By the time Rokurou had woken up, Velvet and Seres had already left the inn, as he had heard from the keeper. Minato was still sleeping inside the room the boys shared, which didn't surprise the yaksha all too much, given what the group as a whole had been through. Speaking of the group, the last person that has yet to be mentioned, the self-proclaimed witch Magilou, turned out to be sitting on one of the sofas in the lobby. She appeared to be enjoying some tea, with the cup in one hand and a biscuit in the other. The daemon decided to sit down right in front of the human girl, who looked up when she noticed the daemon.

"Morning," Rokurou greeted the blond, who swallowed the piece of the biscuit in her mouth before replying.

"Good morning. I must say this tea has a very exceptional taste to it. Well, maybe it only tastes exceptional because it is the first tea I have had in three years." The witch thought about her statement for a moment, before shrugging and throwing the rest of her biscuit into her mouth. The daemon on the other couch let out a small chuckle.

"Excuse me?" Rokurou called out to the innkeeper. "I would like the same as my friend."

"Certainly, one moment, please." The hostess bowed and made her way towards the kitchen in the back. Magilou in the meantime took a sip of her tea, eyeing the swordsman with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't know you were one for tea," the witch commented.

"Eh, I prefer sake any day of the week, but I figured since it's been even longer for me since I had tea, I might as well have it now. My time in Titania made realize the number of things I didn't get to enjoy when I landed there."

"Mhm, true. Too true. So, where is our blue-haired friend?" Magilou asked.

"Still asleep. I can hardly blame him, to be honest. I had to force myself out of bed this morning." The daemon grinned. "Certainly didn't think I would be second to last to get up."

"Well, Minato getting up late is nothing new. I don't know how he managed to sleep on those racks they call beds back on Titania, but he usually only woke up around the time the guards would bring us our food. Or whatever it is they define as food over there." Magilou and Rokurou shuddered at the mere memory of what they had been forced to eat. It had been either eating whatever got served or starving to death. To the guards, it didn't matter either way.

"But enough about this depressing topic," Magilou put her tea away and her hands on her lap. "There are a few things I wish to do today, so I'm afraid I won't be able to chat with you any longer."

"Suit yourself," Rokurou shrugged. "I'm thinking about doing some things myself. Forgot to pick up some tools at the smith to maintain my new weapons. I can't believe I forgot something so simple the other day." The daemon shook his head.

"Well then, I'll be off. It will certainly take some time for the ship to be repaired, so don't be surprised if I return late."

"Sure. But I don't think Velvet will wait for you once the ship is repaired," the man called after the witch, as she left the building through the front door. Just at this moment, the innkeeper came out of the kitchen and brought Rokurou the tea he had ordered. There was also a biscuit lying on the small plate.

"Here you go, sir."

"My thanks."

The daemon accepted the hot drink and took a light sniff at it, before sipping on it.

"Green tea," the black haired man realized. "Not exactly my forte," he took another sip, "but I guess anything can taste good after three years in prison."

By the time Minato did finally came around to getting out of bed, Rokurou had already returned from his small shopping trip. Granted it had been brief, given that currently, he wasn't in possession in large sums of gald. Still, he had at least spent an hour outside, plus fifteen minutes of breakfast by the local baker. So when the daemon returned and saw that his blue-haired companion just started breakfast, the black-haired man could only shake his head.

"Finally awake?" the Samurai asked, approaching his companion. Minato looked up briefly and gave the man a nod, before resuming eating his breakfast. Rokurou sat down in front of the boy like he did earlier that day with Magilou.

"When you're done, how about we have another spar? I have found an alley that gives us enough space to have a proper fight."

The persona user stopped munching for a bit and thought about the proposal. He was about to give his answer when the door to the inn opened. Both the boy and man looked up and saw that Velvet and Seres had returned from their shopping trip. Velvet was carrying a small bag over her shoulder, probably filled with supplies. Instead of going to their room, as Minato expected, Seres placed herself right next to the boy, while Velvet took a seat next to her fellow daemon, dropping the bag onto the ground in the process.

"We have a problem," the Malakhim spoke up before any of the males could greet the arrivals. "The shipwrights had a look on our ship and deemed it unseaworthy. However, the abbey has offered us to use one of their ships."

