Chapter 479: Rescue Operation (2/2)

It was Hourai Island’s special Pelshika juice, which could restore the mana in one’s body upon drinking it. Reiko also handed her a healing salve at the same time.

As for the last remaining one, Noir cleared away the rubble of structural material, and Ehr carried him to safety. His wounds were tended to by using a healing salve.

“…Is this all of them?”

All of the workers that had been injured during the accident had been treated, and lay at the edge of the dock, in a non-hazardous area. Some of them started to regain consciousness. However, their physical strength hadn’t completely returned to their bodies, so they couldn’t stand up yet.

After tending to the most severely injured workers, they went to take a look at the other injured people. Since their injuries weren’t too threatening, a healing salve for each would suffice.

“Reiko and Neon, you should go back to the site and take a good look. If there’s any section that seems to be about to collapse, please let me know.”

“Understood. …Let’s go, Neon.”

“Yes, Lady Reiko!”

Recently, Neon had started to call Reiko “Lady Reiko”. She cheerfully followed Reiko on their way back to the site of the accident.

“That place over there seems dangerous. But it’s not so serious that it warrants bothering Father. I’ll fix it myself. ‘Joint’.”

Reiko reinforced a small section of the scaffolding that seemed to be about to come crumbling down. After seeing that, Neon became absolutely thrilled.

“Whoa, you can use Engineering Magic too, Lady Reiko?”

“Well, only a little bit.”

“Amazing! I’m impressed! You’re truly something else!”

When Neon had another upgrade the other day, her control core had been replaced for a new one as well, and from that moment on, she started to behave in a more emotional manner.

Apparently, back in the day, emotional programs were created to go along low-quality control cores. The recent upgrade had caused Neon to become easily excitable, akin to Berthie’s high-spirited nature.

“I think she’s much cuter now, so that’s okay.”

Berthie was very pleased with the change.

On the other hand, Reiko had been set to prioritize a calm state of mind to better suit her duties as an assistant, so there was a certain contrast to Reiko and Neon’s interactions, which Berthie thought was adorable.

Now, returning to the story…

Reiko and Neon continued to explore the accident site.

They decided to go take a look around the ship that was under construction.

The total length of the ship was about 40 meters, which is about the size of a pleasure cruise in modern Japan. It was exceptionally large for the ships normally found in this world.

“I wonder how it is powered.”

With that in mind, Reiko and Neon went around the ship’s bow and headed to the other side.

There was a bit of debris left on this side as well, and even some scattered and stuck all over the ship’s hull.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

After finishing tending to those who had sustained minor injuries, peace and calm finally returned to the dock.

“Mr. Jin, I can’t thank you enough!”

Eckert bowed wholeheartedly in gratitude to Jin and the others.

“If you all hadn’t been here today, several workers could have lost their lives. You’ve really saved us all.”

The injured were recovering, and there had been no casualties.

After their rescue operation had concluded, Jin looked up to the ship that was under construction.

“…It’s big, isn’t it? It was supposed to be built in secret, but well, now that you’re all here, I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”

Eckert broke the silence as he started talking about the ship that was being built in his dock.

“We are building this in order to allow the town of Coupu to do business with the Egelia and Elias Kingdoms, and the Shouro Empire as well. Once this is complete, we’ll have a ship that can carry our luggage and allow us to sleep inside it. With it, we’ll certainly earn huge profits.”

Eckert’s passion as a merchant was once again burning like fire.

“Currently, there are no checkpoints at sea, and there are no laws that regulate maritime transportation. Besides…”

After a short pause, Eckert continued as if staring into a dream.

“…I want to see the vastness of the ocean with my own two eyes…”

The moment Reinhardt was about to say something in response to that, the dock shook.

Or, to be more precise, the thing that shook was the halfway-built ship.

The pedestal that was holding it in place started to warp and bend, causing the ship to lean towards the floor. Towards Jin and the others.

Someone screamed.

The halfway-built hull, which seemed to weigh about 200 tons, loomed overhead as it began to fall menacingly over Jin and the others in a slow-motion fashion.