Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 424

[Chapter 422 Sail To The Abyss]

“The key left by the Queen?”

Agatha’s expression changed instantly, and she fixed the eyes of Consul Winston.

However, the latter was even more surprised than she was. Winston’s eyes were full of astonishment: “You don’t know? Then how did you get in this place?”

Agatha’s expression became serious, and she realized that the situation seemed to be what she expected It’s not the same – when she realized that she could “enter” the stone wall, she thought that the Winston Consul who entered here first was the same existence as herself, but now it seems that this Mr. Consul used But it is other means.

He has more secrets than he expected.

“I have my own way,” Agatha said slowly, with subconscious pressure in her tone, “You mentioned the ‘key left by the Queen’ just now, what exactly is that?” Winston

wondered He stared at the gatekeeper in front of him, but after a moment of hesitation, he sighed in relief, and reached into his chest pocket.

“Alright, anyway, we’ve come to this point anyway, there’s no need to keep any secrets anymore.”

He took out something small from his pocket. It was a brass key with ornate patterns, the handle of which looked like a horizontal key. The “8”, or the infinity symbol in mathematics, does not have the tooth-like structure that is common in ordinary keys, but a round rod with grooves on the head.

Agatha looked curiously at the object in the opponent’s hand, and suddenly felt that it was not like a key to open the door, but… very similar to something that winds dolls or other clockwork mechanisms.

“The clockwork key?” she subconsciously said, “You mean, this is something left by Queen Le Nora? Why is it in the hands of the consul?”

“The consuls have passed it down from generation to generation. This key is a gift from the queen to the rebels, and… a curse,” Winston twitched the corners of his mouth, showing a bitter smile that even implied fear, “From the first From the moment the Consul took the key, the shadow behind the Frost City-State shrouded our heads, Ms. Gatekeeper.”

Agatha did not interrupt the babbling of this middle-aged man who seemed to be very weak, as if Babbling, she waited patiently for the other party to finish, and then said calmly: “You actually know the real situation of the Boiling Gold Mine, right?

” As for the signs… yes, I know,” Winston sighed softly, and said frankly, “I’m sorry, I knew from the beginning what was going on with the door you found, but I thought there was still time, and I could find it in time. Get things back on track before the situation gets worse, then all you’ll find is an abandoned mine, Frost…still that prosperous Frost.” “I need an explanation,

Archon,” Agatha said With a serious expression and a cold tone, “The boiling gold mine has been exhausted since the queen’s time, so what exactly are we digging out and transporting out in the past few decades? Moreover, the vision of the city-state today, the actions of those cultists, What’s the connection with the exhaustion of the mine?”

“Boiling gold, still boiling gold, Madame Gatekeeper, we dug up boiling gold, and it’s still boiling gold that we shipped out, it’s true, it’s true, “Winston raised his head, with an expression of not knowing whether to cry or laugh, “That’s not pollution. We have tested it, and Queen’s Era has also tested it. If something looks like boiling gold, it is boiling gold in use. The effects produced and the products left behind are no different from normal boiling gold—then there is no doubt that it should be boiling gold.” “

Those are really boiling gold?!” Agatha suddenly opened her eyes wide, This answer made her especially hard to imagine, “But the mine was exhausted decades ago, and the ore that appears in the mine now…”

“This is the most terrifying and weird thing, isn’t it?” Winston smiled wryly, “The ore veins are exhausted, but soon there will be new ore filling up certain corners that no one is watching, as if there is a city that is in harmony with reality. The world parallel, false ‘Frost City’, after continuously injecting ore into the real world, or… When the mine goes deep underground, we have been mining minerals from a mirror world, and those phantom-like Something that goes against common sense… No matter how you test it after mining it, it is actually true.”

Agatha listened to all this with a stern face, and these unbelievable truths impacted her mind that was often muddled these days , but in the end she kept her calm, and said softly: “Mirror Mirror Frost——Mr. Consul, you are right, there is indeed a Mirror Mirror Frost, the fog that now envelops the city-state, and the fakes that keep appearing in the fog, They all ran out of that mirror city, and this mirror city is gradually eroding and replacing our real world.”

