Chapter 490 Turning the Key
Chapter 490 Turning the Key
Duncan looked at Alice quietly, and Alice looked at Duncan with a straight face.
After a moment, Duncan first rubbed his brow, and felt a strange emotion floating up to his heart, and the sense of violation in his heart could not be dispersed for a long time.
It was obviously the same face, how could it display such vastly different temperaments ……
“Captain,” Alice on the other hand blinked curiously after seeing Duncan’s reaction and came over to ask, “Why don’t you say anything? Did I say something wrong?”
“…… No, it’s not you,” Duncan shook his head to get rid of himself from that head full of chaotic thoughts, then suddenly raised his eyelids and looked at the mannequin in front of him with a solemn and serious expression, “Alice, you …… ever wondered about your connection to that Frost Queen?”
Alice froze for a moment, raised her hand and scratched her brain, seeming to think very seriously before speaking with less certainty, “I …… have been curious ah, but then I thought about it, it seems to be something not too important, so I didn’t think about it anymore.”
Duncan was a bit surprised, “Not too important?”
“The Frost Queen is the Frost Queen and I’m me, and as great as that Queen is that’s her business, it’s not like I can figure it out,” Alice said with a serious look on her face, “I’ve got things I’m good at and I’m enjoying every day right now and that’s just fine. Also I heard Mr. Morris say that it’s possible for everyone in this world to find another person who looks almost exactly like them, so I’ll just pretend that the Queen of Frost is the one who looks exactly like me – even though I’m actually a doll …… “
Duncan listened quietly to the mannequin’s words, watching the natural, contented look in her eyes as she referred to her current day, and something suddenly struck a chord in his heart.
Perhaps …… she really is just a special wrong copy made by the ancient god in the deep sea, perhaps, she really is just the result after the weird fusion of Rae Nora who fell into the deep sea and that guillotine, or perhaps, there are more secrets hidden in her, secrets that even Rae Nora can’t imagine …… But like Alice herself said, it doesn’t matter too much.
She wasn’t smart, but she was happy, she had a lot of things she didn’t understand, but she never felt nervous or intimidated by the complexity of them, she was born and lived in a world full of strangeness, which to her was the normal “normal” of the world… -She explored the world that was new and unknown to her, curious and looking forward to everything, including tomorrow, as ……
A child opening its eyes in the sun.
There are countless earthly beings, but even those who are the bravest warriors, the most knowledgeable and wise, and the most devout believers can’t see the world with a perspective like Alice’s.
Duncan suddenly had a feeling – in this bizarre world where everyone is fearful and everything is creating distortions, Alice, the “mannequin”, is more like a …… “human being” than anyone else. “Human”.
Just like what he saw in the other world, in that world where there were no abnormalities and visions, no gods and weirdness, the ordinary human beings who frankly walked under the sunlight.
“Captain?” Alice’s curious voice sounded again, “Why are you gawking again?”
“Nothing,” Duncan shook his head, “I just suddenly thought …… you were actually quite intelligent.”
Alice was slightly stunned for a moment when she heard the captain’s compliment, and then a happy look gradually appeared on her face, “Hehehe ……”
She didn’t know why the captain suddenly praised herself for having “wisdom”, she didn’t even think that she could have any wisdom, but since the captain praised her like this, it was definitely something to be happy about.
Duncan, on the other hand, pondered briefly after the compliment, and then slowly reached his hand to his side – the cool touch coming from his fingertips, the brass key.
In the deep sea, the submersible was slowly coming up, and it would be some time before it was “recovered”.
The Frost Queen, Rei Nora, had revealed a great deal of information to herself, but there were still many gaps or ambiguities in that information that she needed to confirm.
The Brass Key …… was handed over to Lei Nora by an end of the world preacher who possessed reason, and even with the latter’s ability, she was unable to understand the true “nature” of the key, while Alice, who seemed to be a complete “coincidence”, was not able to understand the true nature of the key. At the same time, Alice, who seems to have been born under the “coincidence” of the wrong copy of the body, but a corresponding keyhole appeared …… to this point, or is it a coincidence?
Did the preacher of the end of the world foresee all this happening today? Or is it that the Ancient God’s tentacle sleeping in the deep sea retrieved Rei Nora’s memories when she created “Alice” and left the “keyhole” on Alice’s body?
Maybe …… should give it a try.
“Alice,” Duncan suddenly raised his head and looked at the doll in front of him with a solemn expression, “you come with me.”
