Chapter 25: Bansy Harbor in the Wind

Chapter 25: Bansy Harbor in the Wind

Donna’s body jerked backward. Her pupils contracted violently, her mouth half open, a scream already at her lips.

If she had not previously seen the “messenger,” she would certainly have lost control, staggered up in terror, and not cared whether the tables and chairs were overturned.

Fortunately, she was no longer the little girl who had first boarded the White Agate and understood nothing of the sea. Her voice merely rose slightly in pitch as she pointed outside the window and stammered, “There—there’s a living corpse!

“A living corpse with no head!”

She used the most common living corpse from folk legends to describe the terrifying thing she had just seen.

Cecile shot to her feet and reached Donna’s side in two steps. Puzzled, she looked out into the wildly howling wind beyond the window and carefully examined it for several seconds.

“There is nothing there,” she said truthfully.

Donna shrank back. Summoning her courage, she cautiously leaned forward and drew closer, only to see trees swaying outside, miscellaneous objects flying about, and not a single pedestrian anywhere.

“There really was something just now. He—he was wearing a black cloak. He had no head, and his neck was bleeding!” Donna spoke while gesturing, trying to make the adults present believe her.

Her father, Urdi Branch, braced one hand against the table and stood. Walking to the window, he stared outside for a while, then said, “Donna, you are not allowed to read that Collection of Bansy Horror Stories again tonight!”

“But, but…” Donna wanted to argue, aggrieved.

At that moment, Cleeves reached the second floor and approached them.

“What happened?”

“Donna says she saw a living corpse outside, a headless living corpse,” the other bodyguard, Teague, explained with a light laugh.

Cleeves was silent for two seconds. Then he nodded at Donna.

“It is all right. It will pass.

“The wind outside is strong. It is even more dangerous out there. We will leave once it settles down.”

In Donna’s eyes, Uncle Cleeves’s words showed that he believed her and had chosen the safest solution. But to Urdi, Teague, and the others, this was a clumsy trick meant to comfort a child.

Seeing that Donna was still somewhat tense, and that the true employer was also not very satisfied, Cleeves pulled out a chair and sat down, saying steadily, “Bansy Harbor has a peculiar custom. On nights when the weather changes violently, do not leave the building, and do not answer any knocking.”

“If you open the door, will that living corpse take you away?” Denton, who had also seen the skeletal messenger with his sister, asked in sudden understanding.

“You may understand it that way.” Cleeves picked up his glass of water and took a sip.

So that’s how it is… Donna calmed down, believing that as long as she did not leave the restaurant, she would not encounter that terrifying living corpse from earlier.

It was only then that she realized the other diners had long since turned their gazes toward them because of the commotion.

Under one stare after another, Donna felt uncomfortable all over. Instinctively, she wanted to lower her head and hide from everything.

I did nothing wrong! I really saw it! Donna stubbornly straightened her neck and looked around.

She saw gentlemen in tailcoats and ladies in beautiful dresses withdraw their gazes. She saw them lower their heads, pick up soup spoons, and scoop dark-red blocks of blood mixed with several spices from porcelain bowls into their mouths.

Their lips were stained with a trace of blood-red. Under the illumination of the crystal chandelier, their faces appeared rather pale. The two colors formed a vivid contrast, inexplicably stirring within Donna an emotion called panic.

She hurriedly turned her head forward again and waited for dinner, secretly praying to the Goddess that the gale would soon stop.

…

Bansy Harbor Telegraph Office.

Elland and his first mate had just finished sending the intelligence report to the navy when they discovered the wind howling outside, tugging at the nearby doors and windows until they rattled loudly.

“Honestly, the weather here is always so unstable.” Elland put on his bicorne hat and laughed with a sigh.

His first mate, Harris, laughed loudly and said, “Why else would it have the nickname Weather Museum?”

“You had best not go out. Legend says that one may lose one’s head because of it.” The telegraph office worker, a young lady with brown curls, gave the warning in a slow, unhurried voice.

“I know, but I have tried a few times and nothing happened.” Harris did not care in the slightest and was about to pull open the door and leave.

Elland stopped him. After a brief moment of thought, he said, “Going to the church next door should be fine, correct?

“Your telegraph office should be closing, yes?”

“That is fine.” The brown-curled young lady still spoke at that same deliberate pace.

Elland nodded, opened the telegraph office door, and, facing the fierce wind that could almost lift up a child, struggled toward the Church of Storms a few dozen meters away.

First Mate Harris held down his hat and followed beside the captain. He seemed to want to express the thought that they could simply rush back to the White Agate.

But the moment he opened his mouth, the gale poured in and stuffed all his words back down his throat.

After mumbling indistinctly for a while, he wisely shut his mouth and made no further obviously unrealistic suggestions.

At this time, it was still a quarter before seven, only evening. The doors of the Church of Storms remained open, facing its worshipers.

Once the wind reached this place, it became much gentler. At the very least, Elland and Harris no longer needed to worry that their hats might abandon them at any moment.

Entering the church and walking through the dark, solemn corridor, the two stepped into the main prayer hall. They saw a man in dark-blue priestly robes sitting in the very front row, quietly gazing at the enormous Storm Sacred Emblem on the altar, composed of symbols representing gales, waves, and thunder.

Elland smiled as he approached. He patted that familiar figure on the shoulder.