Rokurou raised an eyebrow. "So, we basically just use a different ship. I don't see where the problem is."

"The problem is that it will take a few days for the abbey to prepare the ship," the redhead continued. "Days we most likely don't have."

"Ah, now I see the problem." The samurai nodded. "So, what do we do? Do we wait for them to finish and hope for the best?"

"We do the same thing we did on Titania," Velvet stated with crossed arms. "We have already decided this is the only way we have left at this point."

Minato swallowed his food and then cleared his throat, to get everyone's attention. "I hate to state the obvious, but that didn't work out very well last time. I mean, none of us know how to operate a ship. I personally can't even read a compass."

"That's true too." The daemon swordsman crossed his arms behind his head and leaned backward. "We had a lot of luck the other day. And I don't want to rely on it too much."

"We either try our luck, or this is the end," Velvet argued. "Although, it would help if we had a sailor with us."

"It's not like we can just ask one of the guild members to help us out," Seres commented. "At best we can hold a sword at their throats, which comes with its own set of problems." The Malak shook her head. "The best course of action is, and I hate to say it, to try our luck again. Since there isn't a storm raging out there, we should be able to make it to the mainland. And from there, we can walk." The woman let out a sigh. "I can't believe that this is our best option."

"Not necessarily..." Minato spoke those words slowly, his mind wandering off. Seres glanced over at the blue-haired boy.

"Do you have an idea? At this point, I am open for suggestions."

"Hmm..." Minato closed his eyes. "We need a sailor, correct?"

"Have you not been listening?" Velvet asked annoyed.

Ignoring her jab, Minato went on. "The guild won't help us, the exorcists certainly won't. Only a criminal..." Minato's eyes opened all of a sudden. "What about the smuggler?" Granted, the Wild Card wasn't looking forward to working with even more criminals, but he preferred working with said criminals, over having to go back to prison.

"Dyle? Didn't he turn into a daemon?" Velvet asked.

"We're daemons too, you know?" Rokurou pointed out. "Being turned into a daemon doesn't mean he's going on a rampage right now. I mean, he did escape the city, so I take it, he has at least some brain cells left."

"And it's not like he has anything to lose. In fact, he has a lot to gain," Velvet realized Minato's train of thought. "By being stuck on this island, the exorcists are bound to find him sooner or later. But we can offer him a chance of getting off."

"Hmm..." Seres put a hand under her chin. "I can't say that I like this plan, but I cannot deny that there is a good chance of it succeeding. Let's discuss this further upstairs."

In hindsight, it had been pretty risky talking about all the things they had talked about in the lobby. Luckily for them, it had been too crowded and too loud for anyone to have listened in on them. Or so they hoped at least, as they couldn't be too sure.

The group of four had gathered inside Velvet's and Seres' room to further talk about their course of action.

"There are tons of ships docked at the piers. So finding one won't be a problem." Rokurou started their little discussion. "The real problem will be to get away unnoticed. Not that I would mind a little brawl."

Seres shook her head. "Let's avoid conflict if at all possible. But I agree, getting away, especially unnoticed is going to be tricky. Not to mention the abbey will chase us down as soon as they notice us gone."

"We'll need a distraction then," Velvet concluded. "Something that will keep the Abbey preoccupied, while we make our escape."

"It'll need to be big in that case," the daemon samurai commented. "Unlike us, they have actual experience in sailing. We will never be able to outrun them."

"What if we flee at night?" Minato threw into the room.

"Risky, but plausible," Seres opined. "They'll have a hard time chasing us in the dark. Of course, we will have an equally hard time navigating in the dark. And there's still the risk of patrols and stationed guards to notice our escape."

"We won't have the time to kill them all," Velvet said with a frown. "And I doubt we can do it silently."

"Do we really need to kill anyone?" the only human in the room asked with a frown. Velvet in response glared at the boy.

"If you don't like this endeavor, you can gladly stay behind."

Minato glared right back at her. "We still don't need to kill anyone. In fact, I have an idea that involves us not needing even to hurt anyone."

"Do you, now?" Seres asked with clear doubt in her voice. "I am listening."