“Huh?” Alice was stunned for a moment, but immediately reacted and got up to follow, “Oh, okay!”
“Take the helm.” Duncan got up from behind the chart table, and with a command to Goathead, he took a soft breath and turned in the direction of the captain’s chambers.
Alice followed Duncan uncertainly, walking together through the bedroom door, then turning back to close it at the other man’s command, turning to look at Duncan curiously.
“Captain? What’s next?”
Duncan was silent as he took the key in his hand and looked at the mannequin quietly, “I wish to test this key.”
Alice was a bit surprised when she heard that, “Huh? Didn’t you say that this key could be dangerous? There’s a possibility that it could be hosting the Frost Queen’s soul or something ……”
“Now the hidden danger is removed,” Duncan said calmly, “I just removed it myself.”
“Oh!” Alice said immediately, and immediately afterward turned around and fumbled with the zipper on the back of her dress without the slightest hesitation, “I’ll start by undoing it then ……”
“Just show the keyhole,” despite having spent so much time with the solid-headed mannequin, Duncan was a bit embarrassed by the guy’s lack of hesitation at this point, and he subconsciously reminded while followed by some surprise, “You’re not scared? ”
“Captain you said there are no more hidden dangers,” Alice said with a twist of her head, “And you’ll be personally winding me up, surely you’ll protect me if something goes wrong, right?” “…… Yes, I’ll protect you,” after a brief two or three seconds of silence, Duncan nodded slowly, then raised his hand and pointed to a round stool next to the sleeping bed, “Sit on this- -I’m not sure what happens after I wind it up, best not to stand.”
“Oh!” Alice agreed, and obediently made her way to the round stool and sat down, her back to Duncan.
The back of the mannequin had been undone.
Duncan finally saw the “keyhole” – in the center of Alice’s white porcelain back, the keyhole was set abruptly there, and there was a circle of fine and gorgeous patterns, with a texture as if stamping gold, surrounding the keyhole.
Duncan lowered his head and glanced at the brass key in his hand.
The …… size and shape really did correspond exactly.
A strange feeling floated up from his heart, mixed with a bit of nervousness, Duncan gently inhaled, controlled that strange feeling in his heart, and slowly approached the key to the round hole.
“Alice.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Hey!”
The clockwork key entered the keyhole without a hitch, followed by an unmistakable “click” in Duncan’s ear, as if directly in his head.
Some mechanism had been activated – but not an ordinary clockwork mechanism.
A slight force came from his fingertips, and Duncan realized instantly that the clockwork key was turning on its own – it slowly turned to the horizontal position, followed by a click.
In the next moment, everything began to change rapidly.
Light and shadow were collapsing and reorganizing, senses were being transformed and reset, and there was that familiar slight dizziness, that sense of “shifting” like “walking in the spirit world” – again!
Duncan was unable to say “this again” before he realized that everything around him had stabilized again.
He was in an old, ornate, but eerie and spooky mansion.
The classical hall was wide and empty, with tall pillars lining both sides of the hall, supporting the gloomy roof above like a gathering of dark clouds, and narrow, tall windows set into the walls covered with patterns and reliefs, which looked as if they were covered with dark thorns, and chaotic light and shadow floating outside the thorn bushes.
And in this eerie mansion, and from time to time there are people’s voices – whispering, intermittent laughter, walking across the floor of the sound of footsteps, and even …… as if a ball is being held somewhere, strange and vague music.
Duncan frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping over the eerie, ancient mansion.
Something flickered in the corner of his eye.
Duncan quickly looked that way, but saw only the empty corner of the wall.
But he was sure he did just see something, there was a figure …… that looked like a maid in a black and white dress.
The figure had no head and only a bare neck where the neckline of the blouse was.
Duncan stood and lingered in the empty hall for a moment, scrutinizing his surroundings, sensing the vaguely floating, eerily unsettling scent in the air, and then stepped away and walked toward the staircase that swung upward at the end of the hall.
He wanted to find out what this place was – why had he been brought here after “winding up” Alice?
He walked up the rotating staircase, as if it had been deserted for countless years, the steps creaked under his feet, and as he walked, a sense of familiarity suddenly appeared in Duncan’s mind.
He jerked to a halt, his eyes widening as he looked at all the furnishings and styles in the mansion.
He knew what that sense of familiarity was all about.
The room where the Frost Queen Rae Nora slept!
(End of chapter)