Chapter 30: Will to live, Will to save

EVERYONE-..HOLD IT TOGETHER..WE ARE GOING TO LIVE THROUGH THIS!..

Julio shouted while clinging to the small lifeboat. His throat was starting to hurt from shouting the same thing over and over. Still, he keeps shouting for he believes that it is his duty to do so.

There are dozens of his crew floating around Julio. Giving priority to the injured, they loaded them on to the small boat while other crews were clinging around the small boat or wreckages that used to be their ship.

Y, Your Highness..you must get on the boat as well

Im fine..Im still alright

Julio says that, but in actuality, he doesnt have that much energy to spare either. It has already been more than ten hours since their ships were sunk and they were dumped into the sea. They survived the night of hell while trembling from fear and coldness of the water but theres still no sign of help coming their way.

No one had imagined that this would happen.

They had been informed that the Sea Dragon may have resurrected so Eva and Julio set out to investigate the matter. They brought three warships with them as escorts for precaution but it wasnt because they wanted to fight the Sea Dragon themselves, it was just them being as careful as possible.

Confirming whether the Sea Dragon had been resurrected or not, that was what their father told them to do. The reason he chose them for this task was because the two of them could use innate magic that can utilize sound. To the two of them, exploring the sea was but a simple thing to do.

If there was a miscalculation in that plan then it would be that the Sea Dragon followed the sound emitted by them and attacked their ships. They ended up touching its reverse scale.

The Sea Dragon summoned the storm and destroyed all of our ships but fortunately, it retreated once it wrecked our ships. With that said, the situation didnt turn any better.

Uwaaaa!!?? Monster!? A monster just touched my feet!?

Calm down! Its just a fish!

The surviving crews are struggling with fears.

Fear of death. Fear that help will never come. Fear that they are going to freeze to death. And the fear that sea monsters will come to feast on them.

Combining all those fears together, the survivors were exhausted and impoverished. 

Still, Julio kept shouting.

HELP WILL COME.! REMEMBER YOUR FAMILY..! WE ARE GOING TO LIVE!

Julio continued to encourage the survivors with those words. They were the words he kept telling himself.

However, the usual Julio isnt someone who would do that. No, he was someone who couldnt do that.

He wasnt someone who asserted himself. Even if hes a prince hes not someone who could carry himself like a great person.

It was Eva who always pulled such Julio along. But now Eva is currently sleeping on top of the boat.

When they were thrown into the sea, she lost consciousness because she protected him and crashed on the water surface.

Since then, Julio has been acting like Eva. Both because of the sister in front of his eyes and in order to live.

The sense of responsibility that grew due to the emergency situation made Julio behave like a prince.

Even so, no matter how much Julio encouraged them, it is still not enough.

Help?..help will never come.it takes more than a day to get here even if they set sail at night you know..?

One of his crew weakly leaks a small voice.

That was what everybody here was thinking.

The rescue boat from Albatro probably wont make it in time. Even so, Julio still has hope.

Considering the size of the storm, it wouldnt be weird if the Empires ship was also caught up in it.Prince Leonard will definitely come to help us

The Empire saving us.? We lent our hand to their enemy nation you know..? We made a business out of their bloodthey wont risk themselves searching for us in dangerous waters like this.

Prince Leonard has a reputation for being a kind person and not abandoning the troubled..it will be alright! Im sure that he will come to help us!

In a time like this, even an ally could abandon us, I wonder if he will really come

If I survived the storm I would say goodbye to this place immediately you know.who would want to be in a sea with a rampaging Sea Dragon..

Everyone

Everyones hearts were breaking.

It was the same for Julio. Looking at Eva, he managed to act strong but both his physical and mental strength has reached its limit.

In the first place, Julios physical ability is far behind that of the other crew members. The first one who would normally drop out first is him after all.

Still, Julio continued to cling to the boat with just his will. However, that strong will is still getting exhausted by the depressed mood around him.

It might be useless already.

When such thoughts crossed his mind.

He saw something in the distance.

It was a ship.

Its, its a ship..! THERES A SHIP OVER THERE!!

Ah!! We are saved! O-I! OI!!

His exhausted mind recovered.

Everyone is shouting and waving trying to get the ship to notice.

