Captain – Chapter 361 – Ship Encased in Ice

The distance between the Mermaid and the great mist continuously shortened. Soon, less than three hundred meters remained, and the bow could already touch the wispy remnants of fog.

“We’ll stop here.”

Just when everyone thought they would plunge into it like breaking through the fog wall earlier, Roy suddenly let out a breath, then turned around, placing her hands on the railings on both sides, and smiling at the people gathered before her.

Seeing this, the crew members were stunned, not understanding why.

Only when Caine stepped forward and gently said “Be careful on your journey” to the young woman did the pirates realize that the Captain, like when lighting the lighthouse, was going to proceed alone.

“Come back soon, come back soon!”

The raven wasn’t on the Captain’s shoulder this time but on the First Mate’s. Seeing she was about to depart, it flapped its wings and called out.

To others, this was merely a pet bidding farewell to its owner, but only Roy and Caine, who had spent day and night with it, could hear that its call was sharper than usual, somewhat grating.

It was worried, even… vaguely fearful.

Fearful of that outcome no one wanted to see.

“I know. I’ll try my best.”

Roy rarely didn’t complain about its chatter and responded calmly and gently. Then her gaze shifted slightly, scanning each familiar and close face, as if wanting to remember them all in her heart.

Footsteps sounded from outside the crowd.

The pirates made way, revealing the ship’s doctor and the Siren.

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Behind them was the rarely seen Isaac, and the young dragon still showing its small temper due to his troublesome research.

With a low growl, Nidhogg ran away from the “Old Pirate” to Roy’s side, affectionately rubbing its head against her leg.

Roy lowered herself slightly, patting the young dragon’s head while looking at the approaching sea nymph and saying softly: “I’ll trouble you to look after the Mermaid.”

The Siren nodded slightly, quiet as usual.

Standing straight, nodding slightly to the encouraging Isaac, the young woman no longer delayed. Leaving with a “I’m off” to everyone, she left the bow with the young dragon’s help, heading toward that quiet and mysterious great mist.

“Reduce sail and speed, prepare to turn.”

Watching the young woman’s figure until she and the young dragon entered the great mist and completely disappeared from view, Caine finally withdrew his gaze, suppressing the worry in his heart, and ordered the pirates calmly.

Sails rose and fell, voices ebbed and flowed.

The Mermaid, which had been fleeing all along, finally changed direction, swimming toward that dangerous, terrifying hunter, no longer showing timidity.

“She’s set out.”

A hoarse voice reached his ears. The young helmsman narrowed his eyes, gazing at the black shadow that rose from the Death Silence and, like a petrel diving into a storm, swept toward the great mist. He responded with a light “Mm.”

“Let me go.”

He patted the helm, considered for a moment, then said softly.

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Hearing this, the young woman who had already prepared and was walking toward the spiral staircase stopped in her tracks, turning slightly with a frown: “What?”

Securing the helm, Richi turned around, looking at those blood-red eyes similar to his own, and said: “This time, I’ll go instead.”

A brief silence fell over the wheelhouse.

Vivian stepped closer, her gaze sharp as a knife, as if trying to see into the depths of his heart through his eyes.

But in the end, she couldn’t see any abnormality, so she had to break the silence and ask: “Why?”

“The main goal of this trip to Satin Island is to obtain the Box, not to kill Roy.”

Richi’s lips curved into a smile, confident and matter-of-fact: “In close combat, I’m not as good as you, but when it comes to stealing things, you’re far inferior to me.”

“No, not just you—there aren’t many in this world who can compare with me.”

Hearing the young man proudly boasting about a skill most would find disgraceful, Vivian was speechless. Then her gaze quickly flickered, as if judging the gains, losses, and risks of this matter.

After a long time, whether affirming Richi’s thieving talent or due to some emotion in her heart, she didn’t flatly refuse but asked: “Are you sure you won’t hold back when you meet her?”

“I said I can’t beat her, so naturally I need to avoid her. Why would I need to consider whether to hold back or not?”

Richi shrugged, gazing into the distance at the Mermaid which had turned its bow and was approaching, and added calmly: “Moreover, the Lady only cares about the Box, nothing else, right?”

Tacitly accepting the young man’s view, Vivian turned her face, following his gaze toward that warship, watching its advancing posture, and asked coldly: “How do we deal with that ship?”

This was as good as agreement.

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Withdrawing his gaze, Richi passed by the young woman, walking toward the spiral staircase, his tone very indifferent: “As you wish.”

With the dim daylight and the mist surrounding the Death Silence as cover, everyone on the Mermaid, even the Siren with her connection to the sea, failed to see the small wooden boat cast into the sea.

The small wooden boat drifted along, heading toward the mist indicated by the light, its entire body black and ancient, closely resembling a coffin.

The young man was in the coffin.

The mist surrounding Satin Island seemed to have some sound-isolating effect, causing Roy to feel she had entered a realm of absolute tranquility after being flown in by the young dragon.

However, this tranquility leaned more toward profundity and mystery, like the divine path described in sacred books, involuntarily calming one’s heart and even giving rise to longing, rather than feeling deathly silent and oppressive.

Roy neither feared solitude nor revered deities, naturally having no pious heart.

What she could feel was that the further in she went, the thinner and warmer the mist around her became. Eventually, it felt like she was soaking in her favorite warm water with violet petals.

It felt like… coming home.

Since entering the great mist, this feeling had grown stronger, and the Captain’s previous worries and unease had disappeared without a trace, like snow meeting spring wind.

But the more this happened, the stronger her vigilance grew.

Are you trying to use this method to dissolve my doubts, or even make me change my mind, ancestor?

At this thought, Roy couldn’t help but smile, a smile that was somewhat faint and somewhat bitter. She thought that this trick had been used before: you elders, can’t you have some originality?

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At least try to persuade me?

Otherwise… bribery?

Warm mist enveloped her face as Roy wandered in her thoughts in this deliberately soothing atmosphere. Her soft hair swayed gently in the wind, occasionally covering her eyes, making her emotions indiscernible.

After an unknown length of time, the young dragon growled excitedly.

Knowing Satin Island had arrived, the Captain suddenly awakened, raising her eyes to look ahead, wanting to know what this island in the mist, which she had been seeking for so long and which concealed the Box, truly looked like.

Just as Nidhogg had indicated, the destination was straight ahead.

The previously ethereal and profound mist had become extremely thin here, transforming into a state like thin gauze, still separating and sinking to both sides, like a gradually opening curtain.

As the scenery came into view, Roy was surprised, her dark golden eyes gradually brightening.

However, what reflected in the Captain’s pupils wasn’t the intense golden brilliance, like erupting magma, when the devil’s great power awakened, but rather a clear and gentle starlight falling from the sky.

Behind that curtain, there were no clouds or rain, but a bright and clear starry sky hanging at the horizon.

Under the starlight was not the variously shaped islands people might imagine, but icebergs—rows of icebergs standing on the calm sea surface, of different heights and thousandfold changing forms.

Moreover, they weren’t composed of ordinary ice crystals but were of the same material as the Acherousian Lighthouse, showing a pale blue luster under the starry sky, like countless star colors.

Among those myriad star colors, at the top of the tallest iceberg, a warship was conspicuously encased in ice!