Deep Sea Embers

Nevertheless, the damage was done, and Duncan could no longer forget the last comment made by one of the captives about his humanity.

Did they figure out the original Duncan is gone and someone else had taken over this shell?!

And these cultists mentioned they were not hiding in the city-state… But in a cursed history? What does that mean? Could it be that these crazy Enders are not usually in the normal time and space but rather hiding in another dimension?

Duncan stared uncomfortably at these delirious fanatics, his mind rising up and down as he checked his ship for any changes. He’s worried something might’ve happened without his knowledge.

The goat head was still honestly driving the helm in the captain’s room. That’s good news. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the deck so it’s unlikely the statue overheard the conversation.

As for the other parts of the ship, everything’s operating as usual without any strange anomalies.

Now that leaves only Alice sitting on a large wooden barrel not far away with her head in hand. Miss Doll was obviously a little bored before and had taken the liberty to comb her hair.

After an unknown amount of time, Duncan finally exhaled a soft sigh after finding nothing. He’s obviously wasted enough time on these cultists and was starting to get affected by their crazy words.

I have already obtained a lot of useful information from these people. Any more time will only be wasted.

Exactly then, one of the Enders froze again as if a switch got flipped. He looked up into the illusory sail above and spoke in a hallucinatory voice: “Is it time to disembark?”

“There is no place for you on this ship to begin with,” Duncan glared at the captive with a deadpan expression, “but you can still come in handy before I throw you overboard.”

Instead of unsettling the three Enders, the ghost captain’s words only excited them with that creepy grin. Honestly, it unnerved even Duncan, who’s fully in control of the situation.

“Alice, come here.”

Skillfully popping her head back on, Alice trotted to the ghost captain’s side: “Captain, you called me?”

“…… Can you not pull your head off in the future? Your joints aren’t good to begin with. If you keep removing your head, the connection will only get worse with time. Also, your intellect drops whenever you do that.” Duncan lectures with a frown, “I’m going to conduct a test now so stop it.”

“Test?” Alice was stunned for a moment, “What test?”

“To see if your uncontrolled guillotine ability is still there,” Duncan raised an eyebrow, “don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about it.”

“I forgot!” Alice nodded reasonably, “I just remembered it as soon as you reminded me!”

Then she ignored the subtle changes in Duncan’s expression and greeted the three Enders: “Hello, I forgot to introduce myself just now. My name is Alice, and I’m the ship’s… cook?”

“You should tell them about your other identity,” Duncan said lightly. But as he spoke, he didn’t forget to catch the reaction from the three cultists, “It’s Anomaly 099.”

The eyes of the three Enders finally showed a huge change, and not for the better either.

“I thought you were all numb to the point of not being afraid of dying.” Duncan smirked mischievously, “I hope you madmen can enjoy my next arrangement for you all. What I want is simple: stay near Alice and survive, or die by beheading.”

Alice suddenly leaned over and muttered after hearing that: “Captain, you really look like a villain when you speak like that…”

In amazement, Duncan faced the puppet: “… Which side are you on?”

“Death means nothing to us…” One of the final Enders finally spoke while the two were discussing, “It’s just one more pause in the long journey. You stupid fools who have rejected the gift of subspace, obsessed with the obstructions of the real world, can never know the truth beyond life and death…”

Duncan quickly tugged at Alice’s arm: “Did you hear that? This is what you call a villain…”

Alice nodded: “Oh~”

Duncan then looks up at the glowing rift in the night sky: “How long have these guys been aboard so far?”

“It’s been hours, right?” Alice thought for a while, “My sense of time is quite accurate!”

“A few hours… In other words, the guillotine’s effective timing must have passed at least once.” Duncan mused over what this implied, “But no matter, we can conduct the next round of testing.”

“The next round of testing?” Alice blinked in confusion, “How are we going to test them?”

“Well, we can roughly be certain your guillotine ability has not taken effect yet. Whether that’s due to the Vanished or me being present is another matter,” Duncan said as he swept his gaze across the three captives. After confirming their heads were still in place, “In a few hours, after confirming another cycle had passed, I want you and these three to leave the Vanished for a while.”

Alice became shocked at the plan: “Temporarily leave the Vanished? Where to?”

Miss Doll promptly looked around the terrain and saw nothing but endless water around them. There’s not a single piece of land in sight.

Duncan didn’t actually iron out that detail in his grand scheme. His initial plan was to have the group keep some distance from the ship and from a populated landscape to avoid unintended casualty.

“There are a few lifeboats on the side, and they’re all in good condition. I’ll put one down and you can ride aboard one of them during the experiment.” Duncan stared into Alice’s eyes, “Don’t worry, all you’re doing is floating out at sea for a while. I’ll have the Vanished waiting nearby and won’t leave you behind.”

Miss Doll immediately shrunk her neck at the unreliable arrangement: ” Do I have to drift across the sea again?! I had psychological trauma for the first time! And the view of the sea is so poor at night. What if you lose me? What if a gust of wind causes a wave to sweep the lifeboat away? What if the boat capsized…?”

Duncan didn’t wait for the humiliating puppet to finish before interrupting her: “Stop, stop! As if there are so many what-ifs? I’ll have Ai hover overhead to keep an eye on you, okay? But then again, what are you afraid of? When I threw you overboard the first time, you actually used your box as a raft to row back aboard. Even eight cannonballs couldn’t keep you away back then!”

Alice’s nagging immediately sauntered at the reminder. Nevertheless, the doll kept peering out at the Boundless Sea with worry, “If that’s what you say Captain, but don’t lose me!”

Duncan: “…”

Why do I get the feeling that this doll is getting more and more useless the longer she stays aboard the ship? She’s nothing like the wave-riding surfer the first time we met…