Deep Sea Embers

Morris' speculation points to a dark future in which everything is eternally silent - it brings far more chill to people than any shocking and bizarre prophecies of destruction, and far better than the doomsday disasters raved about by madmen.

It was a dark and cold death. The last fire will gradually extinguish in the embers of civilization. The afterglow of civilization will gradually suffocate in fatal contractions, just like a sinking ship. Desperate people continue to escape from the ship. Throw away your burdens in the hope of delaying destruction, but in the end, every plank on the ship will inevitably fall into the endless dark abyss.

What is even more unacceptable is that, based on existing intelligence, this future is extremely likely—even, it is already the best of all possibilities.

Because "civilization" at least has a chance to survive for a while after the fourth and fifth long nights, and at least it can enjoy the last false tranquility in its shrinking and crumbling shelter.

In a worse case scenario, there may not be so many subsequent long nights at all - the third long night is already an unrepeatable "miracle" and "luck", and the coming dusk is the day when all things truly end.

...Perhaps this is a good result?

Disturbing thoughts were rising and falling in his mind. Duncan finally shook his head and put these messy thoughts behind him for the time being: "We are pessimistic, Maurice."

"Indeed, it is a bit premature to make these speculations when it is still unclear when and in what form the fourth long night will come..." Morris rubbed his brows, finally getting over his somewhat pessimistic mood. "My mentor is organizing a 'gathering' across the four major churches. This gathering will invite you. At least by then, we should be able to exchange more and more useful information - the popes of the four gods." We need the truth we have, too.”

Duncan nodded slightly. He was not surprised by this news, because this was one of the "agreements" he had reached with the Pope of Truth Rune.

If he had to say it... he was a little curious about how the old elf persuaded the popes of the other three gods to accept this "proposal" - Helena, the pope of the deep sea, was lucky enough to say that he had fought her in Puland. The female pope is more or less a neutral and friendly leader of the camp, but the other two...

The leader of the Fire Bearers, Frame, might be interested in the "Chronicle" in Vanna's hand. What about Banster from the Church of Death?

The expression on his face changed subtly a few times. Duncan raised his hand and knocked on a small mirror placed on the coffee table: "Agatha."

Agatha's figure appeared in the mirror almost immediately: "I am here."

"...Are you familiar with Banster?"

"In 'my' memory, I had the experience of being mentored by His Majesty the Pope and receiving training in the 'Cemetery Ark'," Agatha thought for a moment and spoke uncertainly, "But this is far from being called a great experience. Familiar, there are many saints in the boundless sea, and I am not as 'special' as Miss Vanna."

Duncan touched his chin and said thoughtfully: "...Then you probably don't know very well whether Banster cared about that ship..."

"I do mind."

Duncan: "..."

He hasn't even had time to finish his words!

"I mind," Agatha repeated again, and then as if she was afraid that Duncan wouldn't believe it, she explained seriously, "Even a relatively unknown saint like me will hear him sighing about the beautiful ship from time to time. Frigate."

Duncan continued: "..."

"Of course, His Majesty the Pope sometimes behaves generously," Agatha recalled. "He usually first says, 'Actually, I don't care that much,' and then sighs with emotion, and finally says, 'It's a pity. Yes, I designed it myself... Of course I don’t care about the ending that much.”

Duncan's expression almost became tense: "...Isn't this just because you care so much?!"

"Ahem," Maurice suddenly coughed twice at this time, interrupting the increasingly weird conversation rhythm between Duncan and Agatha, "I think it's better than the famous 'Ephemeral' Frigate, Wetherland Thirteen Islands will be a more sensitive matter at the gathering.”

"In fact... the Thirteen Islands of Wesselan may not be so sensitive," Agatha shook her head. "Although it was a bigger loss, within the Death Church, some priests tend to Identifying it as a 'subspace disaster', they believed that it was the dimension collapse phenomenon that caused the disaster rather than the Homeless Ship. The latter just fell into the subspace together with the Thirteen Islands, which is equivalent to a fire. Two people were involved in the fire together. We cannot conclude that the person who climbed out of the fire was the arsonist.

“This claim does not come out of nowhere – there are many academic studies of the ‘border collapse phenomenon’ that support this explanation.

