Chapter 210: Suspect

Chapter 210: Suspect

Seeing signs that everyone aboard the Golden Dream was about to focus fire on Anderson, Klein took a step forward and stood sideways toward Danitz.

“Take me to the captain’s cabin.”

“…All right.” Danitz withdrew his glare from Anderson Hood.

Saving the Captain comes first. Saving the Captain comes first… he repeatedly warned himself inwardly.

The Golden Dream first lowered a small boat, then let down a rope ladder, allowing Klein to set foot on the deck easily and simply without needing to use a charm’s power.

Anderson followed diagonally behind him, completely ignoring the hungry, murderous looks from every crew member aboard the Golden Dream. A smile lingered at the corners of his mouth as he strolled along and examined the surroundings, looking as if he had returned home.

His mental quality is absolutely first-rate… Mm, even after offending a demigod, being forced to apologize publicly, and accepting a commission, he could turn around and laugh at himself while enjoying his meal happily… Klein sighed inwardly twice as he walked toward Third Mate Jodeson and the others.

“Greetings, Mr. Sparrow. I am this ship’s first mate, Bru Walls.” A man wearing a monocle, nearly 1.8 meters tall, politely bowed.

The “Gourmet” with a bounty of 6,200 pounds… Vice Admiral Iceberg’s pirate crew has bounty levels clearly lower than Admiral of Stars’. As expected of treasure hunters who are only part-time pirates… Klein used Gehrman Sparrow’s distinctive polite attitude and phrasing as he said, “Greetings. I have heard of you.”

“…Haha, that is my honor. I am only a treasure hunter who dreamed of becoming an artisan, yet had no choice but to walk the path of a Gourmet.” Bru Walls mocked himself, then pointed toward a man beside him. “Our second mate, ‘Singer’ Orpheus.”

A bounty of 5,500 pounds… The Beyonders aboard the Golden Dream all have strange epithets. If I didn’t know beforehand that they were subordinates of a pirate admiral, I’d definitely think they were a sea-tour group: singing songs, eating fine food, holding bonfire parties, and searching for legendary treasures. It would sound almost too lovely… Klein cast his gaze toward Orpheus and casually nodded.

This “Singer” had features as sharply defined as a stone sculpture and brilliant golden hair. At that moment, with a melancholy smile, he said, “In truth, I am only praising the Sun. And now, my sun has vanished.”

…Klein nearly got goosebumps all over.

“Tsk. As expected of an Intisian. Even talking sounds like singing. What a pity. I grew up in Segar and Lenburg, so I failed to learn that ability.” Beside them, Anderson said with an unclear mix of praise and mockery. After all, half of his bloodline was Intisian.

Born in Segar, then went to Lenburg to study. Mm, likely a Church school, and he was schoolmates with Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina… Mr. Orpheus can be confirmed as someone from the Sun pathway, but most likely not from the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun. Judging from his bounty, he should be a Sequence 6 Notary… I nearly forgot. I need to tell Little Sun that his formula has already been obtained. I wonder what he can exchange for it this time… Before Gourmet Bru Walls could continue the introductions, Klein turned his head toward Flower Bow Tie Jodeson, Barrel Daniels, and the others.

“We have met.

“Do not waste time.”

“All right.” Bru Walls let out a breath and stroked his short beard, taking the lead toward the cabin.

If not for Gehrman Sparrow’s mad reputation being very well-known aboard the ship, he would not have wanted to act so polite either.

At that moment, Anderson deliberately fell back a few steps, walking beside Danitz, Orpheus, and the others.

He looked left and right, completely unconcerned by the way Danitz and the others wanted to tear him apart and swallow him. Clicking his tongue, he smiled.

“The one you should be wary of isn’t me.”

“That’s right. We’re not wary of you. We only want to stuff you into—see it?—that cannon barrel!” Danitz was entirely unafraid of the fact that the other man was the Strongest Hunter. After all, this was the Golden Dream, with many pirates aboard it, including Sequence 7 and Sequence 6 Beyonders.

The corners of Anderson’s mouth lifted.

“Someone like me is actually no threat. Think about it. Your captain definitely hates me, loathes me, and wouldn’t even say a word to me. Isn’t that the ideal state?”

“…” Danitz opened his mouth but failed to say anything, because he suddenly felt that the piece of dogshit seemed to make sense.

Orpheus, Jodeson, and the others’ gazes toward Anderson subconsciously softened a little.

Anderson gave a chuckle. Looking ahead, he spoke in a slightly drifting tone.

“The one you should truly be wary of is Gehrman Sparrow.”

“Why?” Danitz blurted out.

Although he is a madman and indeed needs to be watched, he isn’t currently an enemy… Danitz silently added in his heart.

Anderson smiled.

