Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 697

Chapter 697: Chapter 694 The Urging Bell Chapter 697: Chapter 694 The Urging Bell “Captain! You have to believe me! You know my style–I wouldn't dare steal booze from your collection, let alone enter your room. My calves start cramping just approaching your door… I genuinely have no idea how this thing ended up in my hands!”

Aberration 077 was bellowing with his gravelly voice at Lawrence, causing such a ruckus that half the deck could hear. The sailors passing by all glanced sideways, curiously watching the ship's most unique “member” causing yet another commotion.

The silver-haired Lawrence, on the other hand, frowned deeply. He ignored the wailing and flailing of the mummy in front of him, instead thoughtfully gazing at the two bottles of beer on the deck alongside him.

He certainly believed what the sailor said–despite the mummy's generally unreliable behavior, he was especially reliable when it came to the “cramps at the sight of the captain” part.

This “aberration,” who feared Spiritual Fire as much as a natural predator, would never voluntarily sneak into the captain's quarters to steal anything. Even if those two bottles of beer were sitting on a table, he wouldn't touch them.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Lawrence suddenly looked up, “…Did Mr. Ted Riel just leave? Was he with you the whole time before he left?”

The sailor was taken aback by the sudden shift in topic but quickly nodded, “Yes, he just left. He was chatting with me before he went.”

Lawrence stared into Aberration 077's eyes, “What were you talking about?”

“…Poetry and songs?” Aberration 077 blurted out, then hastily waved his hands, “Of course, that's impossible… It was something about worldview, I think? I don't quite remember, we talked about a lot. I felt that Mr. Confidant seemed very preoccupied, discussing many things with me about the world, the future, life and such…”

He hesitated and trailed off, then muttered with some uncertainty, “I think I offered him a drink, but he didn't take it… Strange, did I even offer…”

Lawrence's brows furrowed slightly as he observed the mummy's demeanor and actions. After letting the other mumble for a while, he asked again, “Do you remember how you responded? Do you remember what you said?”

The sailor stopped his mumbling instantly. After a short phase of reflective expression crossing his face, he began to look puzzled and uneasy.

“I… can't seem to remember? I must have told him a lot, but I only recall a few sentences… Most of the time, it's like I was just spouting nonsense…” Aberration 077 muttered, looking uneasily at the captain, “Wait, I remember now… I didn't intend to speak, but at the time, it felt like there was a voice speaking along with me, prompting me to talk… This feels a bit off, doesn't it, captain?”

“It is off… Certainly off,” Lawrence murmured, and as he spoke, a faint greenish flame quietly appeared beside him, spreading across the deck. Simultaneously, a large shadow silently emerged on the sea surface next to the White Oak–Black Oak appeared next to the White Oak like a reflection rising from the sea, with its shadowy ship's silhouette flickering and undulating.

Aberration 077 jumped at this sudden disturbance, hopping away from the spreading Spiritual Fire on the deck while exclaiming, “Hey captain, what are you doing…”

“There's an unwelcome visitor aboard–though they may have already left,” Lawrence said in passing, looking at Aberration 077, “Martha told me, she saw a figure in the reflection of White Oak who doesn't belong to any of us, someone who stood by your side for a while.”

The sailor froze for a second, his expression gradually turning to horror, “…Damn it!”

“Your judgment was correct, there was indeed an unwelcome visitor on White Oak at the time–near Aberration 077,” Duncan nodded at Ted Riel, “You think you 'heard' two voices, one of them must have come from that 'unwelcome visitor'.”

Ted Riel noticed a change in Duncan's expression and ventured with some speculation, “…Did White Oak send a message? Did the old captain catch the person?”

“No, they didn't catch them,” Duncan shook his head, “The person was very alert and had already left the ship by the time Lawrence and Martha noticed them.”

“Left?” Ted Riel said, slightly puzzled, “Where could they run to in the vast sea…”

He stopped abruptly, evidently as a “Truth Confidant,” he had matched the most likely answer from his own experiences.

Duncan gave a slight nod upon noticing the change in expression, “Do you still remember the content of your conversation with that 'sailor'?”

“Remember.” Ted Riel immediately replied, and after quickly recalling the event, he recounted the conversation he had had with the “sailor” to Duncan without omitting a single detail.

