In the captain's room, Schliemann stared at his chart and fell into deep thought.
On this thick paper with some yellowing edges, some places were newly painted, but in most places the writing has shown traces of time.
According to his calculations, this world was much larger than the place marked on his chart. If he searched aimlessly for a place to return to, he might not be able to find it in his lifetime.
After a knock on the door, Anthony's inquiry rang out. Schliemann quickly recovered his mind, rolled up the aeronautical chart, and let Anthony in.
"Captain, my final work is done..."
Schliemann took out a wine glass, poured wine, and pushed the glass in front of Anthony.
"The price of the goods sold this time is not bad. We made a lot of money from the Fire Tongue wine that no one in Valance has ever tasted."
Anthony paused here and spoke again after hesitating for a moment.
"Well, Connie asked me to take away two hundred Andadir gold coins. He said you know the purpose...
Maybe I shouldn't say this, but this is almost all the profit from our voyage..."
Schliemann nodded, opened the drawer and took out a sheepskin bag and handed it to Anthony.
"Anthony, this should be enough for you to spend your old age."
Anthony opened the bag and took a look, and the bright yellow color reflected on his face.
"This is too much..."
"Let's think of it as repaying your life-saving grace back then."
Anthony nodded, put the sheepskin bag away, and exhaled.
"Well, there is a businessman over at the Squirrel Tavern who is looking for someone to transport goods..."
Schliemann began to shake his head before Anthony could finish speaking, which made Anthony sigh.
"You can explore the surrounding area during the transportation! At least you can share the large amount of money Connie spent!"
After Anthony said this, he suddenly realized that after taking the money, he was no longer a part of the Crescent.
He drank the wine dejectedly and sat on the chair, feeling in a trance, as if every novel scene he had experienced in exploring the sky in the past three years was flashing before him one by one.
"The Crescent is an exploration ship. Its only purpose of existence is exploration. If we had not accepted commissions other than this exploration, Pato would not have died."
After Schliemann finished speaking, he stood up, patted Anthony on the shoulder, and then said: "Old man, I know you are worried about me, you don't have to worry about my livelihood.
Stop being so sad and let me see you off. "
The crew had already left the Crescent with their pay, leaving only the chef Maso and the homeless Connie living far away in the interior of the mainland island of Davalance.
In fact, most of the crew members would not spend two days going home. They often spent their wages on the bars and soft women in Maple Leaf Town.
After seeing Anthony off, Schliemann also came to the Ray Bar, but his purpose here was not to have fun.
He came here to determine the direction of his next voyage.
"Oh! Our great explorer Schliemann von Ardenna is here!"
The bar owner shouted while holding a freshly poured beer, but there was very little response from the bar.
Schliemann smiled and stared at the bar owner's thick beard and sat on the old wooden chair in front of the bar.
"Don't make fun of me, Astu. Has anyone come to see me in the days since I left?"
Artus raised his thick arm and took down the half bottle of wine that Schliemann had stored here from the upper shelf of the wine rack, poured it into a delicate crystal cup and pushed it over.
"Yes, quite a few."
As he spoke, he took out a small leather-bound notebook from his arms and threw it directly to Schliemann.
Schliemann looked at them one by one. In the past three months, there were indeed many people who wanted to see him, so much so that Artus recorded a whole page of names and addresses in his crooked handwriting.
But among these people, most were businessmen who wanted to buy out the route, and Schliemann did not want to deal with such people.
Because he once sold a route to a small sky island.
In the beginning, the empty island with only one town did become prosperous, but as the price of the local specialty bamboo and wheat sweet syrup became higher and higher, people in the town began to only sow bamboo and wheat, and even the only blacksmith's house closed. He left the shop and ran to grab land from others to plant.
Their small-scale, single-produced economic system quickly exposed them to disaster.
The businessman who bought Schliemann's route suddenly lowered the price of sweet syrup and raised the prices of other daily necessities, which directly destroyed the economy of that town.
Some of the townspeople who understood the situation planned to return to their old businesses and diversify Kongdao's economy again, but that was useless because the merchants had already counted them to death.
The receiving price of bamboo and wheat sweet paddles was set at a carefully planned figure. If it was okay to keep planting, if I stopped for two months, I would have exhausted my savings and waited to starve to death.
Six months ago, Schliemann was passing by the empty island and was about to land on the island to replenish supplies. But what he didn't expect was that this place had developed to the point where everyone was working more than ten hours a day to grow bamboo and wheat. The simplest daily necessities such as nails depend on the merchants who harvest them to transport them to the island.
What disgusted Schliemann the most was that the businessman who originally bought his route gave him a killing when he learned that he needed supplies.
Although Schliemann, who was determined to avenge himself, later used means to regain his position, he never sold any route on his chart since then, even if it was an uninhabited island.
Schliemann frowned, carefully distinguishing the purpose of the visit in the messy handwriting, and finally his eyes fell on a name named Johnny Lorenz.