“Jess, where is your bishop?”

After being patted like that, the priest’s head visibly wobbled.

Then it tipped forward and fell to the ground with a thud, rolling again and again.

From the priest’s neck, blood gushed upward like a fountain, spraying Elland across the face.

A cold, wet sensation seeped into his heart. A vivid, heavy crimson veiled Elland’s eyes.

In his vision, only a blood-colored world remained, and that head which had finally stopped rolling, its eyes blankly staring upward.

…

At 7:15, Klein and Danitz left the first-class dining room and discovered that the gale which had shaken the ship earlier had eased considerably.

After thinking for two seconds, Klein walked all the way to the entrance of the cabin and asked the crewman standing guard there, “Who has not returned?”

The crewman had seen this passenger eat the delicious murloc meat together with the captain, so he did not conceal anything.

“Other than the Branch family and the Dimodo family, who went to Lime Restaurant, all other passengers returned before the wind began. Heh, that place is relatively far away, and dinner takes longer.

“Oh, right. The captain and the first mate went to the telegraph office and have not returned either.”

Klein nodded almost imperceptibly and silently returned to Room 312.

He stood by the window, watching wave after wave being whipped up by the wind. Even without entering the mysterious space above the gray fog to perform divination, he could vaguely sense, relying only on his own spiritual intuition, that something bad was brewing, something bad was happening.

He waited another five minutes, but still did not see Captain Elland or Donna’s family return.

Klein turned his head and glanced at Danitz, instantly making the well-known pirate, who had been lazily reclining in an armchair, sit up straight.

Klein withdrew his gaze without saying anything and entered the washroom.

He skillfully shut the door, took out a paper figurine, disguised it, and went above the gray fog, preparing to perform another divination.

What he had considered previously was Bansy Harbor’s latent risk. Now, after the wind had risen, he intended to confirm the current level of danger.

“Bansy Harbor is dangerous.”

Holding the pendulum, Klein recited the statement in a low voice.

After repeating it again and again, he opened his eyes and discovered that although the citrine pendant was turning clockwise, its amplitude was not large and its speed was not fast.

There is danger, but it is within an acceptable range… This contradicts the previous revelation… Klein rested both elbows on the edge of the long bronze table and muttered in confusion.

He quickly thought of one possibility: the present danger was not the same as the hidden risk. Only if something were triggered, or if they investigated some matter too deeply, would the iceberg hidden beneath the surface of the sea reveal itself.

That hidden risk may have existed for three or four hundred years, perhaps even longer. It was not born because I came here… Mm, the current danger may even be completely unrelated to that hidden risk. Unfortunately, lacking the necessary information, I cannot divine that conjecture… After completing his interpretation, Klein swiftly returned to the real world, left the washroom, and sat down in a chair.

He remained silent, hesitating, taking no action for a long while. This made Blazing Danitz inexplicably uneasy.

Ever since Gehrman Sparrow had said there was hidden danger in Bansy Harbor, the famous pirate had been worrying.

A danger that can make this monster change his mind and not go to Lime Restaurant must be extremely terrifying… Why is my vacation this time so miserable? I am practically plagued by bad luck! Unable to sit still in an atmosphere that felt nearly solidified, Danitz had no choice but to stand and pace back and forth.

It was then that he saw the monster Gehrman Sparrow suddenly rise. As he buttoned the front of his double-breasted long frock coat, he walked toward the coat rack by the door.

Taking down his half top hat, Klein looked toward Blazing and said without expression, “You are free.”

“Ah?” Danitz felt as though none of this was real.

He suddenly understood what the other man intended to do and blurted out in astonishment, “You are going to save that captain and those ordinary people?

“You—you said yourself that it is dangerous outside!”

Klein put on his half top hat, picked up his black hardwood cane, and while turning the doorknob, answered calmly, “They have worked with me.

“They kept my secret.

“He treated me to murloc meat.

“He paid the compensation to White Shark on my behalf.”

…Danitz failed to react for a moment. Instinctively, he asked, “How much did he pay?”

“A few soli.” Klein opened the door and walked out.

Madman! This fellow is a complete and utter madman! Whether toward others or toward himself, he is a madman! Danitz’s mouth hung half open, unable to form words.

Good thing I am a normal person! I will stay somewhere safe! Danitz withdrew his gaze, thinking with half mockery and half delight.

The thought had only just appeared when the gale returned, making the glass window creak and the candlelight in the room sway wildly.

Watching the dim, surging scene, Danitz suddenly thought of a problem:

This ship is docked in the harbor. It counts as part of Bansy Harbor too. It is not safe either. It may also bear risk!

Staying here alone is worse than following that monster. At least—at least he is powerful! Danitz’s body moved faster than his mind. He ran out of Room 312 with rapid steps and finally caught up with Klein before he left the cabin.

Klein turned his head and glanced at him. Although he did not speak, the meaning of the question was obvious.

Danitz hurriedly laughed.

“Retreating from such a small danger would make me the laughingstock of every pirate on the Sonia Sea!”

Excuse… Klein did not expose him and borrowed a lantern from the crewman at the entrance.

Holding the dim yellow lantern and gripping his hardwood cane, dressed in a black long frock coat, he followed the side of the ship and entered the darkened harbor.

Danitz sighed inwardly again and again, but still stuck firmly beside him.