Chapter 1 Tirian's Unease

Returning to his room, Tirian ordered his subordinates to leave, but his mood did not calm down with the silence.

The long conversation with "Father" still lingered in his mind, and memories of the Submerge Project swirled uncontrollably. Fragments from half a century ago flashed before his eyes—crude diving equipment, the perpetually rain-soaked sea cliffs, the silent platform guards, the priests' low chanting in the rainy night, the brightly lit yet eerily ominous coastal laboratory, and the Frost Queen's gaze, always fixed on the sea, burying all secrets.

Tirian shook his head. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the doll who called herself "Alice"—Anomaly 023, completely freed from its seal, moving freely in the world.

A "controlled" anomaly, a doll who could think and communicate like a human, even possessing her own emotions...

She was so much like the Frost Queen, yet definitely not the Queen herself. Although her existence and appearance in the world easily suggested some kind of "return" of the Queen, Tirian could sense that the doll... held no trace of Rei Nora's will.

If he had to say, Tirian felt that "Alice" was more like... an extremely accurate replica in appearance, but completely distorted on the inside.

Just like those "Submersible No. 3" vessels that kept surfacing back then.

Tirian's eyes suddenly changed slightly, feeling a slight heat from the associations that surfaced in his mind.

I sat in the room, poured myself a glass of strong liquor, relying on the alcohol to cool my heated thoughts and calm my restless mind. After a while, I felt a little better, and then I looked up at the small suitcase placed next to the bed.

After a moment of resolve, he took the case to the table, opened the lid, and activated the simple lenses and the crystal at the center of the lens array.

"He can basically find out about that part from the Explorer's Association's public information, but there's one detail..."

"The records don't show it, but you might be interested."

As he spoke, he suddenly stopped, as if he had thought of something. His expression changed abruptly, and then he looked at the far side of the crystal ball with a flicker in his eyes.

He pondered for a few seconds: "Back then... he was indeed in the sea area where it happened, but the one who initially salvaged the original Anomaly 023 wasn't the Brilliant Star, but a coastal fishing boat called the 'Charvin.'"

"In detail, when he received the distress signal from the Charvin and found this drifting, out-of-control fishing boat, it was no longer the original site. So, I can't be sure what the scene was like when the original Anomaly 023 was first salvaged—I can only tell you what the scene was like on the Charvin at that time."

"But it looks like he violently beat the city walls with his head," Tirian frowned slightly, "You can't fall like that without a two-hundred-meter running start and a decisive headbutt—he was attacked."

After a long while, he finally saw Lucretia's figure vaguely emerging from the flickering lights, along with her blurry voice. After a few more minutes, the voice and image barely cleared up, and his sister's voice came to his ears: "Can you hear me?"

"It's normal now," Tirian nodded, "His interference is even worse than before... What's around him? Sunlight? It looks a little strange..."

"Regarding the initial discovery of the original Anomaly 023, he was there at the time," Tirian stared at his sister, "I want to know some of the most truthful information from him. You know, he and my fleet never go near Frost, and we missed the original scene."

"He's become interested in some old stories about Frost," Tirian said casually, "But you don't need to worry about that. He's asking me about something else—the original Anomaly 023, you know about it, right?"

"This information is also very surprising," Lucretia said softly. Bathed in a strange golden glow, her eyes seemed to be shimmering slightly, "You mean, Father... 'released' the original Anomaly 023 from the coffin, allowing this safe anomaly to move freely outside, and the latter is willingly following Father?"

"You can even talk to him?"

"A bell..." Lucretia's voice came from the crystal ball, "I heard a short chime. If I remember correctly, is that the bell that represents a message from the 'Renowned King's Mausoleum'?!"

Tirian knew that his sister often operated on the border, where strange phenomena often occurred. Most of the time it was safe, and Lucretia always managed to turn danger into safety—but he still couldn't help but worry a little.

"He said that we couldn't discard this box because it was alive and moving around the ship, and we couldn't destroy it because it was incredibly strong and sturdy. The sailors with self-defense weapons couldn't deal with it at all..."

