Cute Jack
Half an hour had passed since Soraya began her prayer, and the sea remained calm; nothing had happened.
"Did something happen to Father?"
Sorea trembled as she recalled the battle between the Ocean God and the Goddess of Fertility. Although she did not believe that the Goddess of Fertility could harm her father, she was still afraid of the possibility that might happen.
Arlene helped Solalia up and said:
"Your Highness, now is not the time to be afraid. We must hurry back to the Sea of Death and ask the Crown Prince what happened."
Just as Sorea was completely disoriented and was barely able to keep herself from falling by relying on Arlene, Al felt something like a tentacle wrap around her leg.
"What is that?!"
Al lifted his leg, and a small black octopus, about the size of a palm, clung tightly to his pants.
Al picked up the little octopus, preparing to throw it into the sea, but failed on the first try. The little octopus clung tightly to Al's hand with its eight tentacles.
Just then, everyone heard a small voice, "Can you hear me? Is it okay to speak so loudly? I've been shouting for ages!"
Sorea looked in the direction of the voice. "Little one, was that you speaking?"
"It is I, Your Highness." The little black octopus pulled out a white top hat from somewhere, put it on Al's palm, then took it off, and bowed its head as if to Solaya.
Sorea saw the tiny octopus wearing a tiny hat, bowing so vividly, and was amused, temporarily forgetting her worries about her unsuccessful prayer.
The little octopus continued, "I came here because I sensed the power of the inscriptions praying to our Lord."
How did you know I was His Highness?
“I am Jack Karal, the eighteenth generation descendant of Lord Karal. My Lord specifically mentioned before the closure that you would arrive in the Karal Sea, and Lord Karal specifically told me to wait for you here.”
Sorea was pleasantly surprised. "I thought something had happened to Father."
"How could you think that way!" Jack the Octopus was so shocked by Sorea's words that his eight tentacles flew up, and the top hat he had finally managed to put on fell into Al's hands. "My great master, how could anything have happened to you?"
Al reached out his other hand and put the top hat back on the excited little octopus, which had fallen off, and said:
“My lord has never failed to answer my prince’s prayers…”
"Aaaaaah! Don't talk! You're too close to me! Your voice is killing me!" Jack the Octopus yelled, covering his head with his two tentacles and then frantically lashing Al's wrist with his two tentacles.
Jack was too small; he had to shout with all his might so that Sorea and the others could hear him, and Al's voice was a mental attack on him.
Before meeting Jack, Sorea never imagined that the descendants of Kadar, who were over 80 meters tall and could easily cause tsunamis, could not even tolerate a slightly loud noise.
"Your Highness! You can't look down on me like that. Lord Kadar grew up from my age, okay? I want to become an octopus as powerful as Lord Kadar in the future."
Hearing Jack's dissatisfaction, Solaya realized that she had spoken her true feelings aloud.
The Creator God was fair, giving the Karal octopus race enormous bodies, but also granting them a difficult and lengthy growth cycle. One of the reasons the Karal previously wreaked havoc and fought against humans was that the young octopuses were so delicious that they were hunted to near extinction by humans.
Although Jack didn't know why the Ocean God was in seclusion, the information it brought was enough to calm Sorea down and help her understand the world, which was completely different now than it was a hundred years ago.
"Jack, I'd like to ask, what's the fastest way to get to the Sea of Death from here?"
“I respect Your Highness, the fastest way to get there should be by steamship.”
"What kind of ship is that? Is it faster than riding a giant whale?" Arlene asked, puzzled. In her eyes, the ship's speed was far inferior to that of a giant whale.
"Madam, times have changed. Ever since His Highness Yuan invented steam, combined with the speed-enhancing inscription totems, the speed of ships can now rival that of the Demon Pig."
Al lowered his voice, almost whispering, "A giant whale is much faster than a demon pig, so why don't we just control a giant whale directly?"
Jack shook its little head. "Sir, in order to maintain the good living environment of our Karal Octopus clan, at the suggestion of Prince Yu'an, our great master created many seabed crevices and whirlpools in the Karal Sea, making it impossible for giant whales to cross this area. If you really want to use the giant whales, you have to leave here."
After discussing it, the three decided to continue selling Soraya's armlet and rent a boat that could go out to sea.
The little octopus felt increasingly uneasy as it listened, and widened its tiny eyes, saying, "Wait a minute, my lord, how can you two rely on His Highness selling jewelry to make a living? How can you be so shameless?"
Al had barely forgotten the embarrassment of selling Soraya's jewelry when Jack brought it up again, and his face flushed red. He instinctively tried to find an excuse:
"Isn't there no other way?"
Arlene didn't want to recall the awkwardness of waiting for Al at the fried chicken shop. After Sorea removed the armlet, she took the initiative and went to find a buyer with the armlet, leaving Al alone to face Jack's questions.
“They are my two knights, so I’ll definitely take care of them!” Sorea smiled and picked up Jack, placing him on her shoulder.
