Captain – Chapter 497 – To Come Is To Go, To Go Is To Come

The word “mourning” here did not express the remembrance or longing for the deceased in the mortal world, but quite the opposite—only those approaching the realm of death could resonate with such strange script and understand its meaning.

As for what the realm of death was, or why this resonance occurred, Caine did not know. He only felt that those star-infused, constantly changing characters were truly like the cries of a Siamese cat—comprehensible yet elusive.

You could never explain how a single, monotonous, brief cat’s meow could contain so much information.

“Alright, let’s not dwell on this issue.”

Seeing that the first mate could read the characters but couldn’t provide any explanation, Roy shrugged, shifting her attention away from this “strange occurrence” and instead asked: “Then, my dear first mate, could you translate it for me?”

Faced with the captain’s casual question, Caine shook his head helplessly. His blue eyes reflected the changing starlight, which seemed chaotic but actually followed extremely complex paths, interweaving and combining to gradually form a complete sentence.

“To come is to go, to go is to come.”

Hearing the first mate’s solemn recitation, the girl blinked, experiencing the strange sensation that the mystical scholar had been resurrected and was standing before her once more.

She shook her head to clear away these stray thoughts and asked: “Caine, could you be more straightforward? Such a cryptic statement really doesn’t tell us much.”

Surprisingly, when the captain finished speaking, the young man showed no reaction whatsoever, as if he hadn’t heard anything. Only the starlight in his eyes began to flow again.

A moment later, he whispered as before: “The endpoint you see is the beginning.”

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As the young man’s gentle, somewhat sacred recitation gradually spread, the originally luminous text on the stone tablet began to rapidly dim.

In the final moment, even the stone tablet itself, amid the pirates’ exclamations, turned into dust finer than sand, carried away by the sea breeze until no trace remained.

Only then did Caine regain his senses.

Seeing the captain’s worried expression, knowing she must be reminded of that dream vision, he apologetically said: “Don’t worry, Captain, this isn’t a replay of that dream. It’s just that this script is so abstruse that I couldn’t divide my attention while interpreting it.”

After reassuring the girl, Caine took a few steps forward in the direction of the mountains, feeling a strange sense of familiarity welling up in his heart. With slightly furrowed brows, he analyzed: “Captain, if my feeling isn’t wrong, this sentence should mean…”

“This path is the same one we came on.”

Without much thought about how he reached this conclusion, for Roy who was accustomed to strange occurrences, disorientation and reversed directions were merely the most basic of tricks.

The girl was only considering whether there was a trap set by the devil in this strange situation, just waiting for her, or rather… for her first mate who was under the devil’s curse, to fall into.

This wasn’t needless worry but an imminent problem.

Although those who buried Aegis were great individuals who set up layers of obstacles precisely to prevent the devil’s followers and descendants from laying hands on the divine artifact, thereby almost eternally separating the present world from the Cursed Sea.

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Until Captain Edward’s demise.

Therefore, from any perspective, what they would face on this voyage should only be puzzles left by the original legends, crystallized wisdom of the ancients, unrelated to the devil still trapped in his prison, waiting for the seal to perish.

The seal remained, the anchor point was gone, and with the arrangements of the great individuals here, the captain was certain that, aside from that observer, no matter how capable her ancestor was, he couldn’t possibly influence this place, let alone make advance preparations.

But despite this, Roy still vaguely felt something was amiss, that things couldn’t be so simple. That eerie entity hiding in the shadows might just be a small pawn on the chessboard, just one part of a conspiracy.

The real killing intent lay deeper.

But even with her intuition keenly detecting the anomaly, all the girl could do now was take one step at a time, until the stage was set and the curtain of the grand play lifted. Only then would she have a chance to make a move, albeit passively, to break the situation.

This feeling of unclear circumstances, difficult not only to control but even to discern clearly, was naturally unpleasant. So, after confirming that the first mate was truly unharmed, Roy ordered them to continue forward, while staring at her slender fingers in a daze.

Awakening…

Everyone standing beside her, and even those opposing her, had said that only when she truly awakened would she have the qualifications to play chess with the devil for the sea.

But after experiencing so many life-and-death situations, and even escaping that great dream, she still had no concept of this word. Like a young blacksmith holding a hammer for the first time, she knew what she needed to accomplish, yet still didn’t know where to begin.

The wheel of fate had already begun to turn.

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It would sweep along her future and that of those around her, turning faster and faster until it could no longer stop. If she couldn’t find a solution before encountering the thorns blocking her path, it would certainly be pierced through.

By then, everything would be too late, beyond redemption.

“Captain.”

The first mate’s calm voice sounded, and the girl’s slightly raised hand was gently taken by him and lowered to her side. He gazed directly at the approaching mountains and said softly: “Since we’ve already set foot on this path of no return, let’s not think about the consequences.”

“Whether good or bad, they have no meaning for us who are in the midst of the process.”

“We just need to keep moving forward; it doesn’t matter where we stop.”

Feeling the warmth from the hand holding hers, listening to the young man who always adhered to the principle of seeing things through to the end speak such words, Roy couldn’t help but smile bitterly, feeling that somehow, she now needed his guidance.

After experiencing that dream, he had truly gained a broader perspective.

Caine didn’t know the captain’s thoughts, or he would certainly have agreed with this point. Although regaining what was lost was a joyous thing, it was the moment of loss and the small details during the pursuit that truly allowed him to see many realities clearly.

Cruel, cold realities.

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In the face of transcendent powers, their engagement, vows, and the promise made in Yadris were all as fragile as bubbles, which could burst at a touch.

No one knew how far the Mermaid could go, whether this pirate legend renowned across the seas could awaken, or when she might fall. Everything was unknown.

So, for him, being able to accompany her before the judgment bell that might fall at any moment was enough. Why bother thinking about those things that might already be predetermined?

“I understand, just as you’ve said before, the scenery along the journey is what’s most important.”

Patting the back of the first mate’s hand, Roy smiled, softly responding to his sentiments, then released his hand. In front of all the pirates, she nimbly leaped onto a stone pillar blocking the path and gazed up at the nearby mountains.

“Then, my first mate and… mysterious language translator, come and tell us what more mystical things are written on this stone tablet?”

Where Roy stood, although called a stone pillar, it looked more like a limp, drooping tentacle preserved in stone. Many similar ones were on this “mountain.” According to her thinking, this must have been a prehistoric octopus.

In front of the skeletal remains was a stone tablet identical to the one they had seen earlier, except that it was intact. The characters on it were extremely complex, with three or four densely packed lines that, under the phosphorescent glow, looked like countless miniaturized galaxies.

Yet despite such lengthy text, Caine’s translation was just a few words.

“Kraken.”