Chapter 250: First Steps to Honesty
Chapter 250 The First Step to Confession
Tirian felt himself surrounded by a darkness in which his senses rose and fell, as if he was being pulled by invisible forces through some dimension between reality and illusion.
He tried to open his eyes several times, but could only faintly make out a small glimmer of pale green light and shadows passing rapidly through the darkness, and after barely half a dozen moments of discernment, he recognized it as a vision overlooking the city-state.
What seemed to have taken himself to the sky?
That was the only thought that popped into his mind before he lost consciousness once again.
And by the time he could feel his body again, he had already been transported to some peaceful place – there was a somewhat cold and hard touch coming from underneath his body, as if it was a cold concrete floor, there was a not-so-bright light around him, like the poor quality electric lamps that were used in warehouses to illuminate the area, and a blurry figure was sitting next to him, seemingly curiously lowering his head curiously.
Tirion’s spirits finally cleared.
However, he did not open his eyes at first, but continued to pretend to be unconscious, while carefully sensing his surroundings, trying to confirm what kind of situation he was in from the dryness and humidity in the air, the subtle sounds in his ears, and the slightly opened eyelids.
But just as he had time to hear the slightest sound of a cart or horse, just as he confirmed that he might be on the street frontage of a certain neighborhood, he heard that voice which he had heard before he passed out, and which was very familiar to him in his memory, suddenly ringing out beside him, “You’re awake, your eyelids are moving.”
Tirian was startled and knew he couldn’t hide any longer, so he could only helplessly open his eyes.
He then felt a stiffness in his body, and what he saw in front of him left him overwhelmed and stunned.
He saw the Frost Queen, Rae Nora – the exact same one as he remembered, not the blonde lady with a significantly different hair color from before.
The silver-haired, waist-length “Queen of Frost” was sitting in a nearby chair, gazing with a calm and indifferent expression at Tirion, who was lying on the ground, and who was dumbfounded for several seconds before reacting with a jolt, and then rising abruptly.
A sudden headache made Tirian almost lie down again, but the pain also stimulated his spirit, allowing him to finally get rid of the last trace of dizziness after unconsciousness, he first confirmed that he was indeed awake, and then quickly looked around, wanting to confirm what exactly this place was.
However, all he saw was a warehouse full of shelves and crates – high and low shelves full of quaint things of unknown age and provenance, old crates stacked in a slight clutter against the walls, no windows in sight, and of course, no view of the outside, and the only door was on the side of the building where the “Queen” was sitting. The only door was behind the chair in which the “Queen” was sitting.
It seemed to be a warehouse, and there was no way to tell where it was located in the city-state.
Tirion’s eyes retracted and finally fell on the Frost Queen.
However, after the initial dismay and excitement, the first thing that came to the calm pirate’s mind was to question, he thought of the blonde lady he had seen before, and the words the other party had said to him, and immediately frowned slightly: “You’re not her majesty Rei Nora, who are you?”
“As I said, my name is Alice,” the silver haired woman in the chair said with a smile, “Ah, if you mean my hair …… did a little camouflage before, because the captain said that my appearance in the city-state might get into up a mess.”
She mentioned the Captain once more.
If the first time the other party mentioned “captain”, Tirion was still a little confused, but now when he heard this name again, the first thing that came out of his heart was a huge sense of wariness and crisis, because he had already confirmed that this was not a bad joke, and even more so, it was not a ridiculous trap that was planned by a captain who had a grudge against him! –Behind all this, there is a real possibility that his terrible father is standing.
Tirion slowly stood up, looking at the silver-haired woman who called herself “Alice” while speaking in a deep voice: “Is it really him?”
“Yes, he has something for you,” Alice rose from her chair and slowly made her way to an antique mirror nearby, “Captain, he’s awake.”
In the next second, the edges of that mirror rose with an eerie green flame, Tirian seemed to hear an illusory crackling sound reaching his ears, immediately afterward, he saw that the mirror surface suddenly turned black, while a familiar and majestic figure gradually emerged from the darkness.
“Tirion, we meet again.” Duncan’s voice came from the mirror.
“…… Yes, hello again,” Tirian spoke hesitantly, the feeling of talking to his sober and sensible father once again still made him partly squirm, even though he had already met him once before, “Why in this way? I thought you didn’t mind contacting me in the cathedral?”
