Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 329 West and East

When Adele arrived at the cabin, Tracy was already waiting for her inside.

She was wearing a navy coat, and the loose coat made her body look a little too slender. When she saw Adele coming in, she nodded slightly as a greeting.

A huge sphere made of black liquid is suspended in the center of the captain's room. When something longer than fifty meters appears within a hundred nautical miles, ripples will appear on the water sphere.

The principle of this magic is probably to detect large floating objects in motion, and it will not make misjudgments due to non-moving objects such as small islands or reefs.

And now, a faint ripple was slowly spreading around on the water ball, indicating the location of the target to Adele and the others.

Since most of the crew members are military personnel, they are not opposed to the existence of mysticism and extraordinary abilities. On the contrary, they will be more awed by the officers who have abilities that they do not have. Therefore, the matter of the magic detector is not a secret to most of the crew members.

"What is the current situation?"

Adele hung her coat on a hook on the wall and asked Tracy, who was staring at the water ball with a calm face.

"It's obviously impossible for the other party to discover us. I will use the magic mirror to observe from a distance and confirm the other party's weapons and equipment."

Tracy, who had extensive pirate experience, was very calm and composed. "Judging from the length of the ship, it is very likely a Loen galleon, a second-hand ship that was discarded by the Loen navy, which is commonly equipped in the colonies."

This was obviously not the first time Tracy had used a similar spell. She only took a quick glance at the size of the ripples and determined the type of the enemy ship.

This type of ship, which originated in Intis, combined the advantages of the previously popular Nau and Caravel ships. It usually had four masts, the front two masts with railing sails and the rear two masts with triangular sails.

This type of sailing ship was eventually developed and promoted by Loen, and was widely equipped in the army. It was praised by the navy for the flexibility brought by its low bow. Even until the appearance of ironclad ships, galleons were still equipped in large numbers in the Loen navy, and many were sold to the southern continent by people who resold arms.

However, in the southern continental war zone, the original tasks of the galleons had been replaced by Loon's clippers and ironclads. The galleons that appeared at the border between the two sides were most likely warships of the colonial rebels.

Adele was anxious when there was no sign of the sailboat; but now, with the traces of the enemy ships right before her eyes, she became cautious instead.

"Something's wrong."

Adele frowned. "We have only been away from Berens Harbor for more than two days. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any enemy ships here. Let's be cautious and keep a distance of fifty nautical miles. Wait until you have a clear divination before we move closer to them."

As an assassin, being cautious is a must. To be cautious, the first and most important thing is to look at things without being emotional.

In other words, just because something is happening as you expect it to be, you cannot ignore the irrationality inherent in it.

——Many people know this, but not many can actually do it.

Tracy had no objection. After all, as a pirate general, simple looting did not arouse her interest. The initial thrill of killing and the crazy impulse had already become as boring as punching in for work after living on the ship for seven or eight years.

Besides, this was about helping the kingdom's army to grab supplies, and Tracy had no interest in it.

The "Yukikaze" first accelerated towards the target's location according to Tracy's instructions. Relying on its own speed which was twice as fast as the opponent's, when the ironclad ship arrived at the designated location, the opponent had also sailed about 40 nautical miles.

This data is also very important. According to the height of the mast of a galleon, even with the help of a telescope and climbing up to the highest mainmast lookout, the limit of what the naked eye can see during the day is only twenty nautical miles. It may be farther at night, but it will never exceed thirty nautical miles.

Now the Snow Wind was 40 nautical miles away from the enemy, a distance that could perfectly avoid the enemy's observation. Even if there was an error, as long as the enemy did not stop at the same place at the beginning, the error in this range was acceptable.

Besides, it was still daytime and the lights on the Yukikaze could not be seen.

In short, everything is ready now, and all we have to wait for is Tracy's divination results.

Adele paced back and forth in the room a little nervously, watching Tracy prepare mirrors, candles, essential oils, herbal powders and other items, sanctifying these instruments in a way that was familiar yet unfamiliar to her, then burning the consumable materials into powder with black fire, adding water to make a black paste, and evenly applying them on the mirror.

None of the seemingly sticky paste stuck to Tracy's hands, but all seeped into the shiny mirror.

Then, the mirror began to ripple like water waves, and a blurry image appeared on it. As time went by, it gradually became clearer. It was the ship discovered by the black magic detector.

It was more than fifty meters long, Tracy had guessed wrong.

This is not Loen's galleon, but the predecessor of the galleon, its ancestor from Intis and Lunburg, the caravel.

The caravel was the first ship on the northern continent to be used for ocean voyages. This was because its large size enabled it to remain stable in the vast ocean. In addition, it was divided into a large amount of space to accommodate enough supplies for ocean voyages.

Historically, the first explorer to set foot on the southern continent rode on this bulky but sturdy and durable caravel.

Of course, for Tracy and Adele now, the historical significance of the caravel and its position in the shipping industry are minor issues, and the most serious problem they face is the significance of the appearance of this ship produced in Intis in the southern continent.

What Tracy was concerned about was whether Intis's ship appeared near the battlefield where Loen and the natives of the southern continent were fighting, or the significance of this act of going deep into the southern continent. If the other party was carrying weapons and ordnance, then the severity of this act could be raised by two or three levels.

It seems that they are sure that the righteous gods are continuing to use their strength to deal with Doomsday, and have neither the time nor the willingness to fight another war that will affect the entire world and will not win them a new anchor. The attitudes of countries such as Intis and Renburg have become increasingly resolute, and they are fanning the flames everywhere.

It was a soft meal, but the arrogant Intis people took it very hard.

Adele could sense some of Tracy's worries, but she had the Tarot Club behind her. She knew more about the game of gods than Tracy did. She understood why the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom was so stubborn, and she also knew that she could not solve this problem.

