Chapitre 28: Chapter 28 Pale Night
Éditeur: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Real life is different from fantastical stories, the biggest difference being that when you live in reality, you inevitably have to consider a plethora of real and trivial details—
Do active curse dolls need joint maintenance? Could frequent disassembly of her joints cause Alice to suddenly fall apart while walking one day? Are the salted meat and dried cheese on the ghost ship expired?
Do superheroes who socialize by day and fight evil forces by night ever sleep—and do those evil forces need to go grocery shopping after their fights with superheroes?
Stories never tell you these things; characters in stories are always pristine in white and come and go like the wind. Curse dolls in stories only need to suddenly appear from hidden corners to scare people, just like how the ghost ship captains in stories never worry about the ship only having hard cheese and salted meat that expired a century ago.
In reality, after being soaked in seawater, a curse doll would be uncomfortably scratchy all over, and taking a bath would require careful consideration of how to remove the salt granules from the joint crevices...
Standing outside the cabin, Duncan sighed, more clearly realizing that surviving long-term on this ship seemed to require more than just determination.
He still had to think about a lot of practical issues, especially after the number of crew members had increased.
Ghost Ship Homeloss actually didn't have an abundance of living resources; Duncan was very aware of that.
The ship had an unlimited supply of fresh water, but fresh water was all that was unlimited. The food stored in the pantry would not replenish itself after being consumed, and the only edible things there were hard cheese and salted meat, which, due to the unique properties of Homeloss, showed no signs of rotting. Nonetheless, Duncan still reasonably suspected that they had been stored for at least a century.
Besides that, the ship didn't have replacement clothes that fit Alice's size (although the curse doll had never mentioned needing any), nor did it have anything for amusement—not even a chess set or a pack of cards.
The Endless Sea was vast and boundless; however, it was difficult for Homeloss to obtain real supplies from this vast ocean, and the ship seemed to lack a reliable "home port" where it could dock and be repaired, let alone a channel for communicating with the civilization of the City-States on land.
The goat-headed figure didn't seem to care about these problems at all, but Duncan had now started to seriously ponder—he had to find a way to improve the current lack of supplies on Homeloss.
Furthermore, he also considered how to establish contact with the "City-States" on land.
Drifting aimlessly in the sea was an extremely inefficient means of exploration, and intelligence about this world must be obtained from land. This was Duncan's deepest realization after his venture into the Spirit Realm.
Putting that aside, even for the sake of his own mental and physical health, he was determined to try making more contact with those "City-States" on land, to engage with the civilized society of this world—otherwise, he was really worried that after a long period of aimless drifting, he might truly become a twisted, gloomy, and reclusive ghost ship captain.
With that thought, Duncan slightly turned his head and looked toward the pigeon Ai Yi, who was perched obediently on his shoulder, preening its feathers.
His gaze mainly focused on the brass compass on Ai Yi's chest.
The pigeon cocked its head and glanced at its "master," suddenly blurting out, "Start a sub-base, huh? Spread a spore mat! Hey, do you even know how to operate?"
Duncan was silent for a moment. The pigeon was mostly crazy, but the things it said occasionally were so apt that one couldn't help but suspect it was feigning foolishness while being secretly wise.
At present, traveling to the Spirit Realm seemed to be the only feasible way to reach the City-States on land.
Although this method seemed to have too many uncertainties, and the mysterious accident with "Ai Yi" had occurred after the last use, Duncan knew he would soon make another journey into the Spirit Realm—not only to collect intelligence from land but also to quickly verify and master a very useful ability.
Equally important was Ai Yi's "special ability" to bring back a ritual knife from the distant land.
If it could bring back a knife, could it also bring back more things? What were the patterns and limitations associated with this bird carrying objects? Could this process be controlled?
After some thought, Duncan decided to directly ask the pigeon, "Do you know how you managed to bring back that knife?"
The pigeon pondered, its tone grave, "You need more crystal mines."
Duncan: "..."
He decided to temporarily give up on communicating with the pigeon; matters like this would still be better dealt with personally during the next Spirit Realm journey.
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...
In the cabin, Alice had finally clattered her way into understanding how to use the water pipes and had roughly figured out how one ought to go about bathing.
Aboard the limited conditions of the Ghost Ship, she could only take a cold bath, but for a doll like her, this was hardly a problem.
But before jumping into the tub, Alice decided to first greet everything in the cabin.
She patted the large oak barrel, knocked on the pillars supporting the cabin, tiptoed to kick the floor beneath her, and stretched to fiddle with the ropes and hooks dangling from the ceiling.
"Hello, my name is Alice," she cheerfully greeted the cold objects, just as she had greeted Mr. Goat Head before, "I will be living on this ship from now on."
Nothing in the cabin responded to her greeting, but Alice did not mind in the least.
Mr. Goat Head had said that the Homeloss was alive, that many things on this ship were alive.
Even though they seemed to lack the true "Spiritual Intelligence" that Mr. Goat Head possessed, or even the ability to communicate, this did not stop Alice from treating the entire Homeloss as a "neighbor" who needed to be greeted.
The Homeloss was a living item, and so was she.
Convinced that her greetings were polite and proper, Alice felt even happier. Only then did she strip off her splendid dress and clumsily climbed into the oak barrel full of water.
First step, take off her head and give it a wash — after all, the joints at her neck were none too sturdy.
Miss Doll thought her plan was very sensible.
...
The bustling noise of the Plunder City-State finally ceased after a full day, and as the pale glow of the night sky washed over it, the prosperous "Pearl of the Sea" gradually fell into a peaceful slumber.
But in the tranquil darkness, there were night watchmen keeping an eye on the city as it slept.
Atop Plunder City-State's tallest building, the "Great Clock Tower," a young lady with long gray-white hair and an exceptionally tall and straight posture stood before a window overlooking the town.
The lady was beautiful, yet a striking scar across her left eye was intimidating. She was taller than most men and wore silver-gray light armor and a battle skirt. Clearly well-exercised, her limbs were muscular and well-defined, and a greatsword emanating a faint silver glow sat within reach by her side — the hilt carved with wave-like runes and the blade gleamed with a light that undulated like ripples on water.
Behind her, the sound of mechanical workings continued unabated — the heart of the Great Clock Tower was running smoothly under the drive of steam power, with a complicated and precise arrangement of gears and connecting rods that stretched through the roof and floor, driving the four clock faces above and the mimic celestial sphere hidden deep within the building.
From the sound, this large and precise machine was in very good condition, with no evil force having disturbed the sacred steam core.
Yet Judge Fenna felt an unsettling unease in her heart, a nagging sense that something was about to happen or had already happened, and she was destined to be powerless against it.
Footsteps echoed from the stairwell, and the gray-haired lady turned toward the sound. She saw a priest donned in the Ocean Priest's robe ascending the steps, holding a copper incense burner with cleansing smoke slowly entwining around him.
The priest approached the heart's support pillar in the center of the room, replacing the old incense burner hanging on the pillar railing with the new one. He observed the smoke wafting from the burner, ensuring it floated unobstructed around the whirring gears and connecting rods, before he softly recited the name of the Storm Goddess and turned to the gray-haired lady standing by the window.
"Good night, Judge — are you on night watch again?"
"I always have bad premonitions, and they've been particularly strong these past few days — especially tonight."
"Bad premonitions? About what?" The priest lifted his head, his profound eyes filled with concern. "Has the Goddess sent you an omen?"
"It's not that clear," the young female Judge shook her head, "I just have a vague feeling... something is approaching the city."
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Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone