Petra walked out of the museum!
There, waiting just beyond the lobby, she ran straight into Wind, who had clearly been waiting around for a while. Petra waddled her way over without hesitation, grabbed Wind's hand, and was promptly dragged outside.
A few of the green-haired children noticed and waved enthusiastically as they left, calling out their goodbyes before being herded away by the tour guide again.
-
Once outside, the quiet atmosphere of the museum disappeared. The noise from the city slowly returned, with distant voices mixing with music and the hum of the busy plaza.
Outside, Petra soon slowed down to a stop….
Her cheerful expression faded into a small frown as something tugged at the back of her mind.
She sniffed the air—
Then again, again, and again…
Petra narrowed her eyes, finally annoyed!
It's that smell again—
She finally remembered why she had wandered off in the first place! That unknown, incredibly delicious smell was still here, lingering stubbornly in the streets! She was originally going to take the girls to the library to investigate the Royal Ring Secret Realm, when suddenly, that smell appeared!
It was like something was there, but at the same time, it wasn't…
It was so frustrating!
Petra had had enough!
"Hold on a second," Petra said suddenly.
Before Wind could respond—Puh! Petra flickered out of existence in a flash of black light. Winds' eyes widened, but—Puh! Just a heartbeat later, Petra reappeared just as quickly, holding something awkwardly in her small claws.
It was…
Mm, a strange helmet?
The metal was dark and smooth, black and blue, and inside it, a glossy black blob sloshed around, wiggling almost like a trapped fish in a bowl.
Petra: "…"
Wind: "…"
Both girls stared at it in silence…
Wind frowned, studying it for a long time. "Where did you get this thing?"
"...I found it on a chair," Petra replied without an ounce of guilt. She just popped in and took it.
Wind pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Throw it away! That thing's shaking, isn't it? What if it explodes?"
Petra looked down.
Now that she mentioned it, it really was shaking… er, no, trembling…? Hm… she nodded seriously, then lifted the helmet to her lips and slurped it down like an oyster.
Wind's face twisted in disgust.
But Petra shivered in delight!
With sparkling eyes, she exclaimed. "What a treat!"
Turning away, Wind suppressed the goosebumps crawling up her skin and led Petra back towards the fountain, where the others were still waiting for them.
Petra skipped after her; her mood noticeably improved!
Luna passed her an ice cream the moment her butt sat down.
Petra happily accepted it, already humming, as if nothing strange had happened at all…
In her mind, she really hoped that there were more of these 'little blackies' in the capital!
* * *
The next day, sunrise—
Early in the morning, the docks were already wide awake!
Light spilled out from old lanterns that burned along the waterfront, their pale flame stubbornly illuminating the morning mist as dockworkers moved back and forth with lethargy.
The night shift had nearly ended…
Over the past few days, even before the festival had begun, they were already swamped with work. Foreign arrivals, constant inspections, and the heavy traffic of the dockworkers and delivery men forced many of them to work through the night, and it really showed on their faces! Many of them, especially the youngest ones, had black bags beneath their eyes and tired expressions plastered across their faces.
"Next time those damn giants decide to 'visit', they can unload their own damn cargo!" one man spat, struggling to hoist a box onto his shoulder.
Just thinking back to those unreasonably heavy containers, bah! It made him furious! He, like all the other dock workers, had no idea what was in them, but from what he had heard, they were just a series of long metal rods! The most frustrating part was that they treated those stupid sticks like some kind of treasure and refused to sell even a single one of them! There must have been hundreds of containers, each the size of a person, but just as heavy as a literal carriage!
His voice was rough and raw…
"My back hasn't felt this bad since the last expedition concluded!"
"Hump!"
Another worker snorted, flipping open a manifest and squinting.
"Overtime my ass! They'll dock our pay for breathing too loud right now! I guess that they put a lot of value on these outsiders, right? I wonder what they really want to do?"
A man to the side shook his head.
A low wind swept across the harbor, carrying the strong scent of salt...
One of the older dock workers paused in the middle of tying a knot and glanced towards the horizon. The sky over there looked darker than it should have been, almost appearing as a heavy band of gray light that pressed down on the water.
He frowned.
"…The horizon's really dark…" he muttered quietly.
"Seems like we're going to get some rain…"
A nearby foreman turned and pointed towards a scrawny boy hovering near the edge of the pier. "You, brat, run to the weather tower! See how bad it's going to be and bring back the news!"
The boy nodded quickly and took off.
An abnormally loud bell rang out from somewhere deep in the harbor, its echo rolling across the docks like a resonating quake.
Several of the workers groaned.
One of the men spat with a scowl.
"Music all night, shouting all morning, the festival's more work than it's worth!"
"Recently, the empire sure has loved its celebrations," another old man replied with a tired sigh. "It's been like this forever, and we're the ones who have to clean it all up, but… recently, it's gotten a lot more frequent! I guess they want to get it all out of our systems before those calamities get really bad!"
He tossed down his broom and pulled out a crude pipe from his pocket.
He wiped it against his chest.
"That first cold spell was pretty bad, but aside from a few loud bangs, we didn't hear anything about the second one! I wonder if the third is really falling on our heads. Hump! If it is, won't our jobs just get worse? Ah, what a pain in the ass! Why don't I just retire?" He lit his pipe and pulled at the strange green string tied to his beard.
The tide suddenly shifted beneath the pier.
A veteran dockworker rested his hand on the railing, frowning. He was the first to sense 'it's' approach. "This one 'feels heavy,'" he murmured. "Wonder who it is this time…."
