Chapter 361

Chapter 361: No Trace.

Nemo suddenly felt a shudder in his heart.

In that moment, he felt that what this fearsome “ghost captain” had given him was not just a simple promise, but a statement of something that had already become a fixed fact in some day yet to come.

He did not know where this feeling came from. He only knew that he lowered his head without meaning to and spoke with a kind of awe he could not even describe: “As you say.”

Duncan nodded, then moved his gaze as if by chance and looked at Old Ghost, who stood not far away, leaning against the wall and staring blankly.

The old man was no longer muttering about the Frostholm Queen, nor mumbling about the Second Waterway and Rebels. He only stared into space, as if his mind was drifting in some time and place that the world had almost forgotten.

In the old man’s muddled memories… did the Queen of Frostholm still rule this place?

Duncan drew back his gaze, called to Alice, who was also spacing out beside him, and left toward the exit of the secret passage with Vanna and Morris.

Soon they returned to the surface. After leaving the Golden Whistle tavern, they stepped back onto the busy streets of Frostholm.

The setting sun was slowly dropping toward the distant rooftops. The brilliant and mysterious twin rune rings in the sky had just touched the tips of a few spires in the Upper City. Visually, it looked as if the towers built by Mortals were holding up the chains that bound the Sun, making the Sun Wheel hang above the city.

dusk was near, and curfew time was coming. Because of the stricter new curfew order, everyone hurried home or toward the nearest nightfall Sanctuary World. In the middle of this rushing crowd, Duncan’s group, walking at an easy pace, looked quite out of place.

But not many eyes landed on them. Everyone was busy.

“What do you think about this?” Vanna moved up beside Duncan and spoke in a low voice. Because they were about the same height, she could lean in close.

Duncan’s face did not change: “You mean the origin of that replica?”

“It seemed to appear out of nowhere. The ways Morris and I used to investigate could not find any trace of how it moved. Even you did not find a clue,” Vanna said, nodding lightly. “And we always believed that even these strange replicas had to move in some ‘normal’ way. They should have a source and a process of moving from place to place…”

Duncan slowed a bit and tilted his head: “You mean those replicas might have some kind of spatial power that lets them ignore the dimensions of the Mortal Realm and appear directly at a chosen place?”

“That is my suspicion.”

Duncan gave no clear answer. A few seconds later, he suddenly said: “Have I ever told you what happened the first time Alice came aboard the ship?”

“No,” Vanna blinked. “Did something happen when she first came aboard?”

“The doll’s spirit coffin kept returning to the Vanished. I threw her into the sea three times, and she and her wooden box came back to the ship three times,” Duncan said slowly. “Guess how she came back.”

Vanna thought for a moment and said, not very sure: “By relying on… the power of the curse? Some kind of ‘recurrent gift’ of Anomaly 099? Also a spatial kind of power?”

“No. She rowed back on the coffin lid, very fast,” Duncan said in a calm tone. “Then she climbed straight up along the hull of the ship with a lot of strength. Because she rowed too fast, I did not catch her the first two times. I only grabbed her on the third try.”

Vanna: “…”

The young Inquisitor and Morris both turned their heads at the same time. With a strange look in their eyes, they stared at the doll Miss, who was glancing around at the side. Feeling their gaze, Alice turned her head and gave them an innocent smile.

“I am not ruling out the idea that those replicas use some kind of spatial teleportation to appear directly inside the city,” Duncan went on lightly. “But logically, if they could Teleport straight into the city, then why did the Sea Swallow have to sail all the way from the outer sea instead of just appearing in the harbor?”

“I am more inclined to think the replicas still need normal means of movement. That replica in the sewers only looked like it ‘appeared out of thin air’ because we overlooked something. It is like how normal people would never guess that the real reason a cursed doll keeps ‘coming back’ is simply that she swims very fast and is very strong.”

He paused for a moment, then added, deep in thought: “It is more likely that the place Crow ‘strayed into’ also came from the same kind of ‘overlooked’ path.”

