Chapter 273 Turning North
Chapter 273 Turning North
Duncan paused momentarily to help Alice with the glue residue, as if he was listening intently with his sideways ear to a distant sound, and only after a few moments did he lower his head again, wiping away some of the crumbs that had landed on the table with a soft cloth.
Alice blinked her eyes and looked at the captain curiously, “Ship, captain, what, what just happened?”
“Maurice received a letter from a distant friend, and he wasn’t too sure about what it revealed,” Duncan smiled and stood up, casually saying as he helped Alice with a layer of residual glue on the joint of her neck, “Wanted to ask me to help him look at the situation.”
“Distant friend, friend?” Alice’s head stuttered on the navigation table, “Is, is, is in danger? We’re, going, going to rescue them?”
There wasn’t much glue left on the neck joint, and it was far easier to clean up than the residual glue in the recesses of the head joints, and Duncan quickly disposed of the drying bit of glue, carefully completing the final wipe before bending down and cupping Alice’s head, carefully placing her back into place as if she were a work of art.
“We may be going to save someone,” he said softly, turning the doll’s head from side to side, “but it’s also possible that we’re going to help him rest in peace. Either way, though, it’s a long way off.”
With the mannequin’s head in place, Alice’s slightly dull eyes instantly became flexible, and she shook her head gently, like a puppet infused with a soul, and her speech became fluent once more, “Ah, so where are we going?”
Duncan put away the tools he used for cleanup and gazed at the foggy chart.
On the chart, the small bright spot representing the Sea Mist was moving slowly, already some distance away from Prand.
“North,” he whispered, his eyes falling on the goathead, “hoist the jib and jib and turn north – follow the Sea Mist.”
“Aye, Captain!”
……
Heidi placed the small brown vial on the coffee table, in which could be seen about three-fifths of a clear potion, which reflected a pale golden light in the sinking sunset glow, and in the circles of swirling golden light, from which tiny bubbles seemed to continually precipitate, leaping about near the surface of the liquid.
“This is the last dose, a little more potent than the potion you once used, you can drink it while you are out at sea, only three drops at a time – of course, I would also recommend that you start taking it right now,” the psychiatrist lady lifted her head and looked at the gray-haired old captain in front of her, “As a captain who has spent half of his life on the infinite sea, you should be a bit more responsible for your health.”
“Thank you for your advice Miss Heidi, I know my situation,” Lawrence was not impatient but not overly enthusiastic either, he just picked up the bottle of potion curiously and looked at the liquid inside that was constantly precipitating bubbles through the glass bottle in the sunlight, ” . . pretty potion, is it bitter?”
“It will be a little bit, but it’s more of an herbal aroma, and I added some honey to mask the bitterness,” Heidi said, “It won’t be hard to swallow.”
As she spoke, she raised her head and glanced out the window at the sky.
The sun was sinking and the slightly orange-red sunlight was shining through the glass window inside the living room.
This was the home of Captain Lawrence of the White Oak, and as a veteran captain, Lawrence had decorated the living room with many furnishings that could prove his seafaring experience – coral specimens collected from the shallow waters offshore, models of rudders and ships, totem decorations from certain remote city-states, and there was also a large shelf against the wall, filled with exploratory objects. against the wall, and a large shelf filled with awards and mementos from the Society of Explorers, the authorities of the city-states, and the four churches.
Now, all these symbols of glory and memory were submerged in the tilted sunlight, gilded with a golden glow, and faded in the light.
The time to leave had come, and after the sun had set was not a good time to continue offering psychological assistance.
“I should take my leave,” Heidi exhaled softly, rising from the couch while her gaze fell on the bottle of pills in Lawrence’s hand, “Please don’t forget to take your medication – it’s an effective way to help you combat the mental effects of the Infinite Sea. ”
“Thank you, you’ve already done me a lot of favors,” the white-haired Lawrence stood up as well, a sincere smile on his face, “I’ll see you off.”
Heidi was sent to the door by the old captain, but before she left, she couldn’t help but look at Lawrence a couple more times and spoke, “Also, I have one last piece of advice – although your current condition is still considered good among all captains of the same age, you’re really reaching retirement age, and it’s time for you to consider handing over the White Oak to a reliable successor.”
