Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 695

Chapter 695: Chapter 692: Everything Witnessed by the Keeper of Secrets Chapter 695: Chapter 692: Everything Witnessed by the Keeper of Secrets Ted Riel sat swaddled in a thick blanket inside the research station's cabin. When someone handed him a cup of hot tea that was still a little scalding, he clutched the cup and looked up to say thanks, “Thank you.”

“You're welcome!” Alice replied earnestly before starting to curiously size up this “Confidant” who'd just been fished out of the sea. After a good while, she turned to Duncan beside her and said, “Captain, Mr. Riel doesn't seem to be in a very good mood!”

“I fell into the sea–twice!” Ted looked up at Duncan standing to one side, his voice shivering involuntarily in the middle of the sentence–not that the cold was a problem for a saint, his shudder seemed more like a chill from the cold hand of fate. “First time out of Subspace, the second time a pigeon threw me out!”

He shuddered again and turned his head, glaring with resentment at the plump white pigeon strutting on the floor with its chest puffed up. The bird ground its beak against the floor, tilted its head as one eye watched out the window and the other landed on Ted, flapping its wings, “What are you looking at?”

“You must have offended Ai Yi,” came Duncan's voice, exuding a calm composure, “It generally doesn't toss passengers into the sea.”

“As if it couldn't be that your pigeon is just cruel by nature?” Ted glared back, looking quite indignant, “It mocked me as it threw me down, everyone here heard it…”

“That's impossible, Ai Yi is a dove of peace,” Duncan immediately gestured dismissively, pointing at Ai Yi wandering around, “See, it's white.”

Ted hesitated in response, utterly thrown off by Duncan's rationale–he had never heard of what a dove of peace meant…

But Duncan was used to no one getting his own jokes that he made off the cuff. He just waved his hand indifferently, “I guess Ai Yi brought you here and you were not very cooperative.”

“…Alright, I admit it,” Ted thought for a moment and sighed reluctantly, “but you can't blame me–I don't know your pigeon. Even if the flame looked familiar, suddenly a skeletal, ghastly bird came flying at me and swept me into a dark and eerie space. Of course, my first reaction was to feel threatened, resistance was inevitable…”

The usually silent Lucresia suddenly chimed in, “And then you lost the fight to the pigeon and got thrown into the sea by it.”

Ted Riel: “…Can we stop talking about the pigeon, please?”

“Makes sense,” Duncan nodded and took the opportunity to sit down in the chair next to Ted, “So, the topic of the pigeon ends here. Let's talk about Subspace.”

“Uh…” Ted grunted in his throat, his face displaying an overtly strange expression. However, the string of unbelievable experiences that had occurred in rapid succession had significantly toughened his nerves. He quickly took a breath (resigned himself) and lifted his gaze to look around.

The academy staff stationed there had, like a flash, instantly left the room and closed the door–within seconds, there was only Duncan, Alice, and Lucresia left besides him.

“I've already told Captain Lawrence everything I can remember,” Ted Riel only relaxed slightly after all unrelated personnel had left. As he recalled, he said, “Subspace left a lasting chaos and shroud in my mind, obfuscating part of my memory. I can only remember unconnected fragments, like those silent, huge, and strange 'things' I witnessed. You should already know about this part…”

“Yes, Lawrence has briefed me on the situation, but some matters need to be discussed face to face to be clearer,” Duncan said nonchalantly, “Like the precise shapes of those things you witnessed… What Lawrence conveyed can never beat hearing it directly from you…”

As he spoke, he casually pulled a drawing from the table beside him.

They were some rough sketches Duncan had made after receiving the report from Lawrence, before Ted Riel had been brought back by Ai Yi.

Ted Riel curiously took the paper Duncan handed him and upon seeing the contents depicted, he immediately widened his eyes slightly.

Drawn on the paper was not some horrifying or bizarre thing–it was merely outlines of doors and windows, some elegantly ornate pillars, some curved wrought-iron designs.

However, the “style” and “feel” of those depicted to Ted Riel was as shocking as witnessing the eerie, monstrous beings of Subspace once again.

He hesitantly looked up, meeting Duncan's calm gaze.

“Is this the style?” Duncan asked quietly.

