The Missing "Cargo"

The assembly bell rang. Urgent chimes were followed by the chaotic, panicked footsteps of sailors. Lawrence remained in the bridge with the Second Mate and the Priest, who had yet to catch his breath.

The old captain looked out at the sea beyond the windows. The White Oak was still within the Spirit World Depths. Fog hung over the sea beyond the hull, and the water remained black as ink, but the storm had subsided, and the dreadful Lost Homeland had vanished without a trace. It gave him the illusion that the previous storm, even the collapsing Reality Border, had been brought by that ghost ship—and now, with its departure, all disaster had moved away from the White Oak.

Lawrence thought of the terrifying legends surrounding the Lost Homeland and Captain Duncan Abnormall, of the fleet swallowed by the Reality Border more than a century ago, and of the ships that had sunk into the Abyssal Deep Sea after encountering the Lost Homeland. Suddenly, it did not seem impossible.

But regardless, the Lost Homeland had now left, and the surrounding waters had temporarily returned to calm. Though they were still in the dangerous Spirit World Depths, at least he and his crew had a chance to catch their breath.

Next, Lawrence had to determine exactly what the Lost Homeland had taken from the White Oak—or what it had left behind.

And he had to find out quickly.

Until every potential danger had been eliminated, he did not dare rashly bring the ship back up to the Real World. Some things brought out of the Spirit World could cause horrifying contamination in reality. Yet if they remained in the Spirit World Depths for too long, he and his crew would likewise suffer irreversible effects.

Hearing the noise on deck, Lawrence suddenly looked up from his thoughts. He looked toward the Priest sitting before the Incense Burner, whose complexion had improved somewhat, his expression grave. "Mr. Ron, how stable are we right now?"

The Priest coughed twice, then took a small, exquisitely crafted compass from his robes. Its surface was engraved with numerous oceanic symbols and holy emblems. With a snap, he opened its metal cover. The needle immediately spun rapidly before finally stopping firmly at a certain point.

"We're in the Spirit World Surface, slightly closer to the Real World. The influence from the Abyssal Depths... is very weak," the Priest said, studying the needle. His expression suddenly turned puzzled. "Strange... we've become completely stable here. Even with the relic shut down, we're almost not sinking at all... cough, cough..."

"Perhaps that one 'collision' with the Lost Homeland knocked us onto a safe route instead," Lawrence said with a bitter smile, shaking his head as he attempted to lighten the mood with a joke. "I've heard there are subtle points of balance in the Spirit World that can spare things from reality the pull toward deeper layers..."

"Captain, that joke is far too cold," the Priest said, coughing twice more. Although he had caught his breath, he was still in no condition to be called well. "Cough, cough. In any case, what happened today must be reported to the Church... The appearance of the Lost Homeland is no small matter. There have always been reports of encounters with it over the past few decades, but afterward they were all proven to be sailors' nonsense or mass hallucinations caused by uncontrolled anomalies. But today, we truly saw it... Goddess above, once you return to Pland, you had best prepare yourself for the possibility that you will not be sailing again anytime soon."

"I understand. Neither the Church nor the city-state authorities will allow a ship that has just encountered an anomalous disaster to return to sea. It's for everyone's safety. And it's not just the Church I'll have to report this to—the city-state, the Explorer's Association... Ah, and my terrifying wife..." Captain Lawrence pressed hard against his forehead. After a long sigh, he waved a hand. "Enough of that. You need rest. Until we return to port, this ship will need the Goddess's blessing."

The Priest nodded lightly, and before long, the First Mate, who had only recently left, returned to the bridge.

"No one is missing, and there are no extra people aboard," the First Mate reported immediately upon entering, before the captain could ask. "I personally checked the sailors assembled on deck, then inspected the engineers in the boiler room. They could all accurately recite the names of the gods they worship. They are definitely alive."

"Not a single person is missing?" Lawrence's eyes widened. This should have been good news, yet he could scarcely believe the First Mate's report. "What about the Holy Emblem Beacon?"

"The relic is normal as well," the First Mate immediately nodded. "The navigator is preparing incense and essential oils, awaiting your order to reactivate it."

