Chapter 695 A Urging Toll

"Captain! You must believe me! You know my style—I wouldn't dare steal wine from your collection! Just walking past your door makes my knees weak... I swear, I have no idea how that thing ended up in my hands!"

Abnormal 077 was screeching at Laurence with his raspy voice, loud enough for half the deck to hear. Sailors passing by couldn't help but glance over, curious about what trouble the most peculiar "member" of the White Oak had gotten into this time.

The gray-haired Laurence frowned, ignoring the wailing banshee before him, and instead thoughtfully examined the two bottles of beer placed on the deck beside him.

Of course, he believed the sailor's words. Despite the many unreliable antics of the dried-up corpse, he was always consistent in his fear of the captain.

The "abnormal," who feared spirit fire as if it were his natural enemy, wouldn't willingly venture into the captain's cabin to steal anything, even if the two bottles of beer were sitting right on the table.

After a moment's thought, Laurence suddenly looked up. "...Ted Riel was the one who left just now? He was with you the whole time before he left?"

The sailor paused, surprised by the captain's sudden change of topic, but quickly nodded. "Yes, he just left. He was chatting with me until he left."

Laurence stared into Abnormal 077's eyes. "What were you talking about?"

"...Poetry and songs?" Abnormal 077 blurted out, then quickly waved his hands before the old captain could react. "Of course not... It was something about worldviews? I don't quite remember. We seemed to talk about a lot of things. I just felt like that Keeper of Secrets was very troubled. He talked to me a lot about the world, the future, life, and stuff..."

He hesitated, then muttered uncertainly, "I think I even offered him a drink, but he didn't want it... Strange, did I even offer?"

Laurence frowned slightly, carefully observing the dried corpse's expression and actions. After the other man mumbled for a while, he asked, "Do you remember what you said in response? Do you remember what you said?"

The sailor stopped mumbling instantly. After a moment of recollection, his expression turned puzzled and uneasy.

"I... I don't seem to remember? I should have told him a lot of things, but I can only recall a few sentences... Most of the time, I feel like I was just rambling..." Abnormal 077 muttered, looking at the captain with some anxiety. "Wait, I remember now... I didn't want to speak, but it felt like there was another voice speaking with me, guiding my words... Something feels off, Captain?"

"It is off... Of course, it's off," Laurence said softly. As he spoke, a faint, spectral green flame quietly appeared around him, spreading across the deck. At the same time, a massive shadow silently emerged from the sea beside the White Oak—the Black Oak appeared beside the White Oak like a reflection rising from the ocean, its shadowy silhouette flickering with lights amidst swirling darkness.

Abnormal 077 was startled by the sudden movement and quickly hopped away from the spreading spirit fire, yelling, "Hey, Captain, what are you doing..."

"We have an uninvited guest on board—though he may have already left," Laurence said, glancing at Abnormal 077. "Martha told me she saw a figure in the White Oak's reflection who didn't belong to us. That figure was standing beside you for a while."

The sailor froze, his expression gradually turning horrified. "...Holy crap!"

...

"Your assessment was correct. There was indeed an uninvited guest on the White Oak at the time—he was near Abnormal 077," Duncan nodded to Ted Riel. "You felt like you 'heard' two voices. One of them should have belonged to that 'uninvited guest'."

Ted Riel noticed the change in Duncan's expression and guessed, "...Did the White Oak send a message? Did the old captain catch someone?"

"Didn't catch anyone," Duncan shook his head. "The other party was very alert and left the ship when Laurence and Martha noticed something was wrong."

"Left?" Ted Riel looked puzzled. "How could they run on the open sea..."

He stopped suddenly, realizing that as a "Keeper of Truth," he could match the most likely answer from his experience.

Duncan nodded slightly after noticing the change in his expression. "Do you remember what you discussed with that 'sailor'?"

"I remember," Ted Riel said immediately. He quickly recalled everything he and the "sailor" had discussed and told Duncan every detail.