After saying what she wanted to say, she didn’t expect an answer from the old captain, but just politely bent her head slightly in salute and said goodbye and left.
The figure of Miss Psychiatrist walked toward the car parked at the intersection, while Lawrence sighed softly and turned back to the living room.
His wife was leaning against the doorframe a short distance away with her shoulders clasped, looking this way with some dissatisfaction. She is a very tall woman, and although she is now older, she can still see some of the elegance of her youth, and she stands there as if she had stood on the ship back in the day …… still the same female explorer who had made a name for herself on the infinite sea.
But now this female explorer is obviously not in a good mood.
“Day after day, either the church censorship or the psychiatrists boarding the door, you in the end in the outside to break the big trouble back!” She glared and said in a loud voice, “And what’s wrong with that bottle of medicine-you didn’t say that your mental condition is already so bad that you need to take medicine to maintain it.”
“It’s not like I wanted to encounter that phantom ship,” Lawrence looked at the bottle of medicine in his hand and shook his head helplessly, “but now that it’s better, and the entire city-state has encountered the Lost Country, no one cares about the White Oak. As for this bottle of medicine …… it’s nothing, after all, it’s just some occasional hallucinations after a long time at sea.”
The wife did not talk, just stared straight at this side for a long time, after several minutes before sighing, “Still not retired?”
“I want to look …… again,” Lawrence said somewhat under his breath, “After all, …… there was no clear news of his death back then either ……”
“Sooner or later you’re going to die on this!” The wife raised her voice again and pointed at Lawrence’s nose, “What was that? That was a great storm on the infinite sea! A storm passes, a ship goes off course, a boatload of people are out of contact, and that’s death! Understand?
“Look at you. How many years have you been looking? You have long passed the age of retirement, with you at the same time those captains, people with brains have long retired, now at least can enjoy half a lifetime of savings, those who do not have a brain with you as hard to hold on to, and now one by one what is the end of it? Drooling in bed? Lying in the cemetery? Locked up in an insane asylum?
“I advise you to take this medicine now, and then tomorrow directly to do the handover, the White Oak to a you grew up in the heart, honestly home to take the retirement allowance to live the rest of the day, don’t TM must wait for a certain day to die in a certain storm, the old lady can not afford to worry about this heart with you …… “
Lawrence listened to his wife’s reprimand in a higher and higher tone of voice, just smiled warmly and didn’t refute anything, and finally he put the small brown pill bottle on the coffee table, “Find it one last time.”
His wife finally stopped, staring at the pill bottle on the coffee table, and after an unknown amount of time, she sighed with residual anger and grunted as if resigned to her fate, “Where are we going to find it this time?”
“North,” Lawrence said calmly, “The original place, the ocean where the ‘Black Oak’ hit the storm, and I just happened to take an escort mission to Frost… …”
His wife said nothing, just waved her hand wordlessly.
……
Early morning sunlight flooded the streets, and Prender was gradually awakening from a night’s slumber.
Vanna bent down and got out of the car, squinting slightly in the sunlight, and at the end of her vision was the familiar sign of the antique store she had visited once before.
The store was already open, and a skinny looking girl with dark hair and a black dress was sprinkling water on the door, while another girl who didn’t look too far off in age was hanging the open for business sign on the front door.
If memory serves, one of those two girls was named Shirley and the other Nina – the latter being the niece of the store owner.
Vanna rubbed her forehead, recalling the previous visit to the antique store, and for some reason, she always felt that some of the details of it were rather fuzzy in her recollection nowadays.
And that reinforced the idea that she should come and take a look today.
The ministry’s voice came from the car, “How long will you be gone?”
“Within the hour,” Vanna replied, “Just wait here.”
“Good,” the young guardsman in charge of the car nodded, but still reminded a little uneasily, “You keep an eye on the time, today is the day the Storm Cathedral arrives in Prenland, and you will need to be present in person at the welcoming ceremony, as Bishop Valentine specifically reminded us. In addition, our coming over here this time is not on the itinerary plan ……”
“Alright, alright, you’ve read it several times already,” Vanna waved her hand, her expression somewhat helpless, “I know everyone is nervous about the Storm Cathedral docking this time, I’ll keep an eye on the time.”
“…… Good, I’ll wait here for you then.”
(End of chapter)