Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 392

Chapter 392: Chapter 396: Alice of Unknown Material Chapter 392: Chapter 396: Alice of Unknown Material Duncan had indeed cast a Fire Seed into that mirror image of the Frost City-State–but he felt it was far from enough.

He could distinctly feel that the situation with Frost was different from that with Prand; the Fire Seed he cast did not spread swiftly on “the other side of the mirror,” and his perception of the Fire Seed was greatly weakened and interfered with–he guessed that this might be because there were natural barriers between the worlds “on both sides of the mirror,” or because there was not an exact correspondence between the mirror image and the real world, and those misaligned parts were interfering with his judgment.

Whatever the cause, he needed to find a way to strengthen the connection between himself and the Fire Seed, as well as the connection with the White Oak and Agatha.

During the conversation, Fenna suddenly showed a thoughtful expression, “Speaking of the mirror issue… You're sure you saw the figure of that gatekeeper in the reflection in the glass, right?”

“Of course, I am sure.”

“That's a bit strange then…” Fenna furrowed her brows, “If she really is trapped in that mirror world, how come there is no inkling from the City-State until now–the Supreme Defender's mysterious disappearance, even if news were sealed off to calm the public's mind, at least the church and city hall would take some other actions…”

She paused here, summarizing based on her experience, “Secret searches, martial law in specific areas, changes in the frequency and distribution of the guardians' nocturnal patrols–even under news blackout, these details could be observed. But Mr. Morris and I were active in the City-State for a long time today, and we did not detect such changes.”

Nina, who had been reading with her head down, suddenly looked up, “Maybe it's because the gatekeeper hasn't been missing for long, and the City-State hasn't reacted yet?”

“… If that's really the case, then Frost is truly beyond salvation,” Fenna shook her head seriously, “But from my observations during this period, although the City-State is in a certain decline, it's not so bad in other aspects, at least the church and the city hall are operating in order.”

“Maybe we'll observe a change in the atmosphere of the City-State tomorrow during the day,” Duncan said casually, and just as he was about to say more, a somewhat heavy sensation suddenly came from his arm, interrupting what he wanted to say.

Sherry had slumped over, banging her head on his arm, with steady snores.

But the next second, before Duncan could react, she jolted awake from her sleep, and even the dog dozing at the foot of the sofa was dragged into midair, “Right right right… s-sorry…”

Sherry's “sorry” didn't even stutter out before Duncan heard a loud “bang,”–the dog that had just been flung into midair landed on the floor, rolling up, its head buzzing, “What's happenin', what's happenin', did a fight break out?”

Then it realized the atmosphere around was a bit eerie and raised its head to see several odd looks directed at Sherry and itself.

“It's not a fight, Sherry fell asleep,” Duncan said with a smile and a sigh, looking at Sherry who was still tensed up, “It's alright, go upstairs to sleep. Minors need to ensure they get enough sleep–Nina, stop reading too, it's bedtime.”

“Oh,” Nina reluctantly put away the book she was halfway through, stood up, and grabbed the still anxious Sherry, the two hand in hand walking toward the second floor.

Duncan watched the two girls disappear up the stairs, then turned his gaze back to nod at Fenna, “Tomorrow you and Morris go to the Upper City District, see if there's any change in the atmosphere around the cathedral, and if possible, probe the city hall's reaction–given the events of today, the presence of the Frost City-State's city hall has always been very low-profile, I'm curious what they are actually doing.”

“Okay,” Fenna nodded, then curiously asked, “And you? What are your plans next?”

“I plan to go back to the second waterway again, with Alice,” Duncan said casually, “We'll have a look at the corridor where Crow had an incident–if now we suspect the existence of a 'mirror Frost,' and since Crow very likely entered there by mistake, perhaps we can find some new clues in that corridor.”

At this point, he suddenly realized, “Speaking of which, is Alice still cleaning up in the kitchen?”

“It seems so,” Morris said, standing up and turning around, “She really has been delayed too long in the kitchen… Hope she hasn't gotten her head stuck in some corner and can't get it out.”

“Can't you guys give me a break… I'll go have a look.” Duncan sighed helplessly and rose from the couch to head to the kitchen.

