Under the clear sky was an endless sea, with seabirds soaring freely in the sky. Under the blowing sea breeze, the sea surface shimmered with rippling light.
On the vast sea, a white passenger ship was slowly sailing forward, with a long wake trailing behind it.
This was a passenger ship that had just left Navaja not long ago. At this moment, Dorothy was sitting in the first-class cabin of this passenger ship, occasionally looking around the clean cabin she was in, and occasionally looking out at the vast sea through the porthole.
'The environment is alright... Although it's much worse than the cabins on a cruise ship like the shining white pearl, at least it's clean, and it won't be uncomfortable to live in...'
Sitting on the fixed seat by the porthole, Dorothy evaluated the environment of her journey in her heart. Although it was much smaller and simpler than the luxurious cabins of the shining white pearl, it was not unacceptable. After all, this was already the best cabin on this passenger ship. There were two other classes of cabins: one was a multi-person room squeezed with four people, and the other was a large shared room squeezed with a dozen people. Being able to have a single room was already a blessing.
'Although the cabin is okay... I still miss the luxurious cabins on the shining white pearl. Living there was really comfortable...'
Sitting on the chair, Dorothy looked at the surrounding environment and thought with some nostalgia. The shining white pearl could be considered the most comfortable mode of transportation she had ever taken. Everything was great except for the large number of Fanatics on board. Unfortunately, she had personally blown it up now.
'If I have the chance in the future... I'll specifically find another luxurious cruise ship to travel somewhere~ I'll do a thorough investigation before going to make sure there's nothing messy on it.'
Standing up from the chair, Dorothy lay back on the bed and daydreamed. Then, she began to ponder the situation in Navaja and her current plan.
'Anyway, I finally got out of Navaja before the Church started a large-scale search. I originally thought it would take a day or two for the Church's people to arrive after this happened, but I didn't expect them to arrive on the same day...'
'Thinking about it now, those were probably the personnel who were called to deal with the Sea Abyss Church's matter before. As a result, they immediately encountered the Black Dream causing trouble again. With this pile of troublesome matters, those guys are probably going to be very busy.'
Dorothy thought to herself. She had already gotten used to quickly causing a lot of trouble for the local official Extraordinary organizations after arriving at a place.
'But then again, why did those guys from the Black Dream Hunter Group choose to come and make the chrysalis pupate that day? The Church's ships and Extraordinary were all gathered at the port. Pupating would be equivalent to directly starting a war. Couldn't they have chosen another time, waiting until the Church's people left before pupating? Why were they in such a hurry, insisting on clashing head-on with the Church's people? Was it because they concluded they were exposed after the failed reconnaissance at the Church and wanted to fight it out? If so, their strategic composure is a bit poor.'
Lying on the bed, Dorothy thought with some confusion. She was still somewhat puzzled by the Black Dream Hunter Group suddenly making the moth pupate. However, she quickly stopped thinking about this aspect and shifted her thoughts to her current goal.
'The city I'm going to now is called Truva. According to the information gathered in Navaja, this city is the largest city in the southern region of Castile. Although it's not as large as Tivian, it's much larger than Navaja and is the closest large city to Navaja. A city of this size should have a branch of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild...'
'Now Neff's study tour group has also finished visiting Navaja and is probably taking a ship to Truva tomorrow, from there transferring to Iweig. Vanya's fleet is also said to be about to set sail soon. If that's the case, everyone will finally be able to reach their destination in a few days. It wasn't easy...'
Thinking about Neff and Vanya's current itineraries, Dorothy thought to herself. If it had been according to the original plan, they would have already been in Iweig by now, instead of still circling around here endlessly.
However, fortunately, everyone was finally setting off again. At this moment, Dorothy inwardly hoped that her journey would be smooth sailing from now on, or at least that there would be fewer incidents.
...
North Shore of Conquest Sea, Navaja.
The southern port area of Navaja was bustling at this time. After a few days of docking, the Church fleet at the port was preparing to set sail again, resuming its pilgrimage to Iweig.
"We're finally setting off again... It was originally just a brief stop, but I didn't expect so many unexpected things to happen."
