Chapter 629: The “Curse” of the Lost Countrymen

Chapter 629: The Curse of the Lost Countrymen

In the era of sail warships a century ago, the shipbuilders of each city-state had a rule when building a ship – to cut a piece of wood from the original wood when processing the keel.

They would carbonize, impregnate, and oil this piece of wood in the same way as a keel, place it on the sill with the unfinished ship, and when the ship was finished, the “keel square” would be left in the shipyard to be preserved permanently on land – often with the owner’s help. Often, the shipowner would pay an additional sum of money to have it blessed by the priests of the city-state on a regular basis, or simply send it to the church for safekeeping and care.

In the beginning, this act of keeping a “sample of the keel” was part of the quality norms, by which shipowners could verify that the selection of the keel and the initial treatment process would meet the technical requirements of a ship, but later it became a symbol of peace – the belief that a ship has a soul.

It was believed that ships had souls, and that the keels left on land would bring good luck to the voyage, acting as lighthouses for lost ships to find their way back to the shore, and that the blessings of the clerics on the keel squares would be bestowed upon the voyage at the same time, and that if something unfortunate happened – the keel would be left on the shore, and the ship would be returned to the shore. The keel on the shore will be transformed into a ferry boat in the world of the dead, taking the souls of the sailors back to their homeland.

In the past, when a ship was confirmed to be wrecked, the magistrates of the God of Death would even take out the keel cube left on the shore to hold a “funeral”, and the family members of the wrecked crew would treat the cube like the remains of their loved ones, and watch it being sent to the incinerator.

Agatha once out of interest, very detailed to Duncan described a hundred years ago the death magicians for the keel samples “send off” scene.

In fact, the custom is still practiced today, but with the passage of time, it is not always an option to keep a sample of a ship’s keel, and often young captains prefer to keep a portion of the piping that was cut during the installation of the steam core in the shipyards or in the churches.

Duncan gazed silently at the cube of wood in the chest.

The Lost Country was a ship that had been built a hundred years ago – no matter how special it was today, when it was in the shipyard it had been constructed and built according to the norms and customs of ships in general.

The craftsmen of a hundred years ago had kept a sample of its keel.

Not the ancient god’s spine of today, but the Lost Country’s original …… “twig”, recovered by Duncan Ebnomar from the mists near the border.

Duncan reached out and carefully picked up the plain looking piece of wood.

His eyes suddenly widened slightly, “No weight?!”

This piece of keel sample from the “weight” let him eat a shock, it is too light …… even with “light” is far from being able to describe, as he blurted out, this piece of wood as if As he said, this piece of wood seems to have no weight at all, even lighter than a grain of dust when holding it in his hand!
However, Duncan clearly see, the box originally used to place the wooden square of the black satin surface has obvious indentation, that is being pressed out of the traces of wood.

“Yes, there is no weight – but only when it is held in one’s hand,” Bishop Valentine’s voice came from the side, “It weighs 0.7 kilograms when it is placed on the weighing table, and when a living person holds it in his or her hand, it weighed 0 milligrams, but initially it wasn’t like that – according to the records, it was no different from ordinary wood when it had just been cut from the keeled timber, and I mean that in terms of ‘weight’. ”

Duncan frowned, and despite having the answer in his mind, he couldn’t help but ask, “When did the …… change occur?”

“On the day the Lost Country crashed into subspace,” Valentine replied, “a lot of things happened on that day, and there were a lot of circumstances that were investigated and confirmed by subsequent people after they recovered from the chaos, except for the fact that this sample of keel lost ‘weight’ in the hands of a living person ‘ This incident aside, we also discovered that all the other pieces of wood cut from the original keel of the Lost Country were missing, except for this sample.”

The old bishop paused at this point, and further explained, “The ‘original timber’ that you brought to Prand in the first place was a very large piece of wood, and after it was processed into a keel, a large amount of the remaining timber that had been cut down was still enough to be put to many other uses, and according to the records, a portion of them were processed into Lost Country, and the rest was deposited by you in the shipyard’s storehouse, and a part of this remainder was taken by you some years later and used in the manufacture of the bow statues and rudder wheels of the ‘Sea Mist’ and the ‘Bright Star’, and the last of the remaining timber was not fit to be used. use, and it was left in storage until the day …… ‘the accident’ happened.”

Saying that, this old man stepped forward and raised his hand to point at the large chest in front of Duncan.

“This part of the relevant records is also in here.”

“The Sea Mist and the Radiant Star were also built in Prand? And the keel remnants of the Lost Country ship were used? Do their construction records still exist?”

