Chapter 280: Agreement reached
Chapter 280: Agreement Reached
Compared to Vanna’s hand-wringing at the moment, Pope Helena’s attitude was always light, and she wore a smile on her face that even seemed to be a bit pleasant.
However, Vanna was not pleasant at all – much less “reasonable”!
“I think …… this whole thing was too sudden,” racked the young Inquisitoress, who had absolutely no idea why the subject had swooped in this evil direction, and was at the moment doing everything she could to keep her logic up to speed with the overly fast speed of the car, as she racked her brain. “I understand the need to establish communication with the Lost Country, but I think it should be gradual, and if it’s just for the sake of communication, we would have had a channel of communication by now, that Captain Duncan ……”
“He would have visited in dreams or talked to you through mirrors, right?” Helena interrupted Vanna with a gentle voice, “I know that, you mentioned it in your report.”
“That ……”
“That’s not enough,” Helena smiled and shook her head, “That was just ‘conversation’, a private conversation between Captain Duncan and you, and such an avenue of communication is neither special nor binding, and is far from being called a deep-sea official channel between the Church and the Lost Country, Vanna, you should understand the difference.”
Vanna’s lips quirked a few times, a thousand words welling up in her throat, but in the end nothing came out.
She had already confirmed that this was not a joke, much less a spur of the moment arrangement by the “God’s spokesperson” in front of her, and from Helena’s attitude and eyes, Vanna detected a certain kind of thoughtfulness, as well as …… some feelings she could not comprehend for the time being.
After another moment, she suddenly asked, “The will of the goddess?”
“You can interpret it that way – if it makes you feel better.”
“…… I see,” Vanna breathed softly, finally allowing her emotions to calm down completely as she resumed her usual stern look and bowed her head with a serious face, “Then I submit to this arrangement. ”
“Go ahead and get some rest,” Helena nodded gently, “We have a lot to do tomorrow.”
Vanna bowed her head once more in command, before turning to leave the room.
Watching the young Inquisitor’s tall figure disappear outside the door of the room, Helena took a long time before she withdrew her line of sight, and then she suddenly laughed a little, and then shook her head somewhat helplessly, “This child …… didn’t even ask me exactly how I was planning to send her to that ship, and still pretended to be composed ……”
A calm and majestic voice rang out from the side just then, interspersed with the crackling pops of flames leaping, “I am also curious as to how you plan to send her to the Lost Country ship.”
In front of the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, the flames on several candlesticks steeply turned dark green, the ghostly firelight reflected the mirror surface, a dark depth in the mirror, and in the middle of the rapidly spreading illusory flames, Duncan’s figure stepped out from the depths of that darkness, silently gazing at Helena standing in the room.
Helena did not turn around, and even as she heard Duncan’s voice ringing out behind her, she remained silent as she gazed out the window, “Ah, you are indeed watching.”
“I can’t help it, you’re so loud with the math that the beads are popping in my face.”
“…… What’s an abacus?”
“It’s a subspace sneer.” Duncan said in a serious manner, after such a long time, he has long been accustomed to this rhythm of occasionally babbling while talking to people, and observing other people’s confused reactions is his greatest joy in the process, and as for how the opposite side of the world brainstorms afterward ……
Anyway, usually whatever he said to the people in this world the opposite side would make up a random brain.
Helena rather wisely didn’t pursue the matter, she still didn’t turn around and collected all her emotional changes, her tone only carrying the same bland gentleness that she always had, “Though you shouldn’t need it, I’d like to introduce myself – Helena, a servant of the Storm Goddess Gemona, and it’s been a pleasure to pleased to speak with you.”
“Duncan Ebnomar, Captain of the Lost Country,” Duncan said casually, “I like to communicate in a frank manner, so let’s get down to business – what is your purpose, or rather, what does the Church of the Deep really want?”
“We are simply focused on maintaining order in the civilized world and responding to all the disturbing changes in the world,” Helena replied blandly, “You should have just heard what I told Vanna, that something is changing in the world- -in fact, the situation is far more serious than what I told her.
