Invitation and Contact

The two vessels stopped quite close to each other—close enough for large ships to make quick trips back and forth by landing boat.

Duncan curiously observed the enormous Pilgrimage Ark, its academy facilities built in the upper district and its towering structures rising one after another. He saw many figures moving near the walls. Some might have been guards and sailors from the Academy Ark, while others, judging by their attire, looked like ordinary scholars or apprentices. He also saw steam walkers—those enormous spider-like robots climbing along the Ark's outer bulwarks. They appeared far more agile than the walkers he had seen in other city-states, clearly displaying a much higher level of technology.

Duncan knew that the people aboard the Pilgrimage Ark were certainly observing the Lost Homeland as well.

Glittering light drifted over the sea. The breeze wrinkled the ocean, and the sinking sun coated the rolling fragments of waves in pale gold. Yet strands of ghostly green were mixed within that faint golden light. The green-flamed water spread outward from the Lost Homeland as its center, only stopping at the edge of the Pilgrimage Ark—where there was a sharply defined "boundary." Along that boundary, Duncan could sense a distinct "resistance."

The ghost ship and the cathedral ship faced each other silently across the sea.

After the standoff had continued for an unknown length of time, Duncan suddenly turned toward a shadow beside him in puzzlement. "What are they waiting for?"

"Perhaps they're still observing the Lost Homeland?" Agatha's voice came from the shadows, sounding somewhat hesitant. "But they should at least have sent a message..."

The bridge suddenly fell quiet. Duncan thought for a moment before finally speaking with some uncertainty. "Do you think it's possible that they're trying to call the Lost Homeland by radio?"

Agatha: "...Does