“Fleet, fleet, this is Sky Eye. We’ve spotted a, uh… suspected survivor from the island. He’s on the western shore of Spice Island, roughly southeast of your position. He appears to need assistance. Over.”

“What? A survivor?” The word from the communications officer made the fleet commander think he had misheard.

“A survivor from the island? There are still people on that island?” questioned the captain of the flagship, Pioneer.

“Take a look with the binoculars. It’s not far; you should be able to see him,” ordered the commander.

The captain of the Pioneer complied, stepping outside and raising his binoculars. Within ten seconds, he spotted the small figure waving on the beach.

“There really is someone… Could it be one of our crew members who fell overboard?” But as soon as he said it, the captain dismissed the idea himself.

If it were a crew member who had fallen overboard, they would have reported it long ago, rather than waiting until they swam to the beach. Moreover, the pilot had confirmed with his own eyes that it was a suspected island survivor.

Back in the command room, the captain of the Pioneer reported to the commander, “I did see someone on the beach. I think we should send a boat to rescue him, but…”

The commander and the captain exchanged a glance and simultaneously said, “…but we need to wait until the battle is over.” They nodded in agreement, confirming the decision.

On the sea, with the continuous spray of supercooled water, large chunks of ice had completely encased the “Shark,” raising its draft line by more than half a meter. Even if the “Shark” restarted its engines, it wouldn’t be able to draw in much water.

About ten minutes later, the commander received reports from various boats that their supercooled water reserves were depleted. Throughout the spraying, the “Shark” hadn’t stopped struggling, continuously releasing heat in an attempt to melt the ice.

The heat release caused steam to rise from the sea, creating a thick fog where hot steam and cold mist intertwined, covering the Aifat and Yunying with a thin layer of frost.

When the supercooled water was being sprayed, the cold mist dominated. Now that the spraying had stopped, the hot steam increased. The question was whether the fleet could drag the “Shark” to the shallows before the ice melted, or if the “Shark” would melt the ice and escape.

The latter seemed less likely. The “Shark” needed too many conditions to escape, and it would take too long. Ultimately, it was dragged without suspense to the shallows 1.3 km from the man’s beach.

The man watched the entire process. He understood the fleet’s tactics and objectives, but he was concerned that to drag the “Shark” to the shallows, the ships had to move closer, and their draft wasn’t much shallower than the “Shark’s.” How would they avoid running aground themselves?

The result amazed him. The lead ship dragging the “Shark” dropped two anchor chains from its stern as it approached the shallows, then seemed to go full throttle, raising a high white wave behind it. The force was much greater than the “Shark’s” previous struggles, and it surged onto the beach, with the man even seeing their flat bottoms.

Then, the anchor chains tightened, and the two beaching ships pulled themselves back into the sea with brute force. This violent maneuver was almost like an amphibious hovercraft!

The man deduced from their flat bottoms that these ships were specially designed for such operations. However, he couldn’t recall any country developing such ships in his somewhat hazy memory of the past few years. The enemy, like the “Shark,” was also a mystery.

After completing these maneuvers, the man noticed one of the fleet’s ships breaking formation and heading towards him, likely informed by the plane above.

With tears in his eyes, the man waved at the plane circling above, which responded by tilting its wings before flying away.

“Bye—” the man shouted his thanks to his departing benefactor, then turned back to patiently await rescue.

The man thought the battle was over, but it wasn’t. The beached “Shark,” under everyone’s watchful eyes, slowly turned from non-luminous to dark red, then orange-red, and finally almost bright white before exploding with a “boom.” A thick ring of black and yellow smoke, mixed with some flames, spread into the sky.

Self-destruction? The man speculated. Has it given up struggling, knowing it has no chance?

Shortly after the “Shark” self-destructed, the surrounding ships resumed spraying water at it. From such a distance, the man soon smelled a pungent odor, like that from a coal-burning stove, clearly released by the self-destructed “Shark.”

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Sulfur dioxide? This stuff is toxic; I can’t inhale too much. The man scooped up some wet sand with his hands and covered his nose and mouth, hoping to filter the sulfur dioxide from the air. Soon, the sand lost its filtering effect, so he buried his face in the sand.

After a short while.

Hoo— A long whistle sounded from the sea. The man looked up to see a ship approaching him, one of the fleet.

Ignoring the pungent smell in the air, the man got up and waved vigorously to indicate he was okay and needed help quickly.

The ship didn’t disappoint him. It stopped not far from the beach and lowered a small boat that looked like an inflatable raft. Three people on the boat sped towards him.

“Hey! You finally came. Thank heavens, I’m saved, hahaha!”

The man ran forward with open arms but stopped three meters away from the people getting off the boat, noticing the leader was a woman. Even if it were a man, he shouldn’t just hug them.

Besides the leader, there were two men, dressed differently, whom the man had never seen before.

“What?” Borda, the leader, asked with a puzzled expression. She didn’t understand what the man was saying.

