Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 17: The Whalebone
The salty sea breeze blew the sails slightly. Occasionally, the whistling sound of the wind would drown out the sound of the sea water constantly washing the hull. And every time this happened, the sailors on the ship would nervously climb up the mast and look around from high above for dark clouds and storms that might appear in the sky.
Although the crew has been almost certain that the severe storm that once raged on the waterway to Ava Island has subsided over the past month, the cautious habits they have developed over the years cannot be changed in a day or two, and they will not miss any sign of a storm .
This made William, who often quietly cast storm spells at the stern to summon strong winds and speed up the ship, feel a little embarrassed, because the strong winds that appeared for no reason in the past few days had exhausted several sailors who were responsible for monitoring the storm.
At this moment, at the stern, William, wearing a black gown and an iron plate on his chest, was pretending to be gazing into the distance while leaning on the withered flower handrail.
This disguise was actually very stupid, because as far as the eye could see, there was only the sea and the sky was cloudless. If it weren't for the occasional fish jumping out of the sea, this view would even give people the illusion that the boat had been stationary and had not moved at all.
"I heard that witches, like elves, originally had their homeland in Ava. It had always been shrouded in mist until the phoenix that the elves rode fell from the sky. Only then did they acquire the form of earthly matter and come to the continent of Vic."
William withdrew his gaze from the distance and turned to look at the bored witch sitting on the railing.
Liz turned around after hearing this, looked at William with her golden eyes, and said as if she was throwing a tantrum:
"But I was only two months old. To me, Blackwater Swamp is home."
Hearing the resentment in the other party's words, William said apologetically:
"I'm sorry, but this trip is only safe if you're with me."
Seeing that the other party did not respond, William paused and then continued:
"And Cas needs to be responsible for the security of the Stranger Lighthouse, so he can't come with us."
"This has nothing to do with whether that idiot can come or not!"
Liz defended herself almost reflexively.
The effect is outstanding. This child is so easy to understand...
William nodded while suppressing his laughter, and then cancelled the storm spell he was casting.
Now, the farther he is from the Blackwater Swamp area, the weaker the magic power he can summon. A few days ago, he could still maintain this strong wind for most of the day, but now it is very difficult for him to only maintain it for half an hour.
But at least it can give the sailors on duty a good rest.
William thought as he looked back at the sailor who was carefully climbing down from the mast.
It had been five days since he boarded the smuggling ship named Whalebone, and a week had passed since the farcical palace coup.
Although William has always been very concerned about the inexplicable exile of the demon general named Eclipse, now that the feasibility of combining [Mirror Image] and the response terminal to create an avatar has been verified, he can finally focus on dealing with the affairs of Ava Continent.
At this moment, although William's real body is still guarding the location of the Serpent's Scar, his own mirror clone has boarded the smuggling ship as a source silver merchant and is heading to Ava Continent.
Because of the storms that raged on the Broken Sea all year round, few people were willing to travel back and forth between Vic Continent and Ava Continent to do business. But this also meant that those who dared to do this business could reap unimaginable wealth, after all, the handicrafts of the High Elves were in great demand no matter where they were.
Since the "Wandering Battle", the connection between the continent of Vic and the continent of Ava has been almost cut off. The newborns of the high elves who remained on the continent gradually underwent elemental mutations because they lost the blessing of the Phoenix Holy Fire. The inheritance of skills by their descendants was completely lost in just one or two generations.
Nowadays, it is harder to find a high elf craftsman in the empire than to find a magic caster of the divine realm, but the nobles have a strong demand for high elf crafts. This has led to a small number of adventurers who are willing to risk their lives and fight the storm, and dare to sail into the man-eating storm to engage in this high- risk, high-reward profession.
"If I were you, I would probably wait a few more months. Maybe by then Queen Irene will have signed a trade agreement with Ava State, so there would be no need to take such a big risk and go there in person..."
A powerful voice sounded behind William. A tall old man with chapped skin from years of exposure to the sun slowly walked over. He had silver hair and his collar and cuffs were stained with dried white salt. The part below his right knee was replaced by a white whalebone prosthesis, so he limped when he walked. The hard whalebone knocked on the deck, making a very rhythmic "da da" sound.
The ship was named Whalebone because of his prosthetic limb.
"What's your name, young man?"
Seeing William turned around, the old man asked.
William had not thought of a pseudonym to hide his identity before, but after seeing the other party's whalebone prosthesis, he suddenly got an inspiration.
"Just call me Yin Shima, Captain Hobbs. Also, I am from the Blackwater Swamp. Even if Ava Continent signs a trade agreement with the Empire in the future, it has nothing to do with us."
William replied, and then he continued:
"Besides, it is still unknown whether Her Majesty can conquer Ava Continent."
The captain named Hobbs smiled slightly when he heard this. He walked over to William and stood beside him. He also put his hands on the railing and looked into the distance, then slowly spoke :
"Yin Shima, I just came from Swan Harbor half a month ago. You may not be able to imagine how huge the army is that has gathered there. I have also been to Ava Continent several times, and have been to all the seven city-states except Yuefa City. To be honest, even if the number of those pointy ears were tripled, they would not be a match. Moreover, this time..."
He looked at the iron plate on William's chest that had a rough, sharp-angled symbol engraved on it, and said:
"And the Eighth Holy Spirit is with the Empire."
Captain Hobbs was referring to the Eighth Church's explanation of the causes of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, which was written down as a sacred law and was constantly preached in every church.
Because the storm on the Broken Sea really stopped shortly afterwards, this statement was quickly accepted by the general public, which also led to extremely high public support for the Ava Continent expedition plan.
"Eight hundred years ago, the 'Eighth Holy Spirit' led the army in person and almost died at the bottom of the sea."
William reminded with a shrug.
William's words caused the other party to remain silent for a long time. After a long while, Captain Hobbs finally spoke:
"When I saw you wearing this thing, I thought you were a devout believer in the Eighth Holy Spirit."
In response, William replied:
"That depends on how you understand piety."
In a sense, William can be regarded as the most devout believer of the Eighth Holy Spirit in the world.
The captain waved his hand upon hearing this, and then said:
"I didn't think of it earlier. How could a devout believer of the Holy Spirit go to a pagan land and sell important strategic materials before the war broke out? This is not only an act of treason, but also an act of heresy... But considering that you are from Blackwater Province, this is understandable."
Hearing this, William was about to explain, but Captain Hobbs suddenly smiled like a shark and said:
"But this is actually quite good. Damn Empire, Damn Church... I couldn't stand those pirates from Damon Continent on the White Sea, so I chose to risk my business on the Broken Sea. As a result, the bastards from the Empire and the Church collected no more lenient docking taxes than those pirates. Now that the storm has subsided and the route is risk-free, it won't be long before they start to attack our merchant ships and take over the business for themselves."
"If the Eighth Holy Spirit had been more careful, he should have allowed this storm to continue... But there's nothing we can do about it, since that Holy Spirit belongs to the Rui'er family."
William waited until the other party stopped complaining before slowly speaking:
"I think the cessation of the storm may be because the Eighth Holy Spirit hopes to teach his so-called descendants a lesson they will never forget through Ava Continent."
As he spoke, he kept looking at a few black dots that appeared in the distance at the junction of the sea and the sky.
Before Captain Hobbs could recover from his shock, a loud ringing of bells suddenly sounded from the bow.
A sailor climbed up the mast as swiftly as if he had hooks on his feet. After taking out the telescope and observing the distance for a while, he shouted to the captain:
"There are warships in the southeast! Warships flying the Imperial Dragon Sword flag!"
