Bab 8: Chapter 8: The Sun
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A doll, a doll so exquisitely lifelike that Duncan almost didn't recognize it at first glance—she lay quietly in that ornate wooden box, like a lady sleeping in a coffin, waiting for someone to wake her up.
Duncan really felt that she would wake up at any moment.
But that was just an illusion; the doll simply lay quietly in the box, unresponsive to the surrounding environment.
Duncan cautiously and vigilantly observed this eerie... "thing": a doll itself wasn't strange, but its excessively lifelike appearance and the coffin-like wooden box instinctively made him sense danger, especially considering the mysterious manner in which the box had appeared on Homeloss.
After observing for a long time, Duncan finally confirmed that the gorgeous Gothic doll in the box wouldn't suddenly jump up and surprise him, he let out a slight sigh of relief, then with a frown, he asked Goat Head, "What do you think this is about?"
"This must be the important cargo that was escorted by the previous ship," Goat Head immediately replied, although it had previously claimed not to recognize the strange wooden box that had appeared on deck, but its experience with sea matters was clearly richer than Duncan's, the fake ship captain, "There are symbols on the exterior of the wooden box that point to the divine, and around the box, there are cotter pins used to anchor chains, which perhaps indicates it was once in a sealed state—transporting sealed objects on the Endless Sea is highly risky, and that ship looks like it had some significant background."
"Sealed?" Duncan's eyelids involuntarily twitched, and then he looked at the now completely opened lid of the box, which was broken when it arrived on Homeloss allowing him easily to move it. Although he didn't understand anything about seals, he believed the object's seal was definitely broken, "So, this object is dangerous?"
"It's very dangerous to those fragile commoners, but I don't think it poses any threat to you—this sort of 'anomaly' that can be sealed away by special skills can't resist the power of Captain Duncan."
Duncan remained silent, his expression serious, his mind, however, was in turmoil.
The compliment from Goat Head sounded quite flattering—if he really were some "Captain Duncan," perhaps he would have believed it, but he wasn't, which is why he felt extremely uneasy now.
Because Goat Head's words had made it clear that this doll lying in the coffin was a "dangerous good"! It just didn't pose a threat to the real captain!
Although he now bore the name of Captain Duncan and seemed to have taken over his body and some powers, "Zhou Ming" was very self-aware—he didn't think this made him the same as that "real Captain Duncan."
His knowledge about this world, this ship, and even his current body was still too limited.
Moreover, he had keenly noticed a new and bizarre word in Goat Head's recent speech—"anomaly."
Irregularity means anomaly, which seemed like an ordinary word, but the special emphasis in Goat Head's speech made him faintly realize that this word here might have a special meaning.
Perhaps, in this world, the term "anomaly" refers not just to "beyond the ordinary," but it specifically points to certain types of things? For example... a doll lying in a coffin.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a proper reason to ask about what should be "common knowledge" here.
After internally lamenting that he still needed to be cautious in gathering intelligence and accumulating knowledge, Duncan frowned, and with a final look at the doll, as if making a certain decision, he murmured, "I should throw it back into the sea."
As he said this, there was a moment of hesitation in his heart, especially while looking at the doll, this ambivalence became particularly pronounced.
Of course, it wasn't because "the doll is pretty," it was because... she really looked too much like a living person sleeping in a coffin. When thinking about throwing her back into the sea, Duncan even felt as if he was throwing a living person overboard.
But this hesitancy ultimately only strengthened his resolve.
Because he had long known that this world harbored many strange and bizarre things—although so far, his experience in this world had been limited only to the Homeloss, even just on this ship, he had already encountered a talking Goat Head, self-sailing masts, a never-extinguishing ship lamp, and that eerie, dangerous sea, the fearsome Spirit Realm, and the ceaseless sea fog...
And just earlier, he had encountered a mechanical ship on this eerie sea, transporting sealed goods, and the object it was "escorting" had bizarrely ended up on the deck of Homeloss.
