This situation was just too strange, so in the end, Duncan couldn’t bring himself to eat the bowl of fish soup. After all, just thinking about how Miss Doll’s head had bobbed around in the pot made him feel like dinner was heading straight towards a horror movie vibe—especially since Alice’s usual cheerful style was a bit too shocking in this context.
Miss Doll looked a bit hurt as she gazed at the food Duncan had set aside, her hands clutching the lace on her clothes. “Captain, are you upset?”
Duncan, feeling exhausted, glanced at the doll. “If you’re unhappy about something on the ship, just tell me directly…”
“Ah? I’m not…”
“Then try not to go into the kitchen again…” Duncan said casually, but he quickly noticed Alice’s increasingly gloomy expression. He sighed and changed his tone, “Forget it, your intentions were good, and I’m actually happy about that. But cooking can lead to accidents if you’re not experienced. You’ll get better with practice.”
Alice perked up immediately. “So I can try again in the future?”
Duncan held back for a moment before finally nodding. “Just be careful.”
He had thought this through: this cursed doll clearly couldn’t stand just hanging around on the Lost Home. Maybe she really had some kind of “nature” that made her need to do things on the ship to feel at ease. Since she had thoughts and personality, Duncan felt he couldn’t always treat her harshly.
Compared to letting Alice continue to fight with ropes, anchors, and cannonballs, letting her help in the kitchen was definitely better—at least the pots and pans on the Lost Home were a bit more forgiving.
He looked down at the fish soup sitting beside him. To be fair, the soup actually smelled pretty normal. Even though the ship had limited spices, the cooking was spot on. And for a doll who didn’t even have taste buds or a digestive system, Alice had done quite well based on just a few theoretical tips she’d heard (from a goat head that also didn’t eat human food). It was impressive.
Two beings who didn’t eat human food managed to whip up a meal that humans could eat—what more could he ask for? Duncan thought as long as this doll was careful, she could handle kitchen duties—at least that meant he wouldn’t have to cook himself anymore.
“Then… Captain, should I make something else for you?” Alice’s voice interrupted Duncan’s thoughts. “I also learned how to grill fish and make fried fish fillets from Mr. Goat Head. We have the stuff in the kitchen…”
“Not right now, I’m not hungry,” Duncan shook his head. His body didn’t really need food that much; he usually just maintained three meals a day to keep up the habit of being “human.” At this point, Alice’s lovely soup had already killed his appetite for the day, so he stood up from the table. “I’m going to take a walk in the cabin.”
“You’re going to the cabin?” Alice paused, then her expression turned a bit tense as if she remembered something. “Can… can you check ‘down below’?”
“Down below?” Duncan frowned.
“Like the deeper chambers—the places I’m not allowed to go,” Alice explained. “I always hear strange creaking sounds from down there, and sometimes it sounds like someone is mumbling under the floor. Maybe you should check if there’s something going on down there?”
Seeing the slight worry on Miss Doll’s face, Duncan’s heart started to race.
The deeper parts of the Lost Home… that was a place he hadn’t explored yet!
It felt eerie and dangerous down there, and back then, he hadn’t been “at the helm” or mastered the spirit fire, so he had stopped at the entrance to the lower chambers during his previous explorations. Of course, he planned to explore further in the future, but right now, plans seemed to be changing.
Just then, Goat Head’s voice came from the side. “Ah, sounds like the bottom of the cabin is a bit restless. Captain, do you want to go check it out?”
Before Duncan could respond, Goat Head continued rambling. “Now that I think about it, it has been a long time since you checked down there. The bottom might need the captain’s reassurance. You know, it’s been soaking in the endless sea for a long time… Do you want to take your lantern? It’s still in the same place, right behind the door… You’ve been up top for a while, but the ones below have been making quite a racket. You wouldn’t believe how annoying they can be. I’m a quiet one; I can’t stand those creaking noises at night…”
Duncan silently glanced at Goat Head, who immediately fell silent.
Honestly, after hearing some of Goat Head’s comments, he felt even more uneasy about the strange bottom of the cabin—it sounded like it had been affected by the deeper parts of the endless sea and had turned into something quite “off” even for the Lost Home!
But that feeling of unease only lingered in his mind for less than a second.
He would have to explore the other parts of the Lost Home sooner or later, and it was better to go sooner rather than later… Logic told him that the sooner, the better.
