Captain – Chapter 301 – The True Answer

The half-month journey through the icy sea was nearing its end.

For most of this voyage, the Mermaid had experienced monotonous scenery—nothing but frost-like whiteness, gray reefs scattered like stars across the sea, increasingly cold winds, and thickening layers of frost—boring and difficult to endure.

However, several days ago, with the appearance of a low, crystal-clear iceberg, the surrounding landscape finally began to change.

Snow-covered flat ice sheets came into view, and mountains of ice—some majestic and spectacular, others small and delicate—emerged from the white line at the horizon, refracting sunlight into unique colors. From a distance, it resembled a breathtakingly beautiful mural.

This meant the Mermaid had finally entered the glacier region, and the Annalian Ice Plains, part of this vast glacial expanse, was not far from Roy and her crew.

After entering the glacier region, the temperature was extremely low even during daytime. The sailors’ breath turned to white mist, blending into the vast whiteness, impossible to distinguish.

There weren’t many people on deck, only essential crew remained, and they rotated shifts after short intervals.

Additionally, Roy had relaxed restrictions on alcohol, allowing on-duty sailors to consume a certain amount of rum to ward off the cold.

“Clink.”

Due to the extreme cold, the sailors on duty had no desire to talk, just huddling together, hoping to endure their shift quickly. The deck was quiet and desolate, with only the occasional sound of bottles gently knocking together to dispel the loneliness and cold.

At the bow of the Mermaid stood Roy’s somewhat solitary figure.

The sailors took turns on duty, spending most of their time in the relatively warm cabin, but the captain did just the opposite.

After several days of adaptation to the freezing environment, she rarely stayed in the captain’s quarters. Instead, she often remained on deck, admiring scenery she had only seen in books before—drinking, thinking, allowing the cold wind and alcohol to redden her cheeks.

The young woman wasn’t thinking about the Death Silence or the Lady. In fact, except for the day they left the ravine, she hadn’t visited the stern even once.

As she had told Bivis before, on her journey toward legend, she had encountered many eerie and terrifying entities, like that ghost ship that emitted mourning bell sounds, or the devil who destroyed the First Fleet with a wave of his hand.

Compared to such beings, the Death Silence really wasn’t much.

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Of course, this didn’t mean that the ghost ship representing the Lady’s will wasn’t powerful, or that Roy didn’t care about its threat. Rather, she had become somewhat “aesthetically fatigued” by these legends and myths, and couldn’t muster much interest.

The captain was thinking about what Bivis had said—that statement about the eternal night and song.

Normally, for such esoteric words, she would rarely waste time and energy thinking about them, preferring to find the person who said them and ask directly.

In fact, that’s exactly what she did.

Back then, watching the receding land and thinking about the Death Silence and the Lady, Roy had gone to the lower deck, kicked open Bivis’s door, and gripped his collar, demanding answers with an unfriendly expression. But unexpectedly, the scholar gave her only the same sentence.

Beyond that, he refused to say anything more.

The captain naturally wouldn’t let it go, believing that explanations like “inexplicable” or “the time isn’t right” were just excuses to brush her off.

Only after she forced him to swear that if he couldn’t provide an answer by the day they reached the Annalian Ice Plains, he would jump into the sea and be completely consumed by the Lady’s curse, did Roy somewhat believe him and begin to seriously consider his words.

“Please listen to the song beneath the eternal night; that is the guiding beacon.”

After silently repeating this once, Roy sighed deeply and tossed her bottle over the railing.

Even after more than ten days, having carefully recalled all the legends she’d heard before, she still couldn’t find any clues, which both irritated and slightly discouraged her.

There were many legends related to songs, some even connected to the Lady, as the Mermaid’s current target—that box accompanying misfortune—was essentially a music box, albeit one imbued with extraordinary power by the Lady.

But among these legends, none had any connection to eternal night.

Roy shook her head, casting the thoughts from her mind, and raised her eyes to look ahead of the Mermaid.

It was nearly dusk. The setting sun stained half the sky red, even illuminating the dark sea of clouds, making them look as if they would burst into flames.

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And beneath those dark red clouds, at the distant junction of sea and sky, a faint white and light blue line could be seen.

That was the Annalian Ice Plains.

Gazing at that gradually clarifying line that began to show undulations, Roy’s eyes narrowed, not from the light reflected off the ice surface, but like a cat just waking—showing some laziness and relaxation, just waiting for the answer to be revealed.

The appearance of the Annalian Ice Plains naturally meant it was time for Bivis to provide his answer… or fulfill his oath.

Sure enough, just as Roy thought of this, a grating sound came from behind her—the noise of the wooden boards connecting the deck and cabin being lifted.

After another muffled thud, two sets of footsteps sounded in succession, gradually approaching, and soon stopped behind the young woman.

