Chapter 188. A Mountainous Island
After the two perilous whirlpool encounters, Charles didn't dare to let his guard down. Periodically, he would instruct Audric to assume his bat form and patrol from overhead while also commanding the sailors to constantly test the ship's speed.
Despite Charles' vigilance, the Narwhale still had a couple of close calls with disaster. Unpredictable whirlpools riddled the current region they were in. There was no pattern to them, and their appearances always caught the crew off guard.
Fortunately, they were drawing close to the island's coordinates.
Charles was asleep in the pilothouse, yet his eyes darted around rapidly underneath his closed eyelids. Evidently, he was deep in a dream, but the deep crease of his brows indicated that it was a less-than-pleasant one.
All of a sudden, a startled cry sounded, jolting Charles out of his slumber. His eyes shot open, and he quickly leaped off his hammock and darted toward Dipp, who was manning the helm.
"What happened? Another whirlpool?" Charles asked.
"Captain, I can't see very clearly. But... is that an island? Dipp questioned.
Squinting his eyes, Charles strained to see as far as the searchlights would allow. The entity's shape was nothing like any island he'd seen. Instead, it resembled a giant lotus leaf floating on the water's surface.
"That looks... man-made," Charles muttered. He then turned and glanced at the nautical chart on the table. They were getting close to their target island.
After sending Audric out on a quick reconnaissance to ensure there was no danger, Charles navigated the Narwhale to cautiously approach the structure.
As they drew nearer, Charles was able to make out finer details. From a distance, it hadn't appeared so, but up close, the sides of the lotus leaf stood towering at hundreds of meters tall. As the Narwhale sailed past it, an oppressive atmosphere loomed over them.
Creating something so massive probably wasn't much easier than creating an entire island through land reclamation.
"Captain, there's another there!" Dipp shouted.
Charles followed Dipp's pointing finger with his eyes. His night vision enabled him to identify another massive clay formation to the left. If his suspicions were right, there would be more of such structures in the vicinity.
Could they be designed to ward off the whirlpools? A thought struck Charles' mind.
As Charles remained perplexed about the identity of these structures, the Narwhale steered away from them and continued on its path forward. With the previous structures acting as a point of reference, Charles wasn't particularly surprised when the searchlights cast their glow and revealed a new landmass before them.
The Narwhale circumnavigated the island for Charles to gather preliminary information. The island was round, and he spotted no signs of flora or fauna. Also, the ground was perfectly leveled, as though it had been done deliberately.
Apart from a scatter of buildings, there was only a solitary, towering peak.
It was uncommon to see tall mountains on islands, and the one looming in front of them was exceptionally rare.
They did their usual procedures—tossing fish meat as well as sending out the bat and mice for reconnaissance. There were no anomalies. As such, Charles ordered everyone to disembark.
As he watched his crew carry out their preparations, Charles started to brief them, "Before we disembark, there's one very important matter: If you find any records or texts on the island, don't open them. Pass it to me to have a look first. This is of utmost importance. Remember."
The crew exchanged confused glances. They couldn't understand the rationale behind the rule their captain had just imposed on them.
"Has this... got to do...with that Pope?" Bandages asked in his slow manner of speech.
Charles shot him a glance with a complicated expression, but he ultimately remained silent. With a wave of his hand, he signaled the sailors to lower the rowboats.
Armed to the hilt, the crew drew closer to the shore. As they set foot on the unfamiliar island, each member of the crew inhaled sharply and shone their torchlights around with heightened alertness.
First, they investigated the group of structures lining the coast. Unlike the designs on other islands, the architect of this land seemed to favor reinforced concrete. While sturdy, the resulting edifices resembled fortresses rather than residence dwellings.
"Lily, send the mice out to scout. If they encounter anything amiss, warn us immediately."
"Okay." Lily nodded and let out a couple of high-pitched squeaks. The mice around her swiftly dispersed.