They continue doing that for a while but someone mutters.

Th, thats an imperial ship.

That was enough for them to stop waving.

The fluttering flag is an imperial one.

From its appearance, it was one of the two imperial ships they met the day before.

The fact that they are here means that they got caught up in the storm as well.

And them being here meant that they were considerably pulled away from their original course. Everyone here knew that their destination was Rondine.

Will they take their time rescuing us when their arrival is already delayed.

In addition, the Sea Dragon is also lurking in this area, they dont know when they will be attacked again.

There are all kinds of reasons for them not to help us.

Then, the imperial ship turned its bow.

Despair rushes to Julios chest.

However, a voice entered Julios ear.

A voice amplified by a magic tool.

[[Im the Eighth Prince of the Empire, Leonard Lakes Adler. My ship is currently rescuing the survivors of the Principality of Albatro. We will rescue you one by one, but those who still have power left should swim to our ship. If you dont, please endure a little more. We will definitely save you.]]

Hearing his voice, Tears naturally spill from Julios eyes.

However, immediately shake them off.

LETS GO, EVERYONE! KEEP AN EYE ON THE INJURED!

Y, Yes sir!

Lets go! We are almost there!

Julio and the other survivors rushed to the imperial ship a little distance away.

Al who has been acting as Leo hangs up the handheld magic voice amplifier and exhales.

It would be great if the rescue gets easier with this.

Whether it has been difficult or not, most of the survivors who you helped so far havent been able to get up on their own. They have been adrift for a long time so I think that it couldnt be helped, Your Highness.

I know that.. Captain! Leave only the minimum personnel for lookout duty and focus the crew effort on the rescue operation!

Saying something like that again..!? What would you do if the Sea Dragon shows up!?

Everything will be over once it spots us. Rather than keep the lookout, it would be better to focus our effort and finish the rescue as fast as possible.

What about other monsters!?

There are no monsters nearby. Theres no monster that would wander into an area where a Sea Dragon just passed through after all.

Saying so, Al heads out to help with the rescue.

Because thats what Leo would do. Al himself wanted to stay back to observe the situation and give out commands but he told himself that right now he is Leo and went to join the operation.

At the moment, the sailors just pulled up a group of 4 5 people who were huddled together. Every one of them is shivering from the cold so Al puts the blankets prepared for survivors on them.

You did great. Its alright now.

Thank, thank you

Looking at the survivors who were crying while expressing their gratitude, I realized then how horrible and terrifying their experience was.

Meanwhile, a new report came in.

Multiple survivors spotted on port side! Their number is fifty!

Fifty! We dont have enough space for that many!?

We already rescued dozens of survivors, if we added fifty more, we wont have enough space to accommodate them. Originally, the number of our crew is less than a hundred. We cant possibly take in fifty more people on this ship.

Thats why Al was forced to make a decision.

He must choose what he must sacrifice.

What are you going to do Your Highness? There are a lot more survivors than we expected.

Well, I kind of expected this.they have three ships while we only have one. If there were a lot of lucky people then this would be an obvious result.

Then, have you already thought about the countermeasure?

The middle-aged knight asked expectantly.

In response, Al made an expression as if he just took a bite at a worm.

For Al, its the worst decision he could make. Still, he had to make it.

Dump everything inside our cargo hold except our food supply into the sea.

.including our gifts for Rondine?

Yes, everything.

As expected, even the middle-aged knight becomes speechless.

This ship is originally Leos so the items this ship is carrying are more valuable than the one which Al was riding on. Inside, are the latest weapons and treasures made of gold and silver that were scheduled to be handed over to Rondine.

The treasures that have enough value for a person to play around all their life, Al decided to dump all of it into the sea.

Is it really alright? Doing something like that?

Theres no way its alright. With that many survivors, we cant go to Rondine with the amount of supply we have. Theres not enough food nor water. In other words, we had to go to Albatro for resupply. At this point, it will cause a significant delay to our mission. Moreover, theres a Sea Dragon lurking nearby as well. I dont know when we will be able to get to Rondine. Even so, I decided to save them. The only thing I have left to protect is Leos reputation. Thats why no matter what I have to abandon, I have to rescue the survivors. This is absolute. Dont lament on the treasures, save their life. I wont let anyone alive now to die. You got that?

