Chapter 327

Chapter 327: Going Ashore in Disguise

Stepping out of the flaming doorway were Alice in full disguise, Vanna in ordinary clothes, and Morris in a dark gray coat, holding the Gatekeeper’s cane.

Duncan needed Morris’s learning to help him understand this city and to search for the whereabouts of that “Brown Scott.” He needed Vanna’s professional skills to track down cultists and, if possible, to establish contact with the local church. As for Alice…

He actually did not need her very much. But Alice wanted to come and take a look. On the other hand, since Alice was wearing the face of Frostholm’s Queen, Duncan felt that bringing her along might be a bit of fun.

The ghostly spirit form flames faded quickly into the air. AI turned back into a white dove and landed on a branch nearby. In the cold wind of Frostholm, Morris pulled his thick coat tighter and looked up toward the brightly lit districts. Alice looked around curiously, while Vanna had already noticed the hulking figure standing in the dark.

It was a body that looked terrifying at first glance. That posture of returning from the flames was in no way something a living person should still manage. But this body stood there in the shadows with steady calm, watching them with a peaceful gaze, and the tatters of clothing clinging to it showed what identity this body used to have.

A vague, hard-to-describe “connection” rose in her heart. Vanna fell into a brief daze, then was already sure that this stranger she was seeing for the first time was the captain.

“Mr. Duncan,” she said as she walked up to him, unable to stop herself from giving him another quick once-over. She knew that the captain only used borrowed avatar forms when moving through a city-state. But when she saw the condition of this avatar form, she still could not help frowning a little. “This body of yours…”

“In fact, it is in pretty good shape—only the outside might be a little scary,” Duncan said in a low voice. “Finding an avatar form that is both sound and ‘compatible enough’ is all luck. This body is still better than that ‘sacrificial victim’ you saw in the sewer.”

Vanna instantly remembered some things she did not want to recall. The corner of her eye seemed to twitch, and her voice dropped: “…I would rather not think about that.”

Duncan smiled and lifted his head to look at Alice, who was still peering around everywhere. He waved to her: “Stop staring and come help. Did you bring everything?”

Alice finally came back to herself. She hurried over to Duncan in a few quick steps and lifted the small suitcase in her hand: “I brought it, I brought it! Clothes and bandages… wow! Captain, your face is really dark…”

Duncan ignored the doll’s loud exclamation. He casually took the suitcase from her, opened it, and checked the things inside: a long black coat suitable for hiding the details of his body, with a wide high collar that could cover his face and neck once it was turned up; a matching black wide-brimmed hat; gloves; shoes; some bandages; a bit of cash; and a neatly folded city-state map.

Duncan raised his eyebrows. The things were even more thorough than he had expected.

To get used to this new body, he had been focusing most of his attention on this side and had not paid much attention to what was happening on the ship. When he had Goathead pass a message to Alice, he only said to prepare clothes and bandages. As for the other things, including the cash… that did not seem like something Alice’s head would come up with on its own.

“Mr. Tyrian helped prepare them,” Alice explained on her own before Duncan could ask. “He heard that you were going to move around in the city-state, so he had me bring these things along too. Oh, right, he also told me to tell you that the map is the newest one. The red marks are the Sea Mist Fleet’s secret contact points. There are some lines… some line-thingies…”

“Informants—human members on the Sea Mist Fleet’s outer ring,” Duncan said casually, with a hint of emotion in his tone. “He said he would never set foot on Frostholm’s land again… but his eyes clearly never left this city. He is only one step away from walking in himself.”

“Oh, right, informants,” Alice said, nodding quickly. Then she leaned over the suitcase again and asked: “Will these things be useful?”

Duncan nodded slightly: “All of them. Tyrian really put some thought into this.”

As he spoke, he picked up the bandages and handed them to Vanna beside him: “Give me a hand—you know how to do this, right?”

When Vanna saw what lay in the suitcase, she already knew what Duncan meant to do. She took the bandages, but before wrapping them around the captain, she still asked, not quite reassured: “Will this really work? I feel it is still a bit too eye-catching…”

“We just need to cover things up. I do not plan to settle in Frostholm in this body,” Duncan said, cooperating with Vanna’s movements. “I only need to walk down the street without drawing the constables. If we run into a situation where it is really hard for me to move, I will need you and Morris to handle it.”

