The assembly bell rang out, followed by the hurried and chaotic footsteps of the sailors. Captain Lawrence stayed in the steering room with the second mate and the still out-of-breath priest.
The old captain gazed out at the sea from the window. At this moment, the White Oak was still deep in the Spirit Realm. The sea outside the hull was shrouded in fog, and the water remained as black as ink, but the storm had stopped, and the dreadful Homeloss had disappeared without a trace— which inevitably gave the illusion that the previous storm and even the collapse of the reality boundary were all brought about by the Ghost Ship, and now, all calamities seemed to have drifted away from the White Oak along with the ship's departure.
Lawrence thought of the frightening legends about the Homeloss and its captain, Duncan Ebnomal. He pondered the fleet swallowed by the reality boundary more than a century ago and the ships that had sunk in the Mysterious Deep Sea after encountering Homeloss, suddenly feeling that this was not at all impossible.
But regardless, now that Homeloss had left and the surrounding sea temporarily returned to calm, although still in the perilous depths of the Spirit Realm, at least he and his crew had a chance to catch their breath.
Next, Lawrence had to determine what precisely the Homeloss had taken from—or left behind on—the White Oak.
And he needed to find out quickly.
Without eliminating all hidden dangers, he dared not recklessly bring the ship back to the real world; some things brought out from the Spirit Realm could cause terrible contamination in reality, but if they stayed in the depth of the Spirit Realm for too long, he and his crew would be irreversibly affected.
Listening to the noise coming from the deck, Lawrence suddenly raised his head from his thoughts and looked at the priest who was sitting in front of the incense burner, his complexion somewhat improved. He spoke with utmost seriousness, "Mr. Ron, how stable are we now?"
The priest coughed twice and then took out a small, exquisitely crafted compass, its surface engraved with many nautical symbols and holy symbols. After snapping open the metal cover, the needle on the compass immediately began spinning rapidly, eventually coming to a steady halt at a certain position.
"We're at the surface layer of the Spirit Realm, slightly closer to the real world. The influence from the Mysterious Deep Sea is... very weak," the priest observed the state of the compass needle and suddenly looked puzzled. "Strange... we're completely stable here. Even with the Sacred Relic turned off, there's almost no... cough, cough... sinking."
"Perhaps that 'collision' with the Homeloss bumped us onto a safe course," Lawrence let out a bitter smile and shook his head, trying to lighten the mood with a dry joke. "I've heard that there are subtle equilibrium points in the Spirit Realm that can protect things from the real world from deeper 'pulls'..."
"Captain, that joke was too cold." The priest said, coughing again. Though he had caught his breath, he was far from okay, "Cough, cough, regardless, what happened today must be reported to the Church... Homeloss's appearance is no small matter. There have always been reports of encounters with Homeloss over the past decades, but they were all later proved to be nonsense from sailors or mass hallucinations caused by phantom anomalies. But today, we truly witnessed it... Goddess above, you better be prepared not to sail again anytime soon after returning to Prand."
"I understand—neither the Church nor the City-State authorities would allow a ship that just faced a phantom disaster to return to the open sea, it's a safety measure for everyone. And it's not just the Church I have to report to, the City-State, Explorers' Association... Ah, and my terrifying wife..." Captain Lawrence pressed his forehead hard, sighed deeply, and waved his hand, "But let's not talk about that now. You need to rest. Until we reach port, this ship will need the blessing of the Goddess."
The priest nodded lightly, and soon after, the first mate who had left not long ago returned to the steering room.
"There are no less and no more people aboard," the first mate reported immediately, even before the captain could ask, "I personally checked the sailors assembled on the deck and went to the engine room to check the machinists stationed there. They could all accurately recite the names of the gods they worship, they are indeed alive."
"Not a person missing?" Lawrence widened his eyes in disbelief. Although it should be good news, he was hesitant to trust the first mate's report, "What about the Sacred Relic beacon?"
"The Sacred Relic is normal," the first mate nodded promptly, "The navigator is preparing the incense and essential oils, waiting for your command to restart the Relic."
