A seasoned marine like Helen felt something was wrong with Roman’s choice, while Roman needed to do something to camouflage the stolen nightmare stone.
Combining these two facts together, Angor slowly reached a possible and terrible idea.
“Sir, you mentioned ‘another possibility’ just now?” Helen asked.
Angor decided to give her the answer, which shocked Helen into a complete daze.
“As I said,” Angor continued, “he would like to pretend that the nightmare stone on The Limpet disappeared due to something he had no control over, so Floating Mech City won’t blame him. The easiest way to do this...”
Is to eliminate this ship.
He didn’t say the final conclusion, but Helen was smart enough to tell.
Helen spent some time to recollect her senses. “I just remembered something... Four years ago, a ship called The Golden Road stumbled into the territory of a sea monster and never returned. There was only one survivor... Mister Roman.” Her voice began to tremble. “Sir, is-is Mister Roman going to sabotage The Limpet?”
Angor glanced at the window and checked the sea outside, which seemed calm and tranquil at the moment.
“Helen, do you know about anything particularly dangerous on this route? How far is it from the monster territory you mentioned?”
“There is always danger everywhere around Devil’s Water. As for the current course, our estimation suggested that it’s relatively safe. There’s a great distance from that monster, or any other monster’s travel route.
“Usually, the biggest problem for this route is the weather. Our records said that the incident rate of all ships who took this way was below five percent. When Mister Roman told us to go here, both Erwin and I thought it to be a good choice.”
“Yeah... Which means a perfect place for an accident.”
“What-what should we do, sir?”
“How long until you need to decide your direction again? Can we change the course now?”
“We’ll arrive at Silver Palm Isle two days later, where we’ll choose the next course. I’m afraid it’s not possible to make a turn right now, nor can we go back. The current behind us will get too dangerous during the middle of the Month of Looming Frost.”
“Two days till the island, I see.” Angor held his chin. “Do you have the sea chart for this area?”
“I keep it on me at all times, sir,” Helen said as she took out a map and showed Angor where Silver Palm Isle was located.
“At least the weather seems fine in the following hours... Toby, follow this route and go to Silver Palm Island, and return to me if you find anything special.”
Toby looked away from the map, nodded to Angor, and disappeared in a gray flash. Even Angor failed to see how Toby left the cabin because the creature was too fast.
Helen frowned. “Can your partner make it, sir? We’re still a hefty distance away from there.”
“Are we? Don’t worry. Half an hour at most, and he’ll be back.”
Half an hour?! Helen widened her eyes and looked to the window, but without finding Toby’s trace.
Angor told Helen to take some rest in the room, while he returned to his table to continue working on the new designs of clothes and armor. Choosing the combinations of materials and runes while keeping the equipment graceful was an extremely brain-wearing process. Soon, he lost himself in his work.
Curious, Helen took a glimpse at Angor’s papers and grew very puzzled. Why is Mister Padt not worried at all when another great wizard planned to destroy the ship?
The truth was, Angor wasn’t concerned in the least because he was confident in escaping, should The Limpet sink.
In Helen’s view, Roman was willing to do any madness to reach the level of a wizard before his lifespan ran out. But of course, Roman’s real plan was more complicated than what a mortal could imagine.
No matter how perfect his plot was, the Floating Mech City would find out what happened to The Limpet one day. Yet this did not matter if Roman already used the resources he gained to become a wizard.
There was no justice or fairness in the wizarding world. Strength meant everything.
Of course, Roman knew this. On the outside, he was desperately fighting for a destiny to gain a level at great risk. While in fact, he knew the risk could be mitigated, as long as he succeeded in his plot.
...
They heard the sound of flapping wings before Angor could finish another draft.
Helen looked at the window and saw the seabird called “Toby” returning.
“My word... That WAS less than 30 minutes.”
Angor and Toby spent a moment “talking”, which confused Helen for good.
As Toby explained what he saw, Angor’s expression turned grim as he quickly drew a picture on a spare paper.
Helen moved closer and looked at Angor’s drawing, which showed a small island.
“This is the Silver Palm Isle, sir. Your picture showed the shape of the mountain perfectly.”
Angor kept adding more sketches to the picture, which surrounded the small island.
As the whole picture was perfected, Helen was terrified to see that something ten times bigger than the island was lurking nearby.
This was not all. According to the “shadow” drawn by Angor, the giant presence had an even bigger body hidden underwater.
Toby’s description had told Angor that he had discovered a super-sized sea monster that looked no smaller than an adult cloud whale. It had a long neck covered with sharp spikes, while its plated skin above water level seemed like that of a crocodile. As for its body underwater... it was just too huge. A “whale” was all Toby could think of.
“What-what is that? I mean, is The Limpet going to...” Helen stuttered.
“Toby said that this thing emerged from the water as soon as it heard noises. If The Limpet continues to travel ahead, we’ll definitely bump into it. As for its name, I think I know,” Angor explained in a small voice. “There’s a wizard settlement in the Revelation Empire called the Remnant Coast. There, a group of wizards runs a magazine office who published two of the most famous magazines known by wizards: Fantastic Treasures and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Monsters and Where to Find Them. In a special issue of the monster one, I saw a page describing this very monster. It’s called the Leviathan.”
“Leviathan, Leviathan...” Helen repeated that name in her mind so that she could temporarily forget fear.
“An adult Leviathan is comparable in terms of strength against a truth-finder wizard. Judging from what Toby said, the one we’re going to see is such an adult.”
“Is it going to destroy our ship?”
“It will. Leviathan is known to be a vicious killer.”
“We-we can try going around Silver Palm Isle and avoid it, can we?” Helen quickly worked her brain. “Both sides of the island are forbidden zones. Going into the Storm Swell during this time means absolute death, but we can try the other side, which is the Gearwheel Grave. Rumors say that ships might get dragged into the bottom of the sea by the spirits of dead machines, but we also have people who successfully traveled through. At least we have a chance.”
Angor checked Helen’s sea chart and noticed that the Gearwheel Grave was pretty far from their “common route”.
“No. We’ll go to Silver Palm Isle as is.”
“But...”
“Easy. A Leviathan is deadly, but it has a great weakness I happen to know of. I know how to distract it from the ship,” Angor said as his eyes gleamed. “Roman told you to take this route, didn’t he? Then we should let him see what it means to him.”