Chapter 138 “The Bright Star”
So it’s bad enough to have one Vanished in this world…
Lucretia sat quietly in a high-backed chair covered with velvet cushions in the divination room illuminated by dim candlelight. She couldn’t focus while gazing at the crystal ball because the image of that afternoon from a century ago kept coming to mind….
“Our world is just a pile of extinguishing residual embers…” The figure from the past had already blurred from her mory, but she could never forget what she heard from that depressed voice.
Now, of course, she knew that her father had already been infected with madness at that ti, that he would completely abandon his humanity shortly afterward and choose to actively embrace the “blessing” of subspace. Nevertheless, Lucretia still believed that if she had taken so ti back in the day to speak to her father, then perhaps… he might’ve chosen a different path instead of crossing the world’s border.
Maybe it’s just a whimsical desire on her part, and perhaps the Vanished being lost forever was a fact engraved in the annals of ti. However, she still wants to know the truth of what happened back then.
“Lucretia, are you still listening?” Tyrian’s voice suddenly ca from the crystal ball, which brought the lady back from the daze.
“Brother,” she looked squarely at Tyrian in the crystal ball, her tone becoming a little serious, “do you rember what our father said before he last sailed to the border? That ti he didn’t let us follow…”
“Of course I rember,” Tyrian nodded, “he said that he had found a clue to Anomaly 000, the cure for this world. He refused our request to follow and even ordered the other escorts at the ti to turn back. That’s the last ti we saw the Vanished in its normal form. Afterward, everything started to change.”
“That’s right Brother, all the crew mbers on the Vanished stopped talking from that point forward as if cursed with the spell of silence. Father could still communicate with us, though, saying he did not find Anomaly 000 and that even if it did exist, the origin of the world’s distortion isn’t with it. The so-called cure that he sought never existed. This continued until the evening on the upper deck, where he revealed that the world was nothing more than a series of dying embers….”
Tyrian did not speak for a while. Then after an undetermined amount of silence, it was Lucretia who broke the awkwardness: “After that, I specifically contacted the fleet of the churches patrolling near the border, including the Fla Bearers, the Storm Priests, the scholars of the Truth Academy, and even the gloomy Death Church, I asked them about anomaly 000, but they all said that there couldn’t be an anomaly or vision numbered zero…”
“I also inquired about the matter too,” Tyrian said in a deep voice, “and got the sa reply as you… There are no anomalies and visions numbered zero in the world. Not that there are none, but that there are no corresponding ‘vacancies’ at all in the list.”
“Yes, the list that flowed out of the naless king’s tomb, the very list that held all the visions and anomalies of the world. If it says there are no vacancies for that spot, then there never will…”
“That’s why I said that Father was probably already infected with madness before he left for the border. He couldn’t have known about this information.”
Speaking of this, Tyrian suddenly stopped and eyed his sister through the crystal ball with a wary look, “Why did you suddenly bring up this topic? We haven’t talked about this for half a century. What are you planning to do?”
“…… Don’t worry, I won’t plunge headlong into that magnificent wall of fog like our father did,” Lucretia rarely showed emotions on her face, so the fact that she was smiling was sothing strange. “I’m looking for clues left by our father, but I don’t want to follow his old path.”
Tyrian fell silent for a mont and nodded slowly: “… That’s good to hear.”
Now it was Lucretia who did not know how to continue the conversation, leaving the siblings staring off into the air for a relatively long and uncomfortable minute. This continued until a whistle from the Sea Mist suddenly blew from the outside, thus breaking the awkward atmosphere.
“Are you really going to Pland? Because of the invitation from the administrator?” Lucretia asks.
“The ‘invitation’ is not important. I don’t care about the safety of the city-state. However, the admin said in his letter that the Vanished has reappeared in the real world. If true, I must go and investigate the matter in person,” Tyrian said with a serious face. “That ship has not been in the world for almost half a century. It worries why it would reappear so suddenly.”
Lucretia thought for a mont and asked, “You had an encounter with the Vanished half a century ago, and I rember that you were still with the forr Frostbite (Frost) city-state… Was it really the Vanished that you saw back then?”
“…… It’s true. Although it’s difficult to believe, it’s indeed the Vanished,” Tyrian said in a deep voice. “I can still rember the exact location of each mast and the distribution of cables.”
“Then… was it really our ‘father’ who stood on the deck at that ti?”
Tyrian lowered his head slightly, his face hidden by the shadows: “… It’s him alright, even though I’d rather that thing not be him.”
Lucretia watched her brother through the crystal ball with hesitance and worry: “Be careful. If it is really him, it will be very dangerous.”
“I know,” Tyrian sighed softly, “that’s not him anymore, but a crazy ghost corrupted by subspace. I won’t take things lightly…”
Lucretia shook her head expressionlessly: “No, I ant, if that’s really our father, he will definitely get more ruthless in the beating after learning what you turned the Sea Mist into.”
Tyrian visibly widened his eyes in shock but quickly picked up on the aning: “Hey, what do you an by that just now? This is the fruit of modernization! What’s so bad about steam boilers and rapid-fire guns! Besides, how can you even mock ? Compared to the Sea Mist, which part of the Bright Star is still the sa…”
The crystal ball blanked out at that part, leaving Lucretia the room to finally issue a soft sigh of relief as she got up from her chair.
Big Brother is still so high-spirited. A little stimulation, and he’s back to normal. It’s good that he’s keeping a strong interest in modern things, that will help maintain his soul and keep it from decaying.
A series of light footsteps then ca from a darker part of the room, accompanied by the friction of chanical parts and the clockwork of sothing walking over. Lucretia followed the sound with her eyes until she eventually ca face to face with a doll that was the sa height as her own, the moving tal and ceramic joints slightly scary under the dim lighting.
“Mistress, please have so tea.” The doll maid offered a teacup from the tray she was holding.
“Thank you,” Lucretia took the teacup and asked casually, “Luni, where are we now?”
The clockwork puppet, known as Luni, replied like a true maid with a curtsy bow: “The Bright Star has just crossed the ‘Cape Island’ and is currently sailing on the edge of the eternal curtain. Do you want to enjoy the view from the window?”
“…… Open the do then,” Lucretia took a sip of black tea and placed the cup back on the tray in Luni’s hand, “It’s dawn. I should bask in the sun to help with my skin.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Luni hung her head slightly and stepped backward.
At the sa ti the words of this magical doll puppet spoke, a slight vibration started to take hold in the divination room.
The creaking of chanical devices sounded continuously, and the humming and crunching of the gears ford a sort of weird concerto in the air while things moved. First, the walls began to recede, followed by the blooming of the roof like a flower on stage.
This was the upper deck of the Bright Star, where Lucretia the “Sea Witch” lives. From her post at the top, her view overlooked not only the sea but also the entire structure of her vessel that’s been visibly split into two parts.
The first half of the ship has been completely transford with countless runes and magical creations making up its hull. Instead of calling this segnt a ship, it’s more suited to assu it’s a beast reconstructed with magical materials and runes as its core. It’s both grotesque and beautiful like an object from the legends.
In the second half of the ship though, this was not so friendly looking. Its hull had been transford into a ghostly translucent form, constantly shrouded in a veil of light. If perceived hard enough, one might even be able to make out its original appearance that’s similar to another – a certain warship built a century ago by the na of the “Vanished”.
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