Conquest Sea, the shining white pearl.
Thick, gray clouds of January and February pressed down on the sky. Above the vast, gloomy sea, the massive cruise ship was sailing forward. This ship, carrying over two thousand seven hundred passengers, was currently deviating from its original course, heading towards a desolate sea area, while the vast majority of passengers on board were completely unaware of this.
Inside one of the ship's cabins, Dorothy, dressed in casual clothes, sat by the window, gazing out at the surging, turbulent sea with a serious expression.
At this moment, Dorothy had just used a small Corpse Puppet to eavesdrop on the conversation between Costa and Massimo at the stern of the ship, learning about their next moves. She felt uneasy about these guys' subsequent plans.
'These guys... they actually want to sail the ship to a nearby Sea Abyss Church stronghold and ask the people there to help find me? The place they're going to is called White Tears Island, and the person they're looking for seems to be called Sword Scale... apparently a high-ranking member of the Sea Abyss Church responsible for guarding the temple and performing rituals.'
'Listening to the way they addressed this Sword Scale, he holds a very high position in the Sea Abyss Church, high enough to punish Costa and Massimo, these two Chalk. Therefore, he is very likely a Scarlet.'
'This is a bit bad. These two guys are actually sailing the ship towards the direction where a Scarlet is located. If they really manage to sail the ship there and a Scarlet comes looking for me personally, that would be terrible.'
Dorothy thought with furrowed brows. She had pretty much understood by now that on the Extraordinary path, the leap from Chalk to Scarlet Tier was immense, far greater than the leap from Black Earth to Chalk. Within large Extraordinary organizations, Chalk could be considered high-level executives, while Scarlet were the leadership. After reaching Scarlet, an Extraordinary's life form would even undergo some changes, granting them a lifespan of hundreds of years, far exceeding ordinary people. In comparison, the lifespan of a Chalk was still within the range of ordinary people.
Therefore, although Dorothy had now advanced to Chalk, she definitely did not want to engage in a fight with a Scarlet's main body. Just dealing with a Scarlet's derivative made her feel extremely difficult to handle.
'Now this shining white pearl is heading towards an island belonging to the Sea Abyss Church, where there is a temple guarded by a Scarlet. Besides the Scarlet named Sword Scale, I don't know how much other Sea Abyss Church power is in that temple. Going there like this is completely walking into the tiger's den. Whether I can hide or not, it's very dangerous. Facing a Scarlet, I cannot control the situation.'
'Therefore... no matter what, I cannot let these guys sail the ship to that White Tears Island. Once we get there and face a Scarlet's true body and a whole bunch of other Sea Abyss Church members, any operation will probably be useless.'
Dorothy thought this. She knew that while planning and manipulation could, to some extent, reverse a not-too-large power gap, when facing an absolutely overwhelming power disparity, planning was difficult to be effective. Therefore, Dorothy must now find a way to prevent them from sailing the ship to their destination.
'But... how should I stop them? From the results of the past few days' reconnaissance, almost half of the crew are Sea Abyss Church members, and the entire bridge is staffed by their people. That Costa also stays there for extended periods. Directly stopping them by force is almost equivalent to engaging them in a direct frontal battle.'
Touching her chin, Dorothy thought with furrowed brows. Honestly, she was very reluctant to engage in a battle with two Wave Path Chalk on this vast, boundless sea. Because at sea, Dorothy relied on the ship to have a foothold, while those Water Manipulators didn't. In the worst-case scenario, they only needed to choose to sink the ship, and then Dorothy would have no means whatsoever.
It was still the same old problem. The opponents had too many means at sea, and their tolerance for error was high. If Dorothy wanted to engage them in a frontal battle, she had to simultaneously severely injure those two Chalk in one go at the beginning. However, since both of them were Extraordinary specializing in the "Cup", achieving this was simply too difficult.
'Hiss... this is a bit tricky... Looking at the current situation, besides directly engaging them head-on and forcibly taking control of the ship, there are no other methods. But fighting them directly, not to mention whether I can win, even if I can, if they sink the ship out of desperation, that would be terrible. Unless I can defeat both of them in a short time without giving them any breathing room, but with my current strength, instantly killing two Chalk "Cup" at the start is simply too difficult...'
Dorothy grabbed her hair, thinking anxiously. As she thought, she looked out the window at the distant sea surface, at the cloudy weather at sea where the sun was not visible.
