Chapter 768: Sailing into the Night

Chapter 765 Sailing into the Night
The night was still going on, and on the twenty-second day after the sun had set, many more disturbing situations began to emerge from the news coming from afar.

In the distant Cold Harbor, there had been a massive shadow that had briefly appeared above the sea – it towered like a sea cliff, as if it were a weightless cloud, and the shadow had drifted silently up into the sky from the offshore waters, closing over the side of the city-state like a curtain, and in the nighttime, almost no one had seen the shadow’s appearance until the Magus of the Night’s Watch Suddenly, in a vision, he sensed the gaze from the sky, and all the churches chimed their bells at once before the shadow retreated back into the night in fear.

And in the warmth of Mokor, the entire lower city was for a time drenched in a grotesque, scarlet and putrid mist, with the lighting in several neighborhoods failing almost simultaneously, and the scarlet, putrid mist even briefly burrowing into churches and night shelters, and when the city-state’s Truthwatch Secretaries finally dispersed the mist that had grown out of the night, several disappearances were reported from the fog-enshrouded city –The disappearances included two technical priests who were inspecting the steam hub.

In the Palman Islands, news came that a fleet of ships had suddenly appeared in the nearby waters and was approaching the city-state in the middle of the night – the city-state had issued an order forbidding docking and instructing the fleet to make a temporary stop at a staging point in the nearby waters, but it was as if the fleet was unaware of the “long night”, as they had been. But the flotilla acted as if they didn’t know about the “long night”, asking bewildered questions about the night, insisting that it was “normal daytime” and that the “warm, bright sun was shining on the decks”, and even questioning whether the city-state’s people were crazy! ……

With the bizarre flotilla ignoring orders and insisting on approaching the city-state, the local city-state navy was forced to open fire and destroy all of the unidentified ships coming in from the night – the radio was filled with screams of terror and desperate curses and hollers until the burning wreckage littered the entire surface of the sea.

No one knows what the Citadel Navy destroyed in the night, or what kind of “sunshine” the fleet from the night was bathed in. ……

It is now the twenty-second day of the night, and the earthly order is still struggling to be maintained, and the shaky “peace” is gradually falling into the long night.

In the lower part of the city, the gas streetlights in front of Duncan’s Antiques emit a yellowish glow, and a single streetlight pole seems to be lined up like a sentinel on the empty street, while the flames of many of these lights are jumping with a subtle, imperceptible, greenish glow.

Duncan sat in a chair next to the window, polishing a brass ornament as he casually thumbed through an old book of some years.

It was one of Maurice’s books, a tome by the famous “mad poet” Putman.

Duncan’s eyes widened in surprise.

“We’d like to buy a pair of china plates, the kind that go on the mantelpiece as a decoration,” the young man said at once, and then added, “…… not too expensive.”

“Oh,” Duncan said casually, putting down the brass ornaments in his hand and giving the two nervous young men another somewhat amused look, “don’t be so tight, it’s not like I’m checking your passes …… You’re here to buy something ?”

“…… Long night, didn’t expect to meet a new couple,” Duncan said softly, finding a couple pairs of beautiful decorative china plates on the shelves, and speaking again as if to himself, “Why don’t you wait until morning? ”

“What if it’s not dawn?” The young man snapped.

The younger man tugged at his jacket a little nervously at once, and said quickly as he surveyed the surrounding area, “We saw that this place was still open …… most of the stores outside were locked ……”

But just then, the movement of pushing open the store door interrupted Duncan’s rambling thoughts – the bell chimed crisply, and he looked up and followed the sound to the store door to see the figures of a man and a woman coming in from the night, with a bit of restraint and nervousness.

It had been a long time since there had been any customers here – the “history” of all the items in the antique store had at least doubled, and it was predictable that this would continue for a long time to come.

“The wedding is small enough that it won’t violate the current nighttime ban, and the pastor of the church has agreed to give us a small ‘witness’ in our home if the sun never rises again ……”

The two guests looked at each other and the young girl smiled a little sheepishly, “We’re getting married.”

“There’s no telling what the future holds now …… We were supposed to get married last week, it just got postponed until now, but we both feel …… there’s no need to keep postponing it. ”

“We work in the steam pumping and power plant,” followed the young girl next to her, explaining the “legitimacy” of her outing at the moment, as if afraid of being misunderstood, “and we have credentials for passage. We have credentials.”

“We’re decorating our new home,” the young man followed, “and wanted to buy some decorative things. …… Most of the stores were closed, but we heard you were open, so we thought we’d take our chances. ……”

Duncan raised an eyebrow and got up to walk towards a nearby shelf, speaking as he did so, “This is an antique store, nothing is cheap – of course there’s less business at this particular time of year, so I can give you a discount, twenty-six percent off the original price of over four thousand… …”

“…… That’s rare,” Duncan casually scanned the two, confirming that they were just two ordinary humans, and couldn’t help but be a little surprised, “How can anyone be out and about at this time of day?”