As he listened, Duncan's expression gradually became serious, and he finally nodded. "Indeed... That's not something that sailor would say on his own."

Ted Riel was puzzled. "How are you so sure?"

"He's not that well-educated."

Ted Riel: "..."

"Looks like we can probably confirm the identity of the uninvited guest," Duncan sighed softly. "This theory sounds somewhat similar to the doomsday rhetoric of the Eschaton Preachers, but it's more like a relatively mild and logical version. The one who spoke to you should have been a rational Eschaton Preacher—he was hidden on the White Oak and spoke to you through the 'sailor'."

He paused, then added, "According to Laurence's report, this process is similar to a kind of mind 'overwrite' and 'guidance'—the sailor remembers talking to you, but he can't recall the specific content, and he also behaved in ways that don't match his usual personality. This should also be a result of the influence."

Ted Riel frowned, his expression somewhat subtle. "...I've never heard of Eschaton Preachers having this kind of ability or acting in this way..."

"It's normal. Not long ago, we didn't even believe that rational Eschaton Preachers existed," Duncan shrugged. "These 'subspace worshippers' located in the cracks of time have always been the most mysterious. Sometimes they act like monsters twisted by subspace, and sometimes they look like polite scholars. They live in a non-linear flow of time, so strictly speaking... perhaps no one in the world has ever truly encountered a 'complete' Eschaton Preacher. All our current understanding of them is just a temporary state they exhibit in a specific 'time slice'."

"...A very interesting theory," Ted Riel raised his eyebrows, then composed himself, his tone becoming serious. "An Eschaton Preacher was able to appear unnoticed right under my nose, and even escape unscathed without alerting that old captain under your command... It seems their strangeness really is beyond imagination. But that 'uninvited guest' did all that just to tell me some mystical doomsday theories through the 'sailor'... What do you think of what he said?"

Duncan didn't speak for a moment. He fell silent, pondering the words Ted Riel had heard from the "sailor." After a long time, he suddenly looked up. "Do you think it's meaningful to patch up this world?"

"It's not whether it's meaningful, but there's no other way to go," Ted Riel shook his head gently. "The world is a great ship sailing on the sea. Perhaps, as the Eschaton Preacher said, this ship is leaking, sinking, and beyond saving. But what else can we who live on the ship do? All we can do is patch it up—it's better than sitting around waiting for death, isn't it?"

Duncan remained noncommittal. He simply pondered for a long time, but no one knew what he was thinking.

Just then, a faint, ethereal chime suddenly entered Ted Riel's ears, interrupting his conversation with Duncan.

The Keeper of Truth paused, then frowned in confusion as he discerned the frequency and intervals of the chime. "Swift Bell...?"

"Swift Bell?" Duncan's voice came from the side. "Are you talking about this sudden chime?"

"Yes, it's a call for the saints to go to..." Ted Riel began to say, but stopped abruptly and looked at Duncan in astonishment. "Wait, you said you heard the chime just now?!"

"Yeah, I heard it. What's wrong?" Duncan looked puzzled. "Shouldn't I have heard it? It was pretty obvious..."

"Of course, you shouldn't have heard it!" Ted Riel almost jumped out of his chair. "This is a summoning chime from the Nameless King's Mausoleum. The Four Gods Church constructed a seal and guidance measure for this chime many years ago. In theory, only the saints of the Four Gods should be able to hear the summons..."

"Nameless King's Mausoleum?" Duncan gradually realized what was happening. "Ah, Vanna mentioned something about this. So this is the 'Swift Bell' she was talking about..."

As he spoke, he stood up and looked around, then casually said, "The chime is ringing again—it seems to be urging the saints to gather? Do you have to participate in the gathering?"

"In theory, yes..." Ted Riel said, but suddenly hesitated. "But it shouldn't be... It's still the Deep Sea Church's turn, so in theory, even I shouldn't be able to hear the chime..."

He looked up and exchanged glances with Duncan.

The chime rang out again, filled with a solemn aura and a sense of urgency, as if... preparing to make a solemn declaration to the world.