Chapter 19 Head Problems

Lucrezia silently watched the clockwork doll lying on the experiment table. Alice stood opposite her, a nervous and uneasy expression on her face. Duncan stood beside Alice, looking expressionless.

After a long and awkward silence, Lucrezia finally broke the silence. "...So, Luni just took her own head off?"

"...The process was complicated," Duncan said stiffly. "I was also surprised."

Lucrezia couldn't help but glance at Duncan.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought she detected a hint of... embarrassment in her father's usually stern and gloomy expression.

"I'm sorry..." Alice finally spoke, her head lowered as she nervously clutched at Duncan's sleeve, clearly aware that she had caused trouble again. "I saw that Luni was also a doll, and I thought all dolls were the same, so... I was also very surprised that her head isn't detachable?"

"...Apparently, Luni thought she was like you," Lucrezia said with a subtle expression, glancing at the "Anomaly 099" that had once frightened and alarmed countless people. "But I didn't design that 'feature' for her."

Just then, Luni, who was lying on the experiment table, her head and body separated, suddenly moved. Her head blinked, and her voice sounded slightly out of tune. "Mistress, could you please reattach my head? I'm sorry for the trouble..."

Lucrezia expressionlessly looked down at the clockwork doll, sighed, and took a tool from the side. She began to disassemble the cover plates and decorative materials near Luni's neck, and couldn't help but ask, "Why did you follow Alice without thinking?"

"Alice... is a new friend," Luni's head said, with a slight noise accompanying the opening and closing of her mouth. "A new friend brought by the old master."

Lucrezia paused in her movements, but said nothing and continued to work.

Alice looked at Luni's head with some trepidation. "Will we still be friends in the future?"

"Yes," Luni blinked. "But only after the mistress repairs me..."

Alice immediately perked up, then seemed to discover something amazing. "Ah, you don't stutter when your head is off!"

"Yes, because my head can operate independently. The mistress installed a complete vocal structure in my head, and my thoughts are not affected by the lack of a body structure," Luni explained matter-of-factly. "The difference between you and me is that my neck cannot be restored on its own after it breaks."

Alice thought for a moment, and although she didn't quite understand, she nodded. "Oh—amazing."

Duncan watched the scene, feeling that it was incredibly bizarre.

Even more uncanny than a curse doll that could lose its head was finding another doll for that doll to be friends with—and he hadn't even introduced Alice to the other strange "servants" on this ship.

If this simpleton wandered around the *Glimmering Star*, how lively would this ship become?

Lucrezia, who was busy disassembling and repairing Luni's joints, suddenly felt a chill in her heart. She looked around blankly, but couldn't find the source of the chill.

But soon, her attention was focused on other things.

"What do you think about the 'eyeball' recorded by Master Talan-Eil?" The "Sea Witch" turned to Duncan. "This matter certainly cannot be made public to ordinary people, but the Four Gods Church..."

"I intend to tell them, but I haven't decided on the route or whether it is necessary to have more direct contact with their high-level members," Duncan said, quickly gathering his scattered thoughts and speaking with a serious expression. "The key now is not the fact that 'Anomaly 001's body is an eyeball sealed in an artificial shell.' After all, Anomaly 001 has always been unknown to mortals since the beginning of history. Its true appearance can be as bizarre and terrifying as possible. What is truly important is the appearance of that eyeball."

"The appearance of that eyeball..." Lucrezia slowed her movements, her brow furrowed slightly. "You're saying it's very similar to a certain structure of... the Wriggling Sun?"

"The Wriggling Sun itself is an ancient god surrounded and scorched by a corona. Among the layers of tentacles, a huge eyeball structure is its main feature," Duncan nodded casually. "I have a deep impression of that eyeball—it stared at me for a long time."

Listening to her father's story, Lucrezia suddenly looked around uneasily, then looked at Duncan hesitantly. "Talking about ancient gods directly at sea..."

"It's not a big problem. Even if that guy's 'gaze' is really attracted, it will only fall on me," Duncan waved his hand. "And I've been wanting to find it."

Lucrezia opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.

She had seen a lot in her century of wandering the boundless sea, and had dealt with even more lunatics. She had participated in the most forbidden and dangerous topics and events, but those forbidden and dangerous topics were not discussed in such a reckless atmosphere.

She felt that she might really need a long time to relearn how to get along with her father today.

