The Bright Star slowly adjusted its angle to the shore, and the paddlewheel devices on either side of the ship let out a low whimper, and it began to speed up slowly, slowly sailing into the boundless mist, faster and farther away, and finally completely disappeared into Duncan's gaze.

Duncan stood for a long time on the bow of the Lost Land, looking in the direction in which the silhouette had disappeared in the depths of the fog, and until he could no longer see it, he still looked in that direction for a long time, and then he withdrew his gaze to see a goth figure in a gorgeous dark purple dress standing beside him.

The puppet was also looking into the distance, and almost at the same time withdrew its gaze from afar.

The chubby white dove landed on Alice's shoulder, tilting its head and looking at its master with a pair of green bean eyes.

The Lost was now quiet, without the sparring of Shirley and Nina, without Maurice always looking out to sea or looking down in contemplation, without Vana always sitting on a barrel carving amulets, and without Agatha, who was always haunted in strange places—only the captain and the puppet stood on such a wide and empty deck.

And the abstract and gluttonous fat pigeon.

"It's all gone......" Alice muttered quietly after a long time.

Duncan couldn't tell if Miss Doll was an emotion or a fact that she had just reacted to.

While everyone was leaving, she was the only one who stayed without thinking about anything, with a natural, logical attitude, Duncan never told her anything, and she didn't ask anything, as if she knew from the beginning that she had to stay, and even took "staying on the Lost Land" a matter of course - which made Duncan a little curious.

"You didn't ask me if you could stay while everyone else was leaving," he looked into Miss Doll's eyes, "didn't you think about it at all?" ”

Alice laughed, as if she hadn't thought for even a ten-thousandth of a second: "Of course I'm going to stay!" ”

She replied so simply, and there seemed to be no other reason in her mind than this one—or rather, she didn't think it needed any reason.

Deng looked at her fixedly, and suddenly laughed, then he shook his head and pointed around: "Look, it seems to be the same as it was at the beginning again." ”

Alice looked around curiously, and quickly reacted: "yes, you and I are the only ones left on this ship...... Ah, and the pigeons, and the first mate. ”

Ayi, who was standing on the puppet's shoulder, tilted her head, and suddenly let out a noisy and shrill female voice while flapping her wings vigorously: "Initializing settings, initializing settings!" ”

Duncan took a deep look at the dove, which represented one of the fragments of his homeland, and whispered thoughtfully, "...... Yes, initializing the settings. It's time to take the next step. ”

As he spoke, he turned around and beckoned to Alice without looking back: "Let's go, Alice, it's time to fulfill the promise with Gemona." ”

"Hey! Good captain! ”“Aye， aye， captain！”

……

The mist floated slowly around it, like a thin but endless curtain, gradually closing on the scale of the whole world, and the hazy shadow in the stern direction went from clear to vague, and finally gradually disappeared completely into the endless fog depths—the Bright Star was about to arrive at the border of this "archipelago sea", and in this position, it was no longer possible to see the Lost Country left next to the "Temple Island".

Lucrecia stood on the highest deck of the Bright Star with the others, and no one was willing to withdraw their gaze until there was no longer a familiar silhouette in the fog.

“…… At first, I thought I was going to be 'cursed to be trapped in' that ship for the rest of my life," Shirley muttered softly, "and I was scared to death......"

A short distance away by a guardrail, a clothesline was tied between the guardrail and the flagpole, the wet little doll Nilou was hanging on the clothesline, the rope passed between her sleeves, making her sway on the rope, the little creature who was not yet in her mind seemed to feel the change in the atmosphere, she looked at the silent others with some uneasiness, and looked at her mistress with a hint of concern, and whispered, "Mistress...... Not happy? ”

Lucrecia glanced back at the puppet that was dangling on the rope, and a gentle smile appeared on her face, "No, just thinking." ”

"Think!" Nilou said immediately, not knowing if she was asking, or if she was habitually repeating the last two syllables of someone else's speech.

Lucrecia didn't care about this, but said to herself: "Yes, think, think about what you are going to do next, you will think like this in the future, and your mind will grow, just like your sister - you all have my carefully crafted 'heart'." ”

Nilou froze on the rope for a moment, and suddenly shook happily: "Heart! ”

And just then, the sailor broke the silence: "We are close to the boundary of the physical sea, Miss Lucrecia, and beyond we will fall into the chaotic flow of time, and it is time to move on to the next part of the voyage." ”

Lucrecia nodded slightly, looking to the side.

