Sea, Ship, and a Man.

My name is Abelart Hanz Skyward, first son of Duke Skyward of the Conorian Empire. The largest empire in the world.

And you know what's even better? My family is a direct descendant of one of the heroes who saved the world hundreds of years ago.

So of course, every baby born to my family will always be considered as a hero by the empire, including me.

Therefore, I've always been filled with love from the people around me ever since I was born.

I thought they would love me forever, but that all changed when I turned 8 years old.

Apparently, I had a disease called "Dead Heart." And it caused the affected person to be unable to use mana.

The disease isn't actually that rare, and the sufferer can still continue living a normal life.

If they were just an ordinary people.

Unfortunately, I'm a hero, and a hero without mana is a useless hero.

Or at least, that's what the people around me thought.

My life started to change.

My parents wouldn't talk to me, my sister wouldn't play with me, my fiancé avoided me, and people started being cold to me.

At first, I thought it was no big deal, so I kept practicing thinking that my parents would come back to notice me if I got stronger.

But no matter how much I practiced, and how much I improved, it was all for nothing because I still couldn't use the sword techniques that had been passed down from my family.

So my days of solitude continued, I thought my situation couldn't get any worse.

But when I turned 15, I was kicked out of the house.

My father coldly said.

"You can already survive on your own. Go away and never come back."

Man, looks like he really embarrassed to have a son like me.

Well, it can't be helped. With that, I was officially not a hero anymore. In fact, I wasn't even a Skyward anymore.

My life in the outside world began, and it was much harder than I expected.

As soon as I was kicked out of my home, I naively signed up as an adventurer.

And it didn't work out the way I thought it would. I mean, I thought I'd fit in as an adventurer because I came from a hero family.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case, because of this bloody stupid disease. Even with the skills I've honed over the years it only took me so long to defeat goblins or other weak monsters.

Of course, weak monsters like goblins also came at a price, but the risks and rewards weren't worth it. So I decided to stop being an adventurer.

Why don't I join a party? Look mate, just think, do you think there's a party out there that would accept a "dead heart" person like me?

The answer is obvious.

I had to find another job.

I then tried to apply to be an accountant at some merchant guild, but they only accepted academy graduates.

Having no other choice, I applied as a manual laborer. Or rather, a porter at a merchant guild.

But hey, the job wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The wages weren't much, but they provided lunch and employee-only quarters.

So I'm quite satisfied with my new job.

5 years passed, and my savings were finally enough to buy my own house.

Unfortunately, before I could buy my dream house.

I was arrested by the knights on charges of thievery, unable to do anything, I could only laugh in surrender while being dragged away by them.

And now, I was in a cell inside a ship.

Somehow, all the jails in the region where I was arrested were filled, so I was transferred to the Samarta Kingdom, one of the kingdoms under imperial rule.

It was located on one of the large islands in the Bosias Archipelago, home to thousands of islands and dozens of small kingdoms.

And well, here I was. In the middle of the sea with an uncertain fate, I could only sit in my cell, listening to the sound of the waves outside.

Dying even now doesn't sound so bad.

But yeah, as a human being, I still have the will to live, even if it's just a little.

And now that desire is getting smaller because I realize how weak I am, but I won't give up.

Why? Because my motto is to always live, even if it feels like dying.

I mean come on, who knows what happens later, right? Who knows if it'll be a miracle, even though I don't believe in miracles, but you can only believe in things you don't believe in, right?

Now, I have to get out of here.

The problem is, how?

The cell I'm being held in can even hold someone who can use mana, so forcibly using force to get out of here isn't an option.

In fact, I've been looking for a way out since earlier, but couldn't find one.

"Hmm...?"

I put my hand on my chin to think, but it didn't take long before I gave up.

"Oh, hell. I'm just going to sleep."

Well, instead of thinking about something impossible, I might as well just sleep to pass the time.

------

I don't know how much time had passed, but I woke up to a noise on the deck.

"Ow!"

Because the ship was shaking so hard, I hit my head as I tried to get up.

"There seems to be a pretty strong storm outside."

I rubbed the bump on my head as I walked towards my cell door.

"Hey, guard! What's going on up there?"

No one answered my shout. The guards, who were always at the end of the hallway, disappeared somewhere.

"Hey, do you know what's going on?"

I asked the inmate of the cell in front of me, the man seemed to be awake, so I thought he might know when the guard left.

"No idea, they all suddenly ran upstairs not long after the storm starts."

In other words, whatever happened on deck wasn't a good thing, considering the guards guarding us shouldn't have left this place.

Since it seemed like that guy didn't know much either, I decided to turn back. There was nothing I could do but hope.

A few minutes passed and the commotion on deck still wasn't over.

"Hey, old man. Why did you get caught?"

Bored out of my mind, I decided to start a small talk with my cell mate.

The man raised his head, he looked surprised by my question but he still answered with annoyance.

"Nothing, those bastards suddenly caught me while I was drinking at the bar."

"Oh, really? Same then."

It was nice to find a fellow friend here.

To pass the time, I decided to continue our conversation.

"Don't you find that strange?"

Hearing my question, the man laughed. I felt confused, I didn't know which part of my question was funny.

Perhaps because he sensed my confusion, the man looked at me with an astonished look.

"You really don't know, kid?"

"Nah, enlighten me."

That old man scuffed.

"Hah! You know the empire is at war with the demon race, right?"

Of course I know that, I live in the empire. After all, the war had been going on before I was even born.

"Lately the war has been expanding, and the empire needs a lot of resources, especially weapons and other supplies. Pressured by the empire's demand for supplies, the small kingdoms under it have no choice but to fulfill their demands. But unfortunately, not all of the small kingdoms were able to comply. Now you know the rest, right?"

I see.

So basically, me and the old man, were captured and were going to be used as free slaves, maybe to make weapons or something, who knows.

Hell, I really wanna curse my bad luck.

I thought I was captured because someone at my workplace was jealous and set me up, but it wasn't. I'm sorry my coworkers, I've wronged you.

Alright, now I'm really getting the urge to get out of here.

"Old man, do you know how to get out of here?"

"If I knew, I already got out a long time ago. Besides, this cell is strong enough to hold someone at the intermediate level, not to mention they also gave us mana sealing bracelets. It's impossible to get out of here, kid. Just sleep and leave me alone."

He got a point.

But I don't want to just sit idly by especially when those guards aren't here to watch us, this is a rare opportunity to miss.

I'd rather die trying to escape from here than just sit around and wait to be used as a slave.

"Come on, old man. I don't know who you are, but you definitely want to get out of here, right? So let's work together."

The man sighed. He looks hesitant, but I'm sure, he definitely wants to get out of here.

"Alright, what's your plan?"

"Well, about that-"

*Boom!*

I don't know what happened, but I could feel my body being blown away and my consciousness immediately disappeared.