Jack felt his face burning, but thankfully his skin was black so no one could tell he was shy.
"Your Highness... Jack has a large pearl. Jack will go back and get it for you."
"I don't want Little Jack's pearl. Would Little Jack like to come home with me?" Sorea touched the little octopus with eight tentacles twisted into a braid on its shoulder.
The little octopus's eyes lit up; apart from Lord Karal, no other octopus in its family had ever been invited into the Sea of Death.
Given the opportunity to enter Osenia's most mysterious palace, it readily accepted Solaya's invitation.
Arlene quickly arranged everything and found a merchant ship that was preparing to do business in the Sea of Death and was willing to carry passengers.
"Your Highness, we don't have enough money to rent a steamship. Only merchant ships are willing to take the three of us along," Arlene said, blushing as she asked Sorea to go to the dock.
When Sorea heard that she had no money, she subconsciously looked at herself and had no choice but to nod, since she really didn't have any jewelry left.
Sorea couldn't help but sigh, "Oh, I should have been more careful back then. My earrings were the most valuable thing I owned."
These words made Al and Arlene blush and lower their heads. The little octopus stared at them sideways. If looks could kill, the two of them would have ascended to heaven to meet the creator god long ago.
"What a big, beautiful ship!" Sorea's eyes sparkled as she looked at the ship in front of her, which was 150 meters long and 18 meters wide. This ship was bigger than any ship she had ever seen before.
You should know that Solaya used to live in the Sea of Death, and the things she saw most often were ships coming and going.
“Of course, beautiful lady.” The captain heard Sorea’s praise and walked up behind her.
"My ship is the largest merchant ship in the Karal Sea, and it is well-known even in the Dead Sea."
"Are there even bigger ships in the Sea of Death?" Sorea was surprised that such a large ship wasn't the biggest.
"I can tell you're not a citizen of the Osenia Empire. The inventor of steam is our Prince Yu'an, and the largest ship on the entire Singri continent is in the Royal Fleet." The captain proudly introduced the greatness and invincibility of the Royal Fleet.
Although they were treated as citizens of another country, Sorea, Arlene, and Al felt extremely proud when they heard about the strength of their own nation.
However, if Jack, hiding in the hood of Soraya's cloak, hadn't known that it belonged to the Karal octopus race and was even on the human diet and couldn't be seen by humans, it would have almost rushed out to beat someone up. Someone actually told it to its face that its Princess Soraya, the eldest daughter of the god of the ocean and hurricanes, was a foreigner.
Sensing Jack's displeased movements, Solaya gently stroked it through the fabric to soothe it, and it calmed down.
The ship sailed smoothly outwards and soon left the Karal Sea. Soraya leaned against the mast and admired the sunset, the ocean reddened by the setting sun, birds frolicking in the low sky, occasionally swooping down to catch fish before flying away into the distance.
This tranquil scene was something Solaya saw every day before she married Veldrian, a sight she even found tedious.
Although the name of the Emerald Sea Kingdom contains the word "sea," it is actually an ocean of plants created by all sorts of plants. After spending her days in the Emerald Sea, Soraya has almost forgotten what a real ocean looks like.
"I'm going home," she murmured to herself, a tear falling from her eye. After that tear fell, Sorea finally couldn't hold back anymore, bent over, and burst into tears.
She didn't cry when she gave birth alone, she didn't cry when she stabbed her lover with a sword, she didn't cry when she faced the hardships of fleeing, and she didn't cry loudly even when she was anxious because she couldn't contact her father.
But when Sorea reached a safe place and looked at the calm and peaceful ocean, she could no longer hold back and just wanted to cry her heart out and let out all her grievances.
Sorea's tears fell drop by drop into the sea.
After a while, the ethereal and long cry of the giant whale rang out, the demon dolphin began to shout and leap on the surface of the sea, and schools of flying fish also appeared on the surface of the sea. Their silver scales shimmered with colorful light in the sunlight, and other marine life gathered towards the ship. The whole sea seemed to come alive.
Sorea forgot her tears when she saw the scenery before her and laughed. Seeing her laugh, the whales' cries became even more cheerful, and the demon pigs even wanted to jump onto the boat and get close to her, but the boat was too high, and they could only complain helplessly.
The other crew members came out to see the rare sight; even these experienced sailors had never seen such a vibrant ocean.
Others may not know, but Arlene and Jack know very well that the ocean is comforting the children of the ocean, telling the children of the Lord of the Ocean to stop crying.
Seeing the ocean trying to stop her tears, Sorea smiled.
She gazed at all the sea creatures that longed to be close to her but could not, and began to sing:
"Beautiful ocean,
You are both majestic and benevolent.
You are the source of all things.
Our children of the ocean
I will love you forever
..."
This was a folk song known to everyone in the Osenia Empire, and everyone on the ship began to sing along.
When the creatures in the ocean heard Soraya's song, their own singing became even brighter.
"Help! Please help me!"
Just as they were enjoying themselves, a cry for help shattered the joyful atmosphere.
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