"Who attacked you?" Lucretia didn't pay attention to Tirian's interruption. Her expression was particularly serious, "I'm in Prand City-State, and there are no enemies of yours here. The city-state authorities wouldn't sit idly by if a 'guest' was attacked... Ah, you just denied being attacked and said you fell..."

When Tirian saw her expression, he knew what was going on, and shook his head before she could speak: "Don't be so serious, I'm not there."

"In the half hour after the original Anomaly 023 was salvaged, the sailors on the Charvin heard several slight clicking sounds coming from the box, sounding like... something was forming inside."

"Slight clicking sounds..." Tirian frowned and murmured, then seemed to want to ask something else, but just as he was about to speak, a slightly urgent bell ringing suddenly came from outside the window, interrupting what he was about to say.

Tirian's expression froze—

After a moment, he shook his head helplessly: "Sometimes I really wish you were that smart."

"Ah, I picked up something strange on the border, but I've already checked it and it's not dangerous," Lucretia replied casually, "This thing may have fallen from the sky, and it projects a very wide range of light...

He's using the Brilliant Star to drag it back for research."

"Subordinate?!" Lucretia was taken aback, instinctively wanting to ask how strong this subordinate was and what weapon he used to beat the "Iron General" into a pig's head, but then she noticed the second half of Tirian's sentence, her eyes changed, "...He talked to you again so soon, did something happen?"

"When he found the ship, there were almost no survivors on board. Eleven of the twelve crew members, including the captain, had been beheaded—leaving only one sailor, half-crazed with fear, incoherently describing the 'cursed wooden box' they had salvaged."

"He saw you," Tirian breathed a sigh of relief, not continuing to play games, "This 'doll', he calls himself 'Weng Ping Shan', and hasn't woken up from his coffin yet. He's currently serving Father, and as the rumors say, this doll looks exactly like the Frost Queen, but her personality... is very surprising."

Lucretia frowned prettily, he seemed to vaguely realize something.

He raised his head in surprise, hearing the bell ringing turbidly and urgently in the darkening sky. After carefully distinguishing it for a moment, he said to himself uncertainly, "Not the dusk bell... it sounds like the swift bell."

"Of course I know, I also know that this thing was hijacked by the Ship of the Lost, and this matter has spread throughout the Explorer's Association. And shortly after that, the Deep Sea Church issued a notice, and the name of the original Anomaly 023 changed from 'Doll Coffin' to 'Doll'... Many people have uneasy speculations about this."

"Really... He did that?" Lucretia widened her eyes in shock, "Wait, didn't you say he wasn't in the city-state? And why would he...?"

"...Fell."

He noticed that behind Lucretia's background, there seemed to be ripples of pale golden light, which looked like a dim sunset shining into the room through the window, but the texture of this light was far cooler and darker than the sunset, and the distribution and diffusion of its brilliance also gave a feeling of being similar to but not the same as sunlight, which was particularly concerning.

Lucretia didn't speak. After a moment of silence, she looked up: "What does he want to ask?"

Tirian raised his eyelids and looked at Lucretia's eyes with a solemn expression: "Then do you know why its name changed from 'Doll Coffin' to 'Doll'?"

"I'll be careful, you're always very careful—but occasionally there are some accidents. Exploration, accidents are inevitable," Lucretia waved her hand, then seemed to suddenly notice something, staring at Tirian's face, "Brother, what happened to your face and head?"

Lucretia paused, recalling the scenes she had seen.

"It sounds unbelievable, but it's absolutely true," Tirian nodded, "She can speak, she can think, she has emotions like humans, and even... I think her relationship with Father is pretty good, but I'm not sure if that's a 'friendship' that humans can't understand. After all, one of us is a ghost returning from subspace, and the other is a 'normal object' numbered within the hundreds."

Tirian frowned subconsciously: "You always pick up strange things on the border, have you forgotten what happened last time when you were dragged directly into the depths of the spirit world by a humanoid cloud of smoke?"

"I wasn't there, it was one of my current subordinates," Tirian rubbed his forehead in annoyance, "Don't worry, we didn't have a conflict. These injuries... were just some small accidents. He wanted to talk to me about something, and he was too vigilant."

The crystal ball dimmed, and a large number of flickering lights appeared inside, emitting disturbing noise.