Chapter 491

Chapter 491: Deep in the Garden.

It was a large oil painting dominated by black and red tones, hanging on the wall closest to the spiral stairs.

Like most of the paintings in this manor, it looked blurred and chaotic. Rough, eerie lines and blocks of color covered the surface, making anyone who laid a gaze upon it feel dizzy and unable to make out anything meaningful, like graffiti scribbled by a madman in a hallucinatory runaway state.

Yet when Duncan’s gaze lingered on the painting and he stared at it for a long time, he suddenly noticed that something in the dark, muddled colors seemed to be slowly changing. Lines emerged from the shadows, and amid the chaotic colors, shapes slowly became recognizable.

It was as if a mass of burning fire appeared there. In the flames, something like the hull of a ship was wrapped up, slicing through the sky from heavy clouds as it fell toward the sea. The fire split the sky in two. The sea under it boiled and surged under the impact of the flames. Behind that fire, a dark red chaos pressed closer, gloomy and oppressive, like Doomsday itself chasing after it.

The entire image was still blurry. Everything remained extremely abstract and jumbled, yet that hazy scene still made Duncan’s eyes shift at once.

He instinctively recalled the scene he had seen earlier in a vision: a burning Three-Spindle Starship falling from the sky and breaking apart in explosions as it plunged into the sea.

Duncan came to a full stop and turned to study the scene on the oil painting in detail.

Soon he realized that the scene in the painting was not exactly the same as what he had seen in his vision. The ship in his vision had a clear style. At a glance you could see its transcendent technology and imposing size. But the “thing wrapped in flames” on the painting only had a vague ship-like shape. That hull even seemed to be made of wood. The fire around it also looked like simple burning, not the exhaust plume behind a starship.

It gave him the feeling that a painter from the Middle Ages, half a madman, had accidentally seen a spaceship from the future in a dream, yet could not understand what it really was. When he woke the next day, he could only rely on the faint memory of that dream, and on his limited knowledge and imagination, to recreate a rough, distorted version of it on the canvas.

The headless Butler’s voice came from behind him: “Guest, are you interested in this painting?”

“…Where did all the paintings here come from?”

“They have been here from the very beginning, guest,” the headless Butler said.

“The beginning?” Duncan echoed, puzzled. “When was that? When this ‘Alice Manor’ came into being? When ‘Alice’ became the Mistress here?”

“From the Dawn of Time,” the headless Butler said patiently. “Earlier than everything else.”

What kind of answer was that supposed to be?

Duncan frowned without thinking. The headless Butler’s reply sounded no different from saying nothing at all. Yet as he stared at that polite figure, he could not read any feeling from its posture. A person without a head had no expression and no eyes, only courteous, well-mannered words filled with hollow eagerness.

After thinking for a while, Duncan asked two more questions: “Does this painting have a title? Do you know what it is depicting?”

“It has no name. None of the paintings here have names. They exist naturally. They do not need names or explanations. As for what the scene describes… I am sorry. That is beyond my knowledge.”

“Aren’t you the Butler here? You don’t understand the situation of this manor?”

“I am only a servant. This manor has countless secrets of its own, and it keeps them. Those are not matters a servant should know.”

Duncan’s mouth twitched.

He had the sudden urge to set a little fire on this Butler, but he forced that dangerous thought down in the next second.

It was because this was the Alice Manor, and this Butler was part of the manor itself. He had to be very careful with anything he did here, and avoid causing any harm to Alice.

Duncan drew in a slow breath to calm himself, and let his gaze sweep over the other paintings hanging in the corridor. There were countless canvases here, covered in colors that were hard to understand.

But none of the other paintings changed under his gaze.

“…Let’s go,” Duncan said at last, pulling his gaze away with a hint of regret. He spoke to the headless Butler: “Take me to this ‘garden’ you mentioned.”

The headless Butler gave a small bow and turned to lead the way again. He guided Duncan across the second-floor landing and down the spiral stairs, then turned toward the depths of the first-floor hall. There a short passage led to the manor’s back garden.

But Duncan stopped in front of the passage and turned his head to look curiously toward the other side of the hall. At the end of a long red carpet stood a very tall, grand dark wooden door. Narrow windows flanked it, and outside them seemed to be a tangle of thorns.

It looked like the “main entrance” of the entire building.

“What lies beyond that door?” Duncan suddenly asked.

