Amid the applause that was like the waves of the sea, Charles and the other two seemed so out of place. The one-eyed captain turned his head and looked at the young crew member sitting next to him. "Can you tell me, was this a deliberate act, or was it just an improvisation by the heroine because she messed up her performance?"
Before Grace, who was shocked, could reply, a fat woman wearing a long skirt and spider silk gloves answered his question.
She covered her mouth with a fan and looked up and down at Charles' captain's uniform with curiosity. "That's the wonderful thing about this opera house! No one knows which one is the real one. The more you want to know, the less they will tell you."
Charles thought about it and nodded, lifting his butt off the stool. "Let's go, we've finished watching, we should go back."
"Don't leave in a hurry. This is only the first story. The rest of the story will definitely be more exciting." Just as the woman finished speaking, the curtain in front was lifted again.
A black umbrella as big as a small house appeared on the stage. Under the umbrella, more than a dozen human bodies were hung upside down by ropes, slowly rotating as the umbrella rotated.
Listening to the deep voice narrating the background, Charles looked at his daughter and asked, "Still watching?"
"Well, it's really interesting. Let's watch it before we leave." Shanshan said while staring at the stage intently.
Hearing his daughter say this, Charles sat down again and looked calmly at the new play on the stage.
This time the content is about the topic of faith, about the local faith of the West Sea, the All-Seeing Eye.
As the performance continued on stage, Charles realized that the All-Seeing Eye was not a god from Earthsea. According to them, the All-Seeing Eye was located between everyone's eyebrows and was everyone's third eye.
He was alive before, and everyone was a part of Him. The day He died, ancient humans gained consciousness.
Omniscience is not a title, but His existence itself. It is the essence of all knowledge. Everything in time is the product of the omniscient eye, and the knowledge that humans continue to learn is the legacy of the omniscient eye.
Humans cannot see the Eye of Truth in reality. They can only see it in illusions and dreams. Whenever someone gains some knowledge from it, they have to pay a corresponding price.
The belief in the All-Seeing Eye seemed to be a universal movement in the Western Sea. When the scene ended, everyone, including Grace, put their hands together and placed them close to their foreheads.
"This should be the local belief of Earthsea, right? I don't know how they gradually developed it." Charles thought to himself with his arms crossed over his chest.
While watching the third performance, Charles felt a gaze shooting at him from behind. He could feel that the gaze had no ill intentions, but was just staring at the back of his head.
Charles didn't say anything. As long as others didn't provoke him, he didn't intend to provoke others. After all, he came here today to accompany his daughter.
The applause in the theater came one after another, finally reaching its peak at the climax of the fourth scene.
All the extremely excited audience members stood up from their seats and offered their sincere congratulations to the actors who were still alive on the stage.
Amid the warm applause, Charles felt the gaze behind him approaching. "Governor Charles?"
Charles turned his head to look at him and found that the man was a middle-aged man wearing high boots, with a shrewd look in his eyes and a head of shiny curly hair that was very eye-catching.
With a confident smile on his face and a spotless bright white suit, he looked more like a superior than Charles.
"Mark Chelston, you can call me Mark. Welcome the hero who saved the Earthsea to my island." Governor Mark of Lighthouse Island extended his right hand to Charles.
As soon as he said this, Grace's eyes lit up and she seemed eager to try.
The cold mechanical arm shook the other person's hand. Charles looked at the confident face in front of him. For some reason, he felt a little disgusted with this guy.
"Governor Charles, now that everything is over, why don't you come to the Governor's Mansion and sit for a while?" Mark withdrew his hand.
"Okay." Charles took Shanshan and Grace and walked out of the opera house.
The opera house was not far from the Governor's Palace, and Charles and his party arrived there quickly. After they stepped down from the carriage by stepping on people's backs, a bright white manor that glowed by itself appeared in front of everyone.
Walking into the clean, reflective hall, rows of neatly arranged servants bent down in unison.
During this period, Mark had been using his superb rhetoric skills to try to find out Charles' purpose. However, when he heard Charles directly say that he was here for sightseeing, although he didn't say anything, he obviously didn't believe it in his heart.
In the following time, Mark enthusiastically introduced to Charles the various unique islands in the West Sea, and said that if he wanted to sightsee, he must go to those places.
Charles obviously noticed that Mark was stalling for time, but seeing that Shanshan was listening with relish, he didn't care.
While the two were talking with different thoughts in their minds, Grace's expression became more and more confused.
Finally, when Mark stopped to drink, Grace suddenly stood up and said, "Governor Mark! Can I ask you something?"
Mark subconsciously looked at Charles, and when he saw that the other party did not express anything, he smiled at the disfigured girl in front of him. "Of course, my dear lady, you are now a guest of Lighthouse Island. As a guest, I, as the host, must try my best to meet your requests."
Soon, Grace asked him a question he had not expected. "Has the murderer of the Dolphin Bridge tragedy in East Island been found?"
Mark's eyes jumped secretly between Grace and Charles. He wanted to know whether the question came from Charles himself.
Whatever the woman asked was secondary. The most important thing now was to let Charles leave the Lighthouse Island with satisfaction. As the overlord of the North Sea, his current attitude could even determine the survival of an island.
After thinking for a few seconds, Mark smiled and said, "That happened a long time ago. Excuse me, how do you know about this incident that happened fifteen years ago?"
Grace bit her lower lip with her teeth, her eyes gradually reddened, "My parents died at that time. I know that we haven't found any clues for such a long time, and our hope must be slim, but I just want to ask."
Mark quickly showed a regretful expression on his face. "Miss, I'm sorry. I have put in a lot of effort, but the murderer who caused the tragedy is likely a bandit roaming the island. We have issued a wanted order, but there are no clues at the moment."
(End of this chapter)