Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 357

Chapter 357: Chapter 361: Traceless Chapter 357: Chapter 361: Traceless Nemo suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

At this moment, he felt as if the fearsome “Ghost Captain” was not merely making a simple promise, but was declaring something… a “foregone conclusion” that had already taken shape on some future day.

He didn't know where this feeling came from, he only knew that at this moment he involuntarily lowered his head and began to speak with a reverence he couldn't quite describe to himself, “As you say.”

Duncan nodded, then seemed to casually shift his gaze to the old ghost standing not far away, leaning against the wall as if lost in thought.

At this moment, the old man was not muttering about the Frost Queen or anything about the second canal or rebels; he was simply there, staring off into space, as if his mind was wandering in a time and space that had been nearly forgotten.

In the old man's muddled memory… did the Frost Queen still rule this place?

Duncan withdrew his gaze, called for Alice who was also lost in a daze beside him, and together with Fenna and Maurice, he headed towards the exit of the secret passage.

Before long, they were back on the surface, and after leaving the “Golden Flute” tavern, they found themselves in the bustling streets of the Frost City-State.

The setting sun was gradually nearing the distant building rooftops; the magnificent and mysterious double Rune Circle just touched the edges of several spires in the Upper City District, visually it seemed as if the human-forged spires were holding up chains that bound the sun above the city.

Dusk was nearing, and curfew time was almost upon them. With even stricter curfew orders, everyone was hurriedly returning home or to the nearest “Nighttime Shelter.” Yet, amidst the hurried flow of people, Duncan and his company, still leisurely strolling, appeared quite out of place.

But not many eyes lingered on them, everyone was too busy.

“What do you make of this?” Fenna moved closer to Duncan, lowering her voice–as their heights were similar, she could lean in quite close.

Duncan kept his composure, “You mean the origin of that 'counterfeit'?”

“It's like it appeared out of nowhere–I and Maurice each scouted in our own ways and couldn't find any trace, and even you couldn't find a clue,” Fenna nodded slightly, “and we have always believed, even these eerie 'counterfeits' need some 'normal' way to move locations, to have an origin, and a process of transition…”

Duncan slowed his pace slightly, tilting his head, “Are you suggesting, those counterfeits might possess some sort of spatial property, a 'force' that allows them to ignore the barriers of reality and appear directly in specific places?”

“That's my suspicion.”

Duncan gave a noncommittal response, and after a few seconds, he suddenly said, “Have I ever told you about the first time Alice came aboard?”

“No,” Fenna blinked, “What happened when she first came aboard?”

“The doll coffin kept returning to the Homeloss–I threw her into the sea three times, and she and her wooden box returned to the ship three times,” Duncan spoke calmly, “Guess how she came back?”

Fenna thought for a moment, uncertainly saying, “By relying on… the power of a curse? Some kind of 'returning ability' from anomaly 099? Also a spatial power?”

“No, she paddled back using her coffin lid, very quickly,” Duncan said calmly, “and then climbed up the stern with great strength–because she paddled so fast, I didn't catch her the first two times, it was only on the third that I caught her red-handed.”

Fenna: “…”

The young Judge turned his head, along with Maurice beside him, both looking at the doll lady who was looking around innocently; she noticed their gaze and turned her head with a harmless smile.

“I don't rule out the possibility that those 'counterfeits' could appear directly in the City-State through some kind of spatial teleportation, but logically, if they really could teleport straight into the city, why would the 'Sea Swallow' need to come all the way from the high seas instead of directly appearing in the port?” Duncan stated indifferently, “I'm more inclined to believe that the counterfeits still need normal transportation, and the reason the counterfeit in the sewer seemed to 'appear from nowhere' is very likely because we have overlooked something, just as no normal person would think that the real reason for a cursed doll's repeated 'return' is that she paddles very fast and is very strong.”

