"Mr. Charles, what are you doing?" Lily, standing on the stove, looked at Charles curiously as he fiddled with the iron pipe.
"Whoosh~" The stove was lit, and white steam came to the other side along the cooling pipe, turning into water droplets and dripping into the cup.
A furnace boils seawater to make fresh water. It is a very simple matter to heat seawater to produce water vapor, cool it and condense it to obtain pure water.
When Lily drank the distilled water, her eyes lit up immediately. "It tastes great, Mr. Charles. You are amazing. You can actually turn sea water into fresh water."
When Lily looked at Charles' heavy face, her ears that had just stood up drooped again, "Mr. Charles, we have water, why are you still not happy?"
Charles' hand stroked her furry head, "It's not that simple."
Everyone knows how to distill water, not only Charles, but also the humans in Earthsea. However, there is a reason why no one does it.
There is plenty of seawater, but it takes a lot of fuel to decompose it.
Their goal was not to get water to drink, but to escape from their current predicament, and the Narwhal was also running low on fuel.
Exchanging fuel for fresh water is just like exchanging one hand for another. Without fresh water, the crew will die of thirst. However, without fuel, the Narwhal cannot move and still cannot escape the dilemma of dying of thirst.
“How is it…?” The sound of Bandage floated over from the kitchen door.
Bandage's words instantly made the atmosphere in the kitchen extremely depressing. Lily seemed a little frightened, and her ears trembled slightly.
Charles didn't answer, but turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Bandage followed him silently.
On the empty deck, Charles looked at everything in the darkness outside.
The dark environment all around was like a huge pot lid pressing down on people, making it hard to breathe.
"Even if fresh water and fuel are converted into each other, we can only last for 16 days at most. If there is no water, we can still hold on for 3 days. The probability of us finding the island within 19 days is too low..." Charles said to himself while looking at the dark sea.
"You... haven't answered... my... question..."
Charles looked unwilling, but under the current circumstances, it seemed that this was the only way.
"Can you tell me what that method does? Can the god Futan send our ship back to Hope Island Pier in an instant?"
“The Mighty One… accepts the gift… His servants… will show us the way…”
Charles held the edge of the boat tightly with both hands. These were all nonsense. The most important point he never asked was that there were only ten people on the boat, so who would be the gift
As if he could sense what Charles was thinking, Bandage said, "I... have chosen... the target... the cook is one... Linda... and a sailor. We... can wait until they are asleep at night... and then... take action..."
"No need." Charles frowned. He didn't want to make this decision unless it was absolutely necessary.
The life and death of the crew members rested on his shoulders. Charles opened and closed his mouth. Just as he hesitated, a trembling low roar came from the distance.
"There's something ahead. I'm going to turn the rudder." Charles turned and walked towards the cockpit. In the end, he still didn't answer Bandage's questions.
The Narwhal changed direction, avoiding the thing's location, and continued to wander aimlessly on the dark sea.
Thick dark circles hung on Charles' face. He had hardly slept in the past few days, and there were still unusual movements in his head.
He knew that whether he agreed to the sacrifice or not, he had to make a decision. If he delayed any further he would be trapped and die at sea.
There was an indescribable complex emotion on each of their faces, and they knew what this was going to do without asking.
Charles' eyes swept across their faces one by one, watching them avoid his gaze. At this moment, his lips seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
"Hmm~" The strange low humming sound came again from the distance.
Charles raised his hand, and the Narwhal moved to the other side tacitly.
Just as Charles was about to announce this cruel information to the crew, his pupils shrank slightly and he turned his head to look in the direction of the voice. He suddenly felt that the voice was very familiar.
"Wait, maybe we have other options!" A hint of excitement appeared on Charles' face.
The crew members returned to their posts, and the propeller pushed the Narwhal towards the direction of the sound.
The white mist dissipated, and a round mountain appeared on the water in front of him. Looking at such a huge thing, the crew members instinctively felt a tremor.
Lily was so scared that she shrank into Charles' clothes. "Mr. Charles, let's go, let's go, that's a god!!"
"No, that's not a god." Charles answered firmly.
As soon as he finished speaking, a column of water gushed out from the center of the mountain, and it began to rain for the first time over the Narwhal.
"That's the Levi's whale, our hope for survival." Charles found a way to survive. The whale contains a large amount of whale oil that can be used as fuel. As long as he keeps it, the fuel problem will be solved.
At this moment, the huge fin hit the water surface, and the whale's body slowly sank into the water. "Hurry up! Don't let it go down!"
"Boom!!" The sound of the Narwhal's cannon suddenly rang out, and a bright firework exploded on the whale's body.
The huge whale trembled violently, and its roar became extremely loud in an instant. It was enraged by the bombardment on itself, and it swung its tail and rushed towards the Narwhal with overwhelming momentum.
Faced with a giant fish that was twice as big as the Narwhal, Charles certainly didn't dare to take it head-on. He quickly turned the steering wheel to get the ship out of the whale's reach.
Just as the Narwhal was about to avoid the whale's impact, the huge fish tail swung over and hit the ship with a "bang". The whole ship shook violently, and the crew members flew into the air and hit the ship.
Along with a creaking sound, the left side of the Narwhal suddenly caved in.
Charles didn't care about that. He held on to the rudder tightly to prevent the boat from capsizing.
"Lily, don't stop!! Keep using the cannon to shoot him!"
The rats rolling around on the deck quickly rushed towards the deck gun.
Soon, as the muzzle turned, the sound of cannon sounded again, and endless shells exploded on the whale in the distance.
Not long after, Levi Whale's body was full of holes and bleeding from the shells.
But even so, the whale could still move. It opened its huge mouth and let out a deafening roar, which was filled with rage.
(End of this chapter)