Chapter 203: “Meeting Up”

Chapter 203: “Meeting Up”

Anderson, who was enjoying cheese cassava bread, looked up at Danitz. With a thoughtful air, he nodded and said,

“I don’t know why, but I don’t feel like leaving West Balam just yet. Haha. Since I’ve already come all this way, how could a treasure hunter return empty-handed?

“In those vast jungles, inside all sorts of abandoned temples, there’s bound to be gold, jewels, antiques, and perhaps even mystical items waiting for us to rescue them!”

Danitz curled his lip and gulped down the last of the Guadar in his cup.

It was a drink made from a berry native to West Balam. Orange-yellow in color, sweet with a hint of tartness, it cooled the body, quenched thirst, and contained a certain amount of caffeine, helping people resist fatigue and remain clear-headed.

After setting down the cup and taking up a napkin to wipe his mouth, Danitz finally gave a short “heh.”

“I keep feeling like you’re plotting something.”

“I hope so too.” Anderson did not mind at all, and smiled.

He was having coffee with his breakfast.

In East and West Balam, there were many excellent coffee-growing regions. Their fame was only slightly inferior to the highland coffee of Feynapotter, the highland coffee of the Southern Continent, and the Felmo coffee from the Pas Valley near the Star Plateau.

Without waiting for Danitz to say more, Anderson smiled and continued,

“Isn’t this actually rather nice? I provide protection for free, and you act as my translator. We both benefit.”

Thinking of how he was still only a Sequence 7, and how he was wanted by one faction after another, Danitz inexplicably felt that Anderson’s words made some sense.

He coughed lightly and said,

“But at certain times, I’ll need you to make yourself scarce.”

“If you say ‘please,’ I have no problem with that,” Anderson replied with perfect ease.

Danitz immediately draped on his cloak and walked toward the hotel entrance, preparing to begin the day’s investigation.

On the way, he suddenly blurted out,

“Have you ever had this kind of experience? Often dreaming that an angel descends and wraps you layer upon layer in its wings?

“No, not only dreaming. Sometimes, even when awake, you occasionally experience the same hallucination.”

Anderson glanced at the glove Danitz was wearing. After pondering for a few seconds, he smiled.

“Did you start believing in some hidden existence?

“Or did you come into contact with some ancient object?”

Danitz’s expression stiffened. He forced out a smile.

“If it were as simple as you say, I’d have guessed the reason long ago!”

As he spoke, he brushed past three men entering through the hotel door and went outside.

Anderson had a habit of sizing up passersby and confirming his surroundings, so he casually glanced at the three men. He found that they were one master and two servants. The master was tall, with somewhat brown skin and gentle features; he seemed to be of mixed Balamese and Loenese blood, while his dress leaned more toward the Northern Continent style—a silk top hat, black formalwear, and a gold-inlaid cane.

One of the two servants was a standard local, seemingly from a plantation, holding the master’s spare cane and leather suitcase. The other was also mixed-blood, with a fleshy face, loose clothing, and a rapier at his waist, as though he served as a bodyguard as well.

Anderson withdrew his gaze without paying them much mind and followed Danitz onto the street.

With great interest, he pointed toward coffins of different shapes, some pulled by horses and others carried by men.

“Want to try one of those?

“They’re quite interesting. After you get used to them, you’ll feel death isn’t anything frightening. Maybe one day, you’ll push open the lid and stand up again.”

Danitz looked askance at those strange vehicles and shook his head without the slightest hesitation.

“As a pirate, you more or less have to believe in the Lord of Storms and avoid certain taboos. Staying away from coffins is one of them.”

“I’m different. I don’t have many taboos.” Anderson casually took out a few Delis and bought several newspapers from a newsboy hawking along the street.

It had to be said that in the matter of newsboys, the major cities of the Southern Continent were no worse than those of the Northern Continent. After all, labor was cheaper, and there were more children who needed to help support their families.

While walking toward the street corner, looking for carriages that served foreigners, Danitz took a newspaper from Anderson and quickly flipped through it.

Suddenly, he noticed a piece of news:

“…the famous pirate who called himself Hell Admiral, Ludwell, was killed by the mad adventurer Gehrman Sparrow. His Black Tulip and his entire fleet have been taken over by Mirella, who styles herself ‘Death’s Envoy’…”

“This…” Danitz’s mouth slowly fell open and did not close for a long time.

He finally understood why Gehrman Sparrow had told him to beware of people from the Numinous Episcopate.

That lunatic had actually killed Ludwell, the foremost of the Seven Pirate Admirals!

After more than ten seconds, Danitz handed the newspaper beside him to Anderson with a vacant expression.

“Look at this.”

Still smiling, Anderson took the newspaper and read through it at extremely high speed.

After a brief silence, he whistled and laughed.

“That fellow should get himself a new nickname.

“The Pirate Admiral Nemesis!”

Danitz did not dare nod. Instead, he sighed with emotion.

