Captain – Chapter 524 – The Vanished Portrait

“It seems we’ve reached the end, or rather…”

“The beginning.”

After a long while, Roy finally withdrew her gaze from that waterfall—that barrier said to stand at the world’s end in legend—and then looked up toward where the flowing light came from.

What fell upon the sea surface and brought forth the ghost bridge was none other than what’s mentioned in all related stories—moonlight. However, that suddenly appearing full moon was not silver-white, but displayed a fairy-tale-like magnificent blue hue.

It hung in the distant sky like the most enchanting pearl, embedded in the black mist that filled the heavens.

And that happened to be the center of the vortex.

This naturally indicated that directly below it was the deepest part of the Death Silence Triangle.

Using the boundary between the known and unknown seas at the terminus of the dead zone as the starting point toward divine artifacts and the Cursed Sea—one had to say, this was very much in keeping with a devil’s style.

“Shall we go then, Captain?”

Hearing the girl’s dreamlike murmur and watching the young dragon excitedly leap down from the bow, running on the ghost bridge that had extended to their vicinity as if on solid ground, Caine smiled and shook his head, then stepped onto the bridge and turned back to extend his hand to the girl.

As if inviting her to a ball.

Hearing this, Roy shifted her gaze back and looked at her first mate, who was somewhat deliberately striking a gentlemanly pose. Knowing he was trying to lighten the atmosphere, she couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

Taking a few steps forward, the captain placed her hand in the young man’s palm and walked onto the ghost bridge under his guidance. She curiously stamped her feet a few times, but after discovering that this bridge’s texture was no different from ordinary stone, she lost interest.

“Let’s go.”

With the girl’s soft words, the two stepped on the ghostly blue moonlight and walked toward the young dragon who was “clearing the path” ahead. But they had only taken a few steps when their pace suddenly halted.

Because they were holding hands, Caine could clearly sense that the girl’s body had inexplicably trembled earlier, and even her palm had turned cold as if instantly losing its warmth.

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“What’s wrong?”

So he looked at her with some concern, stopping alongside her, then asked with care.

As if attracted by something more important, Roy didn’t answer his question but immediately turned to the side, following her instinct to look in the direction they had come from.

That is, toward the graveyard-like cluster of reefs they had passed earlier.

As if seeing some eerie sight, the girl involuntarily frowned, her dark golden pupils revealing some bewilderment. But she quickly came to her senses and shook her head at her first mate: “It’s nothing. I probably had my eyes play tricks on me too.”

“Also saw a… specter.”

The interlude ended, and the journey continued.

Responding to the young dragon’s urging calls, the two didn’t delay further and walked toward the depths.

During this time, Caine didn’t forget to joke that the specter they had seen might be the same one, haunting this area year-round for the amusement of playing tricks on people.

He just didn’t see that after hearing these words, the captain’s expression became even stranger.

Roy didn’t know whether the specter the young man spoke of was something he truly saw, a hallucination, or pure fabrication, but she could at least be certain that what she had seen earlier was definitely not an illusion, but a soul that truly existed in the world.

It was the poor child entrusted to her by the Lady.

She had trembled all over earlier because the cross pendant at her neck had reacted, producing a slight chill, just as it had when she left the world’s end.

So she had looked back and then saw that specter.

That frail girl.

She still wore a pure white dress, her blue-silver hair like seaweed hanging down and draped over her thin shoulders, sitting quietly and alone on a reef.

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Because the reef was too low, her dress hem floated on the sea surface like a delicate white lotus.

She remained motionless as before, like a stone statue gazing into the distance, toward that source that constantly attracted her with whispered calls.

But this time was different from when Roy first met her, and different from every time in the past.

Because that calling voice… was so close.

As if right beside her ear.

The moment Roy withdrew her gaze and turned to leave, the specter with her obsession dispersed, but her intention passed through that cross pendant of intertwining ice and fire into the captain’s heart, never to be dismissed again.

That great ship buried in the old calendar was in the Triangle.

This was Roy’s most difficult-to-calm inner voice as she walked with her first mate toward that waterfall, but from beginning to end, she never looked back again, for the same reason as before.

Only… she didn’t know if this was right or wrong.

