Chapter 65: The White Oak, Suffered by Duncan

Chapter 65 – The White Oak Suffers from Duncan

The White Oak is back – after a long period of broken contact and deviation from its course, the advanced steamer under the name of the Explorers’ Society has finally returned to the city-state of Prand.

Many were waiting for the ship to return, and countless pairs of eyes were nervously watching the silhouette that was approaching on the sea.

Inquisitor Vanna saw that at the same time the White Oak’s siren sounded, the personnel on the docks immediately sprang into action:
The crew that had guided the ship to shore had already arrived and started signaling the White Oak with lights and flags, while the Church’s guards went to activate the sacred objects of the deep sea that had been placed all over Pier 1 last night: a large number of “boundary tablets” cast in bronze, with the name of the storm goddess Gemona engraved on the base and the sacred symbols filled in the grooves at the top. When activated, the area where the White Oak docks will be sealed off as a “sanctuary” under the goddess’s watchful eye.

Farther out, there are the vigilantes sent by the city hall, ordinary people who aren’t very good at dealing with the supernatural, so their main job is to block off all the intersections with heavy firepower – ordinary guns have a hard time dealing with the weird, invisible curses, but if it’s a tangible pollutant that’s escaping from the White Oak, then eight-millimeter bullets and four-pounders will do wonders. four-pounders would be of great use.

Sometimes Vanna can’t help but be thankful for the advancement of technology, the crystallization of these engineering allows weak and powerless ordinary people to also have a certain power to be able to intervene in this kind of events involving the transcendent, although the results brought by technological progress are both good and bad, but at least …… the support of rotary-barrel machine guns and artillery did greatly reduce the casualties of the church compatriots in these years. Situation.

Vanna’s gaze crossed over the docks to the sea in the distance.

The White Oak let out a second blast of its siren, and guided by light signals from the shore, the ship began to slow down slowly and came to a stop some distance from the dock.

One of the priests standing beside Vanna breathed a small sigh of relief at the sight and whispered, “The White Oak carried out its orders, and it looks like at least that ship is still in the hands of the ‘humans’.”

“It’s not conclusive for now, many people affected by anomalies or visions appear to be no different than normal until a mutation occurs,” Vanna shook her head, “Send out a second set of signals, send out the inspection boats, and have the shore defense guns on standby in the event of any movement on the ship . . open fire.”

Orders from the Inquisitor were quickly relayed, and since the White Oak’s communications had been damaged, those on shore could only use lights and flags to communicate with the ship, and after a complicated set of lights and flags, the White Oak’s bow lit up with three lights, followed by the rope ladder on its side being lowered.

A speedboat was released from the dock and sped toward the White Oak, powered by a small steam organ.

On board that speedboat was a whole squad of guardsmen, including eight combatants, a commander, and a deep-sea priest, and these faithful acolytes, who had lit incense and chanted the holy name of the Storm Goddess from the small boat, did not board the White Oak immediately after they approached it, but instead first circled the large ship in a full circle and sprinkled holy oils mixed with seaweed extracts in the nearby sea water.

After these oils fell into the seawater, they immediately emitted a faint glow, and gradually connected into a piece, eventually forming a circle that completely surrounded the White Oak.

Only after all this was done did the acolytes on the speedboat actually approach the White Oak and boarded the ship along the rope ladder.

All of this fell into the eyes of Vanna on the observation deck.

It was extremely dangerous to let a ship that had been lost at sea “come home”, especially when it was an ocean-going vessel that had been responsible for transporting abnormalities – the White Oak could not dock directly, it first needed to be boarded and inspected by the speedboats from a safe distance, and after the preliminary confirmation that there were no evil gods corrupted on board, the White Oak could be boarded. After the initial confirmation that there is no sign of corruption of the evil gods on board before approaching the pier in Prand, but after that the people on board still can’t get off the ship, they still need to accept the second round of inspection by the clerics, at the same time, the whole ship also needs to undergo a more rigorous and comprehensive search and decontamination, and after that, all the people on board also need to undergo a few days, but also a few weeks of observation in the church at the pier, and the whole ship also needs to be purified by incense for at least a week. At least for a week.

Only when all of these processes are completed without incident will the civilized world dare to re-admit those who have been lost at sea back home – and if any of these processes go wrong, the White Oak and its crew will be buried at sea.

The Goddess of Storms will accept the souls of these poor men.

This cold and even a little cruel law is not out of anyone’s malice, but the development of human society so far to figure out the “way of survival”.

Of course, there were city-states that were unwilling or unable to enforce these harsh rules, and most of these city-states are now found in the first two units of Book 2 of the secondary school history course, which is a compulsory final exam.

