Voyage Of The Villainess

"Truth or Dare?" Iris repeated but this time there was a bit of intimidation in her voice. 

Rhyme was now sweating bullets as Iris looked at her. \'Ah eh..."

"Ih Oh Uh... we are not playing follow the vowel sounds here. Truth or Dare?" Iris pressured him more.

"Um, Truth!" Rhyme finally answered. If this would be some sort of anime, one could imagine his soul leaving his body already.

"Truth huh...hmm..."  Iris pondered for a bit. "Aside from sailing a ship, what else are you good at?"

Malaya braced herself if Iris would ask something cruel, but she was surprised when she heard a normal question from her. \'I guess, I feel worried for nothing.\'

Though not only Malaya had the same thoughts. Even the others were giving Iris weird looks.

"What?" Iris frowned as she looked at them. 

\'With all that intimidation.\' -Rein

\'I thought she will ask something sinister.\' -Dorris

"Nothing." The three of them simultaneously replied. Iris narrowed her eyes to them but decided to shrug the matter off. She returned her gaze back to Rhyme.

"Um, something I\'m good at..." Rhyme thought for some time while others wait for him patiently. "I can fold my ears into four!" He finally said with a yelp as he closed his eyes. He was afraid to see people giving him weird looks after his revelation. 

"Really!" He suddenly felt someone touch his shoulders and his world began to shake up and down as the latter person, shook his shoulders. "Show us!"

"Dorris, that\'s enough," Malaya said. "You are scaring him."

"Oops, apologies, Milady." 

Dorris excitedly exclaimed. When Rhyme opened his eyes, he was surprised to see curious gazes directly at him. Not the usual weird stares...a blush formed on his face as he looked down on his left side.

Rhyme started to touch his right ear. Then he started folding it in half then he folded it again to another half, now he completed the four-folds. It stayed like that for two minutes before he returned it back to normal.

"Wow!\' Dorris exclaimed.

Rhyme bashfully scratched the back of his head. "Haha,\' he laughed a bit awkward.

"Alright, that\'s nice," Iris said with a smile. "Spin the bottle now, Rhyme."

"Ah yes!" He started to spin the bottle, it spun and spun and it ended up to...

"Dare." Rein said with a smile on his face. Though he was smiling, Rhyme was trembling under his stare. 

"Oh!" The three girls exclaimed in delight. 

"Da-dare?" Rhyme asked once again if he heard it right.

"Yes, feel free to command me anything, as long as it wouldn\'t hurt anyone, I\'ll be happy to oblige." Rein said nonchalantly. 

"Th-then..." Rhyme pondered for a bit. "Stand up using one hand." 

\'Wait isn\'t that too difficult!\' "I change..."

Without uttering anything, Rein abided Rhyme\'s words. He pressed his right palm on the ship ground and with one full quick motion, he thrust both his feet upwards. 

"How long do you want me to stay like this?" Rein asked.

"Ah, that\'s alright!" Rhyme said a bit dumbfounded. 

"If none of you knew, Rein was trained to fight by my eldest brother.\' Malaya happily explained. "That\'s why stunts like that are not a big problem to him."

"Ah, I see." Rhyme nodded his head in understanding.

"I am just doing my best to serve the best wishes of my master at that time." Rein reverted back to a normal standing position. "But indeed, Master Jules was a great teacher,"  a flash of sadness crossed his eyes.

Malaya saw this, and couldn\'t help but feel something squeeze her heart. \'If Jules is probably alive, Rein would not probably be serving on my side now.\'

"Alright!" Iris clapped her hands, trying to alleviate the sudden gloomy atmosphere. "It\'s your turn, Sir Rein. Spin the bottle now." 

"Of course," Rein grabbed the bottle in the middle, it spun and spun until it stop to Elred.

Rein smile cooly, but his eyes flashed with some intent. "Truth or Dare, Sir Elred?" Rein politely asked.

"Just drop the formalities, Sir Rein. Elred would be fine." Elred said replying with the same chilling smile.

"How can I become impolite to someone as distinguished as you, and you don\'t need to call this humble servant with Sir." 

"Hahaha," Elred gave a light laugh. "I don\'t mind. We are not in the academy nor in the Hacien anymore and I\'m the one who asked to join your group, it is alright if you treat me like a normal person.\'

"No, no," Rein shook his head but before he could speak another words.

"Stop!" Iris raised both her hands in front of the two. "Enough with these formality talks,"

Malaya inwardly praise Iris for stopping the two. She felt like if none of them stop Rein and Elred, these two would go on forever.

"Go on with the game," Iris said.

"Of course. Then I would go on with Dare as well." Elred said. If he went on the truth especially with the guy in front of him, he got the feeling it would be dangerous especially for his mission to bring back Malaya to the empire. As of now, when he thought before that it would be an easy task, that was not the case. Malaya was surrounded by capable people. 

And this mission was needed to be done with the utmost discretion. And this guy in front of him, he knew very well that Rein was very wary of him.

"Dare, is it?" Rein had his usually calm face but his eyes glinted of something. "I dare you to..."

Before Rein could finish his words, the ship suddenly shook terribly. 

"U-u-ah-ah!" Monkey who was sleeping peacefully at the top mast of the ship, fell. And the others hold on to any items they could grab to steady themselves.

"What in the world is happening?" Iris exclaimed.

Malaya also glanced around, but since the shaking continued it was hard for them to move right now. \'That\'s also what I want to know.\'

She started to move carefully to see what caused the ship to shake terribly.