After ending her conversation with The Fool and leaving the gray fog to return to the real world, Cattleya sat alone, staring blankly at herself in the mirror for a long time.
What she had experienced today was far too dreamlike. She had seen the Stars, and she had also seen The Fool.
"My Lady was right. I truly am far too insignificant..."
Cattleya finally gained a clear understanding of herself. Looking back now at some of her previous unwillingness and rebelliousness, they truly seemed childish enough to be laughable. No wonder Bernadette had always thought she was still a child who had yet to grow up.
After remaining silent for a long time, she picked up her pen again and began writing a letter to Bernadette. She told her everything she had experienced today and said that she would obey her orders, leave this place, and return to safer waters.
The Spirit World Messenger, busy once again, carried the letter across the vast sea.
On the sea, people might appear to be separated by great distances, but news spread no slower than it did on land.
The news that someone had discovered what was suspected to be Emperor Roselle's final mausoleum quickly reached the major pirate crews. The Church of Storms and the other Churches of the orthodox gods also received the corresponding information.
Some pirate crews that considered themselves powerful had already set sail, regarding this mausoleum of Emperor Roselle as their own prize.
Some obscure and little-known pirate crews also wanted to use Emperor Roselle's treasure to make a name for themselves, or simply to broaden their horizons.
At present, there were two main theories circulating across the sea regarding the mausoleum left behind by Emperor Roselle.
The first theory was that Emperor Roselle had already foreseen his ultimate fate before his assassination. Therefore, he had ordered his trusted Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to secretly transport the enormous wealth he had accumulated to an uninhabited island at sea and store it there for future use.
The second theory was that Emperor Roselle had not completely perished. He had been sleeping all this time inside a secret mausoleum constructed long ago, waiting for someone to resurrect him. If someone could help revive him, he would fulfill the wishes of those who helped him.
Aboard the Hope, named by Audrey, Audrey was listening attentively as Xio described the various rumors circulating across the sea.
"Those treasures are still too far away from us, and there will definitely be many famous pirate crews going there to fight over them. We should focus our attention elsewhere." Xio's face was filled with excitement and eagerness.
"What new target?" Audrey cooperatively gave Xio the stage, allowing her to continue.
"Those wanted pirates with bounties on their heads, of course!" Xio clenched her fist and said excitedly, "We'll definitely encounter plenty of pirates along the way. As long as we're careful, we can definitely earn a large sum of bounty money by hunting pirates. Ahem, and at the same time, our actions will also help reduce pirate raids on coastal residents."
Audrey's eyes lit up as well. Making money by hunting pirates really was a good suggestion.
She had never personally earned money like this before, and she had always believed that she needed a few actual battles to test her current level of strength.
"Don't look at me. I'll only provide you with some assistance." Fors decisively made her position clear.
Making some money was fine, but she wasn't going to take too many risks.
Xio hurriedly explained, "Don't worry. I'm not that ambitious. We'll hunt pirates with bounties below 1,000 pounds. Most of them are Sequence 8 or Sequence 9, and some are even ordinary people."
Audrey became even more tempted. She was now a Sequence 6 Hypnotist, and with Susie included, that made two Hypnotists.
According to the standards used to measure the strength of pirates at sea, she was only one step away from the level of a pirate admiral.
"Miss Audrey, what do you think? This is an excellent business opportunity!" Xio blinked her bright eyes, doing her utmost to encourage her.
Her main goal was to get Mr. Hastur to help them through Audrey.
"Mr. Hastur, what do you think?" Audrey looked toward Hastur, who had been unusually quiet all morning.
"It really is a good idea, but 1,000 pounds is too little. Let's set our target group as pirates with bounties below 10,000 pounds."
Unable to hide her surprise, Xio said, "Mr. Hastur, you sure have a big appetite!"
Audrey also looked curiously at Hastur. She didn't have much of a concept of what 10,000 pounds meant. She only felt that Mr. Hastur shouldn't be lacking money, right?
"Audrey, Xio, you two can give yourselves impressive aliases. Every time you complete a bounty in the future, your reputations can spread further across the sea."
At that, even Fors became somewhat tempted. It wasn't easy to get a chance to come out to sea, and with Mr. Hastur backing them up, they really could stir up quite a bit of trouble.
Audrey found herself in a bit of a dilemma. She really liked the title Miss Justice, but using that as her alias in front of Fors would practically be the same as voluntarily exposing her true identity.
But very quickly, Audrey's brows relaxed. Her gaze fell on Susie, who was lazily lying on the deck basking in the sun.
She could combine Susie with something else and come up with a brilliant alias.
Susie shook herself, rolled over, and turned in another direction to continue basking in the sun.
Before long, Xio decided on her own alias: Hammer of Judgment.
Fors couldn't help but hold her forehead and quip, "You might as well call yourself the Three-Inch Nail of Judgment. That would sound even more impressive."