“Alright.” Vanna nodded. Her hands were already moving quickly as she began wrapping the bandages around Duncan. Her motions were skilled. It was clear she had done similar things many times.

On the front line against heretics and malevolent spirits, treating wounds was as normal and inevitable as breathing.

Alice watched Vanna working and looked eager to join in: “Can I help?”

Duncan tilted his head a little and glanced at the doll, who was a bit over one meter sixty. Then he looked at Vanna, who was about one meter ninety.

Then he lowered his eyes to his own current body, which must have been over one meter ninety as well.

“Forget it. If you tilt your head back, it will fall off,” he said, turning down the doll. At the same time, he reminded her, not quite at ease: “Remember, this is a city-state—and Frostholm at that. Keep your disguise in order. It is not just your wig and head that must stay on. Do not take off the veil on your face either. Got it? That face of yours here might scare anyone over fifty half to death.”

Alice answered at once: “Got it!”

Duncan nodded slightly, and his gaze shifted back to Vanna.

To move around and act in an unfamiliar Frostholm, she clearly could not keep that eye-catching armor-and-greatsword look. To move more easily in the city, she now wore everyday clothes.

She had on a gray, fitted women’s long coat, with black boots and trousers below. Her gray-white hair still hung loosely down her back as usual. She looked as bold and sharp as ever, but without the armor and greatsword, her presence seemed a little softer.

Even so, with her one meter ninety height, any hope of really blending into the crowd was very slim. Her outfit might avoid direct questioning, but it would never be truly low-key.

While he was thinking, the bandages had already reached his face, wrapping layer after layer around his ruined head.

In the end, his entire face was covered, except for his eyes and a small patch of relatively intact skin near his left eye.

Then he put on the long black coat with the tall collar, as well as the shoes, gloves, and wide-brimmed hat.

Luckily, this body was very broad and solid, almost the same size as his true body, so everything fit quite well.

Duncan gave his clothes a final straightening and carefully fastened the coat buttons all the way to the last one.

He could not see how he looked now, but he could easily imagine it.

A long black coat covering his whole body, a wide-brimmed hat and raised collar hiding his face, black leather gloves, and the faint glimpse of layered bandages in the gaps between hat and coat.

He thought for a moment, then turned to the young Inquisitor standing quietly to the side: “Vanna, tell me honestly…”

Vanna sighed: “Constables and guardians with little experience will probably stop you on sight to question you.”

Duncan was silent for a moment: “…What about the ones with a lot of experience?”

“They will call for backup.”

Duncan: “…”

“Alright, it is not actually that bad,” Vanna said, suddenly laughing a little and shaking her head. “That only applies in the core districts with high security levels—places with strong guard forces. In ordinary districts, you probably will not run into trouble. That is my guess based on what I saw in Pland. Frostholm should be similar. The only real concern is probably just your bandages…”

“The bandages might actually be the best part of the disguise.” Before Vanna finished, Morris spoke up beside them. “They might save us a lot of trouble.”

Duncan glanced over at him: “Oh?”

“Frostholm mainly worships the God of Death. Customs and symbols related to death are its special traits. Devout believers even add bandages and similar things to their clothes on purpose. priests also have such elements in their everyday vestments,” Morris said, thinking as he talked. “At most, people may see you as a rather odd Death believer.”

Hearing this, Vanna blinked: “These details… I had no idea. I only know the doctrines and taboos of the other Three Gods Church branches.”

Morris laughed: “It is hard to know the exact customs of each city-state without studying them.”

Duncan looked at the old scholar: “Is this what that ‘old friend’ of yours shared with you?”

Morris went quiet for a moment and let out a soft sigh: “Yes. Brown Scott was an excellent folklore scholar. He spent his life traveling between many city-states in the central and northern regions, especially Frostholm and Cold Harbor. He wrote me many letters describing the strange customs and beliefs of these places.”