Chapter 517: “Proximity”
Chapter 517 “Approaching”
“According to the current speed, we will arrive at the waters around Light Wind Harbor in a day’s time – but this is the situation identified by ‘charts’, as for whether or not the Lost Country ship is currently in these waters, it still needs to be confirmed, after all …… this matter is too unbelievable.”
There was gravity and hesitation in Goathead’s tone, and it was a reaction that Duncan had rarely heard from the fellow since he had known him.
There was no doubt that what was happening to the Lost Country was completely beyond the experience of this “first officer”.
Duncan’s hands propped up on the edge of the navigation table, looked at the slowly swirling fog on the chart, and in between the shadow of the Lost Country and the northern route, there was a large piece of fog floating at the moment – the route that the Lost Country should have sailed through, but now it was still covered by the fog.
“…… In the twelve hours since the sun went out earlier, we ‘skipped’ the entire voyage from the northern course to the southern waters directly, and even you don’t know how that happened, “Duncan raised his eyes to the goat’s head on the edge of the table, “but the White Oak, which was also located on the Infinite Sea during the sun’s extinction, did not experience this phenomenon – they remained largely on the correct sailing path.”
“…… I don’t know how to explain this, Captain,” Goathead bobbed his head slightly, looking embarrassed and uneasy, “although both the Lost Country and the White Oak were baptized by your flames, the difference between the two ships is are too great, and any little difference in detail could be the cause of it ……”
Duncan didn’t say anything for a moment, just brooded with a solemn face for another ten seconds or so before breaking the silence as if something had suddenly occurred to him, “When did the charts change?”
This time Goathead answered unusually quickly, “Just now, when the sun re-lighted.”
“Are you sure?” Duncan knew that the other party would not lie to him, but still subconsciously asked.
“Sure,” the goat’s head bobbed up and down, “I’ve been keeping an eye on everything related to the ‘voyage’, including the movement of the charts, and during the period when the sun went out, the charts never changed in any way, it was as if we have been standing still in place, and after the sun was relit, the chart began to show some …… confusion, just like the confusion that occurs every time after going up from the spirit world to the real world, I thought it was just it calibrating itself, but I never imagined that when it stabilized itself again, it would show that the Lost Country had already reached the vicinity of Light Wind Harbor ……”
Duncan listened attentively to Goathead and suddenly frowned, “That means that this ‘jump’ most likely happened the instant the sun rekindled ……”
Goathead nodded slowly.
The entire captain’s room then fell into a moment of silence with it.
Duncan did not know what Goathead was thinking at the moment, he only knew that his mind was now filled with confusing speculations and countless questions, and all of these questions seemed to be centered around one core: in the process of the sun going out and rekindling, what had happened to the Infinite Sea?
At first, he had only thought that it was a temporary darkness, just like before when the sun had risen ten minutes late, and during that late sunrise, the whole world had seemed to be completely unaffected, except for the nervous panic felt by some of those who had perceived it.
But he soon realizes that this extinction of the sun has caused many things to go wrong – including the interruption of communications between the city-states and the bizarre “border” phenomenon observed by the White Oak.
And now, after the sun was rekindled, he realized that the bizarre effects of this incident were far more than that – the entire Lost Country ship “instantly” shifted two-thirds of the way to the vicinity of Light Wind Harbor, and Tirion reported that the other city-states were unaware of it at all! The sun once went out ……
It seems that between the “extinction” and “illumination” of the sun, the whole world briefly took on a strange and bizarre appearance, with all sorts of tearful dissonance, and the Lost Country, a ship that traveled around the harbor of Lightwinds, was not aware of it. The Lost Country, a “ghost ship” wandering on the edge of reality, briefly and soberly crossed this torn “rift”.
Duncan’s mind suddenly and uncontrollably came up with a frightening thought— What is the role of the sun, in the end?
What is the role of the sun?
Is it only to provide light and heat, and at the same time suppress the “supernatural erosion” in this world? Does it suppress the transcendental erosion in this world …… or this world itself?
“…… Captain,” Goathead’s voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Duncan’s contemplation, “What are we going to do next? If the Lost Country has indeed reached the vicinity of Lightwind Harbor …… then isn’t it time to contact Miss Lucrecia?”
“…… Confirm the surrounding situation first, don’t approach the city-state rashly, “Duncan thought for a moment, then he couldn’t help but recall his previous experience in Prand and Frost, and subconsciously shook his head, “Let the Lost Country ship conceal itself in the shadows and fog. Contact Lucrecia when the time is right.”
Goathead’s head immediately dropped, “Aye, Captain.”
Duncan hmmm’d, then took a step to the oval mirror in the corner of the room again, reaching out and tapping the surface lightly.
