"A submarine is coming!"
As soon as Abbas rushed out of the cabin, he heard the cheers of the crew. Everyone crowded onto the deck as a black submarine pushed aside the floating ice and broke the surface. The hatch opened, and the first thing that came into view was that familiar head of blonde hair.
"Caesar!"
Caesar was the first to step onto the deck of the YAMAL. The crew could not help but applaud their employer in unison. Initially, they had thought of Caesar as an extremely wealthy upstart; after the fierce battle with the horde of serpents, he had become an upstart with powerful backing. It was only when Caesar voluntarily left the ship to seek rescue that they truly began to be won over by this young man. And now, he had actually returned successfully with a submarine, leaving the crew of the YAMAL with heartfelt admiration for the young man.
Schneider nodded at Caesar, and Finger eagerly helped Professor Schneider toward the submarine. Mai Sakatoku did not come out; after all, her relationship with Kassel College could hardly be described as friendly. Caesar raised his head, spotted Abbas upstairs, and smiled as he waved at him.
"How is the snowstorm?" Caesar asked.
"Her condition is alright," Abbas replied. The little girl wrapped in polar bear fur cautiously poked her head out of the cabin, only letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was Caesar who had returned.
Rybalko strode forward, saying nothing, and simply gave Caesar a big hug.
Caesar smiled and patted the captain's back. "Since you're my people now, I'll be responsible for you."
"That sounds like the wrap-up line after a one-night stand," Rybalko shrugged. This rugged man was still very unaccustomed to moments of outward tenderness. "Still, thanks."
Caesar let out a soft breath. When he turned around again, he saw Paci standing respectfully at the doorway.
"Young master."
"Hard work," Caesar said.
"Serving the young master is my mission." The golden bangs hung down, shadowing Paci's eyes.
"It's just work assigned to you by those old fogies," Caesar patted his shoulder. "Get on the submarine too."
Without waiting for Paci to reply, Caesar walked away on his own. He leaned against the railing, lit a cigar, took a deep puff, and blew the smoke out in one long breath, which quickly dissipated in the cold wind.
The polar night had already descended. If they were in Rome, it would probably be sunset right now. Sometimes he liked to stand alone by the railing of a villa or a yacht, holding a cigar or a glass of red wine, letting the glory of the setting sun wash over him to his heart's content. Moments like that were peaceful and beautiful to him.
Deep in his memory, his mother would often bring him, as a young child, to watch the sunset at this hour. At that time, he couldn't see what was so wonderful about the day-in, day-out setting of the sun, but he remembered that his mother's face always carried a faint smile.
"Mom, why do we always watch the sunset?"
"Caesar will understand when he grows up. Watching the sunset by the seaside with the person you love is the most wonderful time in the world."
"Then it must be because the sunset is very pretty, right?"
"Does Caesar also know that the sunset is pretty?" his mother would say with a light laugh, gently smoothing down the blonde hair that had been ruffled by the sea breeze.
"Because Mom looks like she loves it, the sunset in Mom's eyes must be very beautiful."
"Then Caesar must learn to appreciate the beauty of the sunset in the future, too."
Back then, Caesar was just an inexperienced child, taking various classes and learning all kinds of etiquette under the demands of the family elders. To a young Caesar, the biggest benefit of watching the sunset with his mother was that it allowed him to escape those boring lessons, and he could also watch the gentle smile on his mother's face. To him, those things were naturally much more wonderful than the sunset itself.
It wasn't until he grew up that he realized the beauty of watching the sunset together didn't lie in how gorgeous or gentle the sunset was, but in *who* was by your side when you watched it. The reason the time spent watching the sunset was so wonderful was because it was time that belonged exclusively to the two of them—their own private peace and beauty. That was why his mother's smile was always so gentle and serene, and why those moments watching the sunset were always so warm and blissful.
"But Mom," Caesar slowly took a drag from his cigar, "there is no sunset here..."
Rybalko walked up behind Caesar. "Everyone has boarded the submarine."
Caesar stubbed out the cigar. "Let's go check if there are any important things left on the ship."
"Maybe those people who froze to death," Rybalko shrugged. "Every useful thing has already been rummaged through over the past few days."