Morris, who had been quiet the whole time, suddenly reacted: “Some kind of passage that exists but cannot be observed? Or a rift that opens only at times?”

“Hard to say. But this matter is definitely tied to those cultists,” Duncan said. “What Crow recorded on that sheet of paper caught my attention. It did not all sound like rambling ‘Heretic thoughts’. It sounded more like a description of real events, written in words modern people cannot easily understand. That kind of record has always suited the taste of cultists.

“Maybe we really should bring Dog and Shirley here. The eyes of Abyssal demons might be able to see something in dimensions outside the Mortal Realm.”

…

A gust of gray wind swept into the door of the harbor defense office. From the Ashen Wind, Gatekeeper Agatha stepped through.

Behind the desk, Colonel Lister looked up at the Gatekeeper who had appeared in his office: “This time you even skipped the usual notice.”

“Sorry. It is an urgent moment,” Agatha said. Then she noticed the two heavy dark circles on Lister’s face. “You did not sleep last night?”

“I was not the only one awake,” Lister said with a bitter smile, shaking his head. “We spent the whole night trying to crack the mysterious signals from the Sea Mist Fleet. The cryptographers and mathematicians almost started hitting each other with chairs. It is the first time I learned that refined scholars can also start cursing each other’s relatives when they argue.”

Agatha stayed quiet for a moment, her gaze turning a bit strange. After a while, she said: “Soon the Cathedral may ‘borrow’ a few Scholars from you, especially in cryptography and mathematics.”

Lister froze: “Why?”

Agatha’s expression did not change much – half her face was covered in bandages anyway: “To crack another playful secret left to us by another being with a bad sense of humor.”

“All right, looks like your troubles are no less than mine,” Lister sighed, then pulled himself together. “Let us talk business. Why did you drop by so suddenly? What do you want to know?”

“The state of the lockdown,” Agatha said. “Normally the Cathedral should not interfere with city defenses, but things are special now. I cannot rest easy.”

“I understand,” Lister nodded. “Do not worry. All of Frostholm is now completely sealed. Even if there are places not fully covered, with such a huge Sea Mist Fleet gathered in the nearby waters, no one would dare move in or out casually. We have temporarily frozen all departure permits and informed nearby city-states and ships on the outer sea to stay away from Frostholm. Every docking request we have received so far has been rejected.”

“Good. At least that stops the problem from getting worse,” Agatha said with a light breath. “What about Dagger Island?”

“It is still under lockdown, until the Cathedral gives us further ‘professional advice’,” Lister said, his face growing more serious. “Up to yesterday, the island continued to send back regular reports saying ‘all normal’. Even after the city stopped sending supplies and cut off all communication replies, there was no other reaction from them.”

“Do not relax your guard. The Sea Swallow incident proved that the corruption on that island is actively trying to move into the city,” Agatha said sternly. “That ‘thing’ will not just sit there quietly. The Cathedral is already preparing a force made up of Deathsworn and penitent Monks, but unsealing the powerful sacred relics will still take some time.”

Lister nodded. He seemed about to say more, but before he could speak, hurried footsteps sounded from the corridor outside.

A harbor soldier appeared at the office door.

Lister looked up at him. The soldier’s face carried a hint of haste. “What happened?”

The soldier straightened up and reported quickly: “Report, Commander. A ship that was scheduled to dock at Frostholm has not appeared on time.”

“Not appeared on time? That is meaningless,” Lister frowned. “All routes around the city are sealed right now. Of course no ship will dock.”

“Report, Commander, it is not that it failed to dock – it has not appeared at all!” the soldier quickly explained. “That ship was supposed to arrive today. We were already prepared to send it the notice about the city’s lockdown, but it never contacted us. We just talked to Cold Harbor again. Cold Harbor confirmed that the ship completed its resupply and inspection there as normal. But after it approached the waters near Frostholm, there has been no more word from it!”

Hearing this, Lister’s expression finally turned grave. He drew in a slow breath and rose from behind the desk: “What is the name of that ship?”

“The White Oak!”