"A third of the structure?"

Ted Lear was stunned when he heard Duncan's words, and looked at the lines he had drawn on the paper with some confusion that even he looked at as abstract and messy - to be fair, he thought he had drawn badly, but this was the closest to the "original impression" he could recall, and the residual influence of subspace had long interfered with his mind, making him unable to recall the details of those memories clearly, and it was difficult for him to fully sketch the picture from these fragmented lines.

However, from Duncan's tone, he realized that the "ghost captain" had not only seen what was drawn on the paper, but even ...... He also knew what it was supposed to look like.

Duncan stood at the table, frowning as he carefully examined the details of Ted's drawing, and after a moment, he reached out and pointed to a spot on the screen: "Is the structure broken?" ”

Ted frowned, trying to remember for a while, and finally a vague impression appeared in his mind: "It seems to be...... But I'm not sure. I only caught a glimpse of it in a hurry, and I didn't even have time to see the complete structure on its side......"

"It's broken here, and then it extends outward, here's some connecting structure," Duncan didn't care about Ted's hesitation, just picked up a pencil and quickly sketched lines in the blank spaces on the canvas, and in his pen, a strange thing with a symmetrical three-body structure, which Ted and Lucrecia seemed to have nothing to do with the "ship" at all, was quickly sketched, "It is composed of three main structures...... Here's where the engine group is located......"

Lucrecia had unconsciously approached this strange "picture", and after staring at it for half a minute, she finally couldn't help but speak: "What the hell is this...... What is it? ”

Duncan didn't look up, and after a few seconds of silence, he replied softly, "It's called New Hope." ”

Lucrecia and Ted Learle looked at each other, and then said in unison, "A New Hope? ”

Alice also came over and asked slowly, "What is the New Hope?" ”

Duncan raised his head, and his complicated and strange gaze fell on the goth doll, but the latter didn't seem to react at all, just tilted his head: "What do you think I'm doing?" ”

“…… It's a ship, a ship," Duncan said in a deep voice with a subtle tone that he didn't know what emotion he had, "and it arrived in this world many, many years ago...... Or rather, crashing into the wreckage of the world we are in like any other 'debris'. ”

"Spaceship? A flying ship? Ted Lear's tone was surprised, and then he reacted, "You mean another 'World Fragment'?" Part of the wreckage of a flying ship called the 'New Hope' landed in subspace and became the mansion I saw......? ”

He raised his hand and gestured, with a look of disbelief on his face.

Duncan didn't answer the truthkeeper's doubts, he just lowered his head again, and stared at the drawing on the table for a long time—a sketch of a massive spaceship based on Ted Lear's drawing, a sketch of a massive spaceship that he had seen in that vision, but it was indeed the "New Hope" that he had seen in that vision, dragging a long flame to fall into the world.

He still remembers how he saw the illusion in the first place.

It was to examine Alice's "Clockwork Key", and he spread his own flames inside the Brass Key - just as he had seen the "echoes" of the "Clockwork Key" every time he had done a similar way to probe the Otherworldly Object.

In that "echo", Alice's clockwork key becomes some kind of weird ...... data access medium, and New Hope crashes into the final act of the illusion.

For a long time, he had been searching for clues about the "spaceship", looking for legends or historical records left in the world that might be related to an ancient crash, and at the same time, he often pondered a question-

Why does Alice's "Clockwork Key" record visions of the crash of the New Hope?

What is the connection between this seemingly harmless gothic doll and a spaceship that crashed in ancient times?

The gap between the "puppet" and the "ship" is so huge that even with Duncan's ability to associate the two things, there is really no way to connect the two things, but now...... An even more bizarre clue appeared in front of him.

Ted Lear sees Alice's Mansion in subspace—the mansion that, in some moments, takes on the appearance of a third of the wreckage of the New Hope!

Duncan was not unsuspicious of Ted Lille's memories or statements, but he quickly ruled out the possibility that something was wrong in this regard—Ted Lille could not have described something he had never seen out of thin air, and even if his memory was confused, he could not have sketched out the structure of the New Hope ship "exactly" in the confusion.

