Shrouded Seascape

Lily turned her gaze downward to look at her golden, furry form. "I wonder if Mr. Feuerbach has any way for me to harness the power inside me. It would be amazing if that's the case."

She pondered over the issue for quite some time as she stared at the closed wooden door in front of her. Memories came to her as she recalled how Charles taught the other crew members how to use the Origin Essence inside of them.

First, they had to sense the energy within them, before trying their hands at maneuvering it and then gradually learning how to control it. Initially, it would feel awkward and hard but with consistent practice, they would be able to manipulate the energy as naturally as how they used their limbs.

Closing her eyes, Lily tried to concentrate on the energy flowing within her. She raised her right paw and using all her strength, she thrust it forward. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, but nothing happened.

A wave of embarrassment colored her cheeks red. The mice around her silently shifted their gazes away from their leader, pretending to be interested in other things.

"I'm so useless..." Lily let out a soft sigh.

"I want to have special powers like everyone else too… Oh well, I'll go find Grace to play," Lily said as she walked to the wooden door. She squeezed her head through the gap at the bottom and slipped out.

Grace's room was assigned to be right next to Linda's. When Lily arrived, she saw Grace ran over to Linda's room and excitedly took out a thick medical book.

Meanwhile, Linda wasn't the least bothered. She was fully focused on injecting a syringe filled with grayish fluid into a vein in her arm.

Lily moved toward Grace and watched her by the side for a while. However, it didn't take long before she felt dizzy. The tiny, densely packed text interspersed with diagrams of organs and herbs made her head spin.

"Grace, can you even understand what you're reading? Oh my god, this book reeks of alcohol! It must be an old personal belonging of the Doctor. All his stuff has this alcohol smell!" Lily commented.

Grace turned her gaze from the book onto Lily. "I don't understand everything, but it's so interesting! This book records all sorts of rare diseases. Look here. On an island in the Eastern Seas, there was a disease where a second face would grow on the neck of the infected."

"Erm…" Lily tried to imagine the scene for a split second and a shiver ran down her spine. She didn't find it the least bit interesting. She couldn't understand why Grace enjoyed reading such things. Grace was a fast reader, had a curious mind, and seemed to enjoy every type of book.

"There aren't this many interesting books in the Western Seas. In the lighthouse where I lived, even normal books were scarce. I read each book so many times that they were almost worn out. Also, my mentor didn't allow me to read anything other than magic textbooks and insisted that I practiced magic for at least fourteen hours daily."

"Come on, stop reading. Let's go out to play! There are lots of delicious food and fun things outside and they're all free! Also, the train just arrived today; there's sure to be new and exciting stuff!" By the end of her sentence, Lily's tail was wagging excitedly like that of a dog.

Grace contemplated for a moment before putting the medical book down and turned toward Linda. "Madam Linda, I'll be back before lunch. What would you like to eat? I'll bring it back for you."

Linda didn't respond as she struggled with the syringe. The grayish liquid in the syringe looked viscous and difficult to inject.

"I'll bring you some of last night's dinner. You loved the grilled fish; I've asked Mr. Audric about it earlier," Grace offered.

Standing on Grace's palm, Lily waved a paw at the ship's doctor. "Bye, Linda!"

As soon as Lily and Grace arrived on the bustling streets, their playful spirits were ignited. Filled with excitement, they darted through the crowds, weaving in and out of shops without buying anything, their laughter ringing through the air.

They vented their pent-up stress with abandon. Though they might seem a bit crazy in the eyes of others, near brushes with death were bound to leave a mark on a person. Everyone carried their own weight of pressure; some could feel it, while others couldn't. But regardless, the tension needed to be released somehow.

Among the sea of fierce-looking explorers, Grace stood out like a butterfly amidst the crowd. Her lively demeanor and vibrant energy drew the attention of everyone around.

"Grace! Look over there! That guy has a doll hanging from his belt!" Lily exclaimed and pointed a paw toward the right side of the street.

Following Lily's paw, Grace looked to the right to see a burly man with a knitted yarn doll dangling from his waist. The doll's thin limbs and head bobbed with each step the man took.

Just as the two began to curiously approach the man from behind, the doll's head suddenly jerked up. Its stitched mouth parted and its eyes made from buttons glared straight at them.

Grace instantly froze in place, and gray threads began to snake out of her mouth. Her hands flew toward her throat, clutching it as she retched violently, but there was nothing coming out.

As the threads started to multiply, Lily panicked and shouted at the burly man in front of them, "Hey! Control your relic! We were just taking a look. You're so petty!"

The broad figure didn't turn around. Instead, he raised his right hand, which was missing two fingers, and blocked the doll's button eyes. He then continued his leisure stroll ahead.

Grace gagged for a few moments before grabbing the threads from her mouth. With a forceful tug, she yanked out a fist-sized ball of yarn that was streaked with blood out from her throat.

"That man was too much! How could he do that! This won't do! I'm going to go find him!" Lily was fuming with rage. She was about to jump off Grace's shoulder, but the latter stopped her.

Her voice raspy from the ordeal, Grace croaked, "Cough cough! Forget it. It was our fault. We shouldn't be staring at his doll in the first place. Cough cough!"

"We did nothing wrong! He should apologize to us!" Lily protested.

Grace shook her head once more as she held Lily down and headed toward another street. "Everyone here is a hero fighting to save the Subterranean Sea. That man is already working very hard for all of us. We shouldn't distract him."

"But if you put it that way, then we're heroes too! Why does he get to treat us like that?" Lily grumbled, clearly still enraged.

Grace gently stroked Lily's smooth fur in an attempt to soothe her. In a comforting voice, she said, "Don't be upset anymore. We're out to have fun, remember? Accompany me to the bookstore; let's see if there's anything interesting."

At the mention of a bookstore, Lily's face fell. "A bookstore again? Can't we go somewhere else? I heard a new cinema had opened recently. It has a wall that can play images like Mr. Charles' phone. How about we go there instead?"

Grace lifted Lily to eye level and pleaded, "How about we go to the bookstore first? We're almost there, too. After we're done browsing the bookstore, we can go to the cinema you've mentioned."

Lily tilted her head to the side and pondered for a moment before nodding. "All right, but I really think you do read more than anyone else I know."

"Because having a genuine love for something is a blessing," Grace replied with a playful wink before adding, "I read that in a book."