“I’m only making an assumption, just an assumption. If Gehrman successfully finds your captain this time and saves her, would your captain develop a bit of goodwill toward him because of it? And he’s not bad-looking. He has a cold kind of beauty. His strength is also formidable, reaching the level of a pirate admiral, and his background is especially mysterious—enough to match…”

How… possible… Danitz wanted to refute him, but for a moment, he found himself unable to speak. The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

The expressions of Orpheus and the others collapsed bit by bit. When they looked toward Gehrman Sparrow’s back, their eyes inexplicably gained a trace of wariness and vigilance.

Solved! The earlier provocation problem has been solved… Smiling, Anderson followed them into the cabin.

Upon entering the captain’s cabin, the first thing Klein saw was a ring of bookshelves that almost encircled the room. They were filled with all kinds of books.

Most captain’s cabins have liquor cabinets… he silently muttered. Then he walked directly toward the desk by the window.

According to Danitz’s description, Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina had disappeared while doing research. Therefore, Klein’s goal was to search for traces left behind by that research. Once he collected enough information, he could perform another divination above the gray fog.

At that moment, many things lay messily upon the desk: white sheets of paper, a round-bellied fountain pen, a bulging ink bottle, a small copper knife, and a few unevenly stacked books.

At the center of the desk was a book bound in parchment. On its deep-brown surface, words in ancient Feysac were written, including the title Travels of Groselle.

Isn’t this one of Vice Admiral Iceberg’s collections? Its origins are mysterious, and it’s suspected to be connected to the dragon race and the City of Miracles, Liveseyd… Edwina was studying this before she disappeared? Klein looked at the book and instinctively made a guess.

Seeing Gehrman Sparrow study the ancient book, Danitz forced a smile and said, “There’s nothing wrong with it. We’ve already checked.”

Is that so? I have doubts about your level of care… Because someone had already flipped through it and clearly shown no abnormality, after using his spiritual intuition to preliminarily confirm that Danitz was not lying, Klein reached out his hand and casually asked, “Have any of you read this Travels of Groselle?”

Danitz shook his head. Bru Walls, Orpheus, Jodeson, and the others shook their heads as well.

Their expressions seemed to say: daily lessons are already exhausting enough. During rest time, we don’t want to read any books!

His fingertips brushed over the yellow-brown parchment. Cautiously and seriously, Klein flipped through the pages one by one.

Very soon, he reached the section that was stuck together and could not be opened. From the corner of his eye, he swept over the content above.

“Huh… that’s not right!” His gaze suddenly shrank, and he hurriedly flipped back two pages.

He remembered very clearly that last time, he had read only up to the point where the giant Groselle and his team were about to challenge the King of the North, the frost dragon, head-on. There had been nothing afterward. Now, there were two whole extra pages!

In other words, the stuck portion had become thinner, and two more pages of the book could now be opened!

Updated again after a thousand-year hiatus? Is this Vice Admiral Iceberg’s research result? Did this cause her disappearance? Klein lampooned inwardly while frowning slightly. He began reading the content that had appeared since last time.

The two pages mainly described a lost female pirate. She encountered the King of the North in a blizzard and was nearly killed. After fighting with all her might, she finally escaped and encountered the protagonist’s party, who had come to challenge the frost dragon.

An additional female pirate… A female pirate… Klein chewed over that phrase, and inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind.

Could this be Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina?

Had she entered the book and become a character in the story?

Following that line of thought, Klein quickly found several issues:

Magic Mirror Arrodes had said that the previous owners of Travels of Groselle had mostly gone missing…

Travels of Groselle contained giants and elves active in the Dark Epoch—that is, the Second Epoch—as well as ascetics from the Third or Fourth Epoch, nobles from the Solomon Empire, and Loen soldiers from the Fifth Epoch. Its sense of time was extremely chaotic!

If they are the missing previous owners of Travels of Groselle, then the problem can be explained… They did not belong to the same era in the first place, but they were all swallowed by the book and became members of the story! The more Klein thought about it, the more he felt that his guess, though seemingly absurd, contained considerable possibility.

In the world of mysticism, this was not impossible!

I need to confirm it… And I need to know what Edwina and the previous owners did to be “swallowed” by the book… and what I need to do to release them… Klein withdrew his gaze and pondered for several seconds.

Then he quickly raised his head and looked at Danitz and the others.

“Prepare candles and other items for me. I will request an answer from a hidden existence.”

That hidden existence is myself… Klein immediately mocked himself inwardly.

As expected, he’s professional. As expected, he’s mad… Gourmet Bru Walls and the others did not dare say much. They hurriedly provided the items, then all withdrew from the captain’s cabin.

None of them dared observe such a dangerous ritual from the side, unless Gehrman Sparrow requested it.

Inside the captain’s cabin, Klein locked the door behind him, closed the window, and swiftly arranged the ritual, bringing Travels of Groselle above the gray fog.

After placing the ancient book at the seat of honor of the bronze long table, he sat down, conjured paper and pen, and rapidly wrote a divination statement:

“Edwina is inside this book’s story.”