Sitting in her cabin, the white Sister Vanya couldn't help but murmur as she looked at the busy scene outside the window. Dorothy had already told her the brief truth about the city's abnormality this morning and the specific reasons for the disturbance last night.
'I really didn't expect... Such a dangerous cult society would be hidden in such an ordinary small city... Manipulating dreams, devouring dream cocoon, cultivating monsters, tormenting spirits... In every aspect, the degree of harm caused by this society is no less than that of the Wolf Blood Society and the like...'
'If I didn't have Aka's protection, and if Miss Dorothea wasn't nearby to help, I would have been harmed by these Fanatics at the Church the night before... Although he never forced me to believe, Aka saved me once again...'
Putting her hand on her chest, Vanya thought this way. This was not the first time she had received divine grace. As a Sister, to be directly protected by the divine being so many times made her often feel a strong sense of unreality, while also raising her reverence for Aka to a higher level.
'No! This time it's not just me, but also the innocents of the entire Navaja... Although Aka and His mortal servants have never preached any doctrine of saving the world and doing good, their actions are often acts of salvation, sometimes even feeling better than the Church. This time, they even saved a city...'
Looking out the window at the city she was about to leave, looking at the masses working on the dock, Vanya felt a lot of emotions in her heart.
At first, Vanya felt very apprehensive about being enlightened by an otherworld deity and being protected by an otherworld deity, fearing that serious consequences would ensue if it was exposed at some point. But now, she no longer had this feeling of fear at all. Instead, she felt increasingly fortunate in her heart to be able to come into contact with Aka and to be able to directly or indirectly save many people under His guidance. This was something she could not do before, when she was just an ordinary scripture reader.
'According to Miss Dorothea, the abnormality last night was caused by the dream monster created by that Dream Society, and that monster was finally defeated in the dream by Aka's Apostle.'
'Miss Dorothea, at such a young age, already has the ability to communicate with the divine being's Apostle? It seems her status among Aka's servants is not ordinary. I really want to see what Aka's Apostle looks like...'
Vanya thought in her heart with some longing, and at this moment, her eyes, which were looking out the porthole, suddenly caught an unusual scene.
Vanya saw that on the busy dock where preparations for setting sail were underway, several figures were walking away from the port. She recognized one of the figures; it was Jode, the commander-in-chief of the escort fleet.
"That's... Lord Jode. He looks very unwell. The fleet is about to set sail now, what is he going to do by getting off the ship and walking towards the City? Is he going to get something?
"And those people next to Lord Jode... Those clothes are Inquisitors?! Are they people from the Castile Judge? Where are they taking Lord Jode? The fleet is clearly about to set sail..."
Looking at the scene on the shore, Vanya couldn't help but murmur with confusion. What she didn't know was that at this moment on the shore, more than one pair of eyes was observing this scene.
...
Navaja, not far from the port, there was a tall hotel. In the top-floor guest room of the hotel, two figures were standing at this time. They were two men of different ages.
One of them, a younger man, stood by the window. He pulled open a gap in the curtains and peered into the distance through this gap. The direction he was looking was precisely the port where the fleet was preparing to set sail.
The other man was a middle-aged man with a full beard. At this moment, he was sitting behind a table in the room, with a pile of documents in front of him. The man was sorting through these documents with a focused expression.
"As expected, those Fanatics are leaving. They are preparing to set sail now. However, a new group of Fanatics suddenly appeared at the port. Looking at their clothes, they seem to be people from the Judge!"
The young man standing by the window said, while looking into the distance with superhuman vision. After hearing his words, the middle-aged man who was sorting documents in the room paused, then turned his head to look at the young man and spoke.
"Are they those lunatics from the Judge? Then this matter is troublesome... These guys are much more difficult to deal with than the Knights. It will be very difficult to find out anything from them..."
"But from another perspective... It can basically be confirmed that Costa and the others have fallen into the hands of these Fanatics. Otherwise, the people from the Judge would not appear here. They are here to take over the case..."
The middle-aged man said with a frown after putting down the work in his hands. It was obvious that they were both followers of the Sea Abyss Church, and the reason they came to Navaja was to confirm the status of the missing Costa and the others, as well as information about the deep blue heart.
"It seems that Costa and the others are likely to be in grave danger now. They were either caught by the Fanatics or are gone. It would be more appropriate for us to have White Tears Island directly prepare for summoning spirits."
