Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 437

Chapter 437: Chapter 438: Getting Reacquainted Chapter 437: Chapter 438: Getting Reacquainted Agatha didn't hold back any information in front of this benevolent being who had acted to save Frost from destruction. She laid out all the intelligence she had gathered thus far.

Some of the intelligence was what she had observed and deduced during the Mirror Frost operation. The rest came from inquiring with various priests and her own trusted subordinates after she had returned to the cathedral–events that had transpired while she was trapped in that mirrored city.

They were things “another her” had experienced.

The boiling gold mine upon which Frost depended hid a massive secret. The so-called boiling gold ore had been exhausted since the era of the Frost Queen. Successive governors might have been in possession of a tremendous secret. Governor Winston and “another Agatha” had vanished deep within the mine, and before their disappearance, “another Agatha” seemed to have uncovered some astonishing truth, a strong surge of her will that had even reached the true Agatha…

Duncan listened silently, only occasionally asking to confirm some details until Agatha had explained everything, after which he let out a soft sigh.

“You've told me the biggest secret of Frost–aren't you worried that I might harbor malicious intentions?”

“After seeing the methods you used to destroy the mirrored city, I don't think there's any point in speculating on your intentions,” Agatha said frankly. “If you really had malevolent designs on this city, then all of us would be dead before the sun set.”

“Do you City-State protectors always compliment people in such a unique way?” Duncan muttered, giving Fenna a covert glance.

Fenna immediately averted her gaze, pretending not to have heard a thing.

Morris, sitting across the table, couldn't help leaning forward–his curiosity had clearly inflated dramatically after learning the shocking fact that the boiling gold vein had long since been depleted: “What is the current situation in the boiling gold mine? Can the ore still be found? The stuff you've been digging out all these years… is it really boiling gold?”

“The mine is still sealed off. After the mirror invasion receded, there were loud noises and tremors from the shaft. For safety reasons and due to a lack of personnel, we have not yet checked what's inside,” Agatha informed him candidly. “However, according to reports from the mine station and the smelting factory… at least the boiling gold extracted from the mine has remained intact.”

“The mirrored city has been destroyed… yet the boiling gold, theoretically an 'anomaly product,' hasn't disappeared? Now that's interesting…” Morris stroked his chin subconsciously. “You see, all those counterfeit monsters in the city indeed turned into piles of muck as soon as the mirrored city collapsed… So the boiling gold is all real? What's the principle behind it? Can the power of the Deep Sea Saint create real boiling gold?”

“Now is not the time for academic research,” Fenna couldn't help but interject, then turned to look at Agatha, “So when do you plan to check the situation inside the mine?”

Agatha hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly, “I think… we need to at least wait until order in the city is somewhat restored, and the rumblings and noises from the shaft have ceased. And… we must at least survive the first night after the disaster.”

As she spoke, she looked up, glancing out the window instinctively.

The snow was still falling; it was still daytime, but the sun behind the clouds was steadily sinking. That blurry orb of light was about to touch the point of the distant church spire.

“In two hours the sun will set, and that will be our first challenge after the disaster…”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Fenna suddenly raised her hand, cutting off Agatha's somewhat anxious sigh, “I think… you don't need to worry about the coming of nightfall. Compared to all the troubles you're facing, 'night' might become the least of your concerns for this City-State from now on.”

Agatha was momentarily stunned. “Why do you say that?”

“…An experience,” Fenna said, then glanced back at Duncan. Upon seeing him nod slightly, she turned back to Agatha and continued, “An experience from Plunder.”

“Plunder…” Agatha was a bit bemused for a moment, but then she suddenly recalled the intelligence she had received, recalling those messages from afar–the large-scale anomalies Plunder had faced, the crisis of the Black Sun, history resurrecting in flames, and…

A “rumor” that had spread from various channels in Plunder.

The ghost captain who chills the soul, the moving natural disaster of the Endless Sea, the terrifying Subspace Shadow, Duncan Ebnomal–had found his humanity again.

The expression on the young gatekeeper and temporary acting Archbishop's face suddenly became rather splendid, and she rose from her chair with a “creak.”

