Chapter 300

Chapter 300: Days on the Vanished

Aiden returned to the bridge. Tyrian was waiting for him there.

“The unloading went smoothly. In about an hour we can finish moving everything from the cargo hold to the Harbor warehouses,” the bald First Mate reported in high spirits. Every fold in his clothes still gave off a strong smell of tobacco. “The sailors who stayed on the island really like those ‘local specialties’ you brought back.”

“There will be a gathering tonight. Join us if you feel like it,” Tyrian said casually. Then he could not help looking at Aiden a few more times. He frowned and twitched his nose. “Did you smoke so much you set yourself on fire?”

“…Maybe a bit too much,” Aiden said, touching the tip of his nose in embarrassment. “Tobacco from Pland is always… hard to put down.”

“Try to watch it. Right now you smell like a piece of bacon,” Tyrian shook his head and gave the reminder, then stopped paying attention to that matter. He changed the topic. “Lately I often hear the sailors talking about Frostholm.”

“The news has already spread,” Aiden’s face grew a little more serious when he heard the captain’s words. “The dead coming back to life. No matter where the rumor started, what it says is enough to get the sailors talking. After all, everyone here is Undying.”

“Undying…” Tyrian repeated the word softly. “So, is everyone hoping to really live again?”

“To be honest, anyone with a bit of sense knows that is impossible,” Aiden shrugged. “An ordinary person might still like to imagine that kind of thing, but the more Undying a person is, the more they know that True Resurrection can only be a rumor. Death God Bartok is real. His gate only lets people go in, never out.

“And we only stay in the mortal world as so-called ‘Undying’ because our souls have already been twisted and changed, so we can no longer pass through that gate. Everyone understands very well where the boundary between life and death lies. After all, when we were all near death back then, we each wandered in front of that gate.”

Tyrian nodded lightly. He thought for a moment before speaking again. “Then why is this topic causing so much discussion?”

“Because real True Resurrection will never appear, everyone is guessing whether those so-called revenants are actually all… ‘living dead’,” Aiden grinned. “You know, most city-states do not like living dead, and Frostholm dislikes them more than most. They even treat them as ‘the curse on the outer sea’.

“Strictly speaking, we should not put the debts from half a century ago on the heads of the people of Frostholm today, but everyone still likes watching the authorities of that city-state run around in a panic.”

Tyrian raised an eyebrow. “Watching for fun? If this really has something to do with the old Abyssal Trench Project, it is more than just fun.”

“You are right, and I understand that,” Aiden said. “But for now, most ordinary sailors just want to enjoy the show first. Anyway, the first unlucky ones are the people of Frostholm. When the fun gets too big, they will think about other things. That is just how Undying think, especially when Frostholm is involved.”

Tyrian stared at Aiden in silence. After a while he could only wave a hand helplessly.

“…True Resurrection would mean passing through Bartok’s gate and then coming back out, and Frostholm’s main faith is the God of Death,” he said, with a serious face, instead of arguing more about whether it was right to hope the trouble got bigger. “In theory, in Frostholm, the rules of life and death should be even tighter and more stable. Now there are rumors spreading there about the return of the dead. That is very wrong.

“I am more inclined to think that some other kind of supernatural power is behind this.”

“Then we will have to see how the quiet Cathedral over there reacts,” Aiden said. “I heard the current Gatekeeper of the Cathedral is a new recruit named Agatha, a young lady without much experience. I do not know if she can handle this kind of trouble.”

Tyrian did not answer. For some reason, he suddenly thought of another young person, someone who had shown powerful strength and could calmly negotiate several times with his terrifying Father, a high-ranking priest.

Pland’s Inquisitor Vanna.

If it were that Inquisitor, who was strong enough to be a little frightening… dealing with a few small troubles about True Resurrection would probably not be a problem at all.

…

A slightly fishy, salty wind blew against her face, carrying a chill that the Central Seas never had.

Vanna sat on a wooden barrel near the rail and looked up at the endless sea in the distance. At the far edge of her vision a thin mist spread, and it seemed there were faint, blurry icebergs hidden deep inside the fog.

The Vanished had already entered the Frost Sea. They were now very, very far from Pland.

