Chapter 117

Chapter 117: The City Museum

Getting off the carriage and stepping onto the stone square in front of the City Museum, Heidi could not help taking a deep breath. The cool, slightly salty sea wind blew past, as if it also blew away the fatigue and anxiety she had built up after working for so long without a break, bringing her a trace of ease.

This young psychiatrist had not taken a day off for almost a month. Lately she had been dealing with raving, deranged cultists almost every day. She even felt that the madness in those cultists’ heads was slowly infecting her own mind, leaving her fighting insomnia and bad dreams every night.

Thankfully, today she finally did not have to think about those mad cultists and their twisted, diseased minds.

Another gust of sea wind blew in from the end of the street, stirring the hem of Heidi’s dress. She raised a hand to press down her long skirt and the wide-brimmed hat on her head, then looked up at the large white building ahead, with its sleek dome and pretty side wings.

This maritime City Museum in the Crossroad District was one of the largest museums in the city-state of Pland—and also one of the most legendary.

Heidi walked toward the City Museum. Not far away, a guide was explaining the museum’s background to a group of visitors. The guide’s rather carrying voice drifted into Heidi’s ears:

“…This large building, built in 1802, was originally the property of the Parr Brothers Oceanic Trade Company. At its height, as Pland’s largest storage center, it handled astonishing amounts of wealth and was seen as a symbol of the city-state’s peak of commercial prosperity. But a great upheaval in 1822 completely changed the fate of this building…”

Someone asked at just the right moment: “What happened back then?”

“They say—just a rumor, mind you—that one of the Parr Brothers’ ocean-going cargo ships ran into a strange dense fog on its way back to port. In that fog, the unlucky ship saw a ghost ship wreathed in flames and passed right by it…

“That cargo ship somehow escaped the fog and even returned safely to the Harbor. But the mad shadows stayed in the hearts of every crew member on board and quickly spread through the Parr Brothers’ entire fleet. In the months that followed, every ship under their name began to suffer terrible disasters. Crew members kept mutinying and disappearing. Some even performed bloody sacrifices to please some unknown deity…

“…Ships on long voyages hit storms on seas that should have been calm, or struck icebergs in warm waters. Mutinous sailors blew up explosives on board, sabotaged boilers, even hunted down their own crewmates… Disasters like that kept happening, and in the end they completely ruined the Parr Brothers’ business, forcing their ocean trade company to file for bankruptcy restructuring at the end of the same year…

“After that, the Parr Brothers divided up what remained of the company’s assets and donated part of it to the city-state’s authority, including this building in front of us… It then went through several renovations and changes of function. Until in 1855, it was finally converted into a maritime City Museum, and has remained so to this day.

“They say that even today, the shadows from nearly a century ago still wander this maritime City Museum… The shadows of the Parr Brothers sometimes return to the museum and stop for a while in their old office. Or staff in the old ocean trade uniforms appear in the exhibition halls and ask confusedly for directions to the office area…

“Of course, of course! These are only rumors. The inside of the City Museum has already been inspected and blessed by Church priests, and a squad of Guardians is stationed here to make sure no supernatural disasters break out. Everyone can visit with peace of mind—but if any of you really are interested in those spooky stories, you can try the ‘Adventure Chamber’ in the side wing of the museum. Before going into the chamber, though, you have to go to the Cathedral on the square for a temporary baptism and a will test…”

The voices of the guide and the tourists slowly faded. Heidi moved past the crowd toward the front, but suddenly her steps felt a bit heavy.

An ocean trade warehouse from a century ago. Distant sea fog that brought disaster. A fleet under a curse. Shadows wandering in the City Museum…

Heidi had been dealing with cultists every day lately and had heard plenty of “rumors” through various official channels. She suddenly felt that choosing the City Museum as a sightseeing spot for her day off might not have been a good idea… With this time, she might as well go wander around the Lower City instead, or let herself be talked into it by her father and go visit that strange antique shop.