"..." Xio froze for a moment before viciously pouncing on Fors, repeatedly shouting, "I'm only a little shorter than you! Why do you have to specifically emphasize my height!"
"Because it's vivid and descriptive."
"Ahhh! I'll fight you!"
Watching Xio and Fors mess around, Audrey also came up with her own alias: Hound of the Mind.
It was a name she had come up with by combining the Mind Dragon and Susie. It was simple, easy to remember, and distinctive.
Hastur smiled after hearing it. "I think Dog of Imagination would be a more suitable name."
"Dog of Imagination, Dog of Imagination..."
Audrey murmured it several times and increasingly felt that the word "Imagination" was more concrete than "Mind," while also carrying a greater sense of oppression from a higher level.
"Woof?" Susie's sharp ears caught Audrey and Hastur discussing her, and she hurriedly got up and trotted over.
"Susie, what do you think of the alias Dog of Imagination?"
"Woof?" Susie looked at Audrey in confusion.
"You think this alias suits us too, right? Then it's decided."
Audrey smiled, leaving Susie with no choice but to cast a pleading look toward Hastur.
"Don't worry. In the future, the name Dog of Imagination will definitely resound throughout the entire sea."
"Woof?" Susie really wanted to ask: Had any of them actually considered the dog's own opinion?
Although the alias Dog of Imagination really did sound pretty good, she still had to fight against this kind of forced imposition!
In the end, Xio, who had been fooling around with Fors, changed her alias from Hammer of Judgment to Whip of Judgment.
Audrey and Fors exchanged glances, suppressing the urge to laugh as they put on approving smiles.
Looking at Xio's satisfied smile, Fors ultimately refrained from asking the devastating question in her mind: "With your height, can you really swing a long whip? I'm afraid you'll end up getting yourself tangled in it."
"Fors, don't you want to join our pirate-hunting team? If you don't contribute, you won't get a share of the bounty."
"Brain of Wisdom. That's my alias."
Xio mercilessly looked at her with disdain. "You? Full of wisdom? You're clearly just a salted fish who only knows how to lie around."
Fors's cheeks reddened slightly, and she glared at Hastur in irritation. Ever since Hastur had inadvertently remarked that her personality was about the same as a salted fish, Xio had become very fond of using "salted fish" as a nickname for her. Sometimes even Miss Audrey had almost called her Miss Salted Fish.
Susie, who had already moved into the shade, glanced toward the sounds of their fooling around and let out a heavy sigh.
The joys and sorrows of humans and dogs are not shared. I only find them noisy.
...
At night, Hastur once again arrived above the Hall of Stars. This time, he did not immediately carry out his divine descent. Instead, he observed the Vessel of the Stars, which showed no abnormalities.
When he had entered the Vessel of the Stars last night to act as the Lost One, he had sealed away his own memories. After it ended at dawn, he naturally remembered everything that had happened the previous night.
What surprised him the most was that the Vessel of the Stars had actually established a connection with the King in Yellow.
It had imitated the King in Yellow's attire, flipped through the copy of Children of the Stars it had bought, and behaved in ways similar to the King in Yellow.
If he was using it to act as the Lost One, then it was using him to act as the King in Yellow.
Aside from the Yellow-robed Monks organization, Hastur had not encountered any other traces related to the King in Yellow, so he had indeed relaxed his vigilance somewhat.
Yet he hadn't expected his entanglement with the King in Yellow to actually affect the Vessel of the Stars as well.
Could it be that when he lost his memories, his instinctive self was the King in Yellow?
Hastur had spent the entire day pondering this question, but in the end, he still couldn't verify his speculation.
After observing for a while longer, Hastur decided to try again and see whether the Vessel of the Stars, with its memories sealed once more tonight, would again embark on a path similar to that of the King in Yellow.
Just as he was about to carry out his divine descent, he suddenly sensed two pirate ships approaching in the nearby waters.
Were they rushing over to deliver bounty money to Audrey and Xio?
Hastur decided to watch from the Hall of Stars for a while first and see how Audrey and Xio would hunt pirates for the first time.
After some time, the cook and maids aboard the ship also noticed that other vessels were approaching. However, they didn't make a sound or warn anyone, acting as if nothing had happened.
The first to notice something unusual afterward was Susie. Her nose caught unfamiliar scents carried over by the sea breeze.
She woke Audrey and accompanied her as she knocked on the doors of Xio and Fors's rooms. After they had all gathered, Hastur deliberately pretended to remain sound asleep, leaving them to handle what would happen tonight by themselves.
Faced with this situation, Fors, Xio, and the others naturally understood that Hastur was deliberately using this opportunity to test them.
Audrey said solemnly, "Susie, our true adventure begins now!"
"Woof!" Susie held her head high and wagged her tail cooperatively.