Captain – Chapter 711 – Mist Falls, Door Opens

You are different, so naturally I will be different toward you too.

Although Roy didn’t say this sentence, how could the man not hear the hidden meaning in her words?

It was also at this moment that the worry and timidity that had been hidden deep in his heart since leaving the chaos completely dissipated, and his golden pupils, similar to the young woman’s, returned to brightness.

Yes, this was enough.

She was willing to let him accompany her, to accept his goodwill—what more could he be unsatisfied with?

“Actually, when I used to always want to find you, it wasn’t so much a yearning for fatherly love, but just wanting to ask everything clearly, then give you a good beating for mom.”

“At the very least, I wanted to break your nose bridge and make you properly lose face once.”

Perhaps still not accustomed to that gaze that, due to blood kinship, was generous with love and devotion, the captain glanced at him then slightly turned her face away to change the subject.

“But since we already fought once on that broken ship, I’ll spare you that.”

“But don’t be too happy too early.”

“After everything ends, I’m still going to take you to mom’s grave and personally watch you kneel in repentance. Everything else can be discussed, but this matter is non-negotiable.”

As the young woman spoke, Gerard listened quietly, neither smiling nor making excuses. When she mentioned the deceased lover, his eyes couldn’t help but show sadness.

Only after she finished speaking and waited silently for his response did the man softly reply.

“Mm.”

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His emotions weren’t displayed, yet he wrote these twenty years and even earlier past into that response.

The dawn light gradually intensified, the sea breeze came gently, and the pirates who awakened and learned the destination was near gradually came up on deck, but the two at the bow didn’t say much more.

A few short exchanges had expressed all emotions and old matters, naturally settling things.

Affairs between father and daughter didn’t need to be too complicated.

But after resolving the knot in his heart and releasing the past, Gerard didn’t look out at the sea to organize his emotions like the young woman did, even though that island chain had already shown its outline.

He still gazed at Roy’s profile, hesitation flickering in his eyes, as if wanting to do something.

After who knows how long, hearing the gradually livening voices behind them, knowing the young woman should return to her room to dress properly, and that if he didn’t act now he would miss this rare and possibly never-to-come-again opportunity, the man finally mustered courage and extended his hand toward her.

Catching sight of this scene from the corner of her eye and guessing what he wanted to do, the captain’s gaze flickered with slightly unusual emotions, but in the end, she ultimately didn’t dodge or call a stop.

So that somewhat rough but very warm large hand fell on top of her head, carefully and gently stroking a few times, messing up her hair somewhat.

After awkwardly expressing affection, Gerard consciously withdrew his hand and said it was nothing.

Roy responded softly, pushed off from the ship’s rail to stand straight, made eye contact with him, then returned to her room.

The captain’s cabin door opened and closed several times. Before long, the young woman, returned to her captain’s attire, came back to the deck already full of people with her first mate and the crow.

The outline of the island chain that had been faintly visible in the morning mist was now clearly presented before their eyes, and even Richi and the others had already boarded the giant ship early.

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Knowing it was time to reveal the mystery and arrange matters.

At Roy’s signal, the three warships led by the Goddess Hestia slowly sailed into the concave island chain, getting ever closer to that stroke on the sea chart.

At the bow of the giant ship, all the important figures gathered here, craning their necks to look at the mountain wall about a hundred meters away, rendered hazy by water mist, unable to hide the tension in their hearts.

Because this meant too much.

Just like the will of that one from the islands, just like whether the mission for aid could proceed smoothly.

The former was still manageable—even if that old man truly didn’t support this expedition from beginning to end, he wouldn’t be harmful to them—but the latter’s impact would be great.

If the door hadn’t opened, the plan to borrow the power of the present world would naturally be as difficult as ascending to heaven, becoming empty and illusory. They might have no choice but to attack the unnamed island alone.

Although Captain Gerard had returned and that night curtain seemed to not have completely dissipated, this journey wasn’t necessarily without chance of success, but the pressure was still too great.

This was, after all, a war for the world.

Time passed like flowing water, yet the scene before them still showed no difference from when they first arrived, making the already extremely quiet deck of the giant ship even more silent.

Even Roy, who had some confidence and speculation in her heart, seeing this scene, unconsciously tightened her grip on the ship’s rail and frequently looked toward her father.

Fortunately, the feedback she received wasn’t too bad.

Captain Gerard’s expression remained as calm as before, his gaze never moving from the mountain wall, and the emotions in his eyes gradually changed from nostalgia to wonder.

The nostalgia was for old scenes and old events, and those people who could never return.

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What he wondered at… was a fact that even he, with his powerful insight, had never discovered.

But that made sense too—the thoughts of a near-divine being, how could they be so easily seen through?

Even he, who understood that person incomparably well and had even confronted them…

Had actually been deceived for so long, deceived for twenty years.

Just as Roy, having finished observing her father’s expression and knowing the situation wasn’t so bad, withdrew her gaze and looked forward again, she couldn’t help but blink hard.

As if wanting to confirm she hadn’t seen wrong.

Because at the moment she turned her sight back, the water mist ahead that had been no different from the surroundings seemed to faintly change, becoming increasingly deep and hazy.

Accompanied by the gradually rising exclamations and reminder calls from the pirates, the morning mist ahead began to twist and flicker, and finally, like a real waterfall, it flowed down toward the sea surface.

Only it wasn’t violent, but very gentle, quiet as a mirror.

For a long time, the obscuring morning mist finally finished flowing away.

The “door” that had been hidden behind it—whether formed by water vapor or refracted skylight—appeared like a trembling mirror surface, as if it were a painting hanging on the mountain wall.

On the other side of the painting, that ethereal mirage-like scenery was a nearly transparent water curtain that could be recognized at a glance as that great waterfall, and deeper still was the sea.

The tranquil sea reflecting the starry sky.

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The sea of the present world.

At this point, the powerful figures naturally knew the door had opened, and the crew members who didn’t know the full situation were even more amazed after hearing the bosun’s explanation and understanding its purpose.

They thought that there could actually be a passage in the world that could cross thousands of miles, leading directly from the old sea to the present world.

It was simply like a divine miracle.

Roy knew this was indeed a divine miracle, because the one who had opened this path and acted earlier was an undeniable deity of the present world. But thinking of the details with that old man, thinking of the hidden meaning behind this matter, her mood was still very complex.

“See, I told you the Great Captain’s thoughts are always so hard to guess.”

With the door manifesting in the world, even sensing the familiar aura hidden in the changes of the previous moment, Gerard looked at the young woman who was slightly pursing her lips and said with a bitter smile.

Just like how very few people could know that over more than a hundred years, in the open and in secret, how many arrangements that great existence who always seemed unable to wake up had made.

And in that period of time, what kind of conversations he had with the devil… and with deities.

But at least one thing was very clear.

That from beginning to end, he sat on that royal throne, sitting peacefully at the peak of the present world, using indifferent or most loving gazes to watch over everything.

Watching over the world that belonged to him, and also belonged to all contemporary people and those who came after.

Their world.