Chapter 224: 'The Captain Never Left”

Chapter 224 “The Captain Never Left”

The figure in the mirror really left without doing anything extraneous as he said at the beginning – he just came to check on the situation.

Vanna stared at the mirror with a vigilant face for a while longer before finally letting herself deflate. Then immediately afterward, she fell into a short period of self-reflection and paranoia.

The paranoia was due to her professional habit as the inquisitor – it’s tough for her to trust a “person” who has been carrying out a century-long string of horror legends. As for self-reflection, that’s even simpler. Unlike her usual sharp demeanor regarding the supernatural, she had gradually weakened her vigilance in communication with the infamous ghost captain. This was an undeserved sign of weakness; she didn’t like it since it shouldn’t be happening to her.

At the end of it, Vanna could only give herself a slap to get out of this slump.

In any case, the city has survived, and she would inform Bishop Valentine about the events of this evening’s interaction by tomorrow morning. Also, the part about her own wavering faith...

The young inquisitor sighed, fading into the darkness after extinguishing the light in her bedroom.

......

On the second floor of the antique shop in the lower city, Duncan withdrew his gaze towards the main cathedral and instead shifted it toward the city’s night scene.

He didn’t know what had happened to Vanna, but it was clear that the young inquisitor’s mental state had just experienced a brief and dangerous shakeup. This unstableness even directly alerted his awareness, forcing him to make a projection directly into the real world to see what was happening.

Looking back at things now, the aura he felt on Vanna before was faintly familiar – the aura had been hidden in the depths of her spirit. If he would describe it, the sensation would be like the bottom of the Vanished... the area where he confronted the weird, chaotic light show and that creepy door. Again, it’s the sensation of engaging subspace.

Then there’s the question Vanna asked him at the end of the conversation, so it’s very possible she’s being harassed by something related to subspace.

Duncan’s fingers unconsciously tapped the windowsill, guessing the truth with the clues he concluded.

Unlike before, he had strengthened his imprint on the other party. This force should be able to help the lady resist the erosion that might arise, but the crux of the question was, why did a hint of subspace suddenly appear on Vanna, a high-level saint?

Duncan’s thoughts began to wander, and he suddenly recalled another detail or “knowledge” he had learned a while back. Under certain circumstances, the souls of believers in the four gods are more likely to be eroded by subspace than mortals, and their souls will even directly generate a rift connecting the real dimension to subspace. For example, the chapel on the sixth block was a perfect example, where the presiding nun became a catalyst for the evil creatures within the void.

Could something similar happen to Vanna? If so, what is behind this counter-intuitive phenomenon?

After a minute of contemplation, Duncan exhaled and turned away from the window. In any case, he should pay more attention to this special “node” in the future. Currently, Vanna still lacks trust in him, meaning she wouldn’t take the initiative to tell him any of her secrets.

Duncan shook his head with a faint smile before letting go of the steering wheel.

There was a slight creak from the Vanished due to this action, and the mast’s sails tightened a little, signaling the ship had gone into a “cruising state” where Goathead took over.

“We’re just solving the trouble made by a bunch of cultists,” Duncan said casually to Alice as he stepped down from the helm and walked toward the captain’s room, “As for Pland... I believe that city-state is fated for me.”

“... As expected of being the captain, his words are so profound...” Alice mutters alone in the rear after being left behind.

Eventually, Duncan arrived back at the door of the captain’s compartment, where the words “Door of the Lost” were inscribed on the frame as always. Inhaling deeply, he calmed his spirit and pushed it open with a huff.

A hazy and distorted mist appeared promptly in front, devouring Duncan’s existence as he fell into an empty, weightless space. Then, in the next instant, he was through, back in the familiar and quiet environment of the other world.

Zhou Ming opened his eyes and surveyed his bachelor apartment.

As usual, the first thing he did when he returned was to confirm the general situation of the entire room. Everything was as he left it. Whether it was the dense fog outside the window or the string of scraps he left around the windowsills had ever been moved.

Despite knowing there was no point in doing so, he treated this series of “confirmations” as some task that had to be done.

After Zhou Ming was done, the second thing he did was to come to his desk, where he found a miniature sculpture with an appearance similar to Pland sitting quietly in place.

Exquisite and restored, every detail was vivid to the eye. In fact, he’s pretty sure every floor tile of every street had been perfectly replicated on this model. Or, to put it another way, this was the “projection” of the real Pland presented in another form within his bachelor apartment.

It’s here, as expected...

Zhou Ming exhaled softly, sat down at the table, and examined his newfound exquisite “toy”.

Compared to the “model” of the Vanished, the size of this “city-state” was obviously much more extensive but also obviously not scaled in equal proportions. From the initial assessment, it seems to fit into a separate shelf compartment as if it were specially tailored for that spot.

And, of course, no shadow of any inhabitants exists in this vivid city-state model.

It looks like the “people” living in the city-state are omitted...

Zhou Ming wondered, repeatedly examining the model before picking it up entirely and bringing it over to the shelf with both hands. Once done with putting it away, he took two steps back and silently admired his new collection.

The Vanished has moved away from Pland, but the captain never left his precious city-state.