Myths Reawakened

Londan wasn’t far from Liuerpul, and the luxury train Wayne’s group rode on wasn’t meant for tourists. Departing in the morning, the train would arrive at its destination in the afternoon.

As the train rumbled along the railway, the scenery outside the window slowly moved. In one of the high-end cars, Mona looked at Vera with withering eyes. She should’ve shared a car with Wayne, but because Vera joined them, the two women were arranged to share one room, while Wayne stayed with his dog and owl.

Vera lay on her bed, feeling bored. She glanced at the scenery outside before glancing at the business books on Mona’s bed. Then she stood up and opened the door with a serious expression, deciding to play poker with Wayne.

When she reached his car, though, only the dog and owl were there.

“Where did he go?”

The man in question had left the six cars the Ministry of Magic had booked to look for Veronica. He was certain that the tsundere Dragonblood had to be on the train, only she was so prone to shyness that she wouldn’t show her face until the right moment.

He made it through the aisle, sniffing along the way but not catching the familiar scent. She hid well. Wayne turned around and went back to his car.

It was possible to hide on the train, but not on the ship. Sooner or later, he would capture her and have his way with her.

That afternoon, the group got off the train and had dinner at the restaurant beside the train station. Then a fleet of cars took them to the port, where they boarded a cruise ship to the Republic of Erland. They would spend one night on the ship and reach shore tomorrow morning, heading straight to Northern Erland, where the Snow family was.

Interestingly, Erland sought freedom and fought for sovereignty about twenty years ago, thus establishing the Erland Free State. And one year ago, it became a republic separate from the Windsor Federation[1].

Although it was still part of the Windsor Federation in name, yet to become completely independent, Erland’s independence was already set in motion and wouldn’t be stopped by Windsor. The reason behind it was a sensitive issue—the clue lay in the fact that the Republic of Erland followed the Church of Heavenly Father.

The royal family of Windsor had been suppressing the Church of Heavenly Father within the country and even tried to create an independent church. In retaliation, the Church of Heavenly Father set fire to Windsor’s backyard.

While amusing, Wayne saw signs of Windsor’s downward trajectory in that development, as well as the Church of Heavenly Father’s flexing quads. Arms could never win a wrestle with the thighs, and the Church of Heavenly Father had been putting up increasingly powerful resistance against Windsor.

It was a resistance because Windsor had once had the upper hand, sending the Church of Heavenly Father fleeing and crying with absolutely superior power. In addition to Windsor, the other countries in the Chosen Land had all launched aggressive attacks against the church, and they won!

The Heavenly Father was thoroughly humiliated.

Wayne found it puzzling. The Church of Heavenly Father once ruled over a unified Chosen Land, overpowering the churches of the five goddesses and killing many deities who didn’t even leave a record in history.

With the dominance of the Church of Heavenly Father allowing them to walk all over any opposing forces, why would it suddenly lose power, almost losing even the Papal State? The church could’ve summoned angels to their aid. Heaven wasn’t an empty shell.

While the Pope might tolerate the disrespect the nations showed the Heavenly Father, the cantankerous angels wouldn’t have. They should’ve killed every single one of the blasphemers, or at least that was the case for the Holy See and the religious wars Wayne knew of. Yet in the end...

Trains and cars traversed the land, and planes and cannons occupied the sky. Even the old guards studying theology began to explore science and the truths of the world.

Wayne pondered the topic while walking. He had discussed it with Ottilia, the bookish girl from Cambrook County. They couldn’t reach a conclusion due to the lack of historical records about that period. Somehow, the churches had erased the true history together, attributing the religious revolution to the wheel of time.

Wayne didn’t believe that version of the history. The world of magic had never undergone a revolution, and thus, the Chosen Land couldn’t have been revolutionized while under the rule of the Church of Heavenly Father. There had to be secrets that would explain everything. During that period of time, the Church of Heavenly Father was hit with an unprecedented nerf!

“Where did you go, Wayne?” Vera found her target in a corridor of the cruise ship, skipping her way to him to drag him by the elbow. “It’s getting dark. Let’s play cards in your room!”

I didn’t know that you played cards! Wayne huffed. She wouldn’t be playing cards with him, but giving him benefits.

After some consideration, he extracted his arm from her grip to put it around her shoulder. “Playing cards isn’t fun. Let’s watch the moon on the deck.”

Vera considered his suggestion, but insisted on her idea.

“Alright, whatever you want to do. But only playing cards isn’t any fun. The loser has to drink. Deal?”

“Deal,” Vera readily agreed.