Winston’s expression changed slightly, and then he was silent for more than ten seconds, and finally let out a long sigh: “Ah, look Come on, this is the price of those boiled gold.”

“The price? You are too understated when you say this word-now it is not only you and me who are bearing the price, but also the people of the entire city-state, most of them Most of them don’t even know what happened…” “

But the vast majority of them are benefiting from everything brought by the boiling gold trade – in this extremely cold city, it is the boiling gold that keeps everyone in the city warm The shelter and sufficient food allow us to maintain a relatively affluent level after the sea cliff collapses, Ms. Gatekeeper.” When Winston

said this, he paused for a few seconds, and then waved his hand.

“You should know that I have never been extravagant, bought no real estate, and kept no personal wealth—I don’t even have an heir. Ma’am, everything I do is not for selfish desires.” Agatha looked into the consul’s eyes,

but From the depths of those eyes, all she saw was exhaustion.

“Don’t they all have a choice…”

She whispered as if she was talking to herself.

“Everyone has no choice,” Winston shook his head. “I know what you mean. Today’s road and today’s price are not chosen by the citizens of the city-state—but it’s not my choice either. There is no other way for anyone to go.

“The city-state is only so big, and there is no second frost on the boundless sea for us to gain a foothold. We need food, fuel, houses and clean fresh water. We need boiling gold—even if it comes from A strange world of shadows. Without boiling gold, it only takes one winter, and a quarter of the people in the city-state will die, and the remaining people will gradually return to the dark city-state era before the great industrial development within a few years, and continue to lose a quarter or more The population of the population…

“Ms. Gatekeeper, take a break, you are tired enough like me, maybe we should accept the fact now – the city-state is a steam locomotive heading into the abyss, everyone is sitting on the car, The only difference between the protectors of the city-state and ordinary people is that ordinary people eat, drink and live blindfolded, while we… just keep our eyes open.”

Agatha ignored Winston’s self-defeating speech , She just stood in the darkness without saying a word, feeling the unbearable cold coming from all around again, feeling the blood in her veins gradually cooling down.

Then, she broke the silence: “Someone made another choice.”

“…yes, there was one, the Frostmen used to call her the ‘Queen,’ and the history books called her the ‘Mad Queen,'” Vince said. She suddenly laughed, but she didn’t know whether she was laughing at the queen or herself, “A great mortal, she even wants to fight against this sea, against the horror in the deepest part of the sea.” “The Abyss Project…” Agatha said softly

, All the clues she had grasped in the past finally came together in her mind little by little, turning into a clear thread, “So, the Abyss Project is not a simple exploration plan as recorded in the data… The Queen wants to uncover the secrets deep in the city-state. secret?!”

“We don’t know why she thought the constant boiling gold in the mine had something to do with the ‘deep sea’, but she was clearly on the right track – the runaway plan of the Abyss and the terrible fate she later faced proved that she had touched the real The source, the irony of our world is nothing more than this,” Winston changed his position next to the tree stump, he raised his head, looked at the endless chaos and creeping shadows above, and said slowly, “The truth points to Crazy, madness points to failure, every step you take towards the goal, you are walking into the abyss.

Winston sighed.

“She wants to find out the truth about the boiling gold mine, she wants to solve the hidden dangers behind the city-state, and she wants to rely on herself The wisdom and strength of the sea against the sea itself… This is very good, but it turns out that she has only consumed her own destiny in advance. “

So, you ‘successors’ decided not to follow her old path – you pretended to be blindfolded like everyone else, and rushed into the abyss with this car, and the queen who tried to hit the brakes or change the track, In the end, he was characterized by history books as a madman bewitched by the warp. “

An ancient saying of Frost—the dead must give way to the living,” Winston slowly rolled his eyes and looked into Agatha’s eyes. After the turmoil, things quickly returned to normal, so she probably didn’t mind. “

Agatha wanted to say something, but in the end she didn’t say anything.

After a long time, she could only shake her head lightly.

“How did that key… get into the hands of the first generation consul?” “

(end of this chapter)