Captain – Chapter 490 – The End Point

Although that devil was extremely shameless and terrifying, viewing life as worthless and human hearts as playthings, if not absolutely, at least most of the time, he kept his word and was willing to honor his promises.

Just like that brief yet profoundly moving moment earlier.

Previously, the devil had finally revealed to his most treasured descendant the thoughts he had sealed away for a thousand years, showing a rare emotional fluctuation that could even be called love. This was certainly moving.

Like a tragedy passed down through the ages—if only he had been willing to let go, as characters do in dramas.

Time passed second by second, the “tick-tock” sound becoming increasingly clear. Even after all the patrons had left the tavern, Roy still sat quietly, neither drinking nor making any movement.

She stared in the direction where the devil had disappeared, the color in her pupils as cold and indifferent as his had been when he heard her declaration aboard the Mermaid, with that touch of apathy in their depths.

These were the emotions he had left behind when he departed.

After a long while, the captain picked up the crystal glass and drained the wine, and when she set it down again, the coldness in her eyes had completely faded. It was replaced by complexity and slight bewilderment, both because of that cheap ancestor’s sudden outpouring of genuine emotion, and because she could finally confirm…

He hadn’t lied this time, not even once.

He was no longer in the dream.

This should have been good news, firstly because she wouldn’t have to listen to his disturbances anymore, and secondly, although he had said he was merely a passerby who couldn’t truly influence her dream, who knew if those words were true?

His departure now also meant that all external risks had disappeared, and she only needed to face…

That ethereal fate.

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Yet despite this, the girl suddenly felt an inexplicable emptiness, because the man who had guided her and single-handedly shaped her into what she was today, the devil whom she couldn’t completely determine whether she hated, resented… or depended on, had truly abandoned her.

His words before leaving seemed to truly accept her challenge.

No longer viewing her as a child, but as a genuine enemy.

This feeling was truly difficult to explain.

With a soft sigh, Roy poured herself more wine and clinked her glass against the empty air, her expression unusually serious, as if she were toasting with that devil, saying this is how it should be.

This is how it should have been, ancestor.

The empty wine glass was placed back in its original spot, but the girl who had been sitting at the table was no longer there.

Walking through page after page, time did not slow, but Roy gradually slowed her pace. She could clearly feel that with the devil’s departure, although the great power within her was still flowing, still pushing her toward the “judgment seat,” the ice encasing her heart had melted.

Gradually, she could get drunk again. She could feel joy and sorrow for the fates of those people who, though she couldn’t name them, still felt familiar. Her emotions and sensations were returning.

She was gradually becoming her past self—no, her original self.

The great wheel of fate never ceased turning.

The pocket watch showed no sign of slowing, the countdown-like “tick-tock” growing ever closer, threatening to become the main theme of this dream. Yet even in such circumstances, Roy showed no impatience. Pages that she had previously walked through in an instant now took nearly a hundred times longer.

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This wasn’t because the great power within her was receding, but because she no longer needed to search.

What she had been looking for, the person in the old photograph in the pocket watch, that “ghost” was beside her. Even though she couldn’t see or touch him, she could “see” him through the slight trembling of fate’s threads—sitting across the table, leaning against the ship’s railing, or standing by a reef gazing out at the sea.

At this point, the ship had finally set its anchor and no longer needed to drift.

Just waiting for fate’s judgment.

And so, what had been an urgent quest became a leisurely journey with the “ghost.” She took him along paths she had walked before, showed him all the beauty of times past, occasionally traversing intertwined time and space to visit his world, to see and hear those melodies.

This journey continued until the end of time.

Finally, Roy arrived in Hipalia, at a time just days before she had entered the dream. At that legendary world’s finest chocolate shop, she tasted the cloyingly sweet white chocolate. After returning to the street, she involuntarily turned her gaze toward the distant clock tower.

As if something there was drawing her.

What could it be?

Her gaze slowly moved upward, past the vast sea of people, through the warm red mist of clouds, landing on the clock face at the top of the Ria Clock Tower. From a distance, it looked like an enlarged version of the pocket watch.

With the devil’s power, Roy could clearly hear that the “tick-tock” sound emitted by the tower clock perfectly overlapped with the pocket watch in her possession, as if they were playing the same melody in unison.

More strangely, although it was now sunset, approaching nightfall, the hour hand of the clock was gradually pointing toward the boundary between dawn and noon, identical to the pocket watch.

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So the girl knew this was the end point, the last unburned page of the storybook.

Following the crowded flow of people, the captain arrived before the Ria Clock Tower. This time, however, she didn’t join the long queue but instead used her “small” privilege to enter ahead of others, entering the quiet lighthouse and climbing to the top floor before nightfall.

Leaning against the wall by the window, watching the last rays of the setting sun disappear, replaced by the vast and brilliant starry sky, gazing at the magnificent sleepless city that looked just like that day, and the further distant silhouettes of countless sails symbolizing freedom, Roy couldn’t help but smile, thinking what a coincidence that the two endpoints had converged.

The scenery at the endpoint was as beautiful as ever.

However, back then she only needed to climb the clock tower, while this time she had to walk a long, rugged road. More interestingly, that time she had complained, but this time, throughout the journey, she had no complaints whatsoever.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock…”

The sound of the pocket watch grew fainter, along with the tower clock’s ticking, as if together with the starlight, they would drape a soft curtain over the end of this journey. But Roy knew this didn’t mean that fate had leaned toward her, because neither second hand would stop.

So, are you a clue, or a trap?

Reaching into her coat, taking out the pocket watch, the girl opened the cover and stared in a daze at the old photograph, “watching” the diligent second hand beneath it complete its final circle toward the end.

The countdown had truly begun.

When that “tick-tock” sound—which had initially disturbed her heart and later, though she had grown accustomed to it, still found somewhat annoying—had only a very limited number left, she felt an inexplicable reluctance.

As if she wished time could move more slowly, so that she and he could stay together a little longer before the end.

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You’re watching me, aren’t you, “ghost”?

The captain thought silently. The dream version of herself had the ability to slow time, but at this moment that had lost its meaning, so the second hand of the pocket watch continued to move at its original rhythm.

Although only a brief moment remained, it was still enough for the girl to think about many things.

As the second hand passed the quarter mark, she thought with some amusement that when that young man had fired that cannon at her and the Mermaid in the icy sea, perhaps he too had been counting down in his heart like this.

By the time the second hand passed halfway, she had already reviewed all the moments she had spent with the “ghost” by her side.

When the second hand entered the final ten marks, she thought: you said you would accompany me to see all the scenery.

At the third-to-last mark, her smile carried a touch of bitterness as she thought that even she, who had prided herself on being detached, had things she couldn’t let go of. Those beautiful moments, those people, she truly…

Truly didn’t want to forget.

“Tick-tock.”

With a slight sound of the spring, the second hand pointed to the final mark. The girl didn’t review the past anymore, nor did she close her eyes in avoidance. She only used those brilliantly radiant eyes to stare unblinkingly at the pocket watch, her smile fading as she silently said one sentence.

Come on, damn fate.