"Where did you go?" Charles, who was looking at the sea chart, asked the mouse as the door opened.
"I went out to play." Lily answered despondently, clearly in low spirits.
"Are you hungry? There's some food on my desk."
"Let the other mice have it; I've already eaten." Lily climbed onto a pillow and immediately lay down, listless and unenthusiastic.
Watching the unusually emotional mouse, Charles was somewhat perplexed. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with the little mouse; hadn't everything been dealt with already?
But he wasn't inclined to indulge these mood swings and pulled her tail, dragging her directly onto the desk.
"I found you some books about operating artillery; start reading. I'm taking you to the harbor for training tomorrow."
Lily looked at the stack of books, which were taller than she was and instinctively resisted. "I won't read them, and besides, I already know how to operate the artillery!"
"Don't give me that nonsense. Becoming a qualified gunner isn't that simple. As you are part of my crew, I must ensure you meet the standards. At sea, all sorts of abnormalities can happen, and your slightest weakness might kill us all."
Charles opened a book and dumped the mouse onto it.
Under the captain's compulsion, Lily reluctantly nibbled on literature that wasn't meant for her age.
However, the pressure and stress soon overwhelmed her sadness and depression, and the once cheerful Lily returned, constantly complaining to Charles.
Charles, usually a man of few words, found himself talking more as the mouse's relentless pestering continued. For the first time, there was a sense of liveliness in the apartment's room.
Half a month quickly passed, and Lily completed her initial training. Charles, with his rested crew, embarked on a new mission.
The last island they had explored was the outermost one, and this time, Charles was assigned to the northernmost waters.
Exploration at sea is generally safer than on islands, but when it comes to Earth Sea, who can really say for sure?
The crew was surprised by Lily the mouse's return. With a hint from Charles, no one pried too much; they only knew one thing: Unicorne now had a mouse gunner.
The smokestack of Unicorne once again belched black smoke, slowly disappearing under the watchful eyes of the dockworkers.
Life at sea remained as tranquil as ever, with the few unknown creatures that scrambled aboard being swiftly dealt with.
Entering unmarked waters for the second time, the crew was much calmer.
Perhaps because the last mission had no casualties, the crew was enthusiastic about the new task.
Even after just half a month's rest, everyone's face beamed with confidence. Second Officer Krona even wanted to introduce his cousin to join the ship and make a fortune together.
Privately, the crew speculated about how long it would be before they discovered a new island, ascending to prosperity along with their captain.
Inside the cockpit, Charles held a pen, calculating the ship's current position on the sea chart based on the course and speed.
Normally, this would be the navigator's job, but now he was taking personal charge. This task could not be treated lightly; even a slight discrepancy in coordinates could result in being miles off course.
After triple-checking that today's coordinates were accurate, Charles turned to go write in the ship's log in the Captain's Room.
But as he stepped out the door, he felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
Standing at the doorway, Charles turned back, scrutinizing everything in the cockpit.
The Unicorne's cockpit was much larger than Rat's, about the size of half a classroom.
At the moment, sailor chief Deep was at the helm, while the First Officer's bandage sat nearby supervising navigation, the two were chatting.
"First Officer Bandage, did you know? James actually got secretly married! He got married without inviting us, don't you think that's a bit too unfriendly?"
"15 degrees to port... Increase speed by 5 knots..." Bandage commanded woodenly as if he hadn't heard the sailor chief's complaint.
Charles's gaze swept back and forth inside the cabin; finally finding something amiss, he walked straight up to Bandage and tore off the bandage on his broken leg.
The thigh that had been devoured by Anna had regrown a section, the ink-black skin covered in tattoos contrasting sharply with the newly grown bright white skin.
Deep had clearly noticed this surprising occurrence as well, his eyes widened to their maximum, and he exclaimed in astonishment, "My God, you can regrow a severed leg? Are you an octopus from the sea?"
"Don't get distracted while steering!" Charles yelled, and the curious Deep quickly pulled back.
Charles pointed to the broken leg and asked Bandage, "Can you explain what's going on? I've never heard that followers of the Futan Sect have a special way to regenerate limbs."
"I... I don't know either... My memory is messy... I've been to many places... and experienced a lot, but my memory disappears..."
Bandage covered his head with his hand, a look of pain crossing his face. "I don't think my name is Bandage... but I'm not sure..."
It seemed this guy had a story too. Charles sighed inwardly.
He patted him on the shoulder. "No worries, if you can't remember the past, don't dwell on it. Just remember that now you are the first mate of the Unicorne."
Bandage, sitting on the stool, lifted his head, scrunching his mouth into a bizarre smile. "Thank you... Captain."
After speaking, he took a black long needle and skillfully jabbed it into his newly grown thigh, a row of small letters appeared on his leg. "Captain Charles can be trusted."
"First Officer, you really don't have to—"
"Captain! There's something wrong!! Quick, look outside the window!"
Hearing Deep's somewhat panicked voice, Charles immediately shifted his gaze outside.
Bright yellow flakes fluttered down, a sight that reminded Charles of snow on Earth, but there was no sky in Earth Sea, so how could there be snow?
Faced with the anomaly, as captain, Charles immediately issued a countermeasure. "All hands inside, full speed away from this area."
The bright yellow "snow" piled up more and more on the deck, tension began to mount aboard the Unicorne.
With a dull thud, thick black smoke started billowing from the funnel of the Unicorne.
An intensely focused Charles stared blankly at the pitch-black sea, not even blinking.
"Whoo~" "Whoo~" The howling sound arose, and waves started to swell on the sea.
"This... this is wind? Is Earth Sea windy now? Could we be near an entrance to Earth's surface?" An absurd thought crossed his mind.
Charles suddenly thought of something, his pupils contracted to pinpricks, he grabbed the red lever and yanked hard, the searchlight above the cockpit that should have been shining horizontally across the sea surface quickly tilted upward, shining into the sky.
Charles ran outside and looked up, and in that instant, his body inexplicably began to tremble. A fear like none he had ever known enveloped him.
Right above the Unicorne, a massive eye covering half the sky stared straight at him.