Chapter 1 A Mysterious Sphere

A bizarre word, one never heard before, entered his ears. Its mysterious, stilted pronunciation didn’t even resemble any language Tirian knew!

Dumbfounded, he glanced down at the information in his hands, studying the exquisite sketch of the stone sphere on the page for a long moment before looking up. “Father? What did you say just now? Moon… is that what it’s called? You recognize this mysterious sphere?”

But Duncan, as if not hearing him, continued to stare intently at the image on the paper, the image of the moon that was so familiar to him, until Tirian asked him twice.

Only then did he seem to snap awake, looking at Tirian and quickly asking, “What exactly did you say about Lucretia?”

“Uh… this is the information she sent from the Radiant Star,” Tirian said hesitantly.

His father’s strange reaction made him uneasy, but under that intensely pressuring gaze, he told him everything he knew.

Some time ago, a mysterious luminous object fell from the border region, and Lucy happened to discover it. She’s been studying it lately, and this strange sphere is the core of that fallen object. Tirian recounted the entire story, including the Harbor of Light’s scholars’ judgment that the object came from Anomaly 001, all their research progress on the stone sphere, and all the difficulties they’d encountered!

Throughout his narration, Duncan didn’t interrupt once. He simply listened in an unusually solemn silence that made Tirian feel pressured, as if he wanted to engrave every word deeply in his mind, dissecting and scrutinizing each syllable a thousand times over!

After more than ten minutes, silence returned to the domed office.

Duncan was silent for a long time, finally exhaling softly before the air completely solidified.

“Why didn’t you mention this to me before?”

“Lucy wanted to contact you after the research had made some progress, and more importantly… it was during the Frost Crisis!”

After a while, Duncan felt his pounding heart slowly calm down. Listening to Tirian’s words, he finally nodded slightly. “This thing is currently in the Harbor of Light, is that right?”

“Uh… yes,” Tirian quickly nodded, feeling his lips slightly dry as he nervously watched his father’s expression change. After hesitating several times, he couldn’t help but ask again, “Do you recognize this mysterious sphere?”

“It’s called the moon—at least, it looks like the moon. But the moon I know isn’t ten meters in diameter, and it certainly doesn’t float on the sea, pulled back to the city-state by a ship with steel cables,” Duncan said slowly.

“Perhaps it’s just some man-made object imitating its appearance, or perhaps it’s the ancient Kingdom of Crete…”

He stopped halfway through his sentence. The immense contradiction and the conflicting, chaotic thoughts in his mind made it impossible for him to explain this with a simple guess. Regardless, one thing was certain.

The image on the document in Tirian’s hand was indeed the moon, and whether the stone sphere Lucretia found at sea “was the real” moon, or an artificial flying object manufactured by the Kingdom of Crete to imitate the moon…

One question remained: Why would the image of the moon that he knew so well appear here? Why would it appear in this strange and distorted otherworld?

Lost in thought, he frowned at Tirian. “You said just now that the scholars at the Harbor of Light have confirmed that the mysterious luminous object fell from the rune ring of Anomaly 001?”

“Yes!”

“They’ve confirmed the shape of the gap in the solar rune ring,” Tirian said.

Then, another question popped up. “You said it’s called the moon… then what exactly is the moon?”

Duncan hesitated for a moment, suddenly realizing that he didn’t have suitable words to explain such a simple name to Tirian.

After thinking for a long time, he could only blurt out, “It’s a planet!”

Upon hearing this, the confusion on Tirian’s face only deepened. “What is a planet?”

Duncan fell silent!

After a long time, he heard Tirian’s voice again. “Is this a forbidden question? Am I asking too much?”

“No, this isn’t a taboo—it… it should be the simplest question, but I can’t explain it to you,” Duncan gently shook his head, looking at the mirror with a complex expression. “I’m sorry, Tirian. The answer to this question is very simple, but making you understand it is the greatest difficulty!”

Tirian was somewhat stunned!

Looking at his father’s complex and apologetic expression in the mirror, he vaguely felt that… this scene seemed to have happened a long, long time ago, in the depths of his distant, hazy memory, on a faded afternoon…

That day, he and Lucretia stood on the deck of the Forsaken one last time, asking his father, who was determined to cross the border, what was beyond the border!

At that time, his father’s reaction was exactly the same as it was now. It was the look of someone who knew a very simple truth but didn’t know how to explain it to others!

Just then, Duncan’s voice came from the mirror, interrupting Tirian’s sinking memories. “I’ve changed my plans. Next, the Forsaken will head to the Harbor of Light!”

