Chapter 8
“What?”
A wave of dizziness hit me as I instinctively reached out and placed my hand under his nose.
“…”
He’s really not breathing.
Jelly looked up at me, slightly disappointed, and asked for my opinion.
“What should we do? He looks pretty useful, which is rare around here. Should we just throw him away?”
Rather than answering Jelly, I leaned down and pressed my ear to the man’s chest. A faint heartbeat thumped inside.
He’s not dead.
But he was someone who might die at any moment.
“Jelly.”
“Yes, Master!”
Jelly chirped energetically. That jellyfish might be simple, but it had sharper instincts than it let on. And I liked that about it.
“Why do you think this person seems useful?”
“Well…”
Jelly put on a serious expression—at least, as serious as a jellyfish could look.
“He’s not a skeleton, for one. He’s still alive. And he looks more capable than you, Master. If you’re serious about your dream of doing nothing but lounging around, you’ll need someone to boss around.”
I listened quietly to Jelly’s reasons before repeating,
“Who said I only want to lounge around?”
“You said you wanted to live like a carefree sea otter.”
“…Okay, maybe I did.”
But, well. That’s reason enough, isn’t it?
After a brief hesitation, I made my decision. The truth was, I just needed a reason to save Ian Frederic.
I didn’t want to be his savior, nor did I want to be a cold-hearted bystander. Getting too tangled up with others had never ended well.
If we could just maintain a relationship based on mutual benefit, like the contract that initially tied us together, that would be best.
That’s why I saved him.
“Jelly, suck all the seawater out of his body.”
Just to keep things between us simple.
“As fast as you can!”
At my command, Jelly jumped up and covered Ian’s nose and mouth. Its little body began to swell as it absorbed the seawater.
“This sensation brings back memories. It was like this the first time I met you too, Master.”
“You absorbed the water like this?”
“Yes, Master!”
I instinctively touched my lips.
I knew Jelly had saved me, but thinking about it now—if a jellyfish gave me mouth-to-mouth…
‘I’m taking this one to the grave.’
How would I even explain that your lips were stolen by a cheeky jellyfish?
Ian fortunately regained consciousness quickly. His pale complexion improved, but then came the next problem.
“Jelly, have you ever seen someone fall into the sea before?”
“Of course. Humans are everywhere—you see them all the time.”
Jelly’s button-like eyes sparkled as it answered cheerfully.
“Most of them are corpses though!”
“Damn it.”
According to Jelly’s firsthand experience, people who fall into the sea usually die.
The first reason is drowning, but that’s been resolved thanks to our capable jellyfish.
The second reason—hypothermia.
This was the bigger obstacle.
“We still haven’t even made a fire!”
If things stayed like this, Ian was definitely going to die from the cold. I touched his cheek—still ice-cold with no sign of warming up.
‘Should I take his clothes off and hold him?’
The ideal way to warm someone up when you have no tools flashed through my mind. I groaned and grabbed my hair, unable to think of a better solution.
“Huh? But do we really need a fire?”
From under the flimsy sunshade, Jelly asked innocently, like I was overthinking things.
“The sun’s blazing. Remember? You dried out like a salted sardine just lying in it.”
“Dried sardine—wait a second.”
I remembered. When I had fallen into the sea, I’d nearly died, too. Yet somehow I hadn’t succumbed to hypothermia.
The sky was cloudless again today. After a few days of drying fish, I’d learned something: hot sun and a light breeze were the perfect conditions for drying.
“Okay. We just need to deal with these soaked clothes.”
His crisp white naval uniform had looked good from afar, but right now it was just getting in the way.
“Why’s he wrapped up like this?”
“Master, that’s indecent.”
“If you’ve got spare arms, help.”
“If my delicate tentacles can be of use, I offer them gladly.”
So we worked together, grunting and fumbling, to strip the wet uniform.
We left the pants on—that was a bit much—and just removed the black gloves on his hands. A thin undershirt wouldn’t hinder drying too much.
“Now you’ve got to peel off the fish scales, Master.”
I sighed heavily.
“Why do both people and fish have so much crap to peel off?”
I covered Ian with a dry cloth and sat down beside him. He was lying in the fish-drying spot.
