Chapter 168 One-Third of the Structure?

Ted Riel was stunned when he heard Duncan's words, looking with some doubt at the lines he had drawn on the paper, which even he found abstract and messy. Honestly, he thought he had drawn terribly, but this was the closest he could recall to the "original impression." The residual influence of the sub-dimension had long interfered with his mind, making it impossible to clearly recall the details of those memories. He himself found it difficult to fully piece together the image from these fragmented lines.

However, from Duncan's tone, he realized that this "Ghost Captain" not only saw what was drawn on the paper, but even... he knew what it was originally supposed to look like.

Duncan stood at the table, frowning as he carefully examined the details Ted had drawn. After a while, he pointed to a certain spot on the picture: "Is the structure here broken?"

Ted frowned, trying hard to recall. A vague impression finally surfaced in his mind: "It seems so... but I'm not sure. I only caught a glimpse in a hurry, and didn't even have time to see its complete side structure..."

"This is broken, then extends outward, and here are some connecting structures," Duncan said, not noticing the hesitation in Ted's words. He picked up a pencil and quickly sketched lines on the blank spaces of the picture. Under his pen, a bizarre object with a symmetrical three-body structure, which Ted and Lucrezia thought was completely unrelated to a "ship," was quickly outlined. "It consists of three main structures... the engine group is located here..."

Lucrezia had unconsciously moved closer to this strange "drawing." After staring at it for a full half minute, she finally couldn't help but ask, "What... is this exactly?"

Duncan didn't look up. After a few seconds of silence, he replied softly, "It's called 'New Hope'."

Lucrezia and Ted Riel exchanged glances, then said in unison, "New Hope?"

Alice also came over, asking a beat later, "What is New Hope?"

Duncan raised his head, his complex and strange gaze falling on the gothic doll. However, the latter didn't seem to react at all, simply tilting her head: "Why are you looking at me?"

"...It's a ship, a spaceship," Duncan withdrew his gaze, and said in a subtle tone that he himself didn't know the emotion of, "It arrived in this world many, many years ago... or rather, like other 'fragments,' it crashed into this pile of world wreckage we're in."

"Spaceship? A flying ship?" Ted Riel's tone was surprised, then he reacted. "You mean another 'world fragment'? A flying ship called 'New Hope,' and part of its wreckage fell into the sub-dimension and became the mansion I saw...?"

He raised his hand and gestured, a look of disbelief on his face.

Duncan didn't answer the Keeper of Secrets' doubts. He lowered his head again, staring for a long time at the drawing on the table. Based on Ted Riel's drawing, the crude strokes outlined a sketch of a huge spaceship. Although it wasn't very accurate, it was indeed the "New Hope" that he had seen in that illusion, dragging long flames as it fell into this world.

He still remembered how he had seen that illusion.

It was to check Alice's "clockwork key" that he had spread his flames into the interior of the brass key—just like every time he used a similar method to explore supernatural items, he had seen the "echo" left in the "clockwork key."

In that "echo," Alice's clockwork key had become some kind of strange... data access medium, and the New Hope had crashed in the last scene of the illusion.

For a long time, he had been looking for clues about that "spaceship," searching for legends or historical records remaining in this world that might be related to an ancient crash event. At the same time, he often pondered a question—

Why was the illusion of the New Hope crashing recorded in Alice's "clockwork key"?

What connection could there be between this seemingly harmless gothic doll and a spaceship that crashed in ancient times?

The gap between "doll" and "spaceship" was so huge that even with Duncan's ability to imagine, he couldn't connect the two things together. However, now... an even more incredible clue appeared before his eyes.

Ted Riel had seen Alice's mansion in the sub-dimension—that mansion, in some moments, would appear as one-third of the wreckage of the New Hope!

It wasn't that Duncan hadn't suspected Ted Riel's memory or expression, but he quickly ruled out the possibility of problems in this regard—Ted Riel couldn't possibly describe something he had never seen out of thin air. Even if his memory was confused, he couldn't "happen" to outline the ship structure of the "New Hope" in the confusion.

