Captain – Chapter 663 – The Night Between Dark Seas

Perhaps because that giant serpent that had finally withered away was the last connection between Roy and that departed night curtain, she had a very brief dream while unconscious.

In that dream, time seemed to flow backward.

She returned to Providence in the identity of that inexperienced youth, back to the high cliff beside the wooden house, and before her stood that familiar silhouette.

Under the twilight, Enzo still wore that signature cloak, dark as night itself, only his hands no longer bore that black ring she had long coveted.

As if hearing the light footsteps the captain had made on the cliff path before entering the dream, when Roy came to her senses in this scene, he had already turned around.

A shallow smile graced his lips, tinged with relief yet still unable to hide his frivolous and unrestrained demeanor.

He didn’t speak, seeming to guess that the little one before him would surely be unable to contain their impulse first, though he wondered whether it would be questions or tears that came.

However, neither was Roy’s choice.

That youth whose face still showed traces of innocence, yet whose heart and soul had already approached divinity, also looked at him quietly, without blame, much less weak tears.

He only furrowed his brow slightly, as if there were many things he couldn’t understand.

Such as why the other would appear, and what this dream that shouldn’t exist actually meant.

Under normal circumstances, Roy would certainly invoke great power, trying to find clues among the complex information, but this time he didn’t, because the answer was right before his eyes.

So he asked softly: “What’s in hell?”

The captain had asked this question to two people—first to Red Beard, who had guided her onto the pirate’s path, and second to Enzo, who was rumored to have approached hell.

At that time, she had asked this seemingly naive and absurd question out of genuine curiosity and fear of the imagined world after death.

But now it was different, merely a kind of test, a test that belonged only to them.

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Hearing this, the man with his back to the setting sun was stunned, as if he hadn’t expected the other’s first question to be this one. After recovering, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

But he still understood and answered seriously.

Perhaps it was the resonance between fellow “madmen”?

“You’re asking about hell? It’s not much different from here.”

As if to enhance the sense of immersion, the Night Curtain captain stretched his arms somewhat dramatically, as though embracing this familiar world that could never be returned to.

“It’s just that the sky is green, and the sea has all turned into crimson lava. My ship and my old friend’s drift on the lava, while enemies wail within it.”

“We live just as freely and happily.”

After listening, watching the man slowly lower his arms, watching the mischievous smile on his face like one teasing a child, Roy didn’t get angry, only gradually relaxed his furrowed brow.

Thoughtful, but more so relieved.

Not because he had finally forgiven him and accepted his departure, but simply to confirm that this dream wasn’t just a dream, and that he in the dream wasn’t an illusion either.

This was important, and meant many, many things.

Like life and death, or perhaps truth.

“Liar, hell clearly has nothing at all, only black like your clothes.”

The youth looked up at that familiar face, recalling the magnetic voice that had just reached his ears, as pleasant as always, his pupils gradually brightening.

“Those were your own words back then, just to shatter an ignorant youth’s fantasies. How is it that now you know to pick up those illusions again?”

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“Plagiarizing Captain Ilias’s creativity—have you no shame?”

For the last sentence, Roy didn’t use a more sarcastic rhetorical question, but only spoke softly, as if afraid that angering the other would make him hide again.

Hide in a place where even devils couldn’t find him.

Knowing that the youth already had an answer about his situation, or at least had a guess, Enzo stepped forward a few paces, half-knelt down, and patted his small head.

“I think if he knew, he’d definitely be proud. You know how he is.”

Listening, Roy pursed his lips, wanting to mutter “that still doesn’t change the fact that you plagiarized,” but halfway through speaking, his attention was drawn by the other’s actions.

Right before his eyes, the Night Curtain captain reached into his chest, and then actually took out…

The crystal skull that had been in Caine’s hands since the Death Silence Triangle incident!

“What’s this about now? And this thing should clearly be with my first mate. Don’t tell me you became a ghost after death and have been haunting me.”

Seeing the youth look as if he’d seen a ghost, seemingly genuinely worried his guess might be true, the man fastened the pendant around her neck while casually explaining: “Could your imagination be any richer? Besides, this is in a dream.”

Hearing him point out the word “dream,” Roy felt slightly strange and finally couldn’t help asking: “Hey, what exactly is your situation now? Is this some kind of hint?”

“Are you a lingering ghost, a final message, or are you somewhere in the Cursed Sea, and because the door opened, you can use this pendant to…”

“Enough.”

Whether he was annoyed or not, the Night Curtain captain interrupted his endless questioning, gazing into his eyes and saying gently: “I don’t know either.”

This soft words seemed to possess magic, causing this world that didn’t seem like a dream to begin distorting, becoming bizarre and grotesque, with countless colors tangling together.

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The face before Roy’s eyes also became much more blurred.

“You only need to know that as long as you walk on… this path, you will eventually see all the… scenery I once witnessed, as long as you always follow the night…”

“You can find me, reach the…”

“End.”

Like this world and that fading countenance, the man’s voice also gradually became ethereal and intermittent. A strong sense of emptiness instantly surged into Roy’s heart.

Because this scene made him involuntarily recall the vision of seeing that dead ghost when falling into the abyss—the current Enzo was drifting away just like that person.

No matter what, he couldn’t be grasped.

“Wait, you haven’t explained clearly…”

The youth spoke urgently, instinctively reaching out, seeming to want to touch that person’s face, to wipe away those increasingly numerous and distorted colors.

“Enzo!”

When Roy knew everything was irreversible and called out in anger and urgency, that originally tender youth’s voice became crisp and slightly sharp.

Changed back to her current tone.

So the dream ended, with a start.

The captain looked ahead in confusion, discovering that at some point, she had sat up, reaching out her hand as in the dream, and had actually touched something real.

Warmth came from her palm, somewhat ticklish, and the facial contours behind her palm were familiar.

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“Had a nightmare, Captain?”

Hearing Caine’s concerned voice, Roy realized what was happening, withdrew her hand, touched her neck, and shook her head with a slightly dazed expression: “No, I wouldn’t call it a nightmare.”

She naturally felt a cold pendant, but it was a cross, not a skull.

The next moment, she suddenly came to her senses, looked at her confused first mate, and asked: “Caine, where is that crystal skull Enzo gave you?”

“I’ve been carrying it with me all along.”

Though he didn’t understand the reason for the girl’s excitement, the young man still did as she wished, took out that moonstone pendant from his hidden pocket, and placed it in her hands.

Looking at that pendant that should be called the origin of everything, the captain’s emotions gradually settled, returning to calm. After a long silence, she sighed softly.

Then smiled somewhat bitterly, murmuring: “Damn it, you really know how to choose places.”

“If you’re going to leave clues, couldn’t you be more obvious?”

Each person in the world only has one chance to use the crystal skull, so the pendant held in the girl’s hands had no trace of ethereal light in its eye sockets.

Only depths, only darkness.

But that seemingly eternally unchanging black would occasionally flicker and shift, though that change—forget seeing it—even Roy couldn’t discover it without driving her perception deep into that dark sea, and it would remain hidden forever.

Until the girl had that strange dream, where the person in the dream fastened the pendant around her neck just like when they first parted, did she remember this old object.

And then from the darkness at the bottom of its eyes, she sensed…

That drifting wisp of night.