Chapter 344: The Flesh-Eating Life Mother Church

The drill had ended smoothly. Galahad walked back to his quarters in a daze and, the next day, took his leave from Hughes, expressing his wish to return to Blood Harbor.

Hughes was somewhat surprised, but still agreed to his request and immediately approved a ship to send him back.

This time, Galahad saw another ship made of steel out on the sea. Although it sailed in a wobbly, crooked manner, it neither sank nor fell apart.

The prince’s chief knight stood silently at the ship’s rail, gazing at the new vessel for a very, very long time.

Since returning from Castel, he had become even more silent and withdrawn—like a dried-up piece of wood. But if one looked closely, one could see that even within those withered cracks, new buds were beginning to sprout.

There was a new glint in his eyes, and a firmer resolve.

Having witnessed all this, what choices would he make? What choices would the prince make? Hughes was curious—eager, even.

Where would this mysterious lord take Blood Harbor?

After sending Galahad off, Hughes finally had some long-awaited free time. Now that everything was on track, the administrative system he had built with his own hands was functioning effectively, and with Connor having returned to the island, Hughes no longer had to work day and night handling government affairs.

So, he finally had time to do other things, such as...

In the armchair, the expression on the lord’s face gradually turned blank. And somewhere far away, in a place where his lower body was frozen in ice and snow, the worker Hughes slowly raised his head.

“Hmm, I haven’t descended into this shell in several days... Why does it feel like the freezing is getting worse? At this rate, won’t I eventually be completely frozen one day?”

Hughes had always heard of the White Calamity in the North, but he wasn’t quite sure what it actually was. He had thought it was some kind of cold current, but could a simple drop in temperature really wipe out the entire White Raven Principality?

The people there had lived in that land for generations—surely they had means to combat the cold?

Perhaps there was more to the White Calamity than met the eye.

Hughes kept this matter in mind. Castel had just resumed external communications, and Isaac, who had gone to the North to establish an intelligence network, should have some understanding of it.

It was just in time, too—the refitting of the Black Pearl was nearly complete. Once ready, he could send them on a trip to the North and even get in contact with Nora. That little girl hadn’t been seen in a while, and Hughes couldn’t help but miss her petite figure a bit.

But that was a matter for later. For now, the priority was still dealing with Blood Harbor. Expanding Castel’s influence by building more ships was the most important task at hand.

As he pondered this, Hughes reached out his hand and pulled several people connected by threads into the link.

In Blood Harbor, Gwen suddenly raised her head and looked to the north, then turned to gaze at the distant upper city district—where the residences of the people from Castel were located. It was also... where the writer lady resided.

“How strange. Why is our thread connecting to the north...?”

In Castel, in the shipyard, Kenn and Jeremiah exchanged glances as they argued over blueprints. From each other’s faces, they saw a shared joy. The two of them slowly closed their eyes.

In the Cathedral of the Church of Candlelight in Rhine, within the forbidden book repository...

Joanne’s eyes twitched slightly, but she made no other movement. She continued to prop her head up with one hand, looking somewhat drowsy—but her eyes were filled with excited brilliance.

The link had connected!

None of them spoke at first. Although only a few days had passed since the last link, everyone’s circumstances had drastically changed. Their perspectives on the link had also shifted... slightly.

It was Kenn who finally broke the silence.

Fries: 『Everyone, it’s good to see you all again. How are you?』

Gwen: 『Very well, Brother Fries.』

Fries: 『！！』

Fries: 『Gwen! You’re alive—uh, sorry, I mean, it’s really been so long since I heard your voice...』

Gwen hadn’t spoken much during the recent link sessions. For a time, the others feared that something bad had happened to her. After all, she was just an ordinary little girl among them, with the highest likelihood of encountering danger.

Gwen: 『I’m okay! I escaped from the North. I was still on the road during the last few link sessions, so I didn’t say anything. But Brother Fries, you don’t have to worry about me!』

Fries: 『Th-then are you safe now? I know a safe place that accepts refugees. If you need it...』

Writer: 『I also know a good place. At the very least, there’s no problem with getting food.』

Gwen: 『Thank you, Fries-gege, thank you, Writer-jiejie. I'm safe now. Someone has taken me in, and every day I can... uh, drink porridge. Anyway, it's not bad.』

Fries: 『That's good, that's good.』

Fries: 『Wait, someone took you in? It's not some heretical cult, right? You should really stay away from cultists—they can be very scary!』

Gwen fell silent for a moment, as if she were thinking about something. It wasn’t until the others started to get worried that she finally spoke again.

Gwen: 『Fries-gege, the cultists you mentioned... what do they look like? What are they called?』

Before Fries could respond, Writer spoke up a bit hesitantly: 『Are all cultists evil?』

The group went quiet for a while.

Scepter: 『Why do you ask?』

Writer: 『The cultists I came into contact with didn’t seem that frightening.』

Scepter: 『Could you describe it in more detail? I know a fair bit about cultists—maybe I can help you.』

Everyone pricked up their ears. Writer hadn’t been in the chat for very long, so people weren’t that familiar with her, while Scepter was a Transcendent—she seemed to know everything, always having secret knowledge at her fingertips.

Writer: 『I recently encountered the Life Mother Church. They were distributing food to the lower-class people. Although they also did some terrifying things, it felt like they were doing it to help people survive. No matter how you look at it, they were saving lives.』

On the other end of the link, Kenn looked excitedly at the Old Captain. Although the two of them had been staying on the island these past few days, they had a newspaper subscription.

Not the underground press by Nini—although Kenn had been following that too.

It was the Castel Daily, run by the Banshees and personally edited by Hughes. Every day there were news reports—such as the recent major events in Blood Harbor.

The Life Mother Church had launched a rebellion in Blood Harbor, Tommy's death, Mira's confrontation with the Prince—all of these had been reported in the paper. Castel was not without sympathizers of the Life Mother Church; some believed they were the ones truly saving the people of Blood Harbor.

Therefore, although Kenn and Jeremiah had not been directly involved, they were familiar with the Life Mother Church. Now that they heard the familiar name, they naturally became concerned.

Scepter: 『The Life Mother Church... they transplant the flesh and souls of multiple people into one.』

Writer: 『But that’s to save lives. Yes, it's twisted, but it still saves people.』

Scepter: 『Oh?』

Scepter let out a cold laugh.

『Then when they devour the souls after death, is that to save people too?』