Chapter 387

Chapter 387: The Sudden Presence

The heretics and misshapen freaks who had been executed in the Spirit Realm had now turned into embers of wreckage in the Mortal Realm. The severe corruption that had hit the sewage treatment plant had been purified for the moment. But when it came to the Shadows hanging over the whole city-state, this was probably only lifting a corner of the Veil.

The black-clad Guards came back to the Gatekeeper. Agatha quickly counted them and confirmed her subordinates’ condition, then let her gaze fall on the slightly balding administrator not far away.

“Has his condition been confirmed?”

“It has been checked. He is indeed a normal human,” a black-clad Guard said in a low voice. “But he has been badly frightened, and we can’t rule out the chance that his mind has suffered corruption. He will need some time for counseling and observation.”

“Hand him over to the local Cathedral,” Agatha said with a small nod. “Also tell them that the situation at this sewage plant is very bad. The entire facility will need a full purification and inspection later. They can only restart it after all hidden dangers have been checked.”

“Yes, Gatekeeper.” The subordinate nodded to take the order, then looked up at Agatha with some worry. “You… did not run into trouble, did you?”

Agatha frowned: “Hm? Why do you ask?”

“You stayed over ‘there’ longer than usual,” the subordinate explained. “Did you find some clue when you looked from the Spirit Realm?”

Agatha kept her brows slightly furrowed, a thoughtful look on her face. For some reason she felt as if she had overlooked something. But when she tried to recall it carefully, she could not find anything wrong. Was this a side effect of staying too long in the Spirit Realm?

She shook her head and reached into her coat pocket for the eye drops she used often. But after a moment’s hesitation she put them away again.

Her eyes did not feel uncomfortable at all. It was as if she had already used the drops before returning to the Mortal Realm.

“Nothing happened,” she told her subordinate. “It is just that those heretics showed up in a strange way, so I spent a little more time ‘interrogating’ them.”

It was a pity she had not gotten anything out of them. Those heretics were stubborn and fanatical. Even death alone could not shake their hard hearts.

But… what exactly had she overlooked?

A vague doubt rose once more in Agatha’s heart, but she did not show any of it in front of her subordinates.

“Are we heading back to the Grand Cathedral next?” a black-clad Guard asked beside her.

“Back to the Grand Cathedral,” Agatha said with a nod. “We have to gather people at once and start searching all of the underground facilities in the whole city. The situation may be worse than we thought.”

…

It was close to dusk. The edge of the Sun was slowly nearing the sea horizon. Its splendid twin rune rings spread a majestic glow over the waters. In the distance, the city-state’s buildings were slowly dyed by the sunset. The whole city looked as if it would melt away into the evening glow.

Duncan stood at the narrow window at the end of the second-floor corridor. His broad frame almost blocked all the light that came in from outside. Through the gaps in his bandages, he quietly cast his gaze on the afterglow of the distant sunset, as if lost in thought.

Sneaky footsteps came from the side. Duncan did not turn his head. He already knew who was coming.

“Finished all your homework?” he asked casually.

Shirley had just opened her door and was ready to sneak down to the first-floor kitchen for snacks. She froze at once. In the Shadows beside her, Dog stuck out his shivering head and muttered in a low voice: “I told you we’d get caught…”

“I… I finished the arithmetic sheet,” Shirley said. She ignored Dog’s hindsight comment and only shrank her neck, looking carefully at Duncan, who stood by the window like a stern iron tower. “I still have to copy the vocabulary once more, but I’m hungry…”

Duncan could hear pure tension and grievance in the girl’s voice. It made him turn his head to look at Shirley, half amused and half helpless. He asked: “Did I ever say you are not allowed to eat if you don’t finish your homework?”

Shirley shrank her neck again and did not dare answer.

Duncan sighed, turned fully around with a small smile, and pressed a hand on Shirley’s head.

“You really don’t like studying?” he said helplessly. “You look as if someone has bullied you.”

“I… I get sleepy as soon as I look at a book…” Shirley said nervously. She was still not used to talking with Duncan while he was in this body. The bandages and dark clothes looked even scarier to her than the captain on the Vanished usually did. “I… I’ll go back to my room and do my homework!”

Duncan gently pressed down on Shirley’s shoulder, stopping her from turning back to her room.

“If you’re tired, then rest for a while,” Duncan said, shaking his head. “Don’t study out of fear.”

Shirley gave Duncan a look of disbelief, then nodded quickly, as if afraid the captain would change his mind.

