Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Captain Duncan’s Children.

Even a ghost had once been a member of the Mortal Realm. No matter how terrifying the Vanished that had fallen into Subspace a century ago were now, they were still ships forged by artificers of the Mortal Realm. Just like Captain Duncan: before he became one of the shadows of Subspace, Duncan had also been a human.

For ordinary seafarers, everything connected to the Vanished was inevitably shrouded in a veil of “the curse” and strangeness. That terrifying ghost captain seemed like a creature born straight out of Subspace. No one would wonder whether a calamity that roamed the Boundless Sea had personal joys or sorrows, or any human relationships at all. In many people’s minds, “Captain Duncan” was almost like a symbolic natural phenomenon—he simply existed, with no need to trace where he came from.

Fear built high walls in mortals’ hearts, making them instinctively avoid thinking about what details lay beyond those walls.

But Vanna, an Inquisitor who specialized in facing this kind of fear, knew how to pick out what was real from a tangle of legends, exaggerations, and ravings.

That terrifying captain of the Vanished… when he had still been human, before the Viseran Thirteen Isles incident, he had also had close friends and family members. Under his command had been loyal sailors and adjutants. He had needed to go to the harbor to maintain and resupply his ship, and to deal with the authority of the city-states.

He could not have been born a moving calamity.

Captain Duncan had a pair of children: his elder son, Tyrian Abnomar, and his daughter, Lucretia Abnomar—and they were still alive in this world.

It was said that some power of the curse had extended their lifespans, allowing these two captains to wander the world, immortal like their terrifying father.

Each of the two captains commanded a powerful ship and lingered for long years on the edge of the civilized world. Their relations with all the city-states were cold and faintly hostile. Many people could not even imagine that Captain Duncan still had a pair of children active in the world. Only a small number of people who knew history and kept their reason understood their story.

On the other hand, though they stayed distant from all city-states, these two captains at least still stood on the side of humans—the terrifying curse of the Vanished had not driven them to follow in Captain Duncan’s footsteps.

Lady Lucretia Abnomar’s ship, the Radiant Star, was a powerful vanguard exploration vessel. This lady was passionate about probing the limits of the world. It was said she had once reached the very edge of the Known World and there witnessed marvels beyond ordinary imagination.

No one knew what she searched for at the World’s Edge, but on rare occasions she would send envoys to visit the explorer associations of certain city-states and share some of the knowledge she had discovered along her routes. This faint, benevolent contact was proof that she still stood on the side of humans.

It was said that the explorer association of the Cold Harbor city-state had even awarded this mysterious lady an Honorary Member medal, though no one knew whether she had accepted that “honor”…

Tyrian Abnomar was a being even “closer” to the human world than his younger sister, yet he was more dangerous. More than half a century ago, he had served the Frostholm city-state in the Northern Seas. Now he was the most powerful pirate captain in the Frost Sea region.

This moody captain controlled nearly half of the main routes of the Frost Sea. His flagship was the Sea Mist, and more than a dozen warships fought under his command. In truth he had already become a semi-official power on the Frost Sea, alongside Cold Harbor and Frostholm. The islands he occupied had developed enough to stand on equal footing with a city-state, far beyond the concept of a mere “pirate band.”

As for how Captain Tyrian had transformed from a general under the Queen of Frostholm into a pirate leader, people told many different stories—

Some said that he had been the mastermind behind the Frostholm rebellion half a century ago, the one who personally sent the Frostholm Queen to the guillotine. After that, he had plundered the city-state’s wealth and used it to build his powerful pirate fleet.

Another version was the complete opposite. A few scholars believed that Tyrian Abnomar had fought for the Queen of Frostholm until the very last moment of the rebellion. He had eventually become a pirate and repeatedly attacked ships traveling between Frostholm and Cold Harbor because he had been left disheartened, driven by an obsession with avenging the Queen.