In the slowly flowing mist, a hazy female figure stood and nodded to Lucrecia.

"Then there will be you and the sailors, Lady Agatha."

"You're welcome, it's all the captain's orders." Agatha's slightly ethereal voice came through the air, and her apparition faded into the mist.

Then, a strange and low roar suddenly sounded from the depths of the Bright Star, from the feet of everyone—as if some huge beast was awakening from the depths of the bilge, rising from the sea, and the roar and vibration gradually enveloped the entire ship, and the "reflection of the Lost Land" taken by Agatha also appeared in this physical dimension!

A massive apparition descended, reversing itself from the realm of shadows, rapidly rising from the mirror-calm sea around it, and quickly merging with the Bright Star with an unstoppable momentum.

Shirley's eyes widened as the deck around her began to burn, false green flames devouring all parts of the ship inch by inch, towering chimneys turning into dull masts, steam and smoke floating in the air turning into spirit sails, wooden decks stretching out in her field of vision, towering bridges at the end of decks, and dark steering wheels.

For a moment, she even felt like she was back on the Lost Land.

But this illusion was only a matter of moments, and the phantom was a phantom after all, and at a close distance, she quickly discerned many of the details that should have been on the Bright Star from the shadow.

But this level of "projection fusion" was enough for Anomaly 077 to fulfill his duty as the helmsman of the Lost Country.

The shriveled corpse solemnly straightened up his seaman's uniform, nodded to Lucrecia, and strode to the stern bridge that towered in the flames of the phantom not far away, and he walked up the projected steps to the high platform, holding the dark steering wheel—the hollow whistling and echoing seemed to come from the depths of the phantom, and finally turned into the cheer of the return voyage.

"Return!" The sailor pulled the steering wheel in his hand and shouted in his trademark broken voice, "Let's go home!" ”

……

There seemed to be a faint whistling sound at the edge of the distant sea, and Duncan, who was walking in the ruins of the "pilgrimage route", stopped and looked back in the direction from which the auditory hallucinations had come.

Alice, who was walking next to him, also stopped and looked at him curiously: "What's wrong?" ”

Duncan turned his head and whispered, "...... They returned home, and everything went well. ”

"Really? That's nice," Alice laughed happily, "I don't know what's going on with Prander......"

"Plant...... It's okay now. ”

Duncan said slowly, sensing the distant and vague "signal" that crossed time and space.

He could still sense Prand's situation, the "avatar" that had stayed in the antique shop, still carrying out the instructions he had conveyed from the past, but he could already clearly sense that the connection was becoming more and more erratic.

This is not due to the environment, nor is it related to the "distance" at the end of the world...... This is an inevitable change over time, as "Zhou Ming" continues to grow and awaken as part of the "inverse singularity".

The fragile shelter cannot afford the direct observation of the "reverse singularity", and a gaze beyond the infinite sea will annihilate the infinite sea in that gaze for even 0.002 seconds.

That's why he had to let Nina and Maurice and the others return to the Infinite Sea to act as his "eyes" - because he himself would soon lose his ability to observe the Infinite Sea.

After a moment of perceiving, Duncan began to carefully control his connection to the distant incarnations, and he felt the degree of "awakening" in his own essence, which once again weakened the incarnation's activity—now, he had turned off the incarnation's sense of taste, smell, the perception of cold, warmth, and pain, and all those fragile and complex feelings that belonged to "people".

These feelings were once very important to him, and the perception of warmth and cold, the sensitivity to pain, and the precious sleepiness and sleep had long helped him maintain his baseline of knowing what he was a "human", but now he had to turn them off one by one in order to extend his observation of the infinite sea as long as possible.

He wanted to at least make it until Nina came home safely.

"Captain?"

With a worried voice coming from the side, Duncan turned his head to see the doll looking worriedly, grabbing his sleeve and shaking it carefully.

"Are you alright?" Alice said uneasily, "The face is not very good. ”

The expression on Duncan's face slowly softened.

Even without relying on the "messages" conveyed by those avatars, he was able to maintain his human part.

"It's okay," he whispered, "let's go, they're already on their way, and we've got a long way to go." ”

(End of chapter)