Chapter 347 Blockade
Chapter 347 Blockade
The girl standing in the doorway looked to be eleven or twelve years old at most, short and wearing a warm, thick white coat, with heat steaming slightly from her woolen hat – it was as if she had run all the way here, and she was still gasping for breath when she saw Maurice, but a bright smile soon bloomed on her face.
“It’s Grandpa Morris, isn’t it? Mom asked me to bring this,” she held out her hand and handed over a key, “It’s the key to the basement, Mom said she forgot to give it to you guys when she left.”
“Ah, thank you, little girl,” Morris responded, nodding as he reached for the key, “Come in and warm up, won’t you?”
The little girl was just about to speak when Duncan’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Maurice with a hint of surprise, “Anne?”
Glancing over the old scholar’s shoulder, Duncan looked with some surprise at the girl standing in the doorway.
That was none other than Anne Barbery, whom he had previously met at the entrance to the cemetery – the daughter of the Obsidian’s captain, Christo Barbery.
Duncan had already realized what had happened – whether to describe it as a coincidence, or to lament the “smallness” of the city-state, he had come across the Obsidian captain’s daughter again after going around in circles, and Maurice and Vanna had spent the day looking for a temporary place to stay! …… is exactly the house of Anne’s family.
Annie also saw the lanky figure that suddenly appeared in front of her, and instantly widened her eyes.
The unexpected situation made the girl look a bit overwhelmed, and after staring blankly for several seconds, she reacted with hindsight and greeted clumsily, “Ah, it’s the uncle at the cemetery gate …… you …… how are you? ”
Her last greeting was obviously a bit hesitant, obviously recalling her experience at the entrance of the cemetery, recalling the spectacle of the flames soaring into the air when Duncan left earlier – Duncan didn’t think too much about it at the time, but that scene undoubtedly left a deep impression in the little girl’s mind.
Even at her young age, Anne knew that it was transcendent power – knowledge of this had long been written in the textbooks of every city-state and promoted in the general education of all citizens, and a cursory knowledge of transcendent power and protection techniques were the foundation that allowed the ordinary people of this world to survive in peace.
But what kind of power it really was, Anne couldn’t tell – it wasn’t taught in her textbooks, her grandfather, the caretaker of the cemetery, didn’t explain it to her, and when she talked to her mother back at home, she didn’t tell her anything either.
It seemed like a secret that children shouldn’t be exposed to yet.
Anne looked a little dazedly at Duncan standing across the room, Grandfather Caretaker’s earlier reminder still ringing in her ears, which instinctively made her a little uneasy, but the lanky figure suddenly stepped aside, his voice sounding a little intimidating but with a hint of gentleness, “Come in and get some rest, the snowflakes are starting to flurry outside again.”
It was only then that Anne glanced back afterward to see a flurry of snowflakes falling from the sky once more, a few flakes burrowed down the wind and cooled her neck.
She ghosted inside, looking around sparingly.
The sister with the pretty blonde hair and regal looking demeanor was also standing in the living room, right next to the dining room table, casting a curious glance this way.
She had taken off her veil and looked very pretty – almost the prettiest person Anne had ever seen.
“Mom says you can’t just disturb the tenants,” Anne said hesitantly, while scuffing dirt and snow from her little boots on the floor mat in the entryway, “She says Grandpa Maurice is a great scholar, and that it’s rude to just mess around … …”
“You’re not disturbing, we just happen to want to find out about the new residence,” Morris guessed the general situation by this time, and immediately spoke, “And now that it’s snowing outside again, it’s not safe for you to run back through the path, so rest here for a while, and Vanna will send you back afterward. ”
Annie looked up at Vanna, who seemed like a small giant, and subconsciously nodded her head.
She then looked over at Duncan and hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, “So …… it turns out you need to live in a house too?”
“Of course I’ll be staying in the house,” Duncan smiled, casually remarking as he led Anne towards the couch in the living room, “Won’t your mother be worried if you’re running around out there all by yourself?”
It seemed to him that Anne was just a little too crazy to run around, not only to the cemetery alone in the middle of the morning, but also to cross the paths between neighborhoods in this awful weather, all alone, to give keys to new tenants who didn’t know what they were getting into, and that was far too unsettling to worry about.
“It’s okay, everyone knows me in this neighborhood, Mom says half the people on these two streets are friends of Dad’s,” Annie, however, didn’t care at all as she sat down on the couch and propped both hands under her thighs, rocking back and forth, “And Mom’s usually pretty busy, she’s got to do the math and fill out the forms for people. And helping out in the chapel sometime, I’m used to running around.”
Duncan thought for a moment and asked, “So …… did you tell your mom what I told you when you got home?”
