When Duncan opened his eyes, everyone instantly gathered around.
The translucent ghostly green fire was still burning quietly in the folds of the shroud. Duncan blinked and extinguished the fla before it could fully consu the shroud. Then, after taking a mont to collect himself, he started to piece together the information he had just seen while turning his gaze toward the "sailor."
That mummified corpse stood a bit farther away, simultaneously keeping its distance and yet, unable to help itself, craning its neck to peek over here, looking hesitant and uncertain.
"Aunt Duncan, what did you see?" Nina ca over and tugged at Duncan’s arm, looking up at him with a face full of concern and curiosity.
"...Captain Karan’s mories," Duncan breathed out, not keeping everyone in suspense, "This contains the experiences of the Sea Song after it got lost and the process of returning ho..."
The "sailor" instantly perked up its ears, unconsciously taking small steps closer.
Duncan didn’t hide any details, recounting everything he had seen in the vision.
After he finished speaking, as expected, all eyes instantly fell on the "sailor," who had by now shuffled close to the coffee table.
Entity 077, who had been all ears just a second ago, suddenly heard about Captain Karan entrusting the route to the external barrier to itself. Its expression froze, and when it realized everyone was looking, it quickly took half a step back, eyes wide with hands waving in denial, "Hey, don’t look at ! I don’t know anything about the route, what route... I’m clueless about this!"
"You don’t know?" Helena questioned, eyebrows furrowed, looking very skeptical, "Captain Karan said he gave the route to you... you don’t have any recollection of it?"
"I don’t!" The mummy spread its hands, looking even more bewildered than when Ai Yi had dragged it out of the transition portal, "All I rember is the diary, it’s all vague... You know, I don’t even clearly rember my own voyage back!"
The tall, silent Frem had been staring at him for a long ti when he suddenly asked, "Then what else do you rember? After you returned to the Endless Sea, don’t you have any other more vivid mories?"
The "sailor" thought hard for a mont, then slapped its palm, "Yes, I just rember waking up and finding myself lying in a box, with two people in blue and black robes muttering beside while sprinkling bone ash and spices on . And there was a Senkin person like you about to nail the coffin lid on my head. I wouldn’t let him, so he gave a hamring—next thing I know it’s damn 1864."
Frem: "..."
The living room went quiet for two seconds as the atmosphere turned sowhat awkward. Alice, seemingly oblivious to this, curiously asked as others fell silent, "Ah, then what?"
"Then? I had just sat up when I heard soone scream nearby. I couldn’t make out what they were yelling, but then I saw a girl rush over and hit with a hamr—next thing I open my eyes, it’s 1901, and Captain Lawrence, along with a crew of sailors exuding fire, was about to press onto the steering console... I couldn’t resist... And you all know what happened afterward..."
The people in the living room exchanged glances. Helena coughed awkwardly, Duncan spread his hands in resignation, and everyone began to diligently shift their attention away from this topic...
But it was the scatterbrained Alice who kept murmuring to the "sailor," "Hey, how did you know it was 1864? Weren’t you stunned as soon as you woke up?"
"I later asked Captain Lawrence about it, and he told that historically, the only ti I completely lost control was then... Apart from that, I did wake up several tis, but I don’t recall those..."
"Let tell you, I used to sleep in a box too, with people muttering beside it, doing all sorts of things like sprinkling stuff and nailing nails..."
"Really? How was your sleep quality?"
"Not bad, their chanting wasn’t too loud—but now I don’t spend half my ti sleeping in a box, the captain gave a bed..."
The "sailor" sincerely exclaid, "I envy you being able to sleep like that..."
Suddenly, the two entities began to discuss a very bizarre topic as if no one else was there. Duncan, hearing half of it, couldn’t help but interject with a couple of coughs, interrupting their conversation: "Ahem, now is not the ti for this."
The "sailor" instantly shut its mouth.
"First of all, I believe you when you say you’ve forgotten about the ’route,’" Duncan said, adjusting his expression and speaking seriously to entity 077, "But what’s recorded in Captain Karan’s diary is certainly true, the ’route’ is on you."
The "sailor" opened its mouth, pointing to itself, "What am I supposed to do if I don’t rember..."
"I’m not finished," Duncan gestured with his hand, "Whether or not you rember might not matter—because this important route might never have been ’rembered’ in your mind in the simple sense to begin with. Captain Karan ntioned in his diary that she ’gave the route to you’; that phrase caught my attention... She seed to have treated the route as so kind of ’item’, or... so other kind of ’entity’. Perhaps at the ti of leaving that diary, she was already aware that such a day would co."
