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Chapter 17
The raindrops that had been falling one by one quickly turned into a downpour that threatened them. Wind howled violently, shaking the mast.
So it wasn’t a curse, but a real prediction?
“You… you actually knew it was going to rain?”
“Of course. I’ve spent more time at sea than on land.”
“Then you should’ve made that clearer!”
“You would’ve only heard what you wanted to hear anyway.”
There was no time to scold Naomi. The rain thickened as if oil had been poured onto a fire, and the wind grew fiercer. The monkey squealed and hid inside the sack.
“Angel, take Naomi and get inside the cabin!”
Aleksei shouted while clinging to the tilting mast.
The ship rocked violently from side to side, making it impossible to stand properly. Angelina took a few steps before giving up and collapsing to the deck. It didn’t feel like staying in the cabin would make them any safer or calmer.
“Naomi, you go inside.”
“I’m staying too.”
“There’s nothing you can do out here anyway.”
“That goes for you too, Crown Princess.”
“They just want you to at least stay out of the rain.”
“If the three of you die, I’ll die too anyway. So I’d rather help somehow.”
Help with what?
As if she sensed Angelina’s doubt, Naomi shouted,
“Don’t stay there—move to the center. It’s safer there.”
“The center?”
Naomi crawled without hesitation toward the center and tied a rope around the main mast.
“Hurry!”
The ship lurched dangerously. Angelina practically crawled over beside Naomi. Naomi tied the rope around her own waist first, then wrapped the remaining rope around Angelina’s.
“This is the only way to hold out.”
“For how long?”
“This isn’t even that severe of a storm. It’ll calm down and rage again until dawn.”
The repaired mast bent precariously.
The men fought desperately to protect it from the vicious wind. Naomi and Angelina tied more ropes to the mast and crawled over to secure safety lines around the men’s waists as well.
Between the pounding rain and the effort to avoid being thrown overboard, they barely even noticed the cold.
Just as Naomi had predicted, the storm lasted until dawn. The rain and wind raged, subsided, then raged again, making the four of them experience both heaven and hell in the middle of the sea.
I don’t want to die in an accident again.
Dangling from the rope, Angelina thought to herself.
Even if she could call her life a happy one, that didn’t mean she had no attachment to it.
Death was a misfortune one wished to avoid until the very end. Faced with it, even a life once considered perfect suddenly became full of regrets.
A life beautiful as a flower wasn’t necessarily satisfying.
Realizing that clearly, Angelina tightened her grip on the rope.
I can’t die here.
There’s no such thing as a third life!
It took an hour for God to answer Angelina’s prayer.
The storm ceased, and the sea became calm.
“We survived—”
“We’ve got a problem.”
Just as they were about to relax after surviving the worst of it, Franz came rushing up from the engine room.
“The engine stopped.”
“Is it broken?”
Aleksei frowned.
“We’re out of fuel.”
Just last night, Franz had said there was enough fuel to last until morning.
“Rainwater seeped into the boiler room and the storage hold, so all the wood got soaked. The engine had already stopped earlier. We were moving only because of the storm.”
Angelina looked out beyond the ship. All she could see was a black sky and a black sea.
“Then… what happens now?”
“Either another storm miraculously pushes us to land…”
She had no desire to fight rain and wind again.
“Or we wait for a rescue ship.”
If they had never escaped the deserted island, would they have been dreaming of a comfortable trip home aboard a rescue vessel by now? Though they also might have ended up roasted alive by the natives.
“At least it’ll be easier to send a distress signal than it was on the island. We don’t have wood for a bonfire, so… we’ll use this instead.”
Franz rummaged through a sack and pulled out a lamp.
“It’d help if we at least knew roughly where we are.”
Aleksei muttered while staring up at the starless sky. There was no way to tell how far the storm had pushed them.
Angelina shivered from the cold. Though she’d been untied from the rope, now the chill itself gripped her ankles.
“Take Naomi into the cabin.”
