Chapter 164

Chapter 164: No One Answered the Call

Alice left in a good mood. It even looked like she could stay happy for many days. Duncan stayed alone on the deck, looking at the wooden box that held “Nilu”.

He controlled the “avatar” located in the city-state of Pland and left the Upper City. He was now riding a bicycle back to the antique shop. Before leaving that doll shop, he had talked with the old madam shopkeeper about many things related to Lucretia and Tyrian, but he did not gain anything more.

As the shopkeeper herself had said, she was only an ordinary citizen, just one whose life lasted longer than that of humans and who had personally seen some events many years ago. Aside from a brief meeting back then and some hearsay, she actually did not know much about those two “descendants of Duncan”.

On the Vanished, Duncan was lost in thought.

To his surprise, this body even had a pair of children, and they were still alive. From the sound of it, that pair of siblings were not ordinary people. One had once sworn loyalty to the queen of Frostholm and had now become the greatest pirate lord of the Frost Sea. The other had long drifted along the border of the civilized world, doing all kinds of mysterious explorations, and was respectfully called the “witch of the sea” by captains.

Such a pair of “children” only made Duncan feel troubled, and a little nervous.

Right now he was “Captain Duncan” of the Vanished, and it seemed he would have to remain “Captain Duncan” for the foreseeable future. So he had to find a way to maintain this identity. But if one day in the future… he really met that pair of siblings, what should he do?

Should he act like a kind father with dutiful children? Or should he act cold and ruthless? Should he greet them, or should he walk past them with an icy nod?

According to the shopkeeper, a hundred years ago Tyrian and his sibling had a “falling-out” with their father. After some mysterious “family dispute”, the Sea Mist and the Radiant Star parted ways with their flagship, the Vanished. That was all the world knew.

But what exactly had happened back then, probably only those three people knew.

Duncan let out a soft sigh.

Whatever the truth back then, one thing seemed certain: his relationship with that pair of siblings could not be the warm, filial bond between father and child. If they really met, it would be safer to lean harder toward the “unfortunate family” side of things…

He bent down and picked up the wooden box that held “Nilu”. On the velvet lining inside, the doll maiden, only a few dozen centimeters tall, lay quietly. This little thing, born a hundred years ago, was now a new “member” of the Vanished.

“Was ‘she’ really connected to Lucretia? Or did Lucretia still keep, by her side, the doll named ‘Lunie’ that she had bought a hundred years ago?”

Duncan had not thought much when he bought Nilu. But now his thoughts began to stir. Holding the wooden box, he returned to the captain’s cabin.

Goathead was at the wheel like always. As soon as Duncan opened the door, Goathead’s noisy voice rang out at once: “Ah! The great captain has returned to his loyal captain’s cabin. It seems you brought many supplies from the city-state. Your loyal—etcetera—cares very much about the food on board. If you do not mind, I shall personally guide Miss Alice to become a proper…”

“Shut up. Stop messing around with that doll over the recipes. I don’t want my next meal to look like a pot of Abyssal demons’ vomit.” Duncan glared at Goathead. “Where are we now, and how far are we from Pland?”

“Oh, we are still heading for Pland at full speed, and we have already made several successful Spirit Realm boosts on the way—like skipping stones along the edge of the Mortal Realm. Now the Vanished is only ten days away from that city-state,” Goathead said at once, sounding pleased. “I guess before long, you will feel a clear rush of strength when you walk in the Spirit Realm. The Vanished’s influence will become your greatest help when you move around inside the city-state…”

Duncan looked quietly at Goathead. Goathead stopped his babbling, stayed silent for two seconds, then suddenly added: “A loyal First Mate always understands his captain best.”

“Good.” Duncan nodded and walked toward his cabin with the box in his hands. Soon he stopped again. Words turned quickly in his mind, and at last, with a calm face, he asked in a casual tone: “Tell me, if Tyrian and Lucretia saw me again, how would they react?”

This was a test he had chosen after careful thought. It was the most normal-sounding question he could come up with, one that would not arouse suspicion yet could still give him some information.

