White Ship

That day, by the time Chiba and Hesta left the White Ship and entered the Bang Bang Club, they were already more than half an hour behind schedule.

Hesta noticed a simplified world map on the wall here as well. While Chiba registered their information, she began searching the map for Vilyuchinsk.

At first, she looked around the Askia Wasteland but found nothing. She then expanded her search to the entirety of District 3, but still could not find it.

She had no choice but to start from the left side of the map and examine it bit by bit. At last, she found her target—at the easternmost edge of District 14, a stretch of land shaped like a long, pointed bird's beak jutted down into the sea. The middle of that beak was labeled "Vilyuchinsk."

Askia and Vilyuchinsk were separated by all of District 14 and half of District 3—a distance of nearly a thousand kilometers, almost a third of the entire map.

No wonder Mrs. Dalia had said she had not been able to return even once in over a decade...

It really was too far.

That night, Chiba drove Hesta back to the base. On the way, Hesta told her about her confrontation with Shawn a few days earlier. Somewhat to her surprise, Chiba did not seem happy for her.

"What did Miss Chiba think of how I handled it?"

Chiba pursed her lips. "...Pretty good."

"I thought I could keep dragging it out like this for now," Hesta said softly. "Next, I plan to talk to Calvin. He doesn't seem as unreasonable as Shawn. If I can get his help, I believe things will get better."

"What could he help you with?" Chiba asked blandly.

"Give me some warning?" Hesta replied. "Since the brothers are always inseparable, he must be the one most familiar with Shawn's condition. If I have Liz by my side, as well as Calvin, who knows Shawn well, wouldn't that be better?"

Another car approached along the dimly lit road. Its headlights illuminated Chiba's face, then quickly faded away.

Hesta saw Chiba sink into thought, as though she were wrestling with some difficult question.

"Was there something I hadn't considered carefully enough?"

"No," Chiba said slowly. "It's just... you made things more complicated."

Back at the apartment, Hesta pushed open the door to 403. The room was pitch-black; neither Tulan nor Liz was there.

Hesta guessed they might be in the second-floor gym or library, so she put the pastries she had brought back from the White Ship into the refrigerator.

The refrigerator's warm orange light fell across her face. She stared blankly at the pointed tips of the strawberries on the fruit tart.

Even now, she had not figured out exactly what Chiba meant by "complicated"—no matter how she looked at it, the method she had chosen came at a lower cost.

Perhaps Miss Chiba thought it would be better to teach Shawn a lesson directly?

But devising an elaborate plan and using a gun at precisely the right moment to interrupt his Bullet Time would only be more complicated.

Hesta closed the refrigerator door.

Maybe... that was simply Miss Chiba's personality.

She had quietly mailed Hesta a handgun before, yet when they met again, she had not directly said what they were going to do. Only after Hesta followed her to the shooting range, armed and loaded, and fired at a target for the first time did Chiba gradually explain her ideas.

In Miss Chiba's mind, there was probably a line between "someone who could be reasoned with" and "someone who could not." Only when she felt someone had crossed into the category of people who could be reasoned with would she speak her mind.

If that was the case, then all Hesta could do was wait.

About half an hour later, footsteps sounded outside the door. Liz and Tulan entered one after the other.

The two of them almost immediately caught the unusual scent of cream in the air, and Tulan spotted the unfamiliar paper bag beside the refrigerator at a glance.

Hesta poked her head out from her room. "I brought back some pastries from the City Center. Do you want some?"

The three sat in a row around the large white square table in the living room, with Liz in the middle. She carefully untied the red ribbon around the paper box. Inside were four square cakes fitted together into one.

Tulan and Liz both let out a sigh of delight—since coming to the base, they had nearly forgotten the taste of cream cake.

The two dug in eagerly. By the time there was only a tiny bit left, they were reluctant to finish it.

"The last few times we went on missions, we went straight to the destination. They never gave us reserves time to wander around," Liz said. "Even now, I've only been to the City Center once—and I only saw it through dark gray car windows."

"I want to go out and have a look too." Tulan bit down on her metal fork and sighed softly. "I'm starting to forget what the outside even looks like."

Hesta truly had not expected that the two of them had stayed at the base for two whole years.

"Basically, the base doesn't belong to Tanyi City, nor does it belong to District 3. The moment you step out of the base, it's like walking from one administrative district into another—do you understand?" Liz explained.

"Full Quicksilver Needles enjoy a certain degree of freedom of movement between regions, so they can come and go freely in some major districts. But if we reserves want to leave, we need a legitimate reason," Tulan added from the side. "Like an internship mission, visiting family—"

"Forget that... I'm so jealous of you." Liz looked at Hesta. "When are you going out next? I need to keep track."

"That depends not on me, but on Miss Chiba's schedule," Hesta answered. "Possibly Monday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, or any time on Saturday or Sunday."

Tulan lay sprawled across the table, staring longingly at the now-empty cake box. "What was that shop called? If I get the chance, I want to go see it too."

"White Ship," Hesta answered.

Liz's eyes widened slightly. She softly repeated the name, her expression like someone encountering a dear friend after a long separation. "Where is the owner from?"

"The Vilyuchinsk Wilds, over in District 14," Hesta replied. "The owner is Mrs. Dalia. She also told me about Askia."

Liz let out a heartfelt sigh—one filled with surprise and satisfaction. A smile appeared on her face. The coincidence brought by fate was like an unexpected gift that had suddenly fallen upon her.

"You know each other?"

Liz shook her head. "Probably not."

Watching Liz's shifting expression, Tulan could not help asking curiously, "White Ship... does that have some special meaning?"

"It's that song."

Liz began to hum softly—Hesta quickly recognized it as an Askia tune Liz had sung weeks ago while teaching her the Quicksilver Needles' battle song.

That day, Liz had played the accordion and softly sung in a language no one else understood beneath the gentle morning sunlight:

Is there any river broader than you, Enese?

Is there any land kinder than you, Enese?

Is there any suffering heavier than yours, Enese?

Is there any will freer than yours, Enese? (1)

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(1) Quoted from the opening poem of "White Ship." Enese means "Mother River."