This feeling is quite strange. Duncan can clearly sense things far away—he feels the Lost Homeland drifting on the vast sea, that ghost ship alive under the control of a goat-headed figure, constantly charting new paths on the map. Inside the cabin, a somewhat dim-witted cursed doll spins around, as if exploring the ship's environment. The deep, dark ocean slowly rises and falls around them, hiding countless bizarre things.
Yet in another part of his awareness, he is sitting in an antique shop in the lower district of Prand City. The sounds of people and vehicles from the street contrast sharply with the quietness inside the shop. A human girl named Nina sits across from him, nibbling on the cheapest cake in the lower district.
He is Captain Duncan, the master of the Lost Homeland, a moving disaster on the boundless sea—yet here he is, just like an ordinary person, enjoying his breakfast in the peaceful depths of the city.
He wonders if it's just his imagination, but he feels a part of him that has always been hanging in uncertainty is slowly settling down. It could be the long-tensed nerves from the ghost ship, or something else, but he thinks it’s not a bad thing.
Noticing a gaze from beside him, Nina suddenly looks up, curiosity in her eyes. "Uncle Duncan, aren't you eating?"
Duncan glances at the food on her plate. "Is that enough for you?"
"Yes, too much sweet food isn't good for you."
"Mm."
Duncan nods and takes a bite of the cake, savoring the rich taste he hasn't had in a long time. He feels the coarse sweetness slowly melting in his mouth—then he clearly senses this body starting to process the food he's eaten.
He feels a bit more at ease, knowing things are as he expected.
This body is more "usable" than the first one he temporarily occupied—its "parts" are intact, it hasn't been dead long, and his soul's takeover has almost seamlessly revived the life in this body. This is completely different from the previous open-hearted corpse.
He can breathe, blood flows, and his heart beats—though it seems a bit slower, it should still be within the normal range.
He shouldn’t worry about the body decaying, and he’s saved from the trouble of soaking it in preservatives. Plus, this makes it harder to expose himself in front of ordinary people.
However, there’s one thing Duncan isn’t quite sure about.
He knows this body must have some illness—among the memories he absorbed, the negative impressions of being seriously ill are deeper than all the others. The strong liquor and painkillers he found in the cabinet are proof of that.
He doesn’t know what disease this body had before, as the timing and causes seem to be memories from long ago, now blurred. But one thing is clear: at this moment, aside from the weakness that comes with an ordinary human body, he doesn’t feel anything wrong with it.
Has the illness disappeared? Has this body healed due to his journey in the spirit world? Or is it that the soul projected here has limitations in perception, so he doesn’t feel any issues, while the body’s health is actually still deteriorating?
As Duncan ponders, he continues to eat quietly, then suddenly looks at Nina, who is eating across from him. "Don’t you have school today?"
Nina lives in the lower district, where the economic conditions aren’t great, but Prand City has clearly developed to a point where basic education is more accessible. She currently attends a school run by the church and the city hall, focusing on steam machinery—a kind of vocational school aimed at training skilled steam craftsmen for factories and churches.
Half of Nina’s tuition is paid by her uncle, while the other half comes from city hall subsidies.
For a city that has reached the industrial age, even training craftsmen with official subsidies is quite worthwhile. It’s undeniable that such targeted schools have at least solved the literacy problem for commoners.
Nina is eager to learn, and in her uncle’s memories, she has performed well in all her classes.
"I don’t have classes this morning," Nina nods, "I only have two history classes in the afternoon. Also, I need to tell Mrs. White that I won’t be staying in the dormitory for the next few days..."
Duncan suddenly stops his actions and looks seriously at Nina. "Don’t you think staying here to take care of someone like me will delay a lot of things? You could stay at school long-term, which might be better for your studies."
Nina is taken aback, staring blankly at her "Uncle Duncan." Then she suddenly gets angry. "You shouldn’t say that! You’re just sick; just follow the doctor’s advice and take your medicine—my parents entrusted you to me..."
"It was your parents who entrusted you to me," Duncan corrects her seriously, organizing his words from the memories in his mind. "You were only six years old back then."
"But now I’m seventeen," Nina pouts, stabbing the last small piece of cake with her fork. "You can’t even take care of yourself as well as I can. If I really moved out, you’d make a mess of the room in just three days. In fact, you could let me help manage the shop; at least clean up a bit. The display window is so dirty you can barely see through it..."
Duncan listens to the girl’s lecture, feeling a bit helpless. He didn’t expect that a casual comment would provoke such a strong reaction from her.
But slowly, he can’t help but smile.
He feels a warmth from this girl named Nina… a warm feeling, like basking in the sun.
"Alright, I was just saying that," he shakes his head while stirring the last bit of soup in his bowl. "So, you have history class in the afternoon… how’s your history class been lately?"
"Uncle Duncan, are you really okay?" Nina’s eyes widen in surprise. "You’ve never… well, at least not in the past two years have you ever asked me about school."
Duncan opens his mouth, about to say something, but the girl continues on her own. "We’ve been talking about ancient history lately. Mr. Morris is teaching us about the events after the Great Cataclysm… honestly, it’s quite interesting. Ancient history sounds like it has many parts that are like stories, much more interesting than modern history."
Duncan thinks for a moment, looking serious. "Sounds like you’re doing well? Let me quiz you then. What are the concepts related to the Great Cataclysm?"
Today, Uncle Duncan seems a bit strange. It’s hard to say why, but he’s definitely different from usual.
But Nina doesn’t think too much about it—she’s just happy that Uncle Duncan is finally showing some spirit and seems to be in a good mood.
She’s excited that Duncan’s question happens to be about something she just learned.
With a proud smile, she begins to tell Duncan about her newfound knowledge:
"The Great Cataclysm happened about ten thousand years ago—although for some unknown reason, minority groups like elves, the Senjin people, and the Giplo people record inconsistent times in their calendars, the archaeological community generally agrees that the Great Cataclysm occurred at the end of the Order Era, ten thousand years ago..."
Duncan listens calmly.
His mind is full of questions.
Elves? Senjin people? Giplo people? What’s going on here? Are there other intelligent races besides humans on land? And are elves… the same as the "elves" he understands? Is there really an elven city-state living in the steam industrial age in the boundless sea?
Strange images flash through his mind, while Nina’s voice continues to come from across the table:
"...Different city-states have varying records of the Great Cataclysm, but a common part is that the Order Era before the Cataclysm was a time far more prosperous, stable, and safe than today. There was a vast continent, and the ocean didn’t stretch endlessly like it does now; there were no so-called 'real borders' at the ends of the ocean and land...
"The era after the Great Cataclysm is called the 'Deep Sea Era,' which continues to this day, with no signs of ending. The most notable feature of the Deep Sea Era is that the boundless sea covers almost the entire world, leaving less than one-tenth of the land from the old era, which is now divided into many islands or 'mists of other realms.' Many current city-states are built on relatively stable islands, and various ocean-going ships have become the means for islands to connect and communicate.
"In the early Deep Sea Era, the remnants of the old world suffered heavy losses, and almost all old civilizations were destroyed. The first civilization to rise from the ruins, the 'Ancient Kingdom of Crete,' is the earliest known ancestor of civilization in the Deep Sea Era.
Though this ancient kingdom lasted less than a hundred years, it left behind a wealth of legacies that profoundly influenced later generations, including the most primitive and rudimentary classification methods for many anomalies and phenomena in the Deep Sea Era, as well as a wealth of valuable experiences for survival in this new age..."
(End of Chapter)