Aron, Baron’s son, was bored.
The reason was the storm.
A few days earlier, word had come that a storm was on its way, and the whole village had begun preparing for it.
Aron, together with his friends, had secured the school building firmly with ropes and cloth so it wouldn’t be blown away. After that, he had gone home and helped his mother tie down their house with ropes as well.
Then he and his friends had holed up in the shelter.
Beyond that, the adults had said it was too dangerous for children and gone on with the storm preparations themselves.
While he was playing with his friends in the shelter, kicking around a ball made from a pig’s bladder, the shelter door suddenly flew open.
Bang!
“Eek!!! You scared me!!!”
“Huh? Nibel, where did you go?”
Standing there was their friend Nibel, soaked to the bone by the rain.
Nibel approached the children with a confident grin.
“Hey! From today on, you’re all to address me as Lord Nibel!”
Striding in with great self-importance, Nibel showed Aron and the others what he held in his hand.
In his palm lay a small stone like a blue jewel, a 『Sea Stone』.
“Th-this is a Sea Stone, isn’t it!?”
“Whoa!! Nibel!!! Where did you get this!?”
“Where else? From the sea! Hehe.”
『Sea Stone』
It was a rare gem that could sometimes be found on the storm-lashed shores of Cron.
The children were amazed and fascinated that Nibel had brought back the jewel they had only ever heard about.
Aron, who remembered hearing the adults say long ago that a single one of those could let a family eat bacon all year round, asked Nibel,
“Nibel! Can I get one too if I go to the sea?”
“You can find them if you go to the beach, but… cowards like you lot would have a hard time. Kekeke.”
Nibel looked outside the shelter door.
Outside, with the storm nearly upon them, violent wind and rain were raging.
Seeing that it was in no state to go out, most of the children’s faces fell.
But only one of them, Aron, kept staring beyond the door into the storm.
A short while later, Aron made up his mind.
* * *
The storm arrived at the territory.
Gray rain clouds that blanketed the sky poured down water like mad,
and a powerful wind, strong enough to send boulders flying, began to tear through the land.
I had seen it in Calix’s memories, but in reality, it was truly damn awful.
It reminded me of when I had experienced Typhoon Maemi in my previous life.
That had been truly damn awful too…
Whoooooosh!!!!
“My lord! It’s dangerous now! Please return inside the castle!”
I was making one last round of the territory, checking for any unforeseen situations.
Only Chief Administrator Hart, Knight Ricain, and my advisor Noah were following me around through the storm.
Hart was old, but he had forced himself to come along because he was worried about me, and the storm seemed genuinely hard on him.
Just as I thought this should be enough and was about to return to the castle, I began to see the people of the territory in the distance.
“Aron!!!!”
“Aron!!!! My baby!!!!”
The people who should have been in the shelter began coming out one by one, shouting someone’s name.
Feeling a chill run down my spine, I rode straight toward them.
“What is going on! Why have you come out instead of staying in the shelter!!”
“Well… that is…”
When I appeared, a man who looked like one of the workers of our territory seemed at a loss.
Then a woman who appeared to be his wife grabbed my trousers with a desperate face and cried out with a truly wretched expression.
“Aron!! My son has disappeared!!”
“What!?”
It was the voice of a mother gripped by terror.
That one sentence was enough.
Grasping the situation, I shouted,
“Hart!!! Send out everyone who can move!!”
“R-right now, my lord!?”
“If not now, when do you plan to send them out!!! Hurry!!”
The thing I had feared most had happened.
Shit!!
After ordering Hart and Ricain to gather the workers and knights and search for the child, I immediately turned my horse around.
“My lord!! Where are you going!?”
“Just in case, I’ll go to the beach first!! Hyah!!!!”
“My lord! It’s dangerous!! My lord!!!!”
With bad memories rising in my mind, I galloped toward the shore.
* * *
At that moment, on the beach,
Aron was fighting desperately in the storm.