"Then let's give them a burial," Caesar sighed, offering no further explanation.
Rybalko didn't press further either. The two of them walked together to the refrigerated room where the remains were kept.
The moment they opened the door, the two of them froze. This room had originally been used to store the remains of the victims found in the freezing wilderness, but right now, all of those remains were gone. A layer of grayish-white dust covered the floor and the beds.
"Don't go over," Caesar grabbed Rybalko, who was about to step forward. "Their remains... have turned to ash!"
Yes, just like the crew members who had died bizarrely and turned to ash, these remains, which had already frozen into ice sculptures, had also turned to ash—and the degree of calcination looked thoroughly complete.
"What is going on here?" Rybalko was shocked. The crew members who had died over the past few days had indeed turned to ash in a bizarre fashion, but the spread of the calcination had still been quite slow. Yet these victims were now entirely reduced to ash, and the most likely scenario was that their calcination had begun long ago.
"Could it really be because of that girl?" Rybalko asked in a low voice.
"Impossible," Caesar flatly rejected the idea. "Abbas, who had the most contact with the snow, and the rest of us are all fine, yet these people died long ago, and their bodies were still well-preserved when we found them. If it had anything to do with the snow, it wouldn't make sense causally. Besides, they must have turned to ash much earlier—perhaps for other reasons, or perhaps because... they went to Avalon?"
When Caesar voiced this conjecture, the corner of Rybalko's eye twitched involuntarily, but he said nothing.
There were other speculations that Caesar kept to himself. Up to this point, all the victims had been ordinary humans, while they, the Hybrids, were safe and sound. Moreover, the plague-like deaths among the crew had begun with the appearance of the serpents and the roar of the snow. If this was a punishment from God pursuing them, why did it befall those ordinary crew members? But these guesses touched upon the secrets of the Dragon Kind, so Caesar did not speak of them to Rybalko.
The submarine slowly descended. Through the portholes, the crew of the YAMAL silently watched the giant vessel that had accompanied them through countless voyages. Across journeys spanning tens of thousands of nautical miles, this icebreaker had been their greatest reliance. For sailors who spent year after year at sea, the YAMAL was not just a workplace; they worked here, ate here, rested here, played cards and drank here... This was their home on the ocean. Every wanderer wanted to see the outside world when they left home, but no matter what kind of hustle and bustle or prosperity they witnessed out there, they always kept the direction of home in their hearts, always thinking that one day, they would surely return to their familiar home, sit on their familiar bed, and eat a steaming meal cooked in their hometown flavor.
Yet now, as they left, they knew they would never be able to come back. They had lived on this icebreaker for so many years, familiar with every room, every scar, and every friend they had ever bid farewell to on this ship. And now they had to leave, never to return.
Seawater and floating ice submerged their view; the YAMAL could no longer be seen. A sense of sorrow welled up in the crew's hearts, as if it wasn't the YAMAL they were about to lose, but themselves. The YAMAL still stood quietly on the surface of the sea, while they were gradually sinking into the depths, much like someone looking up at the shore in the very last moment before falling into the water, watching the people on the shore wave a faint farewell.
"That ship must be a very important person to them, so to speak," Mai Sakatoku's voice sounded beside Finger. Finger was standing in the back row of the crowd, and Mai Sakatoku, having activated "Invisibility," stood right next to him.
"At least they're important partners," Finger said, with a rare look of seriousness. "If anyone tried to take that ship from them, I believe you if you said they'd fight to the death."
"And you? Is there anything worth fighting to the death for?"
Finger scratched his head. "Are you talking about little Lu? There's no such thing as male-on-male love between him and me as you're imagining! Even if there were, it'd only be him loving me!"
Concealed within "Invisibility," Mai Sakatoku rolled her eyes in disdain. She knew Finger was deliberately twisting her meaning, but when it came to sophistry and nonsense, she reckoned Finger could leave her trailing miles behind, so she didn't plan to keep bickering with him. Seeing that Schneider and Abbas in the front row seemed to have noticed their direction, she gently and quietly stepped back.
The first mate was redesigning the route according to the description given by the snowstorm. At their current speed, they would arrive in thirty-three hours, right on the morning of Christmas Day.
