Chapter 219 – Those Who Survived
Chapter 219 – People Who Survived
The icon of the Storm Goddess Gemona stood quietly in the Great Sanctuary, as majestic, mysterious, and silent as ever.
The veil seemed to cover not only the face of the goddess, but also some kind of connection between the earthly world and the gods, and for the first time, Vanna realized that she actually didn’t know at all, or even understand what kind of …… existence the gods she worshipped really were.
All this time, she had simply taken for granted her belief in all things concerning the storm and the deep sea, never thinking about this aspect as she did today, never considering the need to analyze the relationship between the gods and herself from a questioning point of view.
With a jolt of excitement, Vanna snapped out of her brief contemplation, feeling her heart pounding and a cold sweat breaking out on her back.
Thoughts beget heresy, and the gods are not to be pried into.
She couldn’t believe that those almost deviant thoughts had just come from her own mind – to start questioning the “behavior” of the gods was almost as bad as heresy.
In the next moment, however, she felt the gentle sound of the waves in her ears, and the goddess’s watchful and soothing presence emerged as it always did, further easing the body’s accumulated wounds and soothing her spirit.
Even in this great sanctuary, even with such shaky thoughts in her thoughts, the goddess was as usual …… Is it because God is also ignorant, or is it because the Lord doesn’t care?
“…… You really don’t need to rest?” Valentine’s voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting another of Vanna’s distractions, the old man looked at the young inquisitor beside him with some concern, as far as he could remember Vanna had never been in such a state of continuous concentration in front of the goddess, “You look like you’re in a trance ……Physical injuries heal easily, but mental exhaustion can be a problem. Mental exhaustion can be troublesome.”
“I ……” Vanna looked a little hesitant, “may indeed be a little tired.”
“Then go and rest, and leave the follow-up matters to me,” Valentine immediately said, and immediately added hurriedly before the other party could say anything else, “Just now I received the news that Mr. Dante has returned to the mansion safe and sound, and I think… …your family should need you very much at this time, and you need your family as well.”
“Uncle ……,” Vanna was stunned for a moment, the scene from earlier when she said goodbye to her uncle surfaced in her mind, a strange feeling touched her heart and finally made her dispel her last insistence, “Okay, then I will leave first, and leave this place in the hands of You.”
“Go in peace,” Valentine nodded gently, “May the storm shelter you.”
“…… May the storm shelter.” Vanna said softly.
A dark gray steamer pulled out of the church square and, after crossing the already barricaded intersection of the central district, headed first in the direction of the Consul’s residence.
Vanna was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, and the person driving was Heidi, who had just finished being questioned inside the church.
“Thanks, I still need to trouble you to give me a ride,” watching the scenery outside the car window receding backward, Vanna softly thanked her best friend, “You could have left much earlier.”
“You don’t have to be so polite with me,” Heidi said casually as she gripped the steering wheel and surveyed the road, “And I couldn’t have been earlier, that young acolyte asked me a bunch of questions and ended up making me smoke incense for half a day, all the necessary ‘safety measures’ ‘ – it’s nearing evening after the toss.”
Vanna looked out the window and saw the city-state guards as well as the guardians patrolling the roads, there were stunned citizens walking quickly through the streets, others who looked to have just come out of the evacuation facility were approaching passersby to ask about the situation, and every now and then a sheriff’s deputy with a megaphone could be seen standing at an intersection, informing the people in the vicinity of the current update – The content was nothing more than the city-state was infested by a vision, the danger had been removed, and the city was under third-degree martial law tonight, and so on.
Prender as if he had just recovered from a serious illness, the order of the city state is still in chaos, but even such a chaotic and tense scene, still let Vanna feel an indescribable blessing and …… warmth.
Fear and tension are proof of being alive, and only those who survived the disaster have the right to be jittery at this moment – and the sunrise that rises the next day will be the best relief for Prand.
“Are you all right? Looking in such bad spirits,” Heidi noticed Vanna’s exhaustion and trance at the moment even though she was driving, “It’s the first time since I was a kid that I’ve seen you so out of it – I’m going to think you’re forged out of a slab of steel. ”
“…… Would you believe me if I told you that I killed through an entire city-state by myself when the fire rained down?” Vanna glanced at her best friend, who was actually relaxing mentally after leaving with Heidi, “It’s killing me.”
“Believe it, of course I believe it, after all, it’s you, I’ll believe it even if you say you killed back from subspace,” Heidi didn’t even change her expression after hearing the other party’s words, nodding her head with a face of rightfulness, and then suddenly looked Vanna up and down, “No wonder you’re weak like this ……”
Vanna was made to squirm by the other party’s up and down gaze, “You …… have a strange look in your eyes.”
“An idea just popped into my head,” Heidi, however, looked serious, “Do you want to take a trip to the Marriage Help Center now?”
“…… Why?”