Lawrence listened uneasily, then could not help muttering under his breath again. "...Did he really let this ship go?"

"Luck is on our side, Captain," the First Mate said with a shrug. "We've lost nothing. Perhaps that terrible Ghost Captain was merely passing by, or perhaps he even collided with us by accident."

"You believe that yourself?" Lawrence immediately shot his First Mate a glare. "If luck were really on our side, we wouldn't have encountered—"

He had only gotten halfway through when hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door. The bridge door was flung open, and the sweating boatswain appeared before Lawrence. The large man's face was filled with terror.

"Captain! Anomaly 099 is gone!!"

The bridge instantly fell silent. Everyone stared at one another, yet for some reason, after the brief shock, Lawrence suddenly felt relieved—

Wonderful. At last, they had found something wrong aboard after encountering the Lost Homeland. That made everything feel much more right!

But he quickly controlled his expression. As he headed for the door, he briskly ordered the First Mate to take the wheel and instructed the boatswain to lead the way.

Hurried footsteps echoed through the White Oak's corridors. Before long, led by the boatswain, Lawrence arrived at the deepest part of the steamship.

A special cabin stood before him.

The door was covered in densely packed occult symbols. The heavy black door appeared to have been cast from a single block of black iron. Mysterious symbols extended from the edges of the doorframe and all the way down the corridor, vaguely forming some sort of sealed cage meant to restrain whatever was stored within.

Lawrence glanced at the door, confirming that neither it nor the surrounding symbols showed any signs of damage. Then he looked upward—the Relic Room, which housed the Holy Emblem Beacon, was directly above the Seal Chamber. The Beacon was key to ensuring the ship remained unaffected by the "deeper layers," and it was also the second safeguard maintaining the Seal Chamber. Even while inactive, it should have been able to ensure the chamber's barrier remained intact.

Yet with both layers of protection completely unharmed, the thing inside the Seal Chamber—the most crucial cargo the White Oak was escorting on this voyage, Anomaly 099, the Puppet Coffin—had vanished.

Lawrence took a deep breath, stepped forward, opened the Seal Chamber's door, and forcefully shoved the heavy door aside.

The Seal Chamber was brightly lit. Steam lamps hanging from four pillars illuminated the room's center from nearly every angle. Yet the "cargo" that should have been placed there had disappeared without a trace. All that remained were several crisscrossing chains and some grayish-white ash scattered across the floor.

The boatswain's voice came from behind Lawrence. "According to Anomaly 099's containment requirements, this room has always been kept illuminated. Every two hours, a crewman enters to reinforce the chains around the 'Coffin' and scatter bone ash across the floor. But when that... ghost ship appeared, the situation was too chaotic. The sailor assigned to the shift did not enter the room in time. He was about seven minutes late, and that was when he found Anomaly 099 missing..."

"Being seven minutes late would not cause that thing to lose control. At most, the seal would weaken and it might show some abnormal movement. Even in the worst-case scenario, it would just be a coffin running around inside this room—the layers upon layers of seals here and the Holy Emblem Beacon's restraints are not for decoration," Lawrence said, shaking his head with a frown. "But now it has disappeared... The cargo has left this ship. This has nothing to do with that sailor."

The boatswain looked somewhat nervous. "Then you mean..."

"It had to be the Lost Homeland," Lawrence said in a low voice. "That 'captain' took Anomaly 099..."

He paused, then sighed softly. "Perhaps we should count ourselves fortunate. The Lost Homeland only ever takes what it wants. That captain came for Anomaly 099, not our lives."

The boatswain looked at his captain's expression, then at the empty Seal Chamber. After a long while, he hesitantly asked, "Then... with such important cargo lost, how are we supposed to explain this to the city-state authorities..."

Lawrence glanced at the boatswain and firmly patted his shoulder.

"The Lost Homeland is a natural disaster. We have maritime insurance."

"...Will the insurance company pay for this?"

"If they refuse, we'll have the Explorer's Association issue a new bounty on the Lost Homeland..."

"Captain, aren't you getting a little anxious—"

"Shut up."