Kutsukku Island, South Blue, Year 1213.
Sitting at the shore of the western side of the Island, Kaien was eating a piece of bread that he luckily was able to steal from a shop while they were being attacked by Franklin's soldiers.
Franklin was the son of Kara, who was one of the member previous generation gang that controlled over Kutsukku, but his son managed to overpower the other gangs and he crowned himself the king of Kutsukku.
Kaien was letting his legs sink into the water while he was leaning back to an old tree that he was familiar with for a long time. He took the final bite of the bread, he wiped his mouth and cheeks. His face was covered in bruised and he had thin hands mostly due to malnourishment for his age, he was still 14, technically a teen.
He was looking at the dark sky.
"It's rather cloudy today, isnt it?", Old man Nejin said while he walked towards Kaien with the help of his wooden cane.
"It's nothing surprising" said Kaein, "Where were you?If you had came earlier, I would have shared my bread with you."
Nejin laughed as he sat next to Kaein, he sighed in relief as he sat next to him "I wouldn't have eaten a bread that you stole from a poor guy".
Kaein turned to Nejin as if he had said some kind of lie, he quickly glanced away towards the sea, "I-I didn't steal from anyone".
Nejin chuckled, "You are a bad liar kid and that's a good quality of yours. But stealing isn't good, it also affects someone else's business, he lost a couple of berries from your act."
"It's none of my problem" said Kaein.
Nejin couldn't help but sigh "You will not change, will you?. If only we had a good ruler or atleast a support from the government, we could have been happy just like other people."
Kaein didn't reply for few seconds, "...I don't know about other things but my parents would have been alive, if that were to happen".
Nejin pointed his cane towards the sea, " Look at the sea Kaein, there are lot of mysteries in the sea, I had a dream when I was still young and brimmed with youthfulness, I wanted to explore the world, but unfortunately I was born in a country where people cannot even pay taxes", he continued " Thus, those government bastards won't even come to our aid if something were to happen."
He turned to Kaein, " Listen kid, if you ever get a chance to sail in the sea dont hesitate, grab your chance and ride on the sea".
Kaein listened to Nejin, " As if I'd ever get such a chance old man, think rationally".
Nejin let out a chuckle, " Kid, you are somewhat mature for your age. But the world has a lot to offer, explore, there are all types of crazy monsters out there...You are right it's an if and only if scenario for you, you have to get yourself a crew, money and most importantly a ship, which isn't possible by you."
Kaein huffed while nodding his head, " You are right".
Kaein squinted his eyes looking at the beautiful sea and on top of it, it was a time of sunrise but what captured his attention was a ship, a really big one.
" Did Franklin ever have such a big ship?" Kaein asked curiously.
"What are you talkin-",Nejin was able to now see the ship to, it was a ship, a very big one and the ship was accompanied by many other smaller ships.
"No...It's not Franklin's ship, it might be pirates? But I havent seen a pirate come to here, could it possibly the Navy?" Said Nejin before shaking his head sideways "That's not possible...Why would the Navy come here?".
The Ships were heading closer and closer and they were able to see the flag of the world government, Nejin was surprised "Heavens! Its really the Navy, have the Gods finally answered? Will we be free?".
Nejin's heart beat faster, after years of torment he and the people had faced, he finally had some hope that the Navy would free them, Could they really hope for freedom?. He prayed for the Gods and heavens.
Kaein too was surprised as he stood up in excitement, his eyes momentarily lit up. The people who were fishing at the shore were surprised too as they stared at the government ships and stopped their works.
....
The streets of the cities in the Kutsukku were muddy and dirty, people barely had refined clothes and their houses were mostly made up of mud and bricks and amidst of all this there stood a magnificent castle in the centre of the island, built with quality stones and the floors were made up of white marbles.
In the throne room, yellow haired Franklin was seated alone. He was indeed good looking even though he was almost in his 40s, he had a strong build.
A bird flew up from one of the windowes embedded to the opposite sides of the wall, the windowes allowed sunlight to enter the throne room.
The bird came and sat on Franklin's arm, a letter was tied to its leg, Franklin untied it and read the letter.
"Government?" he frowned "What business do they have with us?". He was worried, what could they possibly here for?. He wrote another letter and tied to the bird and let it fly back, he instructed him men not to attack first. He wasn't sure how strong they were, thus attacking first would be a bad idea.
The letter he earlier had slowly was absorbed by his hands, his hands had turned muddy.