'Cloudy weather... For a Summoning Thunder Master, it's considered relatively good weather, but not as good as a thunderstorm. If there were suddenly a thunderstorm now, maybe I could really challenge fighting the two of them head-on. But looking at the situation, this cloudy weather seems to be continuous and shows no sign of turning into a thunderstorm... If the weather isn't optimal and I have to fight them directly, could it be that I have to use that Stone carving and ask that old guy for help?'
Dorothy looked at the thick clouds outside the window, thinking. Due to the season, the weather at sea hadn't been very good recently. Two days ago, there was barely a period of clear sky, but yesterday afternoon it turned cloudy again. Although this cloudy weather wasn't raining, there was no sign of it ending.
According to some sailing books Dorothy had read in the Crown University library before, this sea area during this season is predominantly cloudy, and clear days like the day before yesterday only last for a while.
"It should be... cloudy weather that lasts for a long time..."
Looking at the clouds in the sky, Dorothy couldn't help but murmur. Then, a slight idea formed in her mind. Her previously furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, as if she had thought of something. She immediately sat up straight and murmured,
"That's right. If it's cloudy for a long time, maybe I can try this..."
"Tsk, but there's also a problem with that. According to what those guys said, if the ship travels at full speed, it will only take a little over a day to reach White Tears Island. If it doesn't reach the destination after this time, these guys will become suspicious. However, this ship has already deviated south for about a day, having long since moved away from the coast and deep into the Conquest Sea. Given the ship's current position at sea, it's probably difficult to reach the shore in a little over a day. Once they become suspicious, everything will go back to square one."
Not long after her brows relaxed, Dorothy furrowed them again and murmured. Although she had just thought of a method, currently this method only seemed to slightly delay their progress towards White Tears Island. Once they discovered something was wrong, everything would return to the current state.
'Even if the ship sails north towards the mainland at full speed now, it won't reach the shore in a day. So, for this method to work, it needs to be carefully refined.'
Crossing her arms, Dorothy continued to think seriously. After thinking for a while, she suddenly thought of something else.
'Right, Vanya should also be on her way to Iweig now. If I remember correctly, she is traveling on a special Church ship under the guise of pilgrimage to Iweig. When I communicated with her before, she said that although she departed from Tivian two days earlier than us, in order to rendezvous with other pilgrims going to Iweig, she waited for four days at Base Port in Faloro, and finally departed from Base two days later than Neff and I...'
'There is only one optimal route from Base to Iweig. Therefore... Vanya's ship, which departed a day later than ours, should now be on its normal course, continuing east towards Iweig. Meanwhile, a day ago, my current ship deviated from the normal course and started sailing south continuously, and just a short while ago, it turned west... In short, if it doesn't keep heading east after deviating from the normal course, the shining white pearl will be unable to maintain a relative distance from Vanya's ship within a certain period of time.'
Because those guys and I were fighting on this ship, the shining white pearl has been randomly circling south and west after deviating from its course. The result is that ships sailing on the normal route will catch up. If my calculations are correct... we shouldn't be too far away from them now!
Dorothy thought, then immediately closed her eyes and began to use the information channel to sense Vanya's current location and her distance from herself. Then, she immediately opened her eyes.
"This distance... it'll work..."
After confirming Vanya's current location and distance from her, Dorothy's expression couldn't help but relax. Then she immediately closed her eyes and, under the guise of praying to Aka, sent a message to Vanya using the information channel, asking her how big the Church ship on her side was and what the escort force was like.
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...
"Huh? Miss Dorothea... is asking Aka to call me again?"
In a simply decorated, spacious and bright cabin, Vanya, who had been praying earnestly before a simple altar, suddenly opened her eyes, looked around, and muttered.
'Normally, Miss Dorothea would only trouble Aka to relay her message in a very urgent situation. This means... has she encountered some kind of crisis now? It feels like Miss Dorothea is always easily involved in some incident... Since meeting her, the frequency of me being involved in incidents has also greatly increased...'
Standing up, Vanya, dressed in a white Sister's habit, adjusted her glasses and thought to herself. Looking back over the past six months, she had been involved in more incidents than in her previous ten-plus years of life combined, although her merits and rank had also been rising rapidly in proportion.
'Don't worry about too much for now. If Miss Dorothea is in danger, she must be fighting against heretics and evil organizations again. I need to support her to the best of my ability.
'But if she's asking how big our ship is and what the guard force is like, I'll have to go out and check a bit...'
