Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 139 “The Frontier Keeper”

A century ago, the Bright Star, like the Sea Mist, was an escort vessel of the Vanished.

However, few people knew what happened to these two legendary warships after breaking away from the main flagship, nor the process of how they became what they are today.

The Sea Mist, helmed by “Steel Vice Admiral” Tyrion, was once part of the naval fleet of the Frostbite City-State after many twists and turns. Back then, the people called it the “unsinkable ship” or “breathing wreckage. A well-deserved nickname of course. Not once, but many times did the ship suffer severe damage to its hull, yet it survived the ordeals like a cockroach after repeated overhauls that violated shipbuilding principles. Nowadays, it’s better to call the Sea Mist a steal behemoth than a ship.

In fact, the legends say the metal ship could even feed on its victims, absorbing the metal composites to grow its plated body and weaponry while no one was watching.

As for the Bright Star, inherited by the younger sister Lucretia, also known as the “Sea Witch”, had a much more mysterious past. She doesn’t interact with the civilized world at all. In fact, only a small number of members from the Explorer’s Association and patrolling church fleet would ever have the opportunity to encounter this witch.

Now for those lucky enough to see the Bright Star in person, their description was as follows:

“It obviously doesn’t belong to our real world anymore. The ship sank at least once in its lifetime and got partially taken by the Boundless Sea. Half of it is a ghost ship, the other remaining half a composite of distorted and magical items. There’s no crew aboard either. They’re all ghosts now, living only in name inside the clockwork puppets that runs the vessel.”

“There is no doubt that the ship is a sailing corpse, or rather, a half-deformed corpse dragging half of its soul along.”

Lucretia’s gaze slowly swept over her fine ship, slightly nodding only after being satisfied by what she saw.

The Bright Star is in good condition, and her crew is happy.

She knew about how the world viewed her precious vessel, and how the world saw her brother’s Sea Mist. The lady also knew how the captains feared their entire family in fact. But she didn’t care about it.

There are few humans she had any connection with to begin with, and after so many years out on the sea alone, the experience of caring for the views of others had diminished to the point of non-importance. As for the ones that she does talk to from the Explorer’s Association, they’re all level-headed veterans with plenty of experience in life. They know her and respected her for it.

Simply said, she and her brother are still members of the mortal world, on humanity’s side. Even if many of her kind thought differently, it won’t change this fact. Besides, so what if they’re cursed? There are too many things in this world that’s cursed. What was an extra strange vessel or two going to matter?

Slowly walking down from her mechanical flower, Lucretia was heading for the bow of the ship when a shrill voice caught her from the front. It’s a ragdoll pushing aside two clockwork puppets that’s busy cleaning the deck. “Mistress! Mistress! Good morning! Good morning!”

“It’s about to hit noon already,” Lucretia said casually. Then she bypassed her companion and looked off into the distance where a magnificent wall of fog blocked her view. It’s like staring into a giant screen at the edge of the world, both majestic and spectacular.

That’s the “border”.

The magnificent divider had many names – World Border, The Great Mist, Mist Barrier, and its most formal name should be “Eternal Curtain”.

But Lucretia prefers to call it the “border”.

That’s what her father used to call it.

Under normal circumstances, this eternal curtain would not expand or shrink and covered all the known seas in the world like a fixed natural phenomenon. However, on rare occasions, part of the barrier would suddenly appear inside the territory of civilization. When this occurs, the outcome could only be described as a disaster. The reality in that area would collapse in on itself like a blackhole, and all living matter dragged into the depths of the sea. In some instances, eye-witnesses even say they saw the door to subspace opening. They called this disaster the “border collapse”.

For captains who often sailed the boundless sea, a collapsed border was a scarier thing than the turbulent storm. Thankfully this doesn’t happen often.

Lucretia spent most of her time in the border area, observing it, studying it, and trying to summarize the fog’s movement to find out why it would suddenly collapse inward—something her father had done a hundred years earlier.

But to this day, no one has been able to unravel the secret of this curtain.

