Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 666

Chapter 666: Chapter 663: Alice's Spoils of War Chapter 666: Chapter 663: Alice's Spoils of War “You saw the shadow of the Homeloss!?” Duncan did not hide his astonishment.

“Yes,” Lucresia glanced at Duncan, nodded subtly, and said, “After being lost in the fog for three days, I saw a silhouette that looked very much like the Homeloss pass by in the distance through the dense mist. As it passed, the fog seemed to momentarily thin out, revealing the appearance of normal sea areas. I…hesitated for a long time, but had no other choice at the time, so I summoned the courage to head toward the silhouette. But it suddenly disappeared as the Brilliant Starship was about to approach… Then, I returned to normal waters.”

After Lucresia finished speaking, she looked at Duncan with an odd gaze for several seconds before adding, “That was in 1862. You have fallen into Subspace for sixty-two years.”

Duncan was silent for a while, turning his body quietly to look out at the distant sea, disguising the change in his eyes as he calmly said, “I don't remember this.”

“I know,” Lucresia nodded, “So I have been wondering whether what I saw was really the Homeloss, or just a hallucination from exhaustion, or perhaps… another 'special phenomenon' of the Frontier.”

“That was my first and only time crossing the limit of 'Six Nautical Miles.' After that, I never ventured into such deep places again, nor have I seen similar 'phantoms'.”

Duncan stayed silent, his thoughts tumbling.

From Lucresia's story, he truly realized for the first time how strange and dangerous the boundless mist known as the “Civilization Frontier” and “Eternal Veil” was. Yet, it sparked countless conjectures and… curiosity about the baffling phenomena that appeared in that mist.

It was clear that entering that fog came with great risk. Even a seasoned Frontier Scholar and grand explorer like Lucresia nearly became permanently lost in that veil under prepared circumstances. And even within the relatively “safe” inner areas of Six Nautical Miles, various peculiar and dangerous “entities” and phenomena could claim the life of an explorer at any time.

But those peculiar and dangerous “entities” had precisely captured Duncan's interest.

The “shadows” left by the supposed crash of the New Hope were just one of them. Within the fog of the Frontier Six Nautical Miles, how many remnants like the New Hope were there? Are they all the “core remnants” left after the various worlds were obliterated? And what mechanism allowed these remnants to persist until now? If these “entities” surrounded the entire Endless Sea in the fog, then what lay beyond this “band”? What remnants were left there?

Duncan had an inkling, a premonition, that these “entities” with strange “voids” perceived by Lucresia might help him understand the world's deepest crises and might even help him find a “way out” to solve the “fundamental pollution” afflicting everything…

The look from beside him brought Duncan out of his thoughts. He lifted his head and saw Lucresia standing silently beside him, looking at him with complex eyes that seemed to carry a hint of worry.

“…You want to go there again, don't you?”

Lucresia asked softly.

“… This ship is on course for the Frontier,” Duncan patted the armrest beside him, “Those annihilation-heretics have a hideout in the Frontier fog. I will resolve this issue no matter what.”

“I'm not referring to this time–the heretics won't hide very deeply, and for you, destroying their lair might just be a simple task. I'm speaking about afterward,” Lucresia stared into Duncan's eyes, “After dealing with this lair, you'll focus on the phenomena within that mist, won't you? You will investigate the 'entities' and 'anomalies' I described to you, even… those beyond Six Nautical Miles.”

Her gaze exerted some pressure, and for the first time, Duncan felt overwhelmed by the gaze of the “Sea Witch.” However, after a moment of silence, he nodded, “If the situation requires, I will.”

Lucresia pursed her lips.

But she did not persuade or obstruct him. After a long silence, she suddenly said, “Take me with you this time. My experience can be of help to you.”

Duncan was surprised; he eyed the “witch” for a few seconds before speaking quietly, “… What if the end of that fog is Subspace?”

“Then I'll need your experience.”

Duncan did not speak at once. He turned back to gaze silently at the distant sea, and after a while, he breathed out softly, “Let's talk about it later. I do indeed have that idea, but there's no need to enter deep into that mist right now–at least, not until I've taken care of that hidden heretic lair on the Frontier and made some contact with the Four Gods Church.”

Lucresia nodded lightly.

Just then, a series of footsteps and the strange clinking of metal came from nearby, interrupting their conversation.

