Chapter 390

Chapter 390: Reunion After a Long Separation

For a long time, Lawrence had felt as if he were trapped in a waking dream. He knew better than anyone what had happened to him, and how his mind had gone wrong.

He knew Martha was no longer in this world. He knew the figure who stayed at his side day and night was only a hallucination. He knew all of it, in his subconscious and in his waking thoughts; he was painfully clear about it.

But compared with other captains of about his age and experience, his mental state was actually quite good. On the vast Boundless Sea, there was never any shortage of captains whose minds had twisted and broken. Even with priests aboard to share the burden, this job that challenged the sea always meant taking on far more spiritual corruption than an ordinary crew member. Every captain finished voyage after voyage by fighting against a mind that kept getting worse. In the end, captains often used one line to describe their work:

“We are not sailing along the edge of the abyss. Our lives are sailing straight into it.”

But it was exactly because of his long years of mental trouble that Lawrence had an especially sharp sense for this “Martha”. Right now, he had already sensed that the figure before him was not the same kind of “thing” as the illusions he had seen before.

He could not help but recall that “Martha” who had appeared earlier on the White Oak’s deck. First Mate Gus had seen that “Martha” too. Had the change started from that moment?

Had everything finally crossed some threshold? Had the things he imagined at last come into the Mortal Realm? Or had some unspeakable power read his mind and created this real “individual” before his eyes? Was this a gift full of malice, or a trap dripping with mockery?

“Martha…” Lawrence finally opened his mouth. His throat felt dry, and even his voice turned hoarse. “You are really in front of me?”

“As you can see,” the woman adventurer laughed. “Want to come and touch me? I even have body heat.”

“…You are a real, solid person.” Lawrence took a slow breath and held back the urge to step forward. “But… why? Did the illusions in my head get transformed into some kind of entity here? Is this… the power of this sea region?”

“At least you got part of it right.” Martha shook her head lightly. “It was indeed this ‘sea’ that shaped me and the Black Oak. But I did not come from the illusions in your head. I have wandered here for many years, Lawrence. For many years, this ship and I have been here as part of a huge group of ‘replicas’, drifting without purpose.”

Lawrence was slightly stunned: “replicas?”

“replicas. Some great power in the Deep Sea caused all this. I do not know what it really is, but it has been entrenched here for many, many years, producing countless replicas. Do you remember the Sea Swallow you just destroyed? And that Dagger Island…”

“They were all ‘replicas’?!” Lawrence’s eyes widened. He suddenly realized the vortex he was caught in was even stranger and more terrible than he had thought. “Wait, then that city-state of Frostholm we met before…”

“It was one as well. Everything here is,” Martha said calmly. “That power has long soaked this whole sea region. Anything that stays here and drifts long enough cannot escape being ‘copied’. There are countless blind, hollow replicas wandering in the Deep Sea. What you have run into is only a tiny part of them.”

Lawrence seemed frozen. After a long time, he finally snapped out of it and stared at the “wife” before him in disbelief: “But… you look different. You can even talk to me. Just now this ship even fought side by side with the White Oak…”

Martha did not speak. She only watched Lawrence in silence, her eyes calm and meaningful, her gaze resting quietly on him.

Lawrence stopped talking and slowly came back to himself. He lowered his head and looked at his own body, still as unreal and transparent as a Ghost, and at the faint green flame quietly burning on it.

The Black Oak had appeared after the White Oak completed its “molting” in the spirit form flames.

“You have realized it, Lawrence,” Martha said softly. “Only another, even greater power can fight such a mighty force. Even this sea has no right to touch the spoils of the Vanished Fleet. You and I are both the ‘spoils’ of Him.”

Lawrence listened in a daze, feeling a little unreal. Then his expression changed slightly as he realized something wrong about her last few sentences. That was not something the “Martha” who had said goodbye to him decades ago should have known.

