Chapter 223: Chapter 227: The Aftermath Still Lingers
Devotees often waver twice: the first when they begin to question their own faith, and the second when, even after they have questioned it, the gods still bestow their blessings upon them.
Noise, a fine layering of sounds that were sometimes distant, sometimes near, began to ring in Fenna’s mind, like tinnitus. She remembered the vision of the goddess she saw in her hallucinations, and the incomprehensible words the goddess spoke to her. No longer did she accept everything unquestioningly as she once did, but instead, she started to seriously ponder the meaning of those words and even attempted to guess at Gomona’s… intentions.
The more she thought, the more pronounced the buzzing in her head became, making it difficult to concentrate.
But suddenly, all the noises disappeared. She shook her head as if in a trance and met the concerned gaze of Archbishop Valentin.
“Are you alright?” the old man asked with some worry.
“I… I’m fine,” Fenna replied, tapping her forehead gently, then looked up at her elder with a slightly strange expression, “You too…”
“When the last bell tolled, I wavered… There’s nothing to hide; I don’t possess the flawless will of the saints enshrined in the temple,” Valentin shook his head and admitted openly to Fenna, “I wondered, why the contamination and infiltration of the Doomsday Preachers could get to this extent, why the cathedral’s sanctuary still couldn’t stop the sacrifices of the Sun Heretics—why, as the crisis spread over ten years, the goddess never once warned us…”
He stopped speaking, turned around, and silently watched the statue of Gomona. The cold stone statue overlooked him as well, as silent as ever.
“When I woke up again, I was filled with shame. I knew I had made the gravest mistake described in the ‘Storm Canon’, taking the protection of the gods as a panacea, and thus wavered in my will, but even so, these doubts took root, persisting until now.”
“…The enemy infiltrated from within and breached our defenses; they planned for many years, it was a difficult stealth attack to resist,” Fenna said after a moment of silence, calmly, “Heresy always takes advantage of vulnerability, but that doesn’t mean the goddess’s authority can be easily subverted.”
“I understand that,” Valentin laughed, “So, I say, even if there was a bit of wavering, I am still devout, because the goddess truly protects our world, and her compassion is real, it’s just that… I have had some surplus thoughts.”
“Thought breeds heresy, Archbishop Valentin,” Fenna said sternly, but then sighed as if talking to herself, “The same goes for me.”
“Then let us consider this a trial,” Valentin spoke softly, “For both of us.”
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Fenna didn’t say anything more, but walked up to the statue of the goddess, bowed her head, and prayed in silence as usual.
However, before long, the tranquility of the cathedral was shattered by a sudden sound of footsteps.
Fenna snapped out of her prayer, looked up toward the source of the sound, and saw a middle-aged church official, dressed in civilian robes, walking briskly towards them. The official bowed to the statue, and then handed a document over to Valentin: “Archbishop, this is the report you asked for.”
Valentin nodded in gratitude, took the document, and quickly browsed through a few pages before his expression visibly turned odd.
“What is that?” Fenna asked curiously, noticing his expression, “What’s written in there?”
“…It’s an initial investigation of the City-State’s current condition after the disaster… sent from the town hall,” Valentin frowned, seemingly hesitant, but in the end, he gave the document to Fenna, “Take a look for yourself.”
Fenna took the documents with confusion and knew what they were as soon as she read the opening—they were preliminary damage reports, something she was very familiar with. They contained information about any damage to different parts of the City-State after the disaster, any changes, missing personnel, or “additional” personnel, areas with residual supernatural powers… The contents at the beginning were nothing special, basically indicating that every part of the City-State had been reset to its state before the disaster occurred, but the latter sections made her instantly understand the reason for Archbishop Valentin’s strange expression.
“…There are reports from merchants in the docks area of a massive, mysterious disappearance of fries, and the loss report also mentions tomato ketchup…” The young Judge looked up with a wooden expression, meeting Valentin’s similarly expressionless face, “…Seriously?”
“Why don’t you lead a team and ask yourself?” Valentin’s mouth twitched slightly, “In theory, no one would dare to falsify such reports.”
Fenna held the report in her hands, speechless for a long moment.
After a struggle, she finally blurted out, “Why would this sort of content appear in such a serious report…”
Valentin kept a straight face: “An entire squad of guards has been monitoring the fries at the docks—what do you think?”
