Captain – Chapter 512 – The Boundary Between Truth and Falsehood

The world is a bounded plane, like a sandbox magnified countless times.

This concept permeates every corner of the modern world, recognized by all mainstream sects, revered as truth. Under the influence of numerous doctrines, various mythologies, and even science, people have accepted this as the world’s true appearance.

Those scholars who valued exploration and practice above vague doctrines accepted the conclusions of mythology and the church on this matter mostly because centuries of outward exploration had yielded no progress whatsoever.

Those noble explorers either never returned, or if they managed to come back alive, their findings were meager. Even combining all available information failed to form a coherent system.

This forced scholars to believe that at the edge of their known world, there existed an invisible barrier that defied common sense and understanding.

Or perhaps those dead zones that continuously devoured lives were the barriers themselves.

Such a conclusion, even with deliberate corroboration from scholars, couldn’t be called very convincing. But those present, unlike people who couldn’t reach the boundary, though they also approved of that conclusion, actually had concrete evidence.

“Pardon me for saying so, but this seems rather fanciful.”

Seeing Roy and Enzo jump to such a conclusion midway through their evidence, Vivian, who had been silent all along, couldn’t help speaking up to reject this speculation.

“I don’t know about him, but Captain Roy, you visited the Lady with us. You shouldn’t have any doubts about the existence of the world’s end.”

Back then, to seek an audience with the Lady, the Mermaid, under the guidance of the Taranhof, had sailed westward in the far northern waters for quite some time before successfully reaching the secret place that existed only in mythology, inaccessible to ordinary mortals—the end of the world.

After leaving the Nameless Island, sailing westward for a short while led to the legendary boundary.

“I can confirm this.”

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As the other person referred to by the Blood Craver, Richi raised his hand to testify for her: “After separating from you, since I was curious about that legendary boundary, I specifically took a detour to admire it.”

So that’s why you were late?

Hearing this, Roy couldn’t help but give him a sidelong glance, thinking that putting aside important matters just out of curiosity, nearly disrupting the plan, was truly childish.

But the young woman didn’t realize that she had fallen into the “trap” also because of her own curiosity.

“I have to say, it was an incredibly magnificent sight.”

The young man who had been slouching in his high-backed chair, seemingly tired of listening, suddenly sat up straight and raised a finger, saying: “That so-called boundary is actually an endless, vast waterfall.”

“Although we only stayed at a distance for a while because the current was too strong, from what I saw from the top of the mast, I estimate its height to be at least two hundred meters, and that’s a conservative estimate.”

“It’s also possible that there’s no end below it, or perhaps it leads directly to hell and the River Styx.”

“Oh, right.”

After finishing, as if not satisfied, Richi added: “I know you’ll definitely want to ask if there were any reference points around that straight waterfall.”

“Actually, there was nothing.”

“It’s not that it was shrouded in fog or that the night was too dark, limiting visibility. The starlight there was quite adequate, but it only illuminated empty nothingness.”

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“Like a white paper with only a single color of paint.”

Faced with his seemingly contradictory description, the captain just grimaced without responding.

Seeing this, either thinking she didn’t believe him or driven by some subtle emotion, Vivian expressionlessly said: “He didn’t say a single lie, Captain Roy. And such boundaries exist in more than one place.”

“You also know that in the deepest part of the Death Silence Triangle, there’s also a great waterfall. The only difference from the world’s end is that this one flows upward.”

“I wonder if even a dragon could cross a barrier more than a thousand meters high?”

Sensing the subtle hostility in the young woman’s words, Roy knew the reason behind it. She smiled somewhat awkwardly and explained: “You misunderstand. I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I just think you’re being too presumptuous.”

“Have you considered that these wondrous phenomena, said to originate from heaven or lead to hell, might just be illusions?”

Seeing Richi and Vivian’s slightly furrowed brows, Roy quickly added before they could refute: “Calling them illusions might be an exaggeration, but even if they truly exist, how can you prove…”

“That they aren’t ‘man-made’?”

Knowing that “man-made” here referred to the work of the devil or deities, Vivian, who initially thought the captain was being stubborn to save face, suddenly seemed to remember something and forcibly suppressed her urge to interrupt.

Because this… might indeed be a possibility.

“Just like the boundless fog wall created by the devil in the far north, or the Storm Corner surrounded by thunder that was raised in the east due to a great person’s will. If you think about it carefully, aren’t these also boundaries that are difficult to cross in the eyes of the world?”

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Gradually, the meeting room quieted down again, with only Roy’s soft narration remaining.

“But beyond them, it’s not empty.”

Recalling her conversation with her ancestor on the Satin, the captain became increasingly confident in her deductions. She smiled and said: “Beyond Storm Corner lies the Cursed Sea, and even that boundless ocean…”

“Is not an unknown territory, or the entirety of another world unknown to us, because beyond it, there are more vast seas and lands, with brilliant civilizations far greater than the Auran Empire.”

“And if you continue eastward, perhaps there are other countries, or perhaps not, but who can guarantee that in the end, it doesn’t connect with those two waterfalls?”

“Connecting with our world, forming a… nearly perfect closed loop?”

“That is, as I said earlier, our world might be an east-west connected ring, or even a sphere. We just can’t prove it yet.”

The young woman finished speaking, but even after a long while, the room remained silent.

Because she had revealed too many secrets.

Truths that even the Blood Craver didn’t know, or that the Lady was unwilling to mention. Regardless of the credibility of her speculation, the mere possibility of a civilization more splendid than Auran was enough to change the world’s landscape.

“Another… civilization?”

The First Mate, whose pirate career had been extremely short and who hadn’t experienced many strange events, had planned not to interject randomly. But after hearing the young woman’s account, he couldn’t help but murmur, realizing the importance of this matter, and frowned as he asked:

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“Is this true?”

Faced with Caine’s slightly worried question, Roy knew that although he had joined her ship, it was impossible for him not to care about Auran at all. She nodded slightly: “I think it can’t be false. This is what the devil said.”

Even the young man knew that for the Pirate King, such information was merely trivial gossip, not worth any particular attention.

This meant that civilization truly existed.

“But there’s no need to worry too much. I think, at least until we’ve resolved all our troubles, these so-called boundaries won’t easily disappear.”

“We still have time to prepare, and so does the world we belong to.”

The First Mate knew the captain’s judgment was correct.

Regardless of whether her speculation was right, or whether those boundaries were indeed created by someone, at least their dissolution and the contact and fusion of the two worlds would take time. And that might be a hundred years.

“Alright, everyone, let’s refocus.”

Seeing that the debate about the world’s structure had concluded, Enzo, who had been observing for a long time, tapped his finger on the table to draw their attention back and said softly: “This is indeed interesting, but what’s most important now…”

“Is how we should understand the message Captain Gerard left on the stone tablet.”

“To uncover the truth he saw clearly.”