Chapter 97: Chapter 101: Open-minded Alice
Duncan watched Alice with an expressionless face, as if he were looking at an idiot.
The historical echo in his mind had not yet completely dissipated, the calm yet penetrating gaze of the Frost Queen from half a century ago still occupied his mind—but this residual image, which should have provoked a flurry of thoughts, now ran smack into Alice, the idiotic doll, shattering into pieces and gradually transforming into a farcical figure amidst her “bobbling” head movement.
After staring for a long time, Duncan finally couldn’t help himself, “…What are you doing?”
“Ah! Captain!” Only then did Alice belatedly realize, and she quickly propped up her head to look at Duncan, “Oh, I always felt like there were a few strands of hair caught inside my neck joint…”
Duncan, expressionless, “If you keep pulling at it, you’ll have to come up with a new name for the new hair.”
“I’ve already thought of one! If they fall out, I’ll call them the Williams family…”
Duncan had to exert great effort to control his expression and restrain himself from throwing the doll out of the cabin.
After a few seconds, he finally sighed deeply, his mind gradually calming down.
To be fair, Alice’s presence had indeed brought a bit of a joyful atmosphere to the dreary Homeloss, but sometimes it was just too much joy… Even Goat Head couldn’t keep up with the doll’s rhythm at times, and Duncan was mostly baffled by the structure of the thing’s head.
It might as well be solid.
Duncan’s gaze swept over Alice, and he couldn’t help but recall what he had seen in that dark space… the “echo.” He grew serious as the details of that echo made him frown slightly.
He was certain—it was the Frost Queen, Lei Nora, executed by the rebels half a century ago, the “prototype” of the doll Alice, mentioned in the background details of anomaly 099; he had seen that “execution” scene, and the trigger was undoubtedly derived from the “Spiritual Body Coffin” in front of him.
The flame of the Spiritual Body had established a connection between him and the coffin.
But what was the nature of those images? Was the “coffin” consciously telling him something? Were they “images” passively recorded? Memories of anomaly 099? Were they actual historic fragments, or were they a distorted, amended “illusion”?
His mind conjured the calm gaze of the young queen looking at him, remembering her soft plea—
“Whoever you are, please do not contaminate history.”
Who was that statement meant for? Was it really meant for him? Did that phrase actually transcend time and space? Or was it just an illusion created by the coffin, reacting to his own “visit”? And after the queen said those words, there was a slightly startled voice below the guillotine, asking who she was speaking to…
The consecutive reactions were so real it was almost chilling.
As for the end of the “echo,” the voices that came from the darkness also particularly intrigued Duncan.
The Frost Queen was executed by the rebels, and one of her “crimes” was “attempting to bring the Homeloss into the real world” and “building a second Homeloss,” as well as a “Deep Abyss” plan, which seemed to have also led to the queen’s abandonment by her allies… But he had never heard Goat Head mention these things!
Goat Head often boasted to him about the “great deeds of the Homeloss,” like how many ships it swallowed on which route, how much commotion it caused in which City-State—even though eight out of ten of his stories were not reliable. But if a City-State ruler had ever “colluded” with the Homeloss, he would have mentioned it long ago—Goat Head could make up three thousand words about nothing, let alone such a big matter!
Unless… that story was false, a crime fabricated by the rebels against the queen.
“Captain? Captain, are you alright?”
Alice’s voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Duncan’s wild thoughts.
Duncan exhaled softly, forcibly suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind, and glanced at Alice, trying to find a trace of the Frost Queen, Lei Nora. But he shook his head shortly after, “It’s nothing, I just saw a bit of ‘record’ preserved in the coffin.”
“Record?” Alice asked with widened eyes, curious, “What kind of record is it?”
“The moment the Frost Queen was beheaded, half a century ago,” Duncan said indifferently, “I saw her—indeed identical to you.”
Alice instinctively touched her neck, the doll miss unsure whether to feel nervous or to think it’s nothing unusual, struggled for a while before finally managing to say, “Could it be that I’m really that Frost Queen? That I didn’t die after being beheaded but was transformed by Transcendent powers into my current form?”