“Just a little… just a little… more…”
Taking advantage of the moment when the adults in the shelter had looked away, Aron had slipped out and headed for the beach.
Because of the storm, it felt as though he might be blown away, but he could still walk well enough, and Aron ran to the stretch of shore Nibel had told him about.
And there, in the gray sea, he saw the blue glow of a Sea Stone.
To grab the Sea Stone that seemed just barely about to wash up onto the beach, Aron waded into the water until it reached his waist.
The waves were strong, but he could endure them.
All he had to do was grab that Sea Stone and return to the shelter like Nibel had.
Then his friends would acknowledge him, and he could be of help to his family too.
Thinking that, he stretched his hand out one last time…
Swaaaaaash!!!!!!
“Uwaaaaaah!!!!!”
A wave twice Aron’s height swallowed him in an instant.
It happened so suddenly that Aron didn’t even understand what had occurred.
All he knew was that, all at once, he could not breathe,
and the whole world had turned upside down and begun shaking him.
In his consciousness, growing blurrier and blurrier…
Aron was simply… afraid.
* * *
I had a younger brother.
He was four years younger than me, but for his age, he learned to talk quickly and started walking early too.
Thanks to that, my little brother grew up receiving all the love of our family.
I still remember.
He would follow me around, calling, “Big brother, big brother,” and the way he toddled after me was so cute that I would deliberately run ahead to make him chase me as a prank.
Then he would fall, and I would get scolded by Mom. I remembered it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.
Then came the day the storm arrived.
Our family lived near the sea.
My father was a little late returning from fishing, so my mother went to the beach because she was worried about him.
Worried about my mother, I told my little brother never to leave the house and went to the beach to find her.
I thought that much would be all right.
My little brother was four by then, and he understood what people told him. He knew that outside was dangerous too.
So I left him at home alone without worry and ran after my mother to the beach.
And that day…
My little brother disappeared into the waves.
“Hyah! Hyah!!”
“Whoooooosh!!!!”
When I whipped the horse and arrived at the beach in an instant, there was no sign of anyone.
Only the fierce wind and waves, and the gray surf and sea, were visible.
But there, I saw a single blue light.
“Puhah! Puhah!!”
Far out in the water, quite a distance from the shore, I saw a child flailing.
“Kid!! Stay with me!! Kid!!!”
“Puhah! Hah, hah! Puhah!!”
As if he could not hear me, the child was simply struggling with all his might to survive.
Each time, the blue jewel clutched in his hand flashed in and out of sight.
The sea was telling me.
This child did not have much life left.
“……………”
My little brother, who had disappeared into the waves that day, returned as a cold doll.
His hands and feet were as cold as ice, and no matter how much I called him, he did not answer.
Even when I said I would give him the toy he had wanted for some time…
Even when I said I would give him the candy I had saved to eat myself…
My little brother did not answer.
I still remembered it vividly.
My father howled.
My mother wailed until her voice broke.
I remembered those sounds even now.
And now I had to watch the same thing again?
Did I have to see a child become a cold doll right before my eyes again?
If seeing that again was the price I had to pay for being reincarnated…
Then it would be better to just die here.
I took off my clothes.
And I leapt into the sea.
* * *
A short while later, people arrived at the beach.
Hart, Noah, Aron’s parents, and all the people of Cron who could move had come searching for Aron.
“My lord!!”
“Aron!! My baby!!!!”
When Hart saw Calix’s horse on the beach, his face turned ashen.
The horse was there, but Calix, the lord, was nowhere to be seen.
And Baron and his wife also went deathly pale.
“That is…”
Their eyes fell upon a single child’s shoe on the beach.
How could they ever forget it?
It was Aron’s leather shoe, the one Baron had bought him with his first double day’s wages.
“No… no! No! No!!!!”
“My baby!!!! My baby!!!! No!! No!!!!!!!”
If a shoe had washed out of the sea, it meant one thing.
