Chapter 1 The Use of Heretics

The heretics and deformed freaks who had been executed in the spirit world were now turning into remnants and embers in the real dimension. The severe pollution of the sewage treatment center had been temporarily purified, but for the shadow shrouded over the entire city-state, this was probably just lifting a corner of the curtain.

The black-clothed guards returned to the gatekeeper. Agatha briefly counted and confirmed the status of her subordinates, and then her eyes fell on the slightly balding manager not far away.

"Has his situation been confirmed?"

"It has been confirmed that he is indeed a normal human," a black-clothed guard said in a low voice, "but he is severely frightened, and the possibility of mental contamination cannot be ruled out—he needs a period of psychological counseling and observation."

"Leave it to the local church to handle," Agatha nodded lightly. "Also, notify them that the situation in this sewage treatment center is very bad. The entire facility will need a thorough purification and inspection afterward, and it will be restarted after all hidden dangers have been eliminated."

"Yes, Gatekeeper," the subordinate nodded in response, then looked up at Agatha with some concern. "Did you... run into trouble?"

Agatha frowned. "Huh? Why do you ask?"

"You... lingered on 'the other side' for longer than usual," the subordinate explained. "Did you find any clues under the spirit world vision?"

Agatha was still frowning slightly, with a pensive expression on her face. For some reason, she always felt that she had overlooked something, but when she thought about it carefully, she didn't find any suspicious points—was it a sequela of staying in the spirit world for a long time?

She shook her head and reached into her coat pocket to take out her usual eye drops, but after a moment, she hesitated and put them away again.

Her eyeballs didn't feel uncomfortable, as if she had already used the eye drops before returning to reality.

"Nothing happened," she said to her subordinate. "It's just that the appearance of those heretics was strange, and it took a little more time to 'interrogate' them."

It was a pity that nothing was interrogated—those heretics were too stubborn and fanatical, and even simple death could not shake their die-hard hearts.

But... what exactly had she overlooked? Agatha's heart once again filled with faint doubts, but in front of her subordinate, she didn't show anything.

"Are we going back to the cathedral next?"

A black-clothed guard asked from the side.

"Return to the cathedral," Agatha nodded. "We must immediately organize manpower to start searching all underground facilities in the city. The situation may be more serious than we thought."

As dusk approached, the edge of the sun was gradually approaching the sea level. The magnificent double rune rings emanated a magnificent glow near the sea surface, and the distant city-state buildings were gradually stained by the sunset. The entire city presented a texture as if it were gradually melting into the sunset glow.

Duncan stood in front of the narrow window at the end of the second-floor corridor. His burly figure almost blocked all the light shining in from outside the window. In the gaps between the intertwined bandages, he quietly watched the afterglow of the distant sunset, seemingly lost in thought.

Sneaky footsteps came from the side. Without turning his head, Duncan already knew who was coming.

"Did you finish your homework?" he asked casually.

Shirley, who had just opened the door and was about to sneak downstairs to the kitchen to find snacks, stopped suddenly. From the shadows beside her, Ah Gou's trembling head popped out. The latter lowered his voice and grumbled, "I knew we'd get caught..."

"I... I finished my mental arithmetic flashcards," Shirley ignored Ah Gou's hindsight and just shrank her head, looking carefully at Duncan, who was as majestic as an iron tower by the window. "There's still a list of new words left, but I'm hungry..."

Duncan heard a sense of tension and grievance in the girl's tone, which made him turn his head to look at Shirley with a bit of amusement: "Did I say you can't eat if you don't finish your homework?"

Shirley shrank her neck and didn't dare to answer.

Duncan sighed, turned around with a smile, and pressed down on Shirley's head.

"You really don't like studying?" he said helplessly. "You look like you've been bullied."

"I... I get sleepy as soon as I read a book..." Shirley said nervously. She was still a little uncomfortable talking to Duncan in his current body. The bandages and gloomy black clothes looked even more frightening to her than the captain on the Vanishing Sea. "I... I'm going back to my room to do my homework!"

Duncan gently pressed on Shirley's shoulder, instantly interrupting her action of turning around and going back to her room.

"Rest for a while if you're tired," Duncan shook his head. "Don't study out of fear."

Shirley looked at Duncan in disbelief, but then nodded quickly, as if afraid that the captain would change his mind. After a few more seconds, she looked at Duncan cautiously and couldn't help asking, "Why do you insist on me learning to read... I... I don't need to go to college like Nina, and I can't be a scholar like Mr. Morris..."

