Deep Sea Embers

Duncan looked at Alice blankly, as if looking at a mentally retarded person.

The echo from history in his mind has not completely dissipated, and the calm and penetrating gaze of the Frost Queen half a century ago is still entrenched in his mind-but this afterimage that should have made people think is now head-on I fell in love with Alice, the mentally handicapped doll, not to mention the fragmented ones, and she was gradually turning into a harmonious appearance amidst the movement of her "Bo'er Boer Boer" pulling her head out.

After watching for a long time, Duncan finally couldn't help it: "...What are you doing?"

"Ah! Captain!" Alice reacted belatedly, and hurriedly looked at Duncan with one hand on her head, "Oh, I always feel that there are a few hairs caught in the neck joint..."

Duncan said with a deadpan expression, "If you pluck it out twice, it's time to name your new hair again."

"I've got them up! Call the Williams' if they drop..."

It took a lot of effort for Duncan to control his expression and restrain himself from throwing the doll out of the cabin.

After a few seconds, he let out a long sigh, and his mood gradually calmed down.

In all fairness, the appearance of Alice did bring a little joy to the lifeless Lost Country, but sometimes it was too much fun... Even the goat's head couldn't keep up with the rhythm of this puppet from time to time, and Duncan was most of the time I can't figure out what structure is inside this guy's skull.

It might be sincere.

Duncan's eyes swept over Alice, and he couldn't help recalling what he saw in that dark space before... "Reverberation", his expression became serious, and the details seen in the reverberation made him frowned. Slightly wrinkled.

He can be sure that it is the legendary Frost Queen Leh Nora who was executed by the rebels half a century ago, and is the "prototype" of the doll Alice mentioned in the background information about the anomaly 099. He saw Arriving at the scene of the "execution", the opportunity for it undoubtedly came from the "doll coffin".

The spirit fire established a connection between him and the coffin.

But what is the nature of those images? Is the "coffin" telling him something consciously? Are some passively recorded "images"? Is it the memory of anomaly 099? Is it a real historical fragment, or is there a "illusion" that has been distorted and corrected?

The calm gaze of the young queen looking at him appeared in his mind, and he recalled the other party's soft request——

"Whoever you are, please don't pollute history."

Who is this sentence said to? Did you really say it to yourself? This sentence really spans time and space? Or is it just that the phantom outlined by the coffin is reacting according to his "visit"? And after the Queen finished speaking, there was a slightly frightened voice from under the guillotine, asking who she was talking to...

This continuous reaction is so real, even so real that it makes people shudder.

As for the end of the "reverberation", the voices coming from the darkness also made Duncan particularly concerned.

The Frost Queen was executed by the rebels. One of her "crimes" turned out to be "attempting to let the Lost Homeland enter the real world" and "building a second Lost Homeland". The reason why the queen betrayed her relatives... But he has never heard of these things from the goat's head!

Goat's head often recited to him some "great deeds of the Lost Homeland", such as how many ships it swallowed on which route, and what great commotion it caused in which city-state, although eight out of ten sentences he said were all the same. It's not very reliable, but if there really was a city-state ruler who "colluded" with the Homeless, he must have said it long ago-the guy would have to make up 3,000 words for nothing, let alone such a big thing!

Unless... this incident is false, just a crime fabricated by the rebels against the Queen.

"Captain? Captain, are you all right?"

Alice's voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Duncan's wild thoughts.

Duncan exhaled lightly, suppressing the chaotic thoughts in his mind forcibly. He glanced at Alice, trying to find a little bit of "Frost Queen Le Nora" from this guy, but soon Shaking his head: "It's okay, I just saw a little 'record' kept in the coffin."

"Record?" Alice opened her eyes curiously, "What kind of record?"

"The scene where the Frost Queen was beheaded half a century ago," Duncan said lightly, "I saw her—it was exactly like you."

Alice immediately touched her neck subconsciously. Miss Doll didn't know whether she should feel nervous or feel that the matter was ordinary, and she struggled for a long time before finally holding back her words: "Could it be that I'm really the Frost Queen?" ? After being beheaded, he didn’t die, but was influenced by extraordinary power to become what he is now?”

