Chapter 214

Chapter 214: After the Vanished Left

The Vanished left in the same grand, brazen way it had arrived, just as unstoppable as before.

Vanna watched the enormous ship – one could almost call it majestic – sail with solemn bearing through the center of the city-state of Pland. She watched its ghostly hull pass over the rows of rooftops and towers. The spirit form hull faded from her sight like a distant mirage. As the Vanished moved away, the spirit form flames that had been burning across Pland also began to dim and withdraw, as if they had finished some mission and were returning to nothing.

All that remained was a clear sky, a city-state that looked as it always did, and countless people who had just gone through a nightmare.

Waves of bell chimes echoed over the city-state. The bell towers of cathedrals all over the city still rang according to their original path of history. Those bells had been meant to fight off an invasion of the Mortal Realm, but now they sounded more like a farewell. The steam whistle above the Grand Cathedral also began to howl. The sharp, shrill sound made Vanna jump.

She sensed someone approaching. She turned and saw Bishop Valentine standing beside her, though she did not know when he had arrived. The old bishop, who had once passed through death itself, gripped his staff tightly. He looked up in the direction where the Vanished had gone and spoke as if talking to himself: “I feel like I just had a very, very long dream…”

“You should know that was not a dream.”

“I mean, I just dreamed that twenty rabbits wearing Shabop dance skirts were dancing in circles around me…”

Vanna froze for a moment. “Then you really were dreaming. Maybe it happened while your mind was recovering… Did you really have to tell that bad joke right now?”

“But it did make you wake up quickly and pull your mind out of that mess and back to work,” the old bishop said calmly. His face was so steady it was as if he had not been the one making the joke. Then he lowered his head and looked toward the Cathedral square. “We have plenty to do next. This time, the one that brushed past the Vanished was not just a ship like the White Oak.”

Vanna followed the old bishop’s gaze. On the Cathedral square, the Guardians and the city’s Guard Corps were already in a kind of dazed confusion. They looked at the city, which had returned to normal, as if waking from a long dream, but their memories were still stuck in that battle when the corruption of history invaded the Mortal Realm. Some of them had “woken up” earlier and had even seen the Vanished leaving. That only made the confusion and tension worse.

Valentine’s voice sounded again beside Vanna: “…First, have the Guard troops restore order. Then we start a full survey of the whole city-state. We need to confirm whether everyone has ‘come back’, check what is missing or newly appeared in the city, and…”

Valentine paused and looked at the young inquisitor beside him.

“And prepare to report to the Storm Cathedral. Vanna, the most challenging paperwork of your life is about to begin.”

Vanna’s breath caught for a moment.

The disaster had ended, but not everything was over. Now that everyone had survived… the real investigation seemed to be only beginning.

…

The sunlight was just right.

The solemn, heavy doors of the Grand Cathedral creaked open. Heidi stepped out onto the Cathedral square with a somewhat blank look on her face. She stared at the streets that looked as ordinary as ever under the clear sky, yet in her mind there still lingered the downpour from before and the terrifying moment when that rain had turned into a Rain of Fire.

How had it ended?

She only remembered a ghost ship rising from the sea of fire and sailing through the city like it was on parade. Her mind had floated in some dimension between the Mortal Realm and illusion. Two completely different histories crossed in her sight and were split apart along the ghost ship’s path. One branch settled and became the Mortal Realm. The other was crushed to dust.

A faint burning sensation came from her chest. Heidi lowered her head and saw that the “free gift” pendant Father had brought back from the antique shop was glowing softly. She reached out to touch it. The moment her fingers brushed it, the pendant gave off a quiet cracking sound. Then, as if it had used up all its strength, it silently turned into drifting dust. Even the cord that had held it turned to ashes.

Heidi stared in a daze for a moment, but the noise rising from all over the square soon broke her trance.

The Guardians were restoring order. Garrison troops from City Hall were also taking roll and regrouping under the officers’ commands at every level. Some priests came out from the Cathedral to help with the work, passing along orders from Bishop Valentine and Inquisitor Vanna. At the same time, people were talking about the silhouette of the ghost ship that had just sailed away.

“…I opened my eyes and saw that thing floating over my head, like it was sailing through clear seawater…”

“It was terrifying to look at! Those flames were almost scraping the spire of the Grand Cathedral! But it seemed to just leave…”

“That was the Vanished, no doubt about it… Don’t you doubt me. That was definitely the Vanished!”

