Chapter 25 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 25: Lament of the Deep Sea 01
“Dear townspeople,
Hello. This is Mayor Javena. We are issuing an urgent search-and-rescue notice.
I have just received news that our friend Sylvette went out to sea a week ago and has not returned. This has far exceeded her usual time away. The town is now organizing a search operation. Residents with merfolk blood are requested to report to the Activity Center immediately upon receiving this message.
Note: Residents with merfolk bloodline, please come to the Activity Center now."
The fisherwoman Sylvette had an accident?
Lucita frowned.
The people of Irttat had lived together for generations. More than half of the town’s residents carried merfolk blood, and Lucita was one of them.
She put away the notice, left a message for Violet who had gone out to herd sheep, pulled on her hood, and hurried outside.
Along the road, she saw many neighbors rushing toward the square as well. Red hair was especially common among them. She spotted Irene, Ida, Durani, and others.
By the time she arrived, quite a few people had already gathered in the square. The air buzzed with anxious voices. Javena and Lily stood on the raised platform in the center.
Javena was the mayor, needless to say, busy maintaining order amidst the clamor.
And Lily stood silently behind her. Her expression was unreadable, but a heavy tension seemed to radiate from her.
What was Lily doing on stage?
"She probably informed the mayor and requested the search. She used to have a very good relationship with Sylvette." Durani appeared beside her and answered. Only then did Lucita realize she had voiced her question aloud.
"Used to?"
"Yes, before Lily ran the tavern, she was also a fisherwoman. Sylvette learned to fish from her."
"So their relationship isn't good now?"
"Not exactly." Durani said vaguely: "Maybe it's because Lily later opened the tavern and they weren't fishing together anymore, so they gradually grew apart."
"Oh." Lucita glanced at Durani and said in an amazed tone: "Aunt Durani, you know so much."
Durani laughed at her naivety: "Still a child."
Lucita didn't extract any more information and gave up.
After a while, nearly a hundred people had gathered in the square, crowding around the central platform in a dense mass.
Lucita stood in the crowd and could occasionally hear a few words: "I was wondering why she hasn't been there when I've gone to buy fish these past few days."
"Yeah, speaking of which, it really has been a week. She usually doesn't stay at sea this long."
"Maybe she encountered a storm and got trapped? Sylvette's merfolk bloodline is quite strong. She shouldn't have any major problems at sea. At worst, she'd just swim back, right? She's not afraid of water."
"Hard to say. Full-blooded merfolk eat fish in the sea. But she’s mixed-blood. What would she eat? Raw fish? Without food, she'd run out of strength swimming. Then she could only starve to death in the sea."
"It's already been a week. If something really happened, it should be quite dangerous now."
……
Javena saw it was about right, cleared her throat, and said loudly: "Everyone, everyone quiet down."
"You should all have received the news. Sylvette has not returned for a full week. This is a very dangerous signal. Everyone here has merfolk bloodline, so you're relatively safe in maritime search and rescue. That's why I've asked you all to come participate in this rescue together. If anyone doesn't want to participate, you can bring it up now."
After a few seconds' pause, the crowd still buzzed with quiet conversation. About twenty elderly and children withdrew at their families’ urging.
Among the able-bodied, no one indicated they wanted to step back.
Several dozen people couldn't all go out to sea at once, and the town didn't have enough boats. But if luck was bad and the search and rescue became several days' work, personnel rotation would be very necessary.
Javena had considered this, which was why she'd called everyone with merfolk bloodline in town all at once.
She had everyone line up, counted heads, and divided them by age into over ten teams of six, ensuring each team was assigned experienced middle-aged members.
There weren't many boats in town. The Residents' Center preserved four old communal boats. Lily's family had two, which she also brought out for everyone to use.
Six boats in total. Five teams were selected first to go out to sea immediately. The remaining boat was personally led by Javena.
She gave an hour for tonight's rescue personnel to go home and prepare dry rations, while she stayed in the square, busy directing matters of getting the boats to sea.
Lucita was personnel for the first rescue team, but she didn't go home. Instead, she removed her cufflink and held it in her hand, standing to the side for a while, seemingly waiting for Javena.
The remaining teams that didn't need to go to sea today worked together under Javena's arrangement to push the six boats to the seaside.
Not only were the town's boats shabby, Lily's boats weren't much better. They looked almost the same, all covered with a thick layer of dust.
Deep green sludge hid in the cracks of the wooden boats. The canvas was also dirty. Up close, one could even smell a stale fishy odor.
Lucita was choked and couldn't help coughing twice.
This cough caught Javena's attention.
The boats were already half-floating on the beach. Javena turned back and asked her: "Lucy, why are you still here?"
Lucita handed over the cufflink in her hand: "Aunt Javena, the space I can create now is twenty liters."
"Twenty liters!?" Javena's voice suddenly shot up, causing those in the distance pushing boats to look over one after another.
"It's fine, it's fine. Keep pushing." Javena waved at that side, then turned back to confirm word by word: "You're saying the space you've created has a capacity of twenty liters, correct?"
