Chapter 125: THIRD POV.
He let out a short, sharp breath, his tone becoming distant. "By the time I finally realized my mistakes and regretted my actions, the damage had already been done."
" The past can’t be rewritten, no matter how much you wish for it. And while she ultimately chose to forgive me for everything I did..." He said, his voice trailing off into a heavy silence.
"Even now, after all this time, I still find it incredibly hard to forgive myself."
He raised his head, looking straight into Flounder’s eyes with a warm, steady gaze.
"So that’s the real reason why I don’t want to end up doing the exact same thing again on this ship." Jacob let out a deep sigh at this point.
" Think whatever you want of me, call me suspicious or crazy, but I simply cannot stand to turn my back on someone else in need when they are standing right in front of me."
" Not again...." he muttered this part to himself more than anything.
Flounder was completely silent for a long while after Jacob finished speaking. He stared at the wooden table, his brow furrowed as he processed the information.
The story while vague, made perfect sense to him in a way.
While it didn’t explain why Jacob had the strange powers of the sea.
That could easily be attributed to him being a mermaid, or at least that’s what everyone believed since they had no reason to think otherwise.
Besides that, the story did explain why he was so quick to jump into danger for strangers, and why he didn’t ask for money in return.
Flounder himself had met countless people in his lifetime, while most were nothing but selfish, greedy, sinful existences, he had to admit that amongst those kinds of people existed those who were truly trying to make a difference.
Jacob wasn’t a perfect saint; he was a flawed man running away from his own guilt, well that was how Flounder decided to interpret it.
To a serious, duty-bound guard like Flounder, a motive driven by honor and regret was far more believable than simple, pure kindness.
After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Flounder finally raised his eyes, speaking in a slow, serious tone.
"But what if you end up getting hurt in the process of trying to save everyone?" he asked, his young face turning incredibly stern. "What if the people you take in turn out to be enemies, or what if the path you chose leads you into a fight you can’t win? Can you truly say you won’t have any bitter regrets then?"
Jacob merely chuckled softly at the question, shaking his head at the man’s intense worldview.
He leaned back against the edge of the wooden cabinet, looking completely at peace with himself.
"If a man ever ends up regretting the path he chose to walk, just because the road got a little rough, then he’s no real man at all," Jacob said, his voice firm and filled with a simple, grounded wisdom.
"A real man is someone who is always ready to stand up and take full responsibility for his own choices, no matter how badly things turn out in the end."
He gave Flounder a meaningful look, a slight smile returning to his face. "If we always blamed other people or bad luck for the results of our own decisions, then what does that make us?"
" It makes us cowards." He said lightly.
" I chose to help you, and whatever happens because of that choice is on me. I’m not sure about others, but I myself can live with that." Jacob chuckled at the end, showing that he wasn’t afraid of the future.
"Alright, enough chit-chat, let’s get out of here. I’m sure everyone else must be wondering what’s taking us so long by now."
" I’m sure you wouldn’t want your old steward to have a headache now would you," Jacob laughed a bit.
For the first time in awhile, Flounder actually chuckled.
He said nothing else but followed right along as Jacob left the kitchen without saying a single word of protest as they both moved together.
Yet, one couldn’t tell what exactly was currently going through his mind.
Meanwhile, just down the corner they had just walked through to enter the kitchen, Priscilla was leaning quietly against the damp wooden wall, a light smile on her face.
Her large white ears twitched slightly in the quiet hallway as she listened to the receding sound of their heavy boots.
The captain had been highly hesitant about leaving Jacob all on his own with the man she’d long since labeled a major troublemaker.
She had worried that the hot-headed guard might try to pull something, so she decided to follow them down the dark stairs to keep a watchful eye on things.
Instead of a bloody fistfight, though, she had unexpectedly overheard every single word they’d talked about.
’A real man, huh...’ she thought to herself, chuckling a bit under her breath as she stretched her long arms above her head.
Her white tail flicked back and forth against her legs in a highly amused rhythm.
’Maybe you actually are one after all,’ a warm smile emerged on her face as she thought about Jacob’s bold speech.
’ Well you sure are confident for a man I’ll say.’ she said to herself.
’Although it still remains to be seen whether you’re truly capable of taking full responsibility in the end when things get really dangerous,’ she added in her thoughts, laughing a bit to herself as she turned around and gradually made her way back towards the bright main deck of the battleship.
**********
A few more days quickly went by on the massive ship as it sailed smoothly through the calm blue waters.
While Flounder and Jacob didn’t suddenly become straight-up friends who shared drinks and told jokes, their complicated relationship did progress somewhat over the next forty-eight hours.
The heavy, suffocating tension that used to fill the air whenever they stood in the same room began to melt away into a quiet, mutual understanding.