Chapter 796: The Great Whirlpool at Sea

"Prince, when you and Ms. Acheronides go to explore the new archipelago, can you take me and my sister along?" Ruth asked with her big, pleading eyes.

Lucy quickly scolded, "Ruth! Don’t make such a rude request to the Prince!"

Though a bit bold, Ruth didn’t dare defy her sister and could only bow apologetically to Liszt. "I’m sorry, Prince. Ruth was too reckless. Please forgive me."

Liszt waved his hand. "Relax, Lucy, Ruth. If your teacher Acheronides doesn’t object, there’s no reason not to take you along." Having two adorable little girls accompany him on the voyage would be a delightful and amusing experience, especially since they could work the magic console.

Thus, Acheronides, who had been researching the project *How Dragon Turtles Mutate into Thunder Dragon Turtles* on Dragon Turtle Island, quickly agreed to the sisters’ request.

Thanks to Liszt’s nudging, she had already taken Lucy and Ruth as her magic apprentices. Their former teacher, Cris Truth, had no objections—in fact, she was quite envious of the twins for being able to receive guidance from an Archmage at any time.

Of course, Cris was overthinking it. While Acheronides was nominally the twins’ teacher, she had no real intention of teaching them. She preferred researching magic on her own or assigning tasks to other mages, disliking interaction with others, let alone teaching.

Having an Archmage teach magic apprentices was indeed a waste of her talents—any ordinary mage from a magic guild could handle the task.

"Thank you, Teacher! Thank you, Prince!" The twins cheered excitedly.

Liszt nodded. "Go pack your belongings. We might set off at any moment." His voyages with Acheronides were always spontaneous, without the slightest delay.

Just then, a weak chirp came from a jade box hanging on the ceiling. "Peep."

Nami flew out of the box and landed on Acheronides’ palm, gazing at her pitifully. She hadn’t gone out to work lately, instead staying in the lab waiting for Acheronides’ return, seeking comfort from her bonded master. Her expression was drained as she struggled against the forces hindering her evolution.

Acheronides cradled Nami in her palm and smiled. "Don’t worry, Nami. I’ll bring you with me. We’re going to explore the new world in the archipelago my brother discovered."

"Peep." Nami nuzzled Acheronides’ fingers contentedly before dozing off.

A day later, after Liszt had settled his affairs and Acheronides had wrapped up her busy magical experiments, they finally set off for the new archipelago.

Crash!

Splash!

"To the sea, we’re off!" The twins stood at the bow, shouting joyfully.

Before coming to Black Horse Island, they had been serf children from the countryside of the Kingdom of the Eagle, never having seen the ocean in their lives.

Living on Black Horse Island, sailing on ships had become routine, and though they had long overcome their fear of the sea, they still didn’t dare swim in it.

The *Flame*, loaded with fruits, vegetables, magical herbs, and other supplies, sliced through the waves along the planned route at a speed of 500 kph.

The new archipelago was roughly 4,000 kilometers from Black Horse Island—about the distance from China’s Bohai Sea to the South China Sea.

The average speed of a Fast Royal Yacht was about 10 knots (18 kph). With favorable winds, it could cover up to 400 kilometers in a day. The Sapphire family had dominated the Emerald Sea thanks to these yachts, but headwinds or dead calms were common, so 200 kilometers a day was more realistic.

For a Fast Royal Yacht, the journey from Black Horse Island to the new archipelago would take twenty days. A merchant ship traveling at 3 knots might take two months—assuming smooth sailing.

But for the *Flame*, there was no such thing as headwinds, tailwinds, or calm seas. Acheronides controlled water spouts to propel the ship, like speeding across the ocean. Four hours later, they arrived at the location marked on the nautical chart. Liszt then summoned Fire Drake Rio, who soared into the sky to search for land.

The search went smoothly—it took only fifteen minutes to find the island, thanks to the increasing precision of their nautical charts.

Acheronides had been studying "astronomy" for a long time and, combined with telescope technology, developed a device to measure the angle between the sun or other celestial bodies and the sea or horizon. She also authored a book titled *Methods of Celestial Navigation and Light Measurement* to guide the application of this device.

Upon seeing this device, Liszt immediately claimed the naming rights: "Let's call it a sextant!" In fact, it was simply a fantasy-world equivalent of a sextant.

With the sextant, navigation became even more precise in determining a ship's position.

It practically eliminated the risk of getting lost at sea. Ships from the Flame Territory now relied on the sextant day and night, only resorting to the compass—a device similar to a compass but fixed to point 15 degrees west of north—on cloudy days.

No theory yet explained why it pointed in this direction.

"Acheronides, set course for 195 degrees—the island is ahead!" After locating the island, Liszt immediately contacted Acheronides. The "195 degrees" was Liszt's invention, dividing directional coordinates into 360 degrees based on the nautical compass to clearly indicate every bearing.

195 degrees meant a tad south of due west.

This invention originated from his experience playing *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* on Earth, where the 360-degree directional indicator made it easy to alert teammates about enemy positions.

However, before the *Flame* could approach the island,

Lucy and Ruth shouted, "Your Highness, Teacher! The magic comms has received a distress call—*Discovery* has encountered an unknown maelstrom and is being swallowed by the vortex! They're calling for help!"

Acheronides immediately demanded, "Coordinates! Bearing!"

Once the twins reported *Discovery*'s position, the *Flame* wheeled around, racing toward the spot where *Discovery* was located. They maintained communication via the magic comms, but *Discovery* was still struggling. *Explorer* and *Opportunity* were too far away to assist, leaving only the *Flame* to respond.

Unfortunately, by the time Acheronides corrected their heading and finally reached the vicinity of the maelstrom, *Discovery*'s signal had already vanished from the magic comms.

"Your Highness, Teacher..." Lucy said sorrowfully, "We can't detect *Discovery*'s signal anymore."

Liszt stepped onto the *Flame*'s forecastle, his mood grim, but he consoled himself, "Misfortune is inevitable in maritime exploration. They were founders of our kingdom, and the new kingdom will never forget their contributions." His gaze lifted toward the maelstrom, which seemed capable of swallowing the very sky and earth.

With Acheronides controlling the waterspout, the *Flame* slowly approached the maelstrom.

It was an enormous vortex with no visible edge. Even the Water-Calming Pearl couldn't disrupt its motion. The sea surface sloped sharply toward the distant center, a black, bottomless pit, its depths lost to sight.