Duncan paused here, took a mont to think, and then looked back at the "shroud."
"Just as her diary crossed the border in this form, she might have also used another thod to leave the information regarding the ’route’ with you. Even if the border distorted the information, interfering with your mory and even your self-recognition, the ’route’ would not disappear—it’s still on you, in so form we don’t yet understand."
The "sailor" listened intently, seemingly becoming convinced, but then it suddenly expressed so doubt, "...Could Captain Karan really do sothing like that? I thought her diary turned out this way because of so kind of ’accident’... After all, she was just a mortal..."
"But she once faced our lord directly," Helena suddenly broke the silence, "Any mortal who has faced a god... can hardly be viewed as a re ’mortal’ anymore."
"The Sailor" fell silent.
"We need so ti to ponder over the next steps, including verifying whether the ’route’ information really exists on you," Duncan looked into the unusual 077 eyes with an exceptionally serious expression, "But no matter what, you will have to stay with us for a while—you have to be ready to sail with the Holoss when necessary."
Hearing this, "The Sailor" visibly shuddered: "Ah? I thought I could just deliver the information and that would be it..."
Duncan silently stared at him.
"The Sailor" instantly straightened up: "Of course, as you know, I’ve been a loyal mber of the Exiled Fleet from the beginning, and boarding that legendary adventure ship has been my lifelong wish..."
Duncan’s expression relaxed, and he nodded with a smile. The others also showed smiles toward "The Sailor," and Sherry even stepped forward to pat his skinny arm: "Don’t be nervous, the captain is actually really nice! And it’s not boring on the ship, with all sorts of excitent every day..."
She was too embarrassed to say that she was one of the biggest sources of such "excitent" on the ship...
Everyone was rry, only Helena looked on with a complex expression.
She couldn’t help but recall the recent departure of the Sea Song, the warriors who ca aboard the Ark for her blessings, their proactive, resolute, and deeply faithful faces.
She still found it hard to believe that these warriors had vanished into the long expanse of ti—even the sole one who returned to this world had ended up in such a state.
"We should leave now," the Female Pope sighed softly, "We have already imposed here long enough—there are many matters waiting for and Frem at the church."
Duncan looked up at the chanical clock on the opposite wall of the living room and realized the day was over.
"Then I won’t see you out," he said offhand, "I have so arrangents to make, too."
Helena nodded, and after bidding farewell to the others, she and Frem turned toward the door—but just as they were about to depart, she suddenly stopped and looked back at Duncan.
After a brief hesitation, she said, "The Deep Sea Church’s border eting point is located at the southeast border, near the waters where you last t up with ’Tide.’"
"Understood," Duncan nodded lightly, "I’ll contact you before we set out."
The two popes departed, and monts later, two carriages vanished into the vast night outside the window.
The living room returned to silence for a short while before Sherry stretched herself: "Yawn... I’m sleepy. I’m going off to sleep!"
Fenna and Morris also left the living room.
"There are plenty of empty rooms here," Lucracia, as the hostess, began to arrange accommodation for the ’new mber’. She glanced at the mummy, "Do you have any preferences for the room? Floor level or ventilation aspects."
"No need, no need," the mummy imdiately shook his hands nervously, "Just any place to stay is fine. I don’t sleep anyway..."
His gaze suddenly fell on the staircase railing not far away.
"Hey, the railing is quite good. Just give a rope; I’ll hang right there. It faces the front to catch the sunlight. It would be nice to bask in the sun in the morning... Oh, though there hasn’t been much sun lately..."
"Are you sure?" Duncan raised an eyebrow, "I should remind you, Nina gets up earliest every day, and she can be pretty groggy in the mornings. If she cos down the stairs and looks up to find you hanging from the railing, it’s going to be more than a little scare—you’ll really be ’seeing the sun.’"
"You have to stay in a room!" Lucracia heard the conversation and imdiately beca anxious, quickly speaking to the mummy, "Don’t actually scare Nina—otherwise, I’ll have no house left."
Nina murmured defensively from behind Duncan, "Actually, I’ve got it pretty much under control now..."
"The Sailor" blinked, listening to Captain Duncan and the witch miss’s conversation and looking at the "Sun Shard" beside him mumbling with a wronged expression. Suddenly, he felt... the atmosphere here was different from what he had imagined.
Not bad at all.
He tugged at the corner of his mouth to reveal a sowhat frightening smile.
"Alright, I’ll follow your arrangents."
(Happy New Year, everyone!)
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