Chapter 272 – From the Frost
Chapter 272 From the Frost
Maurice used a letter opener to carefully open the letter that had been sent from a faraway place.
On the envelope, one stamp after another and the stamp representing “purified” told him without words about an extremely long wandering journey.
With the slight sound of the paper unfolding, lines of beautiful and neat handwriting appeared in front of Maurice, and it was indeed the handwriting of his friend that he had once known so well:
“To my good friend and academic partner:
“Since the last contact, it seems to have been several years, this detachment should not be, I feel that these years have been muddled and busy, always seem to be doing some meaningless things, to the recent days suddenly realized that I have wasted time ……
“…… Recently, many wonderful things have happened, forgive me for the difficulty of describing to you some of the changes in my life with ink and pen …… Frost is an incredible place, where there are not only cold and long winters, but also many Something to seriously look into ……
“Do you remember the topic of certain old legends of the frozen seas of the far north that we had discussed during our last meeting? These topics have recently come to my mind once again, and I suddenly feel as if I have grasped some keys that will help us smooth out many of the difficult aspects of our original discussion, such as whether or not there were ever city-states on the Frozen Seas, and the origins of many of the mysterious customs of the Frost’s native lands ……
“The Frost is truly an incredible place my friend, my mind is realizing this more and more clearly, there are many mysterious pasts in these frigid waters that are worthy of exploration, I intend to meet with some highly respected individuals in the fields of history and folklore, and I have plans to visit Cold Harbor in the near future, but most importantly I would like to invite you to come and be my guest here! ……
“It’s been many years since we’ve seen each other, Maurice, you said you didn’t like the cold northern air, but I think you’d like the warmth of the fireplace in my home as well as my collection of fine wines, think seriously about it, we can explore those fascinating hidden secrets again by the warmth of a fire, trust me, the Frost is truly an incredible place ……
“Don’t you want to come and see? Come to the incredible city-state of Frost ……
“Your most trusted friend and academic companion, Brown Scott, 1900-12-2, written at 42 Fireplace Street.”
Maurice’s eyes silently scanned the last line of letters of the letter, and then did not utter a word for a long time.
It was not until a few minutes later that he grunted, as if to himself, “It’s his handwriting, and those discussions he mentions did take place.”
“Today is December 17th, and this letter was sent half a month ago,” his wife said beside him, with a vague uneasiness in her voice, “which is quite normal timing, considering the distance between Frost and Prand.”
“Yes, the time is normal, the postmark is normal, what’s not normal is that the person who wrote the letter died years ago,” Morris said slowly, “I remember the day I received the obituary-also a letter from Frost, from one of his favorite from a student who wrote that her teacher had tragically fallen overboard while traveling by boat to Cold Harbor, and his body could not even be recovered.”
“…… I don’t remember this, it happened in those years when I was muddling through,” his wife came over and took Maurice’s hand, “We should report this to the church, the content and wording in this letter seems normal, the But it’s disturbing when you look deeper.”
Morris took his wife’s hand in return and exhaled softly, “Of course, it’s something that should be reported to the church …… but not just to the church.”
……
On the Lost Country, in the Captain’s room, Duncan had his hands propped up on the navigational table, staring intently at the misty charts and the course that gradually stretched out on them.
The imaginary figure representing the Lost Country was slowly moving in the center of the chart, while the fog around the Lost Country was gradually dissipating as the ship advanced, and at one end of the route, the city-state of Prand, which had been temporarily left behind, could be seen, while another faintly glowing bright spot could be faintly seen in the mist beyond the route.
Duncan’s gaze fell upon that bright spot.
It was the Sea Mist.
The Sea Mist’s mark had appeared on the charts since the last time there had been mutual fire from the Plague of Nuclear Twilight.
In Duncan’s own perception, he could sense the current direction of the Sea Mist, and even the general state of the ship.
This perception was vague, but it did not seem to decay as the distance between the Lost Country and the Sea Mist lengthened.
Apparently, just like those “tagged journalists” who had been stained by the flames of the Spirit Body, the Sea Mist, which had received a faceful of shells from the Lost Country, had also established a connection with itself.
But after all, it was only a “connection”, not a complete control like the Lost Country, so what the Sea Mist could show on the charts was only a bright spot, and could not dispel the fog that covered the route.
“Are you deciding on the next course?” Goathead’s voice suddenly came from the edge of the sailing table, “Then I have about a hundred and forty very useful suggestions that I can ……”
“No, you may not,” Duncan interrupted very skillfully without waiting for the other man to start pressing, “No advice is needed, I have my own plans.”
The goat-head shook its head as if to say something more, but just before it opened its mouth a sound of footsteps suddenly came through the door, and immediately afterward the door of the captain’s room was pulled open from the outside, and Alice stepped in.
Then Ms. Mannequin froze for a moment, and without waiting for Duncan to say anything she hurriedly turned and closed the door behind her, knocking on it.
