novelraw Chapter 670: On Anna's Trail
Chapter 670: On Anna's Trail
Lu Li slowly came to his senses.
A ship's horn echoed in the distance, and the voices drifting in from the street made the still-drowsy Lu Li think he had returned to the very beginning.
"Mmmph..." Selika Daler, tied to a wooden chair, squirmed, and the chair beneath her groaned pitifully.
His drowsiness vanished instantly. Lu Li reached under his pillow—the spirit gun was there.
Anna was not in the room. Lu Li, holding the holster, stood up and pulled the towel from Selika Daler's mouth.
The spirit gun was deadly to humans as well.
"Anna did this!" Selika Daler blurted out before Lu Li could even ask.
"Anna put you to sleep and tied me up. She said she wouldn't let you take the risk, so she left alone."
"How long was I asleep?"
Lu Li untied the ropes and walked to the window. In the distance, fishing boats were scattered across the leaden waters, slowly making their way back."I don't know... But a long time has passed," Selika Daler said, rubbing her numb hands. "She left you a note."
A folded piece of paper lay on the nightstand, held down by a pen.
Lu Li unfolded the note, his eyes scanning Anna's message.
Just as he had expected, Anna didn't want him to leave the Allen Peninsula and embark on a dangerous search across the Main Continent, or even the Wastelands. So, she had decided to find Aunt Mary on her own.
Anna asked Lu Li to stay in Khimfast—she would return soon with Aunt Mary.
The handwriting was Anna's.
"Tell me exactly what Anna said," Lu Li said to Selika Daler.
"She barely said anything... She just tied me up after you fell asleep, told me to tell you not to look for her, left the note, and then she was gone..."
Lu Li thought for a moment, then held out a few shillings to Selika Daler. "Go back to Khimfast and wait for us there."
"You're going after Anna...?" Selika Daler asked hesitantly.
"Yes."
Lu Li fastened his coat, secured the holster to his belt, grabbed the anomaly detector, and headed for the front desk to pay for the room.
Selika Daler did not leave, but followed him.
Gulls circled in the sky. After leaving the hotel, Lu Li made his way to the ticket office.
"One first-class ticket to Prince Fantes Port."
"No, make that two," came Selika Daler's voice from behind him.
"You don't have to keep following me," Lu Li said, turning to her.
"If Anna finds out, she'll tear me to shreds... Besides, I've told you many times that I want to help you," Selika Daler said firmly.
Lu Li was silent as the ticket agent asked impatiently, "How many tickets do you need?"
"Two," Selika Daler answered for him.
Lu Li silently acquiesced to her decision to follow him and purchased two first-class tickets.
The clock by the ticket window read 4:10 PM. They were in luck—the last steamship of the day was scheduled to depart in twenty minutes.
As first-class passengers, Lu Li and Selika Daler were entitled to an escort by the staff. However, since the Port of Hope was not a commercial port, the service was modest.
Fishing boats moored at the pier were unloading their catch. Mountains of fish tumbled from the nets.
As he passed by, Lu Li noticed unnatural, deformed limbs and writhing tentacles among the piles of fish.
It was no wonder it was all processed into fish paste to be sold in Khimfast.
Even if this fish had no side effects, eating it would require considerable courage and a willingness to accept a drop in one's Mind Level.
Once they were aboard, the sailor escorting them continued to brief Lu Li and his companion.
The steamship was scheduled to arrive at Prince Fantes Port on the southeastern coast of the Main Continent late in the evening.
This route was considered relatively safe: over the past two weeks, out of nearly a hundred voyages, 92% of the ships had reached their destination safely.
"Don't worry, incidents among first-class passengers occur in only two percent of cases. If you stay off the deck after dark, everything will be fine. For now, you're free to enjoy the view from the deck."
The bustling port and the circling gulls gave it a semblance of life.
Lu Li stood on the deck, gazing into the gray expanse of the sea as the wind tousled his black hair.
The gulls circling over the port suddenly split up—a dozen or so birds headed toward the deck.
Passengers pointed at the sky, and children's cries of delight could be heard here and there.
"Maybe Anna was right, and you shouldn't have set out on this dangerous journey after her..." Selika Daler's voice came from behind him.
Perhaps because of Lu Li's resolute decision, she now seemed to want to... dissuade him.
"Anna is a vengeful spirit; anomalies won't harm her... What if she comes back soon and can't find you?"
"At Prince Fantes Port, I'll ask a Trader to send a message to Watcher's Cliff," Lu Li replied. "Has your leg healed?"
Along the way, she had stopped limping.
Selika Daler's expression became a little unnatural, but Lu Li didn't turn around to see it.
"It doesn't hurt as much anymore," she said.
A woman carrying a three- or four-year-old boy approached them. She nodded at Lu Li and, gently rocking the child, began to sing a lullaby.
The sleepy toddler, a blissful expression on his face, drifted off to the gentle tune.
At exactly 4:30 PM, the steamship "Reislin," with hundreds of passengers and crew members, departed from the port, setting a course for the Main Continent.
The excited passengers gradually left the deck, heading to their cabins. The woman with the sleeping child was among them.
There was no turning back now. Selika Daler seemed to let out a silent sigh, and her expression grew more determined.
The first-class cabins were located on the upper deck of the "Reislin." The spacious room was hard to associate with cramped ship cabins.
If one didn't look out the porthole at the sea or notice the gentle rocking, one might think they were in the drawing-room of an aristocratic home.
As the Port of Hope disappeared into the sea haze, the sky began to darken—night was approaching.
Dinner preparations were underway in the first-class restaurant. Wealthy passengers gathered as if for a social reception. Soft music played, creating the illusion that the grim, desperate world outside had nothing to do with this bright, warm hall where the guests behaved with refined elegance.
The sailor who had escorted them aboard had concealed something.
Lu Li realized this when he returned to the deck and saw the grim expressions on the sailors' faces.
Many of them looked anxious and worried about this voyage. One sailor, swabbing the deck, didn't even notice when he knocked over his bucket.
Lu Li used a few shillings to learn some of the hidden details.
The information the sailor had provided was true, but he had omitted a few things.
For example, all 92% of the successful voyages had taken place during the day.
And all 8% of the incidents occurred exclusively on night voyages.
Clearly, today's final departure, the "Reislin," was one such night voyage.