Chapter 265

Chapter 265: The Sea Witch and the Frontier Relic.

A faint golden light spread out and covered the entire sea, filling every part of the space around the Radiant Star.

This oddly shaped magic warship sailed forward wrapped in light. The front half of the hull was running at full power. The paddle wheels on both sides thundered. Many magic devices fixed on the deck kept projecting flickering light grids into the air around them. These devices, all designed personally by the Sea Witch, kept scanning the surroundings during the voyage to collect important data.

The back half of the ship was hazy like mist. It looked like the phantom hull of a ghost ship, sometimes solid, sometimes almost transparent. The ghostly structure faded in and out with the rise and fall of the surrounding light. Many ghost?like sailors moved about on that half?transparent deck. They watched the depth of the Spirit Realm while making sure the Radiant Star itself stayed stable.

The crew on the front half and the back half of the ship were clearly divided. Each group had its own work and only talked or moved between the two sides when it was necessary.

Lucretia stood at the very front of the ship, on the top deck that was in its “blooming” state. This place was like an open terrace. It had the best view on the whole ship and let her see the state of the sea very clearly.

Two thick chains extended from the middle of the Radiant Star. They stretched back over the gently heaving sea and wrapped around a huge stone sphere floating dozens of meters behind the stern.

That stone sphere floated several meters above the surface of the sea. It looked weightless, yet the creaking of the chains from time to time, and the fact that the Radiant Star was moving very slowly even with its power at full output, both proved that dragging this thing was far from easy.

Lucretia watched that stone sphere for a long time before pulling her gaze back and rubbing her eyes.

The endless halo around the stone sphere was not actually harsh on the eyes, but staying under this boundless radiance for a long time still made them a bit uncomfortable. The mysterious bumps and grooves on the surface of the stone sphere were even more dizzying if she stared at them for too long.

Aside from this slight dizziness, however, the stone sphere and the surrounding light mist seemed to have no other harm. Looking at them with a gaze did not damage the mind, and moving closer did not bring any eerie, terrifying whispers. For a strange relic picked up on the frontier, this was very unusual.

Lucretia had wandered on the frontier for many years. She had seen many things that could easily lead mortals into madness. Compared to those, this stone sphere that projected gigantic geometric illusions was truly the safest oddity among all the Frontier Relics.

Footsteps came from the side, and the voice of the clockwork automaton Lunie sounded: “Mistress, there is a report from the boiler room. The engine power cannot be increased any more. This is already the top speed.”

“…Not even one third of our normal cruising speed,” Lucretia sighed. “This big ball looks like it is just floating, but dragging it is really this hard.”

“It is very strange,” Lunie tilted her head, making a confused expression like a human. “We tried all sorts of methods, but we still cannot measure its exact mass.”

“At least we can still drag it. We are slow, but we will tow it back in the end.”

As Lucretia spoke, she turned to look at the bow. Because the chains were only so long, the Radiant Star was now sailing inside the gigantic geometric form projected by the stone sphere. Outside the bow there was only endless radiance. She could not see a normal sea at all.

But she was not worried the ship would lose its way, nor that it would hit reefs or islands.

The stern of the Radiant Star was sailing in the Spirit Realm, and the Spirit Realm was not affected by the stone sphere. Her Ghost sailors on the stern lookout posts and in the enchanted sea chart room could observe the sea conditions and guide the route, making sure the Radiant Star stayed on the correct course.

For ordinary ships this would be unthinkable, but for the Mistress of the Radiant Star, this was something she handled with ease.

“Has Lightwind Harbor received our message?” Lucretia asked with a slight turn of her head. “How did they respond?”

“They have received it,” Lunie answered right away. “A research team made up of a mathematician, a Rune Scholar, and an Occult Specialist is already prepared at the harbor, and people from the Explorer Association are there as well. But I also told them that the Radiant Star is very slow right now, so they will have to wait for a while…”

“It is more than just waiting a while.” Lucretia looked at the golden light covering the sea and could not help pressing her lips together. “Tell them this time I did not find some little trinket—its body is small, but its range of effect is huge.