The man by the window said with a serious tone, while the middle-aged man on the other side replied coldly.
"Summoning spirits? That's too far. If Costa and the others died here, the ritual set up on White Tears Island won't be able to summon them. If Costa and the others are really dead, we don't know exactly how long they've been dead. If it's been too long, they can't be summoned back even if it's close."
The middle-aged man said this. In the hidden world, summoning spirits is also a very important ability. Large Extraordinary organizations will hire some "Silent" Extraordinary to specialize in summoning spirits, but the ranks of these "Silent" Extraordinary are usually not very high, usually only at the Apprentice or Black Earth level.
For societies that do not primarily cultivate "Silence", the ability to summon spirits is very limited and subject to many restrictions, distance being one of them. After all, the essence of a summoning ritual is to use a medium to call the departed spirit, allowing it to float into the ritual on its own and manifest. The distance between the spirit and the ritual must be considered. Summoning spirits cannot summon spirits into the ritual regardless of distance like necromancy.
This is why the Sea Abyss Church could not use the ability to summon spirits to confirm the life or death of Costa and the others. Because the main strongholds of the Sea Abyss Church are distributed on islands in the vast sea, the stronghold with the ability to summon spirits is too far from Navaja. Therefore, they sent people from near Navaja to investigate directly here, but the result of the investigation was very bad.
"What do we do now? The crazy Fanatics from the Judge have arrived. The risk of continuing the investigation will be very high. How about we stop our investigation here and report to the higher-ups first?"
With a serious expression, the young man spoke. His expression clearly showed that he did not want to deal with the people from the Judge, while the middle-aged man on the other side snorted coldly and replied.
"Report? What do we have to report? We haven't figured out the status of Costa and the others. We haven't found out the whereabouts of the deep blue heart. What results do we have to report?"
"Then what can we do?! The people from the Judge have already arrived, we can't just... Hmm?"
Just as the young man was about to say something to the middle-aged man, he suddenly saw something in the distance. He frowned and rubbed his eyes, then looked carefully again. This phenomenon aroused the curiosity of the middle-aged man.
"What's wrong? Did you see something?"
"Hmm... Strange, the Light Worshipping Zealots' fleet is clearly about to set sail immediately, but the Captain has come down, and there are some other officers... What are they doing?"
The young man said this, and his words aroused the curiosity of the middle-aged man. So the middle-aged man also stood up, walked to another window, pulled open the curtains, and looked towards the port. After a while, he also saw the phenomenon the young man had just mentioned.
"That's Jode Schneider. Isn't he the commander of this escort fleet? The fleet is about to set sail, why is he leaving instead? And other Captain and Jode's Vice Captain, they look like they are being held hostage by the lunatics from the Judge and leaving..."
Looking at the scene in the distance, the middle-aged man said with a frown. As a spy for the Sea Abyss Church, he recognized many Captain who frequently appeared in this sea area, and Jode was one of them. His fleet often passed through this sea area.
"Jode? So he's the commander. But why is the fleet about to set sail, and the commander isn't following? He looks like he's being escorted ashore by the lunatics from the Judge."
Listening to the middle-aged man's words, the young man said in confusion, while the middle-aged man pondered for a moment, then slowly spoke.
"Hmm... I think this might have something to do with the disturbance that happened last night. Last night, Jode and the others must have done something that caused them to be targeted by the people from the Judge. These neurotic lunatics are often harsher on their own people..."
"Last night's disturbance? Tsk... I slept so soundly last night that I couldn't get up at all, I have no idea what happened?" The young man rubbed his temples and said, while the middle-aged man replied calmly.
"I'm not sure either, but something big must have happened, otherwise there wouldn't be such a widespread abnormality this morning. Navaja, this city, might hide some secrets we don't know..."
"In short, the situation seems to be more complicated now. Looking at how things are, Jode and even the high-ranking officers on his fleet are no longer trusted by the people from the Judge for some reason. The people from the Judge used their authority to detain them. Now this pilgrimage fleet may have to set sail again without Jode and the others."
The middle-aged man murmured, his eyes flickering with a hint of light as he spoke.
"It seems our report can have some slightly more substantial content."