A shadowy light floated in the mirror, and in the blink of an eye, Agatha, dressed as a female adventurer, appeared before him.
“I never thought that my first voyage with you would be such an incredible experience,” Agatha sighed, “It’s true what you said, that by setting out with the Lost Country, I would witness all the unbelievable things in this world- -I was still too conservative in my imaginings before I set out.”
“Feeling overstimulated?”
“Fortunately, thanks to the fact that I don’t have a heart that thumps when I move at the moment,” Agatha flashed a small smile, “I’ll be needed to keep an eye on the Spirit World next, yes?”
“The spirit world, and those ‘reflections’ that travel between it and the real world, and if you can, keep an eye on what’s going on below the surface of the sea in the meantime,” Duncan wasn’t too polite, “I’ve always felt that …… Even if the sun re-lights, the fallout from this isn’t over, and it never hurts to be cautious.”
“Understood,” Agatha put away her smile and nodded solemnly, but added immediately afterward, “Ah, according to the ship’s rules, that’s how it should be said – yes, Captain! ” The figure in the mirror faded away.
Duncan, however, remained stony-faced and in quiet contemplation in front of the mirror.
……
The fluttering pieces of colored paper hovered over the streets, through the gaps between those high and low staggered roofs and buildings, and finally flew into a building located near the University of the Citadel, and into the study room of the elven great scholar Taran El.
Lucrecia’s figure coalesced out of the colored pieces of paper.
In the next moment, the “Witch of the Sea” frowned in confusion.
There was no sign of the elf scholar in the research room.
“…… It’s not possible that he’s still trapped on the roof and can’t get down, right?” Lucrecia couldn’t help but mutter, turning her head to look at the still open window not far away.
But just as she was about to fly up to the roof to confirm if that Elf Grand Scholar was still trapped up there, a slightly panicked sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor outside, interrupting her movements.
Listening to the movement in the corridor, Lucrecia casually waved her hand towards the door not far away.
With a “bang”, the door slammed open, followed by a shadow rushing down the corridor in the direction of Lucrecia’s finger, there was a brief scream and the sound of falling, and a moment later, an apprentice, who was dancing and desperately trying to stand up, was “invited” into the room. “into the room.
The apprentice came in lying down, looking as if he was floating about ten centimeters above the ground and “slid” into the room, but when he came to a standstill in the room, the things that had “brought” him into the room swarmed out from underneath him! –An uncountable number of toy soldiers came out from underneath the apprentice and quickly organized themselves on the floor next to him, then stepped to the sound of the drummers and trumpeters and went back to the shadows next to Lucrecia in a neat and fast manner.
The apprentice, who had been “invited” into the room, looked at the running toy soldiers on the floor with horror, before his eyes noticed the soldiers and the owner of the shadows, and he looked up at Lucrecia, who was standing by the window, and finally reacted to who this vaguely familiar lady was.
“Witch …… Ah, Ms. Lucrecia!” The apprentice hurriedly rolled over and got up, greeting this great person shrouded in many legends and auras, “Good afternoon …… Good afternoon ……”
As he spoke, the apprentice couldn’t help but suddenly twist his body again – a tiny toy soldier crawled out of his pocket and fell to the ground in pieces, but right after that the toy soldier reorganized itself again and quickly rolled over and ran towards his mistress, burrowing back into the shadows.
Lucrecia didn’t care about the young apprentice’s rudeness in his panic and the toy soldier that had fallen out in front of her, but instead got right to the point, “I’ve come to find your teacher, where did he go?”
“I was on my way to look for him,” the apprentice gulped and hurriedly replied to the legendary “witch” who was “cold, withdrawn, skilled in curses, and as capricious as the sea”. “He was seen going to the Tower of the Running Clouds when the sun went out, from …… over the roof of the university.”
Lucrecia raised her eyebrows, “From the roof of the university?”
“Yes …… yes, it was seen, he seemed to be in a great hurry …… and he hasn’t come back yet, I’m afraid something has happened to him …… “
“He did have to come up with something, topping a hundred years of frozen shoulder and whiplash to go flying on the roof of a university house – even as an elf he shouldn’t have challenged such an extreme sport,” Lucrecia said casually, and immediately afterward waved her hand at the young apprentice, and “I’ll go confirm his condition – by the way, what’s your name?”
The apprentice hurriedly tensed his body, “About …… Joshua Dino.”
“Good, I’ll tell your teacher and give you three points for the academic style assessment.”
Joshua was a bit dumbfounded, “Why?”
Lucrecia’s figure, however, had already thumped into scattered and fluttering pieces of colored paper, whirling and flying out of the window, leaving only a sentence that vaguely reached the young apprentice’s ears—.
“No running inside the …… research building.”
(End of chapter)