——Anyway, both the Goddess of Night and the Mother Goddess of Earth are now worried about the little source of energy they hold in their hands. They are either sleeping or in seclusion. It is impossible for them to really pull the God of Knowledge and Wisdom out of His kingdom and give him a beating.

Adele was worried about something else, something Tracy didn't care too much about.

Loen is located in the eastern part of the Northern Continent, while Intis is located in the western part of the Northern Continent.

Adele and the others arrived near the Port of Berens through the underground wormhole. They were now in the northeastern waters of the Southern Continent, while Intis was far away in the southwest of the Northern Continent. There were thousands of miles between them, and they also had to cross the defense zone of the Loen Navy. It was impossible no matter how one thought about it.

Wendy had told her some ancient knowledge, one of which was the very important theory of "the spherical earth", which she had confirmed from Mr. Sun's casual conversation.

The waterway from Intis to the sea area near Aleser is so difficult to travel. It doesn't even cross the entire Violent Sea, but instead goes diagonally across the Violent Sea. It is so difficult that people wonder if they took another route.

Like... coming around from the other side?

The Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom actually secretly controls a safe passage to the Western Continent that Mr. Hanged Man has been looking for?
While Tracy continued to tell fortunes, Adele quietly came to her desk, pulled out a hand-drawn sketch and examined it carefully.

That was the ancient world map that Wendy had drawn for her. Adele had compared that map with the maps of the north and south continents more than once and found that they were exactly the same as the North and South America.

According to this inference, the mysterious Western Continent and the Eastern Continent are actually connected, and there may be some kind of mystical division in the middle.

Adele stretched out her fingers and outlined the route the other party might choose. There was a moment of silence in the room, and Adele could hear her own heartbeat becoming increasingly rapid.

No, it is very likely that He has mastered more than just this one loophole...

Adele thought of Backlund's Fall of Angels, when all the members of the Tarot Club were interrupted by strange creatures that emerged from the loopholes in the seal that was discovered, and even Miss Magician was sucked into the starry sky, her life or death unknown.

Now that I think about it, was it really Mr. Hanged Man who first discovered the vulnerability? If so, then wasn’t the timing of the problem… just too coincidental?

It just happened to tie up all the members of the Tarot Club, preventing them from going to interfere with the events in Backlund...

After all, the promotion of myself, who had just joined, was just a small matter. Even with the blessing of Mr. Fool, the help he could give was ultimately limited, and I could not stop the other party's plan.

As she thought about it, Adele felt more and more that everything she saw was just the tip of the iceberg, and there were always more and more shameful things submerged underwater.

Taking two deep breaths and trying to calm herself down, Adele put away the notebook as little as possible without attracting Tracy's attention, picked up the pen, and casually drew two curved lines on the white paper on the table.

Adele did not rule out the possibility that Tracy noticed her actions, so to be on the safe side, she did not mark her guessed route directly on the map. Instead, she left two ink lines on a piece of white paper, like the marks made when testing a fountain pen, so that only she could see them.

"The findings have been confirmed."

At this time, Tracy looked up with a strange look on her face and said to Adele:
"Guess how many Beyonders are on that ship?"

"Ten?" Adele, who was not in a good mood, guessed a number at random.

The standard standing force on a Loen warship was no more than a six-man team. Considering that the other ship might have passed through the foggy sea, Adele deliberately overestimated it.

"No." Tracy shook her head, her face still showing some surprise.

"Stop messing around. If you've divined something that needs attention, tell me now."

Adele had no mood to play charades with Tracy, so she kept urging her.

"not a single one."

To Adele's surprise, Tracy spread out her palms and said, "There's not a single person on the boat."

……

"not a single one?"

Adele confirmed doubtfully, "You mean, an empty ship floated across the entire fog from Intis... No, the Sea of ​​Rage?"

Because she was still thinking about the passage, she almost blurted out the word "fog sea", but fortunately Tracy didn't notice this little slip of the tongue.

"To be honest, I was just as shocked as you were when I saw it."

Tracy turned the mirror around. The black liquid on it was about to run out and the scenery became a little blurry, but Adele could still see the deck, lookout tower and forecastle of the ship. These three places where sailors should have been active were now empty, and the ship's flag was still fluttering in the wind.

"How can this be?"

Adele rubbed her eyes. Although she knew that the probability of her and Tracy being dazzled at the same time was negligible, and even the Loen government rarely used the excuse of collective dazzle when explaining extraordinary phenomena, she really hoped that it was her own eyes that were dazzled.

However, the reality went against their wishes. Adele and Tracy checked not only these locations, but also several other angles, including the captain's room, ammunition room, kitchen and other important cabins, but did not find anyone.

There was still fresh-looking food in the restaurant, the weapons in the powder magazine were well-maintained, and the 24 guns on both sides of the hull were polished to a shine, but the sailors and crew members who did all this had all disappeared, like ghosts.

Even the ripples on the sensory water ball disappeared, which meant that the ship was now in a state of no one at the helm and no one driving it.

The two witches stared at each other in the captain's room until the light on the divination mirror dimmed and the spiritual power of the spiritual materials used for divination was completely exhausted.

“Did it really float over here?”

Adele was puzzled. "Isn't this possible?"

"It is simply impossible. If an empty ship without sailors can cross the Raging Sea, then those noble families in Intis who were made earls for discovering the New World should all be stripped of their titles."

Tracy answered with the same confusion. As a sailor, she could not understand such a thing that went against common sense.

"Where on earth did those crew members go?"

However, just as the two were puzzled, the black water ball in the center of the room produced tiny ripples again. The ripples continued to spread and grow, and the source of the ripples was constantly moving away from the point in the center of the water ball that symbolized the "Yukikaze".

(End of this chapter)