It was the first time Duncan had heard this question from Shirley, but it was clear that the question had been lingering in her mind for an unknown amount of time—this orphan girl, who had never gone to school and had only relied on a darkhound for a living, obviously couldn't understand the captain's intentions.

"Because knowledge is useful," Duncan was silent for a while before looking at Shirley very seriously and saying, "Those knowledges that you resist and make your head hurt support the operation of the entire civilized world—looking at the cars driving on the streets outside, the roaring machines in the factories, and the boundless sea outside the city-state, haven't you been curious about how those things work? Haven't you been curious about what the distant city-states look like?"

Shirley thought for a while. She seemed to know what the "correct answer" was, but in the end, she still shook her head hesitantly: "No, I... I always thought it was enough to fill my stomach, I didn't think so much."

"But you don't just need to fill your stomach now, Shirley," Duncan bent down and looked seriously into the other person's eyes. "Maybe you don't understand now, but I want your life to be more complete—you've missed a lot of things, but since you're now a member of the Vanishing Sea, those missed things will definitely be made up for."

Shirley looked at Duncan blankly. She was still a little unclear about what the captain was saying, but from the other person's serious tone, she seemed to vaguely perceive some... warmth.

This kind of warmth was vaguely familiar.

So she nodded half-understandingly, making a somewhat drawn-out sound: "Oh..."

"Very good," Duncan smiled and slowly straightened up. "Since you understand, go downstairs to eat something later and continue doing your homework, I..."

He stopped suddenly.

Shirley was shrinking her neck and waiting for the next lecture, and then raised her head with some regret: "Ah? What's wrong?"

Duncan didn't answer her, just waved his hand gently, while his eyes were already cast in the distance, seemingly looking at the opposite side of the corridor, but in the depths of his eyes, it seemed as if a ray of light and shadow from a very distant place was reflected.

He blinked his eyes, one eye reflecting the corridor and roof of this house, and the other eye seemed to see a ship burning with faint green flames, wandering in the mist and shadows.

On the Frosty Outer Sea, in the captain's room of the Vanishing Sea, which was slowly cruising on the vast sea, Duncan suddenly raised his head from the nautical chart table.

His sudden action immediately caused a reaction from the goat head on the edge of the table. The latter creaked and turned its neck: "Ah, Captain, what are your orders? Are you ready for dinner? Although there is no manpower available on board now, I am still willing to provide you with dining services to the best of my ability. What would you like to eat? We can start with Southern cuisine, fried meat rolls, fried pork chops, fried fish cakes, fried meatballs, roasted bird eggs, steamed bird eggs, boiled bird eggs, braised bird eggs, pickled bird eggs, smoked bird eggs..."

"Shut up, I didn't look up to listen to you reciting the menu," Duncan glared at the noisy goat head, but his expression was tinged with solemnity. He raised his head and looked out the window of the captain's room—it was the Frosty...

He looked thoughtfully in the direction of the city-state and opened his mouth, "White Oak?"

"White Oak?" The goat head was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "Ah, you're talking about that steamship, the one Alice was on before? Why did you suddenly think of it? Do you want to retrieve that trophy? I can provide you with a complete set of reorganization plans. Do you plan to replace the sailors on board? That captain should be able to stay..."

"It's nearby," Duncan didn't pay any attention to what the goat head was babbling about. He just slowly stood up from behind the table, frowning slightly as he spoke, carefully sensing the weak but real connection. "Near... Frosty?"

"White Oak is near Frosty?" The goat head finally stopped chattering, its tone tinged with astonishment. "Impossible... Frosty is locked down now, isn't it? And Tyrian's fleet is still blocking the route, he couldn't not report it to you if a foreign ship approached, right?"

"...Something's not right, I can indeed feel the presence of the White Oak," Duncan said thoughtfully. "But its position... is blurry, and it seems to be constantly changing..."

He narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of Frosty City-State, trying to determine where exactly that aura, which had suddenly become strong in his perception, was located.

The aura of the White Oak appeared suddenly and became strong in a short period of time, as if a ball of fire suddenly lit up in the darkness, attracting his attention. This feeling... had never appeared before.

And whether it was an illusion or not, Duncan also felt that the aura of the ship had fluctuated greatly several times, like... a flickering light.

In thought, he lowered his head and looked at the goat head wood carving on the table: "Do you know what's going on?"

The goat head thought for a moment and shook...

shook its head: "How about I recite a menu for you..."

"Useless at critical moments." Duncan twitched the corner of his mouth, got up and walked around the nautical chart table, and strode out of the captain's room.