As the door opened, two familiar yet unexpected figures stood at the entrance, one of them being Helena in a sea blue gown, and the other a particularly tall figure with skin that seed as hard as rock, Frem.
Two unmarked steam cars were parked not far from the intersection, their headlights piercing through the night. A few guards from the church stood quietly by the cars, like silent statues in the darkness.
Lucricia looked at the uninvited guests and frowned slightly, "Why do you all seem to enjoy ’dropping by’ nowadays?"
"Sorry to disturb you, but it’s sothing important," Helena, completely disregarding Lucricia’s clearly displeased expression, said as she made herself at ho and started walking inside, "Let’s go in—I and Frem are here on a secret visit, I wouldn’t want too many people to take notice..."
Before Lucricia could respond, the Female Pope, representing the highest authority of the Deep Sea Church, had already agilely slipped through the doorway. Frem, with an awkward smile, followed her while apologizing to the lady of the house, "Sorry, Helena is always very proactive—and indeed, sothing unusual has happened. The ’captain’ should be interested..."
Unable to stop them, Lucricia could only turn her head and watch in astonishnt as the two "VIPs" boldly made their way inside, exclaiming, "Hey, one by one... this is my ho!"
However, the social-averse witch could not prevent the execution power of the two pontiffs—unable to hit them and uncomfortable stopping them. By the ti she collected herself, the uninvited guests had already successfully invaded her house...
Duncan, who was in the living room, had already heard the noise at the door and looked up to see Helena and Frem walking in. Helena had visited recently with Rune while Frem was seen in the City-State for the first ti, making Duncan curious, "Do your pontiffs usually roam around like this? Still so idle at these tis?"
Helena picked up on Duncan’s teasing tone but paid no heed, sitting down on the sofa across from him with a serious expression, "We bring a ssage from the gods—information from beyond the Eternal Veil."
As Helena finished speaking, Duncan’s teasing expression vanished, his mind rapidly piecing together clues. Even Lucricia, who was walking by with an impatient expression, stopped in her tracks, a thoughtful look crossing her face.
Helena imdiately noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere of the living room. She frowned, but before she could speak, Fenna, standing by the sofa, softly broke the silence, "Sea Song?"
Helena adjusted her posture subconsciously, "You..."
"If you hadn’t visited today, I was planning to look for you," Duncan slowly began, "I also just received so news about the ’Sea Song.’ It seems this is no coincidence... but I’d like to hear the information you’ve brought first. What happened to that ship?"
Helena and Frem exchanged glances, and the latter nodded slightly, turning to Duncan with a grave tone, "The Sea Song returned in December 1675."
The room fell montarily silent until Sherry couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, "What? Over three hundred years ago?!"
Silence descended again, Alice taking a mont to calculate, then timidly nudged Sherry’s arm, "It seems like it was over two hundred and twenty years ago..."
Sherry paused, recalibrating her emotions, "What? Two hundred and twenty years ago?!"
The two pontiffs had probably never encountered soone like Sherry before: "..."
"Don’t mind her, her math isn’t great," luckily, Duncan was used to it, quickly waved his hand to draw Helena’s and Frem’s attention back, "Back to the serious matter, did the Sea Song truly return in 1675? How did you discover or confirm this?"
"History has been punctured, there’s a hole in the normal historical trajectory," Frem spoke in a deep voice, "I sensed this hole, and then found corresponding clues in the records left by previous Popes of the Fla Transmitter..."
He paused, seemingly organizing his words, then continued, "In December 1675, a ship, bizarre and decrepit like a phantom, appeared at the eastern border and disintegrated over the sea shortly thereafter. The only certain thing before it vanished was the na ’Sea Song’ inscribed on its hull.
"This incident is recorded in the archives of the Fla Transmitter’s sanctuary, but aside from the words on the stone tablet, there’s no related record or dossier from that year. It’s like a shadow that suddenly fell into reality from the cracks of history, rembered and recorded only by the Pope of the Fla Transmitter at the ti... or rather, only that Pope’s records left a ’trace’ in history."
"Why would sothing like this happen?" Morris couldn’t help but speak, "Is this so kind of historical contamination? Or tampering..."
"It’s due to the incompleteness of ti, leading to an event where history was penetrated," Frem slowly shook his head, "The Sea Song must have deviated from the normal tiline due to so accident, creating ’drift’ in a tiless state, before returning to this world at the ti node of ’1675’..."
