Chapter 246

Chapter 246: Warm Days

Ever since the ancient kingdom of Critt vanished, Vision-001 had risen from the Sea of Blood, taking the place of the Sun of the Old Era and shining upon this world in the age of the Deep Sea.

For ten thousand years, this huge luminous core ran as if it were eternal. It not only brought light and heat to the world, but also gave daytime its stable order. Without it, there would be no city-state civilization as it now existed. The entire world would have been shrouded in terrible Eternal Night, and the mortal beings who had lost the protection of the ancient kingdom of Critt would probably have faded away in some distant age without a sound.

No one ever thought that Vision-001 would one day go wrong, just as no one ever stopped to wonder whether the Boundless Sea might someday dry up.

Yet now it seemed that this “eternal” Sun was not truly eternal.

First, sunrise was delayed by fifteen minutes. Then, a tiny gap appeared on the rune rings, almost too small for the naked eye to see. All these unsettling signs pointed to one thing: the lifespan of Vision-001 was actually limited.

Duncan stood beside the shop window, silently watching the bright daylight spill over the street, while his tangled thoughts churned like a storm.

He knew he was not the only one to notice the Sun’s abnormality. There were many clever people in the world. An ordinary person might not pay attention to the changes above their head, but in every city-state, within the authorities and the Church, there were certainly people watching the world’s greatest Vision at all times. By now, someone must have noticed the changes in the Sun. What would they think? How would they respond? Did anyone know what had really happened?

He also thought of those deranged Suntists, the ones who worshiped the ancient, true Sun. They spent all day muttering that Vision-001 in the sky was a sinful “False Sun,” and that the Sun would one day fall. Did they know the Sun really was having problems?

Or were the changes in Vision-001 actually related to those Suntists and the Sun-spawn behind them?

To be fair, Duncan did not think much of those Suntists. In his eyes, whether it was an ordinary cultist or a somewhat stronger Sun-spawn, they were all about the same—ready to explode at the slightest spark. But the great fire in the city-state of Pland had reminded him that while ordinary cultists might not amount to much, the “Creeping Sun Wheel” behind them held a very high rank. On top of that, there was the group of elusive Enders stirring up the waters, and bizarre, insidious things like historical corruption and Mortal Realm overlays that no one could easily guard against. Who could say for sure that those Suntists did not have the ability to affect the operation of Vision-001?

Duncan let his thoughts wander for a long time and finally decided that he still needed to get in touch with Vanna when he had the chance. She was a high-ranking member of the Church and should be very clear about the Church’s movements. He could discuss the matter of the Sun with her.

At the same time, he could show a bit of goodwill and prove that he cared about public security in the city-state.

Of course, next time he went over, he had to remember to knock.

Thinking this, Duncan split off a portion of his attention to check on the situation at the great Cathedral. Then he suddenly froze.

He sensed that Tyrian had left the great Cathedral and was moving toward the southern part of the Upper City.

After roughly confirming Tyrian’s direction, Duncan frowned slightly.

He thought of another part of his plan.

After a brief moment of thought, he raised his head and looked toward the counter.

Alice was leaning over next to Shirley, gripping a pencil and writing very, very seriously in a notebook of blank white paper.

Bright sunlight was shining through the antique shop’s glass window, slipping past the old-fashioned displays on the shelves to pour into the shop. sunlight fell on the golden-haired doll’s shoulders, as if coating Alice in a warm, gentle glow. sunlight also fell on the counter and the doll’s pen tip, giving the entire scene an indescribable softness and hint of mystery.

If this had been an oil painting, it would have needed a name—something like: A Beautiful Doll Writing Quietly in the Warm Afternoon sunlight.

Even Duncan was a little dazed by this perfectly timed play of light and shadow. He walked over and glanced down, and saw that Alice was earnestly copying some letter or another. Who knew where she had started writing it wrong; by now, the entire sheet was covered with little circles packed together into a solid mass.

Noticing the captain coming close, Alice immediately stopped. She happily held up the notebook to show Duncan: “Mr. Duncan, look at what I wrote~”

Duncan: “…”

He held back for a long moment, looking at Alice’s simple, joyful smile, with the image of that oil painting still lingering in his mind. In the end, he could not bring himself to voice his doubts. He only managed to keep his face straight and give a stiff nod: “There… is progress.”

