It's an amazing feeling.

Duncan could clearly feel things in the distance—he could feel the Lost Homeland drifting across the vast sea, the living ghost ship blazing its way on the charts under the control of a goat's head, and a cursed puppet with a not-so-strong head circling around the cabin, familiar with the ship's environment as if it were an adventure, the deep and dark sea slowly undulating around it, and the sea was hiding countless strange things.

However, in his other line of sight, he was sitting in an antique shop in the lower part of the city-state of Plande, and the sound of people and cars on the street came to his ears, which only set off the silence of the store, and a human girl named Nina sat opposite him, eating the cheapest cake in the lower city.

He's Captain Duncan, the ruler of the Lost Country, the moving scourge of the infinite seas—he sits like a normal man, eating his breakfast, in the depths of the peaceful city.

I don't know if it's an illusion, he feels that a part of his heart that has always been hanging and always restless is precipitating little by little, it may be the nerves that have been tense for a long time on the ghost ship, or it may be something else, but he feels that this is not a bad thing after all.

As if noticing the sight coming from the side, Nina, who was eating cake, suddenly raised her head, and she glanced at Duncan curiously: "Uncle Duncan, don't you eat?" ”

Duncan glanced at the food on the other side's plate: "Is it enough for you?" ”

"Enough, it's not good to eat too many sweets."

"Hmm."

Duncan nodded, picked up the cake and took a bite, feeling the richness of the taste he hadn't tasted in a long time, feeling the rough sweetness slowly dissolve in his mouth—and then, distinctly sensing the body begin to process the food it was eating.

He calmed down a little, knowing that the situation was as he expected.

This body was "good" than the shell it had temporarily occupied for the first time - its "parts" were intact, it had not been dead for long, and its own soul had taken over and almost seamlessly reactivated the life in the body, which was completely different from the open-minded corpse that had preceded it.

He was breathing, blood was flowing, and his heart was beating - although it seemed to be beating a little slower, it should still be in the normal category.

There should be no need to worry about the problem of body corruption, and it also saves the calculation of soaking preservatives, and in this way, it is not easy to be exposed in front of ordinary people.

But there is one thing Duncan is still not sure.

He knew that his body must have been sick - the negative impression of the plague was more profound in the devoured memories than all the others, as evidenced by the spirits and painkillers he had found in the cupboard.

He didn't know what disease this body had before, because the time of onset and the cause of the onset seemed to be a memory from a long time ago, and it had long been blurred, but one thing was obvious: at this moment, except for the weakness brought to him by the ordinary human body, he didn't feel anything wrong with this body.

The disease is gone? Because of the spiritual walking, this body has healed itself? Or is it because the projected soul is limited in perception after all, so that it can't actually feel the problem of the body, and the health of this body is actually deteriorating?

Duncan ate quietly while thinking about it, and then suddenly glanced at Nina, who was eating across from him, "Don't you have to go to school today?" ”

Nina lived in the lower part of the city, where economic conditions were not good, but the city-state of Purand had apparently developed to the point where basic education was more widespread, and she now attended a school run by the church and the town hall, specializing in steam mechanics, which could be seen as a kind of "vocational high school" for the supply of skilled steam craftsmen to factories and churches.

Half of Nina's tuition is paid by her uncle, and the other half comes from a grant from the town hall.

For a city-state that has developed into the industrial age, even official subsidies to train artisans in this area are well worth it – and it is undeniable that such schools with a very clear purpose have at least solved the problem of literacy among the common people.

Nina was very studious, and in her uncle's memory, the girl had excellent grades in all her classes.

"I don't have any classes this morning," Nina nodded, "only two history lessons in the afternoon." I'm going to talk to Mrs. White in the afternoon, and I'm not going to live in the dormitory these days......"

Duncan suddenly stopped what he was doing, he looked at Nina very seriously, and asked, "Don't you think staying here to take care of someone like me will delay a lot of things?" You can live in school for a long time, which may be more helpful for your studies. ”

Nina was stunned, she looked at her "Uncle Duncan" a little sluggishly, and then suddenly got angry: "You shouldn't talk like that!" You're just sick, just follow the doctor's advice and take your medicine - Mom and Dad entrusted you to me......"

