Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 542

Chapter 542: Chapter 543: True Appearance Chapter 542: Chapter 543: True Appearance Below the deck in the crew quarters, Sherry sat frowning in her room, incessantly sighing at the pile of exercise books sprawled out over the table.

“So many… When can I ever finish these…”

“You'll never finish if you keep sighing like that,” muttered dog from the side, “and it's not even that much. You've just been putting it off every day–you know even Miss Alice gets her exercises done on time every day, right?”

“Can that even be called 'done' when she just fills in whatever comes to mind?” Sherry rolled her eyes, then buried her head in the table, muttering despondently, “I want to go ashore, I want to shop in the City-State, I want to eat something delicious… Nina said Light Breeze Harbor has a lot of tasty food, they have dishes from all over the world…”

However, dog had grown used to Sherry's incessant muttering years ago. It shook its head, unmoved by her complaints, “The captain said you can go ashore to play once you've finished all your delayed homework.”

Sherry pouted, then pondered over the exercise books on the table. Suddenly, her eyes darted around, and a mischievous grin spread across her face as she cautiously bent down towards dog, who was lying on the floor, “So, maybe you could help me out? These problems would definitely be…”

Before Sherry could finish her sentence, dog hadn't even a chance to respond, when suddenly a voice came from a mirror on the desk, “I'm watching.”

Sherry let out an exaggerated and despairing “Ah–” looking up at the figure of Agatha emerging from the mirror, looking almost ready to cry, “Can't you watch someone else? Why do you always pop out of the mirror no matter what I'm doing!”

The Agatha in the mirror was serious, “Because the captain told me to keep an eye on you while you do your homework.”

Sherry sighed heavily and once more buried her head in the exercise books on the desk. After rolling her face around in them for quite a bit, she suddenly looked up again, “Could you help me out then…”

Without hesitation, Agatha answered, “No.”

Sherry immediately became unreasonable, “That's not what the story says! The stories say the magic mirror knows everything, and if you ask it, the mirror will give the answer to the person asking…”

Agatha frowned, “What kind of odd tale is that?”

“It's something the captain told Nina, and then Nina told me.”

Agatha's expression suddenly became serious as she listened to what was essentially Sherry's pestering rhetoric. After pondering for a few seconds, she looked into Sherry's eyes and asked, “Did the captain really tell Nina a 'magic mirror' story?”

“Yes… yes, it was…” Sherry didn't understand why the other was getting so serious all of a sudden and felt nervous in her response, “He told it just the other day…”

Agatha thought deeply, muttering softly, “He arranged for my Spiritual Body to dwell inside a mirror on this ship… Could there be some other profound meaning to this…”

Sherry was completely lost, “Uh… huh?”

But Agatha didn't answer her. After thinking hard for a while, this “guardian of the mirror” finally lifted her head, glanced at Sherry, “Which question don't you understand?”

Sherry thought for a moment and pushed an exercise book forward, “… I don't understand this one.”

“This entire book?!”

“Uh-huh–if it's too much trouble, I think I can do the mental arithmetic part at the beginning…”

“Do it yourself!”

Just then, Duncan, having just returned to the captain's cabin, raised his head, seemingly listening to a distant commotion.

The goat's head on the navigation desk immediately turned its gaze, “What's the matter?”

“I think I 'heard' Agatha's voice,” Duncan said offhandedly, of course, he didn't really “hear” anything, but the ship continuously transmitted information about every corner of the Homeloss to him, “She seems to be in Sherry's room, quite agitated.”

“Do you need to check on her or call her here?”

“No need,” Duncan shook his head, “Anyone assigned to watch over Sherry as she does her homework eventually gets worked up, and that can be considered a form of tempering one's willpower…”

The goat's head uttered an “Oh,” unclear whether it really understood the sarcasm in that remark. Meanwhile, Duncan silently sensed the status of the Homeloss in various places, walked over to the desk, sat down, and let out a soft breath, “It's about time to let Sherry and Nina get some fresh air ashore. Luckrecia is about to return to Light Breeze Harbor; she can give them a ride.”

The goat's head quietly observed the captain's movements and expression and finally couldn't help but speak, “You seem to be in a good mood?”

