Chapter 218

Chapter 218: The Survivors.

The holy statue of the Storm Goddess Gamona stood quietly in the Cathedral, as it always did, majestic, mysterious, and silent.

The veil over her face seemed not only to cover the Goddess’s features, but also to shroud some kind of link between the mortal world and the God. For the first time, Vanna realized that she did not actually know, and did not even understand, what kind of existence the God she worshipped really was.

All this time, she had taken it for granted to believe in everything about storms and the Deep Sea. She had never, until today, thought about these questions this way. She had never tried to look at her bond with the God from a questioning point of view.

She shivered and snapped out of her brief daze. Her heart pounded hard, and a layer of cold sweat broke out across her back.

Thoughts gave rise to heresy, and the gods must not be probed.

She could not believe that those almost blasphemous ideas had come out of her own head. To start questioning the God’s “actions” was already little different from becoming a Heretic.

Yet in the next second, she heard the soft sound of waves by her ear. The familiar gaze and gentle comfort from the Goddess rose up as always, easing the pain built up in her body and soothing her mind.

Even here in the great Cathedral, even with such wavering thoughts in her heart, the Goddess was the same as ever… Was it because the gods were ignorant too, or because the Lord simply did not care?

“…You really don’t need to rest?” Valentine’s voice suddenly came from beside her, breaking off Vanna’s second bout of distraction. The old man looked at the young Inquisitor at his side with worry. In his memory, Vanna had never stood this dazed before the Goddess. “You look absent-minded… Wounds of the body heal easily. Weariness of the mind is much more troublesome.”

“I…” Vanna hesitated a little. “Maybe I really am a bit tired.”

“Then go and rest. Leave the follow-up to me,” Valentine said at once. Before she could say anything else, he quickly added: “I just got word that Mr. Dante has returned to the mansion safely. I think… your family needs you very much right now, and you need your family too.”

“Uncle…” Vanna paused. The scene of parting with her uncle rose in her mind. A strange feeling tugged at her mood and finally pushed away her last bit of stubbornness. “All right, then I’ll go first. I’ll leave this place to you.”

“Go without worry,” Valentine nodded lightly. “May the storm shelter you.”

“…May the storm shelter you.” Vanna echoed softly.

A dark gray steam car drove out from the Cathedral square. After passing the checkpoint at the central district intersection, it headed first toward the Governor’s mansion.

Vanna sat in the front passenger seat. At the wheel was Heidi, who had just finished answering questions inside the Cathedral.

“Thanks. I still have to trouble you to drive me,” Vanna said quietly to her friend as the scenery slid backward outside the window. “You could have left much earlier.”

“No need to be polite with me,” Heidi said casually as she watched the road and held the steering wheel. “And I couldn’t have left earlier anyway. That young friar asked me a whole pile of questions, then made me sit in incense smoke for half the day. All ‘necessary safety measures’. By the time they were done, it was already close to evening.”

Vanna looked out the window. She saw the city-state’s Guard Corps and Guardians patrolling the streets. Frightened citizens hurried across the road. Some people who looked like they had just left the shelters were stopping passersby to ask what had happened. Every so often she saw a Constable with a loudhailer standing at a corner, announcing the latest situation to the nearby crowd: that the city-state had been disturbed by Visions, that the danger had been removed, that a Third-Level Lockdown would be in effect tonight, and so on.

Pland looked like a patient just recovering from a serious illness. Order in the city-state was still chaotic. Yet even this tense and jumbled scene filled Vanna with an indescribable sense of relief and… warmth.

Fear and nerves were proof of being alive. Only those who had survived the disaster had the right to be this uneasy at this moment. And the sunrise of the next day would be the best comfort Pland could receive.

“You okay? You look awful,” Heidi asked. Even while driving, she noticed Vanna’s fatigue and dazed look. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen you like this since we were kids. I always thought you were forged from a sheet of steel.”

“…If I told you that when the Rain of Fire fell, I fought my way alone through the whole city-state, would you believe me?” Vanna glanced at her friend. After leaving with Heidi, her nerves had already begun to relax. “I’m exhausted.”

“I do, of course I do. It’s you we’re talking about. If you told me you fought your way back from Subspace, I’d believe it,” Heidi said without changing her expression, nodding as if it were obvious. Then she suddenly looked Vanna up and down. “No wonder you’re this drained…”

Vanna felt awkward under her gaze: “Your eyes look weird.”

“I just suddenly had an idea,” Heidi said with a serious face. “Do you want to go to the Marriage Counseling Center right now?”

“…Why?”

