In the waters near the Light Wind Harbor, on a mist-covered sea far from the main shipping lane, the huge and majestic shadow of the Lost Land was slowly patrolling in the fog.

Then, the surface of the sea suddenly rose with a layer of ripples that seemed to be real and illusory, and the reflection of the ghost ship rose and fell in the ripples, and in a very brief moment, the reflection seemed to condense from the sea, but the next moment, everything was back to its original state.

In the captain's room, the carved wooden goat's head on the edge of the sailing table suddenly turned its head in confusion, accompanied by a slight creak from the base, it raised its head and looked around, and only muttered in confusion for a long time: "How do you feel the strange ...... just now?"

On the wall in the corner of the room, layers of black mist had floated in the quaint oval mirror, and Agatha's figure stood in the mirror, quietly looking at the goat's head on the table.

The goat's head finally noticed the sight coming from the side, and it immediately turned its head away, and when it saw Agatha, it exclaimed, "Ah...... You scare me! What are you doing watching me in the morning? ”

As he spoke, it shook its head again, as if suddenly remembering something: "By the way, Lady Agatha, where did you go last night?" How do I feel that your breath is not on the ship...... Doesn't you run around in the mirror at night? ”

Agatha did not answer the goat's question for the first time, but continued to quietly observe the "first mate's" every move, and it took a long time to break the silence: "Didn't you feel anything last night?" When I left, didn't you notice anything unusual? ”

"No," the goat's head was stunned for a moment, then reacted faintly, "Wait, what do you mean by that...... Did something happen again last night? ”

"Well, the captain should be coming to you soon," Agatha frowned and nodded, then asked, "You said you were weird?" What's going on? ”

The goat's head reacted for a moment, only to realize that the other party was talking about the muttering he had just said to himself, although he didn't know why the attitude of this "former gatekeeper", who has always given people a calm and peaceful feeling, was so strange this morning, it still replied: "I don't know how to describe it, it's just ...... Stir it up? It seems that he was walking and suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder......"

Agatha looked at the goat's head suspiciously: "...... Do you have shoulders? ”

"That's a pat on the head - metaphor, metaphor you know," the goat's head shook his head, "I may have been a little distracted when I was at the helm, and a little wind and waves on the sea just now woke me up......"

"There were no waves at sea, it was always calm—only the dream world rippled," Agatha shook her head, "you just dreamed. ”

The goat's head was stunned, and it took several seconds before he said, "...... Yes? ”

……

Looking at the city streets, which had completely returned to normal in the morning light, Duncan's brow furrowed slightly, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

The two dolls stood silently behind him.

After thinking about it for a long time, Duncan suddenly muttered, "It seems that no matter how long you stay over there, no matter how the Dream of the Nameless ends, the time in the real world after 'waking up' will always be early in ......the morning."

Alice turned her head to look at Luni, then back to the captain, scratching her hair a little confused: "Ah...... Have you been 'over there' for a long time? ”

"It feels like I've been in that dark and foggy space for almost twice as long this time as I was last time—until the dream woke up again," Duncan nodded slowly, "and it looks like the real-world time node is still the same as before, when the sun has just risen in the morning, right...... It's kind of in line with the law of dreaming. ”

He paused to organize his vocabulary and explained to Alice: "The passage of time perceived in dreams is chaotic, and it is likely that a second and a thousand years of somatosensory time are only a moment in reality, and will be calibrated the moment you wake up. ”

Alice thought for a moment and shook her head a little confused: "I didn't understand ......"

"It's okay, it's not important," Duncan laughed, putting away the mess in his mind for a while, and stepped forward to rub Alice's hair, "Let's go back first, this exploration...... The harvest is huge. ”

With the two dolls in hand, Duncan quickly returned to the Witch's Mansion at 99 Crown Street, where his crew had returned from the dream world and reunited in the living room.

When Duncan walked into the living room, Vanna, Morris, and the others had already begun to discuss their experiences in the Nameless Dream.

Unlike the last time when everyone fell into a dream without warning, this time the "dreaming" was carried out with preparation, and Duncan used the "temporary imprint" left by the flame to ensure that the crew could carry out basic information exchange in the dream of the Nameless, so after waking up from this dream, everyone did not have to spend extra time explaining what they had experienced, but could focus on exploring various clues.