Speaking this, he paused, his voice trailing off thoughtfully, “…More likely, the place Crow 'mistakenly entered' is also due to this kind of 'overlook,' ”
Maurice, who had remained silent all along, suddenly reacted, “Some sort of existence that cannot be observed, like a 'channel' or a periodically opening 'crack'?”

“It's hard to say, but this matter is definitely related to those heretics,” Duncan said. “What Crow brought back on that paper concerns me. It doesn't seem to be just their usual religious nonsense, but rather more like descriptions of actual events using phrases that modern people can't understand. Such 'records'… are always to the heretics' liking.”

“Maybe we really should bring Eli and Sherry here–the eyes of the Profound Demons might discover something in dimensions beyond reality.”

A gray wind swept through the door of the harbor defense office, and the figure of gatekeeper Agatha emerged from the Grey Wind.

Colonel Lister, from behind his desk, raised his head to look at the gatekeeper miss appearing in his office, “You skipped the notification this time.”

“Sorry, it was an emergency,” Agatha said, then suddenly noticed the deep dark circles under Lister's eyes, “…Didn't you sleep last night?”

“There wasn't just me who didn't sleep,” Lister said with a wry smile and shook his head. “We spent the whole night trying to decipher the cryptic signals sent by the Mist Fleet. Some of the cryptographers and mathematicians were almost at each other's throats–I didn't know that even refined academics could spout curses at each other when arguing.”

Agatha fell silent for a moment with a somewhat peculiar look in her eyes before speaking, “The cathedral might 'borrow' some of your scholars later, specifically from the cryptography and mathematics fields.”

Lister was taken aback, “Why?”

Agatha's expression was unreadable (half of her face was covered with bandages), “…To decipher another tasteless secret left by another tasteless existence.”

“Well, it looks like your troubles are no less than mine,” Lister sighed, then rallied his spirits, “Let's get to the point, what brings you here all of a sudden?”

“About the City-State blockade,” Agatha said. “The cathedral ordinarily shouldn't intervene in the City-State's defense, but the circumstances now are special, and I can't rest assured.”

“I understand,” Lister nodded, “Rest assured, the whole of Frost City-State is now completely sealed off–even if there are places not properly locked down, with such a huge Mist Fleet assembled nearby, no one would dare to attempt entry or exit. We've temporarily frozen all port clearances and informed the neighboring City-States and ships out at sea to stay away from Frost City-State. To date, all requests for entry have been denied.”

“That's relieving, at least it won't exacerbate the problem,” Agatha breathed lightly, “What about Dagger Island?”

“It's still under blockade until the cathedral provides further 'expert advice,'” Lister said, his expression slightly grim. “Up until yesterday, the island kept sending back regular reports of 'all normal', even though the City-State side has already stopped supplying resources to the island, and cut off all communications, there's been no other reaction.”

“Don't lower your guard, the Sea Swallow incident proved that the contamination on that island tends to actively transfer towards the City-State… that 'thing' won't just quietly settle down,” Agatha said seriously. “The cathedral is already preparing a force composed of death oath takers and monks, but it will take some time to unseal the powerful Sacred Relic.”

Lister nodded, about to say something more, but before he could speak, a rush of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor, interrupting him.

A harbor area soldier appeared at the office door.

Lister looked up at the slightly rushed soldier, “What happened?”

The soldier stood straight, quickly reporting, “Reporting, sir, a ship due to dock at Frost didn't show up on time.”

“Didn't show up? That's abrupt,” Lister frowned, “All routes around the City-State are already blocked, of course, no ship will dock.”

“Reporting, sir, it's not about not docking–it never showed up!” the soldier hurriedly explained. “The ship was supposed to arrive today, we were ready to send it the City-State blockade notice, but it never made contact and we just got in touch with Cold Harbor, they confirmed that the ship had completed its inspection and resupply there–but after nearing the waters near Frost, it disappeared without a trace!”

Hearing this, Lister's expression finally turned grave, he took a light breath, standing up from behind the desk, “What's the ship's name?”

“White Oak!”

Chapter end

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