The moment he entered the kitchen, he saw the Gothic doll standing by the sink–she hadn't dropped her head as Morris had guessed, but was instead staring at a corner of the ceiling at an odd angle, blankly looking in a direction where there was nothing, then extending her hand holding the kitchen knife, stirring in the air, and then changing directions to continue agitating the air–like she was trying to catch an invisible fly.

The Gothic doll, standing in the kitchen with a vacant expression holding a knife and slashing at the air, was an exceedingly bizarre sight. It was as if a health bar would sprout from the top of her head, filling the screen at any moment, accompanied by a background music in the style of a pipe organ–the sight finally made Duncan unable to refrain from speaking up, “What are you doing?”

“Waah!”

Alice was startled in an instant and subconsciously reached out to touch her head–but she forgot that she was still holding a sharp knife in her hand, so the next second, with a “puh” sound, she had stabbed herself right in the forehead with it.

With a “crack,” her head just came off because she had poked it herself.

Even though Duncan was used to seeing this puppet's horrifying and unreliable behavior, he was stunned at this moment. He quickly stepped forward to support Alice's faltering body, and then saw her frantically waving her arms–she was still gripping the sharp kitchen knife, with the tip stuck in her own head, which she waved around several times before she finally realized what had happened, hurriedly grabbed her head with her left hand and forcefully pulled the knife out with her right.

Then the puppet casually threw the knife aside and deftly pressed her head onto her neck, with an “pop” after which everything was back in place.

“You gave me a fright!” Alice turned her head, looking somewhat aggrieved at Duncan, but her attention was quickly drawn to something on Duncan's arm, “…Captain, that knife looks familiar.”

Duncan, expressionless (his face was also covered by bandages), gripped the hilt of the kitchen knife sticking out of his arm and nonchalantly pulled it out before throwing it aside: “Nonsense, you just stabbed it into me.”

“…I'm so sorry!” The puppet immediately exclaimed in panic, rushing forward to check on him, “Are you okay? Do you need any bandages?”

“No need, I'm basically just a corpse anyway.” Duncan's mouth twitched, but his gaze couldn't help but fall on Alice's forehead.

The puppet Miss had given herself a huge wound on the forehead with the knife, but at this very moment, the wound was healing at a visibly rapid pace–there was no blood, only a smooth, jade-like cut, and in just a few breaths, it was as good as new.

Alice felt a little awkward under Duncan's gaze and subconsciously touched her face, “Why are you staring at me…”
“…What exactly are you made of?” Duncan frowned, reaching out to touch where Alice had been injured, finding a sensation similar yet different from skin, cold and devoid of life, “Do you realize you just had a hole in your head?”

Alice paused for a moment, touched her forehead, and blankly answered, “It's healed.”

“I know that it's healed!”

“…I don't understand,” Alice shook her head, “I don't even know what material I'm made of… but it seems like it's not wood or ceramic…”
Duncan held back for two seconds, then forced a smile, “I shouldn't expect any answers from you–never mind, let's not talk about this. What were you doing just now? Why were you staring at the ceiling and spacing out?”

“There were lines,” Alice answered honestly, “Some lines suddenly appeared just now–but they've suddenly disappeared.”

Duncan's expression changed instantly: “Lines?!”

Alice could see special “lines,” and these lines represented “people”!

“Yeah,” Alice nodded earnestly, “I was also curious about why there were lines suddenly appearing when there's no one else… but I remember what you taught me, not to just randomly grab other people's 'lines,' so I was using the kitchen knife to fiddle with them…”
Duncan didn't pay attention to what the puppet was saying in the latter part of her sentence, his focus was already on those “lines” that Alice had mentioned, the ones that had appeared and then vanished suddenly.

His eyes quickly scanned the kitchen, searching for anything that might establish a connection with the “mirror” dimension.

The glass on the windows, the water in the sink, the blade of the kitchen knife–these all could be used to connect with the mirror space, but none showed any abnormalities.

Yet Duncan believed Alice, she wouldn't lie.

At some point just now, the mirror Frost had somehow intersected with this reality–perhaps a very, very faint and brief intersection, but enough for the puppet to catch the “lines” drifting over from there.

Chapter end

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