“…… There’s no need to knock when you’re already in here, knocking should come before opening the door,” Duncan gave the other woman an expressionless look, “‘Over there’ All packed up?”
“Uh-huh,” Alice nodded immediately, “The shelves on the first floor are packed up, the counters and stairs have been wiped down, and the kitchen is cleaned up!”
“Uh-huh,” Duncan responded casually, “Where’s Aye?”
“Went to the kitchen after dropping me off,” Alice said, “kept yelling about Crazy Thursdays and stuff as he flew away ……”
“It’s sprightly,” Duncan laughed and shook his head, then immediately and suddenly noticed that Alice’s neck still seemed to snap when she nodded, and subconsciously frowned, “Why does it feel like you’re turning your neck in a weird way . . the glue in the joints hasn’t been removed yet?”
Upon hearing this, Alice shook her head from side to side, her neck bringing out a noticeable sense of stuckness and sluggishness.
“It seems …… to be a little,” Ms. Doll seemed a little embarrassed, “It feels stuck.”
The corner of Duncan’s eye twitched and he looked helplessly at the mannequin, who in turn held her head in her hands and let out that signature chuckle half-heartedly, “Heh heh ……” “Don’t hee hee,” Duncan sighed, “Come here, I’ll clean you up. It’s not clearing up the residual glue rather than damaging the joints further, and it’s really hard for me to see you nodding your head with a snap.”
“Oh.”
Alice immediately and honestly came over to Duncan’s side, reached out and grabbed her head and shook it from side to side twice before pulling it off with a “Boo”.
The headless mannequin held his head in both hands, “Ship …… ship …… captain, here you go.”
A vague sense of strangeness couldn’t help but surface, but Duncan reached out and took Alice’s head, took another scraper, brush, and soft cloth from the small drawer under the nautical table, sighed, and began to study what was going on in the knuckles of this fool.
He couldn’t help but feel something.
It was amazing that he had been able to face these bizarre scenes so openly, and could even participate in them naturally.
The ability of humans to adapt was truly marvelous to the extreme.
Grabbing a spatula and gently shoveling the remaining, no longer so solid, glue marks in the joint, Duncan lifted his eyelids and swept his gaze over Alice’s face.
Silver strands of hair spread out across the nautical table, and the mannequin blinked as she met his eyes.
It was really beautiful, a delicate and perfect face, even in the most bizarre of circumstances, as if one could overlook the weirdness and could not help but marvel at the beauty in one’s mind.
But unfortunately this guy is usually really harmonic door over a certain limit, so that Duncan in the praise of the other side of this beautiful look at the same time more is in the heart regret how she grew a mouth ……
“Is there any uncomfortable place?”
“No, no, no, just a little, little itch, but it’s very …… light.” Alice stammered.
She then went quiet, and even the goat head next to her magically went quiet, leaving the room with only the soft sound of a scraper rubbing together and the soft sound of the ocean waves coming from outside the window.
After an unknown amount of time, Alice suddenly opened her mouth again.
She stammered, with a slight hesitation and a rare sense of loss in her tone, “Ship, ship, captain, am I, am I very, very stupid?”
Duncan’s movements stopped abruptly.
He was surprised that the mannequin even had this self-awareness and mind’s eye.
But then he just shook his head expressionlessly, “Why are you suddenly feeling this?”
“I… I… I always learn… I can’t learn the things you teach… teach… and always… always screw things up and… and… delay you… your time.”
Duncan was silent for a moment, and reared up the scraper in his hand.
“I don’t really think you’re holding me up,” he said lightly, “and besides, you do seem a bit stupid.”
“Yes, it’s this, this, this way.”
“But that’s okay, everyone has things they’re good at and not so good at, everyone’s just a little ‘dumber’ in the areas they’re not so good at, and you’re probably just a little bit more not so good at,” Duncan glanced into Alice’s eyes, “Do you care much about that?”
“I, I, I don’t know, I haven’t thought, thought, thought about it, but I worry, worry, worry that it will drag, drag, drag you into things ……”
“Then put away those useless worries and just keep on living happily,” Duncan shook his head, “If it’s something you come across that you can’t learn, then learn it a few more times.”
“Then, then, then you will teach me more, more, more, more times?”
“…… If I have the time.”
Alice blinked, as if in thought, and slowly smiled.
“Heh heh ……”
Hearing the signature laugh, Duncan couldn’t help but chuckle a bit as well, then grabbed a brush and soft cloth and cleaned up the drying glue debris that had been scraped off.
And just then, a distant but clear call suddenly appeared in his mind.
It was the voice from Maurice.
(No more fever, aches and pains all over his body subsiding, throat still sore, no way to sit still for a long time, lethargy because he can’t get a good night’s rest, and lethargy all day long …… The good news is that it is indeed getting better.)
(End of chapter)