Chapter 99: THIRD POV.

"Mister, is he going to be okay?" The little girl held onto one of the chubby man’s hands while glancing up at Jacob with moistened eyes.

Her long silver hair was dripping wet, clinging to her cheeks, and her small shoulders shook from a mix of the cold sea breeze and pure fear.

She looked at Jacob as if he were an angel who held the power of life and death in his hands, begging for a miracle.

After all, he’d been the one to save her in her moments of despair, providing hope when there was non.

Now again, she wanted nothing more than for him to grant them another miracle.

Jacob said nothing. He didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep, but he didn’t want to let her lose hope either.

Instead of speaking, he simply gestured with a tilt of his head to the young man from earlier, signaling for him to come forward and help resuscitate the chubby man.

The young man did just that. Even though he was clutching his own bleeding side and his face was pale from losing so much blood, he didn’t complain for a single second.

He knelt down right next to the big, quiet body of the blonde man. Then placed his hands flat on the man’s large chest and began to push down hard, over and over, using the last bits of his strength to pump the water out of the man’s lungs.

For a few tense seconds, nothing happened.

The deck was completely quiet except for the sound of the waves hitting the side of the boat and the young man’s heavy breathing.

The maids whimpered in the background, holding onto each other in terror.

"Cough! Cough!"

Suddenly, the chubby man’s body jolted upright as if he had been struck by lightning.

His chest heaved violently, and he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of salty water right onto the wooden deck.

Gasping for air, his big hands clawing at the wood as his lungs finally started working again.

"I-I’m alive?" the chubby man said, blinking his blue eyes in total surprise after calming down his coughing fit.

He looked around the deck, his mind clearly confused as he saw the strange ship, especially the tall human version of Jacob standing over him.

He rubbed his face, trying to shake off the feeling of the dark ocean depths.

The moment those blasted pirates attacked and after he plunged into the cold depts, he didn’t expect to ever wake up again.

Moreover, he had no recollection of anyone bearing a handsome appearance like Jacobs.

"Rudwig! You’re alright!"

Rudwig was caught completely off guard when the young lass leaped towards him with all the strength left in her tiny body, wrapping her small arms tightly around his neck.

She buried her face into his wet shoulder, sobbing loudly as she held onto him like he was an anchor in a storm.

"My lady...." Rudwig muttered, his voice shaking with deep emotion.

He looked at her face to make sure she was really there, and then a massive, relieved smile bloomed on his face.

Big tears started streaming down the corners of his eyes, mixing with the saltwater on his skin.

He wrapped his large arms around her, holding her close as if she were the most precious treasure in the world. "Thank goodness you’re okay. Thank goodness..."

Watching them reunite like this, Jacob couldn’t help smiling a bit.

The anger that had been burning in his chest since he saw the sinking wreck began to cool down just a little bit.

Truly, this was a wonderful sight to behold. It made all the swimming, the heavy lifting, and the risk of diving into that dangerous wreck entirely worth it.

This was exactly why he had changed Priscilla’s mind about being a real pirate.

’I wonder how she’s doing so far—’ Jacob suddenly thought of Priscilla.

He had been so focused on saving these people and getting the water out of the blonde man’s lungs that he had completely forgotten about the war raging on the surface just a few hundred yards away.

He turned around to glance in her direction, expecting to see her still throwing people into the sky or smashing wooden decks with her bare hands.

However, he was surprised to see that the battle had ended already. The loud shouting, the screaming, and the sounds of breaking wood had completely stopped. The air was still smoky, but the chaos was gone.

Moreover, from what he could see across the water, most of the remaining survivors, or should he say, broken men, were all tied up in thick ropes on the main deck of the largest enemy ship.

They were sitting on their knees, their heads hanging low in complete defeat.

Compared to their original number, only a handful of the pirates remained alive. Looking at the empty decks and the bodies floating face down in the water around the ships, it served to say that the rest of the wicked raiders were already exterminated.

This captain of his sure didn’t know how to hold back.

’No wonder it was so quiet. She really doesn’t take things easy, does she,’ Jacob chuckled inwardly, a small shiver running down his spine.

He was glad more than ever that he was her first mate and not her enemy. If he had tried to fight her when they first met, he probably would have ended up at the bottom of the sea just like these pirates.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and made his way to the steering wheel of the First Hornet. He gripped the smooth wood, turned the wheel, and sailed the ship towards what remained of the three pirate ships.

After so many days at sea with Priscilla, he’d already learned a few things or two from her about how to handle the sails and guide a small vessel through the water.

He wasn’t a master sailor yet, but he could move the boat from point A to point B without crashing it.