Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 803: Lighthouse

"Then, what do you plan to wish for?" Sparkle asked, turning her gaze onto Charles. "If you don't help Mommy to become a god, she's probably going to throw a real huge fit."

Charles walked over and gently patted Sparkle on the head. "Don't worry about that. Daddy will handle everything."

"Really?" Sparkle's eyes narrowed with a hint of doubt. "Mommy said you're really unreliable and honestly, I think the same as well."

Charles stared at his daughter and was at a loss for words. Weren't daughters supposed to be closer to their dads? Why was his child different from others?

"Don't listen to your mom. Stick with me more often from now on," Charles remarked.

Sparkle lowered her gaze to look at the dirt on the ground as she muttered under her breath, "Where were you earlier? My rebellious phase is already over now. Isn't it a little late to start acting all fatherly now?"

Just then, a noise echoed from the distant Foundation's building complex. Norton controlled his green centipede form and crawled out from between the gaps of the moss-covered glass doors. His body bore a few scratches while four of his hands were carrying two stone tiles.

"What's the matter? Was there trouble inside?" Charles asked in concern as he hurried over to meet Norton.

Norton took the notebook and pen on his back and quickly scribbled on it before holding it up for Charles to see.

Charles received the stone tiles from Norton and examined them closely. Each of them had a round stain with a long trail of dried blood after them. They were, indeed, his eyes.

Perhaps due to the exposure to the environment and decay, the dried, shriveled remains of Charles' eyes had been reduced to two gray, desiccated spots and were barely recognizable.

"Sclera, lens, vitreous body… yeah, these are my eyes. Sparkle, let's go back!" Charles said.

With a burst of white light, the three of them vanished from the colorful forest.

Back on Hope Island, Linda delicately sliced against the tile with a razor-thin scalpel and carefully separated the shriveled remains of the eyes before submerging them into a pale yellow preservative solution.

Charles pulled out his journal and drew a satisfied line through the word "eyes." His search for his eyes had been much easier than he had anticipated.

Indeed, no matter how dangerous something was, once you understood its pattern, they could be managed.

"Linda, how's your research with the heart coming along? Any progress?" Charles glanced out from his journal and looked over at Linda, who was labeling the latest specimen jar.

"It hasn't been that long yet. Please give me some time," Linda responded. She then placed the jar on the shelf next to another jar that contained Charles' stomach.

Charles dragged his pen over the remaining organs in the journal. He was considering his next target, but the last two organs posed significant challenges.

For his long-severed arm, he would have to wait for the explorers to locate the elusive Divinity while his skull fragment was still buried deep within SITE 6. That area was still unreachable for the time being and Charles had to wait for the right moment, but waiting wasn't something he liked.

Just then, a slender white hand suddenly appeared before his eye, blocking his vision. It was Sparkle's hand.

"You promised me, remember?" Sparkle asked.

Charles lifted his gaze to look at his daughter. With a firm determination, he closed his journal. "Alright, let's go."

A rare smile surfaced on Sparkle's visage. She clasped Charles' right hand with both of hers and tugged him eagerly toward the door.

As soon as they left, only Linda and Norton were left in the room. Linda adjusted the slightly crooked specimen jars and was just about to sink into the floorboards to leave when Norton reached out a green arm to intercept her.

He hurriedly scribbled something on his notepad and held it out toward Linda.

"Doctor, I need psychology therapy. I can feel changes happening within me. I'm starting to not see them as my kind."

A myriad of emotions surfaced on Linda's face as she regarded Norton's eyeless, green face. "I've been expecting this day for a while. Follow me, I'll see what I can do."

Meanwhile, Sparkle and Charles were no longer on Hope Island and were now walking along an unfamiliar street.

Stepping on the uneven cobblestones beneath their feet, Charles scanned his surroundings with curiosity as his gaze darted from one sharply peaked rooftop to the next.

The island they were on was strange. Every building had a spiked roof, Tightly packed together in rows, and the entire landscape gave the appearance of a hedgehog's back. From above them, beams of white light from nearby lighthouses frequently swept across the darkened skies.

The islanders, regardless of men or women, were clad in long, flowing robes. With an oil lamp in hand, their voices were hushed even when they conversed with their companions, and every one of them kept their heads down.

"Where are we? This is not the Northern Seas, is it?" Charles asked Sparkle.

Walking ahead of Charles, Sparkle clasped her hands behind her back, spun around and began walking backward. A mischievous grin appeared on her face as she said, "How are you so sure that we aren't in the Northern Seas?"

"Don't forget that I used to run cargo ships before becoming an explorer. I've sailed around the Northern Seas and none of the islands look like this."

By this point, Charles' keen senses had already picked up the gazes of others lingering on him. However, he wasn't really bothered. With his current strength, he was more than capable of seeing them as insignificant existences.

"Bingo!" Sparkle hopped up onto Charles' back and wrapped her slender arms around his neck. "We're on an island in the Western Seas. I bet you've never been here before."

"And here I was thinking why I haven't seen any mechanical things around here. So this is one of those trickster islands. Why did you bring me here?"

"I love traveling alone to islands I've never visited to meet people I've never seen and try new food," Sparkle said. She lifted her gaze and watched the lighthouse beams swing across the sky, her head swaying gently with Charles' steady pace.

"I never knew my precious daughter had such a love for adventure," Charles remarked.

Sparkle immediately gave Charles a playful job on his shoulder and countered, "Of course, you never knew. I mean, you're such a responsible father, right? No other dad in the entire Subterranean Sea is as responsible and attentive as you are."

Charles couldn't help but let out a hollow chuckle at the evident sarcasm in Sparkle's words. "You sound just like your mother when you talk like that."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the smile on his countenance faded as he lowered his volume to a whisper, saying, "Alright, let's go somewhere quieter and get rid of the tails following us. They are increasing now."

Charles hastened his steps and followed the fishy scent of the sea toward the docks.

The moment Charles quickened his pace, the figures tailing them discarded all attempts at subtlety. Draped in black robes, they moved openly onto the crowded street and followed after Charles.

The island, known as Lighthouse Island, wasn't huge. Soon enough, Charles reached the harbor district. Apart from the stench of urine mingled with the salty tang of the sea and the lingering odor of fish that greeted him, numerous lighthouses dotting the horizon came into view.

Every island had a lighthouse, but on this island, there were far more than any practical reason would warrant. Perhaps, it was also due to these excessive towers that the island had earned its name.

Charles retracted his lingering gaze on the lighthouses in the distance and brought Sparkle into a narrow, dimly lit alleyway. They had hardly taken a couple of steps when the way forward was blocked by a group of figures

"Are you thinking that my daughter's so beautiful that you plan to snatch her up right off the street? Pretty bold of you to do that so openly. Seems like the law around here is rather lax," Charles said in a calm voice.

One by one, the figures removed their hoods to reveal green heads. Though they looked humanoid in shape, their heads were covered in green scales, and their eyes were slitted like that of snakes and glowed with a menacing amber light.

From beneath their cloaks, spiked tails slithered and swayed. Whatever these things were, they certainly weren't human.