Without guessing, she knew the visitors were Caine and Bivis.

Turning around and leaning against the railing, Roy looked at the scholar who still wore his loose robe without adding any thick fabric underneath, yet showed no sign of feeling cold. She raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help asking, “Dressed like that… aren’t you cold?”

Death-Fearers couldn’t die, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t feel temperature.

“When the Lady’s curse first touched me, I had already experienced a cold that penetrated my soul. Since then, during the hundreds of years on the Victoria, I’ve lost the concept of coldness.”

Bivis explained with a smile, then slowly stepped forward to the railing, looking at the approaching ice plains with some emotion in his voice: “Finally… we’re approaching the end.”

Seeing that somewhat pale face, hearing the feelings contained in the scholar’s words, Roy didn’t immediately demand he explain the true meaning of that sentence as she had initially planned. Instead, she quietly waited for him to gather his scattered thoughts.

She knew what that feeling was like. When she had approached Robert’s residence by carriage, her emotions had been just as complex and difficult to suppress.

The scholar’s current feelings might not be as intense as hers had been, because one couldn’t see hatred in him, only calmness and the weight of years.

How long was several hundred years?

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Roy didn’t know and would never have the opportunity to know, but she understood it was long enough to dilute and wear away all emotions.

The man before her had suffered such pain and torment for so long; it was understandable for him to sigh and reflect.

Besides, with that curse, he couldn’t leave the ship anyway—either he would provide an answer, or he would fall into the sea. There was no third option. Given that, what harm was there in giving him some time to reminisce?

“Thank you.”

Understanding the captain’s intentions, Bivis thanked her softly, then explained: “Captain, the reason I said we needed to wait until now to determine the exact location of the Acherousian Lighthouse wasn’t because I was being mysterious or trying to delay. Before this, I truly didn’t know where it was.”

“So now you know?”

Roy didn’t ask about the reasons; she didn’t want to know. She just asked plainly, then waited silently for him to nod and indicate the direction.

But contrary to her expectations, Bivis didn’t nod. Instead, he shook his head.

“No, I still don’t know.”

Hearing this, Roy frowned slightly and exchanged a glance with her first mate. They both saw the bewilderment in each other’s eyes before she addressed the scholar in a deep voice: “What do you mean?”

From Bivis’s previous behavior, he clearly seemed confident about finding Satin Island.

Moreover, given his cowardly nature and fear of pain, he wouldn’t have deliberately deceived or provoked her without reason. So what did he mean by saying he didn’t know?

“As you heard, I don’t know the lighthouse’s location, and if I’m not mistaken, apart from Captain Edward, no one in this world knows where it is. Even if those who supported him and built the lighthouse for him were revived, they probably couldn’t provide an answer.”

At this point, the scholar’s voice suddenly softened considerably: “If that weren’t the case, how could the Lady possibly fail to find Satin Island? If even one person in this world knew, it wouldn’t escape her eyes. This is a lesson learned through scenes of tragedy, and Captain Edward would have understood this.”

“Therefore, only one person in this world can find the Acherousian Lighthouse—you, who was personally chosen by the devil and cursed.”

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“Me?”

Roy’s gaze flickered as she asked: “But you just said no one in the world knows the lighthouse’s location, and I’m certainly no exception. So how can I find it without knowing where it is?”

“Please listen to the song beneath the eternal night; that is the guiding beacon.”

The scholar murmured as if in a dream, then smiled and said: “The true answer is hidden in these words. As for why you’ve found it difficult to understand, and why I asked you to wait for the ice plains to appear—it’s because this is a puzzle left by Captain Edward, beyond the comprehension of ordinary humans or even deities.”

“So all we can do is wait patiently for the answer to find us.”

Roy hadn’t fully understood Bivis’s meaning, but before she could think deeply, her thoughts were interrupted by his next words.

“Look, Captain… the eternal night has come.”

A sudden clap of thunder sounded in the distance, and Roy quickly turned around, looking in the direction Bivis was pointing.

By now the sun had set, the red glow had dissipated, and the cloud sea that had been stained red resumed its gloomy appearance. Night fell, enveloping the entire sky, but not a single star could be seen.

Torrential rain poured down from the horizon, breaking the stillness of the icy sea and raising terrifying waves. Thunder continued to roar, but not a single flash of lightning appeared.

Only now did Roy realize that the clouds gathering above the ice plains, covering a vast area of the sea, were actually heavy rain clouds as thick as a fortress.

At the same time, she understood what the “eternal night” in that sentence truly referred to.

Never-dispersing rain clouds, never-ceasing downpours, no stars, no moon, and no sun—even the lightning that usually accompanies wind and rain was absent, leaving only endless, grim darkness.

If this wasn’t eternal night, what was?