Captain – Chapter 499 – The Uninvited Guest at the End

The path to Aegis was cut off.

Or rather, it had never existed. The inscriptions on the stone tablets all along the way told this fact, until finally even Roy became discouraged.

However, what no one expected was that a turning point would come so quickly.

Just as the captain was nearly giving up, planning to ignore the stone tablets and simply wait for the Taranhof to arrive before discussing further with Vivian, Caine suddenly grabbed her wrist.

“What is it?”

Seeing the young man staring at a nearby stone tablet, the girl raised an eyebrow and asked him in confusion.

Since some unspecified number of stone tablets earlier, his translation work had temporarily come to a halt because, although the text on those stone tablets came from different eras and was written by people with differing standpoints, what they recorded was largely similar.

They were merely expressions of despair after failure, various emotional outpourings after realizing the truth, mockery of the “foolish” actions of predecessors, or advice to those who would come after.

In Roy’s words, they were just meaningless garbage talk.

Therefore, although they still proceeded in the direction where the stone tablets were distributed, when passing by, they would at most stop briefly to allow the first mate to clearly see what was written.

If there was no need for translation, he would shake his head, and the group would resume their journey.

Until they were extremely close to the edge of the beach, with fewer than five stone tablets remaining ahead, Caine suddenly stopped her, simultaneously halting the entire group.

This naturally meant that the content of that stone tablet was completely different from what they had seen before.

“In chaos there is no path, but…”

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Blinking, thinking the first mate was teasing her, the captain couldn’t help but urge: “But what? Finish the sentence.”

“The content on the stone tablet ends here.”

Looking at the drifting light streams that couldn’t construct the second half of the sentence no matter what, the young man was silent for a moment, then turned to the captain and explained somewhat helplessly.

“What?”

Hearing this, Roy was momentarily stunned, then after reacting, gritted her teeth and said: “I really don’t know which inconsiderate bastard wrote this, just toying with people.”

“However… there’s another possibility.”

As if thinking of something, the girl suddenly calmed down and exchanged a glance with the first mate, finding that he seemed to have the same conjecture, and speculated: “Perhaps the unfinished content on this stone tablet continues on the next one.”

Like consecutive signposts, or perhaps…

Delicious bait leading to a trap.

This deduction wasn’t difficult to verify. The group continued forward and soon arrived at the next stone tablet. As expected, the content they learned was indeed a continuation of the previous one.

“Someone parted the fog and made a path, but…”

“The person who carved these stone tablets is even more black-hearted than the greediest bard in the world, refusing to speak a complete sentence without payment.”

Hearing Caine’s suspended words, Roy sighed and muttered irritably.

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But it seems we haven’t paid either.

The first mate thought silently, signaling everyone to continue walking, while comforting her: “Perhaps they had their reasons. Being able to get some inspiration is already quite good.”

As if hearing the young man’s thoughts, Roy pursed her lips and explained: “I know that. I’m just concerned that at this rate, the next few stone tablets might not be enough to complete what they wanted to express.”

“If in the end it’s still unclear mystical babble, what use is it to us?”

Sometimes the girl’s pessimistic predictions were quite accurate. Just as she worried, the content of the next two stone tablets combined couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

“By an uninvited guest…”

Their record ended there.

“In chaos there is no path, but someone parted the fog and made a path, but by an uninvited guest…”

Holding her chin, repeating the fragmented sentences exactly as they had been constructed, Roy couldn’t help but smile bitterly, spreading her hands to the young man, saying: “No matter how you look at it, this doesn’t seem like practical navigation guidance.”

“It’s more like an interpretation of an ancient epic.”

Shaking her head, the captain self-mockingly said: “If it only narrates the birth and transformation of the path to the divine object, without mentioning any method of getting there, what help is that to us? I thought earlier…”

“Captain.”

Before Roy could finish, she was interrupted by Harriet, who always walked at the front as the scout. Looking over, she found the Fighting Squad captain standing on skeletal remains the size of a small house, resembling a sea turtle, her face full of astonishment.

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Bringing people quickly forward, Roy climbed onto the skeletal remains and looked in the direction Harriet pointed, discovering that at the edge of the beach, along the constantly washing shoreline, stood a black stone tablet nearly three meters tall.

As if truly recording an epic, it was densely carved with characters that, as the ethereal light flowed, were not glaring but still dazzlingly complex.

Like a water surface reflecting the starry sky.

Due to the undulating terrain and the towering skeletal remains, they hadn’t discovered until now that there was still a stone tablet at this place that was both beginning and end.

If the previous stone tablets’ records were merely an introduction, then this seemed to be the main text.

“So the previous ones were really just to entice people.”

Complaining softly, Roy leaped down from the skeletal remains and led the pirates down a gentle slope. Soon, they approached the final stone tablet, through the side of which they could faintly see their prepared small wooden boats.

However, everyone’s attention was not on the boats, nor even on the stone tablet with its brilliant characters, because only upon approaching the stone tablet did they suddenly discover that in the large shadow it cast…

Someone was standing silently.

Oh no, it should be said that from the moment Roy’s group gradually slowed their pace until they completely stopped, he had begun to recite in his deep, magnetic voice, slowly narrating as if he too could understand the text on the stone tablet.

“Using conspiracy, trickery, and that so-called sinful aberration, forcibly split in half, one side ascending the waterfall, connecting to the heaven that all souls yearn for, while the other side, sinking into the seafloor, linking to the decaying abyss that leads to hell.”

The man’s voice seemed to possess a certain magic, making one’s mind involuntarily calm down, gradually immersing in the story, into that captivating mystery.

Even the usually calm Caine was no exception, listening earnestly and solemnly.

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Only the captain was different.

She was listening too, but not trying to deeply understand. Instead, she was staring at the man in slight astonishment, looking at his night-colored cloak, wondering if it was because the daylight was too dim and his clothes happened to be black that she hadn’t noticed him earlier.

Noticed his presence.

“The path to the divine object has been distorted, no longer treating all people equally, but blocked by strange curses and seals, accessible only to the destined one.”

“But who knows whether it is buried in heaven or hell?”

“Or perhaps… this is all just a hoax.”

As he finished speaking, the man gently clapped his hands, awakening everyone with the crisp sound, then turned around while involuntarily exclaiming: “What a nice story. Even I have become somewhat interested. But in the end…”

“These centuries-old matters actually have nothing to do with us.”

“Don’t you think so, child?”

Looking at that face unseen for many years, still showing no signs of aging but rather gaining more mature charm, and those gorgeous purple eyes that seemed to stir one’s heart, Roy pressed her lips together without responding, her gaze becoming increasingly complex.

Since those who had come ashore were all new recruits who had joined the Mermaid after the betrayal and were trained by Harriet, none of the pirates recognized him. Hearing that he seemed to have history with the captain, they all turned their gaze toward the girl.

Only when they became somewhat impatient and Caine quietly asked her who the man was did Roy extract herself from her complex thoughts and solemnly announce the man’s identity.

“Captain Enzo.”