However, the man could see her confusion. He realized that perhaps his long separation from civilization had severely altered his accent, making him hard to understand.

The man coughed, cleared his throat, and pointed to himself, saying, “I, Legen, am very glad to see you. Thank you for rescuing me. Can you understand what I’m saying?”

Borda listened carefully to the man’s words but confirmed that his language was beyond her knowledge. She turned to the other two, “Do you understand what he’s saying?”

“No.”

“No idea.”

Both shook their heads.

Oh no, language barrier? Legen quickly recalled all the languages he had learned, but none matched. Fortunately, he could still understand the meaning of their head shakes.

Borda mimicked Legen’s gesture, pointing to herself, “Borda, doctor, do you understand?”

“Borda Doctor? Your name is Borda Doctor?” Legen accurately repeated her words.（Please understand the limitations of using a single written language to represent the language barrier between bilingual individuals.In the language used in Borda, the word for ‘doctor’ is obviously not pronounced as ‘doctor,’ so Legen couldn’t recognize it.）

“Yes, yes, Borda. I’m a doctor. I need to examine you. Please don’t be afraid, okay?” Borda was delighted, thinking the man understood her language.

In fact, Legen was confused by Borda’s long sentence. He had only mimicked her words without understanding their meaning.

After at least two minutes of gesturing on the beach, they finally realized the language barrier was real.

“He’s an islander from Spice Island. I guess he doesn’t speak Republic language, and we don’t speak Islander language. Let’s not rely on verbal communication,” said Lain, the apprentice sailor holding a logbook.

“So what do we do now? Can we take him back?” Borda, just a ship’s doctor, would normally conduct the first contact and examination if communication were possible, but now it wasn’t.

“The captain instructed us to bring him back as long as he’s safe,” answered Dardacri, the sailor.

“Then you two, keep watch.” Borda took out a small yellow bottle with a label from her pocket, unscrewed the cap, poured a tiny amount of liquid onto her hand, and inhaled deeply. After demonstrating, she handed the bottle to Legen, gesturing for him to do the same.

Legen understood but didn’t know the purpose. Thinking it couldn’t be harmful since she demonstrated, he followed suit.

The inhaled gas was cool and non-irritating, feeling quite pleasant.

Seeing Legen’s casual compliance after a brief hesitation, Borda smiled. This showed he was cooperative, easing her concerns despite the language barrier.

“Good job. This will prevent seasickness. Here’s your reward.” Though knowing he wouldn’t understand, Borda muttered, taking out a thumb-sized, oil-paper-wrapped item from her pocket. She unwrapped it and handed it to Legen.

Legen saw an olive-shaped, orange, semi-transparent crystal, seemingly a candy.

He looked at Borda uncertainly, pointing to the candy and then to himself. Borda nodded with a smile, opening her mouth and pointing to it, indicating he should eat it.

Legen hesitated. Smelling was fine, but eating it worried him. Could it be a drug or something addictive? Though he couldn’t figure out her motive, he was concerned.

“Do you think he’ll eat the deworming candy?” Lain asked Dardacri with a chuckle.

“He’s hesitating, so he’s not starving. If he were, he’d eat anything. But if he’s not hungry, it’s hard to say. The language barrier makes trust difficult,” Dardacri analyzed, spinning a gun-like object from his waist.

Legen saw Dardacri’s action as a threat, making his expression tense.

Borda noticed Legen’s change in expression. Realizing his hesitation, she knew she needed to act to ease his wariness.

Sighing, Borda snapped the candy in half with her fingers, ate one half, and looked at Legen, signaling it was his turn.

Borda’s sincerity made Legen feel a bit embarrassed. He quickly swallowed the other half, though the hard candy was uncomfortable in his throat. At least he wouldn’t see that helpless look on her face again.

Borda then gave Legen two more items to consume, following the same process——he behind she. Though unnecessary for her, she took the parasite-killing medicines to demonstrate.

“Rescue team, what’s your status?” Suddenly, the captain’s voice came through Dardacri’s communicator.

“Everything’s going smoothly, Captain. The subject is very cooperative with Borda’s examination. However, we have a language barrier.”

“Language barrier? And he’s still cooperative?”

“Yes, Captain. He seems very polite.”

“That’s good… Return as soon as possible. The fleet is about to finish dismantling and head back.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Legen watched the entire conversation but understood nothing. He noticed the unfamiliar communicator and the emblem above it—two yellow rectangles crossing off-center, resembling a simplified butterfly.

“Let’s go, Borda. Everything’s done here. We’ll handle the rest on the ship,” Dardacri said after Legen took the last pill.

“Right. Come with me, okay?” Borda gestured for Legen to follow.

Legen took a tentative step forward, receiving a nod of approval.

Though it was odd to be given things to eat before rescue, there was no hostility. With that, Legen followed the three onto the small boat. The man with the logbook even helped him up, earning a grateful smile from Legen. The four returned to the ship in a subtly harmonious atmosphere.