Chapter 1399: To Airan
Ning and the other two boarded a large ship on a narrow canal, one that would take them straight to the island of Airan. They had spent 2 days going through Cogonia and had finally found a straight route to Airan.
Once they boarded the ship, it would take them about half a day of travel to get to the country.
It was early morning with the sun barely up the horizon, so by the time they reached the other place, it would be close to evening.
“I hope we find a place to stay,” Jasmine said. “I heard that Airan gets rather packed this time of the year.”
Jasmine now wore a single earring on top of all of her jewelry, which Ning had gifted her. She wasn’t able to figure out where Ning had gotten the thing, but the magnificent earring made it so that she could not only understand all languages but also speak them.
Hell, she could read them as well. And she wasn’t even that literate to begin with.
Jasmine had been so stunned when she first received it that she had left to roam the town they had been in for nearly 6 hours, coming back later that day with the happiest Ning had ever seen her.
“Why is it packed?” Tim asked curiously. He too wore an earring on his right ear, one that looked very similar to what Jasmine wore. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for the answer.
“The Pope,” she said. “There will be many people there waiting to see the pope come out to the balcony and wave.”
“Oh!” Ning turned to look at her. “Is there some news about the pope coming out or something?”
“No, no such news. Just speculations,” Jasmine said. “It is said that the pope last came out nearly 2 months ago, so it is about time that he comes out again. So, in anticipation, many people are visiting there again. Hotels and taverns must be filled with guests, so we can only hope we find a spot.”
“I’m sure we will,” Ning said. “You guys go on ahead to your rooms. I’ll come in a bit.”
Tim and Jasmine did as they were told and went to where their rooms were for half the day. The rooms wouldn’t be anything more than just a single bed in a cramped space, but that was better than nothing.
Ning remained out on the deck for a while and watched people slowly board up. As everyone came up, he smiled at someone who boarded as well.
Seeing his smile, the person who had come up stared at him with a horrified face.
“You decided to come quite close this time,” Ning said. “Are you doing this on your own or were you ordered to do so?”
The person who had come to stand in front of him was the policewoman who had interrogated him 2 days ago.
Ning had thought that he would be free of her, but she had followed him around for the past 2 days. And now, here she was in the same ship as him, going to the same country.
The woman was speechless for a few seconds, before finally finding something to say.
“I’m here to keep watch on you,” she said.
“Are you sure you should be admitting that so openly?” Ning asked. “If you’re here to see if I’ll do something bad, won’t this make me hesitant to do it in front of you?”
“That’s better than waiting for you to do something bad,” she said. “Better to prevent whatever you will do entirely than have others suffer because of it.”
Ning smiled a little. “You seem to be entirely under the assumption that I am here to do something bad,” he said.
“I’m not sure just yet, that is why I’m following you,” she said. “I reported you and your possible activities to my superior and I was ordered to keep an eye on you. Seeing that you had bought tickets to Airan, I’m to follow you as well.”
“Be my guest,” Ning said, shrugging a little. “If we are to see each other again, then would it be alright if I got your name?”
“Captain Tanaya,” she answered.
“Miss Tanaya, you surely know my name by heart now,” Ning said and presented his hand for a shake. “Pleasure to have your acquaintance.”
Ning left the woman to go back to his room, but he knew this wouldn’t be the last time he saw her.
The ship left the harbor in the narrow canal and went out into the twisting and turning waterways of the Cogonian archipelago. In some places the path was narrow, and in some places so wide that it made one believe they had left to the open sea.
In the end, they were always within the archipelago.
Ning came back out sometime during the day and saw Tanaya sitting on the deck with a newspaper in hand. She locked in on him the moment he came and kept staring at him until he was right next to her.
Ning sat down and looked at the newspaper in her hands. The headline was something about a series of murders that was happening in one of the islands of Cogonia.
From what the article said, the murders were happening for the past 2 months and no one had been able to find the murderer just yet.
“You want my help with that?” Ning pointed to the article.
The woman flipped the newspaper to the front page to see what he was pointing at. “You want to help us solve this murder case?” she asked.
“No,” Ning said. “I want to just give you the name of the murderer and tell you where he is. Solve the murder yourself.”
The woman frowned. “Do you know him?” she asked.
“Not in the way you’re hoping,” Ning said. “His name is Braval Castaro. A man who left Warfort after nearly being found by Warfort’s police force.”
“And the place he’s currently in…” Ning’s eyes widened slightly, “What a coincidence; He’s in Airan.”
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