Vanna did not know how much truth or falsehood lay in all these tangled rumors. Considering the characters of those two captains, they probably had no interest in explaining themselves to the world either. But one thing was certain: the return of the Vanished to the world was absolutely something they would have to pay attention to, guard against, and even prepare to meet with all their strength.

After all, these siblings had betrayed the Vanished with their own ships more than a century ago—and now their furious father had returned from Subspace.

Of course, just as Dante Wayne had said, this was only a spare card. It would be good if it could be played, but they could not place all their hopes on it.

What they could truly rely on was still their own strength.

…

When the bell tower of the Cathedral in the district chimed and the special rhythm of the steam whistle broke the night’s silence, the city-state that had lain quiet all night slowly woke.

sunlight spread slowly along the distant rows of buildings. In the light, the “World’s Wound” in the sky grew faint and faded away. The sounds of carts, horses, and pedestrians drifted up from the streets. The city surrounded by the Boundless Sea had passed through another veil of night and now welcomed the sunrise in peace.

Nina had gotten up early to make breakfast. The smell of mushroom sauce and toasted bread helped Duncan shake off the drowsiness of this human body in the morning. Listening to the bicycle bells ringing from the street outside, he suddenly said: “Do you want a bicycle?”

“A bicycle?” Nina froze for a moment, then waved her hand. “That’s really expensive… And I don’t really need one.”

“It would make it easier for you to get to school,” Duncan said. “You don’t need to worry about the money. I’ll figure something out.”

He had already thought it over carefully. Although this antique shop did not look like much, judging from the stock piling up and rotating in the warehouse and the cash kept in the store, it ought to have steady sales in ordinary times. It was definitely more than enough to support two people.

Nina’s current state of poverty was completely because her original uncle had donated more than half of the family property to a Cult. Most of what remained had been squandered on strong liquor, gambling dens, and drugs.

Now that degenerate life had ended. With those enormous, wasteful expenses cut off, he did not need to do anything special. As long as he kept the shop’s business running normally, he could give Nina a life a little better than before.

Of course, he did not actually know how to run a shop, and the supply channels he knew of in his memories were a bit vague. But… that was something he could slowly get used to.

The most important thing was to let Nina truly feel at ease and get used to the change that her “uncle” had become reliable again.

Nina lowered her head and took small bites of the slightly stale bread. After a while she still repeated: “It’s really expensive…”

Duncan opened his mouth and was just about to say something when he suddenly heard knocking from downstairs.

“This early… someone came before we even opened?” Nina paused when she heard the knocking, muttering under her breath. Then she stood up and walked out. “I’ll go down and see!”

The girl ran downstairs in a hurry. Duncan casually broke off a piece of bread and tossed it to the pigeon pacing on the table: “Tell me… besides keeping the shop open, is there any faster way to make money? How about you start a logistics company?”

The pigeon immediately hopped two steps to the side and flapped its wings in outrage: “You really came just to make fun of me.”

Then it started to ramble on. “Then Jade flew into a rage and swung up the Serpent Halberd…” “Elder Tang raised both fists, beating Kieran until he spun like a top…” “When they finally looked up, a blood bar appeared above Tathagata’s head, filling the whole screen, and the three brothers broke out in a cold sweat”…

Duncan was completely stunned: “…”

He could understand that the pigeon could not speak when Nina was around and had been holding it in, but he could not understand what had happened to the bird’s brain after holding back that long—what kind of mess was in its vocabulary?!

But before he could open his mouth to speak to the pigeon, Nina’s voice suddenly came from downstairs. She sounded rather nervous: “Uncle Duncan! There… there are two constables here to see you…”

“Constables?” Two constables coming to look for him so early?

Duncan froze for a moment, then immediately ordered the pigeon to stay in the room. He got up and hurried downstairs.

As soon as he reached the first floor, he saw Nina looking back nervously toward the stairs, and the two constables in deep blue uniforms standing at the door of the antique shop.