"Take advantage of the fact that nothing's happening and get some sleep," Caesar tossed two eye masks to Finger. "We're going to have our hands full once we reach the sunset land."
"What will we encounter there? God? Or Leviathan?" Rybalko asked in a low voice.
"Perhaps both," Schneider said. "Whether it's God or Leviathan, we just have to kill it."
"I hope everyone returns safely," Rybalko said. Schneider glanced at him strangely; Rybalko's expression when saying those words didn't look like he was praying, but rather like he couldn't wait.
Caesar and Abbas briefly recounted their experiences on the road, merely glossing over the existence of Mai Sakatoku, and then both of them put on their eye masks and fell into a deep sleep. They hadn't had a single moment to rest in peace these past few days and were utterly exhausted.
Thus, they were unaware that far away, a submarine was hiding behind an iceberg, and the people on its deck were observing the YAMAL and the Nautilus through binoculars.
"They've set off. I think they'll lead us to Avalon."
"Then follow them at a distance. When they defeat Leviathan, or are defeated by Leviathan, we'll wipe them all out."
"Wipe them all out?"
"Yes," a man's smiling voice replied, "including the people from Kassel College."
"Does that mean we're going to war with the Secret Party?"
"They were never on our side to begin with, were they?"
"You're right."
"So our war with the Secret Party has already begun in secret. It's just that the world war of the Hybrids won't break out in full until the day the Dragon Kind perishes."
"I understand."
"When the monarchs lose their grip on the world, everyone will want to sit upon that supreme Throne," the man muttered a prophecy of war like someone talking in their sleep. "The one who lives to the end will be the master of the new world."
"And that will surely be us."
"It must be us, too."
...
"Invisibility" activated, Mai Sakatoku silently passed through the cabin. At this hour, most people were resting, and her target was the room furthest down the hall—that was where the snowstorm was staying.
Turning the corner, her footsteps came to a halt.
A man dressed in a light gray suit was standing quietly there, a sea-blue eye exposed beneath his golden bangs.
The Gattuso family's secretary, Paci Gattuso. Mai Sakatoku had met him in the Ice Cellar. She wasn't entirely clear on what his true combat strength was, but she had no desire to stir up trouble; she only wanted to sneak past.
Right at that moment, Paci suddenly turned around, facing directly toward Mai Sakatoku, and bowed slightly.
"How may I be of service to you?"
Mai Sakatoku was startled. With "Invisibility" activated, had Paci actually discovered her?
Paci bowed calmly, then straightened up just as calmly. His bangs swayed slightly, and the eye hidden beneath them locked gazes with Mai Sakatoku for a fraction of a second.
That was actually a pair of burning Golden Pupils! The moment their gazes met, a tidal wave of pressure was released. In her shock, Mai Sakatoku took an involuntary step back. Paci gently brushed aside his golden bangs to cover his eyes once more.
"What gave you away was your scent," Paci said. "Since you're on this submarine, you presumably aren't an enemy. Please show yourself."
Mai Sakatoku was stunned. She genuinely had no idea what kind of scent she was supposed to be carrying. Could Paci be referring to the smell of crawling through piles of serpents and soaking in pools of blood? If that really was the case, it certainly wasn't anything to be proud of.
However, since she had been found out, continuing to hide was pointless. Mai Sakatoku dropped "Invisibility," her blazing Golden Pupils staring straight into Paci's eyes, attempting to overpower him with sheer pressure.
Paci merely bowed slightly in greeting once more. "So it is you, Miss Mai Sakatoku. Your strength leaves a deep impression on me."
"Your bloodline has issues," Mai Sakatoku ignored Paci's remark. "It wasn't this obvious the last time I saw you."
Paci neither denied nor confirmed it, only saying, "I don't know what business Miss Mai has in following us to the Arctic Circle, but since we are fellow travelers for now, I hope we won't become enemies."
"Relax, I have no interest in you people," Mai Sakatoku waved a hand. "I just came to take a peek at the situation in the Arctic. Would you mind letting me go take a look at that little girl?"
"Of course, no problem." Paci stepped aside to clear a path for Mai Sakatoku.