Chapter 227

Chapter 227: The Aftershocks Remained

The wavering of a devout believer often came twice. The first time was when they began to doubt their own faith. The second was when they had already doubted, yet the God still sent down divine blessings.

Noise—fine layers of noise, sometimes near, sometimes far, faint yet undeniably there—started to sound in Vanna’s mind, like ringing in her ears. She recalled again the projection of the Goddess she had seen in the vision, and those incomprehensible words the Goddess had spoken to her. She no longer accepted it all without thinking, as she had before. Instead she began to think seriously, to ponder the meaning of those words, even to try to guess Gamona’s… intention.

The more she thought, the clearer that fine noise in her head became, making it hard to focus.

But suddenly all the noise vanished. She shook her head in a daze and found herself meeting Archbishop Valentine’s concerned gaze.

“Are you all right?” the old man asked, a little worried.

“I… am fine,” Vanna tapped her forehead lightly, then looked at her elder with a strange expression. “You also…”

“When I rang the last bell, I wavered… There is nothing to hide in that. In the end, I did not have a flawless will like the Saints recorded in the temple,” Valentine shook his head and spoke frankly to Vanna. “I wondered why the corruption and infiltration of those Enders could reach such a level. Why even the protection of the Great Cathedral could not stop the sacrificial rite of those Heretics of the Sun—why the crisis had spread for more than ten years, and yet the Goddess never warned us even once…”

He fell silent, then turned around and gazed quietly at Gamona’s statue. The cold stone figure looked down on him, as silent as always.

“When I woke up again, I was filled with shame. I knew I had committed the greatest error named in the Storm Canon: treating the God’s protection as a cure-all and so letting my own will waver. But even so, these doubts had already taken root, and they remain even now.”

“…The enemy infiltrated from within and broke through the walls. They planned for many years. It was a sneak attack that was hard to resist,” Vanna was silent for a moment, then spoke calmly. “Heretics always strike when there is a weakness. That does not mean the Goddess’s divine authority can be easily overturned.”

“I understand that,” Valentine smiled. “That is why I say that even if I have wavered a little, I am still devout. The Goddess truly protects our world. Her mercy is real. It is just that… I have begun to think a bit more than before.”

“Thought gives birth to heresy, Archbishop Valentine,” Vanna said with a very serious face, but then she sighed, as if talking to herself. “It is the same for me.”

“Then let us treat this as a trial,” Valentine said softly. “For both of us.”

Vanna said nothing more. She only walked to the statue of the Goddess, bowed her head slightly, and offered a silent benediction as she always did.

Not long after, footsteps suddenly broke the silence in the great cathedral.

Vanna snapped out of her benediction and looked toward the sound. She saw a middle-aged priest in civil robes striding over. The priest first saluted the statue, then handed a document to Valentine: “Archbishop, this is the report you requested.”

Valentine nodded his thanks and took the file. After quickly flipping through a few pages, his expression became visibly strange.

“What is it?” Vanna asked at once, curious when she saw his face. “What does it say?”

“…It is the initial survey of the city’s situation after the disaster… from City Hall,” Valentine frowned, as if hesitating. But in the end he simply handed the file to Vanna. “See for yourself.”

Vanna took the file in puzzlement. From the first lines she knew what it was—a preliminary damage report, something she knew well. It checked whether any parts of the city-state were missing or changed after the disaster, whether there were people missing or “additional” people, whether any areas still held residual supernatural power… The first part held nothing special. It basically stated that all parts of the city had been reset to their state before the disaster. But the later pages instantly told her why Archbishop Valentine’s expression had looked so odd.

“…In the dock district, several merchants report large quantities of French fries mysteriously disappearing. The loss report even lists ketchup…” The young Inquisitor lifted her head with a blank expression and looked at Valentine, whose face was just as blank. “…Seriously?”

“Maybe you should personally take a team and ask about it?” Valentine’s mouth twitched. “In theory, no one would dare falsify a report like this.”

Vanna held the report in her hands for a long time without saying a word.

After holding it in for a long while, she finally muttered: “Why would something like this appear in such a serious report…”

Valentine’s face stayed blank: “An entire company of Guardians has been watching those fries on the dock—what do you think?”

Vanna: “…”

“…In short, the ‘items’ mentioned in the report are the only known loss in the city so far,” Valentine sighed. Then he seemed to hesitate again, and finally looked Vanna in the eyes. “Next time you meet him, why not ask directly?”