A loud voice was shouting across the square, swearing that the ghost ship that had passed through the city just now was the legendary sea calamity, the Vanished. Heidi followed the sound and saw that the speaker was an old captain with graying hair. She had dealt with this captain almost every day before, and she knew him well.

“Captain Lawrence,” Heidi walked over and greeted the old captain, who was talking with a few commoners who had taken shelter. “Are you all right?”

“Me? I’m fine, even though I still don’t really know what happened,” the old captain said with a smile when he saw Heidi. “It’s really good to see you safe too, Miss Physician. That rain and then that fire before were really scary!”

Heidi replied casually, then asked at once: “You said the ship that just left… was the Vanished?”

“Yeah, that had to be it,” Lawrence nodded at once. “I know it too well! I’ve seen that sight before!”

A citizen who had taken shelter inside the Grand Cathedral earlier and was still shaken could not help speaking up: “You’ve seen it before?”

“Of course. Why else do you think I was quarantined in the Grand Cathedral for so long?” Lawrence widened his eyes, then turned to Heidi. “I know you can talk to the higher-ups in the Church. Let me give you some advice. Later, you should carefully check what things are missing in the city. When the Vanished passes by, it usually takes something with it… I’ve got experience!”

Heidi listened in a daze and nodded just as blankly. After quite a while, memories from not long ago, yet distant as another lifetime, suddenly rose in her mind—

[How is Father?]

…

Morris did not feel well. His head was spinning, and his stomach churned like he had drunk very strong liquor. He wanted to throw up, but he did not quite dare.

Because he felt that the mops and buckets in front of him were all staring at him like predators, and Alice beside him was also silently watching him.

If he really threw up on the deck, he might get beaten up. On this ship, even any random rope was older than he was. They probably did not have the idea of respecting their elders.

He felt he was probably seasick. Or maybe pigeon-sick.

Morris lifted his head and saw the pigeon named AI strutting around the deck, inspecting the mountains of fries. Earlier, that pigeon had turned into a terrifying Skeletal Roc and carried him onto this ghost ship when the sudden Rain of Fire fell outside the antique shop. Now it had changed back into its seemingly harmless form and was walking back and forth between the piles of fries.

The girl named Shirley was sitting not far away, with a Abyssal Hound by her side. They looked like a pair made up of a summoner and a Abyssal demon, yet right now the two of them were both on their best behavior. Shirley sat up straight like a well-bred lady and hardly dared to breathe. The Abyssal demon she called “A-Gou” had somehow found a newspaper. It sat primly on a barrel next to Shirley, trying hard to hold the paper in its paws and pretend to read it – though it clearly could not read at all, because the newspaper was upside down.

Farther away, he could see the tall masts, the gauzy, translucent spirit form sails, the boundless sea, and the city-state of Pland growing more and more distant.

When he thought back to everything he had seen and gone through while sailing with this ship through the city, Morris still felt his heart pounding. The experience of having his own body turned into a spirit form by Ghost flames, then looking down on the burning land, was a bit too thrilling. Many years ago, he might have thought it was a tense but fun adventure. But he was not young anymore. That kind of experience was now… a little too thrilling.

Morris took a shallow breath. His thoughts were a mess. He wondered whether he still had a chance to go back and worried about his family.

Just then, a voice came from across from him. It was the Abyssal Hound. Morris knew what a Abyssal Hound was, but he had never imagined one could be as calm and polite as this one: “O-old, o-old, o-old mister, do-do-do you think I… I-I look like… like a we-well-educated, cul-cul-cultured d-d-dog?”

“Uh… To be honest, I don’t think a dog needs to read a newspaper to show that it is well-mannered. But you are a Abyssal demon, so we can’t judge you by the standards for dogs in the Mortal Realm… Besides, even the smartest dogs in the human world could never sit on a barrel and read the paper,” Morris answered, still stunned, his expression strange. “Also, two things. First, the newspaper in your paws is upside down. Second… do you have a bit of a stutter?”

A-Gou froze, then quickly flipped the newspaper around and answered: “I-I… I don’t s-stutter. I’m ju-just… a-a-a little nervous…”

“A-Gou, I don’t think you need to be this nervous,” Shirley muttered softly. “And why are you even reading the paper? Mr. Duncan already knows the two of us are illiterate…”

Before she even finished speaking and before A-Gou could answer, Alice, who had been staring off into space, suddenly raised her hand: “Me too!”

Shirley looked very surprised. Morris simply lowered his head and rubbed his forehead in silence.

The old scholar felt he had come to a place that was far too absurd. [What in the world is all this?]