"Move these things... swap their positions? Why?"
Inside the dark warehouse, listening to the Living Puppet Tom's words, Kapak scratched his head in confusion, while Dorothy, using Tom's body, continued to speak directly.
"Just move them when I tell you to. I'll explain why after we're out of danger. Right now, you just need to know that this is the only way you can save Wooden Hoof and those essences. While the Life Devour buff I put on you is still active, hurry up!" Dorothy urged through Tom. Moving so many things wouldn't be possible without the effect of Life Devour on their bodies. The Life Devour effect Dorothy had applied to Kapak when he knocked out Tom was still there. If they didn't move now and waited until the effect wore off, Dorothy would have to waste another Life Devour.
"Oh... alright, Detective..."
Listening to Dorothy's words, Kapak, who was wondering what a buff was, didn't dare to delay and immediately began moving the boxes. Dorothy also applied another Life Devour to Tom's body for physical enhancement and started moving the boxes as well.
Just like that, inside the dimly lit port warehouse, two figures were busy moving back and forth, quietly transporting the goods. There were two piles of goods, a total of over eighty coffin-sized boxes. Although they weren't far apart, only a few steps, moving them was not an easy task. With so many heavy boxes, an average adult's strength wouldn't be enough to move them all by morning. Since Dorothy could apply Life Devour to Tom and Kapak, the efficiency of moving was not low.
Under Dorothy's instructions, they moved very carefully, making little noise. After spending about ten minutes, they had finally moved more than half of them. At this moment, a wooden box in the pile that originally contained essences, which was larger than the average box, caught the attention of Kapak and Dorothy. Kapak's eyes lit up as he said.
"This... the feeling of this spirit is... Detective, I can feel the sensation coming from this box, it's Lord Wooden Hoof inside!
"Lord Wooden Hoof's spirit body is very strong, even through the seal I can vaguely hear its voice!"
Listening to Kapak's words, Dorothy didn't respond immediately. Instead, she picked up a tool and slightly pried open a corner of the large wooden box in front of her, shining a gas lamp inside to look. What she saw was a black iron coffin.
'The coffin materials are different. The restraint ability of this iron coffin is clearly stronger, but even so, this Wooden Hoof can still leak out some of its influence. As expected of a Wilderness Spirit?'
Looking at the iron coffin inside the wooden box, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, she used Tom to ask Kapak.
"You said you can hear Wooden Hoof's voice, is it saying anything now?"
"Hmm... well... Lord Wooden Hoof's voice is very blurry, I can't hear exactly what it's saying, I can only vaguely hear some words. I can tell it's very angry, it's struggling but it's useless, it... it seems to be cursing the invaders, cursing, the despicable cursers..."
Putting his ear close to the box, Kapak used his Seer ability to listen to the faint sounds coming from the iron coffin inside the box, distinguishing the meaning from the vague and chaotic sounds to tell Tom. After listening, Dorothy couldn't help but stroke her chin in thought.
'Invader's curser? Wooden Hoof curses like this... Could it be that it was cursed? Could cursing be one of the Netherworld Coffin Society's Extraordinary abilities? It seems that the undead from North Africa could also use cursing abilities. It seems that among the Extraordinary paths of'Silence', one should specialize in cursing... And the Netherworld Coffin Society's Extraordinary who suppressed and sealed Wooden Hoof should also be on this branch path.'
After thinking, Dorothy pulled her thoughts back to the main topic. She controlled Tom to close the box that had been pried open at a corner, and then continued to speak to Kapak, who clearly had the idea of releasing Wooden Hoof now.
"Alright, we absolutely cannot release them all now. Continue moving. This is the only way to save them right now."
Listening to Tom's words, Kapak paused slightly as he looked at the box containing Wooden Hoof's spirit body, then nodded. After standing up, he continued to follow Tom in moving the boxes.
Finally, after another ten minutes, the eighty-odd wooden boxes were all moved. The pile of boxes that originally contained tobacco and the pile containing essences and Wooden Hoof had now completely swapped positions. The two piles of boxes looked almost identical from the outside, the only difference being the labels on the black cloths covering them.
The label on one black cloth read 'Animal Specimens', to be loaded onto the ship at 6 AM and transported to Dankoto. The boxes covered by the cloth contained tobacco. The label on the black cloth of the other pile of goods read 'Tobacco', to be loaded onto the ship at 4 AM and transported to Tivian. The wooden boxes in the pile of goods under the black cloth actually contained essences.
"Huff... huff... huff... Doing this... can we really save Lord Wooden Hoof and them?"
Panting heavily, Kapak, who was sitting directly on the ground from exhaustion, looked at the two piles of goods in front of him and couldn't help but ask in confusion. On the other side, Dorothy, no matter how tired she was, wouldn't feel it herself, so she had Tom stand and answer directly.