The young Inquisitor lowered her head again and kept carving the piece of wood with a small knife.

She was using Sea-Breath Wood to carve a new wave charm amulet.

Life on the Vanished was actually far better than she had first imagined. None of those frightening or strange, twisted things had happened. There was a normal schedule, decent food, clean and private living space, and noisy but rather interesting fellow crew members. From some angles, the living conditions on the Vanished were even better than those on normal ocean-going ships.

Because they had AI, the “Messenger”, the ship could always get fresh ingredients. Because there were many “living” facilities on board, the Vanished almost never suffered the kind of trouble that came from equipment breaking down. But the greatest advantage of this ship was not even that.

Its greatest advantage was… safety.

Yes, safety. It was hard to believe, but after living here for a few days, Vanna finally accepted this unbelievable truth of the Mortal Realm: there was no ship in the world safer than this terrifying ghost ship.

Because Captain Duncan was here, even Intruders from Subspace did not dare come to this ship and make trouble.

On the Vanished, people could freely talk about Subspace. They could freely read any book. Morris had asked AI to bring a big pile of folklore and history books from Pland. Once he began reading, he could sit there for most of the day.

To hurry on their way, sometimes the captain even had the Vanished sink into the Spirit Realm and race through those dark, terrifying Anomaly seas at full speed.

No Shadows from the deep layers ever appeared. Even if something really popped out, it only became part of the crew’s daily fun.

Or an extra dish at dinner.

All in all, life on the Vanished was actually not bad.

But she still needed some time to get used to it.

The small knife cut deep grooves into the wood. Shavings fell bit by bit, and her slightly restless heart slowly calmed down.

Footsteps came from behind. A lively voice suddenly sounded beside her. “Miss Vanna, what are you doing?”

Vanna looked up. Nina was staring curiously at the half-finished charm amulet in her hand and at the few finished charm amulets placed on another wooden barrel.

“These are charm amulets offered to the storm Goddess Gamona,” Vanna said with a smile. She knew this girl in front of her, who looked so ordinary, had a shocking identity, but after spending a few days together she no longer felt surprised by any crew member’s background. “Throwing a Sea-Breath Wood charm amulet into the sea counts as making an offering to the Goddess.”

“Oh!” Nina nodded in sudden understanding and looked at the charm amulets on the barrel with wide, amazed eyes. “I think I heard about this in school before, but this is the first time I have seen one. You made so many!”

“Actually…” Vanna started to speak, then hesitated a little. She looked at the bright sparkle in Nina’s eyes, then slowly lifted the lid of the barrel. “Not just these few.”

Nina froze for a moment. She leaned over, peeked into the barrel, and stayed frozen.

After a while she lifted her head and looked at the Inquisitor in front of her.

“Miss Vanna… are you super bored on the ship?”

“Not really,” Vanna said, her expression a little awkward. She also felt that carving a whole barrel of charm amulets in just a few days was a bit much. “I just… might need a little more time to adjust.”

“Oh.”

Nina nodded, then moved to the side of the barrel. She squatted down and started staring at it in a daze.

No one knew what she was thinking about.

Vanna put down a new wave charm amulet and quietly put away the knife.

“Miss Vanna, you are not carving anymore?” Nina asked.

“…I have run out of material.”

“Then ask AI to bring some more?”

“That will not be necessary…” Vanna waved an embarrassed hand. She was just about to say more when a strange, low rumbling sound suddenly came from the direction of the sea and cut her off.

It sounded as if something was moving under the water and rushing upward with a mass of bubbles.

At almost the same time, a creaking sound came from the direction of the Vanished’s mast. The next second, Vanna saw the spirit form sails above the ghost ship adjust their angle a little. The huge hull followed, changing its posture and course.

Nina ran to the rail, eyes wide as she stared at the distant sea. She suddenly pointed and shouted: “Look, look! Miss Vanna! Something came out!”

Vanna followed the direction of Nina’s finger.

She saw a large patch of foaming waves. The chaotic, uneven water swelled up like a small hill in the distance, and a huge shadow slowly rose within the foam and currents, coming up to the surface.

A high mast, a rusted bow and smokestack, a torn and broken deck…

It was a ship.