Chapter 1 Looking at Alice's confident posture with her neck outstretched, Duncan's emotions went haywire – and he instantly realized that this silly posture wasn't confidence or pride at all, it was completely fixed and unable to move...

However, Miss Doll herself didn't seem to realize the seriousness of the situation at all. She still had a triumphant look on her face, happily handing the newspaper to Duncan while giggling, clearly very happy that she had successfully shopped alone: "Here you go, the newspaper, and I even remembered to get the change!"

Duncan finally took the newspaper with a blank expression, and after two or three seconds, he reminded the silly doll, "Alice, nod your head."

"Huh? Why?" Alice was stunned for a moment, but immediately chose to follow the captain's instructions. As a result, her head only shook slightly in place, and a strange sound came from the vicinity of her neck, after which she couldn't move anymore.

After two seconds of stagnation, the doll finally reacted and exclaimed, "Mr. Duncan! I can't move! Help me, help me!"

Duncan glanced at the doll with a weary heart, turned and walked towards the antique shop: "Don't shout outside, we'll study it when we get back."

Alice followed Duncan's footsteps in a panic, followed by Nina, who was also a little confused and at a loss. The three entered the antique shop, and Nina, who was the last to enter, turned back and carefully closed the shop door, not forgetting to hang up the "Temporarily Closed" wooden sign.

Duncan casually threw the newly bought newspaper on the counter and was about to check on Alice's condition when the corner of his eye suddenly caught a line of headlines on the front page of the newspaper.

His attention was immediately drawn back to the newspaper.

It clearly printed a sentence in the largest bold letters: "Use boiling water."

He was starting to believe that the two upstairs had forgotten the main business.

"Captain, it still doesn't work," Pland said with a mournful face.

"I've deep-fried my own head, so I'm not afraid of this temperature at all," Medon spread his hands. "Looking at the situation now, rinsing with cold water is useless. Boiling it with boiling water might still give us some hope."

Duncan frowned, picked up the newspaper, and glanced at the article on the front page.

Duncan sighed, threw the newspaper aside, stepped forward to untie the lace decoration around Pland's neck, checked the edges of his joints for any unhardened super glue, and after a moment of silence turned to Nina: "...Where did Shirley go?"

She went upstairs in a daze, saw Nina standing helplessly in the hallway, and then looked up at the bathroom at the end of the hallway, seeing Pland poking his head out a little awkwardly.

According to the publicly released news, the Storm Cathedral's docking at Alice was a normal stop for repairs. Pope Helena will briefly visit Alice Cathedral during that time and discuss some church matters with the Archbishop and Inquisitor. The newspaper did not mention the previous historical contamination incident or anything related to the Forsaken Ship.

Duncan didn't care about the Storm Goddess's faith, but he couldn't help but wonder what impact this would have on him.

Duncan looked at Pland, then at Nina who was clutching the corner of her clothes beside him, and finally sighed after a long while. "A bottle, about this big," Pland gestured, "Found in your room, a large brown glass bottle."

Duncan: "......?"

"...So you're only worried about this after your head got stuck?" Duncan glared at Alice, then waved his hand wearily, "Alright, don't look so sad, this glue is very strong, but it's not resistant to cold or water. Soak it in cold water, and it'll come off in a while."

Alice was anxiously running around, she finally realized that pouring glue into her neck joints was not a wise move. After noticing that the captain had no time to pay attention to her, she turned her target for help to Nina: "Miss Nina, help me, save me, save me..."

He still remembered the message "Thank you" that the Storm Goddess seemed to have given him before, and even without this incident, he was curious about the gods of this world, and he was also quite interested in the Storm Cathedral, which was said to cruise the boundless sea all year round.

Duncan was a little...

He rubbed his temples with a headache. Things were getting interesting.

"...You poured it all in?!" Duncan's eyes twitched obviously, "How did you manage to do that with such a big bottle?"

But Duncan obviously didn't have Nina's limitations in terms of ideas. He just glanced at the gothic doll wrapped in a bath towel not far away, then turned to Nina and said, "It's not that complicated. Just find a big pot and stick her in head first... At worst, you can hold her next to it."

"I... I said my head hurt from memorizing vocabulary an hour ago, so I went out for some fresh air," Nina said, shrinking her neck, "Did he flee in fear of punishment?"