“Being in the cathedral is fine for catching up, but not for talking about something more personal – there are some things that I don’t intend to let Gemona sit in on,” Duncan said nonchalantly, while his gaze swept aside to Alice, “You have already met Alice, there should be plenty you want to ask by now.”
Tirion couldn’t help but float into a strange expression as soon as he heard his father mention the name of the Storm Goddess, but soon enough, his attention was drawn to Alice, who looked exactly the same as the Frost Queen, and after slightly frowning in thought, he suddenly remembered something, and his complexion steeply changed, “Earlier, the Explorer’s Guild issued a warning to all the captains of the Boundless Sea mentioning the anomalous 099 Loss of Control ……”
“As you can see,” Duncan smiled up, “she’s right in front of you.” Tirion instantly glanced in horror at Alice, who was looking harmless next to him, as if he had only then noticed the inhuman qualities implied in the other’s overly delicate and perfect face, as well as the accessories on the other’s body that were obviously meant to cover his joints, and in the next moment he subconsciously touched his neck.
Obviously, as one of the most experienced captains on the Boundless Sea, coupled with the fact that he himself was extremely concerned about information related to the Frost Queen, Tirian was quite aware of the characteristics of Anomaly 099.
His movements fell in Duncan’s eyes.
“Relax,” the voice in the mirror sounded, “Anomaly 099 is now under control.”
“The mannequin in the …… container has awakened and is moving freely outside, and you call that ‘under control’,” Tirian said to Duncan as he was alert to Alice’s movements while feeling a chill run down his neck, “How did you manage to make this ‘anomaly’ with such a high number work for you, and even curb her decapitation instincts?”
“Alice is a friendly doll, and not as scary as the world thinks she is – at least around me,” Duncan said casually, “And you, I would have thought you would have brought up the Frost Queen first, after all, as far as I know. You’ve been in allegiance with that Queen even longer than you were in the Lost Country Fleet.”
Tirian gradually responded, eyeing the figure in the mirror warily, “You wish to learn information from me pertaining to Her Majesty Rae Nora?”
“You have a resistant attitude to mention it?”
“…… I’m still afraid to fully trust your ‘humanity’.”
Duncan was silent for a few seconds before speaking in a low voice, “Do you know what my plan was to begin with?”
“Your plan in the beginning?”
“To have Alice disguise herself directly as Rae Nora, Queen of the Frost, to come back from the dead in disguise or to act out a spectral projection, or even to intervene directly in your dreams – it was very easy for me,” Duncan gazed into Tirion’s eyes, and “I can guarantee that you will not be able to tell the difference between the truth of it and will be led to say many things, and I can easily get the information I want that way.”
Tirian suddenly felt a slight chill down his back.
He believed everything his father said was true, believed that he could do all of this, and knew better than to think that he would absolutely fall for it – even if he could detect a breach in some detail, he would surely be extracted a great deal of information before then!
Because even just now, after seeing the “blonde Alice” in advance, and knowing that the person in front of him could not be Rei Nora, he almost thought that the opposite side was the Queen of Frost back from the dead!
Tirion subconsciously lowered his eyelids slightly, as if he wanted to avoid direct contact with his father in this way, and at the same time asked in a deep voice: “Then why didn’t you do it?”
Duncan gazed calmly at Tirian.
Why else could it be? Because Alice can t memorize words that long, can t act that long, and will panic to death at a random swindle from the opposite side, and once she forgets the words, she will not hesitate to call out for the captain to save save save save …… seventeen saves a second.
Wasted incredibly.
“Of course it’s because I don’t want to use deception to get along with my own children – even if I’ve forgotten a lot of things.” Duncan’s expression was solemn, his voice low.
Then he paused and added, “Nor do I want to insult the monarch you once served with this ‘farce’ – though I am not familiar with her, from what was once ‘one side of the story’ ‘, Rae Nora should be a person to be admired.”
“Snap-snap-snap-“
Hearing such a righteous reply from the captain, Alice beside her immediately applauded – even though she basically didn’t understand much of what the captain was saying.
Then Duncan and Tirian looked at the mannequin with strange eyes together.
“…… Shouldn’t applaud, huh?” Alice scrunched her neck and gave the Captain in the mirror a cautious look, “I just think the Captain’s right ……”
A wave of exhaustion flooded over him and Duncan sighed, “…… It’s good that you’re happy.”
Meanwhile, Tirian was stunned when he suddenly realized a certain detail in his father’s words just now:
“You have met Her Majesty Rae Nora?!”
(End of chapter)