“It’s not easy for you to be weak like this, maybe there’s someone you can’t beat now, and it wouldn’t be against your second oath back then – to give your best in any fight,” Heidi’s train of thought seemed to have been completely let loose, not even bothering to pay attention to Vanna’s increasingly twisted expression, “Otherwise when you go home and get some sleep you’ll be invincible again, and the Marriage Help Center will have to send people to the hospital every other day ……”
Vanna clenched her fists slightly.
The sound of air popping silenced Heidi momentarily.
After two seconds of silence, Heidi muttered again, “If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, you’ve been threatening me since I was a little girl, and you’ve been eating my lunch ……” The car then fell silent, and only after a few seconds of silence did Vanna suddenly speak softly, “Thank you, I’m in a much calmer mood.”
“That’s true, I am, after all, the best psychiatrist in Prenland – and you do need to be in good shape to face Mr. Dent,” Heidi smiled as if her plan had succeeded, and the car came to a smooth stop under her control immediately after that. “You’re home, my invincible knight lady – cheer up, all of us have picked up a life today.”
Picked up a life ……
Heidi was just making a casual remark, but Vanna somehow thought of a saying often used by followers of the Death Cult – that
Survival is not a birthright, but an object that pays its price in advance.
Vanna lowered her eyes, took a soft breath, and after thanking and saying goodbye to her best friend, she got out of the car and headed towards her home, which was not far away.
Heidi watched Vanna’s back silently from the car, and after a while, she started the car, turned around, and drove in the direction of her own home.
Is father safe now? If he was safe too, then …… what was he doing at the moment?
……
Outside the cabin lightning and thunder, the storm suddenly rose, the gale rolled the huge waves a burst of beat the towering side of the Lost Country ship, and in the deep darkness of the sea under the surface, as if there is what unnameable beasts have been provoked to anger, to the world to release a monstrous malevolence.
Through the porthole, one could see the giant wrapped in blazing flames standing at the bow of the ship, with burning chains extending into the sea, while a certain huge creature with a large number of tentacles, almost as large as the Lost Country was rolling crazily under the surface of the water, constantly poking its tentacles with countless sharp teeth and eyeballs out of the surface of the sea, and climbing up to the side of the ship, seemingly wanting to break free of the chains, or expel the Lost Country out of this sea.
Inside the cabin, the light of whale oil as the main fuel is bright, but it can not dispel the tension and fear, Shirley has hugged Dog shivering into a ball, a face of horror to listen to the movement outside, Dog while vigorously stretching his neck to avoid being strangled to death while confirming with Alice: “You you …… you confirm that the boat …… captain is fishing?!”
“Yes,” Alice nodded her head with a certain and bashful look, with a bit of “you city-state people are just fussing” in her expression, “Fishing is the captain’s greatest hobby!”
“I finally know why you have that reaction every time you talk about Mr. Duncan’s family’s fish,……” Shirley finally realized something and said to Dog with a crying face, “I …… If only I had known when I was eating it ……”
Before she finished speaking, Maurice, who was closing his eyes across the table, suddenly opened his eyes, and the old gentleman looked at the girl across the table with a horrified expression, “You …… have eaten the …… er, caught by Mr. Duncan? ‘fish’?”
“How was I to know!” Shirley was on the verge of tears, twisting her head to look at Nina as she spoke, “You …… didn’t tell me that’s how your uncle got his fish back either ……”
“I don’t know,” Nina shook her head, but the expression on her face wasn’t as exaggerated as the others’, instead she looked a little …… excited, she poked her head around the table and looked through the porthole at the scene on the deck, and the tentacles that rushed out of the water didn’t make her feel fear, it just doubled her sense of novelty, “How do you guys think …… those things end up as fish?”
To be fair, Nina’s behavior now was not any different from when she was in the city-state, as cheerful as ever, as lively and sunny as ever, but this kind of behavior was normal in a peaceful city-state, but it would be a bit scary if it was still like this in the “fishing scene” of the Lost Country, and it was precisely under such circumstances that Sherry finally realized Nina’s incredible behavior. As if she had finally realized Nina’s incredible side: “…… You two are horrible, really ……”.
Nina scratched her hair with a slightly puzzled expression, “Really? I think it’s okay ……”
As she spoke, Alice suddenly stood up and walked out the door.
Sherry was instantly a bit nervous, “Ah, what are you going to do?”
“Going to get ready for dinner,” Alice said with a matter-of-fact look on her face, “The captain’s almost done with that big fish.”
Alice left, leaving the few “visitors” who had gotten on board by mistake to stare at each other in the cabin.
“I …… want to go home ……” Shirley hugged Dog as hard as she could with a face that was on the verge of tears.
The red light in Dog’s blood-colored eyes flickered on and off, “You’re strangling me ……”
Morris, on the other hand, suddenly sighed.
Nina saw this and hurriedly asked, “Why are you sighing, teacher?”
“I feel like I could write a book when I get back,” Morris thought about it and spread his hands, “I’m just worried that my daughter will think I’m mentally ill ……”
Nina: “……?”
(end of chapter)