Lucretia recognized it. It was her Brilliant Star—yet it was the Brilliant Star from another timeline.
Decades ago, during one of her reckless voyages along the border, the Brilliant Star had accidentally crossed the Six Nautical Mile Threshold Line and become "lost." At this very moment, her past self stood aboard that ship, futilely searching for a route back to the Boundless Sea.
The sailor gripped the helm tightly. After realizing what the distant ship's silhouette was, he nearly broke out in a cold sweat—if he still had sweat glands. He instinctively cried out, "Ma'am! That's an entity from another timeline—don't make contact with it! We must have left the 'passage' early because of its interference. If we approach it rashly, we might get trapped!"
With the sailor's shout, the people on deck also came to their senses. They realized that this situation was completely different from when the Lost Homeland encountered the Sea Song in the "passage"—
The Sea Song was a ship with no "connection" to either the Lost Homeland or the Brilliant Star. Its sudden appearance back then could at most have been considered a lingering shadow within the temporal turbulence. But the ship appearing at the end of the fog was the Brilliant Star from another timeline, the "alternate-time counterpart" of the ship beneath their feet—what would happen if two such entities came into contact within the flow of time?
No scholar had yet studied this field—not even those at Truth Academy with the best physical fitness and combat scores—but without question, nothing good would come of it.
Yet Lucretia seemed not to hear the sailor's loud warning. She merely watched the Brilliant Star gradually approaching through the fog with an unusual look in her eyes. Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, she sharply