Encountering the church’s patrol fleet at the border?
Lucresia was startled when she heard this question, then quickly furrowed her brows as she recalled, "It must have been last month when I encountered the Fire Transmitter’s ship at the border waters... I haven’t seen the church’s patrol formations since then. But this might also be related to the fact that I haven’t been frequently approaching the border recently."
"That’s not it, Miss Lucresia," Sala l shook her head, "It’s not because you have not been going to the border recently but because the Tetra Spirit Church has indeed pulled a large number of people originally responsible for patrolling the borders for other tasks—reducing them by about half."
"The border patrols have been reduced?" Lucresia felt surprised, "What are they doing?"
"I don’t know; the Pilgrimage Ark has its own secrets, just like each City-State, they wouldn’t report the whereabouts of those ships and personnel to ," continued Sala l, "However, based on the intelligence I have, those forces that were pulled have not been supplented into the ’internal routes,’ but are still stationed at certain locations near the border, if you understand my aning. They are just no longer carrying out patrol missions. Instead, they are gathering at so special locations near the Eternal Veil, as if they are waiting for further orders, or perhaps preparing to deal with so greater trouble."
The City-State Governor paused, then looking into Lucresia’s eyes with an especially solemn tone, "Such things have never happened before."
"When an elf says that ’such things have never happened before,’ it often signifies sothing very serious," Lucresia involuntarily quoted a well-known adage among the explorers, "I think I understand what you an."
"Yes, madam—our world is having problems. Holoss has already issued a warning to the entire world; even an ’ordinary person’ like can sense that sort of crisis creeping in, the ’atmosphere’ that things are gradually starting to go awry. So the Tetra Spirit Church, which has been observing and protecting the whole world for thousands of years, could not possibly have failed to notice anything. Of course, they have already started taking action."
As Sala l spoke, she raised her hand to point at the letter bearing the Tetra Spirit Church’s seal.
"This letter connects their recent unusual ’movents’ with the warning sent from Holoss. I think... the leaders of the Pilgrimage Ark have probably discovered or confird the ’root’ of what your father warned about in the alert, and they have found that the problem is much bigger than anyone had imagined.
"In the face of this ’big problem,’ vigilance and precautions against Holoss are no longer important, even though that ship is still connected to the Subspace and may even fall back into it; they no longer care—as long as your father remains on the ’mortal’s side’ for now."
The Governor finished speaking, but Lucresia did not say anything for a long ti. She looked down at the letter again, seemingly still deep in thought.
After who knows how long, it was Sala l who broke the silence: "So, may I ask now? Miss Lucresia, your father, the legendary Captain Duncan... what is he doing now? And what does he plan to do next?"
He’s taking care of the children, he plans to take those two girls into town to find sothing that normal people can eat...
A few unreliable thoughts sprung up in Lucresia’s mind, but she quickly cast them aside and made her expression serious again: "He’s very interested in the ’fallen object’ I found, and although I don’t know why, he seems... to know the origin of the central ’stone sphere’ of the fallen object. His primary purpose this ti is for that."
"He knows the origin of that ’stone sphere’?" Sala l imdiately looked surprised.
"Yes, he called that sphere ’moonstone,’ and according to him, the volu of the sphere in its original... or should I say ’normal state,’ should be very, very large," Lucresia nodded as she spoke, "And he was also quite curious to inquire about the physical propertiesshown by the ’moonstone’ and the composition of its surface samples."
"Moonstone..." Sala l’s brow creased little by little, but after a long period of thought, he still shook his head, "I have never heard of this na."
"Neither have I. My father said, no one in this world should know this na," Lucresia said, "When he said that, his mood seed... not very good."
Sala l did not speak for a mont, then after a pause for thought, he broke the silence: "The frontier research team recently collected so more samples from the surface of the ’stone sphere;’ they are currently analyzing it. Since your father is very interested in this matter, I will have them share their findings with you at any ti, and I will also explain the situation in advance to the heads of each facility, so if your father wants to ’see for himself’ so research results, that’s possible too."