U, Understood

Seeing the determination in Als eyes, the middle-aged knight faltered for a moment.

He was overawed by him.

While surprised, the middle-aged knight remembers that day.

The day Al broke the bracelet for Elna.

Elna participated in the knight hunting festival for Als sake. To Elna, doing something that can disqualify Al was unacceptable. Thats why Al did it himself for her to be able to move freely.

It was a splendid action.

It was not a behavior that anyone would imagine from the man who is known to the general public as the dull prince.

And now, his act as Leo is more than perfect.

His instructions are also accurate.

So you are a capable falcon after all..

Did you say something?

Its nothing. Please leave dumping the goods to the imperial knights.

Yeah, I will leave it to you. All hands, resume the rescue! Save everyone who can be saved! I will take all the responsibility!

While giving out the instructions, Al saw the approaching group of survivors.

Theres a small boat with injured people on board, and Al could spot Eva among them. He can see the figure of Julio nearby as well.

So the prince and the princess are safe.Now we have more hands to make a negotiation with the King huh.

With that in mind, Al throws a rope ladder toward the approaching Julio.  However, Julio doesnt try to catch it.

Prince Julio! Grab on!

Please prioritize the injured first!

Saying so, Julio points to the injured people on the boat.

It will take time to rescue the injured people who cant climb up on their own.

It will delay the rescue of Julio and his crews but they still want us to prioritize the injured.

Understood! Wait for us a little!

We started rescuing the injured at a fast pace.

The crews descend on the boat and carry the injured people up to the ship one by one.

Meanwhile, more and more survivors from other locations were rescued.

After we get all the injured people including Eva on board, Al throws a rope toward Julio.

It might be because of the relief he felt, the moment Julio grabbed on to the rope, he lost all strength in his body.

His mind has reached its limit.

Prince Julio!?

After seeing Julio slowly sinking while losing his consciousness, Al immediately moved.

It was like how he dived down to save Finne.

It was not a calculated action, he did that out of instinct.

Al jumped into the sea where the Sea Dragon might be lurking around and lifted up the sinking Julio.

The people who are panicking this time are on the Empire side.

Your Highness!?

The Prince jumped down!

Even though the crews descended down to the small boat to rescue the injured, no one jumped into the sea. Even if they were told that theres no monster nor a Sea Dragon around, they are still afraid.

With that being the case, the Prince who they were supposed to protect jumped in.

After seeing that, the imperial crew resolved themselves and started jumping into the sea to continue the rescue.

Give me a rope!!

Here you go!!

It was the middle-aged knight who threw it at me.

I wrap the rope around Julios unconscious body and have him pull it up.

After that, Al climbed up the rope ladder.

There, a hand was offered to him.

Grabbing it, he sees the middle-aged knight with an astonished expression on his face.

Thanks.

Its alright, Im already used to lifting you out of water.

? what do you mean?

Its no wonder that you dont remember me since you fainted at that time.

Just what are you talking about?

I was the one who pulled you up when you almost drowned at the Braves mansion, I was originally a knight who served the Brave house after all.

seriously?

Yes, as soon as Captain became an imperial knight, I also joined the order. I never thought that I would be pulling Your Highness out of water again after I became an imperial knight myself.

Can you not say it like I did that on purpose? The first time I got punched and the second time I did it to save someone alright. I dont think I bother anyone you know?

Certainly, It is exactly like you say.

Seeing the grin on his face, Al sighs.

The reason Al didnt honestly express his gratitude is because he is a person from the Brave house.

After a short while, Al noticed something.

Speaking of which, I havent heard your name yet have I? Whats your name?

Deputy Commander of the Third Knights corp, Marc Tyber, at your service.

I see.I hope we can keep this relationship as short as possible, Marc.

Right. That would be great.

Both of us speak of such wishful thinking.

After all, it would be impossible to cut short our relationship in this situation.

Afterward, Without leaving any survivors behind, Al stops his ship from time to time to rescue the survivors that are still at sea.

After rescuing over eighty survivors in total, their ship headed straight toward Albatros capital, its biggest port city.

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