Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Another Layer of Connection

In the eyes of the Rose Doll House’s shopkeeper, the most outstanding Dollmaster in this world was a Human named Lucretia Abnomar, the daughter of the famous “Captain Duncan”.

As soon as the old madam said this, the entire shop fell silent for several seconds. Then Duncan’s earth-shaking cough finally broke out. “Cough, cough, cough…”

“Guest, are you all right?” The shopkeeper was startled by Duncan’s reaction. Like every Elf who had dealt with short-lived races for many years, her face at once showed the worry that the Human in front of her might suddenly drop dead. “Do you need me to fetch a doctor?”

“Cough… I… cough, I’m fine,” Duncan finally managed to stop coughing. It still took him a moment before he could wave a hand at the old madam in front of him, because at the same time he also had to calm the cursed Doll on the Vanished, who had just been frightened by him. “I just choked on my own saliva. What did you just say? Lucreti…”

“Lucretia Abnomar, Mistress of the Radiant Star, one of Captain Duncan’s two children,” the shopkeeper said, wearing an expression that clearly said, “This all happened in just the last few decades. Why are you Humans so easily shocked?” “The most outstanding Dollmaster in the world…”

Duncan had just managed to catch his breath, but when he heard the old madam’s words, another mouthful of saliva went straight into his lungs. “Pft -”

At the same time, on the deck of the Vanished, Alice, who had just been frightened by Duncan’s violent coughing, was startled again by his shout of “Bloody hell!”. Miss Doll, holding a big basket of vegetables and fruit, stared at the captain, who was acting strangely today. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Duncan said after taking a breath, calming himself little by little. He had finally learned, after this period of practice, to control his two bodies skillfully, and now he had almost become flustered again. To keep from acting too strange in the city-state, he first waved at the Doll in front of him. “Go back to the cabin on your own for now. I have something to deal with.”

“Are you really all right?” Alice still looked over with doubt, Duncan’s face reflected in her pale violet eyes. “Do you want me to check your body, maybe pat your back so your breath will go down…”

“Do you know how?”

“Nope.”

“Then go, go, go!”

“Oh.”

After finally shooing away the silly Doll, Duncan quickly focused his attention back on the city-state of Pland. He raised his eyes and looked very seriously at the slightly plump old Elf madam in front of him. “That famous Captain Duncan… he is that legendary captain of the Vanished…”

“Shh, don’t just say that name out loud!” The shopkeeper quickly cut him off. “ordinary persons like you don’t know. If you casually speak the name of such a Great Terror and great curse, misfortune will cling to you! Be careful or that ship will come into your dreams!”

“…You’re right,” Duncan choked for a moment, forced down the strange feeling in his heart, and nodded. “That captain… not only has a daughter named Lucretia, but also has two children?”

“Yes. That was a hundred years ago. I’ve even seen the two of them. The son is named Tyrian Abnomar. Later he served as some kind of general under the Frostholm queen, but not long after that there was a rebellion in Frostholm. The kid took a group of people and became a pirate. The daughter is Lucretia Abnomar, the most outstanding Dollmaster…”

The old madam rambled on, then paused and sighed again. “But all that was many years ago, at least many years for Humans… In Pland, few people mention them anymore. Even in the Elven city-states, people do not dare speak casually about things related to that ship. But what is there to fear? Those two siblings were not like their father, who went mad. They are still fine and serving as captains now…”

“Wait!” Duncan’s eyes widened at once. “You’re saying the two of them are still alive?!”

“Alive, yes. They are said to be cursed by Subspace with undying immortality,” the old madam sighed. “They will probably live even longer than I will…”

Duncan: “…”

“Guest, are you really all right?” The shopkeeper, the old madam, finally could not help asking again. “Your face hasn’t looked right for a while. Do you dislike this topic? That’s normal. Most Humans don’t like to hear me say these things. They don’t even dare listen in broad daylight…”

“I dare listen, I dare,” Duncan came back to himself at that and quickly straightened his expression and posture. He almost stared burning holes into the shopkeeper in front of him. “Tell me a bit more about those two siblings. And you just said… you’ve seen both of them?”