Printed in beautiful fancy letters on the flipped pages of the book – the

Duncan didn’t really have much interest in the poetry of this world, but it was something that would somewhat help pass the time when the entire city-state was in silence.

Surprisingly, he was really here to buy something.

“We have a voyage at last ……”

Duncan turned back to the other man, looking fixedly into his eyes.

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the pair with some curiosity, “But I’ll say one more thing, what are you buying this for? I mean, had to pick a time like this?”

The young girl spoke, but after saying “the sun no longer rises”, she seemed to be a bit stuck, not knowing what to say afterward, and could only smile awkwardly.

It was obvious that they were both not good at words – just in that slightly formal smile, what they wanted to express no longer needed to be described in words.

Life had to go on – panicking and complaining wasn’t going to wake up the sun. “Pick a favorite,” Duncan smiled suddenly, turning to point at the pretty plates on the shelves that glistened in the glow of the electric light, “all come with solid wood stands.”

The two young men picked and chose, eventually selecting a pair of light green and broken gold decorative china plates with a southern elven flair, and they waited for Duncan to wrap the items in thick paper before the young girl smiled coyly and asked, “How much is it?”

“It’s a gift.” Duncan said casually.

The two young men’s eyes widened in surprise.

“A sort of wedding present for you – the night is still long, and I hope this gift brings you good luck.”

The young man hesitated a little, “But ……”

“Don’t delay, your passes aren’t valid all day,” Duncan said with a grin, walking towards the front of the store as he did so, “No need to worry, I’ve already received your ‘reward’. ”

The young man was puzzled, “You’ve already received ……?”

Duncan pushed open the door to the antique store, and smiled as he pointed to the brightly lit avenue as the bright street lamps illuminated the way back to the depths of the night, “A good mood.”

The customers departed and silence returned to the antique store once more, Duncan stood at the front door for a moment before finally exhaling softly and withdrawing his gaze from the street.

The docks of Lightwind Harbor were bathed in light golden “sunlight”.

The towering masts of the Lost Country creaked slightly, the translucent sails of the Spirit emerging around the masts, and as the sails filled, the massive sailing expedition ship tilted at a slight angle and began to move away from the docking area.

Nearby on the sea, the Bright Star also heard the sound of the impeller starting, accompanied by the breaking waves, the “Sea Witch” ship also slowly sailed away from the pier.

On the bridge of the aft deck, Alice, who was standing next to Duncan, suddenly noticed the smile on the captain’s face.

“Why are you smiling?” The mannequin spoke curiously, “Something happy?”

Duncan glanced back at Lightwind Harbor, which was gradually being left behind by the Lost Country, and saw that the city-state had a million lights, and another thin, dim sunlight spreading from the direction of the coastline to cover the island – and all of it gradually seemed dimmer as it got farther away, and in its place, a pervasive, infinite light permeated the whole of the infinite sea and boundless dimness that seemed to grow in the night as if it were going to swallow the whole city-state.

But until a long time passed, the faint light of the fire still shone tenaciously in the darkness, the remains of the sun left by the Cretan dynasty, and the lights of the city-state era, which gradually merged together as if they were fighting together against the simply endless night.

It was a while before Duncan answered the mannequin’s question, “There was something happy about it.”

“Oh ……,” Alice said with a thinly veiled oh, and then looked somewhat reluctantly in the direction of the city-state, “Are we coming back?”

Duncan hesitated for a moment, he seemed to have a lot of answers to explain the voyage and the plans that were to follow, and a lot of possibilities for the future, but in the end, he just nodded his head with certainty, “…… back.”

The mannequin cheered up.

A small smile appeared on Duncan’s face as well, and then he breathed a soft sigh of relief as he let go of the dark, heavy rudder wheel with both hands.

They had already left Lightwind Harbor, and next, the Lost Country and the Bright Star would head to the “rally point” on the eastern border, where they would meet up with the Church of the Deep’s border fleet, and then they would head for the Curtain of Eternity, sailing all the way to the Six-Mile Critical Line! The “six nautical mile borderline”.

They will follow the same route that the Sea Song sailed to find the truth beyond the border.

For Duncan, this would be the most important step in his quest to see the asylum from the outside.

But before he could do that, Duncan needed to verify a few things.

He turned his head to the thin, stooped figure on the edge of the bridge, trying to minimize his presence.

“Sailor.”

Anomaly 077 sniffed with a jolt, “Hey …… hey?!”

“Come here,” Duncan smiled up as he took a half step back and looked at Anomaly 077, raising his hand to point at the Lost Country’s rudder wheel, “Hold it.”

(End of chapter)