Della popped open all the barrels and saw that there was someone in each of them. Looking around for the ones responsible for this, she found them running around the ship. Pointing at Tom, she shouted,
"You! Why are these people here!?"
Tom stopped chasing Jerry and looked at Della with an annoyed face and said,
"This is my ship; I'll have whatever I want on it."
"That's not the problem here! Do you know who Hansen is?!"
"No?"
"He's the prince of Fatare! The place we're going to next! If they find out that you're keeping him in a barrel, they'll relentlessly attack you!"
When he heard that, Tom let out an evil smile and murmured,
"A prince will fetch a hefty amount of ransom, won't he? Nyahahaha."
"Wha-"
"That's enough of this talk. Yuuki, Tyke, get them out of the barrels and untie them."
Della could only watch as Tom walked to the kitchen after saying that and decided to confront the other culprit. Dealing with Tom was impossible and just gave her a headache.
Jerry was about to go take a nap when he noticed Della walking towards him.
"W-what is it?"
He did not know why, but for some reason Jerry was feeling nervous when he met Della's eyes.
Oddly, he was feeling déjà vu from when he was back at the orphanage and was caught by Mammy while doing something mischievous.
Della narrowed her eyes as she kept looking at Jerry and finally asked,
"Did you already know he was a prince?"
"Oh, that? Yeah, I overheard you guys talking."
Well, that confirmed something for Della. At first, she thought Tom only did this because he still wanted to take revenge, but it seemed he just wanted money.
'That fits him, greedy guy,' thought Della as Tom wheeled out a serving trolley and made his way to Hansen and the rest of the Fatare group.
Hansen looked at Tom skeptically as the latter laid out food in front of them before putting on a kind smile.
"Eat up. You must be starving."
'Yeah, because of you!'
Of course, Hansen did not say it out loud. When Tom saw that Hansen and his lackeys were not trying to eat, he put on a sad expression and sighed.
"Do you think I poisoned it?"
'Obviously.'
Tom watched Hansen sit still and sat down himself. Taking out a fork and spoon, Tom ate small pieces of the food to prove that they were not poisoned. After he sampled everything, Tom looked at Hansen and said,
"See, I didn't poison anything."
"...Maybe you took the antidote already."
"What the hell, man?! I'm an ethical pirate! I would never do something like that!"
"You've said similar things before, and if you really were someone like that, then you wouldn't have stuffed us in barrels."
"No, I did it for your own good."
"Huh?"
Tom looked at Hansen's confused expression and pointed to Della before saying,
"I was trying to save you from her!"
Della, who was watching intently at their conversation, was dumbfounded when she saw Tom accusing her of something. As she was about to say something, Tom asked Hansen,
"You want to return to your home, right?"
"...Right."
"Didn't she say she wanted you to stay on the island we were on? If I didn't hide you in a barrel, she would have thrown you on the island before we left!"
"...."
Hansen fell silent when he heard the reason and glanced suspiciously at Della. The latter still had a dumbfounded expression as she asked,
"You're not seriously believing him, are you?"
"Hmm…"
As Tom saw Hansen contemplating, he continued speaking.
"I mean, if you think about it, we don't have any problem with each other. We only fought because of Spike."
"Spike…"
Hansen scrunched up his face for a moment when he heard Spike's name. Tom obviously caught that and started talking with an animated expression.
"That's right! It's all because of that bastard! He killed me, you know! Who wouldn't be angry at that!?"
"...Now that you mention it, how are you still alive?"
"It's just a small trick. What truly matters is that you guys haven't eaten anything good for a few days. So here."
Hansen looked at Tom as the latter pushed the plates of food towards him and started thinking that he might've been misunderstanding Tom all this time. After all, Tom had enough chances to kill him but never did it.
Tom saw Hansen staring at him and gave him the final blow.
As Hansen saw the angelic smile on Tom's face, he widened his eyes before saying,
"I'm sorry for doubting you."
"No, it's okay. Here, eat up."
Nodding bashfully, Hansen passed around the plates to his knights before he picked one up and started eating.
Tom saw Hansen eating, and his angelic smile slowly morphed into an evil one as he murmured,
"Eat well, my golden goose."
"Hmm?"
When Hansen raised his head because he heard something, he saw Tom still looking at them with the same angelic smile.
"Do you want more?"
"Ah, no. This is enough."
"Haha, no need to be shy. Just wait a few minutes. I'll whip up something."
When Tom got up and started walking to the kitchen, he was quickly joined by Jerry, who got hungry after seeing the food.
As they watched the two pirates head to the kitchen, the Fatare knights started talking.
"That guy, he's very nice, isn't he?"
"Yeah, I can't believe I thought he was evil."
"Damn it, this is all because of Spike!"
"That bastard, I'll definitely beat him up when we go back!"
"Yeah right…"
Hansen, on the other hand, slowly ate the food in front of him as he listened to everyone around him talk.
Della watched the whole exchange happen and was doubting if she was dreaming at this point.
"These idiots, did they forget how much Tom tortured them a few days back?"
Beside her, Yuuki nodded sagely and said,
"Hmm, makes complete sense."
"Huh? What?"
As Della looked dubiously at Yuuki, she heard scribbling and turned to the other side to see that Tyke was writing something down.
Looking at the cover of the book, Della saw the name of the book.
How to manipulate others.
Getting curious after reading the title, she stood on her tiptoes and tried to look at what Tyke was writing.
Always push the blame onto others. Keep doing it till they start doubting themselves.
When they finally start thinking hard, do not give them time. Distract them with something else. Food seems to be good for that.
As she kept reading, the book suddenly snapped shut, startling her. When she looked up at Tyke, she saw that he was looking at her with narrowed eyes.
"You cannot learn something like this for free. You need to pay an appropriate price."
After saying that, Tyke left Della and headed to the kitchen, followed by Yuuki.
Della just stood there with her eyes twitching as she watched them walk away.