Captain – Chapter 491 – Fate’s Choice

Fate is ethereal and elusive, yet omnipresent.

People immersed in it can never truly capture its existence or the future it leads toward. But at this moment, after silently uttering that “welcome,” the girl could feel that it had truly arrived, like an invisible hand silently falling upon the pocket watch.

And so the second hand stopped, aligned with the hour and minute hands, all pointing toward that final moment.

Just like the day of salvation recorded in holy scriptures.

The countdown-like “tick-tock” ceased. The great power flowing like ocean tides within her gradually subsided. The magma-like brilliant golden light flickering in those dark golden pupils began to dim. Roy could feel those powers, her control over the dream, vanishing.

A weakness like that of waking from deep intoxication filled her entire body, causing her to tremble uncontrollably. “Waking” and then “falling back asleep” was a hundred times more cruel than receiving something only to have it stripped away again.

It was the most profound and terrifying torment.

Yet under this torment, the captain twisted her lips into a forced smile, but one that contained her trademark mischief. This familiar feeling surging in her heart, the memory flowing back like the tide, and the gradually “clearer” image of the person in the photograph all brought her involuntary joy.

She was falling from the clouds, returning to being mortal, but all of this precisely indicated…

In this great dream, fate had chosen her.

The reason the girl had fallen back into “slumber” was because it wasn’t yet time for her to wake up. This dream was caused by external forces, a conspiracy designed to drive her into a corner.

But because of fate—no, because of the cat, the scholar who served as Captain Edward’s anchor point, the “ghost” who had been pursuing her all along, and the dream-like interweaving of various miraculous events—she had turned misfortune into blessing. Not only had she avoided prematurely stepping onto the divine path, but she had also found…

A solution completely opposite to her ancestor’s, yet equally capable of resisting the erosion of wind and snow, of preserving her true heart. Perhaps this was why the devil had bid her farewell and viewed her as a true enemy.

From this moment on, she had become a threat to him, even though her wings were not yet fully fledged.

The weakness came like a tide, and like a tide, it receded. In its place came that dreamlike bewilderment, as if everything she had experienced was an extremely unreal absurdity.

As if it had truly just been a dream.

“Click.”

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The massive change that should have happened in an instant left Roy breathing rapidly and slightly disoriented. Suddenly, she froze, her dimmed pupils reflecting the pocket watch that had been closed.

And the clearly defined fingers of the hand pressing on the watch.

Her gaze followed that hand upward, past the slightly wrinkled sleeves and clothes that seemed to have weathered many journeys, finally landing on that familiar face, on those blue eyes as gentle as the sea. Only then did the captain finally come to her senses, revealing a tired but genuine smile.

“Oh, you’re here.”

It wasn’t like a welcome, nor did it show surprise, but rather like a casual glance back after traveling thousands of miles together.

Discovering he was right beside her, and then greeting him with a smile.

“Yes, Captain, so do you…”

Seeming to recall the emotionless question he had heard from her lips in the captain’s cabin, the First Mate paused, his tone unusually anxious: “Do you still recognize me?”

Throughout the process of being swept along by fate, repeatedly falling unconscious and waking up, chasing the sound of the pocket watch, he had never thought of giving up. But the repeated missed chances, and the journey with no feedback after losing the cat’s help, had left him in unbearable torment and near despair.

Upon reaching the endpoint, climbing the clock tower guided by the pocket watch sound, and discovering that the barrier had finally collapsed at the moment it stopped, Caine first felt joy, immediately followed by tension.

Tensed at the prospect of hearing again that cold question, “Who are you?”

Despair and hope always accompany each other. You may glimpse that ray of dawn at the end of the night, but who knows if after a moment of brilliant light, there might be another deep night.

Or perhaps a darkness with no end in sight.

But fortunately, such worry was unnecessary.

“Of course I do.”

The paleness on the captain’s face was fading. In that brief moment, she seemed to transform from that ice back into the spirited girl full of vitality, who appeared to approach everything with optimism.

She had returned to being Captain Roy—unfettered, free, and never defeated by setbacks or the currents of fate.

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Tilting her head slightly, the girl looked directly into those blue eyes, watching as they froze briefly before suddenly lighting up, and softly said: “Caine Howard, my dear First Mate.”

“How could I bear… to lose you?”

This was what the other version of her had said to him in the captain’s cabin, but now that she thought about it, wasn’t this her true feeling all along? That so-called phantom was, in a sense, perhaps the guidance she had given him while in deep slumber, in her unconscious state.

From the beginning of the dream to the top of the clock tower, she had been pursuing this anchor point every moment.

There was no tight embrace, nor passionate kiss. The two simply recognized each other rather plainly in this quiet place. After a long journey where they couldn’t see or touch each other yet remained inseparable, that whispered call was more powerful than any words of love.

Exhaling softly, it was only when he heard the girl before him speak his name that the First Mate completely relaxed, no longer constantly shrouded by suppressed shadows.

“That wasn’t easy.”

With a bitter smile, Caine took the pocket watch from the captain’s hand, dangling it by the chain in front of her: “Listen, Captain, something this important—perhaps I should keep it for you from now on.”

