Chapter 18 Eighteen

Hearing Agatha's report, Duncan's first reaction was to glance at the bedroom door not far away.

Then he retracted his gaze, looked at the former "Gatekeeper" in the mirror, and said with an unusually serious expression: "You mean, its reflection in the sea?"

"Not just the reflection in the sea, but also its projection in the Spirit Realm—under normal circumstances, the connection between these two 'shadows' is extremely deep and they affect each other," Agatha said with a serious face. "Late last night, I was traversing through the mirrors on the ship as usual to check the condition of the entire ship, and then I suddenly discovered this, but at the time, I thought it was a 'special characteristic' of the Vanishing Sea, after all, I know very little about it..."

"The Vanishing Sea doesn't have this characteristic—at least not to my knowledge, its 'shadow' wouldn't suddenly disappear for no reason," Duncan shook his head. "When did this phenomenon occur? How long did it last?"

Agatha nodded immediately: "Judging from the time, it should have occurred during the influence of the 'Nameless Dream' you mentioned, and it lasted until the first ray of dawn appeared on the sea."

Duncan didn't speak, just frowned tightly, a look of deep thought on his face.

After a moment of silence, Agatha continued: "When the shadow of the Vanishing Sea disappeared, I was traversing through the mirrors of the real world. Usually, I can directly 'jump' to the Spirit Realm through those mirrors, or enter the reflection of the Vanishing Sea in the sea, but last night, this 'jump channel' disappeared along with the shadow of the Vanishing Sea..."

"But in my feeling... the realm 'opposite' the mirror isn't really nonexistent, but there's a kind of 'barrier' that I don't understand blocking it, preventing me from observing the road in the mirror, and also preventing me from sensing the situation on the other side..."

Listening to Agatha's description, Duncan seemed to think of something: "You mean... you think the 'shadow' of the Vanishing Sea didn't really disappear, but instead entered a state that you couldn't understand or observe at the time, or that there was a 'perception' barrier that 'locked' you on the real-world side?"

"Very apt," Agatha seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "I thought my description was too abstract and I'd have to put in a lot of effort to explain it to you..."

Still eighteen.

However, the friends in the kitchen couldn't really answer her anything—even if they could speak, these things, which at most belonged to "restless objects" and only showed the characteristics of living things due to the special environment of the Vanishing Sea, didn't have the complete intelligence to help solve the doll's confusion.

For her, the busy days on the Vanishing Sea were always her happiest moments.

Sara Meire was dumbfounded as she listened to the "Sea Witch" tell her what had happened, and didn't even notice the food falling from her hand onto the table.

Duncan took a deep breath and said, "You think the 'Goat Head' is no longer reliable because it might be hiding something from you."

"I don't know why, but theoretically... it should be able to detect changes in the Spirit Realm, although its perception in that area may not be as sensitive as mine, but it shouldn't be completely unaware of it," Agatha said hesitantly. "Especially the things you just mentioned, the existence of another 'Goat Head,' and the other party's strange and suspicious behavior..."

….

Alice didn't get an answer, so she turned her head and patted the large wooden barrels lined up along the wall: "Didn't one more of you appear just now?"

She was just satisfied with her skills, so she took a wooden basin from the side, ready to take some of the pickled fish out of the barrel—she reached into the barrel, but before she could take anything out, a long-handled spoon on the counter next to her suddenly jumped up and hit her arm with a "smack."

So after the novelty of entering the city a few times wore off, Alice found that she still preferred living on the ship—because here, she could hardly beat anyone.

Opening the wooden barrel where the pickled fish was stored, Alice carefully leaned to the side of the barrel, sniffed the smell inside, and a satisfied expression appeared on her face.

She suddenly stopped.

The doll girl blinked confusedly, then went back to the beginning and counted again.

So Alice rubbed her eyes and patiently counted again.

The large wooden barrels didn't answer her either.

Because going into the city to interact with people required learning too many things, remembering too much knowledge, and paying attention to a lot of drowsy "rules"—these guys called "humans" were always too fragile, they floated countless "threads" undefended, and as long as she carelessly grabbed one, they would inexplicably be damaged to the point of irreparable, more precious and fragile than the ceramics and glassware on the ship.

But the captain valued these "people" very much, and he didn't want her to carelessly mess with the "threads" on other people, let alone damage those who shouldn't be damaged.