Listening to the narrative, Duncan's expression gradually turned serious and, in the end, he nodded, “Indeed… Such things could not have been willingly spoken by that sailor.”

Ted Riel was somewhat puzzled, “How can you be so sure?”

“He's not that educated.”

Ted Riel: “…”

“It seems that we can probably ascertain the identity of our uninvited guest,” Duncan sighed, “This theory sounds somewhat close to the Doomsday Preacher's doomsday rhetoric, but it's more like a relatively moderate, logical version. The one you talked to must have been a rational Doomsday Preacher–he was hiding on the White Oak and spoke to you through the sailor's mouth.”

He paused, then added, “According to the reports from Lawrence, this process resembles a sort of 'overwriting' and 'guidance' of thought–the sailor remembers talking to you but can't recall the specifics of the conversation. He also did some things that do not match his usual demeanor, which must also be a result of the influence.”

Ted Riel furrowed his brows, a trace of subtlety on his face, “…I've never heard of Doomsday Preachers having such abilities or modes of operation…”

“That's quite normal, until recently we didn't even believe that a rational Doomsday Preacher could exist in this world,” Duncan shrugged, “These 'Subspace enthusiasts' located in the cracks of time have always been the most mysterious. Sometimes they act like monsters twisted by Subspace, and other times they appear as polite scholars. They live in a non-linear timeline, so strictly speaking… maybe no one in the entire world has ever truly encountered a 'complete' Doomsday Preacher. All we know about them is what they have shown in a specific 'slice of time'.”

“…It's an interesting theory,” Ted Riel raised an eyebrow, then his expression became serious, “A Doomsday Preacher managed to appear right under my nose and left without a trace, even escaping the vigilance of that old captain of yours… It seems their strangeness is indeed beyond imagination. But that 'uninvited guest' did all that just to relay some mysterious doomsday theories to me through the sailor… What do you make of it?”

Duncan didn't speak immediately. He fell silent, pondering the words which Ted Riel had heard from the “sailor.” After a long time, he suddenly looked up, “What do you think, Ted? Do you think that patching up this world is meaningful?”

“It's not about whether it has meaning or not, but that there's no other choice,” Ted Riel shook his head slightly, “The world is like a great ship sailing on the sea. Perhaps, as the Doomsday Preacher said, the ship is leaking, sinking, and it's beyond salvation. But what else can those of us living on the ship do? All we can do is mend it–surely it's better than sitting and waiting for death, isn't it?”

Duncan neither agreed nor disagreed, simply lost in thought for a long time, with no one knowing what he was pondering.

It was at this moment that a muted, ethereal ring of bells suddenly reached Ted Riel's ears and interrupted his conversation with Duncan.

The Truth Confidant was momentarily startled, and upon discerning the frequency and intervals of the bell, he slowly furrowed his brows in confusion, “Summoning bells…?”

“Summoning bells?” Duncan's voice came from beside him, “Is that the sudden chiming you're talking about?”

“Yes, it is the bell to summon the saints to…” Ted Riel began to say but suddenly stopped midway, turned to Duncan with a shocked expression, “Wait, you heard the bells just now too?!”

“Yeah, I did. What about it?” Duncan looked confused, “Shouldn't I have heard them? They were quite obvious…”

“Of course you shouldn't have!” Ted Riel almost leaped from his chair, “That's the summoning bell coming from the Tomb of the Nameless King. Many years ago, the Four Gods Church built enclosures and directional measures for these bells; theoretically, only the saints of the Four Gods should be able to hear them…”

“The Tomb of the Nameless King?” Duncan gradually grasped the concept, “Ah, I've heard Fenna mention this before. So this is the 'Summoning bells' she referred to…”

Saying this, he stood up and looked around, then casually said, “The bells are ringing again–it seems like they're urging the saints to assemble. Aren't you supposed to participate in the assembly?”

“In theory, yes…” Ted Riel spoke, his voice trailing off in hesitation, “But it shouldn't be… It's still the Deep Sea Church's rotation period, I shouldn't even be hearing the bells…”

He looked up, locking eyes with Duncan.

Once again, the ringing of bells resounded, with a solemn breath, with an urging scent, as if… ready to make a solemn declaration to the world.

Chapter end

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