Chapter 580

Chapter 580: Touching the Edge

Sara Mell no longer cared about his breakfast.

This former legendary explorer, who had seen countless strange and eerie sights on the Boundless Sea, faced many layers of corruption and death, and built a city-state at the end of the storm, now rarely showed an uneasy expression. He sat in his chair with his brows tightly drawn together, while a long-lost shadow of unease spread through his heart.

He knew this feeling well. It was the warning his instincts gave when a huge, bizarre danger, beyond human understanding and resistance, slowly drew near.

He did not doubt Lucretia’s account.

This was not his first time dealing with the “Sea Witch”. Countless Deep-Sea Captains and frontier explorers saw this Witch as one of the Shadows on the Boundless Sea and were deeply wary of her strange temper and dangerous power. But Sara Mell knew very clearly that, in the end, the Sea Witch still stood on the side of Mortals.

The dining room stayed quiet for a long time before Sara Mell finally came out of his thoughts. He raised his head and said: “So far, no one has reported anything strange last night. Neither the local elven residents nor the nonhuman folk living here noticed the dream you mentioned.”

“From what my Father saw, the anomaly in the district was very obvious and on a large scale. If some parts of the city had really stayed normal, then the residents of those ‘normal’ districts could not have failed to notice the anomalies in the neighboring streets. So the only explanation is that last night… the whole of Lightwind Harbor was Dreamwalking.”

Lucretia’s last sentence sent an indescribable chill through Sara Mell, but his reason still pushed him to think about what did not fit in the logic. He asked: “You said the buildings in the Mortal Realm were covered or even parasitized by ‘corruption entities’ spreading from the dream, with huge plants piercing through walls and streets? None of that left any trace?”

“No trace was left. Before the Sun rose, the Mortal Realm had already returned to normal.”

Sara Mell listened, frowning in silence, and seemed to fall into thought once more.

“What are you thinking of?” Lucretia asked curiously from the side.

“…Maybe I should send people to check all the gas meters and electricity meters across the city, and the night-time operation of the factories,” Sara Mell said as he thought. “The city-state is not still at night. Many functions run day and night to keep it working, like the three pillars of gas, electricity, and steam. Each has its own night monitoring and patrol staff…

“So that raises a question: when that dream came, where did these people go? What state were the machines they should have been running in? And there are the night watch scholars at the colleges. Many of them need to record their work status at set times…”

Sara Mell paused to think, then went on: “We also have to find a way to figure out how far this anomaly spread. Was it limited to the main island of Lightwind Harbor, or did it reach the patrol fleet off the coast, or even the fallen relic over there…”

As this governor spoke, he stood up from behind the table and began to pace beside the dining table, stopping now and then to think with a grave look.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that there was still a “Sea Witch” sitting here.

Lucretia did not find it strange. She knew that before this governor became City Lord, he had first been an outstanding adventurer (though still not as good as Father). And a good adventurer knew how to deal with all kinds of extraordinary manifestations.

Lightwind Harbor had managed to thrive so close to the border sea all these years, and this governor’s ability was beyond doubt.

She had finished what Father had told her to do. Lucretia stood up without disturbing the governor, who was deep in thought. Her gaze swept over the table; she casually picked up a bottle of unopened spiced wine, and then her figure burst apart into a swirl of colorful paper scraps that spun up through the roof and vanished from the room.

After a while, Sara Mell suddenly came back to himself. He turned around in a hurry and said: “Ah, I’m sorry, I drifted off for a moment, Lady Lucretia, would you like to stay and have some—”

He stared blankly at the empty chair opposite the table, and at the spot where his treasured wine had been. That place was empty too.

“…Again?!”

…

“The number of barrels changed?”

In the captain’s cabin, after hearing Alice rush in to report, Duncan could not help but ask again in surprise.

“Yes, yes!” Alice nodded again and again. “I counted several times! I definitely didn’t count wrong! And I’m sure I remember it right. I moved all those barrels there myself.”

Alice would of course never lie. As for making a mistake with the number… she should not mess up something this simple either.

After a short pause, Duncan stood up from behind the chart table and said: “Take me to see it.”

“Okay!” Alice answered without any hesitation.