Charles was the first to venture into one of the fortresses. But soon, he emerged from within. Its interior was eerily empty; there weren't even any corpses.
Charles searched one room after another to no avail. Unlike the chaotic disorder they had encountered in other places, it appeared that the previous inhabitants of the island had calmly packed their belongings and departed.
Charles couldn't decide whether this was good news or bad news.
The meticulous packing indicated that the chances of finding any leads here were slim. However, it also meant that the island was probably devoid of dangers.
The building complex was huge, and it took Charles and his crew more than half the day to thoroughly look through each room. During the entire process, they encountered neither danger nor any signs of life.
Charles ordered a respite. They would continue their search once everyone had taken ample rest. Soon enough, a campfire was lit up.
A short, portly man diligently heated up canned food over the open flame. He was the Narwhale's newly recruited chef, and he had taken Frey’s place.
"Chief Dipp, here's yours," he said with a smile so wide that his squinted eyes almost disappeared into his plump face as he offered the warmed and opened can of meat to Dipp.
"Are you blind?" Dipp smacked him on the head. "Can’t you see Captain sitting here?"
The chef nodded vigorously and redirected the can in his hands toward Charles.
Instead of receiving the offered can from the chef, Charles reached into the flames with his prosthetic arm to retrieve the Dark Blade. With a deft slash of his Dark Blade, he pried the lid open.
"Everyone here has hands; they can help themselves to the food. And there's no Director or Agriculture Minister here. Focus on your own tasks," Charles commented.
The chef nodded with a sheepish smile. "Yes, yes, yes."
Watching the chef's cowering figure, Charles suddenly missed the lanky silhouette of Frey. Most of the time, the bond between comrades went beyond just spoken words; it was the shared silences and unspoken understandings. However, three years had definitely changed many things.
The sound of gulping and masticating surrounded the campfire. Halfway through his meal, Charles paused and tapped the back of his fist against his forehead before he resumed eating.
"What's wrong? Another hallucination?" Laesto inquired.
Feeling the writhing sensation of the tentacle in his head, Charles answered, "Just a minor one. Still tolerable."
"Have you secretly seen another doctor? Given your condition, you should have been long gone."
"Yeah, her method is rather... peculiar. However, she said that it was a temporary stop-gap measure and requires follow-up treatment."
"Interesting. Introduce her to me sometime. I'm curious how she managed to do it."
"Alright," Charles agreed and picked up a piece of bread. He then soaked up the last bits of meat gravy from his can.
Squeak!!!
Suddenly, a shrill mouse squeak resonated from the left. Charles instantly dropped both the bread and the can and rose to his feet.
Lily, who was munching on some dried bananas, hurriedly swallowed the last bite and remarked, " Mr. Charles, calm down. They've just discovered a body."
"A body? Let's go take a look." Charles then dashed in the direction of the sound.
Soon enough, the body that Lily had mentioned appeared before Charles. Despite calling it a body, a skeleton would be a more accurate description. It was a skeleton that was half-entombed in the damp earth.
Upon inspecting the bones briefly, Charles noted that everything seemed normal except for a distinct golden incisor amidst the ivory skeletal remains.
Could he be from the Foundation? But would they have a gold tooth? Charles pondered.
"Captain, look at his pelvic bone; it's a male. Also, his leg was broken at some point," Dipp commented as he crouched next to the skeletal remains.
Charles cast a surprising glance at Dipp. "You know about these things?"
Putting on a sheepish smile, Dipp replied, "Given my role, isn't it necessary to learn a few tricks so others don't take advantage of me?"
"Let's move on. It's just a corpse. We continue forward," Charles commanded.
With that, the lights from their torchlights moved away, and darkness shrouded the body once more.
An hour later, Charles suddenly manifested next to the body. Removing the translucent ring from his finger, he reached a hand in to scratch the itch beneath his clothes.
"It hasn't moved. I guess it's indeed an ordinary corpse."
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