Chapter 6: Missing “cargo”

Chapter 6: The Missing “Cargo”

The muster bell was rung, and the rush of the bell was followed by the disorganized and panicked steps of the sailors, while Lawrence remained in the wheelhouse with the second mate and the vicar, who had not yet caught his breath.

The old captain looked out of the window at the sea, at the moment the White Oak was still in the depth of the spirit world, the sea beyond the ship’s side was coiled with mist and the water was still as black as ink, but the storm had ceased, and the dreaded Lost Country had disappeared – it could not help but give the illusion as if the storm and even the collapsing frontiers of reality had been brought about by that ghost ship. It was as if the ghost ship had brought it all on, and now all the disasters had moved away from the White Oak with the departure of that ship.

Lawrence thought of all those terrible legends about the Lost Country and Captain Duncan Abnormale, of the fleet that had been swallowed up by the Reality Frontier more than a century ago, and of one of the seagoing ships that had sunk into the ethereal depths of the sea in the encounter with the Lost Country, and it suddenly seemed like it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

But in any case, now that the Lost Country had left and the waters around it had temporarily regained their calm, despite still being in the dangerous depths of the Spirit Realm, at least he and his crew had a chance to catch their breath.

Next, Lawrence had to determine exactly what the Lost Country had taken – or left behind – from the White Oak.

And it had to be determined soon.

He didn’t dare to float the ship to the real world without eliminating all the hidden dangers, because certain things brought out of the spirit world would cause terrible contamination in the real world, but as usual, he and his crew would be irreversibly affected if they lingered too long in the depths of the spirit world.

Listening to the noisy sounds coming from the deck due, Lawrence suddenly looked up from his thoughts, he looked towards the priest who was sitting in front of the incense burner and whose face had gotten a little better, his expression was very serious: “Mr. Ron, how stable are we now?”

The priest coughed twice, and then took out a small, beautifully shaped compass with many ocean symbols and sacred symbols engraved on its surface from his pocket, and after pressing the metal lid open with a snap, the needle on the compass immediately spun rapidly and eventually came to a steady stop at a certain position.

“We are staying at the surface of the spirit world, slightly close to the real world, and the influence from the Profound Depths …… is very weak,” the priest looked at the state of that compass needle, his expression suddenly a little perplexed, “Strange …… We’re completely stabilized here now, with the holy relics turned off, there’s almost no sinking at all …… ahem ……”

“Perhaps that ‘bump’ of the Lost Country ship has instead bumped us onto a safe course,” Lawrence bitterly laughed and shook his head, wanting to liven up the atmosphere with a sneer, “I’ve heard that there exist in the Spirit World some subtle balance points that can save things in the real world from a deeper ‘pull’ ……”

“Mr. Captain, that joke is coldly overdone,” the priest said, coughing twice more, and though he’d eased up, he wasn’t in the best of shape at all, “Ahem, in any case, what happened today must be reported to the Church… …The appearance of the Lost Country ship is by no means a small matter. There have always been reports of encounters with the Lost Country in the past few decades, but they have all been confirmed afterward to be nothing more than the crew’s gibberish or group visions caused by visions gone haywire, but today we did witness it …… Goddess above, you had better mentally prepare yourself after you return to Prenland that you won’t be able to set sail again for the near future. ”

“I understand – neither the Church nor the city-state authorities will allow a ship that has just suffered a vision disaster to return to the sea, it’s for the safety of all, and it’s not just the Church, the city-state, the Explorers’ Guild that I’m going to have to report . …Alas, there’s also that horrible wife of mine ……” Captain Lawrence pressed his forehead hard and waved his hand after a long sigh, “Enough of that, you need to rest now, until we return to port, this ship needs the goddess’s blessing.”

The Chaplain nodded gently and soon the First Mate, who had just recently left, returned to the bridge.

“There are no less or more people on board,” as soon as they met, the first mate immediately reported without waiting for the captain’s question, “I personally checked the sailors assembled on deck, and also went to the boiler room to check the mechanics who stayed there, and they were all able to accurately pronounce the name of the deity they each believe in, they are all living people yes .”

“Not a soul missing?” Lawrence but his eyes widened, this should have been good news, he couldn’t believe what the first mate was reporting, “What about the side of the Holy Emblem Road Marker?”