Wayne took her back to his suite and knocked on the door of the next room, telling Mona to bring two bottles of wine and join them for a game of three. Half an hour later, Vera lay on the bed in a daze, her eyes unfocused and her cheeks flushed. She mumbled that she couldn’t take more as the world spun around her.

Wayne closed his eyes to remove the alcohol from his body. He said to Mona, “I’m going out. If she wakes up, give her more wine.”

Mona nodded, throwing Vera a pitying glance. Poor girl couldn’t even get some after throwing herself at him like this. Putting herself in Vera’s shoes, she couldn’t help but despair for herself. Vera had been much more proactive, and she was young, pretty, and had a nice body. Yet Wayne wouldn’t take her, which made Mona’s chance seem even slimmer.

“Huh, where’s Wayne? Is he not going to play more cards?” Vera sat up, only half awake. Mona held her head and fed her wine straight from the bottle. After a few gulps, she toppled back down and became dead to the world.

Meanwhile, Wayne had taken out the Book of Seals through Shadow Nightmare to look for the obelisk, confirming that the obelisk he had unfortunately lost was in the Erland Sea.

“It’s not en route. I’ll have to make it happen.”

Wayne hadn’t insisted on taking a detour because he was worried about the Snow family’s ambush. That would be laughable. Without their benefactor, Obed, what could the small fries possibly do?

He had done so for the obelisk. He couldn’t wait until their return trip, or he would be losing sleep. He wanted to reclaim the obelisk tonight.

Confirming its location, Wayne sent the Book of Seals away through Shadow Nightmare before crossing the deck to the aft of the ship. Passengers were prohibited from entering the cabin, but it wouldn’t pose a problem for a mage.

***

Cabin.

The massive diesel engine hummed amid the orderly lines of pipes and dashboards. Every component was intricate but durable. The moving indicators on the dashboards represented the strong heartbeats of the beast that was the vessel.

Inside the dim cabin, the smell of motor oil and sea wind permeated the air. Someone with a keen sense of smell could even detect the odor of the crew’s smelly socks.

Veronica grimaced. She hadn’t expected the cabin to be this disgusting, or she would’ve headed to the Cathedral Train Station with Vera.

Even so, Veronica forced herself to endure the discomfort. She wasn’t a delicate flower raised in a greenhouse. Such trivial hardships were nothing to her. Besides, compared to the terrible environment, she hated Wayne’s mocking expression more.

Hey, Veronica, you’re here!

What a coincidence. You haven’t been stalking me, have you?

Oh, I know. You like me!

Thinking of the smug look on the scumbag’s face, Veronica couldn’t help but tug at her silky hair, cursing at the Wayne in her imagination for jumping to conclusions. She had come to find Vera. It was only a coincidence that he was also on the ship.

Suddenly, a mouse skittered past her, squeaking. She froze and waved it away in panic. “Damn vermin, get away from me. Or I’ll put you in a can and toss you into the sea.”

It was then that two figures walked down from the deck, dressed in all black rather than the crew’s uniforms. Veronica frowned at them. Since she didn’t want to invite trouble, she took a few steps back and blended into the shadows.

“Are you sure this is the right ship?”

“Of course. Master spent a lot to acquire the information from the Ministry of Magic. They are all on board. That’s for certain.”

“What rotten luck. The family’s support was taken down? I heard that he was powerful. Why would he suddenly lose influence and bow to suppression?”

“Who knows? Just complete the damn mission. Stop asking questions.”

“It’s the Queen we’re talking about. Master and the family can escape to another country with all their wealth and still lead a life of abundance, but servants like us will lose our jobs immediately. Who knows how we’re going to earn a livelihood?”

“There’s no shortage of options. Why wouldn’t competent people like us be able to find work?”

They grumbled while entering the cabin to check each of the dashboards. Reaching into their pockets for tools, they aimed to do minimal but irreversible damage to the engine to stop the ship from advancing.

Veronica frowned, conjuring green mist from her fingertips to plant mushrooms on the two criminals, but suddenly, a gust of heated wind swept over and brought the spores in the mist to the ground.

Someone else’s here! Her heart thumped. Her muscles tensed as she readied for a fight.

A pair of hands reached over to cover her mouth and grasped her arms tightly, dragging her into the darkness.

Who? They’re strong!

Veronica struggled as hard as she could. Fine white scales emerged on the back of her hands as she struggled harder.

A breath hit her ear, followed by a warning bite that wasn’t hard enough to hurt. She froze, her knees buckling.

1. This is a reference to how Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom. The Irish Free State was first established, which was a dominion of the British Empire, with some autonomy but not officially independent. It didn’t become Ireland until 1937, 15 years later. ☜