“Wow, whose genes does my princess take after to be this smart? It must be from me, right?”
“To be honest, I think it’s a relief she doesn’t take after the captain.”
“Ner, if she took after you, it would be a disaster.”
“What did you just say, you punks?!”
“I agree with them.”
“Lala, even you?! What?!”
After the presentation ended, Nereus made a doting remark, and Isaac and Gilbert quickly jumped in to tease him. I nodded in agreement and simply shook my head.
“Polaris, come here. You’ll catch the ‘stupid’ if you stay there.”
“No, I’ll stay here.”
Gilbert motioned for me to move away from Nereus and come closer to him, but I refused. Nereus, for some reason, exaggerated a gesture as if deeply moved.
“Anyway, ‘stupid’ isn’t a contagious disease.”
“Give me back my emotional moment.”
“I didn’t ask you to get emotional—ouch, that hurts!”
Nereus grabbed and pulled my cheek.
“Hah, whose kid are you to have such a cheeky mouth?”
“I think that part resembles the captain,”
“Hmm, I have to admit, Polaris’s words are becoming harsher, and it’s starting to worry me. According to ‘The Parenting Guide for Beginners’…”
“Ugh, shut up, you!”
When Nereus yelled, both of them shut their mouths. They didn’t seem scared; rather, they probably stopped because the teasing had served its purpose.
I grabbed Nereus’s hand, which was pinching my cheek, and pulled it off.
“I have something to give to the village chief.”
“To the village chief? What is it?”
“It’s what I explained earlier. It might have been hard to understand, so I prepared a summarized version. I made it simple enough for even a six-year-old to understand.”
“Aww, isn’t my little one a complete genius?”
Nereus lifted me in his arms and rubbed his beard all over my cheek.
“Dad, that stings.”
“What can I do with a genius like you, huh? Mommy and Daddy pirates should always keep their treasure, our princess, safe in their arms!”
“That’s overprotective.”
“Pirates are meant to keep their treasures close, so it’s fine.”
I groaned in annoyance and pushed Nereus’s face away.
“Anyway, I’ll deliver it. Alright? I’m the person in charge, after all. It’s my responsibility to handle these things!”
“………..”
“…Sniff.”
‘What’s with that?’
Suddenly, the other pirates turned their heads and started shaking with suppressed laughter. Nereus’s expression was also odd.
‘Why are you biting your lips so hard?’
“…C-Cute.”
“S-Shut up! Lala is trying to act mature, you… Sniff.”
“Th-This is too much…”
I realized they were holding back their laughter because they found my words amusing. These childish adults couldn’t help themselves.
“Anyway, are you going to let me meet them or not?”
“Hmm~ What should I do? If my princess gives her daddy a kiss on the cheek, then maybe I will.”
“I refuse to bribe you. Do you want your daughter to use flattery to get what she wants from others?”
“……….”
When I asked again, Nereus’s expression turned somewhat peculiar. Then he quickly shook his head.
“No, no. Of course not. You’re our princess, after all. And because you’re my daughter, you must never do that to anyone.”
Even if that someone is me… Nereus muttered under his breath.
‘What an idiot.’
“Ahem. Fine, wait here. Hey, Isaac! Go fetch the village chief. Our princess has something she wants to personally give her.”
“Yes, understood.”
I hopped down from Nereus’s arms and approached Ethan, who was holding a well-sealed envelope under his arm.
When I stretched out both hands to him, he handed the envelope to me without a word.
‘I wrote this in advance yesterday.’
My goal wasn’t something as fleeting as a one-time remedy.
‘There are likely many people addicted to Angel outside Odlo Island as well.’
Even the orchard keeper, who had tried to take me hostage, was an Angel addict. Nereus had imprisoned him while deciding how to deal with him and extract proper ‘compensation,’ but the man ended up dying.
‘Before any decision could be made, there shouldn’t have been any life-threatening violence.’
From the start, the Caelum—Nereus included—would never kill a target until the higher-ups reached a clear decision. That was another one of Caelum’s rules.
Thus, when the target suddenly died, Ethan had stepped in to investigate and discovered that he was an addict.
‘He must’ve been in the final stages of addiction. Angel’s ultimate withdrawal symptoms likely cause death without continued consumption.’
If even a mere orchard keeper was so severely addicted, there was a high probability that other civilians were as well.
There could already be people who had died in places unknown to us.
Caelum would be content with identifying and removing the source of the problem, but I wasn’t.
‘After all, I was once a part of the navy.’
As someone with a conscience, I felt it was only right to save anyone who could be saved. However, if involving myself in all sorts of matters led to harm coming to my family, then that would defeat the purpose.
Right now, my family was the most important thing to me.
“There, Lala. She’s here.”
Nereus lightly patted the top of my head. The village chief, her face pale as if she had heard something terrifying, stood in front of us.
I approached her.