“Many shadows are approaching our dimension of reality; the anomaly of Vision 001 may be just the beginning, and the destructive actions of the Final Preachers in Prand may be just part of another grand conspiracy; in the north, disturbing news has come from some city-states, and at the borders, that ‘curtain’ is becoming more and more unstable, and within the civilized frontiers, border collapses are occurring more and more frequently, and in the midst of all these changes, the Lost Country may be the only one with any hope of communicating and communicating through sane means. “We wish to establish a stable and effective communication with you, and just as you wish to know the purpose of the Church of the Deep, we …… wish to know about the Lost Country. In that case, why not build a bridge?”
Duncan frowned, “So you then confidently arranged for Vanna to be that bridge – nice idea, but how do you know I’ll agree to it?”
“You cared for her and helped her, and from your stated intentions, you are also interested in the civilized world as it exists today,” Helena said, “You took back your sanity and humanity, which created a need to re-establish contact with the civilized world, and it seems to me that Vanna fits the role well –or would you trust a ‘strange messenger’ chosen at random by the Church of the Deep?”
“…… Indeed, Vanna is at least considered an ‘acquaintance’ of mine, and sending her here would ensure the greatest possible safety for the messenger from your point of view,” Duncan said slowly. “But even so, aren’t you really worried that the act of sending Vanna aboard the Lost Country will turn out to be a sheep in a tiger’s mouth? Given the good reputation that I and my ship have in the civilized world, it would seem more reasonable that your actions would be viewed as a blood sacrifice if they were made public.”
Helena was silent for a few seconds before she finally turned around slowly and gazed at the mirror that was floating with green flames.
“So, this matter will not go out in the open, after all, apart from the Prendergans, the vast majority of the people in this world right now can’t yet do the job of talking about the Lost Country without a change of face, Vanna will become a secret envoy, and the people who know about this matter will be limited to the top echelons of the Church of the Deep as well as a small portion of the ruling city-states- Or those in the know when the situation demands it.”
Helena lifted her gaze to Duncan’s figure in the mirror.
A shivering, distorted radiant starburst filled her vision.
“As for your comment about ‘sheep in the mouth’ …… I’m not worried.”
The unnameable flow of starlight drummed continuously on the surface of the mirror, as if it were trying to break free of the fragile layer of glass presenting a sense of rising and shrinking and writhing, fine black cracks spreading out from the edges of the mirror, filling and permeating the entire room, low chaotic hissing noises filling the mind, each hiss seeming to be mingled with infinite knowledge from the sub-space.
“I can hear your voice, a calm rationality in your voice, I believe you have indeed regained your humanity, a humanity that is proof that you stand in the camp of civilized order.”
The mirror seemed to dissolve into a vortex in her field of vision, the starlight giant within the mirror had completely lost its form, and all that Helena could see was endless starlight, the fragmented light exploding in her mind, but in the next moment another gentle wave resounded in her mind, reshaping her thinking on the verge of disintegration.
“You are friendly and reliable, my god has sent down guidance and I trust my god unconditionally, He has commanded me to work with you, then I will act so.”
The mirror overflowed with creeping starlight, a stream of light stretching and bulging through the air, swinging slowly in front of Helena as if observing prey, or as if sniffing the room, the light formed by the creeping starlight coming up to less than half a meter in front of Helena, and its fine points of light seeming to be filled with an uncountable number of eyes.
Duncan carefully observed the expression on Helena’s face through the mirror, wanting to analyze the other party’s true intentions from the details of this Deep Sea Pope’s words and actions, and in the end, he found that the other party’s eyes contained nothing but calmness and honesty.
After a long time, he withdrew his gaze.
“An agreement is reached, I will reserve a place for Vanna on the Lost Country ship, but correspondingly, arriving on the Lost Country ship will mean becoming a member of my crew, and she will act in accordance with a strict code, which will be prioritized even higher than her status in the Church, this I hope you can understand.”
He spoke with as much curmudgeonly authority as he could muster to make the matter seem official.
But in reality, he was all happy in his heart.
From a long time ago, he had thought that Vanna and the Lost Country ship had a connection, and at that time, he had planned how to lure this high-ranked acolyte to the ship as a fighter, but he had no suitable opportunity or reason, but he never thought that this opportunity would just fall from the sky.
The Church of the Deep needed a formal communication channel to understand the intentions of the Lost Country, which could reduce their anxiety, and the Lost Country also needed a bridge to communicate with the church forces in the civilized world, which would help Duncan’s future activities, which was a happy thing for both.
“I understand,” Helena nodded slowly, “then, an agreement is reached.”
(End of chapter)