Chapter 1630: Boarding the Ship
The Captain stood on his ship, looking at Ning with his lips parted the entire time. The workers said nothing and Shara only held her agape mouth.
The Captain was no older than in the late 30s, or early 40s, but did look significantly worse physically as if he had let himself go. His beard was mostly unkempt and the sides of his thick hair were sticking out of the captain’s hat he wore.
“Say… say that again,” the man said.
“Your daughter asks that you don’t be sad any longer,” Ning said. “That is all she says.”
The captain suddenly lunged from the deck, jumping at Ning. Ning tried to move away, but the man was already on top of him. He slammed backward, his back hitting the wooden dock rather strongly.
He felt his breath leave his escape his body and refuse to come back no matter how much he tried to.
Shara screamed and the men shuffled when they saw what the captain did.
“Tell me that’s not true,” the man shouted. “Tell me you’re lying.”
Ning tried to speak, the words barely coming to his mouth. “I— I’m not,” he said, his voice barely audible. “That’s what she said.”
The several people who were watching had already come to their captain, pulling him away from Ning.
“Ning!” Shara pulled him up and Ning began forcefully breathing. It took him a moment to finally no longer feel like he was suffocating.
Having such a thing happen to him twice in the same day wasn’t fun, especially given that he was still hurt from his fight against the massive corpse.
He looked at the captain next and saw him being held by his men, crying, completely fallen apart. He was a sobbing mess on the dock.
“Captain,” Ning said, walking up to him. “Please get yourself together. Your daughter is watching, and she is very sad.”
The words seem to strike at him, like a dagger through his head. He immediately stopped making any sound, even though tears freely fell from his eyes.
“Where… where is she?” he asked.
Ning gestured to his right shoulder, telling him where she was. The man tried to reach for the young hovering soul of the little girl, but his hand simply passed through.
“You… you can let me talk to her right? She can talk to us through your body,” he said, his words more a wish than a question.
Ning shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m only a Spirit Detective. I am not a channeler.”
“But… but…” the man tried to speak, not knowing what to say.
“What’s going on here?” a guard walked up to them, having seen the commotion they were causing.
A few of the dock workers quickly walked up to the guard and explained the situation, letting him know that there was no trouble. The guard looked at the crying father and sighed.
“Your ship needs to leave here soon, captain. Please see to it,” he said, looking at the rest to ask them to do so as well.
The captain said nothing, but his crew nodded on his behalf, taking the captain onto the ship.
Ning stayed on the dock, saying nothing as he watched the Captain go to the ship and start continuing his work.
Shara tried to speak, but seeing Ning’s silence, she said nothing. She only wished that Ning wasn’t making a mistake by making the father cry.
A few minutes later, everything was ready and the tying ropes were ready to be taken off.
The Captain, now in a less emotional state than before, turned to look at Ning and Shara. “Come. We will be leaving soon.”
Ning said nothing but a tiny ‘thanks’ and boarded the ship.
The ship was just a trading ship, carrying a few raw materials as well as silk to and from Galebow City to Whitebridge City.
Galebow City was one of the cities at the westernmost end of the Bay of Riches, while Whitebridge city itself was a giant island in the middle of the bay, connecting two limbs of the continent on the Northeastern portion.
The Bay of Riches was a place filled with fish of all kinds and was a fisherman’s heaven. As such, the place had been named as such since a long time ago. While the world had grown in those many years, and fishing was not as important for food, it was still named as such.
To go to the Galebow city road, it would take Ning almost 2 days by carriage. The carriage had to make a long way around the circular bay, while the ship could cut straight to the city and took no more than 5 hours.
This was a much better choice than anything Ning had come up with when leaving the city.
A few crewmen explained how they would have to stay around the deck as there wasn’t a good place for them to be inside, but Ning and Shara were perfectly understanding.
“We imposed upon you, so we will make any compromise necessary,” Ning told the man who had told him as such.
The ship left the dock and made its way away from the Whitebridge city.
Ning watched the city from the ship, watching the glorious bridge and city slowly go further and further away. He had finally left the city.
He was safe.
The notification finally arrived. He had been wondering how long he would’ve had to wait before it arrived. He had thought he had completed the quest long ago, but it appeared that until he was finally on his way away from the city, it wasn’t going to come.
