Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 491

Chapter 491: Chapter 492: The Puppet's Palette Chapter 491: Chapter 492: The Puppet's Palette Seeing the quietly sleeping figure in the garden, Duncan instinctively called out the name he was familiar with.

But he immediately stopped and remembered the scene he had encountered just recently in that opulent bedroom, when he had met the Frost Queen, Lei Nora–had he mistaken someone else again?

Duncan felt a hint of strangeness in his heart, then he carefully approached the sleeping figure and bent down to observe closely.

He noticed the spherical joints at the positions of the figure's hands and feet, as well as the obviously bloodless, pure white “skin” texture, like porcelain.

It was indeed Alice.

Duncan finally confirmed that the one sleeping here was indeed the gothic doll he was familiar with, he let out a sigh of relief, and immediately, his attention was drawn to the black thorns entwined around her–spiky vines extended from the flower clusters, spreading over the ground next to the doll, resembling a magnificent and eerie dress skirt. The thorns were entwined around the doll's hands, feet, and torso, binding her in the midst of the flowers and vines as if they were shackles.

Alice was sleeping in this “bed” constructed of flowers and thorns, showing no reaction to Duncan's approach and call.

Duncan carefully navigated around the spiky vines and interlaced thorns, reached out to gently touch the doll's cheek, and called her name again, “Alice, can you hear me?”

A slightly cool touch came from his fingertips, but Alice did not respond; she just kept sleeping quietly, just like… a real, lifeless doll.

Duncan slightly furrowed his brow, and then he noticed something else.

In the sleeping “Alice's” hands was something she was holding, which looked like a palette–thorns wrapped around her arms, but it seemed the palette could be pulled out from the gaps.

Duncan hesitated for a moment, reached out and grabbed the edge of the palette, and carefully applied force, slowly pulling it out.

During this process, he kept an eye on any changes in Alice, observing whether the act of taking the palette would affect her–the doll remained sleeping.

Duncan breathed a small sigh of relief and looked toward the palette he had pulled out.

The “painting” with bright colors and messy lines caught his eye–it was just like the bizarre “sky” above this garden, with child-like brush strokes depicting an abstract scene on the palette.

There was a whirlpool, a vortex composed of various colors, occupying two-thirds of the entire image. There were many specks of light around the vortex, the “painter” used many intersecting crosses to denote these shining stars, and in the center of the colorful vortex, one could see a rich crimson light–even with the crude doodles, Duncan felt he could still sense from that red patch a strong… danger.

Duncan furrowed his brow, that crimson light within the whirlpool seemed familiar for some reason.

After pondering and recalling in his mind for a long time, he found the source of this familiarity–it was on the second floor of “Alice's Mansion,” on the platform near the spiral staircase, on a wall there was an oil painting that depicted the scene of a burning giant ship descending from the sky, with that kind of unsettling dark crimson glow filling the sky behind the giant ship.

Duncan's expression grew increasingly solemn.

This was the second time it had appeared… in this eerie “Alice's Mansion,” the dark crimson glow with heavy ominous symbolism appeared again… What did this dark crimson glow represent exactly?

Was it the symbol of some disaster that kept chasing and drawing closer? Or a true depiction of some phenomenon at the advent of doomsday? The headless manservant had warned repeatedly not to open the mansion's main door… What was outside the door? The true source of this “dark crimson glow”?

Dangerous thoughts fleetingly rose in his mind but were quickly suppressed by Duncan.

He was indeed very curious about what was outside the door of Alice's Mansion, but curiosity did not equate to recklessness. Before he had more clues and confirmed Alice's safety, he would try to avoid disturbing the “order” within this “mansion.”

His thoughts gradually calmed, Duncan exhaled, looked up at the sky above the garden drawn in doodle style, then down at the palette in his hand also in that same style.

The doll was still quietly sleeping beside him amidst the flowers, as if embracing all the secrets, silent with all the answers.

Who had “created” the sky here and the doodles on the palette? Was it this sleeping doll? Was it Alice?

Duncan recalled the information he had obtained from Lei Nora and suddenly felt that Alice might not be like what the Frost Queen thought–a mistaken replication or combination of “Lei Nora” and “guillotine”; or rather… the doll miss's shell indeed might have come about that way, but her insides clearly held secrets far greater than that mere shell.

