361. Investigating the Vanishing

Port Area, Kim City, Kim Island, Kim Dukedom, Ancorna Empire.

“I would have liked to stay longer... but I really do need to convince the Elders of the United Tribes and secure a signature from the Great Khan so the Simbala Plains will formally join the Humanity Defense Force,” Faldeus said with a warm smile, gently patting Marie’s head.

The coastal winds were particularly strong today, driving crashing ocean waves against the sandy beach. He looked toward the waiting Magicship floating near the pier, then back at Ravenna. She stood beside her daughter with a polite smile, though it was clear her mind was heavy with racing thoughts.

Faldeus chuckled, reaching over to pat her head as well. “Take proper care of your daughter, Little Raven, and try to rest more often.”

Ravenna sharply smacked his hand away with a slight pout on her face. “I am not a little girl anymore. I know how to take care of my own family, Master.”

Faldeus laughed heartily. “Once the formal alliance is signed, the Humanity Defense Force will finally have a stronghold on the Western Continent as well. Hopefully, you'll come visit us with my adorable granddaughter in the near future?”

“I wanna go!” Marie piped up excitedly.

Ravenna scoffed lightly. “We will see about that. Perhaps once the Witch is finally dead and buried.”

Faldeus took one last look at everyone, offered a firm nod, and officially boarded the vessel, waving from the deck as the ship slowly untethered and sailed off into the open sea.

“Alright, let’s head straight to my study. We have a lot of urgent matters to sort out!” Ravenna turned on her heel, signaling her core staff as she marched back toward the train station.

Ravenna’s Study, Lord’s Castle. Kim City, Kim Island, Kim Dukedom, Ancorna Empire.

“Let’s start from the very beginning. We still haven’t found a single trace of Vice Captain John’s escort ship?” Ravenna asked, her fingers tapping rhythmically on the heavy wooden desk.

Gathered around the long conference table opposite her were Alice, Sarah, Richard, Dame Aisha, Knight Samuel, and several other key administrative officials.

“That’s correct. It has now been a total of three full days since their scheduled arrival, and we have found zero concrete clues as to how this could have happened,” Sarah reported, sliding a summarized dossier across the desk. “We are still keeping the news of their disappearance strictly classified for now, but the families of the missing knights will inevitably start demanding answers soon if we can’t locate the vessel.”

Taken from NovelPhoenix, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ravenna tightly clutched her fists under the table, the tragic image of High Priest James's death flashing unbidden in the back of her mind. “I refuse to lose any more of my people... especially not Vice-Captain John. He has been through thick and thin with us since the beginning, and he has a child on the way! I cannot let his story end like this!”

Adjusting her spectacles, Alice placed several official transcripts onto the table. “The Dearshore administrators who welcomed the dignitaries from the Herptian Headquarters in the Holy Empire of Giniva thoroughly interrogated them. According to their logs, the escort ship was traveling just a few nautical miles behind their main fleet.”

Dame Aisha leaned forward, pointing a firm finger at a marked point on the sprawling ocean map. “So the situation isn't entirely hopeless. If the Archbishops' accounts are accurate, we tracked that the escort ship was following this specific water route as planned, passing through this exact sector before completely vanishing in the dead of the night.”

The highlighted region on the map was a stretch of open water just a few hundred kilometers off the Dearshore City coastline.

Ravenna raised an eyebrow, her gaze fixing on the marked coordinates. “So you are telling me that an entire steam-powered ship simply vanished into thin air, right in the middle of the ocean, within the brief gap of time between their encounter with the dignitaries and the fleet's arrival at our port?”

“We are not entirely sure how much we can trust those dignitaries,” Dame Aisha replied with a weary sigh. “Hence, we have placed them under strict house arrest and completely barred them from meeting Marie, even though they have been relentlessly requesting to meet the Saintess every single hour since they docked.”

“That is definitely for the best right now,” Ravenna nodded, placing her chin in her hand as she pondered the situation. “After what happened with the last delegation from the Western Continent, we cannot afford to take any unnecessary risks with Marie's life.” She paused, looking around the table. “So, what are our current running theories on what actually happened to the ship?”

Richard was the one to step forward. The veteran fisherman held up three fingers and began detailing their analysis. “There are three main possible reasons we can currently think of, Your Highness.”

“The first one is pretty straightforward… they might have simply gotten lost. It was, after all, the current crew's very first time navigating a steam-powered vessel over such a long distance.”

Knight Samuel chimed in to counter the point. “However, after deploying multiple search ships along the entire route...” He took a deep breath, swallowing hard as he met Ravenna's intense gaze. “No signs of the escort ship were found. Even if they got turned around in the dead of night, simply sailing in a single direction would have eventually brought them straight to the coast of Kim Dukedom or mainland Ancorna. Yet, there have been zero reports of any vessel making landfall, Your Highness.”

“The second theory is that they were suddenly dragged into an underwater dungeon,” Richard continued, moving to his second finger. “This holds significantly more merit, considering our scout vessels detected odd subterranean mana fluctuations and unusual underwater current activity around that specific section.”

A tense silence settled over the study before Ravenna quietly asked, “And what’s the final theory?”

Richard gulped, his face darkening. “They might have been swallowed whole by a massive, passing high tier Magical Beast... consumed entirely, leaving not a single scrap of wreckage behind.”