The soldiers looked like they wanted to stay confused for a little longer, but the moment Caspian started coughing again, all of them immediately became even more panicked.

"Caspian! Hey, stop coughing so much or you’re going to die!" Bion shouted.

On the verge of death, Caspian looked at Bion with a less-than-friendly expression. "It’s not like... I can control my cough."

Azul was about to say something, but then his body suddenly tensed. His expression changed in an instant, as if he had sensed something unusual.

Roxanna, who noticed it immediately, asked, "What is it? Did something happen?"

Azul nodded right away without saying anything. Instead, he looked at his soldiers with a serious expression. The warmth and friendliness that usually filled his face were completely gone.

In mere seconds, the soldiers of the Aquilian Kingdom understood what Azul was trying to say without any clear communication.

Every one of them grabbed their weapons and started swimming away at once.

Orion, who was still nearby, quickly spoke. "Your Highness, we probably won’t be able to save Caspian until we reach our safe place."

Azul nodded. "Show me the way."

Roxanna’s heart immediately began racing as the atmosphere around them turned tense. But when Azul reached for her hand and gently pulled her closer, some of her fear faded away.

"It’s alright," he said softly. "We’ll be fine. Just stay close to me."

Azul then turned around to look at Zeir and Calen behind him and told them not to swim too far away.

At first, Roxanna didn’t know what was actually happening, but as they swam farther and farther away, she finally saw a group of people with black tails swimming around the area.

Fortunately, the area was filled with large rocks and long strands of algae, making it difficult for the strangers to spot them. More importantly, Azul and his soldiers moved through the water without making a single splash or sound.

They even guided Calen and Zeir along so they could swim more quietly.

"Don’t look back," Azul reminded her. "Just trust me."

Roxanna swallowed hard and nodded. After that, she didn’t dare glance behind her again and simply focused on following the path ahead.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally moved far enough away that the mysterious men were nowhere to be seen.

The deeper they traveled, the more lost Roxanna felt because everything underwater looked the same.

Every direction, every path, every rock seemed identical, so she had no idea where they were going. Then suddenly, they started swimming down into a deep underwater trench.

"It’s so dark..." Roxanna whispered in her mind. Almost without thinking, she moved closer to Azul, even little Azura looked frightened. The child squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms tightly around Roxanna.

Roxanna wasn’t someone who feared darkness that much on land, but when it came to the darkness of the ocean, it felt completely different.

The crushing pressure, the endless water, the strange sounds echoing through the darkness... everything felt far more unsettling than any dark place she had ever seen before.

"It’s not as scary as you think," Azul suddenly said. His calm voice helped cut through her fear. "Just imagine we’re walking through a dark forest."

He smiled faintly. "Sometimes you’ll hear strange sounds. But trust me, most of the time they’re nothing."

Roxanna almost wanted to laugh. That was much easier to say than to do. After all, how was she supposed to imagine a dark forest when she was thousands of feet underwater?

"See that?" Azul slipped an arm around her waist and pointed ahead. A strange fish floated through the darkness and a small glowing light hung from the front of its head. "Doesn’t that look scary?"

Roxanna looked at it for a moment before nodding. "A little... but not really."

The fish had an ugly face and its teeth looked sharp enough to bite through bone. But the reason Roxanna said it didn’t look that scary was because the fish was so small, only about the size of her fist.

"Exactly," Azul said. "The ocean is sometimes like that fish as well." He looked out into the darkness around them. "It feels scary when you first see it. It feels dangerous. But once you look a little closer, you’ll realize it’s not always as frightening as it seems."

Azul smiled softly. "The ocean can also be a peaceful place if you give it a chance, even a small one."

Roxanna bit her lower lip and felt a little guilty. [The ocean is his home, after all. I should be more respectful toward it.]

If she had brought her husbands to her old world and they ended up hating it, she would probably feel sad too.