“A century ago,” the old woman said slowly, with a tone of remembrance. “I was already running a shop on this street then. The two siblings came to buy things from me. Lucretia bought a one-third-scale Doll, and Tyrian paid. They were still young then, and their father… was still a normal Human. Oh, let’s not mention him. We can’t mention him.”

“Then more than ten years later, on the road to Lunsa to meet with colleagues, I saw Lucretia alone again. By then she had already become an outstanding Dollmaster and artificer… Her clockwork-driven automata were things even I could not make…”

The shopkeeper started rambling again, talking about stories that would already count as history for most Humans, but were only parts of a life of memories to her.

It seemed that no matter the race, older people liked to reminisce and ramble like this. Once someone gave them a start, such topics never ended.

Duncan’s feelings were still surging like waves, but his face was already calm. He listened carefully to every word the old woman said and stored all this shocking information in his mind without missing a single piece.

For the ordinary persons in the city-states, the cursed captain from a century ago and his cursed children could only be a distant story. But for an Elf who had lived here for several centuries, many so-called “secret histories” were just things she had seen in her early years. She spoke of many things related to Lucretia, and also mentioned Tyrian and his “Sea Mist” a few times.

However, she clearly did not know as much about Tyrian and the Sea Mist as she did about Lucretia.

“Tyrian Abnomar once served the Frostholm queen. That was half a century ago, not so far from now. Some older Humans have also heard about this,” the shopkeeper said casually. “But they’ve only heard about it. The city-states in the Frost Sea region were rather closed off decades ago and had limited dealings with Pland…”

Duncan felt his heart pounding. Of course he knew who the Frostholm queen was. There was even a life-sized Frostholm Queen Doll in his home that bounced around all day. But he had never thought that the queen who had been executed by rebels half a century ago would form another kind of connection with him like this – through a “firstborn son” whose existence he himself had only just learned about.

“The Frostholm rebellion half a century ago…” He chose his words carefully, trying his best to act like a normal guest who just liked gossip. “I’ve seen it in history books, but the writing is very vague…”

“That matter was vague to begin with,” the shopkeeper waved a hand. “They say it was tied to ‘that ship’. Who would dare record it clearly?”

“Tyrian Abnomar took his men and became a pirate after the Frostholm rebellion?” Duncan asked again. “Is he still active in the Frost Sea now?”

“Seems so,” the shopkeeper recalled. “Anyway, that’s what a fellow Elf who did business at sea told me more than twenty years ago.”

“Then… do Tyrian and Lucretia still stay in touch?”

“How would I know?” The shopkeeper waved her hand. “I’m just an ordinary old madam who runs a shop on a street in Pland. At most, I saw them once in my early years and just happen to remember a bit more than you Humans do. How could I know everything?”

“Well… that’s true.”

Duncan smacked his lips and realized he seemed a bit too concerned about this matter, so he wisely did not keep asking.

But the old woman across from him suddenly seemed to remember something. She stood up from behind the counter. “Ah, right. Speaking of Lucretia, I suddenly remembered something. It’s been kept here with me for many years. I wonder if you, Guest, would be interested?”

As she spoke, the shopkeeper walked to a low door in the corner by the stairs. She opened it and rummaged around in the storage room inside. After fussing around for quite a while, she finally took a box more than half a meter long from the very back of the storage room and set it on the counter.

“This is…” Duncan looked in confusion at the thing she had taken out.

“A Doll,” the old woman said with a kindly smile, carefully lifting the lid. “Her name is Nilu – do you remember what I just mentioned? Many years ago, Lucretia and her brother bought a Doll from my shop. But that Doll was actually one of a pair of sisters. The one she took away was a sister named ‘Lunie’. The one left here is named ‘Nilu’.”