Time was ticking away as everyone waited for the signal to come back from the Guardian squad that had boarded and inspected the ship, and there were only two possible signals – if all was safe, the squad would use special psychic communications to send back a docking request, or if the ship had been contaminated, the squad would fight to the last man and try to detonate the dinghy before all of them were killed. Nitroglycerin.

With an ocean-going vessel the size of the White Oak, if it really was deeply contaminated by subspace or something, it was unlikely that the few people in the area who boarded and inspected the ship would come back alive.

Vanna clasped her hands to her chest and lightly tapped the metal on her arm armor.

Bells suddenly chimed from the chapel on the docks, and the steam relief tubes on either side of the bell tower rang out three long chimes.

The clergyman inside the chapel had received a secret message back from the inspection team, and the church bells and steam whistles were informing all the teams on the dock:
The ship is safe, the White Oak is requesting to dock, and there is a special situation to report.

Vanna breathed a sigh of relief. The ship seemed to be in good hands, at least for the moment, and that was the best news of all.

As for having special circumstances to report …… she was not surprised.

It would be strange for a ship that was strangely lost to come back to port to not have special circumstances to report.

The White Oak slowly docked, and the ocean-going ship that had gone through some ups and downs finally rejoined the docks of the civilized world, even though the people on board had not yet been allowed to land, so they must have been able to relax quite a bit.

More church guardsmen began to board the ship in an orderly fashion, ready to conduct a thorough inspection as well as questioning, and Vanna left the watchtower to personally lead a group of priests onto the dock, where she walked across the long skip and finally stepped onto the White Oak’s deck, where she was met by the graying-haired, lanky captain on the foredeck.

The old captain looked a little haggard, and had obviously been working in a highly-stressed state for too long, but upon seeing the church’s inquisitor approaching, the old man still immediately perked up and took the initiative to come before Vanna.

“Greetings, I am Vanna, Captain Lawrence, Inquisitor of the Church of the Deep in the City-State of Prand,” Vanna disliked redundant protocols and chose to open the door to greetings, “Let’s dispense with the introductions – first of all, an apologies, and I hope you and your crew will understand the strict scrutiny of the city-state authorities and the Church.”

“Of course, Your Honor the Inquisitor,” Lawrence nodded immediately, he wanted to say “Miss Inquisitor”, after all, the other party looked almost as old as his own daughter, but the words changed to a more respectful term of address “I expected this, after all …… we’ve been out of contact for so long.”

Vanna nodded, “Tell us briefly what happened to the White Oak, why did you lose contact? And why did you suddenly appear on an unreported voyage afterward? What was the condition of the cargo you were escorting, anomaly 099?”

As soon as these words came out, the expression on Lawrence’s face was immediately filled with frustration and nervousness, he sighed and first subconsciously looked around quickly before slowly speaking, “You may not believe me when I say it out loud, we …… encountered that legendary Lost Country ship… …”

In front of his eyes, that Inquisitor lady with a serious expression suddenly froze on the spot like she was petrified, a strange expression frozen on her face.

He couldn’t tell what the expression meant, but it looked just like it did after he was hit by the Lost Country ship a few days ago.

“Your Honor the Inquisitor ……?” Lawrence asked cautiously, “You ……”

“Captain Lawrence,” Vanna said as if suddenly awakened, staring dead at the captain in front of her, “Say that again?”

“You may not believe me when I say it ……”

“I’ll say the second half.”

“We met that legendary ship Lost Country ……”

“I believe it.”

Lawrence froze, “Then ……”

“You may need to be stranded at the docks for a few more days, Captain,” Vanna said with a serious look on her face, “This is serious, very serious, and you …… wait, you encountered the Lost Country ship, but survived with all hands on deck? ”

The expression on Ms. Inquisitor’s face suddenly changed slightly, and there was a hint of questioning in her eyes, and Lawrence rushed to open his hand when he saw this, “We people are fine, but the Lost Country ship took away the anomaly 099, which is the mannequin casket. I suspect that the ghost ship is aiming for the mannequin casket.”

“The Lost Country took Anomaly 099?” frowned Vanna, followed by, “And after that? It just let you guys go?”

“Yes …… yes,” Lawrence followed suit, tensing up and vaguely realizing something, “Your Honor the Inquisitor, has the city recently . …”

“…… There’s no harm in telling you, after all, it looks like your ‘contact’ may be worse than ours right now,” Vanna sighed, looking at the older captain in front of her. “Captain Lawrence, you may not be the only one who has dealt with the Lost Country in recent times. Let’s find a quiet place, I need to know more.”

(End of chapter)