A few minutes later—
All the dock workers turned to the water…
-
The change was subtle, but they could 'all' feel it.
It was an instinct developed over many years of working near the water. Before anything could be seen, the harbor seemed to grow heavier with an unseen tension. Just past the outermost buoys, where the water darkened and the morning mist formed a veil, a vast shadow slowly began to take shape on the horizon. One large silhouette emerged, followed by half a dozen more, each slightly smaller, their outlines short and wide, moving with an unnatural steadiness through the haze.
Mm, it was a bit cinematic…
A lookout from the signal tower leaned forward, squinting hard into the haze.
"…That's not right," he muttered. "They're too early…"
A co-worker beside him looked over in confusion…
She looked back, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter. This is the last of the 'big shots', pay attention!"
-
Along the docks, people slowed their steps, then unconsciously rearranged themselves. The entire mood shifted like a gear clicking into place. Near the mouth of the harbor, signal lanterns changed in rhythmic colors, with their white turning to blue, then back again, and again. The pattern was precise, timed, and unmistakable to anyone who knew the encoded message, which I—as the author… did not!
Ahem…
The guards of the harbor moved without needing any orders!
They had done this same kind of 'welcoming' hundreds of times. It was the same sequence they had performed for each of the major overseas arrivals. Their 'uniforms' were straightened, their faces were 'flattened', and their weapons were sheathed! There was no panic, no disorder, and only the refined readiness of a group of 'unofficial officials' that represented the empire!
This was not an emergency, but it was also far from casual!
A senior officer stepped towards the edge of the pier, hands clasped behind his back, and his eyes fixed on the approaching silhouette.
"So they really did come early," he muttered to himself with a frown.
Nearby, a dockworker swallowed hard and leaned closer to his companion. "That symbol… is it the Guild? Did they really come to the Cross Continent?"
"That's right," another man replied. "And this time, we're the hosts, so it's best to not mess this up!"
Another man rubbed his nose nervously. "This is the first time I'll be seeing our 'allies' from overseas…"
"…The Blue Sea Guild…"
The name rippled from mouth to mouth, and the harbor fell into a collective lull…
Although not as overwhelming as the Dragon Clan, the Blue Sea Guild carried a weight nearly as great, its influence something few dared underestimate. Along the harbor, a quiet tension rose as the figures on the horizon continued their advance, growing larger with every passing moment.
* * *
The Blue Sea Guild was not a nation, nor did it possess any land in the traditional sense. Instead, it existed as a massive 'maritime guild', an organization whose influence flowed wherever the sea could reach, perhaps even further—
Oh, and they could reach really, really far!
Not only did the Blue Sea Guild hold an enormous amount of influence on nearly every continent throughout the world, rivalling the Adventurers Guild, but it also functioned as the 'linchpin' for almost all global trade! Many—if not all—of the smaller vessels that came to the Cross Continent this time had done so under the escort of a series of 'massive naval convoys' organized by the Blue Sea Guild, alongside dozens of its subsidiary organizations that operated under the same banner!
There was a saying—
While sailing the open seas, nearly eighty percent of all ships you encountered were connected to the Blue Sea Guild in one way or another! They were that enormous…
If you were a common sailor, then you probably learned the 'Laws of the Blue Sea', and its many 'codes' long before you learned the laws of any land-based kingdom!
As for the Hellion Empire, historically, the Blue Sea Guild's relationship with the empire had been strictly transactional. There was no alliance, no weird oath of loyalty, no, it was only a 'rigid' contract overseen by the 'Ninety-Nine'. In addition, every ten years, it was the Blue Sea Guild that enabled the Empire's long-distance expeditions to the surrounding continents.
This was not a matter of permission, but of necessity…
Their protection was not only to guard against pirates, but also against far greater threats, such as the Sea Clan and the Cloud Dragons.
The 'Cloud Dragons' weren't true dragons, no, they weren't even half-dragons, they were just mindless monsters that patrolled the sky above the sea, looking for food. Despite their lack of intelligence, they possessed the innate physical superiority of the dragon race, making them extremely catastrophic to an unescorted fleet! But this naturally meant that the Blue Sea Guild had a method to combat the Cloud Dragons. So, without the Blue Sea Guild's ships, unique charts, and special technology, such voyages would have been impossible!
In many ways, the Blue Sea Guild served as the Empire's silent backer when out at sea, a 'necessary' partner rather than a 'trusted' friend. And frankly, they weren't too trustworthy…
They were known for their complete control over countless deep-sea routes, special waterways that no ordinary traveler would dare to approach, literal underwater corridors carved open beneath crushing pressure, and dark trade routes where 'monster' and 'merchants' were indistinguishable! Their business often involved members of the Sea Clan as well…
The Blue Sea Guild possessed multiple independent navies, sponsored countless adventurers, skilled explorers, and scavenging specialists, while quietly maintaining ties to more than a few dozen infamous pirate groups! In Pillomal, piracy was no small matter! Entire trade routes could vanish overnight, and the Blue Sea Guild's involvement often determined whether a ship could return at all!
Their influence spanned most of the known world.
The Blue Sea Guild was 'neutral', but never 'harmless'…
Many of their vessels were ancient, reinforced with runes from the sea clan's rune system, and powered by forgotten technology from a long-fallen empire. In matters of transportation, only the Royal Tower and the Rollallrin Family of the Cellistan Continent could rival them!
-
They had just arrived on the Cross Continent.
This time, however, they had not come to trade, no, their arrival signaled their preparations for the Third Calamity and the beginning of a far stronger and much longer foothold on the Cross Continent!
They were not unique in this aspect…
* * *