Chapter 256

Chapter 256: The Swift Bell Rang.

After Tyrian returned to his room, he ordered his men to leave one by one, but his mood did not settle just because the room had fallen quiet.

His long talk with Father still lingered in his mind. Memories of the Abyssal Trench Project wrapped around his thoughts as if they were out of his control. From time to time, fragments from half a century ago flashed before his eyes—the rugged Diving Apparatus, the sea cliffs where cold rain never stopped falling, the silent Guard Corps on the platform, the priests’ low benedictions in the rainy nights, the brightly lit yet always eerie coastal laboratory, and the Frostholm Queen’s gaze, always fixed on the sea and hiding all secrets.

Tyrian shook his head. For some reason, he suddenly thought again of that Doll who called herself “Alice”—Anomaly 099, who had completely slipped free of her seal and now moved freely in the mortal world.

A “controlled” Anomaly. A Doll who could think and talk like a human, who even had her own joys, anger, sorrow, and happiness…

She was so much like the Frostholm Queen, yet she was definitely not the Queen herself. Even though her existence and the way she appeared in the world easily made people think of some kind of “return” of the Queen, Tyrian could feel that inside that Doll… there was not the slightest trace of Ray Nora’s will.

If he had to put it into words, Tyrian felt that Alice was more like a replica whose outer appearance had been restored to perfection, while the inside was completely twisted.

Just like those “Number Three” Submersibles that had surfaced one after another back then.

Tyrian’s expression changed slightly, and the comparison that rose in his mind brought a thin chill with it.

He sat in the room and poured himself a glass of strong liquor, using the alcohol’s warmth to thaw his cold thoughts and soothe his restless mind. After quite a while, when he felt a little better, he finally looked up at the ornate carrying case by the bed.

After a slight hesitation, he carried the case to the table, opened the lid, and activated the complex array of lenses and the crystal set at their center.

The scrying crystal lit up. Countless flickering points of light appeared within it, along with a buzzing noise that set one’s teeth on edge.

Only after a long time did he finally see Lucretia’s figure faintly appearing among the flashing lights, along with her blurred voice. Another two or three minutes passed before the sound and image barely grew clear, and his younger sister’s voice reached his ears: “Can you hear me?”

“It’s clear now,” Tyrian said with a nod. “Why is the interference on your side worse than before…? What’s around you? sunlight? It looks a bit strange…”

He noticed faint bands of pale golden radiance drifting in the background behind Lucretia. It looked as if brilliant evening clouds were pouring through a window into the room. Yet the quality of that light was far warmer and brighter than sunset glow, and the way it spread and hung in the air felt not quite like sunlight, which made it all the more striking.

Tyrian knew his younger sister often operated along the border, where strange phenomena happened all the time and were often dangerous, though Lucretia always managed to turn danger into safety. Even so, he still could not help but worry.

“Ah, I picked up something odd on the border, but I’ve already checked it carefully. It’s harmless,” Lucretia answered casually. “The thing probably fell from the sky. It can project a very wide halo of light… I’m using the Radiant Star to drag it back for study.”

Tyrian frowned without thinking. “You’re always picking up strange things on the border. Have you already forgotten how a mass of humanoid smoke dragged you straight into the depths of the Spirit Realm last time?”

“I’ll be careful. I’m always careful—accidents just happen from time to time. That’s exploration; accidents are inevitable.” Lucretia waved her hand, then suddenly seemed to notice something. She stared fixedly at Tyrian’s face. “Brother, what happened to your face and head?”

“…I fell.”

“But it looks more like you repeatedly slammed your head into a city wall,” Lucretia said with a frown. “You can’t fall and turn out like this without a two-hundred-meter running start and one resolute headbutt. You were attacked.”

Tyrian’s expression stiffened for a moment. Then he shook his head helplessly. “Sometimes I really wish you weren’t this smart.”

“Who attacked you?” Lucretia ignored his attempt to change the subject. Her expression grew very serious. “You’re in the city-state of Pland. You have no enemies there, and the city’s authority would never sit by and let a ‘guest’ be assaulted… Ah, and just now you refused to admit you were attacked and said you fell…”

As she spoke, Lucretia suddenly stopped. She seemed to think of something; her expression changed at once, and her eyes began to flicker as she watched the area around the scrying crystal.

Tyrian knew what that look meant as soon as he saw it. Before she could speak, he shook his head. “Don’t worry. He’s not here.”