Duncan's arrival interrupted the communication between the crew, and Morris and the others got up and saluted the captain - Nina sprang up, looking particularly happy: "Uncle Duncan! ”

Duncan gently hugged Nina, and then his eyes swept over the figures in the living room, and he saw Lucrecia sitting on the sofa opposite the coffee table with a somewhat strange expression, and spread his hands with a smile: "Hug too?" ”

The "Sea Witch" thought for a moment and shook her head: "No. ”

Duncan smiled, came to his place and sat down, his expression quickly returned to seriousness: "Okay, then let's get down to business - the basic exchange of intelligence will be dispensed with, and now the focus is on the emergence of two new situations."

"First, it's Shireen who appears in front of Shirley and Maurice and Nina.

"Second, it's the 'giant' who called himself a god that Vana met."

He looked up, his gaze falling on Morris.

"I'd like to hear your opinion first, Maurice."

"The plural 'Shireen' appears in the dream, which means that we have to adjust our previous judgment of 'Shireen'," Morris said as he took off his monocle and wiped it, "We previously judged that 'Shireen' was just a mental entity that appeared in the dream of the Nameless, equivalent to an 'indigenous population', and her actions were not closely related to the operation of the dream, but now it seems that this is not the case......

"When we move beyond a certain amount of time in the dream, a 'Shireen' will appear around us and try to guide us to the place called the 'Wall of Silence', and this 'guidance' may be a mechanism of the Nameless Dream itself.

"In other words, the elf named 'Shirin' may be the 'incarnation' of some kind of law in the Dream of the Nameless - she is not a mental entity, but a mechanism that she will be triggered when the conditions are right, and she may disappear when the conditions change."

Morris said, his eyes falling on Shirley on the side.

The "disappearance" mentioned by the old scholar is obviously referring to the "Shireen" who was with Shirley before - that "Shireen" eventually turned into a tree.

"As for the specific pattern of 'triggering' and 'disappearing,' it may take a few tests to summarize, or it may never be concluded," Morris continued with his monocle, "but one thing is certain, the presence of 'Shireen' is kind to us 'visitors' and malicious to the cultists who invade the dream, and she calls the intruder 'filthy', which should represent the 'judgment' or 'position' of the nameless dream." That's good news for us. ”

Duncan listened to the old gentleman's analysis, nodded silently, and then his eyes fell on Vanna.

"And what do you think about the 'giant' Fanna?"

"I don't have a clue," Vana thought for a moment and shook her head frankly, "I recalled all the things that the 'giant' told me, but I couldn't find any correspondence between them and the myths, legends, and historical records in the real world, and even in the relatively complete elven culture, there was no mention of the giant and the 'city of hills and plains' described by the giant......"

"Even the elven's 'inheritance' is only relatively complete, and if that giant is from an era before the Great Annihilation, then it's normal that we can't find a corresponding clue in the modern records," Lucrecia shook her head, "The crux of the matter is, what is the relationship between that giant and the desert beneath his feet, and the 'elf'?" ”

The "witch" looked up and looked into Vanna's eyes.

"Miss Vanna, you didn't see the shadow of the forest in the desert at all, and you didn't hear the slightest information about the elves from the giants, did you?"

"Yes, not at all." Vanna replied affirmatively.

"The elf named 'Shireen' doesn't know what the desert is, and the only thing that can be associated with the 'giant' is the description of the creator Saskorca, who says that Saskorka is a god with no fixed image, who can transform into deer, goats, and giants, but this connection seems too far-fetched to me," Lucrecia said as she pondered, "so the current situation is that Vanna and the rest of us seem to be divided into two 'planes', the environment, the people they meet, the people they meet, the The information I heard was completely different, but these two 'planes' were definitely connected......"

"Yes, at least these two 'planes' must be part of the Nameless's dream," Morris nodded immediately, and the old scholar thought for a moment before slowly speaking, "Then we have to figure out a little bit: is it the discontinuity in space or the discontinuity in time that causes the huge divergence between these two planes?" ”

(End of chapter)