But after less than two seconds of hesitation, the young psychiatrist suddenly made up her mind. She strode toward the main entrance of the City Museum.

Telling just the right amount of spooky stories when introducing a spot was a common trick for guides. More than half the horror tales in this world involved sea fog, ghost ships, and mutinous sailors. If the City Museum had its ghost stories, the antique shop might have things even scarier than ghosts—could a psychiatrist who dealt with lunatics all day really be afraid of that?

No one could stop her from enjoying this hard-won day off! Not even an Eldritch God from Subspace!

With her resolve firm and her steps light as the wind, Miss Psychiatrist strode through the ticket gate like a warrior marching off to battle, passed through the doors of the City Museum, and stepped into this ancient building that had stood for nearly a century.

There were fewer visitors inside the City Museum than she had expected. Perhaps because it was not a public holiday, the first-floor hall even felt a little empty.

A few members of the museum’s mental guidance staff were helping confused visitors find the route to the main exhibits. At the far end of the first-floor hall, a towering wall held the huge skeleton of a whale and fine models of all kinds of sea vessels. A guide dressed as a captain was explaining the early age of sailing warships to several children.

Two girls who looked only sixteen or seventeen, probably still in school, were walking together toward the door that led to the main exhibition area. They chatted and laughed along the way, looking very close.

The lighting in the hall was bright, and the atmosphere was pleasant.

Heidi let out a small breath of relief and followed behind the two young girls, walking toward the hall of the main exhibits, ready to enjoy this quiet time.

Then she caught a faint strange smell.

It smelled… as if something was burning…

…

Near the Crossroad District, Duncan stepped off a steam bus. He bought a light magazine at a nearby newsstand, planning to use it to pass some time.

His investigation around the factory ruins had not made much progress. After Shirley and Dog left, he wandered around the Sixth District for a long time and asked the locals about various things. But clearly, citizens who were ordinary people could not possibly glimpse the truth behind the Veil. The residents of the Sixth District only remembered the little bit of information the authorities had released. Everyone believed the district’s decline was caused by chemical corruption left behind by the factory and by the city-state authority’s neglect. It was no different from what that old man sunning himself had told him.

The truth was covered by the Veil. Records in the Mortal Realm had been altered, and what the city-state authority released was only the information after it had been edited. But Duncan could not decide, based on this alone, that the Veil had been created by Pland’s City Hall or the Church—for in a world where supernatural phenomena existed, a powerful Anomaly or Vision could just as easily blind everyone.

In the face of powerful Anomalies and Visions, even the so-called “Mortal Realm” was a canvas that could be smeared over and rewritten.

Now it seemed that the source of that “Veil” was not in the factory at all, and might not even be in the Sixth District. If this so-called “source” was the fragment of the Sun, then it should be hidden somewhere even deeper.

The investigation could not continue before he had more leads.

Duncan sat down on a bench by the street. He read the light magazine absentmindedly while thinking about what to do next.

Those Suntists were searching for the fragment of the Sun, throwing the city-state into turmoil. Nina’s memories and dreams vaguely pointed toward that fragment. She was very likely connected to it in some way. And through the Sun mask, he had glimpsed the Sun’s true form. That unspeakable thing, shaped like an Eldritch God, had already seen him and had called to him for help…

Before he knew it, he seemed to have fallen into a tangled skein of threads.

The city-state of Pland was his first landing point in the civilized world. He had thought it was a peaceful, prosperous, and tranquil place, but he had not expected this “first stop” to be so far from peaceful.

Duncan sighed and shook his head slightly. Just then, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a strange column of smoke rising above a nearby block.

Within the smoke, firelight faintly leaped.

Duncan froze for a moment and rose from the bench. He noticed that many other people on the street had seen the smoke and flames as well. Many pedestrians stopped in their tracks. Then he saw someone run across the street in a panic and heard a shout:

“It’s on fire! the City Museum is on fire!!”