Chapter 680

Chapter 680: After the Meeting.

After hearing Apprentice Joshua’s report, Taran Ael and Ted Riel almost turned to look at each other at the same time. Before Ted could speak, Taran had already turned his head and said to his apprentice: “The metal cabinet by the window in the next room, second door from the left, blue paper-tape box—run!”

“Ah… okay!!” Joshua answered in a panic, then spun around and dashed out of the room.

A moment later came a whole series of crashes in the corridor, as if he had run into something, followed by the sound of frantic rummaging in the next room. Before Ted Riel started to worry that this reckless young man meant to tear the whole building apart, Joshua rushed back in, all wind and fire, holding a sealed archive box in his arms.

Ted Riel took the records from the archive box and compared them with the paper tape Joshua had just brought. Then he walked to the side of Taran Ael’s sickbed and held both strips out for the Grand Scholar to see.

Taran Ael’s gaze fell on the old and new strips of paper. He studied every peak and valley in the lines there, and his expression grew darker and heavier.

“Is it the same signal?” The voice of the Truth’s Truth Keeper came from beside him.

“Setting aside the distortion from interference and any error from the device itself… it should be the same signal,” Taran Ael said, his face grave.

“…This is the ‘Light-Signal’ Lady Lucretia recorded aboard the Radiant Star,” Ted Riel stared at the earlier strip that had been sealed in the paper-tape box, his expression thoughtful. “It was the information cyclically released from inside the glowing orb while the Sun was extinguished. But we still have not deciphered its meaning…”

He suddenly lifted his head and looked out the window at the sky.

The Sun was slowly drawing near the distant rooftops. The glorious twin rune rings shone brightly in the sky, and the magnificent corona still poured out endless light and heat. Time was nearing dusk, but Vision 001 itself showed no sign of going out.

Yet the “glowing geometric body” near Lightwind Harbor had suddenly begun to release this strange “signal” again, the same signal that had appeared while the Sun was extinguished… Why?

“Has this signal been repeating the whole time?” Taran Ael asked his Student.

“Y-yes,” Joshua nodded in a hurry, clearly very nervous. “When the observatory sent us the data, the signal had already repeated three times…”

“What do you make of this?” Taran Ael turned his head and looked at his old friend.

“…I have to go to the observatory myself. These signals feel very unusual. I keep thinking that strange ‘glowing geometric body’ is trying to… ‘make contact’ with the outside world. Maybe I can find some clues if I go there in person,” Ted Riel said quickly as he walked to the coat rack, picked up his coat and hat, and put them on. “I also need to tell the people meeting on the Fifth Ark. They may not have noticed anything abnormal yet…”

The Truth’s Truth Keeper finished getting ready to go out, then picked up his heavy book that recorded many arts of sacred miracles. He opened it to the page that showed a “door”. But he suddenly stopped, lifted his eyelids, and looked at the Grand Scholar lying on the bed.

Taran Ael suddenly felt a flicker of unease. “…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“If something happens to the Sun again this time, you are going to lie in this bed honestly—you already shook up the academy’s whole safety review with your last amazing stunt.”

“Nonsense! My lumbar disc is almost poking into my hip; where could I even go?!” Taran Ael glared at once. If not for his ruined back, he looked as if he would leap up and bite someone. “You think I want to be scrambling along the roofs and bell towers of the teaching building?”

But Ted Riel only shook his head at that: “…Experience tells me that a herniated disc cannot fully stop your curiosity. As long as the target has enough research value, you are perfectly able to crawl out of a sickbed.”

As he spoke, the Truth’s Truth Keeper strolled unhurriedly to the Grand Scholar’s bedside and tapped his heavy Book of sacred miracles with his knuckles. A small, ghostly scalpel appeared in his hand.

Taran Ael instantly understood the source of his earlier unease. He shouted at once: “What are you doing… I’m warning you, Ted… don’t you dare… damn it, you can’t!”

Ted Riel paid no attention at all to the Grand Scholar’s protests. He pointed the scalpel at Taran Ael from a distance and tapped three times in the air: “This will effectively keep you confined to this bed. Don’t worry—when I come back, I’ll cure you.”

“Ted, you damn XX! The God of Wisdom did not grant you knowledge of disease and healing for this! I… (Elven curses) (Lightwind Harbor curses) (vulgarities not fit to hear)!!”

