Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 488

Chapter 488: Chapter 489: Turning the Key Chapter 488: Chapter 489: Turning the Key Duncan quietly watched Alice, and Alice also looked at Duncan with justified confidence.

A moment later, Duncan rubbed his brow and felt a strange emotion rising in his heart, a sense of discomfort that lingered for a long time.

It was the same face, yet how could it express such vastly different temperaments…

“Captain,” Alice blinked curiously when she saw Duncan's reaction and leaned in to ask, “Why aren't you speaking? Did I say something wrong?”

“…No, it's not your problem,” Duncan shook his head, pulling himself out of the chaotic thoughts and then suddenly lifting his eyelids, he looked at the doll in front of him with a solemn and serious expression, “Alice, have you… ever been curious about your connection with the Frost Queen?”

Alice was startled for a moment, raised her hand to scratch her head, and after thinking hard for a while, she spoke with some uncertainty, “I… was curious, but then I thought about it and it seemed like it wasn't that important, so I stopped thinking about it.”

Duncan was somewhat surprised, “Not that important?”

“The Frost Queen is the Frost Queen, and I am me. Whatever great things that queen does, they are her business, I don't understand them,” Alice said seriously, “I have my own strengths, and I really like my life as it is every day; that's good enough. Besides, Mr. Morris told me that in this world, everyone might find another person who looks almost exactly like them, so I just think of the Frost Queen as the person who looks exactly like me–even though I am actually a doll…”

Duncan quietly listened to the doll's words, watching the natural and content sparkle in her eyes when she spoke of her present days, and something touched his heart suddenly.

Perhaps… she really was just a special, erroneous Replication created by an ancient god from the deep sea, or perhaps, she was just the result of some weird fusion between Lei Nora, who had fallen into the deep sea, and the guillotine. Or maybe, she harbored even more secrets, ones that not even Lei Nora could imagine… But as Alice herself said, it wasn't that important.

She wasn't wise, yet she was very happy. She was puzzled by many things, yet she never felt anxious or feared these overly complex issues. She was born and lived in a world full of oddities, but this peculiar world to her was just as ordinary as “normal”–she explored this world full of novel unknowns, curious, expecting everything, including tomorrow, just like…

A child opening their eyes in the sunshine.

Countless beings tread upon this earth, but even the bravest warriors, the most learned sages, and the most devout Believers could not view the world from a perspective like Alice's.

Duncan suddenly felt–that in this twisted world full of fear and distortions, Alice, this “doll,” seemed more like a…”human” than anyone else.

Just as he had seen in another world, in that world without anomalies and arcane occurrences, without deities and oddities, where commonplace humans walked calmly in the sunlight.

“Captain?” Alice's curious voice rang out again, “Why are you daydreaming again?”

“It's nothing,” Duncan shook his head, “I just suddenly realized… you really are quite wise.”

Alice was taken aback by the captain's compliment, and a pleased expression slowly spread across her face, “Hehe…”

She didn't know why the captain suddenly called her “wise,” and hadn't even considered herself capable of wisdom, but since the captain said so, it must be a happy thing.

After complimenting her, Duncan paused briefly to think, then slowly reached for something at his side–the cold touch of brass came from his fingertips. It was that brass key.

In the deep sea, the diving apparatus was slowly surfacing, and there was still some time before the “retrieval.”

The Frost Queen Lei Nora had revealed a great deal of information to him, but there were still many incomplete or murky details in that information, which he needed to confirm.

The brass key… A rational Doomsday Preacher had handed it to Lei Nora, and even with her capabilities, she had been unable to ascertain the true “essence” of the key. Meanwhile, Alice, who seemed to be just a coincidental, erroneous Replication, had a corresponding keyhole… At this point, was it still a coincidence?

Did the Doomsday Preacher foresee all that was happening today? Or did the ancient god slumbering in the deep sea search Lei Nora's memories while creating “Alice,” leaving the “keyhole” on Alice?

Perhaps… it was time to try.

“Alice,” Duncan suddenly lifted his head, looking solemnly at the doll before him, “Come with me.”

“Ah?” Alice was startled, but quickly followed suit, getting up, “Oh, alright!”

“Take good care at the helm.” Duncan rose from behind the chart table and instructed the goat-headed figure before taking a deep breath and turning towards the direction of the captain's quarters.

