Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 490

Chapter 490: Chapter 491: Deep in the Garden Chapter 490: Chapter 491: Deep in the Garden That was a large oil painting dominated by black and red hues, hanging on the wall closest to the spiral staircase.

Like most of the paintings in this “mansion,” it was blurry and chaotic, its surface covered with rough and eerie lines and color blocks, making the viewer feel dizzy and unable to discern any meaningful content, as if a lunatic had scribbled uncontrollably during a hallucination.

However, when Duncan's gaze lingered on the canvas, staring at it for a long time, he suddenly realized that something in those dark and chaotic blotches seemed to be slowly changing–lines were emerging from the shadows, and amidst the jumbled colors, shapes gradually became distinguishable.

It was like a mass of flames, with something resembling the hull of a ship entangled within, skimming across the heavy clouds in the sky and plummeting into the ocean. The sky was bifurcated by those flames, and the ocean churned and boiled under the impact of the fire. Behind that mass of flames, there loomed a dark red chaos, like the grim shadow of an impending doomsday bearing down relentlessly.

The entire scene remained fuzzy, everything was highly abstract and disordered, but it was this vague scene that caused Duncan's gaze to shift momentarily.

Subconsciously, he recalled the scene he had seen in his hallucination–the burning deltshaped spacecraft falling from the sky and crashing into the ocean amidst explosions and disintegration.

Duncan stopped and turned to carefully observe the scene on the oil painting.

Soon, he discovered that the scene depicted in the painting was not exactly the same as what he had seen in his hallucination–the spacecraft he had seen in the hallucination was clearly styled, clearly showcasing its advanced technological level and imposing aura, whereas the “object enveloped in flames” in the painting only had a vague hull, which even looked like some kind of wooden structure, and the flames around it seemed to be simply burning, not like the propulsion flame behind an interstellar spacecraft.

This gave the impression as though a mad painter living in the medieval times had accidentally seen a futuristic spaceship in his Dreamscape but could not comprehend its existence, and thus, after waking up the next day, could only exhaust his limited knowledge and imagination, relying on the shallow impression left by the dream, to reproduce the ambiguous image on the canvas.

The headless butler's voice came from behind, “Guest, are you interested in this painting?”

“…Where do all these paintings come from?”

“They have been here from the beginning, guest,” said the headless butler.

“The beginning?” Duncan asked with confusion, “When is the beginning? Since this 'Alice's Mansion' came into being? From when 'Alice' became the mistress here?”

“From the beginning of time,” the headless butler patiently explained, “before everything else.”

What kind of answer was that?

Duncan subconsciously frowned, feeling as though the headless butler's answer was as good as saying nothing. Yet, staring at that polite figure, he could not discern any emotion from the butler's posture–this person without a head had no expression, no gaze, only polite yet hollow courtesies.

After pondering for a moment, Duncan asked two more questions, “…Does this painting have a name? Do you know what it depicts?”

“It has no name, none of the paintings here do. They simply exist naturally, without need for names or interpretations. As for what the scene in the painting describes… I'm sorry, that exceeds my knowledge.”

“Aren't you the butler of this place? Don't you know about this mansion?”

“I am but a servant, and this mansion has its countless secrets. It guards these secrets, and those are not areas for a servant to know.”

A twitch appeared at the corner of Duncan's mouth.

He felt an urge to set a little fire on this butler, but the next second, he forcibly controlled this dangerous thought.

Because this was “Alice's Mansion,” and the butler was part of the mansion–any actions here must be very careful, to avoid causing any harm to Alice.

Duncan took a deep breath to calm himself, his gaze sweeping over the other paintings hanging in the corridor–all these countless paintings were smeared with incomprehensible colors.

But none of the other paintings changed under his gaze.

“…Let's go,” Duncan finally withdrew his attention, somewhat regretfully saying to the headless butler, “Take me to the 'garden' you mentioned.”

The headless butler bowed slightly, turned, and continued leading the way. He led Duncan across the second-floor landing, down the spiral staircase, then turned towards the depths of the ground floor hall–there was a short passageway that led to the mansion's back garden.

However, Duncan stopped before the passageway and looked back curiously at the opposite direction in the hall–at the end of the long red carpet stood an extremely tall and imposing dark wooden door, with slender windows on either side, and what seemed to be dense thorn bushes outside the windows.

It looked like the “main entrance” of the entire building.

