Chapter 493 – The Drawing Board of a Mannequin

Chapter 493 – The Mannequin’s Drawing Board

Seeing the quietly sleeping figure in the garden, Duncan instinctively called out the name he knew so well.

But he immediately stopped again, and recalled a scene from when he had met the Frost Queen, Rae Nora, in that ornate bedchamber not long ago – there couldn’t be another case of mistaken identity, could there?

A twinge of oddness flooded Duncan’s mind, and then cautiously made his way over to the sleeping figure, bending down to examine it carefully.

He noticed the spherical joints of the other’s hands and feet, as well as the texture of the skin, which was apparently bloodless and as white as porcelain.

It was really Alice.

Duncan finally confirmed that the one sleeping here was indeed the gothic doll he was familiar with, his heart was suddenly relieved, and then his attention was focused on the black thorns wrapped around the other party – thorny vines extended out from the flowers, spreading out in the open space around the doll, like a gorgeous and bizarre skirt, the thorns wrapped around the other party and wrapped around the other party’s hands and feet. The thorns wrapped around the doll’s arms, legs and torso, binding her between the flowering vines as if in captivity.

Alice was sleeping in the middle of the “bed” made of flowers and thorns, and did not respond to Duncan’s approach and call.

Duncan cautiously bypassed the thorny vines and thorns, and reached out his hand to gently touch the doll’s cheek, and called her name again, “Alice, can you hear me?”

Slightly cool touch came from the fingertips, but Alice did not make any response, she just quietly slumbered, just like …… a real, lifeless mannequin.

Duncan frowned slightly, and immediately afterward, he noticed something else.

In the hands of the sleeping “Alice”, she was carrying something that looked like a drawing board – the thorn bushes were wrapped around her arm, but the board seemed to be able to be pulled out from the gap.

Duncan hesitated for a moment, reached out and grasped the edge of the panel, and with careful pressure, pulled it out a little.

In the process, he also kept an eye on Alice, watching to see what effect his move to draw the drawing board away would have on her – the doll remained in a deep sleep.

Duncan breathed a small sigh of relief and looked to the drawing board he had drawn out.

Brightly colored, messy “paintings” caught his eye – like the eerie “sky” over the garden, children’s doodle-like brushstrokes painted abstract The childlike brushstrokes were painting abstract pictures on the canvas board.

There was a vortex, a swirl of colors, which took up almost two-thirds of the picture, surrounded by stars and points of light, which the “author” of the painting had indicated by many criss-crossed lines as glowing stars, and in the center of the colorful vortex, a rich reddish light could be seen! –Even though the graffiti is simple, Duncan still seems to be able to feel some kind of strong …… danger from the red color.

Duncan frowned, the red light in that vortex was somehow familiar to him.

After a long time of thinking and remembering, he found the source of this familiarity – it was the platform on the second floor of the Alice House, on the wall near the spiral staircase, where there was a painting depicting a burning ship falling from the sky! The sky behind the ship was filled with this deeply disturbing dark red glow.

Duncan’s demeanor intensified a little.

This is already the second time …… in this weird “Alice public house”, with a strong symbol of uncertainty dark red light appeared again …… this dark red light actually represents What does this dark red light represent?
Is it a symbol of some kind of disaster that is constantly pursuing and approaching? Or is it a true depiction of a phenomenon that will occur at the end of time? The headless butler repeatedly warned not to open the door of the mansion …… What is outside the door? Is it the “dark red light” itself?
Dangerous thoughts flickered briefly in his mind, but were immediately squashed by Duncan.

He is indeed very curious about what is outside the gate of Alice’s public house, but curiosity is not the same as recklessness, until he has more clues and to confirm the safety of Alice, he will try to avoid destroying the “order” in this “public house”.

As his mind settled, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the graffiti-style sky over the garden, and then down at the equally graffiti-style drawing board in his hand.

The mannequin still slept quietly in the flowers beside him, as if embracing all the secrets and muting all the answers.

Who “created” the sky and the graffiti on the board? Is it the sleeping figure? Was it Alice?
Duncan recalled the information he had received from Rae Nora, and suddenly felt that Alice might not be a false copy of Rae Nora mixed with the Guillotine, as the Frost Queen had thought, or rather …… The shell of the doll lady may indeed be so derived, but her inner self is obviously hiding a far greater secret than that shell.

This magnificent and bizarre “Alice’s Mansion” and the sleeping dolls in the garden are her “inner” secrets, and these secrets are obviously much more than those things that Rae Nora has mastered.

