Chapter 585

Chapter 585.

In the end, the doll Lunie also let Alice pull her over to receive the flame mark granted by the captain.

By then, everyone in this “witch’s mansion” had received the brand of the spirit form flame before Dreamwalking, except for the simpler tin men and puppets that did not have complete minds.

Dinner time came. Bright electric lights and the gas lamps on the walls lit the wide dining room. The members of the Lost Home Fleet gathered around the long table, sharing fish, bread, and wine as they prepared to face the coming, deeper, and more unpredictable veil of night.

Faint, ghostly green flames jumped in the depths of their eyes. Their gazes seemed to look at both the Mortal Realm and a second, unreal layer at the same time. A trace of the captain’s power mixed into their voices as they talked, making a low buzzing vibration in the air. The ghost-green flame also seeped into the gas lamps on the walls, so every flame carried a hint of green light. Under that glow, the walls and floor of the dining room took on a strange texture, as if they were part of a spirit form.

If some ordinary person who knew nothing walked into the dining room at this moment by accident, the eerie atmosphere and power here would soak into them at once. It would be very hard for them to keep their reason and sense of self.

The clockwork doll Lunie lit the decorative candelabras. Candlelight flickered over the table. The pale yellow flames reflected on the silver and ceramic cups and plates, giving off a warm, enchanting glow.

Morris and Lucretia spoke in low voices about ancient legends tied to elven society. Their talk was full of technical terms that would be hard for any ordinary person to follow. Shirley was gulping down her food. She was always the first one at the table to fill her stomach. Vanna was saying the blessing before the meal. She was still the most devout one and always carried out the Goddess’s rite carefully, no matter the situation. Nina, after eating a few bites, quietly lifted her head. Her eyes shifted toward the wine set not far in front of her.

“I want to drink some fermented grape juice…”

A fragment of the ancient Sun made a request to the Flame Usurper.jpg.

Duncan glanced at the young lady and raised his eyebrows: “Why aren’t you saying you want some wheat juice this time?”

Nina’s eyes lit up at once. She reached toward the beer on the other side: “Really?”

Duncan looked at her without expression: “What do you think?”

“Oh…” Nina muttered. She obediently picked up the lemonade on the other side instead, looking very disappointed.

The mechanical clock in the corner ticked and whirred. Its hands slowly moved forward.

Near the end of dinner, Duncan suddenly broke the silence: “I’ve actually been thinking about a question.”

“What question?” Vanna set down her knife and fork on the other side of the table and asked with curiosity.

“How does the Abyssal Lord really see His believers?” Duncan spoke very seriously. “He suggested I catch some Annihilators to build a link between me and the Abyssal Deep Sea. He didn’t sound the least bit sorry for them. But He still stayed rational and seemed to care a lot about this world. Don’t you find that strange?”

“I actually think it makes sense.” Morris wiped his mouth and said slowly. “It makes even more sense if we start from the idea that the Abyssal Lord is sane.”

Duncan raised his eyebrows at that: “Oh?”

“Before you managed to make contact with that Elder God, the Abyssal Lord had never spoken with the Mortal Realm at all. In other words, those so-called Annihilators were only worshipping their ‘lord’ on their own.” Morris shrugged. “They used that one-sided faith to draw power and kept summoning demons from the Abyssal Deep Sea, for their own use.

“Think of it from another angle. If you were the Abyssal Lord, and a noisy crowd of mortals suddenly showed up from who-knows-where… they claim to be your descendants, then run into your yard, steal your fruit, dig up your fruit trees, trick away your servants, and in the end, they even want to pry open your front door and move into your rooms…”

Duncan thought about it and felt his blood pressure rise.

“All right, I think I understand…” He sighed. “That does make sense.”

The mechanical clock in the corner of the dining room suddenly rang out the hour. The loud clang-clang-clang cut off the talk at the table and echoed hollowly through the great house.

Duncan listened to the chimes and silently counted each strike. Then he spoke softly: “Nine o’clock.”

No one answered him.

Only a few empty chairs remained on both sides of the table, as if no one had been sitting there from the very start.

Duncan slowly frowned as he looked at the dining room that had suddenly become empty. Even though this change had happened right under his nose, he still had not caught the exact “process” of it.

Everything had happened all at once, as if the whole world had “switched” in a single very short moment. It was like a playing card flipping over. The numbers on the face became the pattern on the back in an instant. Nina, Morris, and the others had gone with the flipping cards into another dimension, while Duncan was still left at the table.

Alice was still “at the table” with Duncan.

The doll miss widened her eyes at once, looking badly startled: “Wow!”

“The Nameless One’s dream really has appeared again…” Duncan slowly rose from his chair. “Even that stuffed rabbit doll is gone.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a slightly nervous voice came from the side: “Old Master, I… I’m still here.”