“It’s so rare to see you this weak. Maybe there’s finally someone you can’t beat up. That wouldn’t even break your second vow back then: ‘In every fight, I will give it my all’,” Heidi went on, her thoughts already flying, not caring at all about how Vanna’s expression was twisting. “Otherwise, after you go home and sleep, you’ll be invincible again, and the Marriage Counseling Center will have to keep sending people to the hospital every few days…”

Vanna curled her fist a little.

The sharp crack in the air made Heidi fall silent at once.

After two seconds of quiet, Heidi muttered: “If you don’t want to, you don’t want to. You’ve been threatening me since we were kids. You even stole my lunches…”

The car grew quiet. After a few seconds of silence, Vanna suddenly spoke softly: “Thanks. I feel much calmer now.”

“Of course. I am the best psychiatrist in Pland, after all. And you really do need to be in a good state to face Mr. Dante,” Heidi said with a satisfied smile, as if her plan had worked. Then she brought the car to a smooth stop. “You’re home, my invincible Lady Knight. Cheer up. Every one of us picked up an extra life today.”

Picked up an extra life…

Heidi had only said it casually, but for some reason, Vanna thought of something the believers of the death cult often said—

Survival was not a right given at birth, but a thing whose price had already been paid in advance.

Vanna lowered her eyes and took a slow breath. After thanking and saying goodbye to her friend, she got out of the car and walked toward the nearby front door.

Heidi sat in the car, quietly watching Vanna’s back as she walked away. After a while, she started the engine, turned the car around, and drove toward her own home.

Was Father safe now? If he was safe, then… what was he doing at this moment?

…

Outside the cabin, lightning flashed and thunder rolled as a storm rose. Gale winds drove huge waves that slammed again and again against the tall hull of the Vanished. Under the deep, dark sea surface, it felt as if some unnameable giant beast had been enraged and was pouring boundless malice into the world.

Through the porthole, they could see giants wreathed in blazing flame standing at the bow, their burning chains stretching down into the sea. Some vast creature with countless tentacles, almost as large as the Vanished itself, was thrashing wildly under the surface. Tentacles bristling with eyes and fanged mouths kept breaking out of the water and climbing up the hull, as if trying to tear free of the chains, or drive the Vanished out of this stretch of sea.

Inside the cabin, whale-oil lamps burned bright, yet they could not dispel the tension and fear. Shirley had already curled into a shivering ball with Dog in her arms, listening to the noise outside with a horrified face. Dog stretched his neck hard to keep from being choked and asked Alice: “Y-you… you’re sure the c-captain is just fishing?!”

“Of course,” Alice nodded calmly and firmly, with a look that seemed to say: “You city people are so easy to scare.” “Fishing is the captain’s biggest hobby.”

“I finally know why you always make that face whenever you talk about Mr. Duncan’s fish…” Shirley finally realized something. She looked at Dog with a miserable expression. “If… if I’d known back when I ate it…”

Before she could finish, Morris, who had been sitting across from them with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. The old gentleman stared at the girl opposite him in horror: “You… ate the, uh, ‘fish’ Mr. Duncan caught?”

“How was I supposed to know?!” Shirley almost burst into tears. She turned her head toward Nina: “You… you never told me your uncle’s fish were caught like that…”

“I didn’t know either,” Nina shook her head. Her expression was not as exaggerated as the others. She even looked a little… excited. She leaned over the table, peering through the porthole at the scene on deck. The tentacles bursting out of the water did not frighten her. They only filled her with curiosity. “What do you think… how do those things end up turning into fish?”

To be fair, Nina was acting no different now than she did in the city-state, as cheerful and lively and bright as always. That kind of behavior was normal in peaceful streets. Staying like this at the Vanished’s “fishing spot” was what made it a bit scary. Only now did Shirley seem to notice a startling side of Nina: “You and your uncle are both terrifying, really…”

Nina scratched her hair, looking puzzled: “Really? I think it’s fine…”

As they spoke, Alice suddenly stood up and walked out.

Shirley tensed up at once: “Ah, where are you going?”

“To get dinner ready, of course,” Alice said, as if it were obvious. “The captain is about to finish dealing with that big fish.”

Alice left, and the few people who had boarded the ship by accident, the Visitors, looked at one another in the cabin.

“I… I want to go home…” Shirley hugged Dog tight, on the verge of tears.

The red light in Dog’s bloodshot eyes flickered: “You’re choking me…”

Morris suddenly let out a sigh.

Nina quickly asked: “Teacher, why are you sighing?”

“I think I can write a book once I get back,” Morris said after thinking for a moment, spreading his hands. “I’m just worried my daughter will think I’ve lost my mind…”

Nina: “…?”