“The Holy Emblem is normal as well,” the First Officer nodded immediately, “The Navigators are preparing incense and essential oils and awaiting your command to restart that Holy Emblem.”

Lawrence listened in disbelief and once again couldn’t help but mutter softly, “…… He really spared the ship?”

“Good fortune favors us, Captain,” the first mate spread his hands, “We have lost nothing, perhaps the dreaded phantom captain just happened to be passing by, or perhaps even just accidentally bumped into it.”

“Do you believe that yourself?” Lawrence immediately glared at his first mate, “If good luck really favored us, we wouldn’t have met …… at all.”

Just as his words were in mid-sentence, a rush of footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door, followed by someone pushing open the door of the cab with a hand, the sweaty sailor captain appeared in front of Lawrence, the tall man’s face was filled with panic.

“Captain! Anomaly 099 is gone!!!”

The cockpit was instantly quiet, everyone was staring at each other in disbelief, yet for some reason, Lawrence suddenly felt relieved after the brief shock- Great, after the encounter with the Lost Country the ship had finally found something wrong with the situation, then this was just right!
But then he controlled the expression on his face, and while walking towards the door, he sharply instructed the first mate to take over the helm, and the Bosun to lead the way.

Hasty footsteps resounded through the corridors of the White Oak’s hold, and soon Lawrence was led by the Bosun to the deepest part of the steamer.

A special cabin appeared before his eyes.

The door of this cabin was densely engraved with occult symbols, the heavy black doorway seemed to be cast from a block of black iron, the arcane symbols extended from the edge of the doorframe all the way to the corridor, vaguely as if it was to form some kind of closed cage, to bind the things kept in the cabin.

Lawrence glanced at the door to make sure that there was no sign of damage to the door or to the symbols around it, and then looked up – the “sacred room” where the sacred symbols were placed was directly above the sealed room, and the symbols were to ensure that the ship was protected from the “depths”. “It was the key to keeping the ship safe from the effects of the Deep, and was also a second layer of insurance to maintain the sealing chamber, and even when it was closed, it should still be able to ensure the integrity of the sealing chamber’s barrier.

However, in such a situation where both barriers were intact, the item in the sealed room, the most crucial cargo escorted by the White Oak on this voyage, the Anomaly 099 – Doll Hearse, disappeared.

Lawrence took a deep breath, went forward and opened the door of the sealing room, and forcefully pushed the heavy doorway open.

Inside the sealing room, the lights are bright, the vapor lamps hanging on the four pillars almost dead-end illuminate the center of the room, but the “goods” that should have been placed there have disappeared, leaving only a few crisscrossed chains and some gray ash sprinkled on the surrounding ground.

The sailor’s voice came from behind Lawrence: “According to the sealing requirements of Anomaly 099, the lights in this room have been maintained, and every two hours a crew member will come in to re-strengthen the chains around the ‘casket’ as well as sprinkle ashes on the ground in the room, but when the ghost ship appeared, the ‘cargo’ had already disappeared. …… phantom ship appeared, the sailor who was supposed to be on duty didn’t get into the room in time because of the chaotic situation; he was almost seven minutes late, and as a result, the anomaly 099 was found to have disappeared ……”

“Just seven minutes late won’t cause that thing to go out of control, at best, the seal weakened and appeared to be abnormal, the worst case scenario is just a coffin running around in this room – the layers of seals here and the confinement of the holy emblem dao standard aren’t just for show,” Laurence, however, frowned shook his head with a frown, “What’s happening is that it’s disappeared …… cargo left the ship, and that has nothing to do with that sailor.”

The Bosun’s expression was a little tense, “Then what do you mean ……”

“It must be the Lost Country,” Lawrence spoke in a deep voice, “That ‘captain’ took the anomaly 099…… “

At this he paused and sighed softly again, “Perhaps we should be thankful that the Lost Country has always only taken what it wanted, that captain came for Anomaly 099, not our lives.”

The Bosun looked at his captain’s face and then at the empty seal room for a long time before hesitantly asking, “So …… how do we tell the city-state authorities that we lost such an important cargo …… “

Lawrence glanced at the sailor captain and patted the other’s shoulder hard.

“The Lost Country ship is an act of God, we have marine insurance.”

“Does …… insurance company cover this?”

“If they don’t, let the Explorer’s Guild issue a new bounty on the Lost Country ……”

“Captain aren’t you a little anxious ……”

“Shut up.”

(End of chapter)