Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 632
[Chapter 629: The “Curse” of the Homeless]
In the age of sailing battleships a century ago, shipbuilders in various city-states had a rule when building ships–when processing the keel, they had to cut a square of wood from the original wood.
They will carbonize, soak, and oil the wood in the same way as the keel, and put it on the slipway together with the unfinished ship. After the ship is built, this “keel wood square” will be Leave it in the shipyard and keep it permanently on land – usually, the ship owners will pay an extra sum of money to ask the priests in the city-state to perform blessing ceremonies for the piece of wood on a regular basis, or simply send it to the church for advice. It will be kept and cared for on your behalf.
In the beginning, this behavior of retaining “keel samples” was part of the quality specifications, and ship owners used it to check whether the material selection and preliminary treatment process of the keel could meet the technical requirements of a ship. Later, this became a A symbol of praying for peace –
people believe that ships have souls, and the keels left on land will bring good luck to ships on long voyages. They are like lighthouses, allowing stray ships to find their way back to the coast. , the blessings imposed by the priests on the keel wood can also befall the sailing ships at the same time, and if something unfortunate does happen – the keel left on the shore will be turned into a ferry boat in the world of the dead, taking the sailors away. Take their souls back to their hometown.
In the past, when a ship was confirmed to have been wrecked, the priests of the God of Death would even take out the keel wood cubes left on the shore to hold a “funeral”. The families of the wrecked crew members would pay tribute to the pieces of wood as if they were the remains of their loved ones. Mu Fang saw it off and watched it being sent into the incinerator.
Out of interest, Agatha once described to Duncan in great detail the scene where the death priests “sent off” to the dragon bone samples a hundred years ago.
In fact, this custom is still retained today, but with the development of the times, people may not necessarily choose to retain the keel samples of the ship. Many times, young captains prefer to cut the steam core during installation. Parts of the pipes that came down are kept in shipyards or churches.
Duncan stared at the piece of wood in the box quietly.
The Lost Home was a ship built a hundred years ago – no matter how special it is now, when it was in the shipyard, it was constructed according to the norms and habits of ordinary ships.
Craftsmen a hundred years ago preserved samples of its keel.
It’s not the ancient god’s spine now, but the original… “little branch” of the Lost Home that was found by Duncan Abnomar in the fog near the border.
Duncan reached out and carefully picked up the ordinary-looking piece of wood.
He suddenly opened his eyes slightly: “It has no weight?!” The
“weight” of this keel sample surprised him. It was too light… Even “light” was far beyond description, as he As you blurt it out, this piece of wood seems to have no weight at all, even lighter than a grain of dust when you hold it in your hand!
However, Duncan clearly saw that there were obvious indentations on the surface of the black satin that was originally used to place the wooden cubes in the box, which were traces of being pressed out by the wood.
“Yes, it has no weight – but only when it is held in someone’s hand,” Bishop Valentine’s voice came from the side. “When it is placed on the weighing platform, it weighs 0.7 kilograms. When a person holds it in his hand, it weighs 0 milligrams, but initially it doesn’t – for the record, it’s just like regular wood when it’s cut from the keel timber, I mean’ In terms of weight.”
Duncan frowned. Although he already had the answer in his heart, he couldn’t help but ask: “…When did the change happen?” “
On the day the Homeless Ship fell into the subspace,” Valentine replied, “A lot of things happened that day, and many situations were investigated and confirmed only after people recovered from the chaos, except for the fact that this keel sample lost its ‘weight’ in the hands of a living person. In addition, we also found that except for this sample, all the other wood cut from the keel of the Lost Home was missing.” The old bishop paused at this and further explained: “When you
brought The ‘raw timber’ that came to Pland was a very large timber, and after it had been worked into a keel, the remainders of the timber which were cut in large quantities were still sufficient for many other uses, and it is recorded that some of them were worked They became various items on the Lost Home, and the rest were stored by you in the warehouse of the shipyard. Some of the remaining items were taken away by you a few years later and used to build the Sea Fog. As well as the bow and steering wheel of the ‘Brilliant Star’, the last remaining wood was no longer useful and remained in the warehouse until… the day of the ‘accident’.” As he spoke,
the old man stepped forward and raised his finger. Pointing to the big box in front of Duncan.
“These relevant records are also here.”
