Hearing Agatha's report, Duncan's first reaction was to glance out of the corner of his eye at the door of the dormitory not far away.

Then he withdrew his gaze and looked at the former "gatekeeper" in the mirror, with an unusually serious expression: "You mean, its reflection in the sea?" ”

"Not just the reflection in the sea, but also its projection in the spirit realm—under normal circumstances, these two 'shadows' are very closely connected and affect each other," Agatha said with a serious face, "In the middle of the night last night, I was shuttling through the mirrors of the ship as usual, checking the whole ship, and then suddenly I discovered it, but I thought it was the 'peculiarity' of the Lost Country itself, after all, I knew very little about it......"

"The Lost Country doesn't have this property—at least to the best of my knowledge, its 'shadow' doesn't suddenly disappear for no apparent reason," Duncan shook his head, "When did this happen?" How long did it last? ”

Agatha nodded immediately, "Judging by the timing, it should have happened during the effects of the 'Dream of the Nameless' you mentioned, and lasted until the first rays of light appeared on the sea level. ”

Duncan didn't speak, just frowned tightly, a look of deep thought on his face.

After a moment of silence, Agatha continued: "When the shadow of the Lost disappeared, I happened to be shuttling through the mirrors of the real world, and in the past, I could 'jump' directly through those mirrors to the spirit realm, or into the reflection of the Lost Country on the surface of the sea, but last night, this 'jump tunnel' disappeared with the shadow of the Lost Country......

"But in my feelings...... It's not that the realm 'on the other side' of the mirror doesn't really exist anymore, but that there's a 'barrier' that I don't understand, so that I can't see the path in the mirror and can't perceive the situation on the other side......"

Listening to Agatha's narration, Duncan seemed to think of something: "What do you mean...... Do you think that the 'shadow' of the Lost Country did not really disappear, but at that time it turned into a state that you could not understand and observe, or that there was a 'perception' barrier that 'locked' you to the side of the real world? ”

"Very apt," Agatha looked relieved, "I thought my description was too abstract and would have to take a lot of effort to explain to you......"

"I've dealt with all sorts of 'Veils' in both Brand and Frost," Duncan said casually, then he thought for a moment and glanced thoughtfully at the door not far away, "So, you've been suspicious when you heard my conversation with Goathead just now—because my 'first mate' didn't mention anything unusual about last night. ”

"I don't know what that's because of, but theoretically...... It should be able to detect changes in the spirit world, and although it may not be as sensitive as I am in this regard, it is not completely unaware of it," Agatha hesitated in her tone, "especially the things you just mentioned, the presence of another 'goathead', and the strange and suspicious behavior of the other party......"

Duncan exhaled softly and said, "You don't think the 'goathead' is reliable anymore, because it might be hiding something from me. ”

“…… I know that as a 'new crew', I shouldn't question the ship's first mate, it's a great taboo, but as a former 'gatekeeper', I have an instinctive ......'vigilance' about this kind of thing," Agatha said sincerely, considering her words, "A lot of irreversible things start with a little 'wrong' at the beginning." ”

Duncan listened silently, neither agreeing nor blindly refuting.

It took a long time for him to speak, "There may be two explanations, either the goathead knew what was going on, but it didn't tell me that it was a deliberate concealment, or even it didn't know what happened to the Lost Country last night." ”

Agatha was stunned for a moment, and quickly reacted: "The second explanation means ......"

"There's some kind of force that's influencing the ship—Goathead's being 'affected,'" Duncan said solemnly, "and you're not affected, so you can observe what happens to the Lost at night." ”

……

Humming a brisk tune that she couldn't remember her name for, Alice was busy navigating the kitchen.

For her, the busy days on the Lost are always her happiest moments.

There was everything she knew well, a familiar deck, a familiar kitchen, familiar pots and pans, and familiar barrels, kitchen knives, and shovels.

They were all her friends, and everything on the ship was her friends - and for the most part, she found it much easier to deal with her friends on the ship than with people in the city-state.

Because there's so much to learn and memorize to deal with people in the city, and there's a whole bunch of sleepy "rules" to watch out for—the so-called "humans" are always too fragile, they float unguarded with countless "threads", and if they grab them at random, they will be inexplicably damaged beyond repair, much more precious and fragile than the ceramics and glassware on ships.