“Told her,” Anne nodded, followed by a slightly odd expression on her face, “She said I was talking nonsense at first, and then I told her what Grandpa, the caretaker of the cemetery, had said, and she went to her room alone …… coming out of it It seemed like she had been crying …… but then smiled and told me that she was going to make fish and chips and bologna stew for dinner tonight because it was a day to celebrate.”
She stopped shaking her body, looking a little confused as she looked up at Duncan, curious and hesitant, “I don’t feel …… quite sure I understand.”
“That’s okay, you’ll get it sooner or later,” Duncan smiled, “Some things are just too complicated for you right now.” “Uncle you talk just like Grandpa Watchman, he often says the same thing,” Anne muttered, before shaking her head and seeming to think hard before looking up again, “Uncle, do you …… not want to be disturbed?”
Duncan was curious, “Why do you say that?”
“Because you dressed like that – and suddenly disappeared when you left, which mom says is the …… doings, as if that’s the word, doings, of the hidden people of the cathedral or the hermits of the knot. ”
Duncan did not know for a moment how to answer the girl’s words, but the latter evidently did not wait for his answer either, and Anne, after pondering there for a moment to herself, suddenly added: “I will not speak of it to any one else casually, and Grandfather Warden has reminded me of it, and told me to pretend that I had never seen you, and not to speak of it to any one but mamma.”
Duncan was dumbfounded, but before he could say anything, Anne continued, “Can I tell Grandpa the caretaker then? Tell him …… that you live in my house?”
Maurice and Vanna, who had come over to the couch to listen to the action, couldn’t help but look at each other after hearing the girl’s words, while Alice turned her first gaze to Duncan.
They all felt as if there was something wrong with this matter.
However, Duncan was only silent for a few seconds before he gently nodded with a smile, “Yes, I don’t mind.”
……
At the same time, near the eastern harbor, the collection of samples from the wreckage of the Haiyan had already begun.
Several light fast boats departed from the pier, carefully approaching the sea where dirty “mud” and a small amount of flames still floated, and each fast boat was arranged with accompanying priests and holy relics, as well as nitro-glycerine explosives for emergencies.
On shore, the harbor garrison was ready for docking.
A vacant warehouse had been chosen as a temporary staging facility, and priests and guardsmen from the higher churches had completed the decontamination and countermeasures setup for the entire area, while Agatha the Gatekeeper had left behind a team of her elite cronies before she left in case there were any mishaps while collecting samples of the wreckage.
Lister stood on the pier, looking out over the sea, while a few of his cronies were nearby, keeping an eye on the progress of the salvage work.
“Is it really not going to be a problem to salvage those things to the shore?” One of his cronies had an uneasy tone in his voice, “Of course, I’m not questioning the Gatekeeper’s judgment, but those things …… were rushing towards Frostbourne Island at an alarming rate just a few hours ago, are they really ‘dead’ now? ”
“Ms. Agatha made repeated confirmations in the depth of the spirit world that these things are no longer active,” Lister said with a calm expression, “They can indeed be ‘killed’, and from Ms. Agatha’s attitude and the disposition plan, I think that the Cathedral side may have even been exposed to something similar.”
“Something similar? Already appeared in the city-state?” A lower ranked officer showed surprise, “This …… haven’t heard anything about this at all ……”
“You didn’t hear about it, that means this matter is not suitable to be publicized, at least not yet, the Cathedral and City Hall have their own judgment,” Lister shook his head, “In any case, Lady Agatha is trustworthy, she won’t risk the safety of the city-state, all we have to do is to listen to the professional’s judgment – a cleric can know how to deal with such bizarre contraptions better than a soldier.”
The crony stopped talking, but just then another rush of footsteps suddenly came, and a soldier arrived on the docks with hurried feet.
“Sir!” This soldier jogged to Lister and saluted before handing this defense commander a document that had just been delivered through a high-pressure airflow tube, “An order from City Hall.”
“It looks like the official order to blockade Dagger Island has arrived.” Lister said as he took the document, but after seeing the contents on the document, his expression suddenly changed.
A close associate noticed, “Sir? There’s a situation?”
“…… It’s true that the order is for a channel blockade, but it’s not a blockade of Dagger Island,” Liszt’s expression stared and his tone became extraordinarily serious, “Strictly speaking, it’s not just a blockade of Dagger Island- -the order calls for the blockade of all shipping lanes in and out of Frost, and for all defenders to enter a state of readiness.”
“Blockade …… the entire Frost Main Island?!”
“The Sea Mist Fleet appeared in the nearby waters,” Lister inhaled softly, his face even more gloomy and ugly than the sky at the moment, “The entire Sea Mist Fleet.”
(End of chapter)