The Lost Home was huge, not just in length but also in depth, with many layers in the cabin. So far, Duncan only knew about the upper structures of the ship—this included the deck area, the upper cabin below the deck, the ammunition storage, the cannon area, and the layer below that with the warehouse, fresh water tank, and some crew quarters. Based on his previous explorations, he could only imagine how vast the structures hidden in the darkness below those areas were.
Those structures were below the waterline, completely submerged in the endless sea.
Darkness, eeriness, echoing hollow winds or howls—the deeper he went, the stranger the environment on the Lost Home became.
Duncan didn’t know his own ship well enough—this situation couldn’t go on forever.
He was the captain of this ship; the Lost Home was his base, his stronghold in this world. He couldn’t be so clueless about his own territory—especially since he needed to understand the potential dangers of the Lost Home to survive in the strange and unusual endless sea.
Who knows what crises might arise tomorrow? Who knows if the Lost Home might suddenly collide with deep-sea creatures or the collapsing borders of reality?
Not to mention, Goat Head had just mentioned that the bottom needed the captain’s reassurance.
The “captain” hadn’t checked the lower cabin in a long time… If this continued, something bad might happen.
Duncan got up and found the lantern that Goat Head had mentioned behind the door.
It was quite an old lantern, with a copper frame shaped like a hexagonal prism that was wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. The glass lampshade was set into the copper frame, looking a bit cloudy, and inside the lampshade, Duncan couldn’t see anything resembling a wick.
He didn’t show any curiosity or ask Goat Head about it. After a brief and quiet moment of thought, he tried to activate the ghostly green spirit fire and infused that power into the lantern.
A bright green flame immediately leaped to life inside the lampshade, and the old lantern began to emit a steady glow.
Where the lantern shone, a cold atmosphere spread for some reason, but standing in this light, Duncan felt a strange sense of calm and control wash over him. He could vaguely sense his power spreading with the light, and in the illuminated area, every detail of things was clearly reflected in his mind.
Suddenly, the pigeon Ai Yi flew over and landed on Duncan’s shoulder.
It had transformed into the ghostly form of a spectral bird—though Duncan hadn’t actively “activated” the pigeon, it still passively completed its “transformation” under the lantern’s glow.
Duncan glanced at the lantern in his hand, thinking it might be a good item… It seemed to be able to spread his power to the surrounding environment with minimal loss and maintain a “force field.” This force field had functions of detection, warning, and even control, making it quite suitable for long-term exploration in unfamiliar or dangerous areas.
“Captain… can I go with you?”
Duncan turned around and saw Alice standing behind him, looking curiously at the lantern with an eager expression. “I’ve never been to the lower level! Mr. Goat Head said I couldn’t go down without your permission…”
Duncan thought for a moment and nodded slightly. “Sure.”
He didn’t know what was down in the cabin, but it was still part of the Lost Home. Given that he had successfully “taken the helm,” it shouldn’t be too dangerous down there, and bringing along this doll might even help him out.
Goat Head, who stayed behind at the navigation table, didn’t say anything, clearly thinking that it was quite normal for the captain to inspect the Lost Home—and bringing a helper along was just as normal.
Outside the cabin, night was gradually falling. The cold light of creation was shining on the sea, illuminating the empty deck of the ghost ship. The semi-transparent spectral sails billowed in the air, adjusting their angles without anyone steering them.
Holding the lantern, along with his sword and flintlock pistol, Duncan and Alice crossed the empty deck, went through the top two layers of the cabin, and descended the wooden stairs toward the depths of the Lost Home.
The stairs at the end of the crew quarters were where Duncan had previously stopped exploring.
A strange darkness loomed around the sloping staircase, and in that dimness, he could barely make out the supporting pillars and some wall structures.
“It’s really dark down here,” Alice said nervously, standing at the top of the stairs and looking into the dim environment below. “Aren’t there any lights down there? Other places have those everlasting oil lamps…”
“No, there is light down there,” Duncan replied slowly, holding the lantern. Under the power radiating from the lantern, he could finally see the situation below more clearly than before. “...But the light down there is black.”
“...Huh?” Alice paused, taking a while to process this. “There’s black light?”
Duncan didn’t respond right away; he just continued to walk slowly down the stairs with the lantern until Alice caught up with him. Then he softly said, “After all, we’re below the surface of the endless sea now.”
(End of Chapter)