Chapter 232 (1/2)

Chapter 232 Shadow Islands

“The Fjord possess countless islands. Until now, no one had ever passed the beyond the border of all these islands,” a man with a tall stature and a rough and vigorous appearance told them, “The further east you sail, the more unpredictable the climate will become, and the same also applies to the islands. I really do not know, what degree of strangeness they eventually reach.”

“Even you have never reached the end of the islands?” Tilly asked curiously. “They say you are the most outstanding explorer of the Fjord, apart from you, there are only a few who dare cross the Searing Flame Island and continue sailing eastwards.”

“Ha ha ha,” the man began to laugh heartily. “Your praise is too much. In fact, every year there are brave people of the Fjord who sail eastwards in search for new land, but it’s hard for them to find anything new. With the raging hurricanes and the suddenly appearing fog, it eventually becomes impossible for the ships to move even a single step further.

He is Thunder, Ashes remembered, the first explorer to discover the Shadow Islands. But two years ago, within the perils of the sea his whereabouts suddenly became unknown, and by now many people think that he has already died.She had never thought that he would be on Sleeping Island, and even less that the 5th Princess would come to him with an agreement that he would help to open up new sea routes for Sleeping Island, draw a sea map and search for new ruins, while Tilly would send witches to support his explorations. As for the reason for his disappearance during the last two years, she had never heard him mentioning it, and Tilly had also never spoken about it. But she had the feeling that Her Majesty knew the inside story. Otherwise, they would never have reached such a mutual understanding. This point caused Ashes to feel slightly unhappy within her heart.

“Just like yesterday’s hurricane?”

“That’s right. They appear within the blink an eye and disappear just as quickly,” Thunder shook his pipe, and threw the ashes into the sea then refilled it with some grass leaves before igniting his pipe once more, “If it weren’t for the magical ability of your witch”

“Her name is Molly,” Ashes remind him stiffly.

“Ah, that’s right, look at my memory,” Thunder didn’t seem to mind her, he just scratched the back of his head and began to laugh, “If it hadn’t been for Molly, I am afraid the ship would have been overturned, her ability is simply fantastic. I had already often thought, that perhaps the witches were most suitable to be explorers.

“Isn’t that already the case,” Tilly smiled, “… a witch who had already inherited the name of the most outstanding Explorer?”

“Well…” Thunder took a deep breath through the pipe, and afterward send out a long string of smoke, “I wish for it to be so.”

There it was again; Ashes frowned, they once more said something I cannot understand. She bluntly left the bow, instead going to the stern trying to calm her emotions. Her Majesty seemed to be very urgent to explore the ruins, after cleaning the Fjord of the Church, she had immediately made all arrangements to go out to sea. And to her surprise, Her Majesty unexpectedly also said that she wanted to go in person, regardless of how Ashes tried to discourage her, it was all useless.

Arriving in the stern, she saw Molly sitting there controlling her magic servant who in turn was holding a fishing rod, learning how to fish from the sailors. Even though the sailors seemed to oppose it when the witches first got on board, but since yesterday’s hurricane, everyone’s attitude had turned completely upside down. Molly had summoned her servant and ordered it to rapidly expand, swallowing the middle part of the ship, making it impossible for anything to reach them, whether it was the rain or the wind. Although the ship was hit by one surging wave after another, making it move up and down, the hull still remained as stable as always. Nowadays, each of the sailors treated the witches as their good luck charm, even going so far as saying that in the future they would be too afraid to go to sea if a witch didn’t accompany them.

“Elder Sister Ashes, look at the big fish I caught!” Molly pointed to the barrel behind her, inside there laid a scaleless sea fish with long, sharp, and pointed mouth, looking completely different than the river fishes she had seen in Graycastle.

“What is this?”

“Swordfish, they like to follow and travel together with the ships, but sometimes they will attack the hull with their mouth, and break it apart,” a sailor replied, “But they are also very delicious to eat, especially the belly meat, after you put it in your mouth, it melts like ice on your tongue.” He smacked his lips, “This evening everyone can enjoy the freshly cooked swordfish for themselves.”

“It seems as if I’ve got another fish,” Molly shouted.

Ashes merely saw a dark shadow moving under the dark blue water surfaces, but along with the magical servant’s movement of the rod, the shadow became bigger and bigger, breaking through the water surface soon.

“Th-this is,” the sailor stared blankly, “No, quickly throw away the fishing rod!”

His voice hadn’t fallen yet, as already a monstrous creature jumped out of the water, its broad mouth wide open, directly flowing to Molly wanting to swallow her.