"Of course, but they won't be freed immediately. This Wilderness Spirit and its essences will still need to take a long journey afterward, and they probably won't be able to return anytime soon."
"Can't return anytime soon? Detective, Wilderness Spirits are spirits of the land, they will get weaker and weaker if they are away from their habitat for too long. Wilderness Spirits are important guardians of our land, how long do you mean by 'anytime soon'?"
Kapak asked Tom with a hint of anxiety, and Tom, under Dorothy's control, responded calmly.
"Fifteen days, within fifteen days I guarantee that all the restraints on Wooden Hoof and the other essences can be removed. But after they are freed, I don't know if these Wilderness Spirits and essences can cross the sea by themselves over a long distance. If I have to transport them back in this sealed state, it might take even longer, I can only guarantee it within a month."
"Fifteen days? If Lord Wooden Hoof can gain freedom within fifteen days, that's acceptable! If Lord Wooden Hoof can be freed from the restraint of that iron coffin, then I can ask Teacher Uta to hold a Seer ritual at his Festival (ritual site), and directly Seer Lord Wooden Hoof's spirit body back. With Teacher Uta's power, as long as there is a sufficiently close medium, no matter how far away the spirit is, he can instantly Seer it to his side."
Listening to Dorothy's response, Kapak raised his eyebrows and responded. Hearing his words, Dorothy felt a trace of surprise in her heart.
"Seer ritual... able to summon spirit bodies regardless of distance, is this the ability of a Shaman?"
"Yes, this is an ability that Teacher Uta has shown me, and it is something that only Shamans of his level can do. Although this ability is very strong, if the spirit body is under too strong a restraint, it cannot be summoned. I can feel from Lord Wooden Hoof's reaction just now that the seal on the iron coffin that sealed it is very powerful. Unless it is broken, even Teacher Uta would probably find it difficult to Seer it.
"And as long as Lord Wooden Hoof is Seeer back, it will be much easier. These other essences are subordinate essences that have long been associated with Lord Wooden Hoof. If Lord Wooden Hoof returns, these essences can also be easily summoned back to his side by Lord Wooden Hoof."
With a slight boastful tone, Kapak said to Tom. Listening to his words, Dorothy, who was still sitting by the stove, nodded slightly.
"So that's how it is... It seems that the Shaman path is quite interesting too..."
Just as Dorothy was marveling at the Shaman's abilities, she suddenly thought of something, then clapped her hands together.
"Wait... According to Kapak's statement, perhaps I can also get some other gains from this batch of essences..."
Sitting in her seat by the stove at home, Dorothy also had some ideas emerging in her mind at this time. Because of her thoughts, Tom in the distant warehouse was now in a daze, and Kapak on the side asked curiously.
"Hey, Detective, is something wrong?"
"Ah... nothing, just thought of something."
Saying that, Dorothy, who had reacted, manipulated Tom to walk around the warehouse and scan it. After searching for a while, she found a hanging cargo register on a wall, with an attached pen. Dorothy had Tom pick up the register, and after flipping through a few pages to a new, blank page, he started writing on it with the pen. After finishing writing, he tore off the entire page.
Next, Dorothy had Tom hold the torn-off page and walk over to a pile of goods labeled as animal specimens, which were actually tobacco. After lifting the covering cloth, he pasted the written paper onto the inner side of one of the wooden boxes. After doing these things, he walked over to Kapak, who looked confused, and instructed him.
"Kid, things are pretty much done now. It's time to leave, but there might be eyes from those other guys outside this warehouse, so you shouldn't leave so openly. How about this, you find a place to hide, wait until the dock gets a bit brighter during the day and livens up, then blend in with the crowd when there are many people and leave, understand?"
"I will follow your orders, Detective."
Kapak responded to Tom in front of him. Then Dorothy had Tom find a worker's uniform for Kapak in the warehouse, had him change into it, and found a hidden spot for him to hide. Then he gave Tom's extraordinary items and pistol to Kapak, and Kapak promised to hide well.
After hiding Kapak, it was time for Dorothy to handle Tom's affairs. He had Tom continue to go out as the Captain of the security team. After chatting with other security guards and workers on night duty outside, he left alone.
Under Dorothy's control, Tom, the Apprentice of the Netherworld Coffin Society, inadvertently walked to the seaside of the dock, then found a rope and tied a stone to it, and jumped into the dark sea unnoticed.
Time flew by. Kapak, dressed in a worker's uniform, hid in the dark corner of the warehouse, waiting silently. As time passed second by second, he heard the sounds outside the warehouse becoming increasingly lively. Although it was not yet dawn, more and more people began to move around outside, with all sorts of noises. The sound of ship whistles occasionally came from afar.