Alice, puzzled, followed Duncan into the bedroom, and upon his command, turned back to close the door and then looked at Duncan with curiosity.

“Captain? What do we do next?”

Duncan was silent, holding the key in his hand, quietly observing the doll, “I want to test this key.”

Upon hearing this, Alice was somewhat surprised, “Ah? Didn't you say the key could be dangerous? That it might contain the soul of the Frost Queen or something…”

“The potential danger has been resolved,” Duncan said calmly, “I've just taken care of it.”

“Oh!” Alice immediately said, then turned around to fumble for the zipper on the back of her dress, not hesitating for a moment, “Then I'll start by unzipping my dress…”

“You only need to expose the keyhole,” Duncan said, feeling a bit embarrassed by the doll's decisive action despite having been with this solid-headed creature for so long. He reminded her subconsciously, then added somewhat unexpectedly, “Aren't you afraid?”

“You said there were no hidden dangers, Captain,” Alice turned her head and said, “And you're going to wind me up yourself, you'd protect me if anything went wrong, wouldn't you?”

“…Yes, I will protect you,” Duncan said, nodding slowly after a brief two or three seconds of silence, then lifted his hand and pointed to a round stool beside the bed, “Sit on this–I'm not sure what will happen after winding, it's better not to stand.”

“Oh!” Alice agreed, then obediently went to sit on the round stool, her back facing Duncan.

The back of the doll's dress was already unzipped.

Duncan finally saw what the “keyhole” looked like–it was abruptly set in the center of Alice's porcelain-like, smooth back, with an ornate ring of fine and exquisite patterns that looked almost gold-plated, encircling the keyhole.

Duncan lowered his head and looked at the brass key in his hand.

…The size and shape indeed matched perfectly.

A strange feeling emerged from his heart, mixed with a bit of nervousness. Duncan took a light breath, controlling the odd feeling inside him, and slowly approached the keyhole with the key.

“Alice.”

“Hmm?”

“Don't be afraid.”

“Ah!”

The winding key entered the keyhole without any resistance, followed by a clear “click” sound next to Duncan's ear, as if it had resonated directly in his mind.

Some mechanism was activated–not an ordinary winding mechanism.

A faint force came from his fingertips, and Duncan instantly realized that the winding key was turning by itself–it slowly twisted into a horizontal position and then a “click” sounded again.

In the next second, everything in front of him began to change rapidly.

Light and shadow collapsed and reassembled, senses experiencing transition and reset. With a familiar slight dizziness came that sensation of “transition” akin to “walking in the Spirit Realm”–
Before Duncan could even lament “Here it goes again,” he realized that everything around him had already stabilized.

He found himself inside an ancient, magnificent mansion that was both grand and eerie, mysterious.

The classical and solemn hall was spacious, with tall pillars aligned on either side, holding up a gloomy ceiling that seemed to gather like dark clouds. Narrow, high windows set in walls covered with patterns and reliefs appeared as though entwined with dark thorns outside, with chaotic light and shadow floating beyond the thicket.

And within this creepy, mysterious mansion, human voices could be heard from time to time–murmurs of secret conversations, intermittent laughter, footsteps crossing the floors, and even… the strange, faint music, as if a dance was being held somewhere.

Duncan slightly furrowed his brows as his eyes swept over this gloomy, ancient residence.

Something flickered in the corner of his eye.

Duncan quickly looked in that direction but saw only an empty corner of the wall.

However, he was sure he had just seen something–a figure that looked like a maid dressed in a black and white dress.

The figure was headless, with only a bare neck where the collar of the upper garment should have been.

Duncan lingered for a moment in the empty hall, observing the surroundings carefully and sensing the subtly unsettling atmosphere in the air. Then he stepped toward the spiral staircase at the end of the hall.

He needed to understand what this place was–why had he been brought here after winding Alice?

Climbing the twisting staircase, which seemed to have been abandoned for countless years, the steps creaked eerily under his feet. As he ascended, a sense of familiarity suddenly washed over Duncan.

He abruptly halted, his eyes widening as he looked around at the furnishings and style of the mansion.

He understood that sense of familiarity.

The chamber where the Frost Queen, Lei Nora, lay dormant!

Chapter end

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