At his words, the headless Butler’s body visibly shuddered. In the next second, the calm and gentle tone he had kept all along turned anxious for the first time. “You must not show any interest in what lies beyond that door, guest! Beyond it is a place of no return. Anyone who goes there will never come back!”

“A place of no return?” Duncan’s expression grew serious. “Why do you say that? Is it Subspace out there?”

“Subspace? I do not understand what that means… but you must never try to open that door!” The headless Butler waved its hands in panic. “It is the greatest taboo of the manor. No member may open that door under any circumstances…”

“But I am not a member here,” Duncan said. Seeing the reaction, he even let some eager curiosity show on purpose. It was the first time he had seen the headless Butler so flustered, and it felt like a breakthrough for gathering information. “And you said yourself at the start that I hold the key, so I can open any door here.”

“The key in your hand certainly can… but you must not do that!” the headless Butler cried. It seemed to want to block him more firmly, but perhaps some restriction held it back. It could only wave its arms about a meter away from Duncan and try to stop him with words. “Do not open that door, for the sake of all the crew…”

“What is really beyond that door?” Duncan stared at the headless Butler, his voice extremely serious.

“Beyond that door… beyond that door…” The headless Butler hesitated, as if struggling to find the right words. “Guest, the world outside that door has already been wiped out. The end of all things is drawing near. The door holds back Doomsday itself. Do not open it. Do not let Doomsday come in…”

Duncan frowned as he listened to the headless Butler’s tense, panicked words, trying hard to fit them together with what he already knew about this world.

The world outside the door has already been wiped out… the end of all things is drawing near…

He pondered with furrowed brows for a long time, then let out a quiet breath.

“Relax. I do not plan to open that door.”

After pressing down the tangle of thoughts in his heart, he gave the headless Butler a small nod as he spoke.

The other relaxed at once. Even without a head, without any “expression,” Duncan could see the release in its whole body.

“You really frightened me, guest,” the Butler said, turning to lead the way again. “Please never joke like that again. We must keep Doomsday from crossing that door. It has already destroyed everything in the world. This place is the last barrier left…”

Duncan listened in silence to the Butler’s nervous muttering, full of lingering fear, and followed without a word. They passed through the short corridor and finally arrived at a rather narrow door. It was made of large panes of translucent glass reinforced with steel. Black steel frames divided the door into many geometric shapes of different sizes. In each shape, someone had drawn flowers and plants in a doodle-like style. The overall look… carried a bizarre mix of fairy tale and horror.

“The Mistress is in the garden. Please go in as you like.”

The headless Butler stepped forward, turned the handle of the garden door, then turned back to speak to Duncan.

“You are not coming with me?” Duncan asked, a little surprised.

“The garden is open only to the Mistress and to the Visitor who holds the key. The gardener enters only when necessary,” the headless Butler said. “Please go in without worry. If you need anything, just pull the cord by the door. I will be waiting here for you.”

“…Understood. Thank you for leading the way.”

Duncan gave the strange Butler a nod, then paid no more attention to its reaction. He stepped forward and gently pushed open the garden door.

A faint creak broke the silence between the manor and the garden.

Duncan stepped through the doorway, and incredible sunlight flooded his vision.

sunlight!

Deep inside this gloomy manor filled with eerie shadows, there was actually a garden bathed in sunlight?!

Still a little stunned, Duncan stepped forward. Lush plants came into view. Neatly arranged flowerbeds, well-trimmed shrubs, and paths framed by green grass all looked pleasant to the eye. Above this vibrant garden, warm light shone down…

Duncan lifted his head. His surprised expression slowly turned into a frown.

He saw an extremely bizarre “sky.” Against a pale background, many childlike strokes floated overhead, depicting blue sky, white clouds, and a crude Sun. Around the Sun, someone had drawn many golden lines to stand for scattered sunlight.

The warm “sunlight” shining over the whole garden was being emitted by that ridiculous doodle of a Sun.

A thread of wariness rose in Duncan’s heart. The sky above the “garden” no longer felt warm to him. It only held endless strangeness.

He lowered his gaze from the sky and, with great caution, began to examine the garden itself.

A patch of odd color at the end of a path drew his attention.

He walked quickly toward it, went around a shrub and a low flower wall, and finally saw the source of that different color.

Where several paths met, at the center of a clearing deep in the garden, a figure sat quietly. The figure leaned back against a marble column wrapped in flowering vines, as if in a deep sleep.

And many black thorns spread out from the vines and wound around her whole body.

“…Alice?”