Sonia Sea, ruins of Black Lake Island.
Queen Mystic Bernadette had no idea that Cattelya was being interrogated inside a dream.
At that moment, Silas and Antia were leading her into the Black King's cabin.
As she took in the cabin's interior, nostalgia gradually crept into her expression.
"That's right. This is the place..."
She murmured to herself as she looked around, eventually stopping before a corridor. Pointing at the wall, she said, "I remember there used to be a silk armchair here... I loved sitting in it and looking out at the sea through the window across from it..."
"Are you talking about a blue silk armchair?" Antia asked.
"Yes. What happened to it?"
"I threw it out a long time ago," the angelic ship spirit replied coldly, completely ignoring Bernadette's expression. "I did the same with everything else Roselle left behind. I tore it all apart and dumped it into the depths of the Fog Sea."
Anger flashed through Bernadette's eyes, but it quickly disappeared.
"I'm sorry. My father must have caused you a great deal of pain..."
"Save it."
Antia glared at Silas, clearly irritated that he had been careless enough to reveal her private affairs to someone else.
"Just do whatever you came here to do and leave. I want nothing more to do with Roselle."
"...I understand."
Bernadette had nothing else to say. She simply nodded and motioned for Silas to lead her to the locked room.
The room looked exactly as it had before. Its door remained firmly shut, and a half-finished chess game sat in front of it.
Bernadette stared at the chessboard in surprise. A moment later, nostalgia and sorrow appeared on her face.
"So this is where it ended up..."
She really did know how to play chess.
Silas had suspected that Roselle would not have left the game there for no reason.
Aside from later transmigrators, the people most likely to understand something like this would be his own family.
"Your Majesty, do you know how to play this game?" he quickly asked.
Bernadette nodded, then shook her head.
"He taught me the rules. For some reason, unlike his other inventions, he never introduced this game to the outside world. He only used it to pass the time by playing with me."
Her eyes grew distant with memory.
"Then how good are you?" Silas asked hopefully. "Can you checkmate the black pieces?"
"Let me try."
Bernadette lowered her head and studied the board, quietly murmuring to herself. Soon, translucent text appeared around her, filled with symbols and numbers.
After a moment, she shook her head.
"Unfortunately, according to my calculations, white is already trapped in a forced loss. No matter what move it makes, checkmate is inevitable."
How could that be?
Had Roselle created a lock that was impossible to open?
What was he trying to do? Make a fool of whoever came looking?
Silas stared at Bernadette, momentarily speechless. Antia reacted even more strongly. Her eyebrows shot up as though she were about to unleash a stream of curses.
"But that doesn't matter," Bernadette quickly added when she saw their reactions. "Just because I can't checkmate black doesn't mean I can't break the stalemate."
Under the watchful eyes of the other two, she stepped forward, grabbed the bottom of the chessboard, and flipped it over.
Clatter! Clatter!
The chess pieces scattered across the floor, rolling through the cabin with a series of sharp clicks.
"He once told me that if I couldn't win the game, I should simply flip the board over." Faced with Silas's stunned expression, Queen Mystic gave a rare smile. "I never thought I would actually have a reason to do it."
So she just flipped the board... That was definitely something Roselle would say. Still, was that really the sort of lesson he should have taught his daughter?
Silas lowered his head and looked at the overturned chessboard.
Sure enough, the scattered pieces did not return to their original positions. Instead, they gathered together and transformed into a brass-colored key.
The key floated into the air on its own, slid into the lock, and turned.
Click.
The door opened.
Silas and Bernadette exchanged a glance. With her leading the way, they entered one after the other.
Inside was a perfectly ordinary captain's cabin furnished with a desk and several bookshelves.
A sea chart was spread across the desk, held down by a pen, a magnifying glass, a sextant, and various other navigational tools.
The only unusual thing about the cabin was how lavishly it had been decorated.
Between the gilded vases, the furniture crafted from expensive wood, and the navigational instruments inlaid with gemstones, it was easy to imagine the extravagance its former occupant had once enjoyed.
"Tch."
The instant Antia saw the décor, her face twisted with disgust. She did not even want to step through the doorway.
Silas followed the queen inside. The moment he entered, his gaze landed on a strange card resting on the desk, its surface flickering with a flowing spiritual radiance.
A peculiar scene was depicted on the card.
A figure as enormous as a mountain stood within an orange glow. Its limbs were grotesquely elongated, and its body was covered in tattered silver armor.
The longsword in the giant's hand appeared to contain the concentrated light of dusk, yet it also seemed capable of ushering in the dawn of the world.
The giant had Roselle's face, and its eyes shimmered with an orange-gold light.
Starlight gathered at the top of the card, forming a line of text:
[Sequence 0: Twilight Giant]
A new Card of Blasphemy!
Twilight Giant... Judging by the armor, this was probably a Card of Blasphemy from the Warrior Pathway.
Silas studied the card as countless possibilities raced through his mind.
Bernadette, however, showed little interest in it. After entering the room, she merely picked it up, gave it a brief glance, and placed it back on the desk.
She then summoned several invisible servants and ordered them to search the entire room for her.
Books, sailing logs, sea charts... Every piece of information was recorded by the servants and presented before Bernadette's Mystery-Prying Eye.
Queen Mystic's expression remained unchanged as she rapidly reviewed everything.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Silas asked.
She shook her head.
"Not yet, as far as I can tell," she replied with a frown. "You can keep that card. May I take these materials with me?"
"Of course."
Silas glanced back at Antia. She nodded impatiently, clearly eager to have everything connected to Roselle removed from the ship.
At that moment, the invisible servants finally finished searching the room. They discovered a hidden compartment behind one of the bookshelves and pulled out a locked black box.
It immediately caught the attention of both Silas and Bernadette.
The box's keyhole was identical to the Black King's key that Silas held in his hand.
However, when he cautiously tried to insert the key, a strange rule immediately took effect and forced it back out.
"This box seems to be testing my spirituality," Silas said with a frown, recalling the sensation. "I have a feeling it's telling me that I need to reach Sequence 3 before I can open it."