Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Those Who Guard the Border

A century ago, the Radiant Star, like the Sea Mist, had once been an escort warship of the Vanished.

Yet very few people knew what these two legendary warships had gone through after their break with the Vanished, or how they had step by step become what they were now.

The Sea Mist, under the command of “Steel Vice Admiral” Tyrian, had, after many twists and turns, once become the main warship of the city?state of Frostholm. People called it “the Unsinkable” and “the Breathing Corpse.” That ship had been heavily damaged many times in battle. Yet it was as if an undying soul ruled over it, dragging it back again and again from a fate that should have sunk it for good. After one refit after another that almost broke the rules of shipbuilding, it gradually turned into a steel behemoth.

Legend said that ship even fed directly on steel and seabed ore. During night voyages when no one kept watch on it, it would slowly grow new turrets and armor plates on its own.

As for the Radiant Star, which had passed into the hands of the “Sea Witch” Lucretia, it was wrapped in an even thicker veil of mystery because it rarely approached the civilized world. In truth, apart from a few members of the Explorer Association and the Holy See fleets that often patrolled the border, the ordinary captains on the Boundless Sea had no chance at all to see what this ship looked like.

Those who had been lucky enough to see the Radiant Star described it like this:

“It clearly no longer fully belongs to our Mortal Realm. That ship has truly sunk at least once and has lost half its structure in the Boundless Sea. Half of its hull looks like a ghost, showing its shape from a century ago. The other half, under the power of that witch, has been twisted into strange and bizarre forms. The bow is hung with cursed things from the Deep Sea, and machines and magic equipment clang and rattle everywhere. The crew has long since died. Soulless clockwork automatons and cursed little dolls run about on the deck instead of normal seafarers.

“Without a doubt, that ship is a corpse still sailing the sea—or rather, half a deformed corpse dragging half a soul.”

Lucretia’s gaze swept slowly across her flagship, and she gave a small, satisfied nod.

The Radiant Star was in good condition. Her crew members were all in good spirits.

She knew how the world described her ship—and she also knew how people described her Big Brother’s Sea Mist. She knew many captains feared the two of them as siblings, second only to their fear of their Father, who had returned from Subspace.

But she did not care. She usually dealt with very few humans, and those people either had great courage or deep knowledge, or at least had gone through some real adventures. Those people could talk with her in a calm and rational way. That was enough.

She and her Big Brother were still seen as part of the Mortal Realm, still seen as “standing on the side of humans,” and even though many believed the Sea Mist and the Radiant Star were under the curse, that view of them did not change.

In the end, there were simply too many cursed things in this world. Almost every city?state lived side by side with countless anomalies and Visions. Some even described modern human civilization itself as “cursed.” In a world where everything was under the curse, there was no harm in leaving some room for two strange ships.

Lucretia walked down from her stage that bloomed like a mechanical flower and headed toward the bow deck. Two clockwork puppets with comical masks clanked past in front of her, and a big little doll sewn from velvet, silk, and ribbons ran up from the side. It squeaked in a shrill voice: “Mistress! Mistress! Good morning! Good morning!”

“It’s almost noon,” Lucretia said casually. She stepped past the little doll and stood at the bow, gazing into the distance.

She saw a huge gray?white wall of fog, like a vast curtain at the World’s Edge, standing far out on the sea. It linked the sky with the ocean, magnificent and awe?inspiring.

That was “the border.”

The grand wall of fog had many names—the world’s border, the grand mist, the fog barrier. Its most formal name was the “Eternal Veil.”

But Lucretia preferred to simply call it “the border.”

Father had called it that in those days.

Under normal conditions, the Eternal Veil was like a ring wall that covered all known seas. It only rose and fell slightly within a relatively fixed range. It did not shrink or expand. It was just a stable natural phenomenon.

But on rare occasions, a part of its barrier would suddenly “appear” within the territory of civilization and, as it collapsed inward, would trigger terrible disasters. This wall of fog, which appeared out of nowhere and then collapsed in the Mortal Realm, would drag the nearby solid matter toward the deep layers of the world and could even open a door straight into Subspace. This terrible disaster was called “Border Collapse.”

For captains who often sailed the Boundless Sea, Border Collapse was something even more terrifying than storms, whirlpools, or mass hysteria.

