Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 454 - 21 Rinwind Gorge_1

Chapter 454: Chapter 21 Rinwind Gorge_1

"So you all just came back like that?" River slapped his stomach habitually and said cheerfully, "and you never figured out how the skeleton showed up in the end?"

On the fifth day of the voyage, the skyboat had left the arid Western Wasteland behind. On previous routes, after the first stop of the airship, it would fly west from Senaya, cross the Western Wasteland, and then soar over the steep Rinwind Gorge, crossing the Marojanas Mountains which stretched for thousands of kilometers between the coast and the mainland, and then arrive at the warm and humid Southwest Hainan Line. Afterward, it would fly north along the Hainan Line. After another day and night of continuous flight, it would reach the second stop of the voyage, the City of a Thousand Islands - the most beautiful city on the southern coast. After docking in the City of a Thousand Islands for two days and nights, the skyboat would take off for the third time, this time flying straight north through the Sea Kingdom of Casa to reach the final destination, the Grand Highland City, a border city in the southernmost part of the Mountain Country.

The weather was not good after taking off on the fourth day; it was gloomy the entire journey. The five members of the adventure team didn’t come up to the deck again after getting on board, rested well, and spent the entire day in the entertainment rooms in the cabin. The ladies hadn’t had much opportunity to visit such places mainly for games and entertainment in the past twenty years. Only Freya had ever been to a few. This time, finally, they could enjoy undisturbed entertainment, and the young ladies were promptly enchanted by all kinds of interesting activities. If Pannis hadn’t forcibly dragged them out one by one in the end, they might have been crazy until the next morning.

When they woke up on the fifth day, it was another good weather outside the window. The skyboat had flown out of the cloudy range, and the view was wide open. Looking afar, the Rinwind Mountain Range, part of the Marojanas Mountains, stood like a massive screen, blocking the scenes behind the mountains. The Rinwind Range, averaging 4,000 meters high, has historically been a natural barrier disrupting communication between the inland and coastal areas.

When they went on deck, the view was even clearer. The long chain of mountains seemed endless to the north and south. There was lush vegetation at the foot of the mountains, but the peaks were covered with snow. Melted snow turned into rivers, but due to the terrain, they flowed south at the foot of the mountains, creating a strange sight where one side was rich in water, and the other was barren.

On deck, River was seen lying under the umbrella as always, his position and posture exactly the same as before, as if he hadn’t moved at all in the past few days. Maggie and River got along very well. Having gotten acquainted with the adventure team, she was no longer shy and ran to River with a bounce, chirping all about the adventures of the third day, naturally with an unexpected event during the hot spring trip included.

"After all, there wasn’t much time left." Catherine, wearing new sunglasses she’d bought before embarking, said while holding a glass of iced fruit juice, "In the end, it was tentatively identified as an effect of the Wall of Memories, and other questions remained mysteries. When this mission is over, we might go there and try to unravel this mystery on the way back. Otherwise, the unexplained appearance of the skeleton may pose a threat to the city. As knights, we cannot ignore it once we know about it."

"Haha, I hope everything goes well for you." River laughed, "I can’t be of much help, but with all four Legendary Rank of you going together, any problem should be easily solved."

"Haha, hopefully." Catherine gave a non-committal smile, "We’ve traveled almost half of the way now, any movement from the enemies yet?"

"Enemies?" The mention of it startled River, who immediately scratched his head in amusement, "Oh, you’re talking about the earlier suggestion that someone might be targeting the skyboat, right? The captain said this morning that the association in Senaya received a notification. It was reportedly false, so you guys don’t have to worry, just enjoy your holidays."

"Huh, a false alarm, that’s great." Catherine stretched languidly, "I was afraid some trouble would pop up even during a rare holiday. If that were the case, I’d have one more reason to suspect I was born with the knack for attracting trouble."

"Well, it’s possible, I just got a bad feeling." Freya, laying next to Catherine, pulled out a biscuit to put in her mouth, "But it could also be because Mr. Pannis rejected me again this morning, uh, anyway, I’m not in a good mood."

"Thump." Catherine slapped away Freya’s hand, which was about to put a biscuit in her mouth, and stuffed it into her own mouth, "Spill it, how many more snacks are you hiding? Hand them over when we get back."

"Damn, bad habits kill." Freya, looking troubled, held her head and moaned, "Why couldn’t I control myself? I should have done it when you weren’t around..."

"Hey, sis, hurry over here and look" Lina, not wearing glasses today, was waving from the side of the ship, "Look at the mountains over there, they look so odd."

"Yeah, I can see it from here." Catherine poked Vivian’s face on the other side, and seeing no response, poked a few more times, "Aren’t you going to take a look?"

"Leave me alone." Vivian begrudgingly moved the soft hat from her face, "I just thought of a crucial assumption that might help with the improvement of my three potions. I need to concentrate."