Vanna blinked: “Ask? Ask who?”

“…What do you think?”

Vanna: “…”

After a moment, the young Inquisitor finally rubbed her forehead: “I feel like my thoughts are starting to break apart. Let me confirm—we were supposed to be discussing very serious matters here, right?”

“I cannot keep up either,” Valentine said, face stiff.

Vanna had no words, but a strange thought suddenly came to her—if this was also one of that ghost captain’s “effects”, then he really was terrifying in a certain sense.

Just then, more footsteps suddenly sounded at the door, cutting off Vanna and Valentine’s thoughts again—a priest hurried to the statue.

“Archbishop, Inquisitor, there is news from the Harbor district…”

The priest bowed and began to speak quickly, but halfway through, Vanna heard the words “Harbor district” and could not help interrupting him: “Stop. We already know about the fries. You do not need to report that twice!”

“…Fries?” The priest stared in confusion at the Inquisitor, who was usually so calm and dignified. “What fries?”

“Ah… you were not going to report about the fries?” Seeing his reaction, Vanna felt a sudden wave of embarrassment. She quickly coughed twice to cover it up. “I thought it was another report… Never mind. Go on. What happened in the Harbor district?”

As she spoke, she could not help sighing inwardly: [It is fine as long as it is not about fries—at least it does not involve that terrifying ghost captain again.]

The reporting priest nodded, face stern: “News from the Harbor district: The Sea Mist is requesting permission to enter port—Tyrian Abnomar hopes to make contact with the Great Cathedral as soon as possible. He brings news related to the Vanished.”

Vanna immediately erupted into a fit of coughing loud enough to shake the hall.

The priest jumped at the noise: “…Lady Inquisitor?”

“I am fine,” Vanna finally managed to stop coughing after great effort. Ever since the Vanished had openly made a circuit around the city-state, she felt as if nothing in this place was quite the same. She could not say exactly how, but it seemed that many things around her were changing—she even wanted to blame the fifteen-minute-late sunrise on that ghost ship. “The Sea Mist? I know we did send a letter to its master, but it never arrived…”

“The Sea Mist did arrive, and it seems it was already near Pland’s coastal waters before the ‘disaster’,” the priest nodded at once. “But according to the message from the ship, it ran into the Vanished by accident in the eastern waters and fought a fierce battle. Its engines were damaged and it had to undergo repairs. Only last night did it regain the ability to sail.”

“It fought a battle with the Vanished?!” Vanna’s expression finally turned stern as she grasped how important this was. She turned to Valentine: “I need to go there myself.”

“Very well,” Valentine nodded at once. “The Sea Mist is a special ship. It is indeed ‘one of ours’, but its crew may still cause fear and unease among the ordinary people on the docks. If you personally lead a team to receive them, you should be able to calm the people’s nerves.”

Vanna gave a brief answer and strode out of the great cathedral.

The Sea Mist had come—arriving a bit later than expected, but the huge warship wrapped in legendary glory and fearful tales of the curse still reached the city-state of Pland that had sent the distress call, just as agreed. Now the awe-inspiring Ironclad Warship was slowly approaching the pier reserved for large vessels, guided in by mental guidance officers on the docks. Some people who had heard the news gathered near the harbor, watching the steel giant with tense curiosity.

Soon, the people near the docks realized that this mighty Ironclad Warship had reached the Harbor only after a brutal battle.

It was covered in scars. Three of its six main guns were simply gone. All along the hull, there were terrifying gaps where something had torn whole chunks away. A third of the bridge had been destroyed, and a dreadful wound ran from the side of the bridge all the way down to the main armored belt. Even near the waterline, on the ship’s flank, several horrible holes could be seen.

Damage like this would have been enough to sink an ordinary warship several times over.

Yet The Sea Mist still floated stubbornly on the waves. The holes in her belly seemed alive. Soft, metal-sheened substance had sealed the leaks tight, and the seawater that had seeped into the lower decks was being pushed back out. The Sea Mist’s pumps had already shut down, so the water was actually oozing straight through the sides of the hull, as if… a person were sweating.

It was an advanced Ironclad Warship, and also a cursed ship full of Anomalies. Everyone standing near the docks could clearly see the “living” traits the ship displayed. Their curiosity gained a new layer of horror, and whispers spread everywhere among the onlookers.

Only when several imposing Steam Walkers appeared on the docks, and Vanna’s tall figure came into view, did many people finally quiet down.