Or rather, could he take this opportunity to... gather some information?

"First, take off the head and put it upside down, pour the glue in and shake it, then go straight on," Alice's voice seemed to be crying, "Shirley said it would be secure." Afterwards, the doll walked out,

She was soaking wet, wrapped in a bath towel, and her head was still firmly in place.

He gestured as he spoke, and although she was academically excellent at school, Nina still felt that her imagination couldn't keep up with reality at the moment.

But soon, the voices upstairs quieted down, followed by a burst of somewhat rapid footsteps running down the stairs. Nina's voice came along with it: "Uncle Duncan! It doesn't work! Come and take a look, we can't get it off at all!"

The antique shop was very quiet. The movements of Nina and Alice in the bathroom on the second floor were even faintly transmitted downstairs. The clearest was Nina's exaggerated voice: Duncan stared blankly at

He could feel the beautiful doll's grief, but the doll had no tears to shed, and all the sadness could only flow in her empty heart - this sounded poetic and picturesque, if you ignored the detail that "the reason for the doll's grief was that she had glued her head on".

Nina imagined it, and a scene did come to mind, but her tone became exceptionally firm: "I just feel that Miss Alice is a little pitiful like that..."

"Think of a way," Alice seemed to be crying slowly, holding her head in both hands, "Miss Nina, aren't you studying something about repairing machinery? You can even repair your steam core, can you fix me?"

"Big Sister Alice, there's a keyhole on your back, huh? You don't even know what it's for?"

Storm Cathedral? The mysterious "sea headquarters" of the Deep Sea Church? The messenger of the Storm Goddess Gormona is coming to this city... Is it for the previous historical contamination incident? Or for the Forsaken Ship? Or both?

"I can't repair dolls either!" Nina was also anxious, and finally turned her pleading eyes to Duncan, "Uncle, think of a way, Miss Alice's head is completely glued on..."

"Miss Alice, can't your wrists rotate one hundred and eighty degrees... really can't?!"

The sun fragment took the doll with the glued head and ran upstairs, while Duncan sighed helplessly and picked up the newspaper he had just put aside again.

"Is there a problem with water getting into the keyhole? Oh, that's not something I need to consider..."

On the other hand, he was also very curious whether the highest spokesperson of the Storm Goddess would discover some of the abnormalities of the Pland City-State and whether she would discover his "subspace shadow" hidden in the city-state.

"Ah?" Nina was shocked, "Re... really?! Can Big Sister Alice take it..."

The thing she thinks about most now is just skipping class," Duncan sighed and shook his head, "No, it hasn't completely dried yet. It's been drying for at least half an hour. This is quick-drying glue. You can't pull it off with brute force now."

Medon finally put down the newspaper in his hand, turned his head and glanced at the two girls beside him who were making a fuss, and his eyes fell on Pland: "How much glue did he pour in, and what kind of glue was it?"

"What should I do!" Alice looked at Duncan helplessly, ". I... I have to take my head off when I comb my hair, I won't comb my hair with my head on."

Nina

was also a little flustered. She stepped forward and shook Alice's head left and right, and found that the glue had completely solidified long ago: "This... we can't pull it off! This looks like super glue!"

But even if the newspaper didn't mention it, discerning people knew that this Deep Sea Pope was coming for these two major events.

Duncan suddenly felt as if he had been rescued. Nina, who was also anxious, immediately reacted and quickly stepped forward to grab Alice's hand: "I'll take you to the bathroom, I'll get hot water very quickly!"

Duncan put down the newspaper, sat down next to the counter, and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Hey! These joints are really amazing and beautiful!"

"It hasn't loosened at all," Nina muttered softly, "We've been rinsing it with cold water for a long time."

"Pity my ass!" Duncan finally couldn't help it and swore for the first time ever, "You let an illiterate person trick you into pouring a whole bottle of glue into your joints, this is to teach you a lesson!"

Nina's eyes seemed to be a little dazed. She tried hard to think about this operation process for a long time, and opened her mouth with some hesitation: "We do have boiling water, I can make it very quickly, but... we don't have a pot that big at home, and there's also a bathtub that can soak her whole body. If we want to soak her head in water and boil it, Miss Alice would have to squat in the water, right?"