Chapter 673 – Tadriel’s Visit

Chapter 673 – A Visit from Tadriel
Lucrecia arrived in front of Duncan with the creepy rabbit doll and sat down on the couch beside him, while the rabbi carefully slipped to the side of the couch and sat down on the floor with a plop.

“I have sent that ‘saint’ to the Radiant Star’s holding room, where there are sealing facilities designed to deal with all sorts of border and spirit world contaminants, and where he will slowly recover until he is ready to fulfill your ‘ceremonial ‘ needs.

“The surviving ‘sacrifices’ are now housed in the City-State’s drop-in center, and I’ve spoken with Sara Meier, and Lightwind Harbor will take proper care of those and return them to their homes if possible …… Some of them s sanity and memory have collapsed and cannot say where home is, after which a psychiatrist will intervene to provide help.

“As you instructed, I left the ‘artificial beacon’ on that ship, and you should now be able to sense the state of that ship through the beacon ……

“In addition, I took an inventory of the supplies that can still be put to use on that ship, and there are plenty of them, all of which can be shipped back afterward if you have the chance – a generous share of the loot, for the time being. Surely a self-propelled ghost ship wouldn’t need much fuel or mechanical spares anyway ……”

Lucrecia reported back to Duncan, line by line, well organized and arranged.

Apparently, she was really familiar with these “aftermath” jobs.

“Well,” Duncan nodded with satisfaction, not skimping on his praise, “well done.”

Lucrecia, however, opened her mouth, suddenly looking a little hesitant.

Duncan noticed this, “Anything else?”

“…… I told my brother what happened here, and he asked if we needed a fleet,” Lucrecia said, “Considering that the Annihilationists’ ‘lair ‘ could be a sea fortress that has been in operation for centuries or more, and is located in the border mists, a real ‘attack’ might be needed next, he said he could send the Sea Mist fleet over if needed.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Duncan thought hard for a moment, still shaking his head, “at least not right now. We’re still not sure what that lair really looks like, and scaling up the operation might be more trouble than it’s worth……. It’s better to scout out what’s going on in the mists first.”

“Good.” Lucrecia nodded.

Just at that moment, an aura that suddenly appeared outside the house interrupted the conversation in the living room.

Lucrecia frowned and looked up in the direction of the foyer, and almost in the next second, the doorbell came from that direction.

Luni, who was standing in the corner of the living room on standby, immediately got up and walked towards the front door, while Lucrecia quickly instructed, “No newspaper subscriptions, no insurance, no raffle tickets, no filling out community questionnaires, and if it’s a self-proclaimed community fundraiser, just kick it out, there was already an announcement last month that it was a bunch of scammers – I really don’t understand how by now I don’t understand how anyone has the nerve to come here ……”

“Mistress,” Lunie’s figure returned to the parlor once more before Lucrecia could finish, “it is His Excellency, the Keeper of the Secret of Truth.”

Lucrecia: “…… Eh?”

The moment she froze, a helpless voice had already come through the front door, “I know that Miss ‘Sorceress’ has always disliked people visiting her door, but this time, it is indeed a special situation – there is an invitation from the Church of the Four Gods to be delivered to your father. invitation to be conveyed to your father.”

Accompanied by this somewhat tired and helpless voice, Ted Riel had already stepped into the living room, and this “Truth Keeper” looked as good as ever, with the aura of not being able to rest after working for a month in a row lingering around him at the same time.

“Other people normally wouldn’t dare to come near this ‘Witch’s Residence’ of yours, Taran Ayer’s lumbar spine is sick today and he can’t get up, so it’s only me who can come in person.”

As the words fell, Ted Riel had already noticed Duncan who was sitting on the sofa, and his face instantly revealed a hint of a smile, “Good day, Captain.”

“Taran-El finally gets to lie down for a few days,” Lucrecia, on the other hand, said casually after hearing the news that Ted had brought, “I even think that’s a good thing.”

“Not to me, I lost three solas over it,” Ted Riel said with regret in his tone, “I made a bet with a couple of my colleagues at the academy on which part of Taran’s body would be first to break out next, and lost badly …… By the way. I bet on hemorrhoids.”

Lucrecia’s expression is a little subtle, “You guys are really boring ……”

Ted Ryer shrugs, “But I’ve guessed correctly a couple times before.”

Maurice, who was sitting on the couch, stood up at this time and greeted the “Truth Keeper”, “Ted, have you recovered?”

“It’s just a slight gastrointestinal disorder – it didn’t affect me nearly as much as the papers those brats rushed out overnight,” Ted Ryer waved his hand, then his gaze involuntarily rested on Maurice, and he looked at the latter for several seconds with suspicion and consternation, before finally wearing a slight smile on his face. several seconds before finally speaking with a subtle expression, “I didn’t have time to observe in our hasty meeting earlier, Morris, your ……”

He suddenly stopped, and after a moment’s hesitation seemed to understand something, and exhaled softly.