Listening in disbelief, Lawrence murmured to himself again, "… Did he truly spare this ship?"
"Here's to good fortune favoring us, Captain," the first mate spread his hands, "We haven't lost anything; perhaps that fearsome Ghost Ship Captain just happened to be passing by, or it might have been an accidental collision."
"Do you believe that yourself?" Lawrence glared at his first mate, "If we were really favored by good luck, we would not have encountered it at all..."
He was cut off mid-sentence by a surge of frantic footsteps outside the door, followed by someone bursting through the steering room's door, a perspiration-drenched boatswain appearing in front of Lawrence. The tall man's face was etched with terror.
"Captain! Anomaly 099 is gone!!"
The bridge fell silent instantaneously, everyone exchanged looks, yet for some reason, Lawrence felt a sense of relief after the brief shock—
Thank goodness, since encountering the Homeloss, they had finally found something amiss on the ship, and that was a good thing!
But then he immediately controlled his facial expression, hastened towards the doorway, and urgently ordered the first mate to take over the helm while instructing the boatswain to lead the way in front.
Urgent footsteps echoed in the passageways of the White Oak's cabins, and soon Lawrence, led by the boatswain, arrived at the deepest part of this steamship.
A special chamber appeared before him.
The door of this chamber was covered with dense, arcane symbols, and the heavy, dark door seemed to be forged from a single piece of black iron. Mysterious symbols extended from the edge of the doorframe to the corridor, faintly forming a kind of closed cage, meant to bind whatever was kept inside the chamber.
Lawrence glanced at the door, making sure the door and the surrounding symbols were undamaged, then looked up—directly above the Sealed Chamber was the "Sacred Relic Room" where the Sacred Emblem Compass was placed, a device critical in ensuring the ship was unaffected by the "Deep" and also a second layer of insurance for maintaining the seal of the chamber. Even when off, it should keep the barrier of the Sealed Chamber intact.
Yet, despite both layers of protection being undamaged, the contents of the Sealed Chamber, the most critical cargo of the White Oak's voyage, anomaly 099—the Doll Coffin, had vanished.
Lawrence took a deep breath, stepped forward, and forcefully pushed open the massive doors of the Sealed Chamber.
Inside the Sealed Chamber, the lights were fully on, suspended lamps hanging from four pillars brightly illuminated the center of the room. However, the "cargo" that should have been there had disappeared without a trace, leaving only several crisscrossing chains and some white-grey ashes scattered on the floor.
The boatswain's voice came from behind Lawrence: "According to the sealing requirements for anomaly 099, the room was always to be lit, and every two hours, a crew member would enter to reinforce the chains around the 'coffin' and scatter bone ash on the floor. But when that... Ghost Ship appeared, due to the chaotic situation, the sailor who was on duty failed to enter the room on time. He was almost seven minutes late, and by the time he did, anomaly 099 was gone..."
"Just seven minutes late wouldn't cause it to go out of control, at worst, the seal would weaken and there might be some disturbance, the worst-case scenario being a coffin moving about in this room—that's all. The multiple layers of seals and the restraining power of the Sacred Emblem Compass are not just for show," Lawrence frowned and shook his head, "but now it has disappeared... The cargo has left the ship, and it has nothing to do with that sailor."
The boatswain's expression grew tense: "Then you mean to say..."
"It has to be the Homeloss," Lawrence spoke gravely, "that 'captain' took anomaly 099..."
He paused, then sighed softly, "Perhaps we should be grateful that the Homeloss only takes what it wants. That captain came for anomaly 099, not our lives."
The boatswain looked at his own captain's face, then at the empty Sealed Chamber, hesitating for a long time before finally asking, "So... having lost such important cargo, how do we explain it to the City-State authorities..."
Lawrence looked at the boatswain and vigorously patted his shoulder.
"The Homeloss is considered an act of God; we have maritime insurance."
"...Do insurance companies cover this sort of thing?"
"If they don't pay out, let the Explorers' Association issue a new bounty on the Homeloss..."
"Captain, are you being a bit rash..."
"Shut up."