Unconsciously, the great waterfall was already before their eyes.

However, unlike what one would normally see, this magnificent waterfall made no deafening roar as it cascaded down, only the gentlest sound of flowing water.

It truly resembled music from heaven.

In the eyes of the two approaching, the speed at which the water fell seemed slowed countless times, and when it entered the sea, it only created ripples without the slightest splash.

If she hadn’t witnessed its full majesty, the girl would even suspect it flowed upward—a cold weeping wall built by divine hands to separate the old and new worlds.

As if someone had used great power to carve out a path within the great waterfall, the end of the ghost bridge was not a water curtain but a deep tunnel. The ground and walls all emanated fluorescence, looking exactly like that lighthouse in the far north.

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The tunnel wasn’t wide, but it could accommodate three people walking side by side, so it wasn’t oppressively cramped.

Entering the tunnel, the moonlight behind them, the ghost bridge, and even that old wooden boat all quietly disappeared. Faced with this clear statement of cutting off their retreat, the two felt no tension at all. Roy even had the leisure to touch the walls.

Feeling that warm and smooth texture, the girl was somewhat moved and said gravely to her first mate: “This is the same material… as what built that lighthouse in the far north.”

This was very important information.

Because regardless of whether this building material—which seemed less like ice and more like pearl or jade—originated from this place or the far north, it proved it contained unimaginable devilish methods.

This was enough to prove that ancestor had been here.

Thus many speculations were confirmed.

“Then that proves we came to the right place.”

To this, the young man remained calm. Although this discovery eliminated all hope for luck, it at least told the two that they were beginning to step into that person’s death trap.

And getting closer and closer to Aegis.

After these words, perhaps because of their concerns, or perhaps because of the approaching separation, the two fell into silence, only burying their heads and moving forward, toward depths where they could no longer distinguish coming and going, only relying on the young dragon’s figure to judge direction.

Who knows how long this quiet lasted before it was broken by the young dragon’s urging calls.

In unison, the two looked up and saw that crystalline wall inscribed with extensive reliefs and murals, telling visitors “this is a dead end,” as well as the stairs that branched upward and downward from the small area of ground before it.

That was the fork mentioned in the guiding words.

One toward heaven, one into hell.

Walking out of the tunnel and reaching the boundary of the stairs, Roy and her companion discovered with amazement that those murals and reliefs—or rather, that wall—was much higher than they had imagined. Looking up, they could only see profound depths with no end in sight.

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At some point, their clasped hands had separated. The captain stepped forward a few paces, looking with strange eyes at those magnificent reliefs and murals that seemed to depict all phenomena and spirits of the sea, land, and sky—breathtakingly beautiful.

“Is there something wrong with this painting?”

Wanting to dilute the atmosphere of parting, the first mate came to the girl’s side and, seeing her thoughtful expression, asked softly. Although he too felt amazed by such a wondrous sight, the captain’s reaction was clearly more than that.

As if she had seen something similar before.

“Yes, there’s a big problem.”

Ignoring the young dragon rubbing against her trouser leg, Roy frowned slightly and said in a deep voice while recalling: “This painting seems to be the same as what I saw on the top floor of the Acherousian Lighthouse, only much more complete, but the problem is…”

Although it lacked those light particles that gave the mural a slightly moving, lifelike quality, and she had important matters at the time so hadn’t paid much attention to those murals and reliefs, let alone deliberately memorizing the images.

Even so, she was still certain this mural was the same one as in the lighthouse, because she had noticed the vivid portraits of monsters nearby.

That fierce and terrifying giant octopus, the mountain-like dragon roaring at the sky—they were still deeply etched in her memory, especially after the Burial Island journey when she learned they were the legendary Kraken and Nidhogg.

Only…

Gently stroking the mural, Roy’s hand passed over the octopus, dragon, and many other monsters whose names she still couldn’t give, finally stopping at a blank space.

That blank space wasn’t large.

Placed on this high wall, it was extremely easy to overlook, but in the captain’s eyes, it was too conspicuous, giving her a very ominous premonition, as if saying that not all eternal spirits had been buried in the old calendar.

One… had escaped fate.

“How did the portrait that should be here disappear?”