Lucresia raised her eyebrows: "Aren’t you worried about causing panic?"
"You brought him strutting into the city," Sala l said helplessly, spreading her hands, "Do you realize how many people in this city recognize his face?"
"But as long as we don’t make it public, I reckon many people would rather believe that it’s just a face that looks very similar—a man who looks exactly like Captain Duncan is more plausible than Subspace Shadows coming to town for sightseeing."
"Looking exactly alike is scary enough, ma’am," Sala l said with a bitter smile, "Do you know that since your father... after that, even the mariti captains on the Endless Sea have stopped growing their beard?"
"That’s not my problem, it wasn’t my father who shaved them."
Sala l was montarily choked up and glared before shaking her hands, "Alright, let’s not talk about that—Ma’am, I want to know the very truth, what state is your father in... right now?"
It was apparent Mr. Governor tried to make his question as respectful as possible, but he also knew that asking such a question in front of the "Sea Witch" was sowhat offensive—yet he had no choice but to ask.
Fortunately, Ruklucesia didn’t show any displeasure.
"Just as I understood before, he indeed lost many mories; Subspace once destroyed his sanity and personality. The current Duncan Ebnomal... strictly speaking, is already a person who’s been completely ’restructured’," said the "witch" with a complex expression, yet still disclosed what she knew, "I can still find so shadows of the past in him, including familiar auras and authority, and he retains vague mories of , but that’s all."
She paused briefly, pondering her words, then continued, "If you ask how I feel, I sense that he’s hiding sothing inside—don’t be nervous just yet, Sala l, I’m not referring to Subspace, but to so... non-dangerous, yet unprecedented things. It seems like another personality, or like many personalities and pieces of information overlapping..."
"I don’t understand what you an," Sala l said, frowning, "Can you explain it in simpler terms?"
Ruklucesia thought for a mont, showing great patience as she explained: "This ti, when I first saw him, I briefly heard countless noises and saw rippling shadows. That should be mild symptoms of psychic contamination, but this contamination faded quickly and left no lasting effect on . Within this contamination, I glimpsed countless glints of light escaping from behind him, looking... much like the ’starry sky’ that floats between the Mysterious Deep Sea and the Spirit Realm."
"At first, before seeing those ’starlights’, my sense of my father was a vast ’void’. I watched his shell standing there, yet I couldn’t feel his actual presence. But with the ergence of those noises and shadows, my perception of him stabilized, and I was finally able to interact with him... or strictly speaking, with that shell normally."
Sala l’s expression beca very serious, "How long did this process last?"
"A mont," Ruklucesia said gravely, "and it happened at the edge of consciousness and perception—I suspect that most people wouldn’t be able to notice this process, and those who could due to heightened spirit vision would be drawn in by those starlights, losing awareness of the shell’s montary sense of ’void’."
Sala l fell silent for half a minute, then spoke thoughtfully, "It sounds like because you focused your attention on your ’father’, you were able to perceive this brief ’process’... Miss Ruklucesia, your descriptions unsettle , it feels as though..."
"I know what you want to say—you might think that the fleeting ’starlight’ is the ’real’ Duncan Ebnomal of today, and that the ’Captain from Subspace’ is just a part created by this starlight, like a tentacle a sea monster extends above water to lure sailors."
Sala l frowned, "Isn’t that the case?"
Ruklucesia just shook her head lightly.
"I have my own judgnt, Mr. Governor, I know that’s him, although he now displays so disconcerting ’qualities’, and even his existence has beco incomprehensible and indescribable, but that starlight is him, at least part of him."
Sala l listened quietly, and after a long mont, he spoke with a grave face, "This sounds like sentintality, ma’am, but I know you are not one to be sentintal—so I can only hope your judgnt is correct, at least that it stems from your usually accurate ’intuition’, rather than from a yearning."
"You can trust my judgnt," Ruklucesia said seriously, and pointed to the letter on the table, "Or at least, trust ’the witness of the four deities’."
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