He stopped to ponder for a mont, then continued, "It’s like a rolling tire coated in countless specks of dust, one of which suddenly detaches from the inner wall of the tire and randomly drifts; when it gets reabsorbed by the inner wall, it could appear at any position on the tire."
Detached from the normal tiline... Drifting in a tiless state...
Listening to Frem’s explanation, Duncan’s brows furrowed slightly, his expression thoughtful.
Lucricia and Morris seed to have realized sothing too, a look of comprehension crossing their faces.
Only Alice and Sherry, hearing such a theory far beyond normal understanding, remained clear-eyed, seemingly untouched by the knowledge...
"So that’s it," Lucricia suddenly spoke softly, nodding slightly at Duncan, "That explains the ’sailor’s’ experiences then."
"Sailor?" Helena looked puzzled, "The ’sailor’ you’re speaking of is..."
"The ’First Mate’ of the Sea Song. He still exists in this world, although... there has been a significant change."
Duncan spoke without concealing the information he had obtained from Lawrence. Over the next few minutes, he laid out everything he knew.
Helena and Frem looked at each other.
After a mont’s hesitation, Helena suddenly spoke, "I need to et this ’sailor.’"
"He’s now near a small City-State ’Faelun’ in the southwest border area, along with so of my other followers," Duncan nodded, "I can bring him here anyti—but I want to consult his opinion first."
Helena seed to not catch it right away, "Consult... his opinion?"
"He has gone through many things unimaginable to ordinary people, and perhaps it was the Sea Song’s wandering beyond the borders that completed the ’historical loop.’ All his mories were almost instantly restored in his mind," Duncan said earnestly, "He may no longer be the ’First Mate’ of the Sea Song as you know him, he might not want to deal with people from the Deep Sea Church anymore..."
"Um, I’m not surprised by that. I can imagine the ’sailor’s’ current situation," Helena said with a peculiar expression, looking at Duncan, "I’m just very surprised that you respect your followers’ wishes so much in such instances and take care of their feelings..."
Duncan’s smile twitched slightly, "What exactly am I in your minds?"
Helena’s face stiffened, and she quickly made ands, "A dependable captain, a respectable explorer, though there are many misunderstandings, we think you..."
"Constantly surrounded by countless shadows from Subspace and stewing children and stray dogs from around the world in your pot..." Frem casually added.
Helena: "..."
"That wasn’t ," Frem said, looking at Helena with a calm face, "That’s what you and Banster were saying when you talked to him last year."
"That was just a hyperbolic figure of speech! And that was last year!" Helena almost jumped up, "Why would you rember that!"
Frem’s expression didn’t change at all; he slowly turned his head to look at Duncan, his face still as calm and cool as if carved from stone, "They really said that."
Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then turned to look beside him.
Lucricia stood beside him with a stern face.
Little Miss Witch’s face was flushed red—holding back her laughter was her final courtesy to her father.
Duncan sighed, "I’ll contact Lawrence."
...
"That’s the situation," Lawrence sat on the chair opposite Exception 077, speaking earnestly, "Now, Captain Duncan wants to et you, and the Pope of the Deep Sea Church is also waiting. If you’re willing, you can leave imdiately—Captain has allowed to use his fla summoning ssenger. Ai Yi can instantly transport you to Light Breeze Harbor."
By now, Exception 077 had gone through the initial shocks of mory and confusion. He had gradually cald down and sowhat regained his usual deanor.
Now, he was filled with worries.
"I... don’t know what to do," he sighed, not hiding his wavering in front of Lawrence, "I rember a lot of things, but things before the departure of the Sea Song are very blurry to . I know I was the First Mate of the Sea Song, but this identity feels like a stranger in a mirror to ... and more importantly, I’ve also lost that journal..."
"If what you care about is the journal Captain Karan left behind..." Lawrence hesitated for a mont and then spoke slowly, "perhaps, you haven’t lost it."
The sailor jerked his head up, "Ah?"
"You said you rember putting her journal by your side before Captain Karan vanished and always kept it close—indeed, it has always been with you," Lawrence looked intently into the sailor’s eyes and spoke slowly, "Do you rember what has always been with you?"
The sailor was stunned, seemingly slowly realizing.
"We found so very faint marks on your shroud," Lawrence said.
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