Deep Sea Embers

In a sense, this starless, moonless sky with only a scar had more of an impact on Duncan than the imprisoned “sun” with those rune rings around it.

Because no matter how abnormal the sun was, it only shone down on the world under his feet. A star out of billions of stars in the galaxy. As long as this remains true, it means the world was somehow connected to the Earth, his home world. But this though, there’s no celestial body at all. He couldn’t even discern if there was a distance from here to Earth anymore.

Duncan didn’t say anything over his own woes and just stared up at the glowing crack. He had a lot of questions that had no answers.

Where are the other planets? Do they even exist over here? Or is it… the world beneath my feet is a celestial body located in a cosmic vacuum, and its distance from other stars is so far away that the night sky here is pitch black and starless? What is the pale scar that stretches across the sky? Is it a torn gap in space? Is it a touchable celestial structure? Or is it just an illusion floating above this treacherous expanse of the sea?

“Captain?” Finally, a voice awakened Duncan from the side. Alice with his stammering and nervous voice, “Are you okay? Is the weather about to change? Is a big storm coming? I’ve heard seafarers mention this outside my box….”

“…… It’s nothing.” Duncan said softly and then withdrew his gaze from the sky while repeating the phrase, “it’s nothing at all.”

“Then we…”

Duncan stepped forward, his expression calm as if nothing had happened: “Let’s go. I’ll take you to the cabin. You can wash up there later if you need to.”

Once again, the world has shown outsiders its weirdness with no seeming end to this either.

Duncan had realized that he didn’t know how many more shocking visions awaited him in the future, and if he made a fuss every time, he would probably only be left with astonishment in his life.

If there was any experience he has accumulated over the past few decades of life on Earth, there’s one that was most useful today:

If a problem exists, find a way to solve it since it wouldn’t disappear on its own because of one’s denial, just as the grotesque sky in front of you would not become a starry appearance because of his doubts.

No matter how absurd and strange the phenomenon was, this was an irrefutable objective fact since everything existed here. Not understanding why was his problem, not this world. Nevertheless, what he has now is time, and there’s plenty of it as the captain of the Vanished.

Alice didn’t know the reason for the captain’s silence along the way, only that the atmosphere around Duncan had suddenly become somewhat depressed. But after reaching the targeted cabin, this oppressive feeling abruptly disappeared again.

The place arrived at was a place one could bath, a bathroom specially prepared for upper seafarers on this classical ship. Under no circumstances are normal sailors permitted inside due to the harsh living conditions on this vessel. After all, sail-powered ships from the ancient era were not well equipped due to their limits. Often seeing spoiled food and poor medical treatments on board. If not for the industrial age, such harsh challenges would continue to this day as a plague on seafarers.

But ironically, on this ghost ship whom everyone fears, such poor living conditions had been resolved entirely by the freshwater tanks automatically refreshing themselves. As for the food in the warehouse, there are no signs of spoilage either. That leaves only the health conditions of the crew. A ghost captain could never get sick, and Alice’s spinal problem had nothing to do with the ship so that’s unrelated.

“The pipe next to the bath leads to the freshwater tank. You can fill the bin over there with it to wash. But there’s no hot water due to the ship’s limited condition. Keep this in mind.”

Duncan went ahead and introduced Alice to the other facilities and even took the chance to go over the mundane stuff he had experienced over the past few days.

“I’m fine as long as I can rinse some of my joints.” Alice was not picky at all. She examined all of the things inside the bathroom with curiosity and nodded: “I’m just a puppet, I don’t have any desire for hot baths.”

Duncan nodded in understanding. Then with a hesitant voice: “Speaking of which, do you know how to take a bath? Do you have this… ‘life experience’?”

Alice paused for a moment, then said in a heavy voice, “It should be… Okay? I’m only removing my joints to rinse them. I’ll put them back right afterward….”

Duncan: “…?”

The two stared at each other like they were both lost on what to make of this.

“Have you considered how to put yourself back together after dismantling?” Duncan took the lead in breaking this awkwardness. He knew Alice had never done this before, so he needed to remind her of this fact. “I can’t help you regarding this.”

Alice: “Now that you mention it…”

“I strongly recommend against disassembling your joints often,” Duncan reminded in a serious tone, “even if your body structure allows you to do so.”

Alice was a little confused: “Why?”

“It’s easy to lose them if they’re dismantled.” Duncan finally said what he worried about the most. Unlike in the movies, where a cursed doll never needs to worry about losing its body parts, a real moving doll must. Like a toy he had as a child. If he’s careless for even a day, the likely chance of him finding the part will fall dramatically due to forgetting its placement.

Speaking of this, he paused and added: “Your cervical spine problem is serious enough.”

Alice imagined the picture for a moment and shrunk her neck in the next: “Ah, okay, I understand… I think I know what to do….”

“That’s for the best,” said Duncan with a worried expression. Then before taking his leave, “I have a lot of things to do so try not to get into too much trouble.”

“Okay Captain, thank you Captain,” Alice said happily. But just as Duncan was about to walk out of the cabin, she suddenly spoke again, “Oh right, Captain…”

Duncan stopped and tilted his head slightly, “What else?”

“Captain… I suddenly feel like you’re not so scary either.” Alice looked at Duncan’s back and carefully considered her words, “Mr. Goathead said you are the most terrible captain on the Boundless Sea, the elusive scourge of all the shipping routes, but…”

“But what?”

“But I find that you’re a good talker and a bit of a caring parent…”

Duncan didn’t look back when he suddenly asked, “Where did you get the concept of family from? Do you have a family?”

Alice hesitated for a moment as she slowly shook her head: “It seems there is not.”

“Then don’t bring up the topic of parents anymore. Stay on the ship honestly, and I will make arrangements for your living standards.”

“Oh, alright, Captain.”