Chapter 403: Exposed

Time passed quickly, and after a day of full-speed sailing, the church fleet carrying the passengers of the White Pearl finally saw the long-lost land and arrived at the port of Vanaha.

At noon, the refugees on the deck could already see the coastal city on the distant sea level. Amid the cheers of the crowd, the fleet gradually began to approach the port. The normal shipping operations at the port had been terminated at this time, freeing up most berths for the fleet to berth.

Vanaha is a small to medium-sized coastal city located in the southern part of Casatia. Although the port is not large, it is large enough to accommodate the church fleet to dock and disembark passengers. Under the orderly command, the church's ships docked one after another, and after the boarding ladder was connected, the passengers on the ship walked down the ladder one after another.

After experiencing the thrilling shipwreck and spending a day in the poor conditions on the decks and corridors of the church fleet, the refugee passengers on the ship were all looking forward to disembarking. After walking down the ladder and stepping onto the solid ground, most of them couldn't help but smile with joy.

Although the originally wonderful journey had been ruined by the ship accident, everyone still felt lucky to have survived in the end. After getting off the ship, the passengers of the White Pearl left the port and walked towards the city. Now they needed to consider their next plans, whether to find a way to continue their journey to Ivig, return home, or stay in the local area and wait for the investigation team of the shipping company and ask for compensation from them.

No matter what, this bustling port was generally filled with a sense of joy after surviving a disaster, but somewhere in this joyful atmosphere, there were a few gloomy gazes hidden.

In a corner somewhere in the port, a man in a dark windbreaker and a hat was hiding there, his eyes under the brim of his hat were fixed on the many passengers getting off the ship not far away. A closer look revealed that the man was none other than Massimo in disguise.

In the shadows, Massimo stared at the bustling crowd on the dock, his nose slightly stroking, he was trying to discern the smell of the people in front of him.

Not long after the ship docked, Massimo got off the ship first, and since then he has been secretly monitoring all the people getting off the ship. He wanted to use the smell to find the trace of the thief hiding among the many passengers.

Since the church's fleet has multiple ships, the passengers who got off the White Pearl were assigned to different ships. Therefore, it is possible that Thief K is not on the same ship as Massimo and Costa. In this case, even if they use the Seeking Talisman, they may not be able to find Thief K. Therefore, Massimo and Costa need to wait until the passengers on several ships gather together and use the Seeking Talisman to search for them, and this is the time to disembark at the port.

At this moment, Massimo was waiting at the key entrance and exit of the dock, staring at the passengers disembarking and passing by in front of him, carefully distinguishing their smells.

At this moment, in another place, Costa was coordinating with the church members to count the passengers and crew members at the port. Every passenger who disembarked needed to register their cabin number with him to confirm whether they were missing. Such follow-up work was his duty as the captain of the White Pearl. At the same time, he could also take this opportunity to get close to every passenger who disembarked and identify their scent.

Just like this, one in the light and one in the dark, Costa and Massimo conducted a comprehensive breath analysis on the passengers getting off the ship. They had already memorized the strange smell on the button in advance, and now they were waiting for that smell to appear again among these passengers.

"Hurry up, please come soon, that smell... the smell on the button..."

He paced back and forth between several check-in counters, examining the passengers getting off the ship while muttering in his heart that the scent of that button was their only key to reversing the passive situation and their only hope to win Deep Blue's heart.

Time passed minute by minute, and more and more passengers disembarked and left the dock after checking in. But up to now, Massimo and Costa still could not detect any trace of the scent on the button. As the number of passengers still on the ship decreased, they could not help but feel anxious in their hearts. They were worried about why the thief with the deep blue heart had not appeared at the scene yet?

The busy registration work was going on. The crew members of the White Pearl and some priests were registering the information of the disembarking passengers one by one at the makeshift work table. Some members of the Knights of the Holy Sacrament were leading the soldiers to maintain order at the scene. Some nuns brought the brewed tea from the boat and placed it on the registration staff's table.

"Thank you for your hard work. Please have some tea."

"Oh, thank you."

A nun in white who was helping at the scene brought tea to the registrar's seat with a smile. After the other party replied with gratitude, she left with satisfaction. During the process of walking, she passed behind Costa who was walking nearby. At this moment, a tiny flying insect flew out from her sleeve inadvertently. Without anyone noticing, the flying insect flew to Costa who was directing the operation, climbed on his clothes, and got into his pocket, while the nun walked away as if nothing had happened.

On the other side, in a corner of the port, a similar flying insect also flew out from the darkness and flew towards Massimo who was spying. After approaching him from behind, it landed on Massimo's hat.

This tiny movement went unnoticed by anyone at the scene, and the busy registration process continued until a long time later, when all the passengers on the ship had finally registered and left. Until the last passenger left, neither Massimo nor Costa could smell someone with the right smell.

After witnessing the last person's departure, the eyes of Massimo and Costa froze in place at the same time. Their stiff eyes could not reflect the waves surging in their hearts.

"Are there any passengers on board now?"

"No more. Thank you for your help today, Mr. Costa. The work has been completed."

The priest at the side responded to Costa with a smile. After hearing the priest's response, Costa was stunned for a while. When he was trying to calm down the turmoil in his heart, his eyeballs began to tremble slightly.

"There are no passengers... but that guy hasn't shown up yet. Could it be that he has noticed something and has a way to deal with it? Is he still hiding on the ship... waiting for us to evacuate before leaving? Or has he already left in some other way!"

Costa was thinking this in his heart, and Massimo in the dark not far away was also filled with surprise and confusion.

At this moment, in his pocket and on Massimo's hat, two flying insects that had been hiding beforehand had some kind of intense energy flowing through them. Their abdomens suddenly split open, and a small ball of dark red mist exploded from them, then dissipated in the air.

Made by the Eight-pointed Nest, the dark red substance with the spirituality of "cup" and "shadow" merged into the air around Costa and Massimo. In addition to bringing a subtle pungent smell, its obvious "cup" spirituality was quickly sensed by the extraordinary people with "cup" spiritual perception at the scene.

After feeling this spiritual power for a while, Costa's eyes widened, and his face began to twist slightly involuntarily. He looked at his pocket in disbelief, at the faint dark red mist slowly overflowing, his whole expression looked more uncomfortable than if he had eaten shit.

“This is from that night…”