Chapter 1 Those Who Should Have Returned

Nemo felt a touch of unease as the personnel who should have concluded their patrol and returned to base were late.

"Let's go together," Duncan offered proactively, seeing this. He also wanted to stroll through this abandoned and mysterious "Second Waterway" to see if any secrets were hidden within the ancient legacy left by the Frost Queen. "More people mean more backup."

Nemo glanced at the burly "Legendary Captain," who occasionally brought a heavy pressure, with some surprise.

Frankly, he still felt a sense of unreal bewilderment. He had indeed heard about the legendary "Captain Duncan" returning from subspace – after all, the Sea Mist had made a special "long trip" because of it not long ago. But Captain Duncan standing directly in front of him was another level of shock, the kind where if you told your deceased grandfather in the graveyard, the old man would jump out of his coffin and tell you to shut up – yet it had actually happened.

However, after such brief contact, he found that this "Captain Duncan" was not as terrifying as the legends made him out to be.

He was rational, could converse, and was polite to others – and he was followed by several "assistants" who didn't seem to be puppets controlled by some evil magic.

Now, he was even offering to help.

This left Nemo momentarily at a loss, but he quickly nodded – rather than analyzing his boss's father's temperament, the matter of the crows, who were still overdue, could not be delayed.

"I'll come too," Old Gui's voice came over at this moment. The old man came to a nearby storage shelf, rummaged through the pile of miscellaneous "junk," found a safety lamp that could be hung on his chest and a crowbar, and then found a rope from another shelf and hung it on his body before heading towards the door. "No one knows the routes down here better than I do – if that kid really got lost at some crossroads, you'll need the wisdom of an old man."

Obviously, the old man, who was sometimes confused and sometimes clear-headed, was in good shape again at this moment.

Duncan didn't say anything, but signaled Nemo to lead the way, so the group left the administrator's small house, passed through the spacious "intersection" from before, and began searching along a sewer branch extending northward for Nemo's missing subordinate.

And as they passed that intersection and gradually delved into the depths of this "Second Waterway," Duncan increasingly realized just how massive this project was – and to what extent the city-state under the Frost Queen's rule had been powerful fifty years ago.

Everywhere he looked, the walls were solid, and the corridors were towering. The so-called "sewer" was almost like a magnificent underground palace. The crisscrossing connection structure was obviously not just for drainage, but also potentially for military, refuge, and even underground factory construction. Above those wide corridors, one could see crisscrossing pipeline facilities. Although many of them were severely corroded or even broken and detached due to long-term abandonment, it was still possible to imagine how spectacular their scale was when they were first built.

On both sides of the corridors, one could occasionally see the openings of huge pipes and the already rusty grilles. The drainage channels on both sides of the ground had long been dry – since the entire underground waterway had only been used for a short time, and it had been abandoned for many years, there was not much unbearable odor in it besides some stale mildew.

Walking in such an incredible underground facility, even the knowledgeable Morris couldn't help but sigh in admiration, but amid his praise, the old scholar suddenly had some doubts.

"Even considering the city-state's development a century from now… isn't building such a massive underground facility a bit of an exaggeration?" He couldn't help but say, "Pland's sewer system is already considered advanced, but it pales in comparison to this – moreover, this was built fifty years ago. Did Frost really need such a massive 'Second Waterway' back then?"

"The Queen had her own considerations, and her judgment was always correct," Old Gui, who was walking in front, heard Morris's question and immediately said, "Her Majesty is a natural psychic. She can always see things that ordinary people can't, even the future of the city-state – she relied on this judgment to make Frost strong, and we believe that these things she planned will always come in handy."

Duncan frowned suddenly. "A natural psychic?" He looked at the old man carrying the rope and crowbar. "Are you saying that the Frost Queen could predict the future to some extent?"

