Chapter 225: The Captain Never Left
Chapter 225 – The Captain Never Left
The figure in the mirror had really left – without doing anything more than “coming over to check on the situation”, as he had said at the beginning.
Vanna stared at the mirror with a wary look on her face for half a day before finally confirming it and really letting go.
She then went into a brief period of introspection and paranoia.
Skeptical because of the Inquisitor’s professional habits, it was hard for her to really trust a “person” like Captain Duncan who had memorized a century’s worth of horrific legends and had connections to subspace, even if the other person really did seem sane and friendly and had actually sheltered the city-state of Prand, and introspective because of the simple reason that… —
She realized that she had been losing her guard in her interactions with Captain Duncan.
It was a sign of weakness that shouldn’t have been there, and she never thought it would happen to her.
Ultimately, it was due to her own descent into wavering and self-doubt, losing the purity of her beliefs, which led to holes in her mind.
Vanna was very introspective, and at the end of the day, she sighed softly.
In any case, the city had survived safely, and she would tell Bishop Valentine about this evening, including …… her own faltering.
The young Inquisitor’s sigh faded into darkness along with the extinguished lights.
……
On the second floor of the antique store in the lower city, Duncan withdrew his gaze from looking toward the Cathedral of Prand, a thoughtful expression emerging on his face as he watched the city-state at night, lit up by the lights of thousands of homes near and far.
He didn’t know what had happened to Vanna, but one thing was clear, that young Inquisitor’s mental state had just experienced a brief and dangerous wavering – a wavering that had even directly touched his senses, compelling him to make a direct projection in the real world to check out what had happened to Vanna.
Now that he recalled it, the aura he felt on Vanna at that time was actually vaguely familiar – it was hidden deep within her spirit world, surrounding her, and if he carefully discerned it, it was a bit like ……
Like that marvelous feeling he felt when he was at the bottom of the Lost Country ship, observing the chaotic light and shadow outside the ship’s shell through those cracks.
It was subspace.
And judging from Vanna’s sudden question to herself at the end, the trouble she encountered might really be related to subspace as well.
Duncan tapped his fingers unconsciously on the windowsill, guessing the truth.
Before leaving, he strengthened the brand he left on the other party a little more, and this power should be able to help her resist the erosion that might come when necessary, but the crux of the matter was, why did a hint of subspace suddenly appear on Vanna, a high-ranking saint?
Duncan’s thoughts spread out, and he suddenly recalled some other clues, or “knowledge” – under certain circumstances, the souls of the Four Gods’ followers are more prone to be eroded by the Subspace than those of mortals, and their souls will even create a direct link between the reality dimension and the Subspace dimension directly after being eroded. A rift connecting the reality dimension and subspace, and the initial invasion in that chapel in the sixth block started from the shadow of that nun’s soul ……
Could something similar happen to Vanna? And if it would, what was the reason behind this counter-intuitive phenomenon?
After a moment of contemplation, Duncan exhaled and turned away from the window.
In any case, he should pay more attention to Vanna’s special “node” in the future – now that Vanna lacked trust in herself as the “Ghost Captain”, she certainly wouldn’t voluntarily reveal all her secrets. Now that Vanna lacked trust in herself as the “Ghost Captain”, she certainly wouldn’t voluntarily reveal all of her secrets, which would require more attention from his side.
On his way back to the bedroom, Duncan heard the voices of two young girls giggling from the room next to his – Nina and Sherry’s voices.
Despite having returned to the city-state from the Lost Country, they still seemed excited, especially Nina.
That child didn’t seem to have any mental shadows at all about the eerie and terrifying ghost ship, nor did she have any apprehensions about the future – she was just as cheerful as usual, and even …… seemed to be a little more so.
Was it the influence of the sun shard? Or was it because she had a great capacity for acceptance herself?
Duncan pondered, he suddenly felt …… as if he had discovered some unexpected “talent” of Nina.
As night fell, the cold, pale light of the World’s Tron illuminated the open deck of the Lost Country.
The sound of light footsteps broke the silence of the ghost ship in the night, and a figure wearing a gorgeous long dress and silver hair draped over her shoulders came to the aft bridge.
Alice tilted her head and looked at the captain who was personally steering the ship, her light purple eyes reflecting the glow and appearing to sparkle, “Captain! Where are we going next?”
“No destination for now, let’s leave the busy routes between the city-states for now,” Duncan glanced down at the mannequin, “You look like you’re in a good mood?”