After a few more seconds, she looked at Duncan carefully and could not help asking: “Why do you have to make me read and learn characters… I… I don’t have to take university exams like Nina, and I can’t become some scholar like Mr. Morris…”

This was the first time Duncan had heard this question from Shirley’s own mouth, but it was clear that it had been sitting in her mind for a long time. This orphaned girl had never gone to school and had grown up with nothing but a Abyssal Hound for company. It was no wonder she did not understand the captain’s intentions.

“Because knowledge is useful,” Duncan said. He was silent for a while, then looked at Shirley very seriously. “The knowledge that makes you resist it and gives you a headache is what keeps the whole civilized world running. When you look at the cars driving on the streets, the machines roaring in the factories, and the endless sea outside the city-state, have you never felt curious about how those things work? Have you never wondered what faraway city-states look like?”

Shirley thought about it. She seemed to know what the “right answer” should be, but in the end she still shook her head a little hesitantly: “No. I… I always felt that as long as I could fill my stomach, that was enough. I never thought that far.”

“But you now need more than a full stomach, Shirley.” Duncan bent down and looked into her eyes. “You might not understand yet, but I want your life to be a little more complete. You missed many things in the past. Now that you are a member of the Vanished, those things you missed will be made up for.”

Shirley stared at Duncan in a daze. She still did not really understand what the captain was saying, but from his serious and stern tone she seemed to faintly sense a bit of… warmth.

That warmth felt vaguely familiar.

So she nodded, half understanding and half not, and drew out her reply: “Oh…”

“Good,” Duncan said with a smile, slowly straightening up. “Since you understand, go down and eat something later, then keep working on your homework. I…”

He suddenly stopped.

Shirley was still shrinking her neck, waiting for the rest of the lecture. She looked up in slight disappointment: “Ah? What is it?”

Duncan did not answer her. He just waved his hand lightly, but his gaze had already turned far away. It looked as if he was staring at the opposite end of the corridor, yet deep in his eyes it seemed as if a glimmer from somewhere very far away was being reflected.

He blinked. In one eye, the corridor and ceiling of the house were reflected. In the other eye, it was as if he saw a ship burning with dim green flames, wandering between mist and Shadows.

Out on the sea off Frostholm, in the captain’s cabin of the Vanished, which was slowly cruising across the vast ocean, Duncan suddenly lifted his head from the enchanted sea chart on the table.

His sudden movement made Goathead at the edge of the table react at once. The wooden head creaked as it turned its neck: “Ah, Captain, what are your orders? Are you getting ready for dinner? Even though there is no crew available on the ship right now, I am still willing to provide dining services within my ability. What would you like to eat? We can start with southern dishes. Fried meat rolls, fried pork cutlets, fried fish cakes, fried meatballs, roasted bird eggs, steamed bird eggs, boiled bird eggs, stewed bird eggs, pickled bird eggs, smoked bird eggs…”

“Be quiet. I did not look up to hear you recite dishes,” Duncan glared at the noisy Goathead, though his expression held a trace of gravity. He raised his head and looked out the cabin window toward the direction of the city-state of Frostholm. He spoke in a thoughtful tone: “The White Oak?”

“The White Oak?” Goathead was stunned for a moment, then suddenly reacted. “Ah, you mean that steamship, the one Alice took before? Why did you suddenly think of it? Do you want to reclaim that trophy? I can provide you with a full set of plans for taking it into the fleet—are you planning to change the sailors on board? That captain should be kept…”

“It is nearby,” Duncan said. He did not pay any attention to Goathead’s chatter. He slowly stood up from behind the table, speaking as he frowned slightly and felt out a faint but very real link. “Near… Frostholm?”

“The White Oak is near Frostholm?” Goathead finally stopped babbling. His tone was full of shock. “That’s impossible… Isn’t Frostholm under lockdown right now? And Tyrian’s fleet is still blocking the route. If a foreign ship had come near, there is no way he would not have reported it to you.”

“…Something is wrong. I can indeed feel the presence of the White Oak,” Duncan said thoughtfully. “But its position is hazy, and it seems to keep changing…”

He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the city-state of Frostholm, trying to pin down where exactly that presence, which had suddenly grown strong in his senses, was located.

The White Oak’s presence had appeared all of a sudden and had grown strong in a short time, like a flame that suddenly lit up in the darkness and caught his eye. He had never felt anything like this before.

And, unless it was just his imagination, Duncan also felt that the ship’s presence had risen and fallen several times, like a light flickering bright and dim.

As he thought, he lowered his head and looked at the wooden Goathead on the table: “Do you know what is going on?”

Goathead thought for a moment and shook his head: “Why don’t I list some dishes for you instead…”

“Useless at the key moment.” Duncan twitched the corner of his mouth, stood up, walked around the chart table, and stepped out of the captain’s cabin.