Ted Riel opened his mouth, then lowered his head again to stare fixedly at the series of architectural details of the buildings sketched on the paper. After a long pause, he spoke in a deep voice, “…Yes, there was a massive structure in the dark, like a palace, yet also like an overly complex mansion. It loomed above me upside down, its spires reminiscent of the gloomy black towers of the Northern City-States. Its doors and windows were elongated and towering, each window sealed and covered with thorn-like dark matter on the outside…”

He stopped, took a moment to recall and organize his thoughts, and continued, “The entire edifice remained silent in the dark, like a huge beast that had been dead for years, yet at times… I'd see hazy flashes of light from some of the windows, as if there were still people moving inside, and the whole building seemed as though it would come to life…”

Duncan listened silently to Ted Riel's description, his expression solemn as he regarded the windows, pillars, and decorative patterns he had drawn on the paper.

That was something from Alice's Mansion–although Ted Riel had only seen the external structure of the building, from its style, the two were clearly unified.

Ted Riel saw indeed Alice's Mansion.

The Alice's Mansion in Subspace.

But Duncan clearly remembered, after the “mistress's bedroom” deep within Alice's Mansion was “taken away” by Lei Nora, there was left a huge hollow where he looked out from, yet he could only see boundless darkness, and couldn't make out the characteristic chaotic light streams and the massive shadows of entities in Subspace… Otherwise, he would have realized sooner that the mansion was located in Subspace.

Why was this?

Was it because Ted saw only the “projection” of Alice's Mansion in Subspace? Or was it that… last time when he looked out from the big hollow inside the mansion… something had “obscured” his vision?

Duncan furrowed his brows, lost in long thought, while Ted finally couldn't hold back after several minutes and blurted out, “What exactly did I see? You seem very familiar with it?”

“Familiar, I often visit,” Duncan nodded slightly, “but don't inquire about the details–for the sake of your mental and physical health.”

“…Alright, after all, it is Subspace,” Ted immediately realized, but then his expression turned somewhat odd, “By Rahm's protection, I never imagined I would actually be discussing Subspace with you… I've been there and come back alive, and to this moment, I find it somewhat unreal.”

“You've started feeling this way a bit late,” Duncan waved his hand dismissively, and then continued, “You also mentioned that the upside-down mansion changed before your eyes, turning into something like a giant ship?”

“In fact… I'm not sure what that thing was at all,” Ted Riel hesitated before speaking cautiously, “The experience in Subspace was like shuttling through layers of illusions, my reason and cognition seem to have been independently operating in two dimensions, I saw many things, and they often changed into other… 'forms' in an instant, and among these changes, only a part were really happening, while another part seemed like my brain was spontaneously reorganizing that incomprehensible information.”

After some thought, Duncan pushed another piece of blank paper and a pencil toward Ted Riel, “Whether it was an illusion or not, can you now draw the 'instant change' you saw of the mansion?”

Ted Riel hesitated for a moment, then took the paper and pencil: “…I'll give it a try.”

Wrapped in a blanket, the Truth Confidant came to the table and began sketching the vague visions he had seen in Subspace.

Duncan stood by his side, observing with a serious and patient expression.

Under Ted Riel's pen, some messy, abstract lines began to emerge on the paper.

However, Lucrezia, who was curiously watching from the side, began to frown, “Is this what you referred to as… a 'giant ship'?”

She saw many lines haphazardly connected together, forming fragments resembling abstract geometric shapes that created a rough fusiform structure, or some kind of asymmetrical “cylinder,” all of which were quite different from the “ship” she had in mind.

But the next second, she noticed that Duncan's expression was becoming very serious upon seeing those “abstract patterns.”

What had her father discerned from those strange abstract lines?

Had he seen this thing before?!

A flurry of questions suddenly arose in Lucrezia's mind, but before she could ask, Ted Riel had already put down his pencil.

“I know this doesn't look like a 'ship,' but the moment I saw it, I felt in my mind that this should be some kind of 'ship,'” Ted Riel lifted his head and said to Lucrezia, “I can't explain it, it's as if some kind of 'cognition' was directly imprinted in my thoughts, or perhaps it was some kind of 'revelation'…”

Duncan was still staring intently at the messy lines Ted had drawn on the paper when he suddenly looked up and asked, “…Are you finished?”

Ted Riel nodded, “It's finished.”

Duncan's brows were tightly knit, his expression unusually serious, “That's all? Just this part?”

Ted Riel, finally sensing something from Duncan's demeanor, hesitated slightly, “What I saw… was only this part, is there something wrong?”

Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stepped forward, pointing at the figure on the paper, “I'm not sure… but theoretically, what you've drawn might be only a third of its structure!”

Chapter end

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