Deep Sea Embers

He had always felt that the gothic doll was an elegant and decent lady like you find in those old oil paintings. Although she likes to surf the waves with her wooden casket box and talk a lot of nonsense, the positive outweighs the negative. But now, the idea of her staying put and acting like a doll no longer seemed possible.

“Captain, you are not angry, are you? I can explain…”The sudden low atmosphere in the room made Alice feel a little nervous as she carefully glanced at the expressionless Duncan.

“I know you’re helping, merely unsuccessful,” Duncan looked at Miss Doll with a somewhat helpless face, “but since you also know that a lot of things on this ship are ‘alive’, can you confirm it with me or my first mate beforehand the next time you want to do something?”

Alice immediately nodded her head and loudly agreed, “Okay Captain, no problem Captain!”

Then she immediately turned her attention to the goat head and muttered in a low voice, “Is there such a thing as unsuccessful in helping?”

The goat head said in a rare and concise way: “Now there is.”

“Okay, if you really want to help, go check the dried fish hanging on the deck, or go to the kitchen to tidy up the ingredients in storage to make space. In the future, we may have the opportunity to replenish the food on the Vanished,” Duncan sighed and said this to Alice, “Leave the artillery and ammunition alone below deck. They don’t have the same full intelligence as my first mate, and those dangerous things will only respond instinctively to external stimuli. In any case, I don’t want those cannonballs suddenly blowing up thinking they’re being attacked by mistake. If they do, I can only sweep you back together with the broom and dustpan.”

When Alice heard this, her neck promptly shrunk as she promised not to do it anymore before fleeing the room. This made Duncan chuckle a small laugh because things were getting more interesting. Instead of a dead and lifeless ship, he’s now got a doll to liven things up. A proper home per say.

“From the looks of it your mood is quite good, Captain.” The goat head spoke from the side again, “Ah, you have something in your hand… What is that? Is it the harvest of your spirit walk? Like that knife last time?”

Duncan glanced at the sun emblem he was holding and displayed it for the goat head to see. He had left the spirits in his room and was planning to study this item here.

“It’s booty,” he nodded, “just like the ritual knife last time.”

“Oh! As expected of the great Captain Duncan! You always manage to return with a full load of booty, and an extraordinary item with wonderful power at that… Hold on, is that a sun amulet?”

“Do you know this thing?” Duncan raised his eyebrows, “That’s right, sun amulet, a few daring cultists stuffed this thing onto me so it was hard for me to reject their graciousness.”

“I… I know a little…” The goat head seemed to be wary of the emblem because he started hesitating, “The madmen who follows the ancient sun regards this object as a holy relic. They believe that casting metal into the shape of the real sun and quenching it with human blood could infuse the power of the sun into the runes, and through this method, it is possible to mass-produce supernatural items with diminished effects… This amulet is a status symbol for those sun followers. It can also be used to identify their fellow brethren to avoid heretics from sneaking into their ranks…”

“To distinguish between fellow believers and heretics eh… There is indeed such a feature,” Duncan understood now, “Although I personally feel that this feature is of little use.”

“What happened to those daring cultists?” The goat head seemed to grow worried when he said this, “Most of them are paranoid and ignorant fanatics, and even the worst pirates are not willing to deal with such fanatics who chase after ancient things. If they dare to offend…”

“They’re no longer in this world,” Duncan said, controlling his expression as he watched the goat head’s tone change, “and it seems that you don’t like these people who call themselves ‘Sun Believers’, do you?”

After dealing with the goat head for such a long time, Duncan has actually roughly figured out the behavior of this strange “first mate”. So long as he’s in charge of the ship, the odds of the wooden statue committing mutiny would not exist, hence his increasing confidence in doing as he pleases.

“Who would like crazy people who follow the real sun of ancient times? The ‘light’ and ‘order’ they aspire to have long since ceased to be tolerated by this world.” The goat head answered Duncan’s question as usual, “Everything in this era is bathed in the sunlight of this era, the Vanished is so, and the demons lurking in the deep sea are so as well. Nothing, perhaps aside from those cultists, will want to resurrect that real sun at this day and age…”

Speaking of this, the goat head suddenly paused before speaking with a hint of emotion: “But then again, ninety-nine percent of those cultists are actually just a bunch of brainwashed fools. They don’t even know what they are following and worshiping. They regard the so-called ‘sun heirs’ as prophets and saviors, and the ancient world described by those heirs are to them kingdoms of the heaven. But in my opinion, the sun heirs do not treat those fanatical believers as people… They are no different from heirs from the Deep Sea.”

Heirs of the sun? What does that mean? And from the sounds of it, there’s also heirs of the Deep Sea? What is that?!

Duncan’s heart revved with astonishment at the new word he had just heard. Fiddling with the sun emblem in his hand, he pretends to remain frank and unfazed despite giddy with excitement: “Sun heir? I didn’t meet them during my spirit walk.”

“That’s normal. The heirs of the sun would not dare to make an appearance in the civilized world. Even if they disguised themselves as human beings, the hyenas of the Storm Church would pick up the stench of heresy from their shadows in no time. In the end, they’re all just heirs. As the residue of the ancient past, those heirs should behave and stay in the gutters of history. Alas, the sun heirs are the most troublesome bunch of all the types out there.”

For the first time ever, Duncan suddenly discovered it’s not so bad to have a nagging goat head statue around. Sure, the yapping could get annoying fast, but the occasional useful information was nothing to scoff at!

After some further roundabout “inquiry” of the goat head, Duncan quickly grasped onto many new information he didn’t get from the city-state of Pland.

There seems to be another type of creature in this world called “heirs”, and none are tolerated by civilization as a whole due to them being remnants of the ancient past.

Although the number of believers who worship the “real sun god” was huge, it sounds like most are just insignificant pawns brainwashed by their ignorance. Meanwhile, the real ruling class of this cult are in fact the so-called sun heirs. They are the masterminds of all those crimes, remotely controlling the act from some far-off place unknown to the world. The purpose? Collecting energy by making sacrifices.

Lastly, and most important for Duncan at this time: the goat head had complete contempt for those cultists and sun heirs masterminding everything from the shadows.

So what does this imply? Simple. The Vanished, or “the real Captain Duncan”, and these guys who called themselves “heirs” are not in the same camp… It should even be counted as hostile.

Going by all these points, Duncan was fairly sure his decision to tell the goat head his encounter with the sun cultists a smart move. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have found out all these things since Nina’s textbooks didn’t contain this knowledge.

Eventually, Duncan had left the captain’s room and started strolling around the deck in deep thought.

So these heirs are likely products dating back to the Age of Order if what the goat head said is true. The surface world has the sun heirs, and the deep sea has its own heirs as well….

Without realizing it, he had unconsciously walked up to the side of the ship where he’s confronted with the open blue sea.

The ocean…. Isn’t just filled with fishes?