Chapter 1

　　Ai Yi fluttered into the shop, standing on the stair railing, chest puffed out with pride, her beady green eyes darting back and forth.

　　The large parrot with its speckled tail feathers, which had followed her in, also flew into the shop and landed on the counter next to Duncan, strutting back and forth as if it owned the place, not at all restrained.

　　Duncan stared in astonishment at this fellow who had flown in from who knows where, and the parrot also raised its head, looking at Duncan as if they were old friends. After a long while, it suddenly flapped its wings and made a loud and piercing sound: "Ah! Polly!"

　　"You're called Polly?" Duncan asked curiously. He didn't expect the parrot to actually answer, since the essence of parrots speaking was just mimicry. But he didn't expect that after hearing his question, the bird actually nodded, waving its wings, "Polly! Called Polly!"

　　Duncan's expression froze for a moment, and he turned to look at Ai Yi, who was looking down at the first floor from the stair railing: "Where did you find this... 'friend' of yours?"

　　"Having friends come from afar," Ai Yi immediately flapped her wings, one eye looking at Duncan, the other drifting to look out the window, "Since they're already here!"

　　Nina immediately asked curiously, "What does that mean?"

　　After learning the secret of the *Vanishing Sea* and Duncan, Nina of course also knew that Ai Yi could talk. She was very surprised at the time, but now she had calmed down—but like everyone else, she found it difficult to understand what the pigeon was saying from time to time.

　　"Maybe she's saying she also knows where that parrot came from," Ai Yi used her imagination to translate, then turned to look at the parrot.

　　Looking at the pigeon, holding back for a long time, she finally couldn't help but say, "Vanna... I do commend you for making friends, but don't you realize you two are different species? At least find another pigeon..."

　　"A sea accepts hundreds of rivers; to be vast is to be great," the pigeon spirit tilted its head, its eyes staring blankly as it shouted, "To be vast is to be great!"

　　"For a century now, he can no longer be considered my father," Tirian slowly shook his head, and said in a deep voice, "That's just a replica pieced together with clumsy means after being torn apart by the sub-space, a hollow shell without a trace of humanity..."

　　He had lost count of how many years he had not been in such a state of mental block due to shock—he could understand every word the old Bishop said, but even in his wildest dreams, he had never considered that these things would happen!

　　Nina wanted to stop the parrot but was too late, so she could only watch its figure fly farther and farther away with regret, turning her head and muttering, "Ah, it flew away."

　　At this time, Shirley, Ardog, and Valentine's attention was also attracted, and the three "people" gathered around the counter to look at this fearless little parrot. Valentine even curiously poked the little parrot's wing, but the latter only hopped to the side twice to dodge slightly, then tilted its head and stared at the puppet with wide eyes.

　　The little parrot tilted its head as if thinking, recalling for a while before opening its mouth, but before it could say anything, it heard Vanna suddenly fluttering over from the side, shouting at the top of her lungs: "Gimme some fries!"

　　And then, the parrot Polly seemed to dredge up some useless information from the remnants of its memory, and it suddenly jumped up, flapping its wings hard: "Tell the captain, tell the captain! Tell... Gimme some fries!"

　　Is there really no humanity outside the hull of the *Vanishing Sea*...? The voice that spoke to me at that time, and the aura I felt from that figure... is it really just a hollow, chaotic echo of the sub-space?

　　"Where did you come from? Why did you come here?" he suddenly asked.

　　Alice and the pigeon next to her exchanged glances, both with a bit of helplessness and hesitation in their expressions.

　　"Vanna, catch up with that parrot."

　　Ai Yi didn't respond—before hearing Polly shout the words "tell the captain," his face suddenly became serious, and at the same time he recalled why he felt vaguely familiar with that parrot.

　　The little pirate was suddenly a little hesitant.

　　"The situation is roughly like this."

　　"What's that?" Valentine looked curiously at Ai Yi, "Looks exactly like Vanna."

　　This kind of feeling that seems right in every way but can communicate magically is really particularly subtle.

　　"Can't," Shirley shook her head, then asked the puppet, "Why are you always concerned about that question even though you don't eat anything?"

　　"Gimme some fries!" The pigeon landed in front of the little parrot, nodding seriously, "Gimme some fries."

　　"I'm busy."

　　"What's a parrot?" Valentine asked a soul-searching question, "Can you eat it?"

　　"The *Vanishing Sea* finally took away the sun fragment, prevented the descent of the *Creeping Sun*, and also eliminated the impact of historical pollution on the city-state—although we are still unsure... his father's intentions."