Duncan thought for a long time, and said honestly: "If you don't speak or move, and just lie quietly in this box, I really think so."

Alice reacted for a moment, but didn't react.

But she quickly put this doubt behind her, and turned to look at her "coffin" seriously: "Then after you burned it with...'fire', did it change? You successfully controlled it Have you stopped it?"

Only then did Duncan turn his attention back to the wooden box, and carefully perceive the remaining connection between himself and the wooden box.

The fire has faded, but the traces left by the fire remain forever.

In the invisible perception, he can clearly "see" the imprint he left in the coffin, and feel the slightest connection between himself and it, which is somewhat similar to the connection between him and the mutated sun emblem, but It's more complicated and more subtle.

Aside from the huge mystery brought about by the information recorded in the coffin, he did successfully establish a connection with this thing, but unlike the sun emblem with a simple structure, he had no clue how to control the coffin.

He didn't even feel that there was a "control" option for this thing.

He can only be sure of one thing: this coffin is very stable now, very... "tame".

After the flames, it seems to have been completely "domesticated", as if it were part of... the Lost Land.

"I'm not sure, maybe we need to do further tests to know if it's safe, and then we need more tests to determine whether the 'beheading' effect is from the coffin or from you," Duncan shook his head, " But as far as I can feel, it's very 'fit' now, just like other items on the Lost Country..."

While speaking, he turned his head to look at the puppet beside him.

"The key now is you—do you feel anything unusual?"

Alice pointed to herself curiously: "Me? I don't have one. Why do you ask that?"

"You and your wooden box are one, you add up to be 'abnormality 099', now I use flames to usurp the authority of the coffin, your puppet may be affected to some extent," Duncan looked at Alice seriously , he knew that the puppet reacted slowly, so he gradually got used to telling her clearly, "Move your body and tell me if there is anything wrong."

Only then did Alice react belatedly, and quickly got up to check herself. She ran around the room twice, jumped on the spot again, and finally returned to the wooden box, hooking her fingers to her wooden box head.

The wooden box didn't move at all.

"It... it's disobedient!" Alice was shocked, and finally found the big problem, "It turns out that I just need to order it to float!"

Duncan's heart moved - when Alice pointed at the wooden box, he seemed to feel some response from the coffin, but...

The coffin awaits his order.

His eyebrows twitched, and he was suddenly a little embarrassed: "Maybe... because after being exposed to the fire of the spirit body, this coffin has regarded me as a higher-level 'master'."

Alice stared dumbfounded at the captain in front of her, and then her expression became visibly aggrieved.

"But it's okay, I can lift my restrictions on it." Duncan felt even more embarrassed when he saw the aggrieved expression of Bara on the puppet, and quickly waved his hand, "It will still obey your orders."

Alice froze for a moment, then turned her head and hooked her fingers to her wooden box—this time, she finally saw the wooden box responding to her command again, just like usual.

The puppet lady immediately smiled, let the wooden box fall to the ground, and immediately rushed forward to hug its lid: "Great! I thought you would be disobedient in the future!"

Duncan looked delicately at the lady puppet who had quickly completed the emotional switch, and then said after holding back for a long time: "Sometimes... I really envy your open-minded attitude towards life."

Alice was startled when she heard the captain's words, and reacted for a long time, but she didn't react...

"Forget it, as long as you're happy," Duncan sighed, "Are you sure there's nothing wrong with you?"

"No," Alice looked down at herself, "I don't feel uncomfortable at all, and... it seems to be better than before?"

"Better than before?"

"I can't put it into words, but I just feel... the body is very relaxed? There is also a sense of peace of mind?" Alice thought for a while, trying to find words to describe her feelings, "It's a bit like the peace of mind when I was lying in a box before. but now I'm standing outside the box and I feel just as reassured..."

The puppet was thinking while talking, and before Duncan could help her analyze it, she waved her hand quite openly: "It doesn't matter, it's not a bad thing anyway!"