Shrouded Seascape

Charles stared quietly at the glass of wine in his hand.

"Captain," James said, "Hope Island belongs to you. It doesn't belong to your wife! You've been too lenient with her, even though she's a..."

James dared not continue, afraid that a certain word would upset Charles.

"Monster? Then, how about me? Do I still resemble a human in your eyes?" Charles asked with a self-deprecating smile.

James shook his head firmly and asserted, "No! You're different from her! There haven't been enough death row inmates for her damn experiments, so she's been using civilians for her experiments!

"The islanders of Hope Island are your people! However, she's been treating them like livestock! I knew I was right with what I said a long time ago. She's never been on our side!"

Charles remained quiet in the face of James' words. He stared blankly at his own hideous face reflected in the glass.

"And she's becoming stronger as we speak… She's gotten so strong that I'm afraid even the relics from the Western Seas that grant immunity to mind control aren't that effective against her anymore. I don't even dare to stay by her side, as I'm afraid that she'll take over my mind.

"Captain, she's become a parasite living off of Hope Island's lifeblood! We can't let her grow any stronger! Otherwise, a disaster will surely come!"

Charles' eyes moved slowly to the face of his former crew member.

"I understand. Thank you for telling me this, James. Thank you."

James paused for a few seconds, and then he nodded and downed the wine in his wine glass before saying, "Captain, I'll say this once more. Hope Island belongs to you, and it's our home, too!"

With that, James turned and left with a determined expression and light in his eyes.

The journey from the Subterranean Sea to the surface world would take six hours, but descending was much faster. After just three hours, everyone could finally smell the sea in the air.

They had been living by the sea their entire lives, so who would have thought that they'd one day start missing the smell of the sea?

Annarles Island had become much livelier and bustling compared to when it was still under 010's influence. Many different factories and a variety of buildings were packed together in the middle of the island as if everyone was afraid that they'd disappear if they were too far apart from each other.

The dense crowd from up above looked like a group of ants shuttling between the buildings. However, they had no choice but to build their buildings so close to each other, as the current Annarles Island only had half of its original space remaining; the rest had been engulfed by the sea.

The airship passed through the black smoke billowing from the chimneys of the factories and landed safely on a flat platform.

Jumping down from the airship, Charles faced the sea and took a deep breath of the humid and salty air. Charles felt extremely comfortable as he basked in the familiar sensations. His mood was uplifted as well.

Charles turned to look at the crew members, who had decided to come down with him, and said, "Everyone, let's split up here. I'll inform you about when we're going back up, so just wait for my message."

The crew members were ecstatic, and they cheered out loud. Then, they wasted no time and rushed out of the airport.

However, Bandages didn't leave. He walked up to Charles and said, "Why... bring us... down? We could have… continued exploring… even without you…"

"It's fine. It's been a while since you last saw your family, right?" Charles asked, patting Bandages on the shoulder. He then pointed at a massive pillar amidst the buildings and said, "Go there and visit them. I'll handle the issue concerning Lily myself. Just go back home and take a good break."

A towering black tower stood amidst the buildings, and it was an elevator that would take passengers to the monorails suspended from the pitch-black dome overhead.

The suspended monorails were the fastest way to reach Hope Island from Annarles Island.

Bandages stared at Charles as if he was weird before turning around to leave. He felt like his captain had been acting a bit odd since Lily was kidnapped by the Pope.

"James, where is the telegraph office on this island?" Charles asked without looking back as he stared at Bandages' departing figure. He had important matters to handle here, and he believed that they had to be addressed first before he could do any exploration up above.

"Um... telegrams are too slow, Captain. We're using the wireless telephone now, which is a technology that we've obtained from the Foundation. Would you like to try it?"

"Oh? Lead the way, then."

With that, James brought Charles to the so-called Telephone Bureau.

Charles was welcomed by rotary dial phones upon entering the office, and he found them quite odd and old-fashioned, considering that he had lived in the smartphone era.

There was a crowd lined up leading to the office; the queue was long, but it was moving along steadily. The ability to talk to loved ones thousands of kilometers away proved to be extremely popular with the people, especially in these trying times.

Charles even saw some people crying their hearts out while talking on the telephone. Of course, Charles didn't have to queue. James led him to the VIP room, where well-dressed men and women were making phone calls.

"Esteemed Governor, where should I connect this call?" the telephone operator asked respectfully.

Charles stared calmly at her and replied, "Hope Island Governor's Mansion."

The telephone started ringing; James waved his hand lightly, and those making calls in the VIP room were escorted out by the members of the Navy.

James was about to leave as well, but he saw a capable-looking woman entering the VIP room. At first, he wanted to stop her, but he turned around and left upon seeing that the capable-looking woman was Margaret.

The scarred Margaret leaned against the wall, staring quietly at Charles making a phone call.

The telephone rang for half a minute before it was picked up.

— Hello?

"Anna, it's me. I went down. The Pope kidnapped Lily, and there's something we need to talk about."

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— Oh? You just came down, but you already want to talk about business? Governor Charles is truly a diligent old ox."

"We're going to talk about ourselves as well, so you better not avoid it. Face me, and let's make things clear between us."

Beep!

Anna ended the call without even replying to Charles.

Before Charles could put down the handset, he felt his clothes billowing out. He looked down and found himself face-to-face with a young girl.

The girl's green eyeballs and cross-shaped pupils told Charles that the young girl was her daughter, Sparkle.

"Daddy, that woman doesn't want to see you. She said that if you need anything, then just leave it to me. I can handle the Pope as soon as he appears here," Sparkle said. She opened her arms and hugged her father, whom she hadn't seen for quite a while now.

Charles reached into his clothes and grabbed Sparkle by her armpits before lifting her up from his clothes.

"Go back and tell her that I have Swann."

Whoosh!

Sparkle disappeared instantly, and she returned after a while.

"She said that you should just kill him; why are you even keeping him around?"

"Tell her that I learned quite a few things from him, and I want to talk to her to know whether Swann has lied to me or not."

Swoosh!

Sparkle disappeared once again before reappearing a few moments later.

"She said that it's up to you whether to believe Swann or not."

"Tell her this—this concerns our daughter, so this is a big deal! And I am not playing around here!"

Sparkle vanished once again.

A few rounds of back and forth later, an impatient Charles said, "Tell her—"

"Are you crazy?!" Sparkle exclaimed. Exasperated, she added, "There's a phone right there. Can't you just call her for this nonsense?! Are both of you having fun making me pass on messages back and forth like this? We haven't seen each other for so long, and the first thing you do upon seeing your daughter in such a long time is make fun of her?!"

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