What did my father discover back then? What did he hear? What caused him to suddenly decide to enter the fog in search of No. 0?

Lucretia withdrew her gaze towards the border.

In the border lands, one mustn’t stare at the eternal curtain for long. Although there was no clear evidence that the dense fog had the properties of devouring the mind and influencing one’s thinking, there’s an inherent risk of staring at anything for long out at sea, especially when one’s far away from civilization.

God knows what would spread as a result of the “gaze” here.

Unexpectedly, a melodious whistle broke the calm in the waters here.

Lucretia followed the sound and saw some tiny silhouettes appearing on the edge of the thick wall of fog It wouldn’t be long before they made contact with the Bright Star at the pace they’re moving.

It was three ships after their shapes came into view, the latest steel models powered by a surging and powerful steam core. A chance encounter and not an attack since they sounded the horn, a sign of goodwill and a greeting to those sailing in these waters.

“Mistress,” Luni walked over and spoke with a dull voice coming from inside the clockwork maid, “it’s the patrolling fleet of the Church… Visual confirmation indicates they’re part of the Flame Bearers.”

“…… Only the Flame Bearers and the Storm Church would be so close to the Eternal Curtain while on patrol,” Lucretia sighed softly, “a bunch of crazy rash fellas.”

“Do you wish to respond?” Luni asked.

“…… Honk our horn,” Lucretia said softly, “show them we’re continuing the work of civilization.”

……

There were no customers in the antique shop today, except for a pair of unremarkable ornaments that were sold in the morning, no one has stepped into the store again.

Nina was sitting at the counter with a textbook in hand and studying the subject of a mechanic. Meanwhile, Duncan had also been studying, curiously flipping through Nina’s history textbook while casually making notes in his own notebook.

This left only Shirley with nothing to do. She wanted to go home, but she didn’t dare to go unless she offends the great shadow of subspace here. Then the girl tried to start up a conversation about the subject with Nina. Sadly, the illiterate girl didn’t have a clue about the higher learning. For several times now, she’s been pacing around in boredom: “Is reading really that interesting?”

“Of course it’s interesting!” Nina looked up, “And the final exams are almost here, I have to hurry and review my books.”

Duncan also looked up at Shirley: “If you’re really bored, you can also find a book to read… I have a brief history of the city-state over here, do you want to read it?”

Shirley glanced at the few books in Duncan’s hand, dropped her mouth, then flushed away in embarrassment: “I… I don’t know how to read…”

Duncan suddenly froze to a standstill, his eyes widening like a disapproving parent.

“Why are you so surprised,” Shirley looked at the uncle and niece pair like she’s being judged for something beyond her means. Moping like a hurt child, “I… I’ve never been to school, is that so strange? I’ve… I’ve been raised by a dog….”

Duncan was indeed a little surprised, but after seeing Shirley’s reaction, he sighed at how difficult life must’ve been for an orphan: “You don’t know how to read words, yet you can calmly blend into a school. I really don’t know whether you’re overconfident or too reliant in Dog’s ability to interfere with a person’s perception.”

“Dog’s interference ability is very reliable!” Shirley immediately defended, “It’s just… It’s just…”

The girl’s face had gotten slightly red again as she struggled to form a proper retort without offending the other party. Of course, Duncan wouldn’t miss this improvement in their conversation and spoke with a smile: “See, you’re already getting better. You’re even able to argue in front of me now. Is that so bad?”

“That’s right, that’s right, see how kind my uncle is?” Nina, a silly girl who didn’t understand anything here, also chimed in to make things worse: “Although he used to be very irritable for a while, but he’s much better now!”

“I…” Shirley opened her mouth and found herself not knowing how to communicate with the “uncle and niece” in front of her.

Seeing this, Duncan merely shook his head with a pleasant smile, but just when he wanted to say something more, a slightly familiar aura had come into his perception!

Duncan was slightly stunned by the signal, and in the next second, he could tell who this aura was coming from.

Vanna! The young inquisitor is approaching this antique shop… and it’s fast!