Fenna: “…”
“…In any case, the ‘things’ mentioned in the report are the only known losses within the City-State so far,” Valentin sighed and then seemed to hesitate once more before looking into Fenna’s eyes, “Next time you see them, you might want to ask directly.”
Fenna froze, “Ask? Ask who?”
“…What do you think?”
Fenna: “…”
After a moment, the young Judge finally couldn’t resist rubbing his forehead, “I feel like my thoughts aren’t connecting. Just to confirm, we were supposed to be discussing something very serious here, that’s correct, isn’t it?”
“I’m not connecting either,” Valentin said with a stern face.
Fenna fell silent but suddenly had an odd thought—if this was also the influence of that Ghost Ship captain, then he was… somewhat terrifying in a certain sense.
Just then, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from the doorway, once again interrupting the thoughts of Fenna and Valentin—a priest hastened to the holy image.
“Archbishop, Judge, there’s news from the port district….”
The priest saluted and began to speak rapidly, but Fenna heard the word “port district” and couldn’t help but interrupt him, “Stop, we already know about the fries, no need to report it twice!”
“…Fries?” The priest looked bewildered, his eyes foggy as he stared at the typically composed and respected Judge, “What fries?”
“Ah… You’re not here to report about the fries?” Fenna, seeing the situation, felt somewhat embarrassed and quickly coughed twice to cover it up, “I thought it was another report… never mind, continue. What’s happening in the port district?”
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but sigh with relief: thank goodness it wasn’t about fries—at least she wouldn’t have to deal with that terrifying Ghost Ship captain anymore.
The reporting priest then nodded, his face grave, “News from the port district—the Sea Mist is requesting to dock—Tirian Abnormal wishes to make contact with the cathedral as soon as possible. He brings news related to the Homeloss.”
Fenna suddenly erupted into a thunderous cough.
The priest was startled by the commotion, “…Judge?”
“I’m fine,” Fenna managed to stop coughing after great effort. She felt that ever since Homeloss had brazenly toured the City-State, things seemed different everywhere. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but it seemed that many things around her were changing—she even wanted to attribute the sun that rose fifteen minutes late that morning to the Ghost Ship, “Sea Mist? I know we did send a letter to its owner, but we never received a response…”
“The Sea Mist has indeed arrived and it seems that it was near Plunder’s waters even before that ‘disaster’,” the priest immediately added, “However, according to the message from the ship, it encountered Homeloss unexpectedly in the eastern seas and engaged in a fierce battle. Because of damage to its propulsion, it had to undergo repairs and only restored its ability to navigate last night.”
“A battle with Homeloss?!” Fenna finally became serious, realizing the gravity of the situation. She turned to Valentin, “I must go there personally.”
“That’s a good idea,” Valentin nodded immediately, “Sea Mist is a special vessel, and although it belongs to ‘our side’, the crew on board could lead to panic and fear among the common people at the docks—your personal leadership in welcoming them should be able to calm the populace.”
Fenna promised and quickly left the cathedral.
Sea Mist had arrived—although later than expected, the vast warship shrouded in legends and fearsome curses had finally reached the Plunder City-State that had once sent out a distress call. Now, this formidable steel warship was slowly approaching the dedicated wharf for large vessels, guided by the dock’s pilots, while some people who had heard the news gathered nearby the docks, nervously yet curiously watching the steel behemoth.
Before long, the people near the docks realized that the imposing steel warship had reached the harbor after a fierce battle.
It was scarred all over: three of its six main cannons had vanished into thin air; the hull had ghastly gaps where something had been gouged out; a third of the bridge had been destroyed, and terrifying scars stretched from the side of the bridge up to the main armor belt—even near the waterline on the side of the ship, several frightening holes were visible.
If such damage were inflicted upon an ordinary battleship, it would have sunk several times over.
But Sea Mist still stubbornly floated on the sea’s surface, with life-like holes in its belly—as if filled with some soft, metallic luster material that had staunchly sealed the leaks. Continuously, seawater infiltrating the bottom cabin was being expelled outside the ship—the Sea Mist’s bilge pumps had stopped, and thus that seawater was directly seeping out from the ship’s side, as if… the ship was sweating.
This was an advanced steel warship, but also a cursed ship full of anomalies—everyone standing near the docks clearly saw the “living” characteristics exhibited by that ship, and the onlookers’ curiosity became mingled with more horror; whispers were everywhere.
It wasn’t until several imposing steam-powered walkers appeared on the dock that Fenna’s tall figure silenced many of the murmuring watchers.