Chapter 1974 - 1974: Prologue: Star, Seven Seas Travel Group, and Everyday Life

"Little Frost, I think we might be in trouble."

The Handwasher gently flipped through the manual, his delicate brows unconsciously knitting together, a serious expression lingering on his fair face.

Without needing him to speak, the nearby girl with ice-blue long hair was also solemnly looking at the scattered documents and maps on the table—

As she extended her slender fingers to tuck the hair behind her ear, she wasn't smoothing her hair, but rather rhythmically tapping the record crystal pinned to her ear.

"Shut up."

She said, "Handwasher, that Sea Clan man didn't lie to us. Behind the White City incident, there's indeed a powerful organization manipulating everything. Do you see it? This organization called 'Butterfly' behind it all..."

Frost Sky spoke while stacking a few pages of documents together.

"No," the Handwasher reached out to stop her hand, "it's not called 'Butterfly.' Use the Dwarf script to reverse the letters and reassemble the word—"

"Z'r..." The girl with ice-blue hair lifted her head all of a sudden: "...Star?"

Beneath her hand, several sheets of thin paper overlapped, with patterns forming the image of a butterfly spreading its wings.

The Handwasher released his right hand from the nearby bookshelf, revealing a spine with a vividly sculpted silver butterfly.

Frost Sky's eyes flashed: "I've seen this butterfly somewhere."

"Colin Royal Family..."

The Handwasher was sharper than her, "This is troublesome, Little Frost, I've heard the name 'Star' before... I think it was on some confidential documents. It took significant effort to access that intelligence, and it said..."

As he spoke, the girl beside him suddenly let out a muffled groan.

The hand he pressed down on suddenly went limp, and the girl with ice-blue long hair collapsed onto the table.

But the Handwasher reacted quickly, drawing a dagger in an instant, blocking in reverse, a flash of fire cutting through the darkness. His slender body spun backward, a shadow flickered from that direction.

The Handwasher turned his head, finally seeing the full view of the shadow—

It was a swordsman cloaked entirely under a cape, wielding a longsword, lunging toward him, with eyes under the hood flickering with strands of purple flame.

The Handwasher was astounded, the opponent's speed was at the very least at the first-order level of the fifth tier. He hadn't anticipated encountering such a master in White City.

This immediately reminded him of the information, about Quicksand who went missing in this place. He and Frost Sky had been commissioned by Stargate Port to investigate Quicksand's whereabouts here and had yet to make any breakthroughs.

The opponent swung the sword at him, leaving him with no choice but to retreat.

As the Handwasher evaded backward, he finally caught a clear sight of the opponent's blade, his gaze reflecting that incredibly familiar sword, his brows furrowed as he angrily muttered:

"Quicksand, it's you!"

But before the words were fully spoken, another gust of wind assaulted from behind. The Handwasher's heart sank, deeply startled, as a top-notch Nightingale, he couldn't believe anyone could approach him from behind without a sound.

Quicksand's surprise attack on Frost Sky had already left him puzzled, but that was not targeted at him—Frost Sky was merely a spellcasting professional, yet this time, he was genuinely confounded.

But his thoughts went no further than that.

A stabbing pain hit the back of his head, and then everything went dark.

...

The lighting within the cabin was just right, neither too bright nor too dim.

Xiesta raised an eyebrow slightly, her expression focused as she carefully spread the stems and leaves of a bunch of Phoenix Tail Orchids. She hung the small terracotta pot under the light, meticulously watering it, making each leaf sparkle with a crystal-like sheen, then removed her metal gloves, resting her chin in satisfaction, nodding gently.

However, a chattering voice came from outside the frame.

"Hello everyone, I'm Tianlan,"

Then the camera shook slightly, accompanied by a curious voice, "Strange, what's going on..."

The little girl struggled to adjust the camera, trying to focus it on her furrowed brow, her round, adorable face.

She widened her eyes, reached out to stabilize the lens, then playfully stuck out her tongue, "…Sky-blue Tianlan, the fantasy of sky blue."

"Today I'm going to introduce you to our ship, it's called the Seven Seas Traveler."

"...Um, it's probably not finished yet, but it will be soon. Brother Ade and the others are still procuring the figurehead, and some furniture and cabinets might not be in place yet, but anyway, it's not important."

She then turned the camera to one side.

"What you see now is the mid-deck of the Seven Seas Traveler. It might look empty, but it's actually the air combat deck, mainly used for deploying Constructs. When in flight or docked, the side doors can open outward just like this—"

She then tiptoed, placing her hand on the central crystal control tower. In the footage, the sides of the ship let out a low, resonant sound as they unfolded like wings.

From outside the frame came the sound of something falling.

And with that, the scene outside the shipyard came into view.

In the distance, Bakins was moving a bundle of planks, and upon seeing this, couldn't help but look over in surprise.