He did not ask Goathead what he thought of those siblings, because that kind of question would sound too stiff. He also did not ask about what had happened between those siblings and the Vanished in the past, because that would expose his own situation. The question he finally chose fit his identity better and matched the way he and Goathead usually talked.

Goathead clearly froze for a moment. His voice stayed hesitant for a long time before it reached Duncan’s ears: “You mean… your children… Sorry, Captain, I do not know if I should speak about your family matters, since you rarely mention them to me. But if I have to say it, if I have to say…”

The usually quick-tongued Goathead stammered several times before he finally went on: “If I have to say it, I think we might have another fight with Tyrian, just like back in Frostholm. After all, he always likes to solve problems with cannons. As for Miss Lucretia… she would probably stay far away…”

Duncan neither agreed nor disagreed, but suddenly he realized two things.

First, he remembered that Goathead had once mentioned that the Vanished had “fought a battle” near the city-state of Frostholm. That battle had actually been with Tyrian!

Second, Goathead’s first reaction was strange, and he had even stressed that Duncan rarely talked to him about those siblings. From that line, did it mean this Goathead had never actually spent time with those siblings? Did he only know about them from what Duncan had “told” him?

Hadn’t this guy been on the Vanished from the very beginning?!

Duncan’s gaze narrowed a little, but nothing showed on his face. He only nodded to show he had heard Goathead’s answer, then calmly kept walking and went back to his cabin.

The heavy oak door closed behind him, blocking Goathead’s view from the room with the enchanted sea chart and letting Duncan’s mood slowly calm down.

He let out a long breath, took “Nilu” out of the wooden box, and placed her on his desk. He stared at the doll for several minutes, then greeted her: “Hello, my name is Duncan.”

The doll, of course, did not respond.

She really was just a doll.

Duncan suddenly felt a bit foolish. He gave an awkward smile and thought to himself: [Good thing no one on this ship has the guts to peek into the captain’s cabin.] Then he opened the drawer at his side and took out an item.

It was a small, delicate hair clip shaped like waves and feathers.

This was an “old item” that Alice had dug out from the ship’s cabin.

Duncan quietly let his gaze rest on the little hair clip. As before, that strange feeling of nostalgia slowly spread from deep inside him.

It felt like the only strand of “humanity” left by the original master of this body, a faint fragment of emotion that still remained in his heart.

“This really is probably Lucretia’s…” Duncan murmured to himself. “Was it a gift he never managed to give her, or the only keepsake she left on this ship after she left…”

He slowly picked up the hair clip and turned it gently under the sunlight. The sunlight came through the window and made the silver edge of the hair clip shine.

A small cluster of green flames spread from Duncan’s fingertips and, in the blink of an eye, engulfed the hair clip. Then the flames flowed through the air and wrapped around the doll Nilu.

Duncan calmed his mind and tried to feel whether there was any supernatural power left inside these two objects, or even the slightest “connection” that pointed toward some far-off place.

However, the flames soon faded. The doll and the hair clip showed no reaction.

Was it because they really were ordinary mortal objects? Or was it because Lucretia was now at the border of the civilized world, so far away that whatever “connection” remained in these two things had grown too weak for even the fire of the spirit form to catch?

Duncan frowned and let the flames spread out again. At the same time, with a feeling he could not even explain to himself, he tried calling out: “Lucretia… Lucy?”

He used the nickname for the name Lucretia—maybe the bond built by that nickname would be a little stronger than the formal name?

Nothing happened.

Duncan waited for a long time and, in the end, could only put out the flames in disappointment.

At the same time, in a distant border region at the eternal edge of The Veil, the clockwork doll “Lunie” suddenly stopped while she was wiping a table.

Inside this Engineering Construct that Lucretia had personally modified countless times, and that now almost counted as an Alchemical Lifeform, there came a sharp howl of gears and bearings spinning wildly, followed by a series of grating creaks.

With a click, the clockwork key on Lunie’s back popped out and fell to the floor. Her alloy-reinforced arms drooped stiffly, and a wisp of pale smoke slowly rose from the gap in the back of her maid shell…