Knowing he wasn’t blaming her, but merely slightly complaining about the situation that had nearly driven him to true despair and the torment of the journey afterward, Roy’s gaze became somewhat evasive as she said guiltily: “That devil is too good at setting traps, I just wasn’t careful enough and…”

Clues and traps intertwined, subtle calls, along with the devil’s insincere words throughout, had stimulated her curiosity to the extreme. Even though it was difficult for him to reach into this dream, he had still, through his exquisite design, nearly caused her to fall into the abyss.

After experiencing such cunning methods, Roy finally understood why that man could deceive deities and why he was called a devil. It had never been about his magical powers.

It was his seemingly endless supply of tricks, casually deployed. He was a born conspirator.

“But you know,” said the captain, suddenly remembering something. Her eyes focused again as she looked at the young man seriously: “You should understand the consequences of taking that pocket watch.”

That pocket watch was the key to entering the dream and breaking the impasse, the bond between the “ship” and its “anchor point,” yet it was also a cursed object that had been influenced by great power, transcending time and fate.

That was why it could be taken from the Victoria, and why the devil had chosen it as a medium.

It had no effect in the dream, but if Caine insisted on taking it, on bringing it back to reality in his role as the anchor point, it would inevitably become a brand that he could never erase in his lifetime.

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He would become a cursed one, like First Mate Isaac, subject to the devil’s eternal curse. Unless his body and soul were both completely burned away, he could never be freed.

Even if the curse came from her, this was by no means a good thing.

“Don’t worry, Captain. It’s precisely because I know that I’m willing to make this choice.”

Putting the pocket watch in his pocket, the First Mate recalled what the cat had mentioned during their journey about the truth of this strange object, knowing that since a thousand years ago, it had been inseparably linked with the devil’s lineage. After a moment of silence, he said seriously: “Elizabeth, no matter what…”

“I don’t want to watch you bear that heavy fate alone anymore. I don’t want to be helpless like before when something happens to you. At least let me share some of your burden.”

“Even being cursed doesn’t matter.”

Hearing this, Roy lowered her eyelids slightly, sighing helplessly: “Caine, you should know that this is far more serious than boarding my thie—pirate ship. Our fates might truly be bound tightly by chains that can never be severed.”

“You know I’m not rejecting you. It’s just that even now, I’m not confident I can win this gamble with the devil. If I lose, you would also be…”

As she spoke, the girl’s tone grew heavier, but when she looked up at the young man, she suddenly stopped, because she realized he wasn’t looking at her at all. Instead, he was leaning against the window sill, gazing out toward the horizon.

She wasn’t even sure if he had heard her previous words.

Raising an eyebrow, Roy moved to his side, following his gaze toward the black mist that was gradually obscuring the starlight, approaching like the mouth of an abyss, though it could no longer affect her. She asked irritably: “I’m not joking. Are you even listening?”

“Sorry, I was thinking about something else and didn’t hear clearly. Would you mind repeating that, Captain?”

Hearing this, Roy naturally knew he was pretending, and her lips twitched slightly. She didn’t foolishly repeat herself, but wondered when he had learned to steal her specialty.

Now, he truly had some of a pirate’s unscrupulousness.

Silence fell over the tower top, but even facing the approaching black mist, there was no sense of oppression or despair. There was only the rare tranquility of two people “reunited after a long separation.”

This page of the book was also about to collapse, signifying that this great dream had finally reached its end.

Afterward, they would naturally wake up and return to their world.

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“By the way, Captain, can you still influence this dream?”

The black mist had obscured the starry sky, submerged the harbor, plunging the golden city entirely into darkness and cold, before finally approaching the clock tower where they stood, surging in from all directions.

When only the top of the tower remained unswallowed, the First Mate suddenly spoke, his tone somewhat heavy.

“Maybe I can. Why?”

The girl extended her hand out the window, caressing the cold yet strangely docile black mist, and asked.

“It’s hard to explain exactly, but I can only say that I was able to enter the dream, to have the chance to find you, all because of a cat—the one you brought back from the far north back then.”

“You mean Mango?”

Hearing this, the captain thought for a moment before asking, not particularly surprised.

Recalling the scholar’s name for the cat, Caine confirmed: “Yes, that’s right. But during my journey, it seemed to be growing increasingly tired. By the end, I never saw it again.”

“I’m afraid something might have happened to it.”

The black mist surged through the window, enveloping the tower top completely in just an instant.

The First Mate felt his senses slipping away, as if summoned by fate, just like every time he had pursued the girl. Even his final urgent words became extremely faint.

He wasn’t even sure if the captain could hear him.

His vision plunged into darkness, and all sounds around him ceased. Caine felt himself floating in a lightless sea, extremely tired and exhausted, yet unwilling to fall asleep. He thought that perhaps this was what the cat had experienced all along, no wonder it had been so weary every time they met.

After drifting in darkness for an unknown time, just as the young man could no longer hold on and was gradually falling asleep, he finally vaguely heard Roy’s soft laughter coming from somewhere unknown.

“Oh, there’s a cat.”