Chapter 215: After the departure of the Lost Country

Chapter 215: After the Lost Country’s departure
The Lost Country ship left in such a dignified manner, as it did when it descended in an unstoppable manner.

Vanna watched that huge ship, which could almost be described as “magnificent”, sail majestically in the center of the city-state of Prand, and watched its illusory hull cross over the rooftops and towers lined up in the city-state, and the hull of the ship in its spiritual state gradually disappeared from her line of sight like a faraway phantom, and along with the Lost Country ship’s departure, the spiritual body’s flame burned brightly in all parts of the Prand city-state, and the spirit body’s flame was burning in all parts of the Prand city-state. As the Lost Country ship went away, the flames of the spirit body that burned in various places in the city-state of Prand also began to gradually extinguish and recede, as if it had accomplished some mission and returned to nothingness.

All that remained was a clear sky, a city-state as usual, and beings who had just experienced a nightmare.

The sound of bells echoed over the city-state, the bell towers of the churches around the city continuing to chime in their original historical path, but the bells that had been used to fight off the invasion of reality now sounded as if they were some sort of send-off, and the sirens over the cathedral sounded, a shrill, piercing sound that startled Vanna.

She felt an aura approaching and turned to see that Bishop Valentine had come to her side at some point, the old bishop, who had once experienced death, gripped his long staff tightly in his hand and looked up in the direction the Lost Country had left, saying as if to himself, “I feel as if I’ve been dreaming a long, long dream… …”

“You should know that it was not a dream.”

“I mean I just dreamed that twenty rabbits in Sharpop dance dresses were dancing in circles around me ……”

Vanna was stunned, “Then you did dream, probably in the process of a spiritual revival …… Do you just have to make such a snide remark now?”

“But this can make you quickly wake up, from a head of chaos quickly back to work,” the old bishop said with a bashful face, his expression was calm as if the one who had just told a sneer wasn’t himself at all, and then he lowered his head and looked in the direction of the church plaza, “We have quite a lot to be busy with next… This time, it’s not a White Oak that’s ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the Lost Country.”

Vanna followed the old bishop’s gaze, and saw that the guards and city guards in the church square had fallen into a sort of dazed confusion, looking at the restored city-state as if they were waking up from a dream, but their memories were still stuck in the battle when the historical pollution had invaded the reality, and some of them, due to the early “awakening”, had even seen the Lost Country’s departure from the city. Some of these people, due to their early “awakening”, even saw the scene of the Lost Country’s departure, which further aggravated the confusion and tension.

Valentine’s voice continued to ring beside Vanna: “…… First, let the guard forces restore order, then start investigating and sorting out the current situation of the entire city-state, confirming whether everyone has ‘returned’, confirming what is missing or what is more, as well as …… or what is more, and ……”

Valentine paused and looked at the young Inquisitor beside him.

“As well as preparing a report to the Storm Cathedral – Vanna, the most challenging paperwork of your life is coming up.”

Vanna’s breath caught suddenly.

A catastrophe was over, but not everything was over, and once everyone had survived …… the real investigation seemed to be just beginning.

……

The sun was just right.

The solemn and heavy doorway of the cathedral creaked open, and Heidi arrived at the church square with a somewhat bewildered expression, looking at the streets as usual under the clear sky light, but the previous torrential rainfall and the horrifying scene of the rainstorm turning into a rain of fire lingered in her mind.

How had things ended?

All she could remember was that a ghost ship floated up from the sea of fire and sailed through the city-state in a cruise, and her consciousness drifted in some dimension between reality and illusion, as two diametrically opposed histories met in view, and were split in two before the ghost ship’s voyage, one of them settling into reality, and the other being crushed into dust.

There was a slight burning in her chest, Heidi lowered her head and saw that the “gift” pendant that her father had brought back from the antique store was faintly glowing, she reached out to touch it, but the pendant gave out a slight cracking sound the moment she touched it, and then as if it had run out of strength, it silently turned into dust, and even the string that held it was all but destroyed. Even the rope holding the pendant was gone.

Heidi was stunned, but soon the noisy voices from all over the square interrupted her concentration.

Guardsmen were reorganizing, garrisons from the town hall were beginning to roll call and fall in line under the command of their officers, some clergymen assisting in the restoration of order were coming out of the church to deliver orders from Bishop Valentine and Inquisitor Vanna, and at the same time there was talk of the silhouettes of the ghostly ship that had just gone off into the distance.

“…… As soon as I opened my eyes I saw that thing floating past my head as if it were sailing through transparent sea water ……”

“It was so scary to watch! Those flames just grazed the spire of the cathedral! But it just seemed to go away ……”

“That’s the Lost Country, there’s no doubt about it …… Don’t you believe it, that’s definitely the Lost Country!”