Even though he could not tell what it was supposed to be.

Alice was delighted. It seemed she needed only that single bit of praise. Then she looked into Duncan’s eyes with curiosity: “Do you have something for me to do?”

Duncan was taken aback: “How did you know I had something I wanted you to do?”

“You always look like this when you have something for me,” Alice said, gesturing at her own face. She seemed to be trying to imitate Duncan’s expression just now, though no one could really understand her performance. “What do you want me to do?”

“You’re going to a place, together with AI,” Duncan said as he put his expression in order. Looking at Alice’s carefree smile, he thought of what he was about to do, and his mood unknowingly grew much lighter. “Bring someone here.”

“Bring… them here?” Alice looked completely puzzled. “What does ‘bring’ them here mean? Do I need to knock them out and tie them up?”

“Where did you even learn that?!” Duncan immediately glared at the doll. “Come with me, I’ll tell you what to do…”

…

Compared to a hundred years ago, the city really had changed a great deal.

Electric lines, new models of gas street lamps, smoother and wider roads, taller buildings, and countless factories and pipes. Scholars and engineers had brought a power that could push civilization forward, and that power had made the city-states change at a speed far beyond the past. This change even made Tyrian, who had seen many storms in his life, feel a natural sense of amazement.

But in this city-state, some things still faintly resembled what he remembered.

After getting out of the car and thanking and taking his leave of the Church staff who had accompanied him, Tyrian walked along the streets on the edge of Pland’s Upper City with several sailors he had brought from the Sea Mist. Looking at the roads and shops on both sides, strange yet somewhat familiar, he could not help the hint of nostalgia on his face.

“Captain,” one sailor asked curiously, looking at his boss, “what are we here to find?”

“A shop,” Tyrian said casually, his gaze searching among the street-front buildings that carried a strong Central City-States style. “A doll shop. The sign has a bit of an elves’ style.”

“A doll shop?” The sailor sounded a little shocked. “I didn’t know you were into that.”

Tyrian gave his subordinate a silent look. “I have my reasons.”

Another sailor hurried over when he saw this: “Captain, maybe you should silence him first… If you’re worried, you can silence all of us. After you finish browsing, you can clean us up however you like…”

“…I’m starting to regret bringing you lot.”

The sailors burst into giggles, but while they joked, their eyes kept sweeping over the nearby buildings, searching for the shop that matched the captain’s description.

Tyrian only shook his head, looking at the subordinates he had brought with a hint of helplessness.

Outside of battle, this was how he and his subordinates always interacted. Most people could never imagine that the legendary “Iron Vice Admiral” would be so easygoing among his own men. But Tyrian knew very well why.

These people had followed him through life and death for half a century. In the mortal world, there was no bond stronger than a loyalty and trust that had lasted fifty years.

Just then, a sailor’s voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Tyrian’s thoughts.

“Captain, look, is it that one? That ‘Doll Gallery’ across the street… the name’s pretty unique.”

Tyrian looked up and at once saw a familiar line of words among the old street-front shops: Rose Doll House.

The sign had changed, the front door had changed, and even the facade had been redone, but the shop’s name was the same as ever. Elves were sentimental. Even when they lived in human city-states that changed at a frantic pace, they rarely changed the names of their shops lightly.

Tyrian suddenly felt a little dazed. Faded memories rose in his heart. He seemed to see that afternoon long, long ago, when his father went to the harbor on business and he took his young little sister and slipped out of the house. The two siblings wandered through the bustling great city-state until they stumbled, all mixed up, into that shop…

Then they briskly spent all the small change they had stolen from their father’s cash box. His little sister had a whole day of happiness, and he could no longer remember whether he had been beaten afterward.

No matter what, in Tyrian’s century-long stretch of cold memories, it was one of the few fragments that glowed with simple warmth.

“That’s the one,” the pirate lord said softly. “‘Doll Gallery’ is an elves-style name. It just means a doll shop.”

With that, he stepped toward the shop that seemed to occupy a special corner in his memories.