"Our ship has been wanted by the exploration company, and we originally planned to take these treasures to the east coast of the Western Continent, but their relentless pursuit forced us to abandon the idea... Now we can only head to the Northern Realm, with Patulshen Island being the next stop."
"My crew, due to the hardships of late, have grown mutinous hearts, and I can sense the treacherous thoughts hiding within them. I must be cautious... I somewhat regret telling them where the treasure was hidden and underestimated human greed."
"Melissa, my darling, I don’t know if I will still be alive to see you again. I also know I will never have the chance to say these words to you, but getting engaged to you was truly the rightest thing I’ve done in my life. I deeply love you, and the Mother Goddess witnesses my fidelity to you... I’m sorry, I may not be able to return to Nali again."
There was no more content left, Fisher slowly moved his gaze away from the last passage of the book and nonchalantly tossed the long dust-covered tome onto the desk in front of him.
"It seems like the crew didn’t find this diary hidden deep in the bookshelf when they killed the captain... Well, that old man doesn’t seem to be the book-reading type. Those crewmen, busy looting treasure, naturally wouldn’t bother to check the bookshelf. Let’s go and see what those treasures really look like."
At this moment, waves of vague magic fluctuations came from the cabin below. Fisher stood up, and a black sword handle appeared in his palm as he gently pushed open the door of the captain’s room and stepped into the moonlight.
The deck was silent, and he went with Emhardt toward the cabins below.
The wooden corridor in the cabin below was lit by magical lights, but the magic emblems seemed to be unstable due to the passage of too much time. The fleeting glow added a sinister aura to the already cramped corridor.
Fisher made a round on the lower floor but did not find the old man who was impersonating Jesse. So, he proceeded further down.
While walking, he observed the surroundings. On certain walls and handrails there were obvious slashes and bullet marks, and not far from these traces, you could find several spots of completely dried blood fused with the wooden boards, just as Fisher had seen when he first boarded the ship.
Each of these marks corroborated the story following the captain’s log; Flying Fish had witnessed a mutiny, all for the ship’s treasures.
Captain Jesse had decided to flee with the exploration company’s goods out of a sense of conscience, but it seemed his crew did not share such noble sentiments. From the beginning, they had their eyes on the gold and jewels.
Jesse was murdered by his crew during the voyage, and the remaining crew members fought over the distribution of the loot until a final victor emerged, monopolizing all the treasures.
He should have fled with Flying Fish and the treasure on board but did not expect to be ambushed by an unreasonable gang on Patulshen Island.
To save his life, he hid the treasure on the ship so the gang could not find what they sought. He lied to Fisher, claiming he was the captain of Flying Fish to gain sympathy, all to retrieve the treasure he longed for today.
As Fisher moved to the lower deck, a dark gun barrel had somehow taken aim at his back, an aged finger pressed against the trigger, but just as he was about to fire, the man in front abruptly turned his head, his eyes coldly locking onto the old man peeking out from a room.
That look sent a chill down the old man’s spine. His brain had yet to react, but his finger pressed the trigger reflexively.
The sound of the musket echoed in the darkness, but a Mercury Blade, faster than a bullet, had already extended and struck the projectile in mid-air, creating a burst of fireworks in the dark.
Fisher’s body did not move; the Fluid Sword Blade acted on his behalf, slicing toward the old man’s hand.
The rapidly flowing sword blade extended and quickly danced over the old man’s hand, leaving several deep, bone-visible cuts, and faster than the bone-chilling pain could reach his mind was the advancing figure of the Nali man.
This guy... is he not human?!
The musket fell to the floor as Fisher had already taken hold of his neck, his right hand showing absolutely no respect for the elder as it struck from the elbow upward—knee, elbow, shoulder, and then his head...
With a violent twist of his hand, Fisher tossed the old man aside; by the time he hit the floor, his limbs had already dropped like a doll’s disarticulated joints, leaving only the terror in his eyes lingering on Fisher.
"Misunderstanding... a misunderstanding! I thought... I thought it was the gang coming after me, that’s why..."
Fisher slowly returned the sword handle to his chest and scanned the room. Near the window, a "Hidden Magic" spell had been activated and was flickering with spots of golden light in a phantom space behind it, clearly the cache where the treasure had been hidden.