A doll, so exquisitely lifelike that Duncan almost couldn't tell it apart from a real person, lay quietly in a luxurious wooden box. It looked like a lady asleep in a coffin, waiting for someone to wake her. Duncan truly felt that she might wake up at any moment.
But that was just an illusion. The doll lay still in the box, showing no reaction to the surroundings.
Duncan cautiously observed this strange "thing." A doll itself wasn't unusual, but its eerily realistic appearance and the coffin-like box made him instinctively sense danger. Considering how this box mysteriously appeared on the Lost Home, it was no wonder he felt wary.
After watching for a long time, Duncan finally confirmed that the fancy Gothic doll inside the box wouldn't suddenly jump up to surprise him. He let out a small sigh of relief and then frowned as he asked the goat-headed creature, "What do you think is going on here?"
"This should be the important cargo that the previous ship was escorting," the goat head replied immediately. Although it had previously claimed not to recognize the strange wooden box that appeared on deck, its experience with maritime matters was clearly richer than Duncan's as a pretend captain. "The box has symbols pointing to the divine, and there are pins around it for securing chains. This might indicate it was once in a sealed state—transporting sealed items across the endless sea is a very risky business. That ship seems to have some background."
"Sealed?" Duncan's eyelids twitched involuntarily. He then looked at the box lid he had fully opened. It had been broken when he arrived on the Lost Home, which was why he could easily push it. Although he didn't understand anything about seals, he believed that this item's seal had definitely failed. "So this thing is dangerous?"
"It is dangerous for fragile ordinary people, but I don't think it poses any threat to you—such 'abnormalities' that can be sealed by special techniques cannot resist Captain Duncan's power."
Duncan fell silent, his expression serious, but his mind was racing.
The goat head's flattery sounded quite nice—if he really were "Captain Duncan," he might have believed it. But he wasn't, and he felt quite anxious.
Because the goat head's words had clearly stated that the doll lying in the coffin was a "dangerous item!" It simply didn't pose a threat to the real captain!
Even though he was currently bearing the name of Captain Duncan and seemed to occupy the other person's body with some power, "Zhou Ming" was quite self-aware—he didn't think this would make him like the "real Captain Duncan."
He still knew too little about this world, this ship, and even about his current body.
Moreover, he keenly noticed a new strange term in the goat head's earlier words—"abnormality."
Abnormality meant something out of the ordinary. It sounded like a very common word, but the goat head's emphasis made him vaguely realize that this term seemed to have a special meaning here.
Perhaps, in this world, the term "abnormality" referred not only to something "beyond the usual," but also specifically to a certain type of thing? Like... a doll lying in a coffin.
Unfortunately, he had no suitable reason to ask about what should be common knowledge.
After reflecting that he needed to be cautious in gathering information and accumulating knowledge, Duncan frowned and took one last look at the doll, as if he had made a certain decision: "I should throw it back into the sea."
As he said this, he felt a hint of hesitation, especially when looking at the doll. This hesitation was particularly obvious.
It wasn't simply because "the doll is beautiful." It was because... "she" looked too much like a living person asleep in a coffin. When he thought about throwing her back into the sea, Duncan even felt like he was throwing a living person off the ship.
But this hesitation ultimately strengthened his resolve.
Because he already knew that this world had many strange and bizarre things—though so far, he had only encountered the Lost Home, he had already seen a talking goat head, a mast that could raise sails by itself, an everlasting ship lantern, and that strange, dangerous sea, the haunting spirit world, and the endless sea mist...
Just moments ago, he had encountered a mechanical ship transporting sealed items across this bizarre sea, and the thing it was "escorting" had somehow ended up on the deck of the Lost Home.
As a rational and cautious person, he couldn't keep something that looked beautiful but likely contained strange and dangerous powers just because of its appearance.
Regretful as it was, Duncan firmly closed the lid of the "coffin" again. Feeling uneasy, he found some nails and a hammer in the cabin and carefully secured the coffin with a circle of iron nails.
Finally, he pushed the "coffin" containing the doll to the edge of the deck.
The goat head's voice reached his ears: "You can dispose of your spoils as you wish, but I still humbly suggest that you don't need to be so cautious. The Lost Home hasn't gained any spoils in a long time..."
"Shut up." Duncan cut off the goat head's chatter.
The goat head fell silent, and Duncan kicked the "coffin" hard, sending it directly into the sea.
The heavy wooden box fell straight down from the edge of the deck, landing in the now-normal-colored sea with a dull thud before floating back up, gradually drifting toward the stern of the Lost Home.
Duncan watched the box float away until it was completely blocked from view by the ship's rear, then he let out a small sigh of relief. He looked up again and saw that the mist on the sea surface had completely dissipated, and the blue sea was gently rolling around the Lost Home.
The ship had completely left the "spirit world" and returned to the real dimension.
Nearby, there was no sign of the mechanical ship that had briefly crossed paths with the Lost Home.
Duncan frowned slightly, quickly estimating the time that had passed since the two ships crossed and their respective speeds.
Given the current situation on the sea, that ship shouldn't have disappeared from sight so quickly.
"...Is this also because of this strange sea? Or is it related to the so-called 'spirit world navigation'?"
Duncan pondered this in his mind, but soon his attention was drawn to something else—
He saw a ray of golden light suddenly break through the thick dark clouds that had never dispersed above the sea.
Bright golden sunlight gradually filled the area, as if an invisible hand was sweeping away the heavy curtain of clouds. The dark sea, shrouded for who knows how long, was slowly being illuminated by the sunlight—Duncan stood at the bow of the Lost Home, wide-eyed, watching the scene of the clouds dissipating. In that moment, he felt an inexplicable emotion.
Since learning of the existence of "this side" days ago and exploring this strange ship for the first time, the unyielding dark clouds had always overshadowed the entire ocean, making him almost believe that this world had no sunlight, that it was forever shrouded in clouds.
He had been away from sunlight for too long. Even on the other side, in Zhou Ming's apartment, the thick fog outside had long blocked the sun.
But now, the endless sea had cleared.
After being away from sunlight for so long, he finally felt the warmth of the sun in this world.
Duncan instinctively took a deep breath and opened his arms toward the shining light. The heavy clouds seemed to respond, quickly dissipating and fading away. In the moment when the light was most dazzling, a massive sphere, surrounded by countless twisted golden light streams, appeared before Duncan's eyes.
All of Duncan's expressions froze as he opened his arms to welcome the sunlight.
He stared wide-eyed at the sky. The sunlight was blinding, but not nearly as harsh as he was used to. He could clearly see the object hanging in the sky, its surface appearing to be covered with countless intricate patterns. He saw the brilliant light streams radiating from it and, against the backdrop of the intertwining light, two circular structures slowly rotating in concentric circles around the central sphere.
Duncan squinted his eyes. He vaguely discerned that those two rings seemed to be connected by countless dense and complex runes, as if some supreme power had inscribed an eternal binding in the heavens, imprisoning the "sun" in the sky.
Duncan couldn't embrace the sunlight he had longed for.
This world had no sunlight at all.
"What is that?" he whispered, his voice low and somewhat cold.
"That is, of course, the sun, Captain," the goat head replied calmly as always.
(The end of this chapter)