"It’s alright," Azul said, responding to the thoughts she hadn’t meant to share. "I understand why you’re afraid of the ocean." His voice was gentle and reassuring. "Maybe after some time, you’ll get used to it."

Roxanna opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, Orion suddenly called out from ahead. "Your Highness! Something is wrong with Caspian!"

Not far away, Roxanna noticed Caspian’s body suddenly begin to shake. A second later, fresh blood started seeping through the wound in his stomach.

The sight made her heart immediately sink.

"Caspian! We’re almost at our safe place!" Bion shouted desperately. "Just hold on until we find Helga!"

But Roxanna could tell things were getting worse and every second mattered now.

"I don’t think he has much time left," she finally said. "I need to treat him here."

Bion immediately turned toward her. "How?" he asked. "Are you a healer?"

Roxanna nodded without hesitation. "Yes. You have to trust me."

Bion still looked uncertain and the other soldiers weren’t much different than him.

After all, Roxanna wasn’t one of them. She came from the land, not the ocean. It was understandable that they would doubt whether a land healer could save a sea creature.

"Please," Roxanna said again, her voice filled with sincerity. "You have to trust me."

Her pink eyes held something that made them believe she was truly sincere.

"My wife is an expert when it comes to healing," Azul said firmly. "You have to let her treat Caspian."

There was complete confidence in his voice, not even the slightest trace of doubt and somehow, hearing their prince speak so confidently made the soldiers hesitate a little less.

"Alright," Orion said at last. "Where should we treat him?"

Roxanna quickly looked around and pointed into the ravine wall, which had a place for them to lay Caspian.

"There," she said, pointing toward a flat rock near the wall. "Lay him down there."

Without wasting another second, Bion and two other soldiers carefully carried Caspian over.

By now, Caspian’s face had become frighteningly pale. His breathing was weak and every breath sounded painful, even his eyes were starting to lose focus.

Roxanna immediately knelt beside him. She could hear the soldiers whispering among themselves, but she forced herself to ignore them because right now, saving Caspian was the only thing that mattered.

She carefully examined the wound on his stomach and saw that his injury was worse than she had expected.

The flesh around it was torn open, and blood continued to flow despite all of Caspian’s efforts to stay conscious.

"He won’t survive much longer like this," she murmured. The soldiers around her immediately grew tense.

On the other side of the cave, Roxanna took a deep breath before turning to Azul. "Can I borrow your spear?"

Although he was reluctant, Azul still did as she asked. The moment the spear left his hand, he carefully took Azura from her arms instead and the little girl immediately clung to him.

Before Roxanna could press the sharp blade against her skin, Zeir suddenly spoke. "You’ll probably need a lot of blood to heal him."

His gaze lowered to the spear in her hand, and then he added quietly, "And this is the ocean. I think it’s going to hurt even more than it would on land."

Roxanna’s fingers tightened around the spear. Of course she knew that. Just imagining seawater touching an open wound was enough to make her nervous.

"I know," she said softly. She swallowed hard before continuing. "But I have to do this." Her eyes drifted toward Caspian’s pale face. "If I don’t, he won’t survive."

"Do you mind?" Zeir slowly reached out his hand. He wasn’t trying to stop her, but it was quite the opposite.

Based on his gaze alone, Roxanna could tell that he wanted to make the cut for her because it would be faster, cleaner, and maybe far less painful than forcing her to do it herself.

Without thinking twice, Roxanna handed the spear to Zeir. "Please," she said softly. "Do it quickly."

Zeir nodded and without wasting more time, one of his hands gently took hold of Roxanna’s arm while the other gripped the spear.

"Don’t look," he warned.

Roxanna immediately turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut.

A second later, a sharp pain shot through her arm.

"Ah!" She couldn’t help letting out a small cry. The cut was quick and clean, but it still hurt, especially when the surrounding seawater touched the fresh wound.

"What are you doing?!" Orion couldn’t help but ask because he didn’t expect her to wound herself like that.

"Don’t ask too much," Azul said. "She has to do this to help Caspian."