Chapter 12: The Wreckage
Hitzfeld's insomnia improved.
She wasn't sure if this was due to the shock she received at the final stages of the ticket case or if it was the result of her body's natural recovery.
All in all, she now gets more sleep each week.
Almost three hours longer.
In extreme cases, she can sleep for twelve hours and wake up feeling very energetic.
But the amazing thing was that she couldn't split those twelve hours into two six-hour periods, couldn't turn it into two sleeps.
The sea is safer than land because there are no people on the sea.
Hitzfeld was a cautious man. After consulting the entire expedition team, they unanimously decided to turn off all the lights on the ship in the eternal night.
Without lighting, there was no way to read or paint. Therefore, the long night at sea was particularly difficult for Hitzfeld.
After much consideration, she decided to move her sleep time to Saturday night.
It feels good to be able to sleep in peacefully while someone is watching over you...
The time at sea is long.
After more than ten days of sailing, the Norayesan passed through the northern parish of Amelen. In Amelen, they replenished their food and fresh water, inquired about the news about the North Amelen Sea, and confirmed that there was nothing unusual on the sea recently before setting sail again.
In the blink of an eye, another ten days passed.
On this day, Hitzfeld came to the control cabin yawning and saw Torres, Ethan and Zafira sitting around the table, studying the nautical chart.
"Where are we?" She scratched her hair, feeling that life was really hard to endure.
Ocean voyages are too painful.
Although there was food and drink and scenery to see every day, she even had a lot of extra time to read.
But on the other hand, the number of books she brought with her was limited, even after she restocked her stock in Amiren.
On the other hand, she was almost sick of this boring life.
Although she also reads and paints every day on land, at least she can go downstairs for a walk when she has nothing to do.
You can see different pedestrians every day, and sneak into the underground market to hear some gossip or something, not to mention there are newspapers to read every day.
At sea she could do nothing but read books.
She didn't want to see it.
I really don’t want to do that anymore.
Even if she ignored the particularly serious problem that these books would become even more boring after reading them, she would still vomit if she continued reading.
"If the proportions of this thing are correct, then we should be at the junction of the Northern Amelian Sea and the Crystal Sea."
Torres glanced at her, noticed that she was still holding a notebook, and raised his eyebrows in disgust.
He was a relatively conservative person, and when Hitzfeld had nothing to do, he would draw sketches in a notebook - he thought that sketches that often showed naked human bodies were extremely indecent.
"So that means—we're here?"
Hitzfeld perked up.
Only then did she realize that they had been living at sea for almost a month without realizing it.
"We're lucky. We didn't encounter any storms along the way." Ethan weighed a pen in his hand, and when he saw Hitzfeld approaching, he grabbed it and tapped hard on a spot on the nautical chart.
“We are here now.”
"We are very close to land."
Xia Yibing followed Hitzfeld in and happened to see this scene, and commented aloud.
"According to our great detective's plan, we will next approach the coastline and contact the land rescue team sent by Baron Skye to determine the details of the subsequent cooperation."
Torres groaned a few times, seeming very dissatisfied with not having the power to command.
"Frick and the others are already on the lookout. We are heading to the shore now."
The others pretended not to hear the resentment in his words.
By 2 ., Hitzfeld went on deck again and could see the outline of land emerging in the distance.
At 5:44 ., the Norayesan dropped anchor in the waters in front of the beach, leaving Ethan Zafira on board, while two Flintstone Knights, Hitzfier and Xia Yibing, and two priests landed on the beach in the lowered boat.
When he stood on land, Hitzfeld's body shook.
Xia Yibing immediately supported her and let go gently after she got used to it.
"right here."
Torres walked a long way away impatiently. He stood on a sand dune and looked around, but he could not see anything except cliffs, rocks and bushes in the distance.
"?"
His whole face wrinkled up.
"No one." When the people behind him came up, he spread his hands and said, "No one, they broke the appointment."
“But it shouldn’t be like this.”
Hitzfeld climbed up the sand dune with her skirt lifted up, and looked around, but still couldn't see a single person.
Strange.
She frowned slightly.
Buy a boat, hire people...
Having spent such a huge amount of money, it is impossible for the Baron to cheat them.
But if there really was a land rescue team, they came by airship!
The airship is much faster than the boat. It should have camped here and waited for them. How come there is no one in sight?
Hitzfeld pushed aside his hair from his forehead, squinted his eyes, and saw to the north... there was a vaguely protruding cliff far away from the beach.
