The atmosphere in the captain's cabin aboard the Golden Dream was rather subdued.
"Vice Admiral Iceberg" Edwina stood before an enormous nautical chart, her brow slightly furrowed as her pale fingers lightly tapped a spot marked "Passenger Ship Wreck Site."
Beside her, Anderson Hood sprawled shamelessly on a sofa. His usually grinning face was now full of impatience.
"Damn it, have those people from the Church of Storms gone mad?" he complained. "There aren't any valuable shipwrecks around here. Why have they sent so many ships to wander around? Are they fishing?"
They had been in these waters for nearly two days, hoping to conduct a thorough investigation and find some trace of Monkey Brando.
Yet they had found nothing except patrol ships from the Church of Storms.
The ships flying the Storm Emblem patrolled these waters like a swarm of annoying flies. Even Edwina, a pirate admiral, had to steer the Golden Dream carefully out of their way to avoid unnecessary conflict.
Whether as a pirate or as an agent of the Church of Knowledge, she was naturally at odds with the Church of Storms.
This prevented them from approaching their target area at all, leaving their search completely fruitless.
"It seems I'll have to try that newly developed secret art," Edwina murmured to herself.
Conventional search methods had failed. She was preparing to use some newly devised, more taxing methods to locate Lorne.
Just as she was about to begin setting up the ritual, someone knocked on the cabin door.
"Come in."
A sailor hurried inside and reported respectfully, "Captain, we've received an encrypted telegram from Bayam. It's-it's from Danitz."
"Danitz?" Edwina looked up in puzzlement.
As far as she remembered, Danitz still had some time left on his vacation. He wasn't someone who enjoyed working, either. Why