Chapter 161: Relaxed

Chapter 161: Relaxed

As a Hunter, and with the Shadow Cloak on top of that, Danitz had always been rather good at hiding and surveillance. He had even helped Gehrman Sparrow lie in ambush for “Steel” Maviti back then. At the moment, he left no trace at all—except that he felt rather bored, and desperately hoped Anderson would come quickly to take over.

When is this kind of life going to end? Vice Admiral Ailment, hurry up and appear. No—no, that won’t do. Not now. Better wait until Anderson gets here first… Danitz examined himself and rationally ended his “prayer.”

He worried that a pirate admiral of Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy’s level might discover him hiding in the shadows, and he did not possess enough courage or confidence regarding that.

Of course, if he put on that glove, none of this would be a problem.

As long as he made decisions quickly enough, cowardice and fear would never catch up to him!

“You seem rather troubled?” Suddenly, a voice sounded beside Danitz’s ear.

Danitz was so startled that he abruptly leaped out of the shadows. An orange-red flame rapidly formed in his hand.

At the same time, he looked toward the source of the voice and saw Anderson hiding within a small thicket. Twigs with green leaves were stuck all over his head, making him nearly blend into the surroundings.

“…Shit!” Danitz did not know whether he was cursing Anderson or himself. After venting, he asked, “When did you get here?”

“Two minutes ago,” Anderson answered with a smile. “You hid pretty well. I couldn’t find you immediately, so I just followed your usual hiding habits and asked a random question over here.”

For a moment, Danitz did not know whether to feel proud or curse. With a complicated feeling, he asked in return, “If I’d stayed calm just now, you wouldn’t have found me?”

“In theory, yes.” Anderson smiled without the slightest concern. “But as an experienced Hunter, I would never have only one method.”

Danitz was about to ask what other methods there were when he suddenly saw Buzz inside the room snuff out the candle and prepare to sleep.

Several dozen seconds later, in the darkness, the information broker Buzz’s blurry figure appeared by the window. With a nimble leap, he landed outside in a patch of lightless ground.

That was precisely where Danitz had been hiding. Having merged back into the shadows, he was nearly stepped on by the target.

Buzz then followed the shadows and headed toward the seaside.

“…Shit!” Only then did Danitz reveal himself. He raised his middle finger at the target’s back.

Anderson also stepped out from the thicket, pulling branches out of his hair as he smiled at Danitz.

“Looks like we’ll get something tonight.”

Danitz glanced at the strongest Hunter of the Fog Sea and nodded firmly.

“Hopefully it’s Vice Admiral Ailment.”

He immediately led Anderson, using the shadows found everywhere in the night, and began tailing the information broker at a perfectly appropriate distance.

“Not too stupid…” Anderson observed for a while, then clicked his tongue and laughed.

Danitz gave a “heh” inwardly, but did not respond.

Without the glove on, he knew very clearly that this was not the occasion for mocking each other or provoking one another.

A quarter of an hour later, Buzz reached the seaside. He stood on the beach, gazing at the deep-blue ocean beneath the crimson moonlight.

He did not wait long before an enormous outline surfaced in the distant darkness over the sea. It gradually took shape, becoming a ship painted entirely black and flying a white flag.

Upon that flag, two ghostly blue flames “burned” within a pitch-black skull.

The Black Death!

Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy’s flagship, the Black Death!

Danitz became excited at once. If he had not already turned into a shadow, his pupils would certainly have dilated considerably to draw in more light and allow him to see every detail of the ship.

Unconsciously, he crept forward a little farther, wanting to truly confirm whether Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy was aboard.

The enormous sailing ship drew closer and closer, and the two people hidden in the shadows could gradually see sailors busily moving about on the deck.

Is there a dock here where it can moor? Or are they going to give Buzz a small boat and have him row over himself? Danitz had only just had those thoughts when he heard Anderson speak in a suppressed voice:

“Leave this place.”

Huh? Danitz had one greatest strength: he was good at following orders from authoritative figures. Whether facing Edwina Edwards or Gehrman Sparrow, at most, he would grumble a couple of times aloud, but in action he would never discount the order. Now, although his face was full of confusion and he wanted to argue a few words to defend his own view, he still quietly and soundlessly moved away from the seaside with the help of the shadows.

Only after the Black Death could no longer be seen, with only the sound of waves faintly reaching them, did Danitz separate from the shadows and appear within the woods. He urgently asked, “Aren’t we going to confirm whether Vice Admiral Ailment is there?”

Anderson looked Danitz up and down twice, then chuckled.

“Never underestimate a Beyonder who has a great reputation at sea and has managed to live well until today. Every pirate admiral is a target that must be treated with care. There can’t be even the slightest negligence.”

Danitz instinctively replied, “‘Admiral of Blood’ Senor, ‘Admiral Hell’ Ludwell…”

Both of them were pirate admirals casually dealt with by a certain crazy adventurer.

“…” For a moment, Anderson could not find words to refute Danitz. After several seconds, he finally said, “Then isn’t Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, who also suffered Gehrman Sparrow’s attack yet still survived, even more worthy of attention?”