"That area is the Blade Point."
Saibot said.
"The blade horn is inserted into the edge of the Crystal Sea... It's so close, this is definitely the agreed location."
But no one.
Hitzfeld chewed his lower lip.
She didn't quite understand why.
"Hey hey——"
"Come on—"
"Come over here - I think you should see this -"
Suddenly, a call came from farther away.
It sounded like Carlo's voice.
Only then did Hitzfeld realize that the two Flint Knights had unknowingly run into the jungle.
With Xia Yibing's support, she ran over breathlessly, and only felt more comfortable when she walked into the shady woods.
"look here!"
Carlo was still shouting.
"Oh my god! What on earth happened here?"
Before he could look where he was pointing, Hitzfeld smelled blood.
She looked up suddenly and saw a small pile of pale bones lying under a tuft of grass in the middle of the dark woodland.
This is--
She walked over quickly, squatted down and moved the bones to make sure they were from humans.
"And here!"
Tres shouted from further ahead.
Listen carefully, his voice is trembling.
"Here... there's more!"
Everyone rushed over immediately and saw more skeletons in a damp and cold cave.
Piles of bones, skulls, and metal products were piled up like small hills in the deepest part of the cave. Coupled with the icy sea water that was above their calves, they felt cold all over.
"About one hundred and twenty."
Frick counted the skulls and reported the number.
"At least this many people died here, and judging by the traces, these bones were spit out less than a day ago."
After saying this, everyone became even more frightened.
It is obvious that these skeletons belong to the land rescue team, because it is impossible for anyone else to come to such a remote place.
But why did they become like this?
What attacked them...?
Enough to cause such huge damage among a well-trained team of more than 300 people with sufficient firepower, and even get away with it?
"This hole should be connected to the bay."
Hitzfeld said immediately.
"Let's go out."
"Get back to the boat—at once!"
Chapter 13: Dissolving Corpses
Everyone present was not an ordinary civilian with naive ideas and no understanding of the world.
Just from the girl's words "this hole is connected to the bay", they can think of many factors.
For example, whatever attacked the land rescue team was most likely a living thing.
Judging from the fact that it vomited out so many disgusting bones wrapped in plasma in just one day, it has a huge appetite, and we can further infer that its size must not be small.
The cave is damp and even the bottom layer is flooded with sea water. As Hitzfeld said, this means it is connected to the bay. From this, it can be speculated that it is most likely a creature with amphibious habits.
And now it's almost night.
The alternation of day and night will cause the tide to change. There is a high possibility that the terrifying thing is on its way home.
So no one said anything and immediately turned around and ran towards the cave entrance. Xia Yibing made a prompt decision and before Hitzfeld could react, she picked her up and rushed to the front through the water.
"Huh...huh...huh..."
The cave was not deep, only about ten meters. Everyone came out of it carefully and quickly, and even stayed away from the jungle for safety reasons, and stopped to rest on the sand dune where they first looked around.
"Um..." Feeling the slight rise and fall of the woman's chest, Hitzfeld swallowed his saliva, "You can put me down now."
Xia Yibing nodded, and gently put her on the ground with a normal expression.
This concern seems a bit too warm.
Hitzfeld was sweating.
The reason why she asked Xia Yibing to do the escort mission this time, besides the fact that she really trusted her and she didn't know any other acquaintances inside Shadow Lion, was also because she wanted to find out why she suddenly "got sick" again.
According to what Ethan had said before, Hitzfeld's understanding was that Xia Yibing had kept her heart closed for many years and was not used to the sudden appearance of himself - a character who wanted to get along with her sincerely and make friends with her.
So we can infer from this: the reason why she is "sick" again now may be because... the relationship between the two of them... has advanced a step further because they have sealed the evil god together. It is no longer limited to so-called "friends" and may have reached the level of "blood relatives".
In other words, Xia Yibing might really think of her as a dead sister. Her "illness" during this period was because she needed a buffer period to adjust emotionally.
This was proven in the series of interactions after they met again. Whether it was actively finding her to tell her to be careful of Frick and Carlo, or deliberately finding an excuse to move in with her, this looked like a dedicated sister role.
The enthusiastic sister was worried that her sister couldn't run fast enough, so she carried her sister out of danger in a princess-carrying manner... Hitzfeld could understand this.
However, while running away, the elder sister touched her younger sister's legs with her fingers intentionally or unintentionally.