“Hello, Chief Granny.”
“Ah, h-hello… No, I mean, good day to you.”
The chief of Odlo Island, despite my young age, didn’t dismiss me disrespectfully. She politely greeted me and knelt to meet my gaze.
Maybe it was because of the other pirates, but being treated with respect didn’t feel bad.
I handed the documents I had prepared to her.
“This is a document that summarizes today’s explanation in an easier way to understand. Since my hands are small, it was hard for me to write, so Ethan helped me.”
“I see.”
“But there’s something I didn’t include in the explanation.”
“What is it?”
“The reason we ended up here is because someone died from being addicted to ‘Angel.’”
“…….….”
“But the people of Odlo Island were addicted to Angel even before that person. Do you know how they managed to live longer than him?”
The chief shook her head with a hardened expression.
“It’s because of the leaf of the Kacho tree. The roots of the Kacho tree have a strong chemical property that can negatively affect the ecosystem. However, the reason it hasn’t caused any harm so far is that when the leaf fall to the ground and decompose, they become a good neutralizer and nutrient.”
This also explained why it had been difficult to find a cure for Angel in the world before my regression. Because of the war, Kacho trees themselves had become scarce.
The roots were only used as the main ingredient for Angel, while the Kacho leaf were valuable medicinal herbs used in all kinds of remedies. There probably wasn’t enough left to experiment with for developing a treatment for Angel.
‘The meals of Odlo Island’s people often included Kacho leaf.’
Come to think of it, the reason I had seen such a large accumulation of Kacho leaf in the marine city last time must have been because of the farms. I finished my logical deduction.
‘Now, it won’t be distributed as it used to be…’
“That’s why I believe Kacho leaf will be very helpful in the future.”
In fact, I intended to ensure that. However, the person in front of me still looked rather skeptical. I tapped on the documents she was holding.
“The evidence for this is written here, so you can check it out. Make sure to read it thoroughly as soon as we leaf.”
“How can we ever repay such a favor?”
“It’s nothing. Just listening to the words of a six-year-old child is more than enough.”
With that, your lives will be saved, and unlike the original future, this island will become even more prosperous.
***
I was lying idly on the deck of the ship that had already set sail.
‘Everything went smoothly.’
In fact, the document Ethan and I had prepared contained a sheet of paper that I had secretly added without him knowing. Telling the village chief about the Kacho leaf and urging her to read the document carefully wasn’t without reason.
‘With that much information given, she’d probably be curious about what else might be written in it. She’d read it as soon as we left, even if I didn’t ask her to.’
What was written there were instructions on what to do if the navy arrived. Of course, the finer details would have been handled well by Isaac, a member of Caelum. But I had a specific request.
‘This way, people are saved, and things work out for me. Two birds with one stone.’
Among Odlo Island’s administrators, anyone who had seen our faces was bound and loaded onto the ship. This was to throw them overboard in the middle of the sea.
In other words, the people left behind were those who hadn’t seen us at all, those who simply had a drink and fell asleep. Those individuals would be dealt with as though the oppressed people of Odlo Island had taken care of them.
As for the treatment for Angel addiction, Caelum likely had no intention of making their efforts public…
‘But I can’t let this achievement go unclaimed.’
I wrote very clearly on the inserted paper. The villagers were to testify that a mysterious figure named ‘Etoile’ appeared, created the medicine, and then left.
I even told them it was okay to describe Etoile’s appearance differently. In fact, if their testimonies matched too closely, it would seem suspicious.
‘If they misunderstand me as some sort of enlightened figure, that’s even better. They’ll never be able to find me based on that.’
Etoile was the fake identity I planned to use to register the drug formula with the medical association. Previously, Nereus had given me some money, part of which I sent to Steve to help fabricate an identity and name.
Steve, despite being a priest, is incredibly skilled at handling various odd jobs. That’s what makes him reliable.
The catalyst made from Kacho leaf hadn’t been registered yet, so by the time the navy confirmed the incident at Odlo Island through the 103rd branch and submitted the report to the headquarters, I would apply to register the formula under the name Etoile at the Wittar Medical Association.
While it was a bit regrettable that the fabricated identity couldn’t fully prove its origin or other details, it wasn’t necessary to provide such information for registering the formula.
‘As long as the formula is effective, even a layperson can register it as a pharmaceutical law.’
Of course, such a hastily fabricated identity wouldn’t work for things like banking, but what mattered most was building my achievements. Money could accumulate elsewhere, even if not in the bank.
This was, in its own way, an impressive debut. Creating a valid pharmaceutical formula would make it easier to acquire a license in the future.
‘But before that, I need to prepare the treatment for Steve’s younger sibling.’
While I knew the manufacturing method, there was one issue. One of the ingredients could only be found in ‘Tenus,’ a place referred to as the boundary of the Western Continent—specifically, the area governed by the 6th family, Terminus.