All suspicious clues suddenly had explanations, all uneasy speculations were abruptly confirmed, and the loose and disordered intelligence threaded together.

“I admit, the current situation is a bit awkward,” Duncan shrugged, his tone somewhat helpless.

Agatha remained rigidly standing, unmoving as she watched Duncan–no one could see her “gaze” at that moment, but the expressions of Miss Gatekeeper clearly went beyond mere awkwardness.

After a long while, she finally broke the silence, “No wonder… your followers call you 'Captain'… I should have thought of it before, in the Endless Sea there's no other 'Captain' as unique as you…”
“I regret the incident with the Vesperlan Thirteen Islands,” Duncan said, “I have no memory of it, but it seems the evidence is conclusive.”

As he spoke, he tried to make his tone as friendly and trustworthy as possible, but given his own ominous “reputation” and the methods he'd just demonstrated in front of Frost City-State a few hours ago, this mild tone clearly had limited effect–visibly, Agatha's tension had not eased since earlier.

After a long time, Agatha herself broke the stiff and awkward silence: “I… Alright, I'll be frank, ever since the day I was promoted to a Saint, the Church has been emphatically reminding us, if we find any clues of the 'Subspace Shadow' Captain Duncan, we must report immediately to the Supreme Death Sanctum–priority above all natural disasters, on par with a Subspace invasion. I wonder if you can understand what that means.”

“Oh, I understand,” Duncan didn't speak, but Fenna, who was beside him, took the initiative to say, quite casually conversing with the fellow in front of her, “Actually, we also get reminded about this every year, and even have special disaster preparedness plans, although we never had to use them.”

Duncan gave Fenna a strange look: “You're talking about this in front of me?”

Fenna suddenly realized it and hurriedly composed herself: “Ah, sorry, Captain…”
Agatha was a bit slower to catch on, or perhaps Duncan had impacted her too greatly, as it was only now that she suddenly turned her attention to the remarkably tall lady in front of her: “Wait, so you are…”
“Plunder City-State Judge… in a sense, we're colleagues,” Fenna said, her expression somewhat embarrassed, “Sorry, I didn't mean to hide it.”

One after another, these information barrages bombarded Agatha's mind, and she found herself becoming dazed, realizing that the end of a disaster was indeed just the beginning–the aftermath of the disaster was pressing down on her from an angle she had never before imagined.

She hesitated before sitting back down in her chair, then looked at Fenna with an incomprehensible expression: “But why are you with Captain Duncan? You should be one of the Deep Sea Church's highest representatives in Plunder… Doesn't Plunder need a Judge anymore?”

“This is exactly the Church's arrangement, the details of which I cannot explain for now, I can only say… it's not something that can be disclosed publicly for the time being. Had your status not met the information clearance level, I wouldn't have told you,” Fenna said earnestly, then paused slightly, “As for Plunder… yes, just like you said, it doesn't need a Judge anymore, at least not the kind of Judge and guardianship system it had before.”

Agatha couldn't help rubbing her forehead, while some pieces of intelligence that had recently come from afar and she hadn't yet had the chance to verify came to mind. She hesitated as she spoke, “So… just like the intelligence mentioned, Plunder really has tranquil nights now?”

Fenna seemed somewhat surprised: “Has the news reached Frost already?”

“We are only remote, not isolated,” Agatha said, then couldn't help asking further, “Please tell me, is Plunder really no longer afraid of the night?”

“…At least for now, the nights in Plunder are even safer than the daytime in many other city-states. My uncle is even considering opening a kind of nighttime market to accommodate the recent changes in the city-state, though this is still something that needs to be discussed and tested carefully,” Fenna nodded, “Since you already know about this intelligence, I presume you've also heard of the other matter–that after the Black Sun event, Plunder also acquired a new identity.”

“Anomaly-entity Plunder, the first ever without a number,” Agatha said subconsciously, her gaze inadvertently falling on Duncan. Now, she finally understood the deeper implications of Fenna's previous words, “So… Frost will undergo the same changes now?”

Feeling that invisible yet palpable “gaze,” Duncan merely smiled and nodded: “Perhaps.”

Chapter end

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