At Flower Square outside the Deep Blue Church in Bansy Harbor, the mournful wind suddenly grew wild and fierce.
A tall figure descended from the sky, riding the gale, and landed before the church doors at the edge of the square. The wind whirled around him with a crackling roar.
It was already late at night. Apart from the clergy on duty, no ordinary worshippers remained in the church, so no one witnessed this unbelievable scene.
In the hall of the Deep Blue Church, gusts of wind made the candles in the sconces along both walls flicker.
The yellow light spilled through glass shades decorated with wave patterns, casting wavering reflections on the floor and ceiling like waves rolling across the sea.
Amid the sound of footsteps, a tall, powerfully built middle-aged man strode in through the doors, having ridden the gale there.
His appearance suggested he was barely over forty. His features were stern and sharply defined, and his muscles bulged beneath the loose Storm Priest Robe.
His deep blue eyes were like a calm sea beneath the sun. His hair was the same color, each strand twice as thick as a normal person's, like a wriggling little worm or a slender tentacle.
The clergyman who had remained on duty at the church that night hurried over. His face was a jumble of emotions he couldn't suppress: astonishment, shock, fear, and delight.
He recognized the clergyman who had suddenly appeared at the Deep Blue Church. When he had just graduated from seminary and first come to the sea, he had been fortunate enough to see the man once.
One of the thirteen cardinals of the Church of Storms, the Archbishop of the Rorsted Sea Area, and a senior deacon of the Mandated Punishers—"Sea King" Jahn Kottman!
Ordinarily, a deacon