Some messy and broken clues seem to be quietly making connections, and some bizarre conjectures emerge in Duncan's mind.

As the thoughts in his head fluctuated, Duncan reached into his pocket and fumbled for the brass key that had been used to wind Alice.

The brass key lies quietly in the palm of his hand, and the cold metal key tail presents the classic "∞" symbol, as if all the secrets are hidden in infinite silence.

After a moment, he put away the key and looked up to meet the curious but hesitant gazes of Lucrecia and Ted Lear.

"Let's talk about the rest first," Duncan shook his head, his gaze falling on Ted, "what else do you see in subspace?" ”

Ted nodded, realizing that the New Hope might point to some kind of secret that was too old and dangerous, and he sensibly controlled his curiosity and began to tell the story of the incredible sights he had seen in subspace.

Giants in the wasteland, thrones and headless figures, nameless warriors leaning on the wreckage, and all sorts of other bizarre things that are real or imaginary.

Duncan didn't interrupt any longer, he listened intently, nodding lightly from time to time, until Ted Lille's account was over, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

The headless corpse on the throne, the nameless warrior next to the strange wreckage, the huge structure standing in the wasteland...... These things are indeed incredible, but anything is possible in subspace - at least in Duncan's opinion, these are much easier to accept than "Alice's Mansion in subspace" and "Alice's Mansion is part of New Hope".

“…… It's been an impressive journey," Lucretia broke the silence in the room after listening for a long time, "fifteen minutes...... Your fifteen minutes of experience, Lord Ted, is enough for many scholars to study for a lifetime. ”

"I could have written an academic paper for the rest of my life with this fifteen-minute experience, but to be honest, I'd rather not have it myself," Ted sighed, "You know what?" I still hear the noise buzzing in my head from time to time...... They are all over my consciousness like living creatures, and even though I have been rigorously trained in tenacity psychology and volitional control theory, it is extremely difficult to combat this noise, and the after-effects of this will probably last for a long time......"

He shrugged his shoulders as he said this, and his face was a little bad—

"To make matters worse, I'm going back to the academy tomorrow to face the recalcitrant students...... The clear and stupid opinions they make in the academic field are simply 'subspace noise' in another sense to me......"

Mr. Keeper muttered, raising his hand to cover his forehead in pain, apparently the subspace reverberation intertwined with the foreseeable shadow of the future, casting a rich shadow in his heart.

Seeing this, Duncan couldn't comfort anything, so he could only sigh slightly, raised his hand and patted Ted's shoulder: "I understand this feeling very well. ”

Ted was a little surprised, and looked up at Duncan suspiciously: "How do you understand?" ”

Duncan was stunned for a moment, feeling that the question was difficult to explain, but soon, Shirley's homework book and Alice's doodle book came to his mind.

“…… There is something clearer on my boat than your students. ”

Ted was stunned for a moment, and he didn't know how much he understood, so he nodded with a complicated expression: "It seems...... It's not easy for you. ”

Then he fell silent, as if he was feeling a little tired after a long time of reminiscing about subspace, and wanted to relax his mind, but after less than half a minute, he seemed to suddenly remember something else.

"There's another situation," Ted looked up, his expression becoming a little serious, "it's not about subspace, it's about ...... The White Oak. ”

"The White Oak?" Duncan was a little puzzled, "What happened to that ship?" ”

“…… I don't know if it's my own delusion, after all, I was affected by subspace at the time, and my perception and thinking were very confused, but I always felt ...... Something wasn't quite right when talking to the 'sailor' on the White Oak. ”

Listening to Ted's words, Duncan's expression became serious.

"Sailor...... Are you referring to that 'anomaly' with the number 077? What's wrong with him? ”

"I can't tell, but when I got back here, I remembered how I felt when I was talking to that 'anomaly', and I always felt like I wasn't just talking to 'him,'" Ted Learle frowned, trying to recall as he pondered the words, "I talked to him about the world, about the perspective of seeing the world as an 'anomaly', when he answered me...... I always felt as if I could hear the plurality...... It was as if something else was hiding on that ship, and it was hiding next to the 'sailor' at the time. ”

(End of chapter)