"Of course, this statement is quite controversial within the church. For obvious reasons, the bishops do not like this 'justification of the lost ship' interpretation, but now that His Holiness the Pope has accepted the invitation to the gathering, I believe He was ready to use this explanation to characterize the events of that year...or at least to stabilize the attitude of the bishops.

"In comparison, the 'Ephesian' Incident' is really an irrefutable... attack. The Homeless took the ship away from the fleet in a majestic manner."

Morris suddenly realized: "So that's it..."

Duncan suddenly reacted: "Wait a minute, is that ship really called the 'Evanescent'? Isn't this a nickname after that incident?"

Agatha and Morris both nodded silently.

Duncan had a strange expression: "...Why did you come up with such an unfortunate name?"

"...The Death Church's tradition of naming battleships is actually our tradition of naming many things, such as the main gunboat 'In vain' and the 'Sudden Death' type long-barreled artillery." Agatha said calmly, "We will Death and disappearance are regarded as a necessary part of the operation of the world, and the words related to them are not taboo to us - and strictly speaking, the name "Lost Home" is actually not very "auspicious", is it? ?”

Duncan thought for a while and felt that the gatekeeper was right.

At this moment, Alice suddenly raised her head and interrupted the exchange between Duncan and Agatha: "Captain, I've finished the painting!"

Agatha in the mirror was startled by the sudden movement, while Duncan couldn't help but look at the doll with a strange expression——

Alice has been immersed in painting since just now, as if the conversations and discussions happening around her are completely in another world. Now that she has completed her "creation", she is also painting her work without any worries or thoughts. Show it to the captain.

Duncan suddenly even envied this doll's good attitude.

Alice happily pushed the painting in front of Duncan.

It was a... poor painting.

Not only can one see the unfamiliarity of the painter at a glance, but one can even see that the painter is not even very skilled in using the brush - there is no skill at all, let alone beauty and composition.

There was a large and very abstract ship drawn on it. The dark pencil marks outlined the sails and water ripples. Some little people with open hands were standing on the ship. The brushstrokes looked messy, but they could barely be distinguished. Characteristics of everyone on board the Lost Home -

Vanna is very tall, Maurice has a pipe in his mouth, Shirley is with Adog, Nina's head is on fire, Agatha is a dark shadow, Ai falls on the mast, and the goat's head is in the captain's cabin. Looking out the window...

Duncan is standing at the highest point wearing a captain's hat. The painting is obviously more serious, but still crooked.

Except for Duncan, every "person" on the ship had some lines extending from their body, floating in the air in a curved way.

Morris turned his head and took a look curiously, his expression a little subtle: "Well... as my first 'painting', it's actually... not too bad, but generally speaking, you can't see lines on people... …At least it doesn’t need to be shown in the painting…”

The old gentleman commented very tactfully, but Alice obviously had her own thoughts: "But it's true."

Morris seemed a little dumbfounded. He looked up at Duncan, who laughed.

"Yes," Duncan said with a smile. His eyes fell on Alice's first "masterpiece". Gradually, a thoughtful expression appeared in his eyes, "...this is what she sees in her eyes." world."

"That's right," Alice suddenly felt proud, "I drew it right!"

"But..." Duncan discovered another problem, "Why isn't there any?"

Alice was stunned for a moment when she heard this, then looked down at the Lost Home Number she had written, and replied: "Because I am painting."

Duncan reacted for a moment before understanding the logic of the puppet.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he felt a little funny.

"People who paint can also paint themselves on the painting - I'll add it for you."

As he spoke, he picked up the pencil that Alice had put aside, and with a few swipes, he drew a simple figure of Alice on the Lost Home and next to him.

Alice watched with wide eyes and exclaimed happily: "Wow! Captain, your drawing is much better than mine!"

Duncan just smiled when he heard this, put the pencil down casually, rolled up the painting seriously, and put it in Alice's hand.

"Put it away, this is your first 'work'."

Alice looked particularly happy: "Yeah!"

Duncan then turned his head and looked in an empty direction in the living room: "Has everything been dealt with?"

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Lucretia's figure suddenly appeared in the air along with a flurry of colorful pieces of paper.

"Don't worry, Dad, everything has been taken care of."