“What's beyond that door?” Duncan suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this question, the headless butler's body visibly shuddered, and the next second, for the first time, his always calm and composed tone took on a note of panic, “You must not take an interest in what lies beyond that door, guest! That is a place of no return, where anyone who enters is lost forever!”

“A place of no return?” Duncan's expression became serious, “Why do you say that? Is it Subspace outside?”

“Subspace? I don't understand what that means… But please do not attempt to open that door!” the headless butler waved his hands frantically, “That is the mansion's greatest taboo, under no circumstances may that door be opened by any of the members…”

“But I am not a member of this place,” seeing the other's reaction, Duncan boldly displayed a readiness to test his boundaries–this was the first time he had seen the headless butler so flustered, which made him feel as though he had found a breakthrough in gathering intelligence. “And you had said from the start that, since I hold the key, I could open any door here.”

“Your key can indeed…” the headless butler said frantically, apparently wanting to demonstrate a more forceful attempt at preventing him, but perhaps due to some constraint, he could only wave his arms anxiously one meter away from Duncan, verbally trying his best to prevent him, “Don't open that door, for the sake of all the passengers…”

“What exactly is beyond that door?” Duncan asked, looking at the headless butler with a particularly stern tone.

“Beyond that door… beyond that door…” the headless butler hesitated, as if desperately searching for the right words, “Guest, the world beyond that door has been obliterated, the end of all things is approaching–The door is holding back the approaching apocalypse, don't open it, don't let the end of days in…”

Duncan furrowed his brow, listening to the headless butler's tense and chaotic words, trying hard to piece them together with what he already knew about this world.

The world beyond the door has been obliterated… The end of all things is approaching…

He furrowed his brow and pondered deeply, then after a long while, he finally let out a slight sigh.

“Relax, I had no intention of opening that door.”

After temporarily suppressing the various thoughts in his mind, he nodded slightly to the headless butler.

The other relaxed immediately–although there was no head to express “facial expressions,” his whole body noticeably relaxed.

“You truly scared me there, guest,” said the butler, turning to continue leading the way, “Please, don't joke about such matters again. We must prevent the apocalypse from crossing the threshold–it has already destroyed everything in the world, this is the last barrier…”

Duncan silently listened to the butler's nervous rambling, following wordlessly behind him. They passed through the short corridor and finally arrived in front of a narrow door–The door, made of large panes of translucent glass reinforced with steel, was segmented into numerous geometric shapes by a black steel frame, each shape filled with doodles of various flowers and plants, creating an eerie atmosphere, a bizarre mix of fairytale and horror.

“The mistress is in the garden, please make yourself at home.”

The headless butler stepped forward, turned the handle of the garden door, and turned to Duncan.

“You're not coming with me?” Duncan asked, somewhat surprised.

“The garden is only for the mistress and keyholding visitors to enter, the gardener only enters the garden when necessary,” said the headless butler, “Please go in with confidence, if needed, just pull the thin rope near the entrance, and I'll be waiting at the door for you.”

“Understood, thank you for showing the way.”

Duncan nodded at the eerie butler and, without waiting for a further reaction, gently pushed open the garden gate.

A slight creak broke the silence between the mansion and the garden.

Duncan stepped through the door–the incredible sunlight immediately filled his vision.

Sunlight!

In the depths of this gloomy, unsettling, shadow-ridden mansion, could there really be a garden bathed in sunlight?

With a trace of astonishment, Duncan took a step forward, his eyes greeted by lush greenery. Neatly arranged nurseries, well-maintained shrubs, and paths embraced by green grass appeared inviting, and above this vibrant garden, warm light…

Duncan looked up, his expression of surprise turning into a furrowed brow.

He saw the overwhelmingly odd “sky”–against the pale backdrop, many childlike strokes floated in the sky, depicting a crude sun, blue skies, and white clouds, surrounded by many golden lines meant to represent the dispersing sunshine.

The warm “sunlight” illuminating the entire garden was emanating from that comically simple “sun.”

A sense of caution rose in Duncan's heart; the “sky” above the “garden” no longer felt warm to him but was filled with endless strangeness.

He withdrew his gaze from the sky and, with great caution, began to scrutinize the situation in the garden.

A spot of different color at the end of the path caught his attention.

He walked briskly in that direction, bypassing a bush and a low wall of flowers, and finally saw the source of the different color.

At the junction of several paths, in the center of a clearing deep within the garden, a figure sat quietly, leaning against a marble column entwined with vines as if lost in slumber.

And there were many black thorns spreading from among the vines, winding around her entire body.

“…Alice?”

Chapter end

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