Duncan looked towards the source of the sound and saw Alice happily approaching–Miss Doll carried a big wooden box in one hand and a bunch of assorted kitchen knives, pots, and spoons she had scavenged from somewhere in the other, which she had strung together with wire. She walked over with joy and swagger like someone returning with spoils of war, creating a trail of clinking noise along the deck.

“Captain!” the naive Doll came up to Duncan, lifting up the string of “treasures” wired together and shaking them in mid-air, “Look! I have my own spoils of war now!”

Duncan hadn't recovered from the serious topic he had just discussed with Lucrescia when this bubbly, goofy beauty interrupted all his thoughts. He stared blankly at the string of things in Alice's hands for quite a while before finally realizing, “… Did you plunder the kitchen?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alice nodded slightly with a proud expression, “Goat-Head said that after capturing the enemy ship, we must plunder the treasury first and acquire enough loot before the ship sinks. I followed those toy soldiers around the ship for quite a while and finally found the kitchen…”
As she spoke, she reminisced a bit and said with emotion, “This ship is really subpar; things aboard don't seem very intelligent. None of the kitchen items offered any resistance when I was collecting the spoils. I was all prepared to wrestle with this kitchen knife…”
Lucrescia listened to the puppet's chatter with her mouth agape, while Duncan finally couldn't help but speak up after a brief silence, “… Alice.”

“Ah?”

“It's not necessary for everyone to fight with the kitchen utensils while cooking…”
“I know, in the City-State the kitchens don't attack you, but aren't we on a ship?”

“… Not all ships have buckets, mops, and pots and pans that can fight.”

Alice's eyes widened in surprise.

Two seconds later, the puppet exclaimed with amazement, “Is that so magical?”

Duncan: “…”
At that moment, Lucrescia noticed the strange wooden box in Alice's other hand, “What's this? Another one of your spoils of war?”

“Yes,” Alice snapped back to the conversation, nodding repeatedly, “I found it in a strange cabin. Such a big room with only this wooden box in it, surrounded by several chains–I pulled off most of the chains, but the lock on the box is weird. No matter how hard I try, I can't open it. I don't know what's inside, so I brought the entire box…”
While she spoke, she handed the heavy wooden box, darkly varnished and covered in many complex patterns, to Duncan, “Can you have a look?”

Halfway through Alice's story, Duncan's intuition had already begun to tell him something was odd. He took the heavy wooden box and his gaze swept over the lock, only to see what seemed to be an unremarkable iron lock that the most inept thief could pick with a wire–yet this very lock had stumped the powerful puppet.

Duncan knew about Alice's strength. She could swing a coffin plank to zoom across the ocean at the speed of a motorboat, and she could also break the chains used to bind the wooden box with her sheer power–Duncan could even imagine how the goofy Alice had burst into the cabin, torn off the chains with brute force, but then was at a loss with the last shabby iron lock on the box.

The child isn't bright, but she's strong (x)
The child is strong, unfortunately, she's not bright ()
It seemed that this box was likely the very thing he was looking for.

“Anomaly 132-Lock,” Lucrescia came closer, quickly identifying the iron lock that Alice couldn't open with brute force, “it requires a special 'key' to unlock, which is a secret phrase known only to the one who locked it. Once it's locked, it becomes unbreakable, and it also makes the container it locks just as unbreakable–even if it's merely a paper box. This anomaly is one of the uncommon harmless exceptions. Although its number is not high, it has a special use to assist in sealing some dangerous items. In 1876, it was stolen from a transport ship during a pirate attack… I never expected it to end up in the hands of these Heretics.”

After giving the brief on the iron lock, Lucrescia pondered for a moment and then said uncertainly, “The last Heretic who performed the 'locking' is dead, and the secret phrase has been lost, but I can try other methods to decipher the puzzle of this lock. It is said to be 'indestructible,' but I've heard it has a loophole…”
A light “click” suddenly interrupted the “witch's” subsequent words.

Lucrescia looked at the wooden box in Duncan's hands in astonishment.

The lock had opened by itself.

“It seems it didn't want to wait for your attempt,” Duncan said with a smile to Lucrescia, “or perhaps it knew that if your attempt failed, then it would be my turn to 'give it a try.'”
Lucrescia was stunned for a while, “… That makes sense; my thinking was limited.”

Duncan shook his head with a smile, then placed the large wooden box on the ground, removed the now-open padlock, and carefully lifted the lid.

A black wooden carving of a goat's head lay quietly inside the box.

Chapter end

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