As expected.

When his father showed such a reaction to the sphere called the moon, Tirian knew things would develop this way!

“I understand. I’ll explain the situation to Lucy.”

Nina looked worriedly at Duncan, who was standing on the edge of the deck in the distance, gazing out at the sea. Alice passed by her, and she stopped her.

“What’s wrong with Uncle Duncan?”

Nina lowered her voice. “He’s been looking at the distance since just now, and he seems to have a lot on his mind…”

“I don’t know,” Alice looked up and shook her head blankly.

“The captain’s been like this since he came out of the captain’s cabin. He said he needed to think about some things.”

“Think about some things?”

Nina blinked in confusion.

“Did something happen?” Alice thought carefully for a moment and nodded. “He contacted Tirian, but I don’t know what they said!”

“Mr. Tirian?” Nina was stunned, and then she began to unleash her vivid imagination, her expression gradually turning strange. “Is it because Mr. Tirian isn’t getting married either?”

Alice looked blank. “Huh? What does that mean?”

Nina thought for a moment and began to analyze seriously. “I heard Mr. Morris say that he’s always worried about Heidi’s marriage, and Mr. Tirian is even older than Miss Heidi, so the captain must be even more worried about him.”

Alice was completely bewildered, nodding confusedly!

Just as she finished speaking, Duncan’s voice suddenly came from beside them. “That’s enough, you two. Nina, you can’t tease Alice like that. She’ll take it seriously.”

Nina was immediately startled, only then noticing that Uncle Duncan had come to her side at some point. Alice scratched her head in confusion, looking at Nina suspiciously. “You were teasing me just now?”

“In any case, don’t take what she just said seriously,” Duncan said helplessly, then his gaze fell on Nina. “Don’t worry, nothing happened!”

Nina stuck out her tongue, but then still looked a little worried.

“Uncle Duncan, what exactly happened? You rarely look so worried…”

For a moment, Duncan didn’t know how to answer the girl’s question. The picture he had seen earlier in Tirian’s office still floated in his mind.

And the strange sphere that Lucretia had “picked up” at sea. He raised his hand and pinched his throbbing temples, but the next second, his movements suddenly stopped, and instead, he stared fixedly at the girl in front of him. Nina stood there obediently, with a slightly worried expression on her face!

Duncan looked at her, at this still, gentle, and obedient little You’er, beneath the shell of a human girl.

He seemed to be able to directly see the brilliant light left behind after the star shattered, to see the dazzling plasma torrents that once surged in space… Little You’er tilted her head and reached out her hand, stroking Duncan’s furrowed brow, as if wanting to smooth out those deep lines.

“Uncle Duncan, are you really okay?”

Duncan didn’t speak, simply gently taking Nina’s hand and placing it on his forehead, then slowly exhaling. He understood something again. Behind the thick veil, the world had once again revealed a corner of its truth to him, but this corner of truth was something he could not share with anyone!

“Don’t worry, Nina. Everything’s fine.”

He said slowly, gradually regaining his usual calm demeanor. “I’ve encountered some problems, but it’s hard to explain to you right now. Once I solve the problems, I’ll tell you everything properly!”

Nina listened earnestly, then nodded vigorously. “Okay!”

“Good, then let’s go back to the cabin first. We should set off. But before we leave, we need to make a detour to the Sea Mist Fleet’s base. We need to help Tirian deliver something…”

In the Frost City-State, inside the Consul’s domed office, accompanied by a slight hum, the crystal ball gradually lit up, the figure of the “Sea Witch” emerging in the faint light.

“Brother?” Lucretia looked at him curiously. “Are you done with everything over there? Did it go smoothly?”

“If you’re talking about the inauguration ceremony, it ended this morning. Everything went smoothly,”

Tirian said, his expression gradually becoming complicated. “But I’m calling you about something else!”

Lucretia frowned. “Something else?”

“Two things,” Tirian hesitated, opening his mouth cautiously. “First, the spirit world lens you wanted is ready. I got you the best quality, highest precision lens device currently available through the city-state’s legal channels!”

In the crystal ball, Lucretia’s face instantly lit up with happiness. “Ah, that’s great. You’re quite reliable. What about the second thing?”

“The second thing… guess who’s going to deliver the lens to you?”

“Is it one of your transport ships?” Tirian didn’t say a word. Lucretia’s expression finally gradually changed. “It’s one of your transport ships, isn’t it?”

Tirian still didn’t say a word!

Lucretia understood. “It’s Dad.”

“Yes.”