“The Sea Fog and the Brilliant Star were also built in Pland? And the remaining keel materials of the Lost Home were used? Are their construction records still there?” “Very
much Unfortunately, the construction records of those two ships have been burned to ashes with the fire in the shipyard that year, along with their ‘keel samples’.” Valentine shook his head, “People say That was the beginning of the curse on the two ships – the storm caused by the Homeless Ship in the subspace destroyed the “anchors” left by the Sea Mist and the Brilliant Star on the land. From now on, those two ships will be It gradually turned into what it is now.”
At this point, the old bishop seemed to suddenly feel that something was wrong, and quickly coughed twice: “Ahem, I hope you don’t mind, these are…” “
It doesn’t matter, you are just here To state what happened – I took the initiative to inquire about it,” Duncan shook his head and said, “And now I have a good relationship with the children, and that’s all in the past.” As he spoke,
he put his eyes back on his hands. On this weightless “keel sample”.
There are many things that I finally figured out today.
Everything went round and round, seemingly a chaotic mess, but it turned out to be just a thread connected end to end, and now, the end of the thread finally reached his hand.
“If you still want to know more about what happened back then, I can find a way to find the elven craftsmen who participated in the construction of the Lost Home…but it may not be easy,” Valentine noted the change in Duncan’s face. He spoke cautiously, “After all… the situation with the elves is not good now.”
“I know, I just want to solve this matter,” Duncan breathed out softly, put down his thoughts for the time being, and nodded to Valentine Nodding, “That’s enough. I’ve got what I want. I’ll take this box with me.”
“Of course,” Valentine nodded immediately, “It would be better if…you could take it away.”
Of course Duncan knew why the other party said that. He just smiled and then put the piece of wood back into the box properly. inside and close the box again.
But just when he was about to summon Ai to return the box to the Lost Home, he noticed Valentine’s hesitant expression.
“Is there anything else?”
“Um…” Valentine was visibly nervous, and then hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, “Actually, I have been thinking about a question since just now, but I was afraid that you would be offended. …”
“Say.”
“… Vanna didn’t cause any trouble on your ship, right?”
“A trouble? Why do you say that?” Duncan felt confused, “She is a mature and steady person, and she is very popular on the ship. Don’t worry, what trouble could there be?”
Valentin was stunned, and after a long time he said: “She didn’t break anything? She has a very straight character, is not easy to get along with others, and is very strong. When she was in the city, she made friends Very few…”
Duncan didn’t speak for a while. He first thought about Nina, who was shocked and shocked, and then Shirley, who was making a fuss all day because of a few papers, and who would be there every now and then. Alice, who had stewed herself, and the pile of pots, pans, mops, buckets and even gunpowder cannons on the ship that were noisy day and night…
“She is quite good,” he said to the old bishop with great seriousness, “she is already on the ship. They are the quiet ones, so there was a little more noise when they were running and exercising on the deck in the morning…”
Valentine: “…?”
The old bishop still seemed unable to imagine what it was like when Vanna lived on the Lost Home. What a scene it is.
But Duncan had no intention of further explanation – he quickly summoned Ai and sent the large wooden box directly to the distant Lost Home. Then he said goodbye to the old bishop and left the cathedral in a swaggering manner.
In the brightly lit inner chapel, Valentine stood in front of the icon of the Storm Goddess and was in a daze for a while. In a daze, he suddenly felt that what happened this morning had a sense of unreality.
This sacred place really received a shadow from the subspace – and now, the shadow has left so peacefully.
It’s like a dream.
“…Fanna.”
“I’m here.” The psychic channel had not yet been closed, and Fanna’s voice reached Valentine’s ears. “Has the captain left?” “…
He just left.” Valentine said. .
Perhaps the hesitation and subtle emotions in the old bishop’s tone were too obvious, and Vanna was keenly aware of the strangeness: “What’s wrong? Is something going wrong?” “That’s not the case, I just feel a little weird…”
Warren Ding hesitated and said, “You think…does this count as the cathedral being invaded by subspace?”
Fanna obviously didn’t expect that the old bishop would say such a thing, and there was silence on her side for a few seconds, and then she didn’t think so. An affirmative response came: “I…don’t know either.”
Valentine turned back and glanced at the statue of Gemona standing quietly in the candlelight: “The goddess doesn’t seem to blame.”
“I don’t think the goddess does. He will be blamed,” Vanna said with certainty. “After all, the captain just went to visit. If this really counts as an invasion, then the Death Cathedral on the other side of the frost will be invaded by the subspace every Friday… I didn’t see any movement over there.”
Valentine: “…?”
(End of this chapter)
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