"It’s a rare holiday, so put that aside for a bit." Catherine rubbed Vivian’s hair and spoke in a comforting tone, "Even if you’re a genius, your brain needs to rest. If you always keep it going without a break, one day it won’t be able to hold up."

"No problem, as long as I can think, I will try my best to think." Vivian calmly replied, "I don’t know when I won’t even be able to think anymore, I have to make the most of every moment."

"Sigh, suit yourself then, but don’t ever give up hope." Catherine shook her head in resignation, snuck a glance at Pannis standing by the guardrail with Lina, and whispered, "You never know, the miracle you dream of might happen unexpectedly."

"Thank you, sis." Vivian reattached the soft hat to her face and mumbled, "But scholars never believe in miracles, we only believe in reality."

"Reality and miracles aren’t always contradictory." Freya closed her eyes, enduring the torment of hunger, but her voice became very gentle: "Many times, we see the unpredictable, sudden happiness as a miracle, but it is also a part of reality. Scholars just don’t place their hopes on the appearance of miracles, nor completely deny the existence of the, and I believe you know this."

"Perhaps." After a long silence, Vivian’s voice came from under her soft hat.

"Or do you think that your appearance suggests you have given up hope?" Freya spread her hands toward Catherine, still speaking in a gentle voice: "Do you think this will reduce our pressure, because we have no solution for your condition? But you don’t understand, no matter what, we will never give up on you, and the more you do this, the more distressed we feel, the greater our pressure becomes."

There was another period of silence under the hat until, in the end, Vivian didn’t speak anymore.

"Phew, the atmosphere over there is a bit heavy." Lina was exceptionally lively today, running about the ship with Pannis, especially after seeing the Rinwind Mountain Range. But then, when there was no one else around, Lina faced the outside of the ship’s side, and suddenly spoke in a quiet voice: "I heard from my sister that we should thank you no matter if your method works or not. No, we shouldn’t thank you, we’re already family. It’s everybody’s issue when it comes to Vivian. There’s no need for thanks, right?"

"Yeah." Pannis lay on the ship’s side, propping his chin up, and took a long time before he responded softly: "Family... yeah."

"Wow, look!" Lina suddenly pointed at the approaching peaks and shouted, "You can’t see it clearly from far away, but now that we’re closer, these peaks look like fingers, and there’s no snow on them either."

"That’s Rinwind Gorge." Pannis replied, sounding drained from Lina’s energy, "It’s the lowest part of the Rinwind Mountain Range. It consists of eight pillar-like peaks, the deepest valley amongst them is only three hundred meters high, yet each pillar towers seven to eight hundred meters high. The strangest thing is, while these peaks are like this, they haven’t toppled over for thousands of years. It’s a miracle, isn’t it?"

"Why is it like this?" Lina suddenly leaned closer to Pannis, her face very close, her large eyes blinking at Pannis, glimmering with expectation: "It doesn’t seem to be naturally formed, and not falling is also illogical, why?"

"How would I know?" Pannis was startled and took a step back from Lina, twitching the corner of his mouth, "Nobody knows why."

"But I really want to know." Lina took a step closer, sticking closer until Pannis could feel her breath, "Don’t you think it’s interesting? I’m really curious."

"Even if you’re curious, it’s useless. Hey, you’re too close." Pannis pushed Lina’s smooth forehead away, feeling the crescent-shaped scar between his brows rubbing against his palm, "You should go ask Lord Yarra this question, he’s likely the only one who knows."

"Hmm, it’s really depressing." Lina hung her head in dismay and mumbled a few words.

"Clang." The sound of a chair flipping caught their attention, Pannis turned his head and found that Vivian had suddenly stood up, flipping the deck chair beneath her.

"I’ve figured it out." Vivian said excitedly, "You guys wait for me, I’ll go back and take notes."

"Wait." As Vivian quickly turned to go to the cabin, the wind on the deck blew her robe from behind, Pannis suddenly called out to her, "Vivian, wait a moment."

"What?" Vivian paused and turned back, asking, "What is it?"

"Let’s go together." Pannis caught up with Vivian in a few steps and walked her into the cabin. As soon as they were out of everyone else’s sight, Pannis turned Vivian around with her back to him, "I apologize in advance, but I need to confirm something."

"Why are you being so mysterious all of a sudden?" Vivian felt Pannis pulling on her robe from behind, causing it to stick tightly to her back, revealing her peculiar body shape. She normally hated being seen like this, but she tried her best to cooperate with Pannis’s action, making the robe wrap tighter, showing more of her form, "What do you want to confirm?"

"Huh." Pannis let go of his hand and sighed, "Let’s go, deal with your business first. I need to think carefully, the situation is quite strange." (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)