NABC Chapter 543: True Faces
Chapter 543: True Faces
Chapter 543: True Faces
Inside the crew quarters below the deck of the ship, Shirley was in her room, looking distressed. She sighed continuously as she stared at the pile of exercise books spread out on her table.
“There’s so much... when will I ever finish?”
“If you keep sighing like this, you’ll never get through them,” a voice from the side commented. It was Dog, who continued, “It’s not even that much, really. This is just the backlog from your daily procrastination. Miss Alice even manages to complete these exercises every day on time, you know?”
“But do you call her approach of filling in whatever comes to her mind as ‘completing’?” Shirley retorted, rolling her eyes. She buried her head on the desk, her voice muffled as she murmured, “I want to go ashore and have fun. I want to shop in the city, eat something delicious... Nina told me there are lots of tasty things at Wind Harbor. They have food from all over the world...”
Having been used to Shirley’s constant ramblings for many years, Dog shook his head unaffected, “The captain said that you can go ashore once you’ve finished your pending homework.”
Making a face, Shirley stared at the exercise books on her table, deep in thought. Then, with a sly glint in her eye, she bent down, whispering conspiratorially to Dog who was lying on the floor, “So, umm... would you help me out? I’m sure these questions are easy for you...”
But before Shirley could even finish her sentence, a voice suddenly emerged from a mirror on her desk, “I’m watching.”
Shirley, startled, let out an exaggerated gasp. Looking up, she saw the figure of Agatha materializing from the mirror, her face on the verge of tears, “Can’t you monitor someone else? Why does it feel like every time I do something, you pop out of the mirror?”
Agatha replied earnestly from within the mirror, “Because the captain instructed me to keep an eye on you while you do your homework.”
With a long sigh, Shirley once again buried her head into the exercise books, rolling her face over them a few times before suddenly looking up again, “So, can you help me...?”
Without hesitation, Agatha responded, “No.”
Shirley immediately began to pout and whine, “That’s not what the stories say! They say the magic mirror knows everything, and if you ask it a question, it will tell you the answer...”
Agatha frowned, “What strange story is this?”
“The captain told it to Nina, and then Nina told me.”
Listening to what essentially seemed like Shirley’s playful banter, Agatha’s expression suddenly turned serious. After a few seconds of thought, she looked into Shirley’s eyes and asked, “Did the captain really tell Nina a story about a ‘magic mirror’?”
“Yes... yes,” Shirley replied, her voice tinged with nervousness. She was unsure why Agatha had suddenly become so serious. “The captain mentioned it just a couple of days ago...”
Agatha pondered deeply, muttering to herself, “He placed me inside the ship’s mirror... Was there a deeper intent behind this decision?”
Shirley, taken aback by the gravity of Agatha’s words, stammered, “Uh... what?”
But Agatha didn’t answer immediately. After a few moments of intense contemplation, the “Gatekeeper of the Mirror” finally looked up, meeting Shirley’s gaze. “Which question can’t you answer?”
Shirley thought for a moment and then pushed one of the exercise books forward, “I can’t solve the ones in this book.”
He leaned in closer, scrutinizing the intricate lines and large smudged traces on the sketch.
Master Taran El was a seasoned scholar and a devout follower of the god of wisdom, Lahem. Even though he had health issues due to irregular routines, his expertise in the arcane arts was deep.
Such a renowned scholar would, upon noticing an exceptionally dangerous “element” when observing Vision 001, undoubtedly employ more “professional” methods to contain that danger, even if his rationality had started to waver at the moment.
Perhaps these ink markings weren’t mere random smudges. Using conventional means, one might never discern the true image hidden behind them.
Could this be a message encrypted with supernatural means?
A frown creased Duncan’s brow as a vague idea began to crystallize. He then turned his gaze to the nearby oil lamp.
Under his intense gaze, the flame within the lamp flickered momentarily before taking on a haunting green hue.
The ethereal flame swelled and burned intensely, even rising from the opening at the top of the lampshade.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Duncan picked up the sketch paper and held it over the luminous flame produced by the ethereal fire.
In an instant, the roaring green flame engulfed the entire paper. It seemed the paper did indeed hold a layer of disguise formed by some supernatural force.
To the side, the goat head cried out in alarm, “Why did you burn it?!”
“The ethereal flame only destroyed the ‘distorted’ parts,” Duncan replied calmly, giving the startled goat head a look. With a flick of his wrist, he extinguished the blazing flames on the paper. Astonishingly, beneath the fire, the delicate sheet remained intact. “This is its true form.”
Saying this, Duncan brought the flame-“purified” sketch closer to his eyes, taking a glance at the newly-revealed design on it.
Suddenly, his expression froze.
Noticing the captain’s stark change in demeanor, the goat head quickly twisted its neck to see what had startled Duncan. However, due to its angle, it couldn’t see the front of the paper and blurted out, “What’s on it? Are you okay? That...what is it?”
Duncan finally snapped out of his trance, pulling his gaze away from the paper. With a strange expression, he looked at the goat head, “...It’s the true face of an ancient god.”
Goat head: “?!.”
Duncan didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he slowly lowered his gaze back to the sketch—a sphere locked in place by two concentric rune circles, engulfed in shadows, but its surface marred with grotesque blood vessels and patterns, looking as if it was fiercely glaring...
An eyeball.
The true form of Vision 001 was a massive eyeball, encapsulated within a dark spherical shell.