As a rational and cautious person, he couldn't keep something potentially harboring strange and dangerous powers nearby just because the doll looked pretty.
Regrettably, Duncan firmly closed the "coffin" lid again and, to be safe, he found nails and a hammer, meticulously fixing another round of iron nails to the coffin.
Finally, he pushed the coffin containing the doll to the edge of the deck.
The voice of the goat-head entered his ears, "You may dispose of your spoils at your discretion, yet I still humbly suggest you need not be so cautious. The Homeloss has not acquired any new trophies in a long time…"
"Shut up." Duncan curtly cut off the goat-head's blabbering.
The goat-head fell silent as Duncan forcefully kicked the "spirit-coffin" overboard, directly into the sea.
The heavy wooden box fell straight from the edge of the deck into the now normally colored sea, creating a dull sound before bobbing back up and gradually drifting toward the stern of the Homeloss.
Duncan watched as the box floated away with the waves until it was completely obscured by the stern, then he let out a slight sigh of relief. He then looked up into the distance and saw the fog over the sea had completely dissipated, and the blue Endless Sea was undulating slowly around the Homeloss.
The ship had completely detached from the Spirit Realm and returned to the real dimension.
In the vicinity of the sea, there was no trace of the mechanical boat that had briefly intersected with the Homeloss.
Duncan furrowed his brows slightly and roughly estimated the time elapsed after the two ships met and their respective speeds.
Based on the current situation on the sea, that ship should not have disappeared from visual range so quickly.
"...Is this also due to this peculiar sea, or is it related to the so-called 'Spirit Realm navigation'?"
Doubts surfaced in Duncan's mind, but soon, his attention was drawn to something else—
He saw a streak of golden light suddenly emanating from the depths of the cloud that had never dispersed over the sea.
The bright golden sunlight gradually filled the air, and the thick curtain-like cloud layer seemed to be swept away by an invisible hand, gradually dissipating. The sea, which had been gloomy for who knows how long, was gradually illuminated by sunlight—Duncan stood at the bow of the Homeloss, eyes wide open, watching the clouds disperse, and at that moment, he suddenly felt a strange stirring.
Ever since he had learned of the existence of "this side" days ago, ever since he first explored this strange ship, the persistent cloud cover had always shrouded the entire sea, making him almost believe that this world simply had no sunlight, that this world was always covered with thick clouds.
He had been parted from sunlight for too long, even in the apartment on the "other side," where Zhou Ming lived, thick fog had long obscured the sun outside the window.
But now, the Endless Sea had cleared.
After a long absence from sunlight, he finally felt as if he could see the sky again in "this side" of the world.
Duncan instinctively took a deep breath, spread his arms towards the direction of the sunlight, and as the thick cloud layer dissipated rapidly in response, at the moment when the Sky Light was most dazzling, a giant sphere engulfed in countless twisted streams of golden light came into Duncan's view.
All of Duncan's expressions froze at the moment he opened his arms to welcome the sunlight.
He stared with his eyes fixed on the sky; the sunlight was blinding, but not in the way he was familiar with. He could clearly see that object hanging in the sky, its shell seemingly covered with numerous dense patterns, the brilliant light spilling from around it, and behind the interwoven glow, the two concentric circular structures rotating slowly centered on the central sphere.
Duncan squinted his eyes; he vaguely made out that the two rings seemed to be connected by numerous intricate runes, as if some supreme power had inscribed an eternal confinement in the sky, imprisoning the "sun."
Duncan had not embraced the sunlight he had longed for.
This world did not have sunlight at all.
"What is that?" he said softly, his voice low and somewhat chilly.
"That, of course, is the sun, Captain," replied the goat-head's voice, as calm as ever.
(Oh my!
These next few days I'll try to maintain two updates until my stockpile runs out or I can't keep up, hahaha 23333)
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