Why would she know about the Vanished? Why would she know that the White Oak was Captain Duncan’s “spoils”?

“You read my mind!” Lawrence’s eyes suddenly widened. His muscles tensed on instinct. “You are not the real Martha!”

Yet the figure standing not far away only smiled, seeming not to care at all about Lawrence’s reaction. Her calm was the same as decades ago. She said: “If what you want is a one hundred percent accurate and ‘pure’ Martha, I am sorry, Lawrence, I truly am not her. But ‘she’ is a part of me. Martha’s soul is inside me. And another part of me comes from your thoughts and memories. This sea is like a mirror. It keeps reflecting everything that passes across its surface. Thoughts and memories are, of course, included.

“I did not read your mind. Your mind naturally reflected and became part of me. Can you not accept that?”

Lawrence opened his mouth. His expression shifted several times. At last he pulled the corners of his mouth in a bitter half smile and spread his hands: “I do not know. I never even thought about how I should react if I really faced you again. I… I do not know how I am supposed to accept you in this… ‘form’. I have not even figured out what kind of being you are.”

He raised his head. This old captain, who had not flinched before countless strange horrors on the Boundless Sea, now looked a little lost and at a loss for what to do.

He had never shown weakness in front of anyone, except in front of his wife.

Martha quietly looked at Lawrence, who was no longer young. After a long time, she let out a helpless little laugh: “You are still the same as before. At key moments, you always need my help.”

She walked over, raised her hands, and set them on Lawrence’s shoulders. Her hands had the warmth of a living person.

“You need to steady yourself and keep a clear head…”

Lawrence frowned slightly, a little puzzled.

“Mr. Sailor, could you step outside for a moment?” Martha turned her head toward Anomaly 077, who had been standing there very quietly. “The Master of the Vanished Fleet will be pleased with your cooperation.”

The mummified corpse in the sailor’s coat gave a start. Without a word, he turned and left the bridge.

Lawrence seemed to suddenly realize something and hurriedly spoke: “Wait…”

But the bridge door had already closed.

Anomaly 077 quickly ran to the corridor outside the door. He only faintly heard Captain Lawrence’s last shout from inside:

“Martha – I am already over sixty this year!”

He did not have the heart to listen to what happened after that.

A moment later, the hinges gave a creaking sound. Anomaly 077 hunched his neck and carefully turned his head. He saw the woman adventurer standing at the door with a light, cheerful smile on her face.

Right after her, Lawrence came out too, baring his teeth in pain. When he saw Anomaly 077 at the door, he immediately shot him a warning look, then quickly covered his head and bared his teeth even more.

Anomaly 077 quickly pulled back his gaze and worked hard to lower his presence like a real corpse.

It was clear that he had taken quite a beating.

“Can you accept it now?” Martha turned her head and asked Lawrence with a smile.

Lawrence held the swollen spot on his head. He did not know why, in a form that was almost spirit form, he could still get beaten up by Martha like this. He only knew that such details no longer mattered: “I can accept it. I can accept it…”

When you drifted on the Boundless Sea, you needed to take things easy about everything.

After all, it now seemed that if he could not think things through, Martha would help him “open up” anyway. The woman adventurer’s bold temper was the same as years ago, but he was already a man past fifty now…

“Then next, we should think about serious business,” Martha said with a smile, folding her arms and leaning against the door. “Staying trapped here forever is not a solution.”

Hearing this, Lawrence instantly put away his tangled thoughts, and his face became serious: “Martha, I wanted to ask you this just now. What exactly is the state of this sea? Do you know any way to leave here?”

“…I really want to answer you, but I am sorry.” Martha was silent for two seconds, then spoke with some regret. “I have wandered here for many years, but in the end, this ship and I are only one of the many replicas trapped here. There is one thing I can be sure of, though. This whole sea is centered on that city-state of Frostholm. If there really is a rift here where this place overlaps with the Mortal Realm, it must be in Frostholm.”