The night continued, and on the twenty-second day after the sun set, the news coming from afar began to contain many disturbing situations.

In the distant cold harbor, a huge shadow once briefly appeared above the sea. It was as tall as a sea cliff and like a weightless cloud. The shadow floated silently from the offshore waters into the sky and closed on the side of the city-state like a curtain. In the night, almost no one saw the appearance of the shadow until the priest on guard suddenly felt the gaze from the sky in a hallucination and all the churches rang the bells at the same time, and the shadow retreated back into the night in panic.

In the warm city of Moko, the entire lower town was once immersed in a strange, scarlet and foul-smelling mist. The lighting in several blocks broke down almost simultaneously, and the scarlet and foul-smelling mist even briefly penetrated into churches and night shelters. When the city-state's truth keeper finally dispelled the fog that had grown from the night, several disappearances were reported in the fog-shrouded city - among the missing people were two technical priests who were inspecting the steam hub.

News came from the Palman Islands that a fleet suddenly appeared in the nearby waters and approached the city-state in the night. The city-state issued an order prohibiting docking and instructed the fleet to temporarily stop at the assembly point in the nearby waters. However, the fleet seemed to be unaware of the "long night". They asked about the night in a daze and insisted that it was a "normal day" and that "the warm and bright sun was shining on the deck." They even questioned whether the people in the city-state were crazy...

When the strange fleet ignored orders and insisted on approaching the city-state, the local city-state navy had to open fire and destroy all the unidentified ships coming from the night - the radio was filled with terrified screams and desperate curses and calls, until the burning wreckage was scattered all over the sea.

No one knew what the city-state navy had destroyed in the night, and no one knew what kind of "sunlight" the fleet that sailed out of the night was bathed in...

It is now the twenty-second day of the night, and the order of the world is still being maintained with difficulty. The shaky "peace" is gradually falling into this long night.

In the lower town of Plande, the gas street lamps in front of Duncan's Antique Shop emitted a dim light. The lamp poles were lined up like sentinels on the empty streets, and in the flames of many of the lamps were jumping tiny green flames that were barely noticeable to the naked eye.

Duncan sat on a chair next to the window, wiping a brass ornament while casually flipping through an old book.

It was one of Morris's collection of books, a masterpiece left by the famous "mad poet" Pullman.

On the opened pages, beautiful cursive letters were printed:

〖There will eventually be a distant sailing for us…①〗

Duncan actually had no interest in the poems of this world, but when the entire city fell into silence, this thing could help him pass the time.

There had been no customers here for a long time - the "history" of all the items in the antique shop was at least double, and it was foreseeable that this situation would continue for a long time.

But at this moment, the sound of a shop door being pushed open interrupted Duncan's wandering thoughts - a bell rang crisply, he looked up and looked towards the door of the shop, and saw a man and a woman walking out of the night, with a little restraint and nervousness.

"...How bizarre." Duncan glanced at the two people casually and confirmed that they were just two ordinary humans. He couldn't help but feel a little surprised. "How could there be people hanging out at this time?"

The young man nervously tugged at his coat, looking around and said quickly, "We see that this place is still open... most of the shops outside are locked..."

"We work in the steam pump room and the power plant," the young girl next to her said, explaining the "legitimacy" of her activities at the moment as if she was afraid of being misunderstood. "We have a pass."

"Oh," Duncan said casually, putting down the brass ornament in his hand, and looked at the two nervous young men with a bit of amusement, "Don't be so nervous, I won't check your passes... Are you here to buy something?"

"We want to buy a pair of porcelain plates, the kind to put on the fireplace as decoration," the young man said immediately, and then added, "... not too expensive."

He actually came here to buy something.

Duncan raised his eyebrows, stood up and walked towards the shelf next to him, saying as he walked: "This is an antique shop, the things here are not cheap - of course, business is slow during this special period, so I can give you a discount. The original price is more than 4,000, and the discount is 26..."

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the couple curiously: "But let me say one more thing, why did you buy this? I mean, why did you have to choose this time?"

The two guests looked at each other, and the young girl smiled shyly: "We are getting married."

Duncan's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"We are decorating our new home," the young man continued, "and we want to buy some decorations... Most of the shops are closed, but we heard that yours is still open, so we thought we'd try our luck..."

"...It's been a long night, and I didn't expect to meet a couple," Duncan said softly. He found a few pairs of beautiful decorative porcelain plates on the shelf, and then spoke as if talking to himself, "Why not wait until dawn?"