This is very simple: if a copied file carries more information than the original, then there is only one possibility – during the process of “copying” this “file”, someone wrote something else inside it. Someone wrote something else into it.

Duncan’s mind wandered, and after a long period of quiet contemplation, he sighed, and prepared to slip the panel back into the doll’s hands–

It was a necessary precaution to return things to their original state, just in case something went wrong.

But just as he had turned the panel around and was about to tuck it back in, some uneven marks on the back of the panel suddenly caught his attention.

Duncan’s eyes instantly glazed over, and he quickly brought the drawing board to his eyes again, scrutinizing the part of the back that he had initially overlooked.

The uneven mark was a line of text that had been deeply etched into the border of the back of the panel –

“…… Messengers bring news from afar, that the chosen clan has picked up the lost stars of the distant past and forged them into a crown of blessing – the Third Long Night is over.” Duncan’s eyes fell long on the ancient, timeless lines, maintaining the same expression for a long time.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he exhaled softly and bent down, avoiding the thorns and vines, and slowly placed the panel back into the mannequin’s hands.

And in his mind, the words on the back of the drawing board replayed over and over again as if they were hovering.

The Chosen Clan …… The Ancient Stars …… The End of the Third Long Night ……

Duncan stood up with a thoughtful expression, while some of the known information was gradually reorganized and strung together in his thoughts.

The Third Long Night was the most crucial information, and the Annihilationists’ Book of Blasphemy, which most likely hid the truth of history, recorded that the Deep Age had begun after the Third Long Night had passed peacefully, and that the entire world had survived to the present day after that.

The only “chosen clans” that can correspond to the “Third Long Night” are the founders of the ancient kingdom of Crete, those mysterious “ancient sages”.

Gathering the Lost Stars of the Ancient World ……

Could the …… phrase be describing the historical event of the ancient kingdom of Crete’s creation of Vision 001 – The Sun?
Unfortunately,……, the information is too little, just an unclear “message”, in addition to generating some plausible associations, can not play any role.

Duncan shook his head, pressed this regret into the back of his mind for the time being, and then seriously looked around the garden in this vibrant but weird atmosphere.

He didn’t find anything more to be concerned about – apart from a sleeping mannequin, there were only lush plants and cleanly tended paths in the large garden.

Finally, he returned to the sleeping mannequin.

After circling around the dormant “Alice”, he suddenly stopped behind her.

Keyhole.

But not in the back blocked by the clothes, but the exposed neck position – in the back of the neck of the sleeping mannequin, the familiar keyhole attracted Duncan’s eyes.

He subconsciously moved closer over and observed the tiny keyhole.

The mannequin in the garden really also had a keyhole on its body …… but why was it not in the same position as Alice’s? Was there also some symbolic meaning to this positional distinction?

Having been exposed to too many strange and evil things in this world, Duncan could not help but think of “symbolism” and the like when he thought about the problem now, but he quickly put away these doomed and unanswerable thoughts, and hesitantly touched the brass key that he was carrying.

After entering Alice’s public house, this key somehow appeared in his hand …… Is it going to be used in this place?
The thought crossed Duncan’s mind, then with determination, he slowly brought the key closer to the keyhole behind the sleeping mannequin’s neck and carefully inserted it.

With a soft click, the key smoothly bit into something, and immediately afterward, it began to spin on its own as it had done before.

Familiar sensations instantly struck him from all sides, light and shadow displacing, senses reshaping, weightlessness followed by the touch of solid ground – in almost the blink of an eye, Duncan’s surroundings were once again transformed into the captain’s chambers aboard the Lost Country, which he knew so well.

Smooth, white ridges appeared in front of him, and Alice remained honestly seated on the round stool, waiting for the captain to wind himself up.

Duncan was a little dazed, staring at the sight in front of him for several seconds before reacting, and then an odd thought popped into his head immediately afterward-

“With a back like that, it’s a shame you don’t get a few fire cans ……”

Alice heard a small mumble from behind her and carefully twisted her head while grabbing her clothes, “Huh? What did you say, Captain?”

“No, nothing,” Duncan came to his senses in a flash and hurriedly coughed dryly to cover up the momentary embarrassment, and immediately afterward removed the key from the keyhole, “It’s over, you’re not in any discomfort, are you?”

“Huh?” Alice was obviously stunned for a moment, then turned her head in surprise while fumbling with the zipper on her back, “Didn’t it just start?”

Duncan sniffed and gave a slight lurch as he put away his keys.

He stayed in the “Alice’s Mansion” for so long …… that only a moment had passed in the real world?

(End of chapter)