Chapter 552

Four Hundred and Sixth Chapter – Stay

“Are you saying… among the passengers on the Shining White Pearl, there might also be dangerous cult members? Sir, should we go search for them?”

After hearing Jorde’s words, the deputy spoke uneasily, and Jorde responded directly.

“It’s too late… everyone on the Shining White Pearl has already entered Vanaha. Some even left Vanaha overnight. We don’t have the manpower to bring all of them back, so let’s forget about it… After all, searching isn’t our main duty.”

As he spoke, Jorde stood up from his seat and walked to the captain’s cabin window. Through the glass, he looked at the quiet harbor of Vanaha at night.

“I’ve informed the higher-ups about the situation here. Special personnel are coming from Trua. We just need to wait a day or two. Once they arrive, we can transfer the existing clues to them. Such matters should be handled by professionals. Our task is merely to escort.”

“But… before the people from Trua arrive, we should also do preliminary work, preserve evidence and clues. While waiting, everyone can rest a bit.”

Jorde said this. As a soldier of the Church, he clearly had no intention of getting deeply involved in this matter but wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to stay ashore for a couple more days and give his sailors a break. This was a remarkable event involving two White Chalk Tier cultists. He could use the excuse of being cautious to spend a couple of days fishing with the entire fleet, as life at sea was very monotonous and arduous. The longer the voyage, the more oppressive and gloomy the atmosphere on the ship became. Therefore, whether for sailors or officers, having more time on land was beneficial. With a legitimate reason, he was naturally going to take that opportunity to relax.

Seeing Jorde’s intentions, the deputy couldn’t help but scratch his chin and smiled knowingly. Then he turned to look out the window and said with a smile.

“Yes, doing preliminary preparations and preserving evidence will make it easier for others to handle the work when they arrive. It seems we’ll be arriving in Iwig a little later than planned. But that’s fine; this pilgrimage schedule is quite relaxed.”

…

Time flew quickly. Soon, the night gradually passed, and Vanaha welcomed a new morning. Amidst the continuous calls of seagulls circling in the sky, Vanaha slowly awakened from its slumber.

Dorothy woke up early due to the incessant calls of seagulls at her window. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she tried to get a few more minutes of sleep but was interrupted again by the seagulls’ noise. In her cold gaze, Dorothy took out her magic box and created an eagle zombie puppet, which she threw out the window, causing chaos outside. After thoroughly retaliating against these creatures disturbing her peace, Dorothy, now wide awake, got out of bed.

After getting up, Dorothy calmly finished her grooming and dressed in black leather boots and a simple gray outfit. She then went downstairs and left the inn. After eating a few potato pancakes for breakfast, Dorothy began to stroll leisurely around Navaha.

Today, Dorothy’s goal was to find if there was any branch of the White Stone Craftsmen Guild in this city where she could buy some things. With this purpose in mind, Dorothy controlled several zombie puppets to start wandering the streets of Navaha, preparing to check places like the bank workshop for key traces, while her main body, accompanied by a parent zombie puppet, wandered the streets, truly appreciating the exotic charm of this small town.

As Dorothy strolled through the streets, tasting snacks and sightseeing, she saw many former passengers from the Shining White Pearl also sightseeing and shopping, treating this temporary stopover as their destination. During her walk, Dorothy encountered Neve, who was touring the city with a few classmates and a teacher. According to Neve, they decided to explore the city first before figuring out how to continue to Iwig.

Since they were here, they might as well enjoy themselves before leaving. This was the mindset of many passengers on the Shining White Pearl.

With the same attitude of leisure, Dorothy wandered around. After walking and resting for over two hours, she realized she had gradually moved away from the downtown area and arrived in the northern outskirts of Navaha.

From atop the hill, Dorothy surveyed the entire Navaha and found that the city was much smaller than she had imagined. The scale of Navaha was far less than that of Igewent, making it a small town. Seeing the size of Navaha, Dorothy immediately doubted whether there was a branch of the White Stone Craftsmen Guild in such a small city.

No, even if it wasn’t the White Stone Craftsmen Guild, it was hard to say whether there was any official extraordinary institution here.

“Igewent is at least the capital of a county, which is why there’s the An Yin Bureau. This place looks much smaller than Igewent and doesn’t seem to have any extraordinary institutions…”

While surveying the entirety of Navaha from the hilltop, Dorothy thought to herself, now believing that this city probably didn’t have the White Stone Craftsmen Guild.

After finishing her observation, Dorothy prepared to head down the mountain and return to the downtown area. On her way down, she passed by a courtyard with a very tall wall.

Curious, Dorothy cast her gaze towards the entrance of the courtyard. She saw an empty arch-shaped iron frame standing on a closed iron gate. This immediately caught her attention.

“This iron frame on the door… seems to be used for hanging signs. So, there should have been a sign here originally. Why is there only the frame now, with no sign? Was it never hung up?”

Thinking about this, Dorothy felt a hint of curiosity.

Under Dorothy’s control, a bird zombie puppet that had been circling in the sky descended and landed on the somewhat rusted iron frame, carefully observing the situation. As a result, Dorothy discovered something interesting.

This interesting phenomenon was the screw holes. There were many screw holes on the iron frame, pre-set for fixing advertising letters or signs. Through the bird zombie puppet, Dorothy found that although most of the frame was dusty and rusty, the screw holes inside were relatively clean, not dirty or dusty, and there was little rust.

This meant that recently, screws had been screwed into these holes, preventing dust and stains from accumulating easily.

If the screws were still there recently, it indicated that there should have been a sign hanging here not long ago. However, it was unknown why it had been removed suddenly. Because the removal happened recently, the screw holes still looked very clean.

“Has something been temporarily taken down? Interesting… Is this for replacing the sign or for other reasons?”

Dorothy pondered this in her mind. Then, she maneuvered the bird zombie puppet into the courtyard to see what was inside.

Dorothy controlled the bird zombie puppet into a building and saw a word stuck on one of the columns.

“North Hill Psychiatric Hospital”

Seeing this word, Dorothy was slightly stunned, then thought,

“Another psychiatric hospital? This small place actually has two?”