"What if it's not daybreak?" the young man suddenly asked.

Duncan turned around and looked into the other person's eyes.

"We don't know what the future will be like... We were supposed to have our wedding last week, but it was postponed until now, but we both feel... there is no need to postpone it any further."

"The wedding was small and would not violate the current night ban. The pastor of the church agreed to give us a small 'witness' at our home. If the sun doesn't rise again..."

The young girl was speaking, but after saying "the sun no longer rises", she seemed to be stuck and didn't know what to say next, so she could only smile awkwardly.

It was obvious that they were not good at speaking - but in that slightly restrained smile, what they wanted to express no longer needed to be described in words.

Life must go on - panicking and complaining will not wake up the sun.

"Pick one you like," Duncan suddenly laughed, turning around and pointing at the beautiful plates on the shelf that were shining under the light, "They all come with a solid wooden stand."

The two young men selected and finally chose a pair of light green porcelain plates with gold decorations that were characteristic of southern elves. They waited for Duncan to wrap the items in thick paper, and then the young girl smiled shyly and asked, "How much?"

"I give it to you." Duncan said casually.

The two young men opened their eyes wide in surprise.

"It's a wedding gift for you. The night is long, and I hope this gift will bring you good luck."

The young man hesitated: "But..."

"Don't waste time. Your pass is not valid all day," Duncan said with a smile, walking towards the store entrance. "Don't worry, I have already received your 'reward'."

The young man asked in confusion: “Have you received…?”

Duncan pushed open the door of the antique shop. In the night, the bright street lights illuminated the way home. He smiled and pointed to the brightly lit avenue: "A good mood."

The guests left and the antique shop returned to silence again. Duncan stood at the door for a while, finally heaved a sigh of relief and turned his gaze away from the street.

The dock area of ​​Breeze Harbor is bathed in light golden "sunshine".

The towering mast of the Lost Homeland creaked slightly, and the translucent spirit sail gradually took on a clear outline around the mast. As the sail gradually filled, the huge sailing expedition ship tilted slightly at an angle and began to leave the dock.

On the nearby sea, the sound of the impeller starting up was heard from the Brilliant Star, and accompanied by the crashing of waves, the ship of the "Sea Witch" also slowly sailed away from the dock.

Alice, who was standing next to Duncan on the bridge of the stern deck, suddenly noticed the smile on the captain's face.

"Why are you smiling?" the puppet asked curiously, "Is there something happy?"

Duncan turned around and glanced at Breeze Harbor, which was gradually being left behind by the Lost Homeland. He saw that the city-state had thousands of lights, and thin, dim sunlight was spreading from the coastline, covering the islands. As the distance went away, all the light gradually dimmed, and was replaced by a boundless darkness that permeated the entire ocean, growing in the night as if it was going to swallow up the entire city-state.

But even after a long time, the faint fire still shone tenaciously in the dimness. The remnants of the sun left by the Cretan Dynasty and the lights of thousands of homes in the city-state era gradually merged together, as if they were jointly fighting against this endless night.

After a long while, Duncan finally answered the puppet's question: "There are some happy things."

"Oh..." Alice said in a confused voice, and then looked towards the city-state with some reluctance, "Are we coming back?"

Duncan hesitated. He seemed to have many answers to explain the upcoming voyage and plans, as well as many possibilities for the future. But in the end, he just nodded affirmatively: "... Come back."

The puppet rejoices.

A smile appeared on Duncan's face, and then he breathed a sigh of relief and let go of the dark steering wheel with both hands.

They have left Breeze Harbor. Next, the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star will head to the "assembly point" on the eastern border, where they will meet up with the Deep Sea Church's border fleet. After that, they will head towards the Eternal Curtain, all the way to the "six-nautical-mile critical line."

They will follow the route that the Sea Song once sailed on to find the truth beyond the border.

For Duncan, this will be the most important step in his journey to "observe the sanctuary from the outside."

But before that, Duncan still needs to verify something.

He turned his head and looked at the skinny and hunched figure at the edge of the dashboard, who was trying hard to reduce his presence.

"sailor."

Abnormal 077 was shocked when he heard this: "Hey... Hey?!"

"Come here," Duncan smiled. He took a half step back, looked at Anomaly 077, raised his hand and pointed at the steering wheel of the Lost Homeland, "Hold it."

Notes:

①We will have a long voyage...