"...I know, as a 'new crew member,' I shouldn't question the ship's first mate, that's a huge taboo, but as a former 'Gatekeeper,' I have a kind of instinctive...'alertness' about this kind of thing," Agatha considered her words and said sincerely, "Many irreversible situations start with these small 'wrong things' from the beginning."

Agatha started counting along the wall from the door—one, two, three, four... seventeen, eighteen.

The long-handled spoon swayed on the edge of the wooden barrel, still not yielding.

There were a total of seventeen large wooden barrels storing pickled fish.

Alice stood in front of the row of wooden barrels, a little dazed, her head working hard. At first, she suspected that she had made a mistake in the numbers again, after all, her grades in arithmetic had never been very good, and sometimes she couldn't even compare to Shirley, but soon she felt that she shouldn't be so stupid—after all, it was just counting seventeen wooden barrels.

Humming a light and slow tune that she couldn't even remember the name of, Alice busily shuttled through the kitchen.

Agatha listened silently, neither agreeing nor blindly refuting.

Agatha counted between the wooden barrels again and again, finally confirming that she had not miscounted, but she felt that the confusion in her heart had not been relieved at all. She turned her head, glanced at the other things in the kitchen, and couldn't help but curiously open her mouth: "Did you notice? It seemed like there was one more barrel just now!"

Here was everything she was familiar with, the familiar deck, the familiar kitchen, the familiar pots and pans, and the familiar wooden barrels, kitchen knives, and shovels.

….

"In Pland and Frost, I've dealt with all kinds of 'veils,'" Agatha said casually, then thought for a moment and glanced thoughtfully at Duncan's bedroom door, "So, you felt strange after hearing my conversation with the Goat Head just now—because your 'first mate' didn't mention the abnormal situation last night at all."

He couldn't bother to argue with this carefree witch girl who had broken into his residence early in the morning and interrupted his breakfast time.

"These incredible things... all happened last night?"

Then she began to check the other food storage containers—since Aey could supply the Vanishing Sea with fresh ingredients at any time, most of the food that needed to be stored here was processed and could be stored for years, pickled fish being the most popular.

The captain had never understood this, and the other people on the ship didn't understand it either—why would a doll have a sense of smell?

She could already calculate addition and subtraction with more than two digits.

"Judging by your reaction, the situation is indeed as I expected," Lucretia sighed. She sat down on the chair opposite Sara Meire. As for the shivering servants in the restaurant, they had all been driven out after she started talking about "serious matters." Now there were only she and the governor, "The scope of influence of that 'dream'... is greater than imagined."

……

For Alice, this was a little difficult.

The elven governor said incredulously, in fact, what he wanted to say at first was "Are you kidding me," but considering the witch girl's temper, he didn't make such an unnecessary provocation.

……

It was as difficult as putting a cat in a room full of yarn balls but not allowing it to touch any of the threads with its paws.

She took fish from the barrel and chatted idly with her friends in the kitchen, sometimes mentioning what she had seen and heard in the city-states, sometimes talking about things related to the captain.

Alice pouted, a little reluctantly: "Not easy to use!"

They were all her friends, everything on this ship was her friend—and in most cases, she found it easier to deal with the friends on the ship than to interact with people in the city-states.

Alice herself didn't know, but she never thought so much.

Seventeen.

"...Okay," Alice finally expressed her acceptance helplessly, while reaching out to grab the spoon handle and muttering, "Is it because I'll fall headfirst when I bend over to get something next time? Is it so much trouble..."

Alice exclaimed, quickly retracting her hand and saying, "I washed my hands, just now!"

The number that had come out just now had disappeared, and everything had returned to normal.

She liked this, she liked the solid and stable appearance of the world around her.

"There's a certain power influencing this ship—the Goat Head is also within the scope of 'being influenced,'" Agatha said seriously, "And you haven't been affected, so you can observe the changes that happened on the Vanishing Sea at night."

After a long time, he spoke thoughtfully: "There may be two explanations for this. Either, the Goat Head knows what happened, but it didn't tell you, which is a deliberate concealment, or even it doesn't know the changes that happened on the Vanishing Sea last night."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, quickly reacting: "The second explanation means..."

The long-handled spoon slowly floated up, the head of the spoon gesturing in front of the doll.

One more.

As long as she was careful not to "touch" the friends on the ship, it would be fine.