“Perhaps because I've figured some things out–or maybe because I've put them aside for now.” Duncan raised his eyebrows, the cheerful image of Alice inevitably coming to mind, which brought a smile to his own lips. He then shook his head, reached into his chest, and pulled out the “sketch” he had received from Luckrecia.

Feeling cleansed of the irritations that had vexed his mind, it was also time to study what exactly Master Taran El had sketched in the manuscript left behind after observing Anomaly 001.

“What is this?” Seeing Duncan's actions, the goat head immediately turned its head curiously, its obsidian black eyes seemingly shimmering with a faint light.

“This is a sketch drawn by Taran El after observing the surface of Anomaly 001,” Duncan said casually as he unfolded the paper and held it in front of the oil lamp to reflect the light, “It might reveal the true appearance of the 'sun's surface, but Taran El erased the most crucial details himself.”

The goat head paused, letting out an unintelligible sigh of wonder: “…Oh.”

“I thought you would immediately remind me of the dangers of such an action, just like you used to,” said Duncan, a bit taken aback by the goat head's reaction as he glanced at it, “why the silence this time?”

“In the past, I was concerned for your safety, but now I only worry for those who foolishly oppose you,” the goat head immediately complimented, skillfully constructing sentences, “A mere sketch cannot threaten the great Captain Duncan, not even if that sketch were to depict the true face of an ancient god–it's only so-so. And after all, the one who drew it is merely a mortal. What truth could someone named Taran El possibly uncover?”

Duncan ignored the goat head's flattery, which was clearly intended as a compliment, and concentrated instead on studying the patterns on the sketch paper. However, after looking it over and over for a long time, he still couldn't decipher anything from the messy smudges.

He even felt… those seemingly random lines were like a “seal” with power, not just a layer of ink veiling the image on the paper, but obscuring it from a concept in mysticism.

Thoughts ebbing and flowing, Duncan suddenly had an idea.

A layer of “seal” with “power”?

He bent down again, scrutinizing the crisscrossing lines and wide swaths of smudges on the sketch paper.

Master Taran El was a seasoned and experienced scholar, as well as a devout believer of God of Wisdom Rahm. Despite health problems due to poor routines, his understanding of mysticism was certainly profound.

Such a serious scholar, upon observing Anomaly 001 and possibly realizing some extremely dangerous “factors,” would have immediately tried to control that danger with more “professional” methods, even if his sanity had begun to wane…

The ink left on this sketch paper couldn't be mere smudges–so the true appearance hidden behind those “inks” would never be revealed by conventional means.

Was this actually a “secret letter” treated with supernatural powers?

Duncan furrowed his brows slightly, as a vague idea emerged from the depths of his heart. He then turned his head, looking at the oil lamp beside him.

Under his gaze, the flame within the oil lamp suddenly leaped up, and then quickly turned a light shade of green.

The flame of the spiritual body swelled and burned, even rising from the opening on top of the lampshade.

After hesitating slightly, Duncan picked up the sketch paper and held it above the green flame formed by the spiritual body fire.

In just an instant, the roaring green flames engulfed the entire paper!

It indeed harbored some form of disguise crafted by transcendent power.

The goat head on the side exclaimed in shock, “Why did you burn it?!”

“The flames from the spiritual body only destroyed the 'distorted' parts,” Duncan looked unperturbed as he glanced at the goat head who was making a fuss and flicked his wrist to extinguish the flames on the sketch paper. And beneath the flames, the fragile manuscript paper was indeed still intact, “This is its true form.”

With that, Duncan held the “processed” manuscript paper before his eyes, taking a glance at the pattern that had reemerged.

The next second, his expression suddenly froze.

The goat head immediately noticed the change in the captain's expression and turned its neck, both worried and curious, to look this way. However, due to the angle, it could not see the content on the front of the paper. It could only shout, “What's on there? Are you all right? That…”

Finally snapping out of his daze, Duncan's gaze lifted from the paper, and he looked at the goat head with an odd expression, “…It's the ancient god's true face.”

The goat head: “?!”

Duncan didn't speak further but slowly bowed his head to continue scrutinizing the painting on the sketch paper– the sphere locked by the double rune circles, that which was engulfed in dark shadows but covered with fierce blood strands and patterns, as if glaring with wide-open…

Eyes.

The true form of Anomaly 001 was a massive eye, encapsulated within a dark spherical shell.

Chapter end

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