Day 1 at the Island

Ale woke up from his sleep right before they hit shore.

As he stood outside his room and watched the island get closer and closer, the refreshing ocean breeze hitting his face made all his worries and thoughts disappear.

"This is why I love the ocean."

He breathed in the fresh air as he spoke to himself. But since it was almost time for them to land, he stopped enjoying the scenery after a while and went back in to get changed. Ale was still in his robe after all.

Knock knock

"Young master."

A knock came from outside the door soon after. Ale could tell that Kevin was there to wake him up and get him dressed.

"Come in."

He spoke as he buttoned his shirt. It was a plain white shirt, paired with a tight black high-waist pant. Ale preferred comfort over style and beauty, yet, whatever he wore, he managed to make it look stylish and beautiful in the end.

"Oh.. You're awake already?"

Kevin sounded surprised as he opened the door and came in. And then he was surprised once again when he saw Ale all dressed up and ready to go out.

"And you've dressed yourself as well, I see."

"How come I never visited the island before?"

Ale asked, wondering why there was a place in his duchy that he had no real-life knowledge about. As far as he could see, it was a place of breathtaking beauty.

So, it was surprising, or rather, shocking, how his parents never visited this place with him. They should've come here at least once.

"The Duke and the Duchess did have plans to visit the place on your seventh birthday."

Kevin answered, being the know-it-all that he is.

"My seventh birthday?"

Ale fixed his hair one last time in the mirror before he finally left the room.

"Yes. But you were too afraid of the ocean and would cry each time they tried to get on a boat. So, they had no choice but to go back."

"And you know this how...? You've only been working with me for three years."

Ale asked, amused. The guy wasn't even here during his seventh birthday. Yet, he knew everything while Ale couldn't remember shit.

"I studied the records."

"Our family record?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that unnecessary?"

"But it came in handy, didn't it?"

"Hmm.. Yeah. Good job."

The two spoke for a bit while enjoying the sea breeze before the Submarine finally reached the shore. Phil and Gary also approached them right before that happened, ready to accompany their master in his new adventure.

"Let's get down first?"

Ale jumped off the ship into the knee-deep cold water right after finishing his sentence. The trio followed right after, splashing water all over Ale as a result of the impact of their jump.

"Hey! Think before you jump!"

Ale scurried back and went out of the water. He was almost half drenched in sea water.

"Ah.. whoops.."

That was all they had to say for themselves. Soon after, Ale could see Rudy and his teammates guiding the rescued people out of the submarine. Ale could finally see the total number of people and it was no small amount.

"There were that many people underwater?"

He gasped, clearly surprised. Rudy, who was approaching Ale's direction, heard his question and nodded his head in reply.

"You saved them all. I can't even begin to imagine what would've happened if you hadn't gone down back then."

Rudy praised Ale for his perfect, if not impeccable timing as he came and stood in front of him. The rescued people at the back all looked towards Rudy and his friend's direction with curiosity.

"Well, they would've been the first to die after the disaster took over the holy relic."

Before Ale could even reply to Rudy's statement, Stuart came and replied to his question with the most rational answer.

The people behind shivered in fear hearing Stuart's word. Just the thought of dying underwater being surrounded and engulfed by a disaster shook them to their core.

"He's right. And it wasn't just me who saved them. You guys played the most important part."

Ale answered, wondering why Rudy was being so formal all of a sudden.

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is. I just tripped and fell, remember? Y'all are the ones who fought the disaster head on."

Rudy shook his head and sighed, understanding Ale's unwillingness to take credit. He didn't understand why, but he also had no intention of pushing it.

"Alright. What should we do next?"

'Why you asking me?!' - is what Ale wanted to ask back, but seeing how they were surrounded by so many people, he decided to bury the unruly, childish part of himself deep inside for a while.

"Well, before handing them over to the authorities, we should at least have lunch together, right?"

Ale suggested, watching the dried and hungry expression of the people behind. They looked like they were burning their last bit of energy just by standing still.

"Why don't you find a spot for them to rest while I go and bring some food for everyone?"

Ale suggested. Since it was his territory, he'd definitely have an easier time doing that instead of dealing with these people he didn't even know.

Rudy also agreed with his opinion, and they decided to part ways temporarily.

"Oh.. How will we find each other then..?"

"You don't have a communication device on you?"

Ale asked, confused.

"A communication device? Those are expensive man!"

Ron answered from the sides. They were adventurers, and they were poor. Since Rudy always gave out their loots and rewards to the poor and needy people, they always ended up having only the bare minimum on their hands.

"Tch tch! This won't do."

Ale took out a communication device, more like a watch with a crystal in place for it's dial, and handed it over to Rudy.

Normal communication crystals were big and looked like what a witch would use. These were Ale's version of communication devices.

As a result, Rudy was left confused for a moment, not recognizing the device that Ale just handed him.

"You just need to tap it twice and you'll be able to talk to me."

Ale sighed and helped Rudy put on the watch as he explained. The silver watch looked really good on Rudy's wrist, since he was covered in black from head to toe.

"A communication device?"

"Why does it look like that?"

"It's cool though. Did you make that as well?"

They all looked at Ale with surprise and admiration once again as they understood what was going on.

"Just some slight modification, to make it more realistic. No big deal."

"No big deal?"

"Yeah. We'll take our leave now. See ya!"

With that, Ale and his people left to find food for the hungry and tired people. Since they landed on a shore with no human trace around, there was no way they could go all the way over to a human town without two or three of these people dying on the way. That's how bad their condition was.

Rudy took the people to a shaded area and decided to make a temporary shelter for them. Since they were adventurers, they were used to doing things like that.

While they were busy making a resting place for the rescued people, Ale and the rest started walking along the beach in search of human towns.

It took them a while, but they finally managed to find a town after walking for almost an hour or so.

"What should we eat..?"

Ale wondered, looking at the various local dishes laid out before him. They all looked delicious. The others were also confused, since everything looked good.

"Something easy for the stomach would be better no?"

Ale wondered, considering the fact that most of those people were in a weakened state. So, he decided to buy lots of porridge, store it in his spatial dimension ring and went back once again.

Seeing Ale return empty handed, with no idea about his ring, Rudy wondered if they failed to find any local community.

"We're back.."

Ale replied as he plopped down on the platform that Rudy made for them to rest. It was cool and comfortable, although a little hard. After walking on the sand for hours, Ale, Kevin and even the knights, looked more tired than the people that were rescued.

"It's okay.. We found coconut trees on that side. We can feed those to the weak people and then start walking again."

Rudy tried to comfort Ale after considering how hard they must've worked, searching for food. It was a shame that they couldn't find anything, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"What ..?"

"Coconut?"

"Why'd we do that?"

"Yeah, what about the food we brought?"

The four of them looked confused as hell as they looked at Rudy at the same time. They went through so much trouble bringing all that food, but now he's saying just coconut is enough?

"Sorry?"

"Yeah, you ought to be."

"No.. not that.. what food are you talking about?"

Rudy also looked super confused as he wondered what they were talking about. Even the people on the back started paying attention to their conversation since it sounded so confusing and absurd.

"Yeah. The food you sent us to bring, remember?"

"Yes, but there wasn't any, was there..?"

"Of course there is. We found a town."

"Really? Was it nearby? Shall we go there?"

"Ah.."

Ale finally realized the cause of the confusion after all that useless back and forth.

"Ahhh.. Here they are.. The food."

He pointed his hand towards an empty space in the platform and pulled out the steaming hot porridges from his space ring.

The savory smell coming from the porridge filled the entire space and even caused some people's stomach to grumble loudly.

"Dig in, everyone."

Ale grinned widely as he spoke.