Chapter 421: Sailing into the Abyss
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.com
“The Queen’s key?” Agatha’s eyebrows arched in surprise, her fascination evident as she studied Governor Winston’s expression.
Winston looked even more puzzled than Agatha. His eyes widened in alarm, “You weren’t informed? How did you manage to breach the sanctuary’s security?”
A determined look crossed Agatha’s face. The situation seemed to diverge from her original theory that she and Winston, as the only ones capable of entering the impenetrable stone wall, had a unique connection. It now appeared that Winston had his own obscure means of entry.
“I have my ways,” she said, her voice carrying a hint of threat. “But you mentioned a ‘key,’ a keepsake from the Frost Queen. Can you explain its significance?”
Winston scrutinized her, skepticism flickering in his eyes. After a moment of contemplation, he sighed heavily and reached into his chest pocket.
“Given our situation, there’s no point in keeping secrets.”
He pulled out an unusual artifact: a brass key covered with intricate engravings. The handle was shaped like a horizontal “8,” resembling the infinity symbol, and the head was a cylindrical rod marked with a single groove, unlike typical keys.
Agatha examined the key, a sense of déjà vu creeping over her. It resembled keys used to wind up dolls or clockwork toys rather than those for doors or chests.
“A wind-up key?” she murmured. “Are you saying this artifact was given by Queen Ray Nora? And how did a simple governor come to possess it?”
“This key has been passed down from one governor to the next,” Winston admitted, a trace of sorrow in his voice. “It was a gift from the Frost Queen to the rebels. And a curse. From the moment this key came into a governor’s hands, the fate of the Frost Kingdom became entwined with a sinister entity.”
Despite Winston’s disjointed narration, Agatha remained composed. “You concealed the truth about the metal ore mine, didn’t you?”
“If by truth you mean the mine was nearly depleted during the Queen’s reign, then yes, I knew,” Winston sighed. “Forgive me, Agatha. I hoped time would grant us the resources to repair our situation before it worsened. I wished your discovery would reveal an abandoned mine, and Frost would maintain its prosperity.”
“I demand transparency, Governor,” Agatha’s voice was firm. “If the mine was exhausted decades ago, what have we been mining and exporting? And what connection exists between the recent disturbances, the cultists’ behavior, and the mine’s depletion?”
“We are extracting metallic ore, Gatekeeper,” Winston explained. “The ground is rich in pure ore, and the cargo we’ve shipped is genuine ore. It’s not hazardous waste. We’ve analyzed it thoroughly, just as our predecessors did. If it looks, behaves, and yields like metallic ore, then it is metallic ore.”
“Authentic metallic ore?” Agatha was incredulous. “But the mine was depleted decades ago, and the ore we’re extracting now…”
“That’s the paradox,” Winston said, a melancholic smile on his face. “The vein was exhausted, yet new ores replenish the mine, as if an alternate ‘Frost’ is pouring its bounty into our reality.”
Agatha processed the revelations, her mind wrestling with the staggering truth. “The Mirror Frost, Governor, are you suggesting its existence? This phantom city is corroding and replacing our tangible world.”
A change swept across Winston’s face. After a long silence, he sighed, “So this is the price we pay for the metallic ore.”
“Price? The cost is borne not just by you and me, but the entire city, most of whom remain unaware…”
“But they enjoy the benefits of the ore trade,” Winston countered. “In this harsh, frost-ravaged city, the ore fuels warmth and prosperity. Strip us of it, and a brutal winter would consume a quarter of our populace. Survivors would revert to a bleak era, losing more each year.”
“Gatekeeper, you carry the same exhaustion as I do. Perhaps it’s time we acknowledged that our city-state resembles a steam engine speeding towards a chasm. The difference between the city’s caretakers and the common folk is that they journey through life blindfolded, while we travel with our eyes wide open to the truth.”