No wonder she’d been so quiet. Naomi sat curled up tightly, trembling all over.
We have to endure until we’re rescued.
Angelina wrapped Naomi in layers of blankets and led her into the cabin.
Naomi leaned against the bed and closed her eyes. It was better than being on deck, but the cabin was still freezing.
Wouldn’t it be dangerous for her to fall asleep while freezing like this?
Angelina shook Naomi gently.
“You can’t sleep yet.”
“I’m fine. This much is…”
Naomi answered drowsily without opening her eyes.
I should keep talking to her.
“How old were you when you started living at sea?”
“What was the hardest thing?”
“Have you ever found legendary treasure?”
“Is this your first time running away from home?”
Naomi remained silent. Judging by the occasional flare of her nostrils, she wasn’t asleep—she was ignoring her.
Then maybe this question would work.
“Do you remember your mother?”
As expected, Naomi opened her eyes. She looked at Angelina with eyes mixed with hatred, resentment, loneliness, and longing.
“Why do you want to know?”
Her tone was sharp. Angelina sat down across from her.
“Because I barely remember mine.”
“…”
“When the memories were vivid, I wanted to forget them because they hurt. But once they disappeared completely, that felt lonely too.”
“Are you a mama’s girl or something? You’ve barely been away from home.”
“It’s been about twenty years, I think.”
Naomi let out a scoff.
“No matter how hard things have been, that exaggeration’s ridiculous. Twenty years?”
“We’ve nearly died several times over the past few days.”
“That’s not nearly dying. Those are just unexpected situations. The world is full of things like that.”
It wasn’t childish bravado. It was the insight of a girl who had drifted across the sea without a home.
“I’ll remember that.”
That was why, even at Naomi’s sharp words, Angelina could only smile softly.
A flash of light burst through the small cabin window.
Ignoring the blanket slipping from her shoulders, Angelina hurried to the window. A round yellow light was drawing closer.
“It’s a passenger ship.”
Naomi came up beside her and spoke.
As the light shifted left, a massive black vessel filled the window.
“Then we…”
“It’s a passenger ship!”
“We’ve been rescued!”
The two women impulsively hugged each other and jumped up and down in place.
“Angelina! Naomi!”
The cabin door burst open, and Aleksei stuck his flushed face inside.
“A rescue ship’s here. We need to transfer now.”
“Wait a second.”
Suddenly, Naomi shoved her head beneath the bed.
“Kori.”
The monkey scampered out and leapt onto her shoulder.
“When did that monkey get inside the cabin?”
“When the storm got bad. It climbed out of the sack and ran in here.”
So it had opened the door itself and come inside?
Angelina stared at the monkey’s nimble fingers. They didn’t seem especially cute considering those same fingers had rummaged through all their food supplies.
“You two suit each other.”
“Animals listen to me well.”
The four of them gathered their sacks and headed to the deck. As the ships drew closer, a ladder was lowered from the passenger ship.
“Hurry and come aboard!”
The captain shouted while signaling with his hands.
The four quickly crossed over. Sailors reached out from below to help them jump down safely.
Dawn.
The inside of the ship was dark and quiet. Except for a few cabins, most of it remained unlit.
“You were fortunate. Because of the storm, we changed our planned route and happened to be sailing nearby.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s late, and you’re all exhausted. Let’s discuss the details tomorrow.”
Following the captain’s orders, a sailor guided the four of them to cabins. The bedsheets were stiff, but none of them had the energy to care. After being thoroughly battered by the storm, all four fell asleep instantly.
And then morning came.
Angelina awoke to sunlight streaming through the window.
Where am I?
Only after seeing Naomi asleep in the bed beside her did the events of last night return to her.
Ah… we transferred to the passenger ship.
After sleeping like the dead, her mind felt as clear as the sea after a storm.
Leaving Naomi asleep, Angelina stepped out of the cabin.
At that moment, the door across from hers also opened. It was the room where Franz and Aleksei had stayed.