The Goathead at the edge of the chart table stirred. It turned its head toward Duncan, speaking with a hint of hesitation: “Captain, then I…”

“You keep steering,” Duncan said at once. He paused, then added: “Don’t worry about anything else. Like I said, leave it to me.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Led by Alice, Duncan soon reached the place where the salted fish were stored.

Of course, the place had already returned to normal. Twelve wooden barrels stood neatly in a row against the wall, no more and no less.

Duncan still kept a serious expression as his gaze swept the whole cabin.

Wherever he looked, faint strands of ghostly green flame flickered in the air like illusions and slipped quietly through the cracks in the floor and walls. The whole room seemed wrapped in a mist woven from spirit form fire, shifting back and forth between the Spirit Realm and the Mortal Realm.

He was checking whether any “traces” were left here, whether something that did not belong to the Vanished had entered this place.

Alice’s report did not sound like a big deal. On this ghost ship full of strange things, a single barrel not on the “list” hardly seemed worth such a fuss. But Duncan did not relax at all.

Because on the Boundless Sea, even the smallest oddity had to be treated with care—especially on the Vanished, and especially at a time like this.

Duncan had already sensed something was wrong from last night’s events. His talk with Goathead today, and Agatha’s report, made him feel more and more that something was off.

This ship seemed to be in a slightly strange state.

It had not slipped out of his control, but Duncan kept feeling that some “details” were appearing on this ship that he did not know or understand.

Either some hidden secrets of the Vanished were slowly lifting their veil to him, or some parts of the ship really were slowly slipping out of the captain’s control.

As the spreading spirit form flames soaked through everything, Duncan felt his link with the Vanished grow stronger. Every detail of the ship began to appear in his mind—the deck, the masts, the sails, the complex winches and lines, the cabins below the deck, and the vague, shadowy parts that lay soaked in the Boundless Sea.

He had done this more than once, so the feeling was not new. After his senses quickly adjusted, he let his perception merge with the ship and continued to spread into the depths of the Vanished.

The cabin where the kitchen sat showed no anomalies. The nearby cabins and the deeper layers were also all normal.

Thin streams of light soaked into the depths of the Vanished, flowing through the ship like some kind of signal. They finally gathered in the captain’s cabin, converging on a single bright “focus”.

That was where Goathead sat, the control center of the ship at this moment.

Duncan’s “gaze” lingered on that focus for a long time.

Everything there also looked normal.

Duncan slowly drew back his “gaze”—but he left a small flame in the deepest darkness.

At the same time, as he withdrew his gaze from the whole ship, he kept leaving Fire Seeds behind, letting them stay in different parts of the Vanished.

Alice watched the captain without blinking, a little worried. Only after a long time did she see Duncan’s eyes move. She hurried closer and asked: “Captain, Captain, how is it? Did you find anything?”

“There is no anomaly on the ship—don’t worry,” Duncan slowly showed a small smile and reached out to ruffle Alice’s hair. “It might just be some minor issue, like a bit of spatial misalignment or a trick of light and shadow. I’ll take care of it.”

Alice did not really understand, but she still nodded half in confusion: “Ah… oh.”

After briefly comforting the Doll, Duncan turned his gaze to a spot not far away.

On a pillar two meters away hung an oil lamp with a glass shade. Now shadows and mist slowly formed on the surface of that shade, and Agatha’s figure appeared in the glass.

“Keep an eye on the reflections in the Spirit Realm,” Duncan nodded to her. “If anything tries to cross the boundary, don’t handle it on your own. Tell me at once, and I’ll come back immediately.”

Agatha lowered her head and said: “I understand, Captain.”

Alice’s gaze went back and forth between Duncan and Agatha a few times. At last she could not help breaking the silence: “So are we still going into the city?”

“The Nameless One’s dream is spreading through Lightwind Harbor. To solve this, we still need to look for clues in the city-state first,” Duncan nodded. “I also have many questions I want to test in the city… Do you want to stay on the ship or come with me?”

Alice thought for a moment, then looked back toward the familiar ‘friends’ in the kitchen. After a short pause, she turned back with a bright smile.

“Let’s go to the city together!”