Agatha brushed aside Winston’s cynicism. She stood defiant, feeling the relentless chill battling her defenses, sensing her blood turning to frigid slush.
Finally, she broke the silence, “Someone dared to blaze a new trail.”
“Yes, the Frostians called her the Frost Queen, history calls her the Mad Queen,” Winston laughed, unsure if at the Queen or himself. “She dared to challenge the sea, to face the monster in its abyss.”
“The Abyss Plan,” Agatha murmured, piecing together historical fragments. “It wasn’t just an exploration initiative. The Frost Queen sought to uncover the enigmas beneath our city.”
“We don’t know why she linked the regenerating ore to the deep sea, but she was on the right track. The failure of the Abyss Plan and her grim fate validated her suppositions,” Winston said. “Truth breeds insanity, insanity leads to failure, and every step towards the goal is a step towards the abyss.”
Winston sighed.
“She aimed to reveal the truth about the mine, to face the hidden dangers threatening our city, to pit herself against the sea… Noble ambitions, but she hastened her inevitable descent.”
“So, you successors chose not to follow her and pretended ignorance, barreling towards the abyss on this doomed train. And the Frost Queen, who tried to halt or divert this course, was caricatured as a madwoman, trapped by subspace.”
“The old Frostian adage—The departed should make way for the living,” Winston met Agatha’s eyes. “If her tarnished portrayal could expedite Frost’s stability post-crisis, she’d likely not protest.”
Agatha tried to respond but found her words trapped.
After a pause, she could only shake her head.
“But how did the key find its way into the first governor’s hands?”
See? What’s the point of sacrificing yourself for people like that governor, if you were their supposed supreme leader? If the ore depletes, people of Frost can migrate somewhere else, or stay and die from hunger and cold. Getting transformed into some living sludge looks like a poor alternative to either. I hope Alice won’t attain any memories of that queen with their accompanying burden of responsibilities.
From an onlooker’s perspective, your logic stands firm, but have you forgotten that the world they live in is an unforgiving one? They live in city-states, surrounded by the unfathomable sea, and the shadows that lurks underneath. Migrate where? Can you even picture an entire city-state migration? And wdym just stay and die? The story is about people who persisted through the most trying times, and your suggestion is they should just die? Again, the story is about people surviving in an apocalyptic world thru any means necessary. Its also about one’s decision and the consequences that follows it. Like the wish Vanna’s uncle made to the abyss. There’s a price to everything, the leaders wanted their people to live, now the bill is knocking on their front door. (Also its not like the eldritch entity that lives beneath their city, along with the heretics would just sit on the sideline and watch quietly)
The fire of mankind requires kindling
“People can migrate somewhere else”
Yeah, because migration doesn’t need money, especially when you have to abandon your hard-earned land and assets. No money, no problem, right? Those sailors will transport them for free. Or maybe the Church and the government will bankrupt themselves just so they can be a bunch of homeless refugees in another city-state?
Not to mention the danger they’ll have to brave, crossing the sea. Yeah, totally easy, just migrate somewhere, right? Idiot
Wow. This is so amazing. The Queen noticed the ore vein was depleted, but it still could produce ore. And somehow found out that the source of this problem was deep inside the Boundless Sea. She decide to investigate it. The heretics soon found out and tried to stop her by ‘hypnotized’ the whole City state, and used the rebels’ hand to execute her. But she also knew this would happen so she created 3 plans to stop or slowed down the heretics’ plan.
1. Created second waterway as a hideout for her royal guards to battle the heretics
2. Sent her royal guards to the mirror Frost to fight the heretics
3. Ordered the Sea Mist Fleet away from Frost, and when the time came, ordered Tyrian to protect the City.
WOW, I still don’t believe her when she said she wasn’t a clairvoyant at all.
Don’t forget she also commissioned a replica of the vanished, likely to allow the vanished to pass between the real world and the mirror realm.
It’s something that was mentioned in passing when he witnessed her execution.