"It's simple, really. We just need to sabotage the other ships. Block the rudder chain, remove the steering wheel, make holes, rip the sails, stuff like that."

"Not a bad idea," Rokurou said impressed. "It will take some time for the Abbey to repair their ships."

"But that highly depends on the damage. And I hate to say it, but the things you mentioned can be fixed relatively quickly," the Malakhim informed Minato. The wild card thought for a moment, before speaking up.

"Even the mast?"

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "That will take considerably longer. Granted if the Abbey wants, it can enlist the help of Malakhim, but all they could help with is the heavy lifting. Luckily ships aren't made of stone... Yes, this might work."

"Hmph." The female daemon in the room crossed her arms. "You're pretty smart. I'll give you that. But even with daemon powers and Malak-Artes combined, we'll need to be quick. As soon as the first one is destroyed, the guards will sound the alarm. And given the number of ships, it will take us a minute or two to make every vessel incapable of following us."

"I can easily hold them off. And until they overwhelm us, we should be done, right?" the swordsman asked.

"Actually, I should be able to do it quickly." Everyone looked at Minato. "After all, Orpheus can just fly from ship to ship and destroy them."

"Orpheus?" the swordsman in the room asked.

"One of my personas, remember? Big, grey and white..."

"Ah, the thing with the lyre. By the way, why does this Orpheus-persona-thing have a lyre?" Rokurou asked.

Minato smiled a little bit. "According to legends, Orpheus wandered into the underworld in order to take his loved one back to the world of the living. He tamed the local monsters and even the lord of the underworld himself with his ability to play the lyre. The Lord promised Orpheus would get his lover back, but only if he led her out of the underworld without looking at her until they were outside." Minato shook his head. "The tragic thing is, he turned around when he was out, but his lover had still to step out of the building, so to speak."

"Ouch..." Rokurou winced.

"Are all of your personas based on such legends?" Seres asked, genuinely curious.

"Most of them."

"As fascinating as this is," Velvet growled, "we still need to finish our plan and execute it preferably today or at the very least tomorrow night."

"You're right," the Malak agreed. "But I think we're almost done. We can use the hole in the warehouse to get in and out of the city. We can even smuggle Dyle in that way. Now we only thing left is locating the daemon."

Everybody crossed their arms.

"The island is big, searching blindly is not an option," Rokurou stated.

"The only thing we can be sure is that he is not hiding in any town or village," the female daemon threw in. "Even if he still looks human like us, everyone on this island probably has heard of what happened."

"So, he's in the wilds. That's still a large area we would have to cover."

"Wait a minute." Seres turned her head towards Minato. "Didn't the sailors tell you yesterday that you should stay away from a small village not too far out of town?"

"Now that you mention it..." the blue-haired boy looked to the side for a second, before nodding. "Yes, they said Dyle was born there."

"Then it is reasonable to assume Dyle will be hiding in the general area since he lived there most of his life," the Malakhim concluded. "You still have the map, right?"

The human quickly went to his room and rummaged through the bag he stole from Titania until he managed to produce the map. Returning to the others, he held it out, so that everyone could have a look at it.

"There aren't any forests around. But caves are another thing. Maybe even mineshafts. And as it just so happens," Seres pointed with her finger at the spot on the map where the village is marked "this village is very close to the mountain."

"It's our best bet and we don't have much time," the female daemon stated.

"Then let's get over it one final time, so we're all on the same page," Seres said before she began summarizing their plan.

"First, we'll sneak out of the city the way we came in. I'd rather not have Teresa know we're wandering the countryside. She might feel the need to give us an escort. Second, we make our way to the village. We should take the time to gather a little information about Dyle. It might help us with when we meet Dyle. The next step naturally is finding Dyle. This is the shakiest part of our plan, as we cannot be sure. But, no matter whether we succeed in finding him or not, we'll have to return to Hellawes either at night or the following one. During the night, we will sneak onboard a ship and Minato will disable the other ones. There is a good chance that even with the element of surprise on our side we will have to fight off some guards. If all goes according to plan, we will set sail without anyone hunting us down.

Is anything unclear?"

Rokurou let out a chuckle. "Now we're talking. We have an actual plan that has an actual chance of succeeding."

"It's certainly better than the alternative," Seres agreed. "We should go."