Some messy and fragmented clues seemed to be quietly connecting, and some incredible guesses floated in Duncan's mind.

With the fluctuations of thoughts in his mind, Duncan reached into his pocket and took out the brass key used to wind Alice up.

The brass key lay quietly in his palm, the cold metal key end presenting the classic "∞" symbol, as if all the secrets were hidden in infinite silence.

After a moment, he put away the key, and when he looked up, he met Lucrezia and Ted Riel's curious but hesitant gazes.

"Let's talk about other things first," Duncan shook his head, his gaze falling on Ted. "What else did you see in the sub-dimension?"

Ted nodded. He realized that the "New Hope" might point to some kind of ancient and dangerous secret, so he rationally controlled his curiosity and turned to continue telling about the incredible sights he had seen in the sub-dimension.

The giant object standing in the wasteland, the throne and the headless giant figure, the nameless warrior leaning against the wreckage, and various other strange things that were indistinguishable from reality or fantasy.

Duncan didn't interrupt again. He listened attentively, nodding lightly from time to time, until Ted Riel's narration came to an end, and he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

The headless corpse on the throne, the nameless warrior beside the strange wreckage, the huge structure standing in the wasteland... these things were indeed all incredible, but anything could happen in the sub-dimension—at least in Duncan's view, these were much easier to accept than "Alice's mansion appeared in the sub-dimension" and "Alice's mansion is part of the New Hope."

"...What a wonderful and impressive journey," Lucrezia broke the silence in the room after listening quietly for a long time. "Fifteen minutes... Mr. Ted, your fifteen minutes of experience is enough for many scholars to study for a lifetime."

"I can use these fifteen minutes of experience to write academic papers for the rest of my life, but to be honest, I'd rather not have this experience," Ted sighed. "Do you know? Even now, I can still hear those buzzing noises in my head from time to time... they're like living things, drilling around in my consciousness. Even though I've undergone rigorous training in resilient psychology and will control theory, it's extremely difficult to resist this noise, and this sequelae will probably last for a long time..."

He shrugged at this point, his face a little bad—

"And what's worse is that I have to go back to the academy tomorrow to face those stubborn students... their clear and stupid opinions published in the academic field are simply another kind of 'sub-dimensional noise' to me..."

The Keeper of Secrets muttered, raising his hand to cover his forehead in pain. Obviously, the sub-dimensional reverberations intertwined with the shadows of the future, casting a thick shadow in his heart.

Duncan couldn't comfort him, so he could only sigh slightly, raise his hand and pat Ted on the shoulder: "I understand that feeling very well."

Ted was a little surprised, and looked up at Duncan in confusion: "How would you understand?"

Duncan was stunned for a moment, feeling that this question was difficult to explain, but soon, Sherry's notebook and Alice's sketchbook appeared in his mind.

"...My ship has things that are even clearer than your students."

Ted was stunned for a moment, not knowing how much he understood, and nodded with a complicated expression: "It seems... you usually have a hard time too."

Then he fell silent, as if he felt a little tired after a long time of recalling things about the sub-dimension, wanting to relax his mind, but less than half a minute later, he seemed to suddenly remember another thing.

"There's another situation," Ted raised his head, his expression becoming serious. "It's not about the sub-dimension, it's about... the White Oak."

"White Oak?" Duncan was a little confused. "What's wrong with that ship?"

"...I don't know if it's my illusion. After all, I was affected by the sub-dimension at the time, and my perception and thinking were very chaotic, but I always felt... when I was talking to that 'sailor' on the White Oak, something was wrong."

Listening to Ted's words, Duncan's expression became serious.

"Sailor... you mean the 'anomaly' numbered 077? What's wrong with him?"

"I can't say, but after returning here, I recalled the feeling when I was talking to that 'anomaly.' I always felt that I wasn't just talking to 'him' at the time," Ted Riel frowned, trying to recall while pondering his words. "I talked to him about some views on the world, about the perspective of looking at the world as an 'anomaly.' When he answered me... I always felt like I could hear multiple voices... as if something else was hiding on that ship, and it was hiding next to that 'sailor' at the time."