As the sounds became more chaotic, the warehouse door was also opened. Even before dawn, workers had already entered the warehouse and began moving things out. The flow of people in the warehouse began to increase. They started moving goods out based on the labels on the covering cloths of the piles. Kapak, hiding in the dark, personally witnessed the pile of goods labeled as tobacco, which actually contained sealed Wooden Hoof and other essences, being transported out of the warehouse by ordinary dock workers using carts.
Just like that, Kapak seized an opportunity and blended in with the coming and going workers to escape. The pile of essences treated as tobacco was also successfully transported by the dock workers onto the Endeavor, setting sail for Tivian, while the replaced tobacco remained in the warehouse, labeled with animal specimen tags, waiting to be loaded onto a ship and transported to Dankoto later.
"Woo woo~~ It's finally temporarily over, time to go to sleep..."
By the fireplace in the distance, after seeing Kapak leave safely, Dorothy yawned and extinguished the fire in the fireplace, then went upstairs to change clothes and sleep. In bed, Dorothy glanced at the slightly bright sky, then covered his head with the quilt and murmured as he fell asleep.
"So... when will those guys contact me?"
...
Night passed and day came, the moon set and the sun rose.
In the morning, between the Main Continent and the New World, upon the vast, boundless sea, bright sunlight shone down, reflecting the shimmering waves on the seawater.
The passenger-cargo steamship named Princess Jenna was spewing black smoke, dragging a long white wake as it sailed on the azure sea. There were passengers walking around on the deck, basking in the sun. Many passengers were in a pleasant mood due to the good weather right after setting sail.
Of course, only many, not all. At this moment, some passengers' hearts were filled with extreme gloom and heaviness.
Inside the cargo hold below the Princess Jenna, there were seven or eight people standing at this moment. There were men and women among them. Some were dressed as ordinary passengers, while others were crew members. At this moment, they all had heavy expressions and lowered heads. In front of them was a large pile of opened wooden boxes, containing boxes of high-quality tobacco from colonial plantations. There were also two people busy opening other boxes.
Among this group of men and women with lowered heads, Lareina, dressed as a noblewoman, was standing there, her eyes fixed on the boxes of tobacco before her, her face terribly gloomy. Around her, invisible vengeful spirits were howling, seemingly lowering the surrounding temperature by a few degrees.
At this moment, the members of the Netherworld Coffin Society on the Princess Jenna were gathered together. These henchmen were so intimidated by Lareina's demeanor that they didn't dare to breathe loudly.
"When... were these swapped?"
Facing the boxes of tobacco before her, Lareina said coldly, and beside her, one of the men answered timidly.
"Your Excellency Lareina, it wasn't on the ship... We found it like this the first time we checked upon boarding! It, it should have been at the port, the problem occurred when it was stored at the port!!"
"At the port... didn't we have our people there too? How could someone still swap them? And silently?! What good are you useless people?! If you don't have spirits in your bodies, just extract them and refine them into Spirituality to be of some use!"
Suppressing her inner anger, Lareina strictly reprimanded them, and the subordinate from earlier continued to answer.
"No, I don't know! We can't contact the main person in charge at the port either. We suspect he might be dead, and we are preparing to have the people still on shore set up a ritual at the port to summon his soul..."
The subordinate responded in such a frightened manner, and just as Lareina was about to say something, the two men who were rummaging through the tobacco boxes suddenly called out.
"Your Excellency Lareina! Look what we found!"
Saying that, one of the men rummaging through the boxes ran to Lareina and handed her a piece of paper that had just been found among the tobacco. After taking it and looking at it, she immediately frowned.
This torn-off piece of paper was written sloppily in Prit.
...
"To the esteemed members of the Netherworld Coffin Society, by the time you read this note, you are probably troubled by the loss of some items. However, it's alright, since you have seen this note, there is still a turning point.
To be frank, for some reason, your society's items were discovered by this humble one. The items you have lost are now in the hands of this humble one. Please rest assured, I have preserved them very well, not one of the items inside has escaped.
Honestly, this humble one is not someone who enjoys forcefully occupying others' property. This batch of goods from your society is... actually not of much use to this humble one. If your society can offer reasonable chips, this humble one will certainly return what belongs to you, completely and without any damage. Of course, for the specific transaction details, we need to discuss them in detail.
If you have the desire to retrieve these items, please contact me within seven days through the confidential postal service recently opened by the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild. You only need to contact 'Thief K'... This humble one eagerly awaits your letter."
...
"Thief..."
In the cargo hold of the Princess Jenna, Lareina looked at the note in her hand, and after murmuring a couple of times, she clenched her hand tightly, crushing the paper into a ball. The heaviness on her gloomy face deepened by several points.