A layer of mist drifted over the distant sea.
But the surrounding area was already thick with mist, so this newly drifting fog caused no stir. Not until a human silhouette appeared within it did it draw everyone's attention.
"Someone seems to be drifting over there. Is it Lord Feiluo?"
"Are you blind? Does that figure look male to you? It's obviously a woman."
"How could there be a woman in these waters?"
"Who knows? But her right arm seems a little strange..."
Cindy and several other apprentices exchanged glances as they spoke in feigned surprise.
Their voices reached Reynolds' ears.
"Someone drifting over, woman, right arm..." Those words poured into his ears like they had flipped some crucial switch, filling his muddled thoughts with a cool, clear spring.
Is it Nausicaa? The question flashed through Reynolds' mind.
Instinctively, he raised his head and looked toward the mist not far away.
Just as the others had said, a vaguely visible black silhouette stood within the mist. She struggled amid the surging sea, sometimes surfacing to gasp for air, sometimes swallowed by the waves, like a small boat that could sink to the seabed at any moment as it fought desperately for life.
The waves obscured her features, so Reynolds could not see her face clearly. Yet the silhouette behind the watery veil was incomparably familiar.
It was her. It had to be her!
"Nausicaa!" Reynolds, who had been sitting there in a daze, suddenly rose to his feet and ran madly toward the mist, muttering all the while, "Save her. I have to save her."
The sea submerged Reynolds' legs. Even as the tides slapped against his glowing soul body, they could not stop his steps.
It was as though he had glimpsed a shining lighthouse, and he rushed toward