“When I first met him, I already thought he was terrifying, but I never imagined he would become terrifying to this extent.”

At that moment, he remembered the time he had tried to recruit Gehrman Sparrow as a sailor aboard the Golden Dream.

And inside the hotel the two of them had just left, Klein had already moved into a luxurious room and was standing by the window, looking down at the two Hunters who were not paying proper attention while walking.

Rubbing the nail at his cuff, he unfolded a sheet of letter paper and began writing:

“…I preliminarily suspect that the one possessing Ince Zangwill is an evil spirit of the Hunter pathway. You may investigate more in that direction.

“…Enclosed with this letter is a Requiem Beyonder characteristic. It came from a poor soul who had been grazed. I gave him release and promised to return his characteristic to the Church of Evernight.”

…

East Balam. Leonard, who had just been preparing to attend the morning meeting, suddenly saw an angel-level messenger carrying four blond, red-eyed heads appear before him.

Already numb to this, he accepted the letter and opened it. He was somewhat stunned to find that there was an object inside that looked like a radiant curtain of night.

“This is…” Leonard vaguely understood what that object was and hurriedly unfolded the letter to read it.

After more than twenty seconds, he slowly sighed and silently murmured to himself,

“As expected. It’s a Beyonder characteristic.

“Klein is still very friendly toward the Church, toward the Nighthawks…”

Feeling rather gratified, he took out two segmented, dead, transparent little worms, placed them directly into the envelope, and once again summoned Gehrman Sparrow’s messenger. He handed the envelope over, along with a gold coin.

After finishing this, Leonard loosened the top button of his shirt and left the room, heading toward the underground area.

On the way, he ran into Daly Simone.

Still dressed as a Spirit Medium, Daly looked ahead and asked quite naturally,

“Any new clues?”

“…An evil spirit suspected to be of the Hunter pathway,” Leonard answered after two seconds of silence. In the end, he chose not to conceal this matter.

Daly gave a nearly imperceptible nod and said thoughtfully,

“Then it’s very likely to possess an instinct for provocation. It may actively leave clues for us along the way. Of course, those clues may also contain a certain amount of misdirection.”

…

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The door to the captain’s cabin on the Blue Avenger was struck.

“Come in,” Alger said in a deep voice, lowering the brass sextant in his hand.

A sailor opened the door and glanced back. Urged on by many of his companions, he hesitated before entering the room. He clenched his right fist and struck his left chest in salute.

“Storms above!”

After Alger responded, the sailor put on a shameless grin and piled up a smile.

“Captain, lately, quite a few pirates and sailors from merchant ships have been saying they found valuable things in the ruins of Bansy Harbor—even gold.

“We don’t seem to have any especially important mission recently, so everyone was thinking, thinking maybe we could drop by Bansy on the way. A once-prosperous port like that, even after being searched many times, should still have plenty of things left behind…”

Alger listened without expression. After mulling it over for several seconds, he said,

“I can understand how you all feel. How about this: we’ll sail in the direction of Bansy Harbor, but without setting it as our destination in advance. If nothing else happens along the way, we’ll stay there for a day.”

“All right, Captain.” The sailor excitedly clenched his right fist and struck his left chest again. “May the Storm be with you.”

“May the Storm be with you.” Alger watched his subordinate leave and close the door.

Then, as though nothing had happened—neither pleased nor angry—he poured himself a glass of strong Lanti and slowly savored it.

Everything that had just occurred was in fact within his expectations, because the news that valuable objects had been found in the ruins of Bansy Harbor had been spread by him after disguising himself.

As the Captain of the Church of Storms, he was constantly under the watchful eyes of the sailors. Under the circumstances that they had already gone to Bansy once before, proposing another trip there would easily arouse suspicion. Therefore, Alger had decided to make the crew ask for it themselves.

That way, even if they discovered something at Bansy Harbor or encountered something there, no one would suspect him, the captain.

As for sailors—especially sailors who had just squandered all their money in Bayam—Alger knew very well what sort of rumor was the most tempting and what sort of news would move their hearts.

In addition, the Blue Avenger had already stayed in Bayam long enough. If they did not leave soon, that would also appear suspicious.

As for the surveillance of Craftsman Scharf, that would naturally be left to The Hermit, Cattleya. Due to the influence of the Aurora Order’s “investigation,” this pirate admiral and her Future would remain wandering around the Rorsted Archipelago for a while. It was said that the Moses Ascetic Order had an important stronghold there.

After finishing the spirits, Alger set down the cup, looked out through the window at the undulating sea, and quietly breathed out a word:

“Bansy…”

…

Considering that it was already late June and Will Auceptin might be born at any time, Klein rested briefly, then went above the gray fog to bring the radio transceiver into the real world. At the same time, he warned himself that he could ask at most two questions.

Inside the room, which had abruptly turned dark, cold, and sinister, the radio transceiver began making da-da-da sounds without anyone operating it.