Real life is different from strange stories. The biggest difference is that when you live in reality, you have to think about a lot of real and trivial details—like, do moving cursed dolls need joint maintenance? If Alice often takes apart her joints, will she end up falling apart while walking one day? Is the salted meat and hard cheese on the ghost ship expired?
Do superheroes, who fight evil forces at night after socializing during the day, actually get any sleep? Do the evil forces that fought with superheroes need to go grocery shopping?
Stories never tell you about these things. The characters in stories always appear like snow-white figures, coming and going like the wind. The cursed dolls in stories just need to pop out from a corner to scare people, just like the ghost ship captain never worries about having only century-old salted meat and hard cheese on board.
In reality, cursed dolls itch all over after soaking in seawater, and they have to figure out how to deal with the salt stuck in their joints even when taking a bath...
Standing outside the cabin, Duncan sighed, realizing that surviving on this ship for a long time requires more than just determination. He had to think about a lot of practical issues, especially after more crew members joined.
Duncan knew that the ghost ship didn't have a lot of supplies. It had an unlimited supply of fresh water, but that was about it. The food storage didn't automatically refill after it was used up, and the only things to eat were salted meat and hard cheese. Although they showed no signs of rotting due to the ship's special nature, Duncan reasonably suspected they had been stored for at least a century.
Besides that, there were no spare clothes for Alice, who was shaped like a doll (though she never mentioned needing any), and there was nothing to pass the time with—not even a chess set or a deck of cards.
The vast sea stretched endlessly, but it was hard for the ship to get real supplies from this wide ocean. The ship also didn't have a reliable "home port" to dock and rest, nor did it have any channels to connect with the civilized city-states on land.
The goat-headed man seemed to have never considered these issues, but Duncan was now seriously thinking about how to improve the ship's lack of supplies. Furthermore, he was considering how to establish contact with the city-states on land.
Drifting blindly at sea forever was an extremely inefficient way to explore. Information about this world had to be obtained from the land, and that was Duncan's deepest realization after "walking in the spirit realm."
Putting that aside, even for his own mental health, he needed to try to connect more with those city-states on land and engage with the civilized society of this world—otherwise, he really worried that after a long drift, he would turn into a twisted, gloomy, and reclusive ghost ship captain.
Thinking of this, Duncan slightly turned his head to look at the pigeon, Ai Yi, who was honestly perched on his shoulder, preening its feathers. His gaze landed on the brass compass on Ai Yi's chest.
The pigeon tilted its head to look at its "master" and suddenly said, "Open a base! Set up a mushroom blanket! Hey, do you know how to operate it?"
Duncan fell silent for a moment. This pigeon was often a bit neurotic, but its occasional comments were surprisingly on point, making him wonder if it was smarter than it seemed.
Right now, it seemed that walking in the spirit realm was the only feasible way to reach the city-states on land. Although this method had too many uncertainties and had led to mysterious surprises like "Ai Yi" after the last use, Duncan knew he would soon attempt to walk in the spirit realm again—not only to gather information from the land but also to quickly verify and master a very useful ability.
Equally important was Ai Yi's "special ability" to bring back a ritual dagger from faraway lands. If it could bring back one dagger, could it also bring back more things? What were the rules and limitations of this bird carrying items? Could this process be controlled by humans?
After thinking for a moment, Duncan decided to directly ask the pigeon, "Do you know how you brought that dagger back?"
The pigeon thought for a while and replied seriously, "You need more crystal ore."
Duncan: "..."
He decided to temporarily give up on communicating with this pigeon. It seemed more reliable to wait until the next time he attempted to walk in the spirit realm to try it out himself.
...
Inside the cabin, Alice finally figured out how to use the water pipe and roughly understood how to take a bath.
On the limited ghost ship, she could only take a cold shower, but for a doll, this was not really a problem. However, before jumping into the tub, Alice decided to greet everything in the cabin first.
She patted the huge oak barrel, knocked on the pillars supporting the cabin, kicked the floor with her toes, and reached up to touch the ropes and hooks hanging from the ceiling.
"Hello, I'm Alice," she cheerfully greeted these cold objects, just like she had greeted the goat-headed man before, "I will be living on this ship from now on."
Nothing in the cabin responded to her greeting, but Alice didn't mind at all.
The goat-headed man had said that the Lost Homeland was alive, and many things on this ship were alive too. Even though they didn't seem to have true "intelligence" like the goat-headed man and couldn't communicate, it didn't stop Alice from treating the entire Lost Homeland as a "neighbor" that needed a greeting.
The Lost Homeland was a living thing, and so was she.
Confident that her greeting was polite and appropriate, Alice felt even happier. Then she took off her fancy dress and awkwardly climbed into the oak barrel filled with water.
First step, wash her head—after all, the joint on her neck wasn't very sturdy.
Miss Doll thought her plan was very reasonable.
...
Late at night, the city-state of Prand finally ended a whole day of noise. Under the pale light of the night sky, this prosperous "pearl of the sea" gradually fell into a deep sleep.
But in the quiet darkness, there were watchmen keeping an eye on the sleeping city.
On the highest building in Prand, the "Big Clock Tower," a tall young woman with gray-white hair stood at the window, overlooking the city.
This woman had a beautiful face, but a noticeable scar crossed her left eye, making her look intimidating. She was taller than most men and wore silver-gray light armor and a battle skirt. She clearly had a well-trained body, with full and well-defined muscles. Beside her, within reach, was a giant sword that emitted a faint silver glow—the hilt was engraved with symbols of waves, and the blade shimmered like water.
Behind the woman, the sound of machinery echoed—inside the clock tower, the mechanism was running smoothly under the power of a steam engine. The complex and precise gears and linkages ran through the ceiling and floor, driving the four dials above and the astrological instrument hidden deep within the building.
From the sound, it was clear that this large and intricate machine was operating well, with no evil forces disturbing the sacred steam core.
However, Judge Vanna felt a vague unease in her heart, a bad premonition that something was about to happen or had already happened, and she felt powerless against it.
Footsteps approached from the stairs. The gray-haired woman turned at the sound and saw a priest in oceanic priest robes walking up from the staircase. The priest held a bronze censer, and clean smoke slowly swirled around him.
The priest approached the central mechanism column in the room, took down the old censer that had been hanging on the railing, and replaced it with a new one. He observed the smoke drifting from the censer, confirming that it floated freely around the moving gears and linkages, before quietly reciting the name of the storm goddess and turning to look at the gray-haired woman at the window.
"Good evening, Judge—are you on watch again?"
"I always have a bad feeling; it's been like this for the past few days—especially tonight."
"A bad feeling? About what?" The priest looked up, concern in his deep eyes. "Has the goddess sent you a warning?"
"It's not a clear message," the young female judge shook her head. "I just have a vague sense... that something is approaching this city."
(End of chapter)