Unfortunately, our precious raft hadn’t been expanded yet, so space was limited.
“Jelly, did we gather enough materials to extend the raft?”
“How big are you planning?”
“Big enough for personal space?”
“Master, maybe it’s faster to just buy a boat?”
“…Yeah.”
I knew. We were barely scraping by.
Who knew how long we’d survive off dried fish? The raft could flip at any moment. And who knew who else we’d run into out here?
“Yeah, we’ll need a boat eventually.”
“Excellent thinking. Even a jellyfish dreams of luxury yachts, you know.”
Jelly started rambling about “jellyfish dreams.” I didn’t have the heart to point out how desperate our reality was—we didn’t even know what we were eating for dinner.
I spent the rest of the day removing scales and filleting fish. Since we had no storage, we had to eat everything the same day we caught it.
“Sigh… After all that work, there’s nothing I can eat.”
My stomach empty, I popped a piece of fish into my mouth—only to spit it out. It was way too salty.
“Maybe you’re just not hungry enough yet?”
“Don’t say that while you’re stuffing your face.”
“Understood.”
Jelly quietly resumed eating, and I found myself growing resentful.
Why can’t humans eat raw food? Or—can they? Is it just me who can’t because of the fishy taste? There’s so much to eat in the sea!
“Maybe I should chew on some seaweed. What about kelp? That might be edible.”
“How about shrimp? Humans love those!”
“Shrimp! That actually sounds doable. Let’s go catch some—”
Just as I was about to dive into the sea out of hunger-induced madness, I felt movement beside me.
The man’s eyelids fluttered open. His golden eyes reflected the moonlight, focused and alert.
“It’s… oddly quiet.”
His throat moved as he sat up slowly, confusion clearly painted across his face.
I braced for the usual questions—where am I, what happened, how long was I out?
But instead, the first thing out of Ian’s mouth was—
“…What kind of ritual is this?”
He was staring at the fish pieces surrounding him, like he was some sacrifice to the ocean gods.
Well… here’s what happened—
“Do you know how to make a fire?”
…That’s how the conversation had to start, but my starving body couldn’t wait.
“…A fire?”
He looked at me for a moment, then scanned the surroundings.
I felt guilty—it hadn’t even been a full minute since he woke up, and I was already explaining how dire things were.
“That’s all the gear we’ve got. You’ll have to make it on a wet raft. And yes, we’re floating in the sea, as you probably guessed.”
“…”
His face grew darker.
I think I messed up. Maybe it’s not a good idea to dump reality on a guy who just nearly died. I quickly tried to spin it more positively.
“B-but! This part’s kind of soft. And there’s a shade, too.”
“…Have you been living like this since escaping the ship? What about the Seladon Kingdom ID I gave you?”
“Lost it. Fell into the sea.”
I thought I heard him sigh. He ran a hand over his face and muttered quietly,
“I told you, diving into the ocean was reckless…”
I couldn’t hear the rest. When I asked what he said, he looked down and admitted softly,
“I’m sorry. I failed to control the navy. The plan was sloppy. I take full responsibility.”
He must’ve meant what happened on the ship. If he’d properly managed the lower officers, maybe I would’ve reached Seladon as planned.
“Right? You should’ve cracked down on those tardy sailors before it came to this.”
“…Apologies. They weren’t usually the type to be late.”
I let out a laugh.
The deal we made was just to escape the ship. That’s all. Where I ended up afterward wasn’t his problem.
“It’s fine. Look—I’m still alive.”
“True. But it was a situation where anyone could’ve died.”
Right. If I had died during that escape, the deal would’ve fallen apart, and he’d be left with nothing.
He was probably just stating facts, but—
“I’m glad you’re alive.”
That line… somehow, it felt genuine. The way he smiled at me so warmly—it was almost too kind.
Flustered, I quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, so… can you make a fire?”
“Why do you need a—”
His gaze drifted to the fish bits scattered nearby. Fearing another misunderstanding, I waved my hands quickly.
“It’s not some weird ritual! I’m just hungry!”
Growl.
My stomach roared loudly.
And just like that, realization smacked me in the face.
Damn it… It’s not the raft that’s broke. It’s me… I’m the beggar here.