Duncan and Alice turned their heads at the same time toward the voice.

The clockwork doll Lunie was standing not far behind them. She had been standing there during dinner as well.

Now this clockwork doll had been left on this side of the Mortal Realm.

Alice stared at her in surprise: “Lunie! Why are you left on this side too?!”

“I don’t know.” The clockwork doll spread her hands and shook her head. Then she looked at the empty seats on the other side of the table with worry in her voice: “Mistress… is she all right?”

“They’ve already reached the other side of the dream,” Duncan said. At the same time he could not help but look Lunie over from head to toe, his brow slowly furrowing.

Lunie had been left on “this side”… why?

When the Nameless One’s dream appeared, he and Alice were left on the Mortal Realm side. Now Lunie had also been left here, and she was still awake… What mechanism was working behind this?

Was it because they were… “dolls”?

“Lunie, do you dream?” Duncan asked suddenly as he thought.

“I… don’t know.” Lunie froze for a moment and then answered honestly. “Sometimes, when Mistress maintains my body, I fall into a daze and remember some things from before. But Mistress says that isn’t dreaming. It’s just memories spilling out of the soul container. So maybe I don’t dream? I don’t really know what it is like when humans dream.”

“What about Rabby then? Does that rabbit named Rabby really dream?” Duncan asked again.

“Rabby does dream. In fact, it’s very strong inside dreams,” Lunie said. “Many years ago, Mistress went through a time when nightmares often bothered her. It even started to disturb her research. So Mistress made some preparations and let herself fall into Dreamwalking on purpose, to face the shadows invading her mind. She won, and caught one of those shadows from the deepest part of her nightmare. That shadow came from the Spirit Realm. Mistress said it was a creature of fear. She beat it up again and again, then sewed it into a little doll. That is Rabby…”

Duncan listened as the clockwork doll in front of him calmly told this story. After a moment, the corner of his mouth twitched: “It seems Lucretia has had quite a few strange experiences over the years… All right, I think I more or less understand.”

Alice scratched her head: “Huh?”

“The Nameless One’s dream seems to only affect beings that can Dreamwalk.” Duncan looked at the two dolls in front of him. “As dolls, you don’t really dream. Or even if you ‘dream’, your dreams are not ‘compatible’ with those of ordinary people.”

Duncan added that careful note at the end because he suddenly remembered how Alice had once told him about some “dream-like” experiences she had while she slept. In a sense, Alice also dreamed. But just like Lunie, her dreams were not the same as those of ordinary people. If he had to describe it… it was more like a doll’s daze.

That kind of “daze” clearly did not meet the “standard” for entering the Nameless One’s dream.

Alice listened with a half-dazed look. Then, in her not-so-bright head, a sudden idea flashed. She seemed to think of something and stared wide-eyed at Duncan: “Then why are you, Captain, left on this side like us? You don’t dream either?”

“Of course I…” Duncan started to answer without thinking. Then he froze, staring with a strange look on his face.

Had he… really dreamed at all after coming to this world?

He meant dreams in the normal sense. Dreams that belonged to a mortal, woven between the Mortal Realm and memory.

It was as if someone had suddenly flipped a switch that had been ignored for a long time. A chaotic corner in his subconscious that he had never noticed before showed itself. For the first time, Duncan paid attention to this question. He quickly thought back on every time he had fallen asleep since crossing that door into this world, and on… his “dreams”.

He remembered. He had dreamed. In dreams he had entered Subspace. In dreams he had seen coming disasters. He had seen the Sun go out, a dying hollow disk hanging in the sky, and bizarre luminous cores falling from above…

But other than those, he could not remember dreaming of anything else. His current body barely needed sleep at all. The habit of lying in bed every day was, most of the time, only a way for him to keep some sense of “being human”…

Yes, he did dream, though not often, though…

Duncan suddenly raised his hand and pressed hard on his brow.

No. Dreams shouldn’t be like this. They shouldn’t only be like this. Where were the ordinary dreams? The scenes from the day that should appear in sleep afterward? The things that could be called good dreams, the plain dreams, the funny dreams, the dreams full of memories, the dreams that… belonged to ordinary people?

Duncan tried hard to remember. But he suddenly found that all his dreams either led to Subspace or to some “visions” that seemed to cross time and space like prophecies. Aside from those two kinds, every time he slept… there was only nothingness.

It was not only in this world, either.

He thought back.

Zhou Ming thought back.

He remembered the days before he opened the door of that single apartment, the days before he was trapped in that fog, the days long, long ago—so long ago they seemed like another life—when everything was still normal and the world had not yet fallen into the mist.

Zhou Ming lifted his head in confusion.

Had he… ever dreamed like an ordinary person?