And falling into the sea in this weather meant death.
Baron’s wife… Aron’s mother, howled and tried to run into the water.
Unable to lose his wife as well, Baron cried out as he held her back.
Everyone thought it.
That Aron must have died… that the sea… the storm must have devoured him…
Thinking so, though no one said it aloud, they were giving up.
At that moment, a miracle occurred.
“What is that…?”
Noah was the first to find it.
Something was shining on the beach, mixed in with the gray light.
It was familiar silver hair.
A silver figure emerged from the shore, holding something tightly in his arms.
It was Calix and Aron.
“My lord!!”
“Lord Calix!”
Seeing Calix, Hart and Noah immediately ran toward him.
Before the two could say anything, Calix shouted,
“I’m fine! More importantly, a doctor! Call a doctor!!”
After coming out of the water, Calix laid Aron down on the beach.
The child’s body was limp, and his eyes were closed.
“Please… please…”
Kneeling on both knees, I checked Aron’s mouth.
There was no breath.
No consciousness either.
But still… it was not too late yet.
I overlapped my palms and placed them in the center of Aron’s chest.
After drawing a deep breath, I calmly began compressions.
“One… two… three…”
I pressed down on his chest with an accurate, steady rhythm.
Each time his small, fragile breastbone sank beneath my hands, Calix’s eyebrows trembled faintly.
There would be no mistakes.
I had imagined it countless times.
Regretting the tragedy of that day, I had practiced CPR again and again and again.
There was no way I would make a mistake.
So get up, kid…
Get up… get up, damn it!!
“Cough!”
At that moment.
A small cough rang out.
And Aron’s body twitched faintly.
“Cough!! Cough!!!”
“Aron!? Aron!!!”
Aron turned his head and began vomiting seawater.
His breathing returned, rough but unmistakable.
I stopped for an instant, then cupped the child’s face in both hands.
I could definitely feel warmth.
The child was alive.
“Mo…m…?”
“My baby! My precious baby!! Thank goodness!! If something had happened to you!! Mommy would have!! Mommy would have!!!”
Aron’s mother ran toward Aron, who had regained consciousness.
She touched her child’s hands and feet again and again, confirming over and over that her baby was alive.
Baron, who ran over with her and confirmed that Aron was safe, shed water that might have been tears or rain.
Then, on the sandy ground, he bowed his head to Calix again and again.
“Thank you!!!! My lord!! Truly…! Truly!!! Thank you!!!!”
Calix, all strength leaving him, stared blankly at the scene.
Then he quietly approached Aron, who had come to his senses.
Aron sat dazed in his mother’s arms, looking as though he had no idea what was going on.
“I’m glad you’re alive, kid…”
Calix simply stroked Aron’s head several times.
Then, as he tried to turn back, he swayed as if his strength had given out.
Stagger.
“My lord!!”
Noah, who had been closest to Calix, supported his body.
His body was as cold as ice.
Had this man saved a child in such a state?
Noah could not hide his shock and astonishment, and Calix said,
“I’m sorry, Noah… Help me walk.”
“Yes… my lord…”
Thus, with Noah’s help, Calix struggled back.
Everyone gathered there that day saw it.
The figure of their lord…
The sight of his back as he walked away, weak enough to collapse at any moment…
That figure was more powerless and shabby than anything.
And more noble and beautiful than anything.
“My lord…”
“My lord……”
And at that moment, without anyone ordering them to, one person, then another, began to kneel.
They themselves did not know why.
They only felt that they had no choice but to do so.
It felt as though looking directly at that man would make them commit a sin they would bear for the rest of their lives.
The people of Cron, whether in small ways or great, had lost something to the storms.
And they had thought that was only natural.
Because they had been taught that such was the life of powerless commoners, living day by day.
But today, that changed.
That young lord had taught them that it was not natural, and that there were things precious enough to risk one’s life for.
That day…
The people of Cron were saved by him.