“Yes, yes!” Alice nodded happily, and even with her elegant and regal appearance, the cheerfulness with which she nodded was enough to make her entire being goofy, “The ship is so lively today! It’s the first time I’ve realized that just a lot of people getting together can be so much fun ……”
“Not all the time getting people together is ‘fun’ – but you might have a little trouble understanding that right now,” Duncan said casually. “Also, keep the nodding under control, you scared them when your head fell off today.”
“Oh oh ……” Alice panicked and held her head, followed by what seemed to be a bit of worry, “So they …… won’t be coming back later because of this, right? not come, right?”
“That worry is superfluous.” Alice let out another oh sound, and immediately after being quiet for not more than two seconds, she asked again, “Then …… will I still be able to go to the city-state to play in the future? I didn’t even get to see the world properly this time I went, and I ran into …… a mess and felt dizzy ……”
Duncan’s gaze swept across the sea and back to Alice, “Of course you can, I can have Aey drop you off at the antique store tomorrow – I’ll still need your help over at the store.”
“Really?” Alice’s eyes brightened noticeably as she looked surprised, “I thought …… we wouldn’t be returning to the city-state for the most part after this, after all …… you seem to be done with things over there? ”
Duncan didn’t answer the other party at first, but was intentionally quiet for several seconds before suddenly asking, “Do you think that I’m paying attention to Prender because there’s something I have to do?”
Alice froze for a moment, and only then scratched her brain as an afterthought, “I …… don’t know hey.”
Duncan smiled and shook his head, gently releasing the tiller in his hand.
A slight creaking sound came from all parts of the Lost Country, and the spirit sails on the masts were then slightly furled, and the ship shifted to the “cruising state” taken over by Goathead.
“We just took care of a bunch of cultist trouble,” Duncan said casually to Alice as he stepped off the bridge in the direction of the captain’s cabin, “As for Prand …… I think that city-state and I are meant to be together. have a destiny.”
The captain walked away, and Alice confusedly pondered in place for a moment, turning her head to look in the direction the other man had left, “…… Not bad for a captain, so deep ……”
Duncan arrived at the door to the captain’s cabin, he looked up and saw the words “Gate of the Lost Ones” reflecting on the door frame in a dim light from the World’s Creation.
He took a soft breath to calm his spirit, then placed his hand on the door handle.
He gently pushed it open.
A hazy, distorted mist appeared before him, and Duncan stepped forward, feeling the familiar momentary weightlessness and slight vertigo, the dislocation of having traveled through endless space and time and having arrived at his destination in an instant, before silence fell around him.
The never-ending sound of wind and waves on the infinite sea and the slight creaking of the Lost Country’s various parts were far away, and the fishy, salty sea breeze quietly dissipated, as a familiar scent came from all around them, a scent that came from the room where he had resided for many years.
Zhou Ming opened his eyes and looked at the unchanging scene in the bachelor apartment.
As usual, the first thing he did after returning here was to confirm the general situation of the entire room, confirming whether there had been any changes here after he had left, confirming whether the dense fog outside the window had shown signs of dissipating, and confirming whether the thin strings and scraps of paper that he had left on the windows and on the windowsill had ever been moved out of place.
Even though he knew that this was pointless, he still regarded this series of “confirmations” as some kind of tasks that had to be accomplished.
After completing this series of confirmations, the second thing he did was to go to his desk.
Zhou Ming lowered his head and calmly looked at the things on his desk.
An as if miniature model of the Pridelands City State was being quietly placed on the desk.
Exquisite, restored, every ounce of detail was exquisite, perhaps even every floor tile and street lamp was exactly the same as the real Planders.
Or in other words, it was a “projection” of the real Prand in some form in his bachelor’s apartment.
It was here, as expected.
The delicate flames that had been burning on the desk had completed the final touches on this “hidden object”, and now the perfect masterpiece had been presented to its owner.
Zhou Ming gently breathed out, slowly sat down at the table, and scrutinized this exquisite “model”.
Compared to the Lost Country’s “model”, the size of this “city-state” was obviously much larger, but it clearly wasn’t scaled up proportionally, and it seemed to be just the right size to fit into one of the individual compartments of the shelves, as if it had been specially tailored to fit there.
There were no inhabitants to be seen in this marvelous model of the city-state.
It seemed that the “people” living in the city-state could not form a projection here?
Zhou Ming pondered, and in his thoughts, he repeatedly scrutinized the City State of Prand for a long time, and finally, he gently breathed a sigh of relief, and with both hands, he picked up this large-scale “collector’s item”, and carefully placed it on the shelf not far away.
After placing it, he took two steps back and silently admired his new collection.
The Lost Country was far from Prand, but the captain …… never left his loyal city-state.
(End of chapter)