"She said she couldn't, but we all believed she could – otherwise, how do you explain the incredible judgments she made?" The old man turned his head, saying with an air of certainty, "Anyway, it's certain that the Queen had supernatural senses. Everyone back then knew that."

Duncan looked at Morris, who was beside him. The latter now had a thoughtful expression on his face and said in a low voice, "There are not many historical records about the Frost Queen because most of the information was lost or deliberately hidden and tampered with during that rebellion. But as far as I know, there is no record of the 'Queen being a natural psychic' or the 'Queen possessing the ability to predict the future.' The records only say that she was extremely intelligent and possessed flexible political skills."

Duncan listened, silently glancing at Alice, who was obediently following beside him.

Not intelligent at all, and she had no idea what political skills were – she hadn't even learned to spell the word yet.

Alice noticed the Captain's gaze and immediately turned her head, her eyes curving into smiles.

"...Records also have omissions, especially since the rebels would definitely deliberately hide many things. I am willing to believe that the Frost Queen of that year did possess certain special qualities," Duncan retracted his gaze, casually saying while erasing Alice's silly smile from his mind. "It's just this massive 'Second Waterway'… what exactly was her purpose in building such an incredible thing back then…"

No one could answer Duncan's question, and just then, Vanna suddenly noticed something unusual in the distance.

"Someone is lying on the ground over there!" she reminded, pointing into the distance.

Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, they saw a figure in a blue coat lying on the ground.

The group ran over quickly. Nemo reached out and turned the person lying on the ground over, and a pale face came into view.

"...It's Crow," the expression on Nemo's face was exceptionally ugly for a moment, and then he punched the ground next to him. "Damn it!"

Vanna then crouched down beside the deceased young man. She seemed to have found something wrong with the body, and after some inspection, she suddenly frowned. "Was he… drowned?"

"...Drowned?" Morris next to him was startled when he heard this, and then he noticed the corpse's wet coat and the abnormal swelling and waterlogging of the skin. But he looked around and only saw dry ground nearby – the only water stains were under "Crow's" body.

Vanna leaned closer again, carefully inspected for a moment, and then raised her head. "The scent of seawater – he was drowned in the sea."

"There's no seawater here, even the nearby underground river is freshwater," Old Gui came up from behind at this time. After seeing the already deceased Crow, the already crisscrossed wrinkles on his face became even more twisted together. "Poor young man, he must have been caught by the rebels, drowned, and then dumped here…"

"Whether it was rebels or not is not certain, but dumping the body is possible," Morris said with a serious expression. "This is obviously not the scene of the crime… hmm?"

He seemed to have suddenly discovered something, so he reached out and rummaged through "Crow's" coat pocket, and a piece of paper that was also completely soaked in water was pulled out by him – a small corner of this paper had been exposed earlier, attracting his attention.

Everyone's attention instantly focused on that piece of paper.

Morris pinched the piece of paper, which was particularly fragile due to being soaked in water, and carefully unfolded it.

There were words on the paper – although they were blurry from being soaked in water, they had not completely dissipated.

With the extra lighting from the oil lamp brought by Old Gui, Duncan identified the information on the paper, but the content above made people confused. It was several paragraphs of disjointed words—

"...The meetings of the forgotten kings opened again and again, and the initial plan was set. Most of those in the ashes received protection and were to stand up in light and heat…"

"...But the kings had another dispute. They saw a clan hiding in the shadows…"

"Those who were abandoned, their flesh and blood would melt in the light. They could not receive blessings from the new world. The king of this clan came to the meeting of the forgotten kings, demanding that they also be given equal protection, but what they wanted was extremely harmful to the others in the ashes. The forgotten kings could not agree to them, so they were abandoned."

"They went into the shadows, imprisoning themselves in dark places, but they could not completely die. They cried out, desperately seeking the protection of their homeland, but they could not get what they sought, so they fled further into the darkness – they did not like the darkness, but only darkness could spare them from the poison of this world, so they lived in the darkness for a long, long time…"