"I hope to chat with the adventurer Mr. Schliemann von Ardenna about the legend of the lost royal family."
The Lost Royal Family refers to the Cervisi family that lost its dominance over the Valans continental island two hundred years ago?
With such doubts, Schliemann waved to his boss Artus.
"What does this guy look like?"
Artus turned his face to look, his brows widening.
"Oh him, I remember it very clearly...
He has gray hair, about fifty years old, wears a top hat, is well-dressed, and has a flashy golden pattern on the scabbard.
Hey, as soon as he entered the door, he covered his mouth with a handkerchief, his face full of disgust, and refused to drink, so he just said that he wanted to leave a message for you. "
Schliemann was very interested in this person. He flipped through his book but couldn't find the corresponding address.
"Why don't you have an address?"
"He said my place was like a barn. How could I leave a guy like this in my store."
This result shocked Schliemann, but he couldn't do anything about Artus. This man simply regarded the bar as his own son.
"Then where can I find him?"
Seeing Artus shrugging indifferently, Schliemann could only give up. After eating the sweet soup that he had not been used to for five years, he left the bar.
Along the way, he pulled the history of the Cervisi family and the legends related to their family from the corners of his memory, trying to put it together, but he had no clue.
After all, he has only been here for five years, so his understanding of history and legends is naturally not as good as that of locals who have grown up here since childhood.
But the place he was looking for to return was a legendary place. He needed to dig into the legend and try his best to find this place.
Schliemann threw away the cigarette butt, and the sun above his head was still shining, not caring that it was already past twenty o'clock.
Different from the majesty of the blazing sun in his own world that makes people unable to look directly at it, the yellow light emitted by the sun here always seemed to Schliemann as if he was dying and sickly.
Schliemann was fed up with this weird sun, especially those dark spots on the sun that always swam back and forth on the sun's surface like ticks wriggling in a horse's hair.
He took out his small leather notebook, and among the many crossed out clues, he crossed out several times the clue that represented the Flame God Cult: "Come from the flames, return to the flames."
Among the many crossed out clues, this clue about the Flame God Cult is undoubtedly the same as the others and has nothing to do with the place of return.
He turned the leather book back to the first page, looked at the only clue to the place of return, and fell into deep thought.
"In another vast ocean above the blue sea, there is a magnificent palace. It is a bridge connecting to another world. It is a road of no return that can only be passed by abandoning all hope."
Is the other vast ocean above the blue sea referring to a huge lake on an empty island?
Or is there other structural terrain in this world?
If possible, Schliemann really wanted to carefully explore the area under the lush canopy of Bihai, but he knew that it was simply impossible to accomplish.
Five years ago, Schliemann, who was on the exploration team, was excitedly taking down the geological samples from the drill bit. Years of drilling experience told him that this time they were going to make a fortune.
Tiny particles that sparkle on geological samples are a sign of high gold content.
Just when he was about to report his discovery, he noticed a black fault on the cylindrical geological sample. It was not as loose as a coal seam, but looked hard, like glass.
Just when Schlieman reached out and touched the black thing, it sprang up like lightning from Schlieman's fingers.
When Schliemann opened his eyes again, he came to a dark forest.
The towering building was larger than any tree he had ever seen, and the tree crowns were closely connected to each other, completely blocking the sky.
What happened next was filled with boundless fear and deep despair, so much so that after Schliemann was rescued, his instinct of self-preservation made him almost completely forget what happened in the blue sea.
When Schliemann came back to his senses, he found that he was already covered in cold sweat. He quickly drove away his thoughts and drove away the horrific memories of Bihai from his mind.
When he looked up, he was shocked to find that he was back in front of the airport. He wiped his face and muttered to himself.
"Where is this place of return?"
The airport is still busy, and life in Yongzhou is not without its benefits. That is, the three-shift working system is very convenient here.
Everyone has their own time to sleep, and they don't have to wait until night, like in Schliemann's world.
After passing through the berths and avoiding the horses transporting cargo, Schliemann returned to his own berth. He found a man standing there on the berth where the Crescent was parked.
He was wearing a top hat, an elegant aristocratic dress, and his sword was placed on the ground. It seemed that the long wait had exhausted his patience.
Despite this, he still seems to be trying hard to remain a gentleman.
Seeing Schliemann walking towards him, he stood up from the stake he was sitting on, and his wolf-like eyes quickly scanned Schliemann from head to toe.
Then, the corners of his mouth rose, and the two mustaches above his lips curved to a higher height, making him look a little funny.
He raised his hand to pinch the brim of his hat, raised his top hat slightly, and said in a slightly aged accent: "You must be the adventurer Schliemann von Ardenna, right?"
Schliemann stopped and looked at the gentleman in front of him with the same sharp eyes.
"you are?"
"I'm John Lorenz."
