason..." Ja'far deadpanned. There were too many to chose from.

"Hopeless," Masrur muttered under his breath.

"Oi," Sinbad said with a frown, getting annoyed.

"Well, anyway, getting back to the original topic... That princess is related to the same Ren Kouen who held you captive, right?" Faith asked Hope slyly.

"Right..." Hope answered, narrowing her eyes slightly in suspicion of the way her sister said it.

"Then, if all else fails, we can offer him my sister!" Faith proposed with a radiant shit-eating grin.

"!" Sinbad and Ja'far stared at her with wide eyes, alarmed and startled, while Hope simply groaned in annoyance and face-palmed. Masrur wasn't sure how to react to that.

"That joke isn't funny!" Hope scolded her.

"But he wants you, right?" Faith teased with a smirk. "He put up wanted posters and everything. You can seduce him with your awkwardness! Don't worry, I believe in you."

"A prince acting as a main general isn't going to abort whatever plans his country has for a date, Faith," Hope retorted sharply. It was hard for her not to blush out of embarrassment. She couldn't seduce her way out of a paper bag! "Besides, it's been six months. I'm probably just a vague memory now for him." She was pretty sure the only reason he wanted to recapture her in the first place was for the knowledge she had of the more advanced technology from their homeworld, and that was dangerous information to be handing out to such an aggressive nation.

"Don't worry," Sinbad told her with a firm, reassuring tone and determined expression. "I don't consider that an option. No matter what happens, we won't turn you over to that tyrant." He may not know that much about their technology yet, but he could tell from the little he did hear about twins' world that it was much more advanced. And since it didn't rely on magic, it could be used by anyone. That made it very dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. 'It would be disastrous if the Kou Empire or the organization got their hands on either one of these girls...'

"Ohh~?" Faith purred suggestively. She looked like she was trying not to laugh at him. "No matter what, huh?"

'I'm beginning to wish I could hand you over, though...!' Sinbad thought with a vein throbbing on his temple.