Captain – Chapter 194 – Figure in the Candlelight

Carelessly tossing the unremarkable stone box into the underground river, Roy held the cat’s eye stone up to her face, closing one eye to observe it carefully.

This gem was vastly different from ordinary cat’s eye stones. Besides those randomly flickering silver fragments, the ring-shaped silver chain actually flowed slowly around a central line of the stone, like a real river. And as it flowed, countless points of light changed their positions.

“Although this stone was created by the Lady, making it sort of… an artificial product? I bet even the world’s best appraiser wouldn’t be able to tell. If I could put it on the jewelry market, it would certainly fetch a good price.”

After observing for a long while, Roy sighed softly, her words tinged with hesitation.

“After all, it’s an object of divinity, and might bring misfortune and danger. In my view, it’s better to destroy it as Bivis suggested. As for money…”

Watching the girl clutching the cat’s eye stone like a miser, Caine smiled wryly and said: “First you gained the ship’s doctor as a financial backer, and now you’ve obtained Solomon’s treasure. You shouldn’t have any more money troubles.”

“Well, that’s true, but who wouldn’t want more money?”

The captain stared at the cat’s eye stone, pondering for a moment more before reluctantly moving it away: “But you’re right, this thing is dangerous. For all we know, at this very moment, the Lady might be quietly observing us through it, so it’s better to…”

“Destroy it.”

Roy slowly opened her hand, and the cat’s eye stone left her palm, falling straight toward the ground.

But before it could fall even a few inches, the captain swiftly caught it again, holding it up to her face with a frown forming involuntarily.

The young man, who had thought their purpose was achieved and was about to turn and leave, stopped in his tracks and asked in confusion: “What’s wrong, Captain?”

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“If I’m not mistaken, it seemed to go dark for a moment when it left my hand,” Roy said after thinking for a while.

“Dark?”

“Yes, dark.”

Roy observed the cat’s eye stone without blinking: “All the points of light, including the silver chain, disappeared completely just now. It was just like… just like someone blinking.”

As she spoke, the captain’s pupils suddenly contracted, because at the very moment her simile was uttered, all the light in the cat’s eye stone vanished, leaving only an empty darkness, tumbling and surging like the surface of a lightless sea.

“There it is again. Did you see it, First Mate?” the girl deliberately lowered her voice, as if avoiding someone’s ears.

“No, it has remained bright all along, Captain. Are you perhaps having hallucinations?”

Looking at the brilliant gem, concern rose in Caine’s eyes as he advised her: “This is also one of the symptoms of excessive blood loss. I knew your body couldn’t recover so quickly. You should let the ship’s doctor—”

“Shh.”

The captain raised her index finger to her pink lips: “Don’t speak.”

In that surging darkness, Roy seemed to truly hear the sound of waves crashing against reefs, to hear a fragmented, beautiful and distant song. That singing intertwined with the sound of the tide, like the low chanting of a siren, threatening to drown one in that lightless ocean.

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Her dark golden pupils flickered with the lantern’s light, sometimes bright, sometimes dim. As time passed, a struggling color gradually appeared within them—clarity and haziness, vigilance and yearning, all sorts of emotions intertwined, complex and varied.

“Captain?”

Seeming to notice something unusual about the girl, Caine reached out his hand, intending to block her view of the cat’s eye stone, but was immediately seized by the wrist.

“I’m fine.”

The captain’s voice was somewhat tired, as if she had just awakened from a nightmare.

Roy slowly released the young man’s wrist, rubbing her temple and chuckling lightly: “It seems Bivis still underestimated this worthless stone, underestimated your power, respected…”

The light in the girl’s eyes gradually dimmed, and the faint golden characters on the back of her neck flashed and disappeared, making one wonder if they had truly appeared at all.

“Lady Annisdora.”

The dense darkness in the cat’s eye stone stilled for a moment, then dispersed like mist, quickly separating to both sides, until only a dim candlelight remained.

Through that candlelight, Roy vaguely saw a small room, with rare and strange objects hanging or placed around, whose purpose she had never seen or known, and a blurry figure standing in the center of the candlelight, whose face and form could not be clearly discerned.

At this moment, all mist was dispelled.

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The scene within the cat’s eye stone also appeared before Caine’s eyes. Besides this, he also heard the end of that nameless song, and the increasingly clear and distinct sound of the tide.

Is this… Lady Annisdora?

Although he knew it was useless, after hearing the captain’s address to that person, the First Mate instinctively gripped his sword hilt, as if only this way could he maintain the dignity of being human in the presence of a deity.

Unlike Caine who was on high alert, the captain still smiled politely, though that smile rarely displayed such naked hostility: “I must admit, Lady, your singing is very alluring, and also very frightening. But to make me fall into it seems to lack a certain something.”

The candlelight still burned quietly, and the person within it seemed to have no intention of speaking.

Seeing that the other party wasn’t falling for her approach, the girl grew somewhat bored. She slowly turned the hand holding the gem: “I’ve seen you, tested you, and the next time we meet, I’ll be more careful. If there’s nothing else…”

With Roy’s movement, the cat’s eye stone left her palm, gradually falling toward the ground.

“Then excuse my rudeness, Lady, but we must say goodbye. After all, I’m quite a busy captain.”

Before the cat’s eye stone completely fell from the girl’s hand, a voice finally came from within—a barely perceptible sigh, followed by a gentle call.

“Captain Elizabeth Roy.”

Exchanging glances with her First Mate, Roy’s lips curved into a crafty smile of successful scheming. Then she leveled her palm, allowing the cat’s eye stone to roll back into her hand.

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Gazing at the figure swaying with the candlelight, the captain smiled and said: “To have my name remembered by a deity, I don’t know whether I should be proud or worried about sleeping soundly.”

“When he, who transformed into a devil, watched you secretly, you never lost your appetite or sleep. How much less so when I merely know your name, little captain?”

The voice from the cat’s eye stone was soft and captivating. Though speaking plainly, it was many times more beautiful than the finest singer’s voice in this world.

Separated by countless nautical miles, communicating only through a cat’s eye stone, yet able to inadvertently reveal such charm—Roy found it hard to imagine, if one could witness the Lady’s beauty and listen to her voice, who in this world could possibly refuse her requests?

Well, at least the great Captain Roy would not accept.

“Little… little captain?”

Blinking, Roy’s face showed a hint of confusion as she said to her First Mate: “Caine, am I small? I don’t think so. From any perspective, shouldn’t your captain be anything but small?”

Not reacting immediately, it wasn’t until he saw the girl’s mischievous smile that Caine understood her meaning and shook his head helplessly: “Captain, please be serious. This doesn’t seem like the time for such jokes.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll be serious.”

The captain shrugged, raising the cat’s eye stone to her eyes, her question showing no intention of cooperation: “So, respected Lady, although I’m reluctant to ask, what exactly…”

“Can I get for you?”