Lucita nodded.
She was mentally prepared for Javena's reaction, because the first time she took her five-liter space to ask Irene, Irene said that in all her years in Irttat, she'd never seen anyone with spatial talent strong enough to have five liters.
Mixed-bloods had talents, true, but after many generations of dilution, these talents were already very weak.
"Creator above!" Javena drew in a sharp breath: "Is the dragon bloodline in you reverting to ancestry?"
Lucita pressed her lips together, slightly embarrassed.
Irene was reserved and hadn't praised her like this back then.
Lucita had forgotten that five liters and twenty liters gave very different impacts.
"How long can it last?"
"About ten days."
"Heavens." Javena let out a light sigh. She played with that cufflink for a long time, then regretfully returned it: "Too bad I don't have spatial ability and can't look at the scenery inside."
Somehow, Lucita's voice was a bit strange, as if confirming again: "You don't have spatial talent?"
"That's right."
This time Javena heard it. Lucita’s voice carried unmistakable joy: "Mayor, you only need to drop a drop of blood on it and you can open it. And after that, aside from people with sufficient spatial talent, only you can open it."
Javena suddenly felt she might be getting old. She understood every single word Lucita said, but together she couldn't understand what it meant.
She instinctively asked: "What?"
Lucita repeated it with a smile.
Due to the existence of curse magic, people in the magical world were very cautious about their blood. Oddballs like Violet who feared neither heaven nor earth were the minority.
Javena didn't immediately comply but asked about the principles involved.
Lucita of course wouldn't hide anything, but unfortunately the concept of "scent world layer" was somewhat difficult for Javena to understand.
Fortunately, Lucita didn't require her to drip blood in an unknown place and indicated that once marked with blood, this cufflink space would belong to her, and so on.
Javena heard her explain the principles clearly and logically. Although she didn't quite understand, out of trust she still dripped a drop of blood on it to try.
The result proved her trust in Lucita was correct.
For the first time in her life, Javena felt the existence of an alternate dimension. She touched herself but couldn't find any items to put inside. Finally, she pulled off the hair ribbon from her head and put it in.
In and out, over and over again.
Lucita coughed, interrupting Javena's somewhat excited attempts, and stated her purpose: "Aunt Javena, I want to equip everyone going out to sea with a space like this, mainly for storing fresh water. As long as they carry it with them, if they encounter a storm and the boat sinks, it's an extra layer of protection. After all, we don't know what Sylvette encountered. The more safeguards we have, the better."
Javena hadn't expected Lucita's purpose was this. After thinking for a moment, she shook her head slightly: "Six boats with thirty-six people. You need to create thirty-six spaces in one hour. That's too difficult. Although I don't have spatial talent, the principles of using various innate abilities are all similar. Using it to the limit will cause permanent damage to your spirit."
But Lucita had thought it through carefully: "My current limit is twenty liters. But I don't have to create them that large. Each space only needs ten liters to guarantee each person's drinking water for ten days. This way, after I create one space, my spirit is still relatively full. As long as I replenish my energy promptly, my spirit won't be depleted."
Javena was convinced.
With limited conditions and no proper space containers, they picked up some stones on the beach and returned to the Activity Center.
The Activity Center had someone on duty. The kitchen had some stored dry bread, usually prepared for disaster relief.
Javena woke the cook and brought out a pile of dry bread: "These are the only ready-made foods available. Relying on eating to replenish physical energy is fine, but the efficiency for replenishing mental energy is somewhat low. But this is all we can do now. If the merfolk from before were still here, they could directly give you mental healing on the side. But now we mixed-bloods can't reach that level yet, at most we can give you some comfort."
Lucita shook her head: "This is enough."
Her memory was limited and her experience not much. She didn't understand the degree of danger of going to sea, but with the cause of Sylvette's disappearance still in the dark, the search and rescue itself carried danger.
You must know, Sylvette was one of this generation with the strongest merfolk bloodline. Entering the sea was like going home. She wasn't even very afraid of storms. Nothing should have happened.
Sylvette’s life was at stake. Lucita couldn't afford to be picky about this throat-scratching food.
Lucita had never known she could eat so much. The small mountain pile of dry bread diminished layer by layer. Taking its place were pebbles stacking up layer by layer on her right.
After all these stones were processed, Lucita's head had already begun to throb. Her spirit swayed precariously, almost on the edge of fainting.
Javena had someone help her inside to rest for a while: "You won’t go this round. Go home and rest."
Just then, Lily, who had returned to the tavern to get food, came back.
She pushed the door open, walked to Javena's side, and seemed to say something.
What Lily said, Lucita didn't hear.
The bustling footsteps in the kitchen, the clamor of groups of two or three in the square, even the wind and insect sounds, she heard none of it. She only stared at the pocket watch on Lily's chest.
That hollowed silver-cased pocket watch swayed on her chest with Lily's movements, transmitting a faint song.
Shrill. Mournful. Almost inaudible.
A strong fishy smell wafted through the air.
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