This grand and eerie “Alice's Mansion,” as well as the doll sleeping quietly in this garden, was her “inside,” and these secrets were obviously far beyond what Lei Nora knew.

It was a simple reasoning: if a replicated file carries more information than the original, there's only one possibility–someone had written something else into it during the “replication” process.

Duncan's thoughts flowed, after pondering quietly for quite some time, he sighed and prepared to stuff the palette back into the doll's hands–
Returning things to their place, to prevent changes, was necessary caution.

But just as he had turned the palette around and was about to stuff it back, some uneven traces on the back of the palette suddenly caught his attention.

Duncan's eyes narrowed in an instant, he quickly picked up the palette again to his eyesight, scrutinizing the back part he had initially overlooked.

The uneven traces were a line of deeply engraved characters on the back frame of the canvas–
“…The messenger brought news from afar, the chosen clan picked up the lost ancient stars and forged them into a crown of blessing–the third long night had ended.”

Duncan's gaze lingered on the quaint and meaningful text for a long time, his expression unchanged.

After who knows how long, he finally let out a gentle sigh, bent down, and carefully avoided the thorns and vines as he slowly placed the canvas back in the hands of the doll.

In his mind, however, the sentence on the back of the canvas seemed to revolve and replay over and over again.

The chosen clan… Ancient stars… The end of the third long night…
Duncan stood up, his expression thoughtful, as bits of known information gradually reassembled and interconnected in his thoughts.

The third long night was the most crucial piece of information, as the Book of Desecration read by the followers of the Dilapidated Doctrine suggested that the sunken era began after it was safely survived, and the world had since persisted to the present day.

And the only “chosen clan” that could correspond to the “third long night” were the founders of the Ancient Crete Kingdom, the mysterious “ancient sages.”

Picking up the lost ancient stars…
Could the words describe the historical event when the Ancient Crete Kingdom created Anomaly 001–the Sun?

Regrettably… there was too little information, just an unclear “message” that, apart from producing some seemingly plausible associations, served no practical purpose.

Duncan shook his head, temporarily setting aside this regret, and then proceeded to carefully inspect the vibrant yet eerily atmospheric garden.

He did not discover anything more of interest–in this large garden, other than a sleeping doll, there were only lush plants and well-kept pathways.

In the end, he returned to the “sleeping doll.”

After circling the dormant “Alice” once, he suddenly stopped behind her.

A keyhole.

But not on the back covered by clothing, it was exposed on the neck–at the back of the sleeping doll's neck, the familiar keyhole drew Duncan's gaze.

He instinctively drew closer to observe the small keyhole.

As expected, the garden doll also featured a keyhole…but why was it located in a different spot than Alice's? Did such a distinction in location carry any symbolic meaning?

Having encountered too many bizarre and abnormal things in this world, Duncan's thoughts naturally gravitated toward symbolic meanings and such, though he quickly suppressed these inevitably answerless thoughts and hesitantly retrieved the brass key he carried.

After entering Alice's Mansion, this key inexplicably appeared in his hand…Could it be intended for use here?

With this idea crossing his mind, he made up his mind, slowly brought the key close to the keyhole at the back of the sleeping doll's neck, and carefully inserted it.

With a soft click, the key successfully engaged something, and then, just like before, it began to turn on its own.

The familiar sensation rushed in from all directions instantly, light and shadow interchanged, senses reshaped, and after the sensation of weightlessness came the grounding touch of solid ground–nearly in the blink of an eye, Duncan found himself back in his well-known captain's quarters aboard the Homeloss.

The smooth, pristine back appeared before his eyes, as Alice obediently sat on the stool, waiting for the captain to wind her up.

Duncan was somewhat stupefied, staring at the scene in front of him for several seconds before regaining his bearings, the strange thought then instantly popping into his head–
“Such a fine back, a shame not to apply a few fire cups…”
Alice heard a soft mutter from behind and cautiously twisted her head while holding onto her clothes, “Huh? Captain, what did you say?”

“No, nothing,” Duncan immediately regained his composure, coughed twice to cover up the abrupt embarrassment, and then removed the key from the keyhole, “Finished, do you feel any discomfort?”

“Huh?” Alice looked puzzled, then surprising turned her head while fumbling for the zipper on her back, “Didn't it just start?”

Upon hearing this, Duncan's movement to put away the key paused slightly.

He had spent so long in Alice's Mansion… and only an instant had passed in the real world?

Chapter end

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