“Unfortunately, the construction records of those two ships have been burned to ashes with that fire in the shipyard back then, along with their ‘keel samples’,” Valentine shook his head, “People say that was the the beginning of the curse that befell those two ships – the storm that the Lost Country raised in subspace destroyed the ‘anchor points’ that the Sea Mist and the Radiant Star had left on land, and from now on, those two ships gradually became what they are today. ”

Saying this, this old bishop seemed to suddenly feel a bit inappropriate, and hurriedly coughed dryly twice: “Ahem, I hope you don’t mind, these are all ……”

“It’s fine, you’re just stating what had happened – or what I took the initiative to inquire about,” Duncan said, shaking his head, “And now that I’m on good terms with the boys, that’s all in the past. ”

As he spoke, he returned his gaze to the weightless sample of keel in his hand.

There were many things that finally made sense today.

Everything that has been going around and around, a seemingly chaotic mess, turns out to be just a thread that is connected at the beginning and the end, and now, this thread has finally come to his hand.

“If you still want to know more about what happened back then, I can find a way to look for those elven craftsmen …… who participated in the construction of the Lost Country back then, but it may not be easy,” Valentine paid attention to the change in Duncan’s face, and cautiously opened his mouth from the side, “Valentine paid attention to the change in Duncan’s face, and cautiously opened his mouth from the side. “After all,…… the situation on the elf side is not good right now.”

“I know, that’s what I’m here to fix,” Duncan exhaled softly, putting the thoughts in his head down for the moment and nodded to Valentine, “This is enough, I’ve got what I want, and I’ll be taking this crate with me.” “Of course,” Valentine nodded immediately, “It would be better if …… you could take it.”

Duncan, of course, knew why the other man had said that, and he simply smiled, before placing the wooden cube back into the chest properly, and putting the lid back on it.

But just as he was about to summon Aye to return the chest to the Lost Country, he noticed Valentine’s expression of desire to speak.

“Anything else?”

“Eh ……” Valentine tensed meatily, then hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, “Actually, I’ve been thinking about a question since a while ago, but was afraid you might find it offensive… …”

“You say.”

“…… Vanna didn’t make any trouble on your ship, did she?”

“Mess? Why do you say that?” Duncan felt puzzled, “She’s a mature and stable person, she’s very much a center of attention on the ship, what kind of mess could there be?”

Valentine froze and half ventured, “She didn’t break anything? She’s very straight-laced, doesn’t get along well with people, she’s strong, and she has very few friends when she’s in town ……”

Duncan didn’t say anything for a moment, thinking first of Nina, who was a frightening mess, then of Shirley, who made a fuss over a few papers, then of Alice, who stewed herself every so often, and of the piles of pots and pans, mops and buckets, and even gunpowder cannons, which made a lot of noise around the clock on the ship ……

“She’s quite all right,” he told the old bishop with extra seriousness, “she’s been one of the quiet ones on the ship, only moving a little more in the mornings when she’s running and exercising on deck …… “

Valentine: “……?”

The old bishop still couldn’t seem to visualize what Vanna was really like when she lived on the Lost Country.

But Duncan had no intention of explaining further – he quickly summoned Aye and teleported the large wooden crate directly to the distant Lost Country, before bidding the old bishop farewell again, and just sauntering out of the cathedral.

In the brightly lit interior chapel, Valentine stood in front of the icon of the Storm Goddess and fumed for a while longer; in a trance, he suddenly felt a sense of unreality about the events of this morning.

This sacred place had literally hosted a Shadow from subspace – and now that Shadow had just calmly left.

It was almost like a dream.

“…… Vanna.”

“I’m here,” Vanna’s voice came into Valentine’s ears before the psychic channel closed, “Has the Captain left?”

“…… He just left.” Valentine said.

Perhaps the hesitation and subtle emotions in the old bishop’s tone were just too obvious, and Vanna was keenly aware of the difference, “What’s wrong? What went wrong?”

“That’s not it, I just feel something strange ……” Valentine spoke hesitantly, “Do you think …… this counts as the cathedral being invaded by subspace once?”

Vanna obviously didn’t expect the old bishop to come up with such a sentence, her side was suddenly quiet for several seconds before a less certain response came, “I also …… don’t know.”

Valentine turned back and glanced at the icon of Gemona that stood silently in the candlelight, “The goddess does not seem to have blamed it.”

“I don’t think the Goddess would blame,” Vanna said rather definitely, “After all, the Captain was just on a visit, and if this really counts as an invasion, then the Cathedral of the Dead on the Frost side gets invaded by subspace once a week on Fridays… …and I haven’t seen much movement over there.”

Valentine: “……?”

(End of chapter)