　　"It started as an accident... but now that I think about it, it may also have been deliberately arranged by his father," Duncan sorted out his thoughts, recalling as he spoke, "I came into contact with the 'flame' he left behind and established a connection with it. As for why he chose you... unfortunately, no one knows..."

　　In a secluded reception room in the Pland Cathedral, the old Bishop Alice, wearing casual clothes, said to Tirian, who was sitting on the sofa behind the coffee table.

　　"The *Vanishing Sea* really just left like that? Looks like it came specifically to save the day?" The famous "Pirate Captain" was incredulous in his tone, "It took away the sun fragment... and then? Just like that? Didn't do anything else?"

　　"Transmit a message?" Ai Yi was stunned, his expression slightly serious, "What message to transmit?"

　　He had indeed seen that bird—when the *Vanishing Sea* and the *Sea Mist* overlapped, in a certain cabin of the *Sea Mist*!

　　The two birds started communicating like this, so that Ai Yi had to interrupt from the side: "Stop—Vanna, shut up, Polly, what message do you want to transmit, and to whom?"

　　"Polly?" "Gimme some fries!"

　　The little parrot was obviously stunned, and after a few seconds of hesitation, it swayed its body back and forth, "Gimme some fries."

　　In the conversation just now, he vaguely sensed that the parrot had a certain ability to communicate with people—which obviously proved that its origin was special.

　　Tirian's expression was a little subtle, and a little stiff.

　　Tirian suddenly stopped there, and for some reason, he suddenly thought of the few seconds when the *Vanishing Sea* and the *Sea Mist* overlapped, and he thought of the cold and distant words he heard--

　　He suddenly realized one thing, no matter what message the parrot wanted to convey later, it had obviously forgotten it all...

　　"I'm responsible for cooking for Captain... Mr. Ai Yi!"

　　Matters related to the *Vanishing Sea* were confidential information, and even more so was the conversation with this Captain Ai Yi. Some things shouldn't have been said, but Tirian's identity was so special that these questions were no longer a problem.

　　There were four tongues wagging around the counter, but Ai Yi didn't participate. He just looked thoughtfully at the little parrot who called himself "Polly". For some reason, he always felt vaguely that the bird looked a bit familiar, as if... he had just seen it somewhere not long ago.

　　Shirley immediately said, "Of course they're different. That's a parrot, Vanna's a pigeon."

　　Ai Yi: "..."

　　After that, the little parrot flapped its wings, shouting "Gimme some fries" as it circled towards the door. Before everyone could react, it rushed out of the small door, soared into the sky, and accelerated all the way towards the urban area of the City-State of Pland.

　　Just as Tirian was distracted, the voice of the young Inquisitor suddenly came from across from him, interrupting his reverie: "The question of whether Captain Ai Yi possesses 'humanity' is exactly what we will discuss next."

　　The little parrot turned its head and tilted its head, "Polly! Go, transmit a message!"

　　The person who theoretically knows Ai Yi Abnormal the best. "...Is there anything else," After hesitating again and again, the old Bishop still couldn't bring himself to say it. He shook his head with a sigh, "I know you're confused—Mr. Tirian, we're just as confused as you are. If even you don't know what his father wants to do, then we know even less."

　　"In fact…"

　　Duncan hesitated for a moment, then turned his head and exchanged glances with Bishop Alice before nodding slightly, "We recently had a conversation with his father."

　　Ai Yi: "…"

　　Now that things had come to this, it was really difficult to say the words "Your dad robbed half the city of fries" in front of Tirian.

　　"A conversation? We had a conversation with my father?!" Tirian was indeed taken aback, almost standing up from the sofa, "Isn't that a good joke?"

　　He often contemplated life while talking with Vanna, telling himself to believe whether he was communicating with this pigeon on the same wavelength.

　　Duncan concealed the details about himself being subjected to the "mark" and the "pollution being impossible to eliminate", but clearly summarized the process as "established a connection", and then told the "pirate captain" in front of him the details of his several conversations with Captain Ai Yi.

　　The little parrot was startled, "Ah! Polly!"

　　"Please calm down, this is a very serious matter—no one would joke about such things before the city-state was almost destroyed," Duncan looked intently at Tirian, then paused slightly, "Simply put, I have had several conversations with his father, and according to my observations… 'Captain Ai Yi' does not seem to conform to the descriptions in the records."

　　"Hmm?" Tirian looked at Duncan in confusion, "What does that mean?"

　　Tirian noticed the other party's solemn attitude, and he quickly stepped forward, his expression also becoming particularly serious: "Miss Inquisitor, how did you establish the connection? Why did he find you? And... what did he say?"