Thinking this, Vanya walked to the passenger cabin door, opened it, and stepped out of her cabin. Then she walked quickly along the simple corridor towards the deck. Along the way, she met a gaunt ascetic who was also on a pilgrimage. After Vanya bowed slightly to them, she continued walking forward and finally reached the deck of her ship after climbing a flight of stairs.
The whistling sea wind blew Vanya's white Sister's habit, the symbol of a Healing Priest. Screeching seabirds soared in flocks in the sky. In the wind, Vanya held her Sister's hat and looked around. Before her eyes was a wide deck, and in the distance on the sea beyond the deck were several fully armed escort warships.
On the vast sea, three ordinary passenger ships were moving in formation, one in front and two behind. Around these three passenger ships was an arranged escort formation, consisting of six Church warships flying the Glorious Sun flag, two large and four small.
The two large warships, positioned side by side at the front of the fleet at a distance, were nearly a hundred meters long. They were covered with thick iron armor from front to back. Each of the fore and aft decks was equipped with two twin main guns, and a row of smaller secondary guns was arranged on each side. Three thick, long chimneys spewed black smoke into the sky.
The bow was decorated with a figurehead of an angel holding a sword. Below the figurehead was an exaggeratedly large ram. The ship was not only hung with signal flags but also pages filled with scriptures. Dense scriptures were also printed on the steel armor belt. Countless sailors in uniform were moving back and forth on the deck.
'Hmm... The Holy Rite Knights, who specialize in escorting pilgrims, the naval escort force they've assigned to us... what exactly is it like? It's a bit troublesome to figure it out... If I ask too many details, I might be suspected...'
Looking at the circle of warships around her ship, Vanya thought with some frustration. After that, she decided to report what she saw before her to Dorothy first.
...
Conquest Sea, the shining white pearl.
Under the gray sky, the huge cruise ship was sailing west, heading towards White Tears Island to the west under Mr. Costa's command. Two thousand seven hundred passengers on board, without realizing it, continued to enjoy themselves while heading towards a destination that did not belong to them at all.
Inside the cockpit, two sailors sat in their positions, chatting boredly about whether drinking human blood directly or boiling it first was more delicious. After setting the course and fixing the rudder, they usually chose various ways to pass the time.
As they were chatting, footsteps came from afar. The two sailors immediately became alert and looked outside the door, then saw the serious-faced First Mate Bins walk in, who was their superior.
Seeing First Mate Bins, the two sailors immediately stood up and greeted him. The First Mate nodded after seeing them, then spoke.
"Is the current course alright?"
"No problem. According to Mr. Costa's instructions, the current course is straight west, destination White Tears Island!"
The sailor answered the First Mate's words seriously. The First Mate listened to the sailor's words without speaking, but slowly walked to the control panel. After looking around there, he fixed his gaze on the compass next to the rudder.
After carefully confirming the direction on the compass, the First Mate's brows furrowed slightly, then he turned back and shouted loudly at the two sailors.
"This is heading west? Go and take a good look at this compass yourselves! See where the needle is pointing? Now tell me where you're heading?!"
With an angry expression, the First Mate roared at the two sailors. The two sailors were slightly stunned when they heard this, then rushed to look at the compass fixed next to the rudder. After confirming the needle on it, they confirmed the ship's current heading, and then confirmed that the ship was indeed not heading west, but towards the southwest. If they continued this way, they would not reach White Tears Island!
"Uh... Ah, sorry, Mr. Bins! We were careless, we'll correct it now!"
"Hurry up! Hurry up before Mr. Costa comes to check. If the time to go to White Tears Island is delayed because of this deviation, you'll be in for it!"
Seeing that the ship's direction was wrong, the two sailors immediately rushed to correct the course. But in a place they couldn't see, under the compass, inside the control panel, a flying insect was crawling below the compass, and invisible currents were flowing on its body.
On the other side, Dorothy sat in her cabin, drinking coffee while listening to the sounds from the cockpit. After taking a sip of coffee, she looked out the window at the cloudy weather.
"Heh... What careless guys. In this weather with no sun and no stars, the only navigation is the compass. If you don't strictly follow it to determine the course, you won't reach your destination."
Dorothy muttered as she raised her small hand and looked at the slightly flickering electric arc between her fingertips.
Although she couldn't electrocute two Chalks in one go, she could control the ship's magnetic field with fine precision.