The moment Lillilu carried Yemu back to the deck, everyone rushed over anxiously.
"Brother Yemu!?"
"Captain!"
"Yemu, you..."
Looking at Yemu lying on Lillilu's back, everyone voiced their worry and tension in their own way.
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
As Yemu spoke, he reached out a hand. Flare hurried over, took it, and helped him sit up against her.
Yemu gave Flare a grateful look, then smiled reassuringly at the others.
"Relax. Other than feeling like my body's been hollowed out, I don't feel anything else wrong."
Even with him saying that, there was no way everyone could relax. Ayala had already rushed over in a panic to check his injuries and bandage his wounds.
At that point, Enel also let out a sigh of relief and brought up something else.
"Tiger and Erik went to look for that guy's body and those two swords. Hope they make it in time."
"Don't worry. Don't underestimate the vitality of a monster at that level. Oh, and send Ayala along when they extract it too. Just in case, we still need a bit of luck."
"Mm."
Enel nodded seriously.
Just then, they heard a unified sound from the deck behind them.
Everyone turned to look and saw Dana standing in front beside a tall, slender man. Behind them, all of their tribespeople had knelt down and bowed until their foreheads touched the deck.
The tall, slender man spoke in a strong voice full of gratitude.
"Our benefactors, please accept the Harrot Tribe's most sincere thanks. If not for all of you, our Harrot Tribe... would likely have vanished from this world along with Treasure Island."
Beside him, Dana's eyes were brimming with tears as well.
"Please don't worry. We'll honor our promise. No matter how much treasure you want, the Harrot Tribe will gather it, even if we have to give everything we have."
Yemu did not bring up the treasure first. Instead, he looked at the man beside Dana, at least two meters tall, with extremely lean but powerful limbs, his long hair tied into neat dreadlocks falling behind him, and asked,
"And this is?"
"This is Uncle Modlin Cartnip. Cartnip is the surname of our Harrot Tribe, and Uncle Modlin is the captain of our guards. After my father and mother died of illness, Uncle Modlin has been the one taking care of me and all the people of the Harrot Tribe."
Dana spoke with gratitude.
But when the man named Modlin heard that, he looked deeply ashamed and did not even dare raise his head.
"No... I'm not fit to be captain of the guards. I'm far too weak. I couldn't protect anyone."
"That's not your fault, Uncle Modlin. They were just too strong."
"That's no excuse. As captain of the guards, it was my duty to protect everyone, but... I could only watch as they fell one by one... If not for the benefactors you brought back, Dana..."
As Modlin finished speaking, it seemed to stir up painful memories for the Harrot Tribe, and one after another, they began to cry in sorrow.
Yemu did not like that kind of atmosphere, so he spoke up.
"You can talk about that later. Right now, let's discuss the reward. I never said I saved you for treasure or anything like that..."
Yemu's words pulled the Harrot Tribe out of their grief.
Even though what he said sounded a little dangerous, Dana looked at the pirate's companions in front of her, none of whom seemed like bad people, and said hesitantly,
"Well... whatever your request is, as long as we can do it, we will."
"Anything at all?"
Yemu asked, eyes lighting up.
The moment the words left her mouth, Dana seemed to realize what she had just said, and a faint blush rose to her face. At the same time, Yemu felt a sharp pain at his waist. When he turned to look, Flare had an innocent expression on her face, but the hand at his side had not stopped moving.
Yemu dropped the joking mood and said seriously,
"All right, no more joking. Now that Treasure Island has been destroyed, where are you planning to settle?"
The moment those words came out, the Harrot Tribe all looked lost.
They had never even considered that question. Many of them had never left the island since the day they were born and knew nothing at all about the outside world.
Then Yemu's voice rang out again.
"Looks like you don't have an answer. In that case, would you be willing to come to my country?"
The Harrot Tribe all froze, but soon a trace of joy appeared on their faces.
Now that they had become a people the World Government wanted erased, they really had almost nowhere left to go.
If they could become subjects under a pirate with such overwhelming strength, maybe that really was the best option.
Dana and Modlin's eyes lit up as well, and they spoke in great excitement.
"Is that really possible?"
"Of course it is. But there's one thing I have to make clear first."
Dana, Modlin, and even the rest of the Harrot Tribe had already prepared themselves to accept some kind of conditions, but Yemu's next words left them stunned.
"That country doesn't exist yet."
"What?!"
But Yemu did not give them time to react before continuing.
"You've seen it yourselves. There are many companions of other races on my ship. For all our futures, the dream we're striving toward is a country where every race can live together in peace."
"As for how to build that country, there were originally two possible paths. One was to overthrow a rotten nation, seize it, and build a new country on that foundation. The other was to find an uninhabited island and start from nothing. Both have their pros and cons, but your appearance has made up my mind to choose the second path."
"It may be the harder road, but it comes with far fewer obstacles. On a blank land, we can write the story of our own country with our own hands."
"So now, Harrot Tribe, are you willing to become the first citizens of that country and help me build it?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Dana and Modlin answered, eyes shining.
"Whether for your kindness, Captain Yemu, or for the future of the Harrot Tribe, we have no reason to refuse. So, Your Majesty, please allow the Harrot Tribe to live upon your land."
"Your Majesty?"
Even Yemu looked a little surprised by the title, though it did not sound bad.
"Then, welcome..."
In an instant, everyone's faces were filled with hope for the future.
At that point, after thinking for a moment, Yemu said,
"Since we've made our decision, there's one thing we need to settle first, where our future country will be built... We already picked out some candidate locations before, but looking at things now, we don't have time to inspect them one by one. After all, just feeding several thousand people is already enough to give anyone a headache. So now, Ayala, we'll have to rely on you..."
At Yemu's words, everyone's eyes turned toward the tiny Ayala.
"Use your luck to choose an island for our future country..."
...
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