“Have them choose a proper handover point in the Nearshore Waters, at least two or three nautical miles from the harbor. Otherwise they will have to be ready for the whole harbor district to be covered in endless daytime.”

Lunie lowered her head a bit: “Yes, Mistress. We will pass a lighthouse facility in fifteen minutes. When we do, I will send another telegram to Lightwind Harbor.”

Lucretia made a quiet sound of agreement. Then, as if something came to mind, she suddenly gave a self?mocking little laugh and shook her head.

The doll Lunie looked at her in confusion: “Mistress?”

“It is nothing. I just suddenly thought of some things from long ago,” Lucretia said softly. “Lunie, did you know that I used to scold Father often when he came back from an expedition?”

“Old Master? You scolded him?”

“Yes. I scolded him for always picking up strange things outside,” Lucretia said, as if falling into her memories. She spoke slowly while she thought. “Sometimes he would find a broken stone in the frontier and get so excited he would study it for ten days or half a month, and he would drag my brother and me in to study it with him.”

She turned around and stared in a daze at the chains stretching back from the stern and the stone sphere at their end.

“Now I have picked up a ‘big stone’ and brought it back… I wonder what he would think if he knew.”

Lunie did not know how she should respond to her Mistress. She stayed silent for a moment and then finally said: “…You rarely talk about the Old Master.”

“Maybe because so much has been happening lately,” Lucretia shook her head. “Let us not talk about this. I am a bit tired. What time is it now?”

“It is already late at night,” Lunie nodded. “You really should rest.”

“Already late at night?” Lucretia said in surprise, then waved her hand. “Dragging this thing makes it daytime for twenty?four hours straight. My sense of day and night is all messed up… You keep an eye on the ship. I will go rest.”

Before she even finished speaking, her figure suddenly broke apart into countless colorful pieces of paper. They fluttered away with the wind, flying toward the captain’s cabin.

…

Even after she returned to the Cathedral and evening prayer ended, Vanna still looked troubled and lost in thought—and there was no way such a mood could escape Bishop Valentine’s eyes.

When the bishop asked, she did not hide the “meeting in a dream” she had had with that ghost captain on the way back from the harbor.

In the small prayer room connected to the side hall, Valentine quietly listened to Vanna’s entire story.

“…I am not surprised that ‘he’ visited,” the old bishop said calmly. “The whole city?state of Pland has already gone through some sort of transformation. Whether we accept it or not, we and the land under our feet have now formed a bond with the Vanished that cannot be cut. I talked about this with your uncle. Do you know what he said?”

“…What did he say?”

“Behind Pland now stands a Master in the Shadows, like the ‘Ten Cities’ described in The Golan Cantos. In those verses there was an Uncrowned King, an unnamed High Regent, a formless but very real ‘owner’ standing in the shadows of those cities. This Master does not declare his authority to the city?state, just like you do not declare to the coins in your pocket that you are their Master—and when you take those coins out, you also do not think about asking their opinion.”

Vanna showed a thoughtful expression: “…‘Ten Cities’ is said to be the most chilling part of The Golan Cantos. It describes how ten city?states were slowly taken over by an invisible ruler and transformed into Shadows. And even when the long poem ends, the writer never describes that ruler even a little bit. He only hints at the Invisible King by describing the atmosphere, customs, and environment in those cities. I have read it, but I was still young at the time. I could not understand why the Lords enjoyed talking so much about the fear in that poem.”

She shook her head lightly.

“But I think at least Captain Duncan is not doing what the ruler in ‘Ten Cities’ did. He is not trying to turn the city?state into some… unspeakable breeding ground. At least for now, he has not shown any malice.”

“That is true. He has not shown any malice. He even went out of his way to warn you,” Bishop Valentine nodded slightly. “The problem with Vision 001 has already caught the attention of the Churches of the Four Gods. But from what I know, the main opinion of the Churches is still to wait and see when Vision 001 will ‘return to normal’. But if the warning Captain Duncan gave is true…”

The old bishop stopped. After a moment, he let out a soft sigh.

“Then our world is facing very big trouble.”