But the captain attaches great importance to those "people", and he does not want to mess with the "threads" on other people's bodies, let alone destroy those who should not be broken.

For Alice, it was a little bit harder.

It's like putting a cat in a room full of balls of yarn and not allowing it to touch any of the threads with its paws.

So after a few flashes of going into town, Alice finds herself still enjoying living on a ship—because she can barely beat anyone here.

Just be careful not to "touch" your friends on the boat.

She likes that, she likes the solid and solid way the world around her.

Lifting the wooden barrel where the pickled fish was stored, Alice carefully approached the barrel and sniffed the inside, with a satisfied look on her face.

The captain didn't understand this, and neither did the rest of the ship - why would a puppet have a sense of smell?

Alice herself didn't know, but she never thought about it so much.

Satisfied with her work, she took a wooden basin from the side and prepared to take some of the pickled fish out of the bucket - she reached out to the bucket, but before she could get something from it, a long-handled spoon on the countertop next to her suddenly jumped up and struck her on the arm.

Alice exclaimed, and quickly withdrew her hand as she spoke: "I've washed my hands, I just washed them!" ”

The ladle shook over the edge of the barrel, still not out of the way.

Alice flattened her mouth, a little unhappy: "It's not easy to use!" ”

The long-handled spoon floats slowly, and the head of the spoon gestures in front of the puppet.

“…… Alice," Alice finally reluctantly agreed, muttering as she reached out and grabbed the handle of the spoon, "Isn't it just that I fell my head in it the last time I bent down to pick something up, and as for the trouble......

She took fish from the bucket and chatted with her friends in the kitchen, sometimes talking about what she had seen and heard in the city-state, and sometimes about the captain.

She then began to check the other food containers - since Ay was always ready to supply the Lost with fresh ingredients, most of the food that needed to be stored here was something that had been processed and could be stored for years, and pickled fish was the most popular.

There are a total of 12 large wooden barrels for the marinated fish.

Alice counted along the wall from the doorway—one, two, three, four...... XII, XIII.

She stopped suddenly.

Miss Doll blinked in confusion and went back to the beginning and counted again.

Or thirteen.

One more.

Alice stood in front of the row of barrels in a daze, her head racing, at first, she suspected that she had made a mistake in the numbers, after all, she had not been very good at arithmetic, and sometimes she was not even better than Shirley, but soon she felt that she should not be so stupid - after all, it was only twelve barrels.

She already knows how to add and subtract more than two digits.

So Alice rubbed her eyes and counted them again.

Twelve.

The extra numbers just now are gone, and everything is back to normal.

Alice counted between the barrels over and over again, and finally confirmed that she had not counted wrong, but she felt that the doubts in her heart had not eased in the slightest, she turned her head, glanced at the other things in the kitchen, and couldn't help but say curiously: "Have you noticed?" It seems like there's an extra bucket just now! ”

However, the friends in the kitchen couldn't really answer her - and even if they could, these "restless things" at best, which exhibited the characteristics of living creatures due to the special environment of the Lost Country, did not have the full intelligence to help solve the puzzles of the dolls.

Alice didn't get an answer, so she turned her head again and patted the large barrels that were placed along the walls: "Did you have an extra one just now?" ”

The big barrel didn't answer her either.

……

Sarah Mayer listened in amazement to what the "Witch of the Sea" told her, not even noticing that the food in her hand had landed on the table.

He didn't care about the witch lady who came and went freely early in the morning, and interrupted his breakfast.

"These unbelievable things...... Did it all happen last night? ”

The elven archon spoke in disbelief, in fact, he wanted to say "Are you kidding me" at first, but given the witch's temper, he didn't make such a senseless provocation.

"Judging by your reaction, it turned out exactly as I expected," Lucrecia sighed, she sat down in the chair opposite Sarah Mayer, as for the shivering servants in the dining room, who had been kicked out before she could get down to business, and now it was just her and the archon, "the scope of that 'dream'...... Bigger than you think. ”

(End of chapter)