“Seriously… he hit you?” Lucretia’s eyes widened in shock. “Wait, wasn’t he supposed to be outside the city-state? And why would he…”

“He’s not here. It was one of his subordinates,” Tyrian said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “Relax, we didn’t actually fight. These injuries are just a small accident. He wanted to talk to me about something, and I was a bit too wary.”

“Subordinate?!” Lucretia was startled. Her first instinct was to ask how strong that subordinate was and what weapon it took to beat the Iron Vice Admiral into a pig’s head, but then she caught the second half of Tyrian’s sentence. Her gaze changed. “…He sought you out again so soon. What happened?”

“He’s become interested in some old business about Frostholm,” Tyrian said casually. “But you don’t need to worry about that. I’m calling because I want to ask about something else—Anomaly 099. You know of it, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I also know it was snatched away by the Vanished. That news spread throughout the Explorer Association. Not long after that, the Deep Sea Church issued a notice. Anomaly 099’s name changed from ‘Doll spirit coffin’ to just ‘Doll’… A lot of people had uneasy guesses about what that meant.”

Tyrian lifted his eyelids and looked at Lucretia with a grave expression. “Then do you know why its name changed from ‘Doll spirit coffin’ to just ‘Doll’?”

Lucretia’s fine brows furrowed. She seemed to faintly realize something.

“I’ve seen her,” Tyrian said at last, letting out a breath and dropping the pretense. “That ‘Doll’. She calls herself Alice, and she has already awakened from the spirit coffin. She is now serving at Father’s side. Just like the rumors say, that Doll looks exactly like the Frostholm Queen, but her personality… is completely unexpected.”

“That information is completely unexpected as well,” Lucretia said softly. In the strange golden glow, her eyes seemed to faintly shine. “You mean Father ‘released’ Anomaly 099 from the spirit coffin, let that dangerous Anomaly roam freely outside, and she now willingly follows Father? She can even have a conversation with you?”

“It sounds impossible, but it’s the truth,” Tyrian said with a nod. “She can speak and think, and she has emotions like a human. She even… seems to have a good relationship with Father. But I don’t dare assume it’s a kind of ‘friendship’ humans can understand. After all, one of them is a ghost who returned from Subspace, and the other is an Anomaly entity with a number under one hundred.”

Lucretia stayed silent. After a brief pause, she finally raised her head. “So what is it you want to ask?”

“About the circumstances when Anomaly 099 was first discovered. You were on the scene back then.” Tyrian fixed his gaze on his younger sister. “I want the most genuine information from you. You know I and my fleet never go near Frostholm. We missed the original site.”

Lucretia thought for a few seconds. “Back then… I did happen to be in the waters where it happened. But the first ship to haul up Anomaly 099 wasn’t the Radiant Star. It was a coastal fishing vessel called the Charvin. Strictly speaking, by the time I received the Charvin’s distress signal and found that fishing boat drifting in a runaway state, it was already the second scene. So I can’t be sure what things looked like the moment Anomaly 099 was first brought aboard—I can only tell you what I saw on the Charvin at the time.”

Lucretia paused, recalling the scenes she had witnessed.

“When I found that ship, there were almost no living people left on board. Of the twelve crew members including the captain, eleven had already been decapitated—only one sailor remained, half mad with fear. He babbled to me about the ‘cursed wooden chest’ they had hauled up.

“He said they couldn’t throw the chest overboard, because it was alive and moved all over the ship. They couldn’t destroy it either, because it had enormous strength and was incredibly tough. The sailors with their little self-defense weapons simply couldn’t deal with it…

“You can find most of this part in the public records of the Explorer Association. But there is one detail… that isn’t recorded there, and you might find it interesting.

“Within the first half hour after Anomaly 099 was hauled up, the sailors on the Charvin heard several faint clicking sounds coming from inside the chest. It sounded as if… something inside was taking shape.”

“Faint clicking…” Tyrian murmured, his brow furrowed. He seemed about to ask something more, but just as he opened his mouth, a sudden, rather urgent bell rang outside the window and cut him off.

He looked up in surprise. The bell sounded clear and rapid under the darkening sky. He listened carefully for a moment, then muttered to himself, not entirely sure, “That’s not the dusk Bell… It sounds like the Swift Bell.”

“The Swift Bell…” Lucretia’s voice came from the scrying crystal. “I heard seven short peals. If I remember correctly, that bell means the Nameless King’s Tomb is sending a message?!”