The room filled with the Grand Scholar’s agitated shouts, though his voice no longer had the strength it once did. The Truth’s Truth Keeper, however, had already turned away and stepped through a door that appeared from thin air.

Only Apprentice Joshua remained in the room, at a complete loss as he faced his Teacher.

“…What are you staring at? Go bring me my hemorrhoid ointment!”

“Oh… oh!”

…

The main part of the meeting had already ended. After they exchanged enough information and reached a series of open “cooperation agreements”, Duncan and the gathered Church leaders announced a recess together.

But unlike a normal “meeting”, there were no flashing cameras here, no crowd of reporters to record this precious moment, no photographs or footage to preserve any detail of the proceedings—there was not even a single page of written agreement left on paper.

The things they discussed here were simply too sensitive. Any form of record might, on some future day, undergo some kind of unpredictable “change”.

But none of the attendees minded. They believed that the Four Gods as witness were enough.

The Bishops left the hall first. Lucretia’s Servants led those Guests to a temporary rest area on the deck, where tea and snacks had already been prepared in advance. In half an hour, there would even be a small barbecue on deck.

Many of the attendees still felt a sense of unreality. After all… to enjoy a rich dinner on the deck of the Vanished, with the sea wind blowing… even the most imaginative poet or playwright in the world would hardly dare to conceive of such a scene with a clear head.

Other attendees had a different worry. They still fretted about the “food safety” on this ship. Even though they had accepted that “Captain Duncan has a human nature and has already formed a cooperative relationship with the Church”, they still felt that something harmful to the body and mind of an ordinary person might appear aboard this ship—especially at a so-called “barbecue party”.

…To be honest, their worries were not wrong.

But it did not matter.

Because it was not yet time to return to the Pilgrimage Ark—the four Popes still remained in the hall, and the “closed-door meeting” after the open session was the truly important part.

“Now it’s just us,” Duncan looked at the four people sitting opposite him in the hall, which suddenly felt quiet and empty after the Bishops left. “So we can talk about some matters that are not so suitable to put on the table.”

“Where would you like to start?” Helena asked. “We will do all we can to answer your questions.”

“…It is not really a question,” Duncan thought for a moment, then spoke slowly. “I just want to know—do you intend to hide your operations in the border seas from the city-states forever? I do not mean the search for the Gods, but the search for new routes. If you really find a new route, how do you plan to persuade city-states, who knew nothing about these plans beforehand, to carry out a population migration on that scale? And the rest of those ambitious ‘migration’ plans…”

He paused there, and his expression grew more serious. “To be honest, they do sound exciting. But once you calm down and think, you can see there are too many hasty decisions, too many things taken for granted—especially when you mean to complete these ‘great feats’ while hiding them from the entire world. How high do you think your real chance of success is?”

“…The secrecy is also a last resort. There is too much information that cannot be given to ordinary people. The ‘secrets’ of the border, if they spread into normal city-states, could easily cause a catastrophe,” Helena sighed. “Of course, your criticism is right. There are too many hasty and wishful parts in these plans, and no matter what, such large-scale actions can never be hidden forever… All I can say is that we never expected the situation to worsen this quickly.”

“We first made our plans on the scale of several centuries,” Frem nodded beside her. “With enough time as a buffer, we could have relied on the efforts of several generations to push these things forward steadily. We would also have had the energy to screen and handle information about the border and pass it safely to each city-state. Now… we can only say that time has become too short.”

“Time… yes, time has become much too short,” Duncan said softly. He knew Helena and Frem were stating helpless facts, so he did not stay on that topic. After a quiet sigh, he turned his head toward Vanna. “Then let’s talk about something else. Vanna, didn’t you have something you wanted to say to Lord Frem?”

The tall, gray-skinned Flamebearer Pope sitting across the table, Frem, froze for a moment. Then he seemed to realize something, adjusted his posture, and turned a serious gaze on Vanna.

Vanna nodded slightly, then stood up and walked toward a corner of the hall. A moment later, she returned carrying something unusually large on her shoulder.

It was the “Gatekeeper’s cane” left by Tarrigan.

“Careful with the beams…” Duncan could not help reminding her. “And the pillars…”

Vanna nodded and carefully avoided smashing anything in the hall with the Gatekeeper’s cane, which was as thick as the trunk of a giant tree. Then she slowly laid it on the table before everyone.

“This is the ‘Chronicle Pillar’.”