Joan and Joshua's worries built without end as Tasha still showed no signs of waking up. Joshua was on the verge of asking Lucy and the other cats, maybe even Toz, for help since Red Hook still didn't want Stitches to check up on him.
Brunswick confirmed that Red Hook was telling the truth, but he was a lot weaker than her, and he couldn't tell if she had been lied to by whoever was in charge of taking care of Tasha's health.
Joshua and Lucy had suggested asking Toz to step in to Joan a couple of times since Joshua didn't want to do anything like that without his mother's approval. However, Joan rejected that idea each time. She chose to trust in Red Hook. And asking Toz for help, while it might not put Toz in much trouble, could interfere with Tasha's relationship with the Red Hook Pirate Crew.
It could also interfere with the relatively harmonious atmosphere of Pirate Haven if Toz and the Red Hook Pirate Crew began fighting.
But Joan wasn't just sitting on her hands and looking at the stars. She repeatedly sent letters to Red Hook, vaguely hinting about Joshua's impatience and how a child, who's missing their father, might ask a certain person they look up to for help.
Red Hook scratched her head in frustration since there really wasn't much she could do.
Tasha slept as soundly as a teenager in his room, but it was impossible to approach him or move him due to the fluctuations of destructive magic surrounding him.
Several pirates had already died due to Tasha's passive magic, and Red Hook didn't want to expose Joan and her child to the sight of Tasha since they would, without a doubt, want to touch him or at least go close to him.
Showing a healthy Tasha but locked behind a door naturally wouldn't do much good for Joan and Joshua.
And it was too late to tell them about how Tasha surrounded himself with destructive magic in his sleep. Since she had said he was fine but asleep and stuck to it, Red Hook couldn't just change her story without reason. Her only hope was that Tasha would manage to pull himself out of whatever kept him asleep.
Based on what Joan had told her about what happened, Red Hook could guess that Tasha was hiding from reality by willingly staying in a coma where he could dream of his family as much as he wanted.
Red Hook knew from Avian that a skilled darkness mage could interfere with an opponent's mind, and if she had to guess, Toz or his cat was probably skilled enough to do that. However, there was no guarantee that they would be able to help Tasha since the way darkness magic worked with minds was pretty limited. Moreover, if it didn't work, she would have invited Toz into the place where she hid her greatest trump card.
Ordinary pirates might not sense it, and she wasn't worried about her subordinates since they were loyal to her or trustworthy enough to let them know, like Tasha. But Toz would be able to pick it up as soon as he stepped foot on the island, and Red Hook didn't trust Toz enough to sleep safely at night if he knew about it.
Red Hook wrote back to Joan, asking for her understanding, patience, and trust before going down to take a look at her trump card to comfort herself. She could look at it for hours on end, but she usually forced herself out of her daze in order to train her mana.
However, before Red Hook could begin training, she was interrupted by a subordinate.
After going down to where she stored her trump card, the pirates of the Red Hook Pirate Crew only disturbed her if there was something only she could do or if she had to be present for something like the Pirate Meet.
Since Red Hook had just read a letter from Joan with vague threats about Toz interfering with Tasha's situation, Red Hook feared the worst and dashed up the stairs to the surface of the island.
Red Hook was slightly surprised when Teddy greeted her with happiness in his eyes since it was the opposite of what she expected.
Teddy was the one who had gotten closest to Tasha and had taken it upon himself to keep watch over Tasha as he slept. If he had willingly gone to Red Hook when she was busy in her private room and with a happy expression, it could only mean one thing.
"He's awake?"
"No!"
Red Hook was stumped when Teddy answered her question with a rare smile and denial of what she thought was the reason for his interruption.
Teddy belatedly noticed that Red Hook was quickly moving on from being stumped to being irritated by Teddy's interruption, and he hurried to continue.
"But he should wake up soon! His magic is calming down, and his eyelids have been fluttering for a while now."
Teddy's words lifted Red Hook's mood, and the two went to visit Tasha.
The door to Tasha's room was already open, and a couple of pirates from the crew were testing the range of Tasha's magic using sticks.
Red Hook looked at the piles of splinters on the ground before turning a chilly gaze to the two pirates.
"Get out."
The two pirates had been busy checking out the range of Tasha's destructive magic, but if they delayed just because Red Hook startled them, they were in for a bone-crushing punishment, so they took off before they even had time to feel fear.
Teddy looked at the two pirates, etching their appearances into his memory before he followed Red Hook into the room.
The two pirates looked at Tasha with anticipation. He had been sleeping soundly for several weeks. He more than earned it, considering what he did to the Starsling Kingdom's fleet, but Teddy worried for and missed his friend, and Red Hook was finding Joan's vague threats weighing on her shoulders.
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