There was a loud voice yelling in the square, swearing with conviction that the phantom ship that had just passed through the city-state was the fabled Lost Country, a natural disaster of the sea, and Heidi looked in the direction from which the voice had come, and saw that it was an old captain with gray hair who had spoken-she and that captain had dealt with each other every day before, and knew each other very well. “Captain Lawrence,” Heidi walked over and greeted the old captain who was talking to a few sheltered civilians, “How are you?”

“Me? I’m fine, though I can’t figure out what happened,” the old captain saw Heidi and a smile appeared on his face, “It’s good to see that you’re safe, Ms. Healer – that rain and fire before was too scary! ”

Heidi responded casually, and immediately afterward asked, “You said that the …… that left just now was the Lost Country ship?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely it,” Lawrence nodded immediately, “I’m way too familiar with it! I’ve seen this scene before!”

A nearby citizen who had previously taken refuge in the cathedral and was still a bit stunned at the moment couldn’t help but speak up when he saw this, “You’ve seen it before?”

“Yes, or else why do you think I was isolated in the cathedral for such a long time?” Lawrence glared up, then immediately turned to Heidi, “I know you can talk to the upper echelons of the church, I’ll give you guys a piece of advice, ah, turn around and check what’s missing in the city-state, the Lost Country usually takes something with it when it passes through …… I have experience with this! ”

Heidi listened sparsely, nodded sparsely, and after a while, some memories that had happened not long ago, but seemed like a lifetime ago, suddenly surfaced in her mind –

Father’s side, how is it?

……

Maurice didn’t feel very good, he was dizzy and his stomach was turning over, as if he had drunk a very, very strong wine and wanted to vomit, but didn’t quite dare to do so.

Because he felt that several mops and buckets in front of him were staring at him intently, and that Ms. Alice next to him was also staring at him silently.

If he did throw up on the deck, he’d probably get beaten up – on this ship, any rope was older than he was, and they probably didn’t have the concept of respecting the elderly.

He figured he was roughly seasick, and possibly pigeon sick.

Maurice looked up and saw the pigeon named “Aye” strutting around the deck inspecting the piles of French fries, which had been transformed into a horrible skeleton bird that had brought itself aboard the ghost ship when the fire rained down outside the antique store, and was now transformed into its harmless looking appearance, walking between piles of French fries.

The girl named Shirley was sitting not far away, with a Spectral Hound staying with her; it looked like a combination of a Summoner and a Spectral Demon, but the two of them were more honest than one at the moment – Shirley sat upright as if she were a well-bred lady, not daring to gasp for breath, while the one she called The profound demon that she called “Dog” even found a newspaper from somewhere, and sat squarely on the barrel next to Shirley, holding the newspaper with its paws and pretending to read it – only it obviously didn’t know how to read, and the newspaper was held upside down.

In the farther distance, one could see the towering masts, the transparent and illusory sails of the spirit like a veil, the vast expanse of the sea, as well as the city-state of Plainland, which was already getting more and more distant.

Recalling what he witnessed and experienced when he followed the ship from the city state, Morris still feels his heart is thumping, that kind of experience of overlooking the burning earth after being transformed into a spirit body by the ghostly flames is a little bit exciting, if placed many years ago, he might still feel that it was a tense and interesting adventure, but now he is no longer a young man, and that kind of experience might be be a little …… too exciting.

Maurice gently inhaled a breath, feeling the thoughts in his head are messed up, he is thinking about whether he still has the opportunity to go back, but also worried about the situation on the side of his family.

And then a voice suddenly came from across the room, it was the Phantom Hound – Maurice knew what a Phantom Hound was, but he had never imagined that a Phantom Hound would be as sensible and polite as the one in front of him, “Old old old sir, you you you see I . . me me like this like …… like a cultured literary …… cultural dog …… dog?”

“Er …… frankly, I don’t think a dog needs to show its education by reading the newspaper, but you are a profound demon, and the standard of judgment can’t be viewed according to earthly dogs …… anyway, the smartest dog in the human world also learns to wouldn’t sit on a barrel and read a newspaper,” Maurice staggered, answering the other’s question with an odd expression, “Two other things, first, you’re holding the newspaper on your paw backwards, and second …… are you stuttering a little?”

Dog was stunned and hurriedly held the newspaper on his paw upside down while answering, “I I …… I don’t stutter, I’m a …… little bit nervous ……”

“Dog I don’t think you need to be nervous like that,” Shirley suddenly muttered in a low voice at this point, “And what are you reading the paper for – Mr. Duncan has known for a long time that we’re both illiterate… …”

As soon as the words fell from her side, before Dog had time to speak, Alice, who was fuming on the side, suddenly raised her hand, “Me too!”

Sherry looked surprised, while Morris silently lowered his head and rubbed his forehead.

The old scholar felt that he had arrived at an overly outrageous place …… What’s this all about?
(End of chapter)