Duncan didn't notice Lucrezia's subtle expression for a moment. After a moment of thought, he thought of another thing: "Do you remember the 'invader' that appeared in Talan-Eil's dream? The projection of that Sunspawn."

"I remember. You said it looked like a smaller version of the 'Wriggling Sun'," Lucrezia nodded. "And you also mentioned that the 'Sunspawn' had a brief exchange with you, and that it and its minions were looking for something in that dream."

Duncan nodded slightly, then said unhurriedly, "The core of Anomaly 001 is an 'eyeball' that is extremely similar to the core structure of the 'Wriggling Sun,' and twelve hours after Anomaly 001 went out, the Sunspawn invaded the 'Dream of the Nameless' through Talan-Eil's dream, and brought its minions to look for something in that dream. There is obviously a connection between these two things;

"On the other hand, for thousands of years, the followers of the Black Sun have claimed that what they worship is the 'True Sun God,' and call the sun in the sky the 'False Sun.' All along, the world has believed that this is just their crazy and confused delusion, that the mental pollution of the Black Sun has caused those believers' perception of the world to deviate. But Talan-Eil discovered that Anomaly 001 really contained an eyeball extremely similar to the core structure of the 'Wriggling Sun' when the sun went out;

"Finally, there are the Annihilation Cultists who invaded the Dream of the Nameless—according to the information I have collected, the purpose of the Annihilation Cultists is different from that of the Sun Cultists. They are looking for the 'original blueprint before the creation of the world by the Shadowy Saint,' but according to the records in the *Book of Blasphemy*, the 'Abyssal Saint' guided the Crete Clan during the genesis, and may have even personally helped them build Anomaly 001. So strictly speaking... today's Anomaly 001, also known as the 'False Sun' by the Sun Cultists, can also be regarded as the 'masterpiece' of the Abyssal Saint, a part of the original blueprint.

"The last point may also explain the 'cooperative state' I observed between the Annihilation Sect and the Sun Sect—they are indeed cooperating, but obviously their relationship is not harmonious."

Duncan slowly spoke about the things he had been thinking about recently, then raised his eyelids and looked into Lucrezia's eyes.

"In this information, what did you think of?"

Lucrezia had unknowingly stopped her movements. Her expression changed several times, her expression was solemn and uneasy. After a long time, she whispered to break the silence: "...Even a heretic who worships the Black Sun standing here would probably say this is a bit extreme..."

"...I heard something similar not long ago," Duncan shook his head and said, "Now I only hope that the deepest truth of our world is not even more insane than this—otherwise, in the face of true history, even the most extreme heretics will appear conservative."

Lucrezia didn't speak, but slowly lowered her eyes in thought.

Luni's head was still lying on the experiment table, her eyes meeting those of her mistress in thought.

After a while, Luni finally couldn't help but say, "Mistress... are you still pretending? Why don't you go to the next room to rest for a while? Robbie can come and help..."

Lucrezia breathed a sigh of relief, temporarily throwing away the distracting thoughts in her heart, and picked up the tools in her hand to continue her work: "Robbie will only stuff your head into its own stomach to make up for its endless thirst for 'cotton'—don't move, I'm going to put your head back on."

"Oh."

...

At the same time, in the governor's office of Light Breeze Harbor, Governor Sarah Mer unfolded a document that had just been delivered to her desk. Looking at the contents, the elf, who had lived for many years, frowned slightly.

The document came from the Four Gods Church—not issued by one church alone, but with the signatures of the four popes, witnessed by the four gods, and sent to every city-state in the Boundless Sea.

Establish an early warning system jointly constructed by the city-states, churches, and the Explorer's Association to monitor the city-states, the sea surface, and the sea below for any anomalies that may occur at any time, be alert to the recurrence of the Frost Crisis, and be alert to the awakening of the ancient gods;

The Four Gods Church will transfer a part of the patrol fleet from the border to the interior of the civilized world to respond to emergencies around the world at any time.

Although the above two contents are worrying, they are still normal. At least for the rulers of the city-states, this is still understandable "work content."

What really made Governor Sarah Mer frown was the last seemingly inadvertently mentioned, but particularly striking and important point—

"All city-states should pay attention to any warning signals from the *Ghost Ship* or the Ghost Fleet. If the *Ghost Ship* itself is found to be active in the waters around the city-state... be sure not to take any hostile actions, and should... provide cooperation as needed."

(End of this chapter)