The only good news was that such collapses did not happen often.

Lucretia spent most of her time in the border region. She watched the border and studied it, trying to summarize the rules of the thick fog’s movements and to find the cause of its sudden inward collapses. A hundred years ago, her Father had done the same.

Yet to this day, no one had uncovered the secrets of the Veil.

What had Father discovered back then? Or what had he “heard” that made him suddenly decide to pass through that thick fog and search for Anomaly Zero?

Lucretia drew her gaze back from the border.

In the borderlands, one should not keep one’s gaze on the Eternal Veil for too long. There was no clear proof that the thick fog could devour minds or influence thoughts, but on the Boundless Sea, especially far from the civilized city?states, staring too long at any target on the sea carried a natural risk.

Who knew what kinds of things could spread along with “gaze” in this place.

A long, mellow whistle broke the stillness of the border sea.

Lucretia followed the sound and saw tiny shadows appear at the edge of the great fog wall. Those shadows slowly drew closer until they showed the outlines of warships.

They were three ships, the latest ironclad warships, driven by powerful steam cores. They were sailing toward the position of the Radiant Star, but this was only a chance meeting.

The other side blew their whistle first. It was a greeting. In this borderland, no matter who you met, as long as it was not an Eldritch God from Subspace, it was something to be glad about.

“Mistress,” Lunie walked over. A stiff voice came from inside the clockwork maid. “It is a patrol squadron of the Holy See… confirmed by sight, Flamebearer Church.”

“…Only the Flamebearer and those storm cultists would patrol this close to the Eternal Veil,” Lucretia said softly. “They really are a bunch of people who don’t care whether they live.”

“Should we answer them?” Lunie asked.

“…Blow the whistle back,” Lucretia said in a low voice. “To the civilization we still keep alive.”

…

There were not many customers in the antique shop today. Aside from an unremarkable pair of ornaments sold in the morning, no one had stepped through the door.

Nina sat beside the counter with a mechanics textbook in her hands, studying the fine and complex mechanical structures drawn on the pages. From time to time she picked up the notebook next to her and sketched things in the blank spaces. Duncan sat behind the counter. While curiously flipping through Nina’s history book, he jotted down a few notes in his own notebook.

Only Shirley had nothing to do. She wanted to go home but did not dare. She wanted to talk to Nina, but she could not understand what Nina was studying. After wandering bored among the shelves for a long time, she finally could not help muttering: “Is reading really that fun?”

“Of course it is!” Nina looked up. “And my final exams are coming. I have to hurry and review.”

Duncan also looked up at Shirley. “If you’re really that bored, you can find a book to read… I’ve got a brief history of the Age of City?States here. Do you want to read it?”

Shirley glanced at the books near Duncan’s hand, opened her mouth, and showed an awkward expression. “I… I can’t read…”

Duncan stopped turning the pages. Beside him, Nina also raised her head in surprise.

“Why are you so shocked?” Shirley widened her eyes as if hurt. “I… I already told you I sneaked into school. Is it really that strange that I’ve never gone to school? I was raised by a dog…”

Duncan really was a little surprised, but seeing Shirley’s reaction, he felt more moved than anything else. “You can’t read, and you still had the nerve to sneak into school. I don’t know if I should say you’re too confident, or that you trust that mutt’s unreliable cognitive interference ability too much.”

“Dog’s cognitive interference is very reliable!” Shirley argued at once. “It’s just… just…”

The girl’s face turned a little red. She didn’t seem to dare finish that sentence. Duncan guessed what she wanted to say and smiled slightly: “You already dare to argue with me. See? There’s nothing to be afraid of, is there?”

“That’s right, that’s right, my uncle is very kind,” Nina, the silly girl who understood nothing, chimed in beside them. “He was pretty irritable for a while before, but he’s fine now, isn’t he?”

“I…” Shirley opened her mouth, but suddenly didn’t know how to talk to this “uncle and niece.” She held it in for a long time and still couldn’t manage a second word.

Duncan shook his head with a smile. Just as he was about to say something more, a faintly familiar presence suddenly appeared in his senses.

Duncan paused for a moment. The next second, he knew exactly who that presence belonged to Vanna. That young Inquisitor was approaching the antique shop… and fast!