Danitz thought about it carefully and somehow felt that Anderson’s words were quite reasonable. Just as he was about to speak, his throat suddenly itched, and he began coughing.

After several coughs, his throat started swelling painfully, and a rusty taste rose in his mouth.

“See? I said we had to be careful.” Anderson also raised a fist to his mouth and coughed lightly twice, though his reaction was not as strong as Danitz’s. “Tracy must have spread various diseases in the area around the ship. Once anyone approaches, they’ll quickly be infected and exposed. Heh, this kind of wide-area application of ability shows that she has completely digested her Sequence 5 potion and has hope of advancing to Sequence 4.”

“Why couldn’t she already have advanced to Sequence 4?” Danitz quickly recovered after leaving the source of infection and instinctively retorted.

“Then you would either be on the Black Death right now, or infected with the Black Death and about to die.” Anderson half-turned, looking toward the seaside he could no longer see. “Tracy’s application just now involved some trickery. She probably only maintained disease in the frontal area and ignored the other three directions, then used the wind to spread it and affect those onshore.”

At this point, Anderson lightly clapped his hands and revealed a smile again.

“Doesn’t what happened to us prove that Vice Admiral Ailment is indeed on the ship? You can notify Gehrman Sparrow now.”

…Danitz no longer hesitated. He immediately set up the ritual and summoned the messenger, while Anderson, under the pretext of guarding against accidents, walked out of the woods.

…

Backlund’s East Borough, after three in the morning, was pitch-black aside from moonlight and starlight.

Wearing cotton pajamas and a sleeping cap to protect his hairstyle, Klein sat on the bed and received the letter from Reinette Tinekerr without asking a single question.

After opening it and reading, he calmly got out of bed, took the fountain pen from his pocket, and wrote on the back of the letter paper:

“Return to the port city and await further instructions.”

After watching Miss Messenger leave, Klein unhurriedly changed into a shirt, put on a waistcoat, tied a bow tie, and draped himself in a black windbreaker.

Then he took four steps counterclockwise, arrived above the gray fog, and used a yellow crystal pendulum to divine the danger level of this operation. The revelation he received was that there was almost none.

No longer hesitating, Klein returned to the real world, stood before the mirror, picked up his half top hat, and placed it on his head.

In the outer room, his marionettes Qonas and Enyuni opened their eyes on the bunk bed.

…

A figure rapidly outlined itself within an empty room aboard the Black Death. Black-haired, brown-eyed, his features cold and stern—he was none other than Gehrman Sparrow.

Under the dim crimson moonlight, Klein swept his gaze around, casually found a chair, and sat down, admiring the ocean nightscape outside the window.

Separated from him by one floor, inside the captain’s cabin, Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, dressed in a white shirt and beige trousers, watched Buzz retreat from the room with disgust. She reflexively tugged at her collar, and her expression gradually turned grave.

Only just now had she learned that “Blazing” Danitz and the strongest Hunter, Anderson, had recently been staying on Celos Island for unknown reasons.

Both of them are connected to Gehrman Sparrow… Is that fellow looking for me? Tracy narrowed her eyes and walked without hesitation toward the window, preparing to instruct the sailors on deck to turn the ship around and leave this sea area.

At that moment, her thoughts suddenly froze, as if she had fallen into a state where she knew perfectly well that she was dreaming, yet no matter how she struggled, she could not escape.

Not good… Clusters of black flames abruptly drilled out from the surface of Tracy’s body, attempting to burn away whatever external influence might exist.

At first, those flames could still “flow” smoothly, but later they became intermittent, continuously dripping onto the floor like withered petals.

A powerful feeling of despair surged through Tracy’s heart, and her thoughts turned ever slower.

No longer able to care about anything else, she hurriedly condensed a layer of translucent ice crystals over her body, causing the invisible threads to coil back and wrap around her layer by layer.

Just then, the door to the captain’s cabin creaked open, and Gehrman Sparrow, wearing a silk top hat and black windbreaker, walked in.

Immediately after, he very politely closed the door behind him.

Amid a faint clicking sound, the entire captain’s cabin instantly became extremely quiet. The sound of waves no longer echoed, as though the room had been isolated from the real world.

And the invisible spiderweb-like threads wrapping around Tracy seemed to have misunderstood the command. They tightly bound Vice Admiral Ailment, leaving her unable to move or use Beyonder powers.

Distortion!

Tracy’s thoughts recovered, and her mind was no longer frozen.

“What—what do you want?” she asked Gehrman Sparrow, who approached step by step, unable to conceal her fear.

What she could not understand was that she had clearly lost all ability to resist just now. Why had the other party abandoned the attempt to turn her into a marionette?

Klein had done so because he was worried that Vice Admiral Ailment and White Witch Katarina had an extremely close blood relationship. If that were the case, Tracy’s death would alert that demigod skilled in curses, causing her to take precautions in advance.

Tap. Tap. Amid the sound of footsteps, Klein stopped before the witch.