Duncan thought for a long time and spoke honestly, “If you remain silent, motionless, and just lie quietly in this box, I might indeed think so.”
Alice responded, then didn’t quite catch on.
However, she quickly dismissed this doubt from her mind and seriously looked at her own “Spiritual Coffin.” “So, after you burned it with… ‘fire,’ did it undergo any changes? Did you successfully control it?”
Duncan then refocused his attention on the wooden box and carefully sensed the residual connection between himself and the box.
The fire had receded, yet the traces left by the flames were permanent.
In his intangible perception, he could clearly “see” the mark he left in the Spiritual Coffin and feel the delicate strands of connection between him and it. This was somewhat similar to his link with the mutated Sun Emblem, but even more complex and subtle.
Putting aside the huge mystery brought about by the information recorded in the Spiritual Coffin, he had indeed established a connection with it. However, unlike the structurally simple Sun Emblem, he was clueless about how to control the Spiritual Coffin.
He couldn’t even sense the existence of an option to “control” it.
He could only be sure of one thing: The Spiritual Coffin was now very stable, very… “tame.”
After the touch of flame, it seemed to have been completely “tamed,” just like… a part of Homeloss.
“I’m not sure, perhaps we need further testing to know if it’s safe, and then more tests to determine whether the ‘Beheading’ effect originates from the Spiritual Coffin or you,” Duncan shook his head, “But from what I can feel now, it’s very ‘subdued,’ just like the other items on Homeloss…”
As he spoke, he turned to look at the doll beside him.
“The key now is you—do you feel anything abnormal?”
Alice curiously pointed at herself, “Me? I don’t feel anything, why do you ask?”
“You and your wooden box were originally one entity, you together are ‘Anomaly 099.’ Now that I’ve usurped the Spiritual Coffin’s permissions with fire, you, this doll, might be affected,” Duncan looked at Alice earnestly; he knew the doll responded slowly and thus had gradually grown accustomed to explaining things clearly to her, “Move your body, and tell me if anything feels off.”
It was only then that Alice realized what was happening and hastily got up to check herself. She ran around the room twice and then jumped in place. Finally, she returned to the front of the box and beckoned to her Spirit Coffin.
The wooden box didn’t move an inch.
“It… it’s not obeying!” Alice exclaimed in shock, finally noticing a major issue, “Before, it would float up whenever I commanded it to!”
Duncan’s heart stirred—at the moment Alice beckoned to the wooden box, he indeed felt the Spiritual Coffin respond, but…
The Spiritual Coffin was waiting for his command.
His eyebrows twitched suddenly, and he felt a bit embarrassed, “Possibly… after the encounter with the fire of the Spiritual Body, the Spiritual Coffin now sees me as a higher-leveled ‘master’.”
Alice stared dumbfounded at the captain in front of her, and then her expression visibly began to show hurt feelings.
“But no worries, I can lift my own restrictions on it,” Duncan saw the doll’s pitiful expression and felt even more embarrassed, quickly waving his hand, “It will still obey your commands.”
Alice paused, then turned again to beckon to her wooden box—this time, she finally saw it respond to her commands as usual.
Miss Doll immediately beamed with joy. After letting the box fall back to the ground, she immediately threw herself onto its lid, “That’s great! I thought you were going to be disobedient from now on!”
With a nuanced expression, Duncan watched as Miss Doll swiftly transitioned through her emotions, and after a long pause, he managed to say, “Sometimes… I really envy your carefree attitude towards life.”
After hearing the captain’s words, Alice gave a puzzled look, took a while to react, and still didn’t quite understand…
“Never mind, as long as you’re happy,” Duncan sighed, “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” Alice looked down at herself, “I don’t feel uncomfortable at all, and… I even feel like it’s better than before?”
“Better than before?”
“Can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel… relaxed? And there’s a feeling of peace and security?” Alice thought for a moment, trying hard to find the words to describe her feelings, “It’s kind of like the peace I felt lying inside the box, but now I’m standing outside the box, and I feel just as secure…”
As Doll voiced her thoughts, she didn’t wait for Duncan to analyze and dismissed her own concerns with a nonchalant wave of her hand, “It doesn’t matter, it’s not a bad thing anyway!”