“I know it all too well.”
The old man urged impatiently.
“Stop dawdling!”
“Just say it!”
John sighed, seemingly organizing the blood-stained fragments of history in his mind.
“The Fortville family... was wiped out twenty-four years ago.”
“And the turning point that caused this titan to come crashing down...”
“...was the ‘Night of the Dead Tide’ twenty-five years ago, an event that shocked the entire supernatural world.”
“What?!”
Old Ed let out an incredible cry of astonishment.
“You old geezer, can’t you be a bit more composed?” Elias reminded him mentally. “You scared the life out of me!”
John also complained with some dissatisfaction, “What, are you telling me you guys didn’t know any of this? You’re making it sound like I’m telling a ghost story!”
Elias coughed awkwardly. “Well, it is a ‘ghost’ story. It’s just that we always thought the Fortvilles had simply fallen on hard times or moved away from Moon Bay.”
Hearing this answer, John slowly turned his head and stared at Elias as if he were looking at an alien.
After a long moment, he finally sighed.
“Fine. Considering you’re a newcomer who just stepped into the supernatural world not long ago... I’ll tolerate this lack of common knowledge.”
“But then again,” John tried to give himself a way out, but he suddenly realized a blind spot. “How on earth did you advance so quickly? If I remember correctly, it’s only been about two months since I first saw you, hasn’t it?”
“Two months, and you’re already Scale Two?!”
“Bloody hell!”
John’s voice carried a hint of existential despair.
“What kind of bizarre talent is this? Don’t you even need time to digest your potion?”
Elias’s eyes darted around as he rubbed the tip of his nose.
“Just... good luck, I guess. That’s how I advanced.” He gave a hollow laugh, feeling a bit guilty.
Through Spirit Sensing, Elias could clearly perceive John’s current emotions.
It was jealousy. But behind that jealousy, there was actually a trace of relieved joy. This made Elias’s heart stir slightly.
“Still, it’s better that you’re a bit stronger.” John laughed self-deprecatingly, his spiritual body flickering in the dark carriage. “At least when we arrive, you’ll be able to more smoothly take away the containment object inside my stomach. Consider it an extra layer of security; it’s better than bringing a burden along.”
“You two can flatter each other later!” Old Ed interrupted the unproductive conversation. His voice was no longer filled with its usual casualness. Instead, it had become heavier than ever before, even carrying a hint of solemnity that Elias had never heard.
“I just want to know how the Fortville family was actually wiped out back then.”
He paused, as if reminiscing about an old era that, while also dark, at least had a bottom line.
“To be honest, compared to this Wayland Shipping nonsense now, Fortville’s control over the lighthouses at least ensured that ordinary people didn’t die for no reason. They certainly wouldn’t buy someone’s life for a measly twenty-four gold crowns!”
As Old Ed spoke, his emotions gradually spiraled out of control, and even Elias’s own emotions were affected by a trace of that intensity.
Twenty-four gold crowns. The original Elias had been lured to the island by that very blood money. In the end, amidst bizarre hallucinations, he had ended his young life with a rope.
“Being a Firebearer should be honorable! Protecting Moon Bay is something everyone should hold their heads high and be proud of!”
“Instead of...”
The old man’s outburst stopped abruptly halfway.
“Instead of how it is now...” he whispered dejectedly. It was like a blazing flame hitting a wall of dead silence. This sense of powerlessness made Elias feel a tightening in his own chest.
“Alright,” John fell silent for a moment before finally speaking up to break the heavy atmosphere. “I didn't expect an old Moon Bay lighthouse keeper to have such noble convictions. After all, by the time I was born, the Fortville family had long since become nothing more than words in ancient texts. For my generation, that so-called ‘honor’ really doesn’t feel real.”
John shrugged and began to recount the buried secret amidst the noise of the jolting carriage.
“As far as I know, it seems the Fortville family was so obsessed with managing those twelve mysterious lighthouses back then that they invested too much energy and financial resources into them. This led to severe losses in the family’s secular businesses.”
“And at that time, Wayland Capital was at the peak of its frantic expansion. They desperately needed to buy control of the twelve lighthouses in the Moon Bay area to ensure the absolute safety of their massive shipping routes.”
“It was a game between capital and an ancient family. Originally, the Fortville family refused to agree no matter what; their attitude was as hard as granite. But then, one night, an accident happened.”
John lowered his voice.
“A large number of monsters that were supposed to be in the deep sea suddenly made a massive landing at Hastings Port without any warning. That night, blood almost stained the entire pier red, resulting in hundreds of missing persons and deaths. And the patriarch of the Fortville family at the time also died mysteriously that night.”
“History calls it... the ‘Night of the Dead Tide’.”
Hearing this, Elias’s brow furrowed deeply. Business negotiations fail, and then monsters slaughter the port? If there wasn't something fishy going on here, he’d eat the carriage wheels!
“Redwin...”
Inside his head, Old Ed’s self-muttering suddenly rang out. The voice was as light as silk, yet it carried a bone-deep complexity of emotion, as if he were reminiscing about an old friend.
John’s narration continued.
“After that, the severely weakened Fortville family lost its backbone. The control of the twelve lighthouses naturally fell into the hands of Wayland Capital. But that wasn’t the end of it.”
“A year later, it seems an extremist from the dissenting faction within the Fortville family—someone who had luckily survived—personally killed all the remaining family members in the dead of night.”
“And so...” John looked at Elias, a trace of sentimentality flashing in his eyes. “That ancient family, which had stood in the Moon Bay area for who knows how many millennia, was completely wiped out.”
As John finished his story, the atmosphere in the carriage fell into a suffocating silence.
Elias leaned against the back of the seat, watching the streetscape constantly receding outside. His mind was filled with a thousand thoughts, and the only thing he could hear was the noise of the carriage jolting along.
After a long time.
Following a violent jolt, the carriage slowly came to a stop in front of a massive convent. The building sat in the night like a crouching behemoth, its towering spires piercing the smog-shrouded sky.
Several rhythmic knocks came from outside the carriage, followed by the driver’s polite reminder in a deliberately lowered voice.
“Sir, you have arrived.”
Rate on N.U.