“Nothing, looks quite refreshed.” “Is it? I also think I’m in good shape right now-my daughter is a psychiatrist, and she agrees that I’m in a healthy frame of mind.” Maurice smiled, his eyes as bright as ever behind his monocle, and his smile had a gentle, refined warmth to it.

Only saints and scholars with great spiritual gifts could perceive in his smile, eyes and voice the frenzy and noise that was extremely difficult to detect and had long since deviated from human sanity.

Ted Ryer’s gaze left Morris and fell on Duncan.

Many, many years ago, he had been friends with the greatest explorer in history.

For an elf to form a friendship with a human was something that required great care and had to be done mentally.

But back then, Ted Riel could never have imagined that his mental construction was going in the completely wrong direction – instead of saying goodbye to a short-lived human, he should have been worried about reuniting with an eternal subspace shadow.

Thankfully, the light of humanity still shone through that shadow-though that light was filled with many truths he dared not pry into, and echoed with many noises he dared not listen to.

“I was just discussing with Maurice about the Church of the Four Gods,” Duncan volunteered, “I knew there was going to be a gathering, but I didn’t realize that the official news would come so soon.”

Ted Rill was silent for a moment, fished a letter encased in a delicate fire-painted seal out of his pocket and placed it on the coffee table, pushing it towards Duncan.

“I’m not sure you care about such a thing as an ‘invitation’, but anyway, the Academy Ark asked me to give this to you,” he said, “It’s already signed by the Pope of the Four Gods, so you can think of this as the Church of the Four Gods’ first official, formal gesture of goodwill to the Lost Country Fleet.”

Duncan’s eyes fell upon the beautifully encapsulated letter, and he reached out to open it, removing the special “invitation” from it.

On the hard cardboard, it was written in beautiful handwriting, stating that the Church of the Four Gods would be holding a “special closed-door meeting”, as well as an invitation to the “Lord of the Lost Fleet” and “Captain Duncan the Explorer”. “The content itself was nothing special, except for the four glittering signatures at the end of the invitation, which strongly attracted Duncan’s attention.

They stung like burning arcs of electricity in the darkness–the

Rahm, Tarekin, Gemona, Bartok.

Duncan looked at the names calmly, and surprisingly felt no surprise at all.

“It says here that the meeting will take place tomorrow – so soon?” He put away the invitation while making a casual remark.

“Yes, at least judging from Coronation Lune’s attitude, the sooner this gathering takes place, the better,” Ted Riel nodded, “Before noon tomorrow, the fleets of the Church of the Four Gods will be arriving in the vicinity of Lightwind Harbor, and all of the parade arks will show up- -that will be an event.”

Duncan was stunned at his words, while Maurice beside him subconsciously exclaimed, “Huh? You mean that the rally will be held in the real world, and the four popes are going to gather here?”

“Yes, I also thought at first that this would be a ‘meeting’ held through spiritual energy resonance, just like the previous gatherings held by the popes and saints, but I didn’t realize that the meeting was going to be held in the real world, and even more so, I didn’t realize that the …… would be held tomorrow.”

“For a ‘closed-door meeting’ of such importance, this is almost equivalent to no preparatory process, and the voyage of the Patrol Ark itself takes time …… “Duncan, on the other hand, was thoughtfully, seeming to have thought of something, “So, the most reasonable answer is that the four Patrol Arks had already been mobilized one after another to the vicinity of the southern border long before today – even before the incident at Light Wind Harbor, the Church of the Four Gods might have already had a plan for a gathering, and the situation at Light Wind Harbor was just an unexpected opportunity for them to go along with it and schedule the rally here, to tomorrow?”

“It seems like that should be the case.”

“Is …… something going on lately? Is it related to the Church’s frequent activities in the border seas in recent times, as well as those fleets that were assembled near the ‘Eternal Curtain’?”

“I know about these circumstances you mentioned, but I don’t know the specific insides.”

Duncan was a bit surprised, “Even you, the Truth Keeper of Secrets, are not clear about these things?”

“I really don’t know,” Ted Riel shook his head, “The Secret Keeper of Truth, like the Inquisitors, Gatekeepers, and Fire Protectors, although our status is that of the highest church representative of the city-state, what we have is only the affairs of the city-state, and the four Patrol Arks are in fact independent of the entire church system In operation, the four popes directly command those arks, and all ‘secrets’ will be blocked inside the ark fleet, and will not interact with the city-states and the functioning of the church between the city-states, especially …… those more dangerous secrets. ”

He lifted his head and looked Duncan in the eye very seriously.

“It is a necessary means of security.”

(End of chapter)