"It was your mom and dad who entrusted you to me," Duncan corrected earnestly, speaking as he used the memories in his mind to organize the language, "you were only six years old then. ”

"But now I'm seventeen," Nina puffed out her face and slammed her fork into the last piece of cake, "you're not even as good at taking care of yourself as I am - if I do move out, you won't have to make a mess of the room in three days." In fact, you can also ask me to take care of the storefront, at least clean and clean, the windows are so dirty that you can't see clearly......"

Duncan listened to the girl's babbling "preaching" with some helplessness, he didn't expect that his casual "test" could bring such a big reaction from the other party.

But slowly, he couldn't help but laugh again.

He felt a warmth from the girl named "Nina...... A warm temperature that seems to be bathed in the sun.

"Well, I'll just say it casually," he said, shaking his head, stirring the last bit of soup in the bowl, "it's history class in the afternoon...... How have you been studying in history class lately? ”

"Uncle Duncan, are you really alright?" Nina's eyes widened in surprise, "You've never been ...... before Well, at least for the past two years, you've never asked me about school. ”

Duncan opened his mouth, and was about to say something, but the girl in front of him said to herself: "We have been talking about ancient history lately, and old Mr. Morris is telling us about the aftermath of the Great Annihilation...... To be honest, it's quite interesting, and there are many parts of ancient history that sound like stories, far more interesting than modern and modern history. ”

Duncan thought for a moment and looked serious: "Sounds like you're learning well?" Then I'll test you, what is the relevant concept of annihilation? ”

Uncle Duncan today is very strange, although I can't say how strange it is, but it is not the same as usual.

But Nina didn't think much of it—the innocent girl was now more glad that Uncle Duncan had finally picked himself up, and seemed to be in a good mood than her uncle's slightly strange words and deeds.

She was glad that Uncle Duncan was asking exactly what she had just learned.

So with a smug smile, she began to tell Duncan what she had just learned:

"The Great Annihilation occurred about 10,000 years ago - although for unknown reasons, ethnic minorities with unique cultural heritages such as the Elves, Senjin, and Kipulo recorded inconsistent times in their own calendars, but in general, the archaeological community agrees that the Great Annihilation occurred at the end of the Order Era 10,000 years ago......"

Duncan listened calmly.

My heart is full of question marks.

Genie? Senjin people? Jeploon? What's going on? It turns out that there is not only one intelligent race of humans on land? And elves...... Is this the same concept as the "elf" in your own understanding? Is there still an elven city-state living in the age of the steam industry in the infinite sea?

He couldn't help but think of some very strange pictures in his mind, and Nina's voice was still coming from the other side:

“…… There are some discrepancies in the accounts of the Great Annihilation in the various city-states, but the more common part is that the era of order before the Great Annihilation was a far more prosperous, stable, and secure era than it is today, when there were extremely large continents, the sea was far less vast than it is today, and there was no such end as the so-called 'real border' between the sea and the land......

"The era that followed the Great Annihilation is called the 'Deep Sea Age', and the Deep Sea Age continues to this day with no end in sight. The most striking feature of the Deep Sea Age is that the vast sea covered almost the entire world, while the land was less than half of the old era, and it was divided into large and small islands or 'mist lands', and many of today's city-states were built on relatively stable islands, and various ocean-going ships became a means of communication between the islands.

"In the early days of the Deep Sea Age, the remnants of the old world suffered heavy losses, the old civilization was almost completely destroyed, and the 'Old Kingdom of Crete', which originally rose from the ruins, is the earliest civilization ancestor of the Deep Sea Age, although this ancient kingdom lasted less than a hundred years, it left a large number of far-reaching legacies for future generations, including the most primitive and superficial classification of many anomalies and anomalies in the Deep Sea Age, as well as a lot of valuable experience in maintaining survival in the Deep Sea Age......"