After using a simple nightmare illusion to erase Ohm’s recent memory, Angor stepped out of the workshop.
Without much to go by, he decided to look at Lucas’ ship for more clues. And he was pretty surprised to actually receive useful information from Ohm.
Ohm claimed very firmly that Lucas was executed in the end, which contradicted Gurman’s words, that Lucas “should have been executed”.
But neither of them knew that Lucas went back to his ship, which meant something went wrong when people were writing down history records.
Another important fact was Lucas’ “evil plot”, about which both Gurman and the historical records mentioned but without going into any details.
What exactly did Lucas do?
As stated by Ohm, when Lucas’ family declined to its worst state until he began to starve, he visited the king and offered to be a pioneer that discovered new lands by sailing across Devil’s Water.
Devil’s Water was already marked as a forbidden zone by that time, and no one would enter recklessly. But going through there was the only choice for finding uncharted lands and expanding territory.
In fact, the king had been searching for brave sailors for this job but failed to find anyone, until Lucas came.
Delighted, the king accepted Lucas’ offer without a problem and granted the man a huge amount of resources as well as The Feather Fan, which was constructed using the full support of the nation’s vault.
The ship set sail in the year 1347 during the Age of Gold, and it returned by the end of 1353. However, after six years, Lucas only came back to deliver a bunch of “incomprehensible hogwash” to his king.
Ohm didn’t know exactly what Lucas told people. The point was, none of the audience in the court believed a single word from him. Also, almost all sailors died during their voyage, and Lucas claimed that everyone was killed by pirates. Yet he had no proof.
Besides, why would the pirates spare his life?
Due to Lucas’ already bad fame and combined with several commissioners who claimed that they had seen Lucas slacking off at random spots at Ferran, the king was convinced of the “fact” that Lucas was a big liar who scammed from the nation’s fund. After distributing the news and arresting Lucas, the king simply sentenced him to death in the most painful way.
Such was the “Treachery of Lucas”, an event that shocked everyone at that time.
After listening to the story, Angor had believed that at least the first part of it might be true.
Lucas couldn’t possibly be executed at Ferran and then appeared at Devil’s Water. And how did his logbook come into existence? In the book, Lucas said that he stayed at Ferran for over a month, during which everyone accused him of being a liar. But the king probably would not see Lucas come back and wait for a month to arrest him.
As for what truly happened... there was nothing to refer to right now.
It was very unlikely that anyone from Song of the Deep or Summerdew Ridge knew about Lucas’ logbook, and Angor believed that he would be safe from prying eyes if he were to check the well.
...
Devil’s Water, Silver Palm Isle.
Sliv was gazing into a bubble with a big frown. “There aren’t clues in Lost Paradise City? It can’t be. Tuwalu confirmed that Lucas left something behind at his home. Look more carefully, Jebra, hmm.”
Above Lost Paradise City, Jebra listened to the message sent by his whale and pinched his forehead.
Tuwalu was a Prophet who studied an uncommon prophecy art called the “Enigma Bell”, rather than the well-known major arts. In his career, Tuwalu’s prophecy was almost always correct, which meant there was something in Lost Paradise City they overlooked.
This was also proved by many agents sent by Summerdew Ridge, who were also wandering around the city. And since Summerdew Ridge also had a Prophet working for them...
“Damn those Prophets. Why can’t they just tell us what to look for straight up?” Jebra scratched his hair with great impatience. Although it was only a mindless complaint—he knew how prophecy worked in this world, and it wasn’t the Prophets who should be blamed.
Prophets suffered from a greater backfire when they attempted to reveal more important secrets. If they earned clues about the item they were looking for, only to have it snatched away by others, the Prophets would still sustain misery or even a lethal outcome if the item proved to be something extremely vital. This was why no Prophet would carelessly look deeper into this matter. One wrong move and it would cost their lives.
As Jebra fruitlessly accused the air, his whale sent him another bubble, which contained Sliv’s voice.
“I’ve seen some of Lucas’ files before, so let me give you two suggestions. One, start looking for his ship. And secondly, where exactly he died. I want to see the relationship between Lucas and the ‘mysterious dimension’ as soon as possible. Every prophecy we received involved this man’s name, and we must find out why, hmm.”
Jebra landed inside a small yard, where a dozen apprentices quickly saluted him. All of them had “fish scale tattoos” somewhere on their bodies that showed their memberships in Song of the Deep.
“Since there’s nothing to see at his house, call everyone back and split up into two teams. One shall look for the ship Lucas used before, while the other should check where his corpse went,” Jebra ordered.
The members acknowledged the order and all left, leaving one short girl behind.
The girl’s eyes were completely white without pupils, but this wouldn’t prevent her from seeing the world using her spirit power.
“Anything else you need, Haku?”
The girl named “Haku” lowered her head and replied in a careful manner, “Sir, I saw a wandering apprentice the other day, who was going into Widow Street but noticed our guards. I think that was why he left instead. He didn’t see me because of my stealth talent.”
“Someone else sent by Summerdew, perhaps. Leave them... wait, ‘he’?”
“Right. It was a man.”
Jebra frowned. The “basket witch” did not allow men to join them.
“What does he look like?”
Haku took out a hand-drawn portrait she already prepared.
“Him again?” Jebra mumbled, “He didn’t go to Widow Street for real? What was he doing then?”
“He stayed for a while at the plaza area nearby and bought a wishing bell from the shop. Here, I also noted down the wish he left behind.”
Jebra checked Angor’s “message” and wasn’t sure whether he should care about it.
“Who’s ‘Mister Jon’ anyway? His mortal friend who fell ill?”
“I failed to constantly keep track of him, sir,” Haku continued, “I only found out that he has been staying at Ross Mansion. Their servants told me that he spent a night performing the talent test. But I don’t know his next moves since that point.”
Jebra nodded. “You can leave him be. He’s not related to this matter. He’s a recruiter.”
“Sir, you mean he’s scouting for talents for his organization?”
“That’s right.”
In Jebra’s view, Angor saw the members of Song of the Deep and backed away because he had decided to stay out of whatever business was going on.
And since Angor decided so, Jebra would also like to avoid provoking a gifted alchemist who was likely a very strong fighter as well. He wasn’t sure whether the members he brought were enough to fight against that griffin monster AND Angor’s illusions even if they went all-out.
...
Meanwhile, Angor had no idea that his presence had been exposed to the agents of Song of the Deep. Thankfully, he wasn’t regarded as a threat since he had not done anything noticeable.
Angor was currently checking another map provided by Neet. As Angor requested, the map showed the locations of water wells in Lost Paradise City as well as their time of construction.
Since several lake canals were excavated inside the city, there had been less need for wells in the city, which made their work a lot easier.