Chapter 705 – Dolls and Dolls and Dolls
Chapter 705 – Dolls and Mannequins and Mannequins
In the dining room on the upper deck, Duncan and Lucrecia sat side by side, each with a stern face, while the two jointed overlords who had just had their heads swapped back in sat in chairs across from them – Lunie looking slightly nervous and uneasy, and Alice, as always, with a bright face and even looking like she hadn’t had enough of the fun.
After holding his tongue for a few seconds, Duncan was finally the first to speak up, “Having fun?”
Luni immediately bowed her head and fiddled with her fingers, while Alice immediately nodded her head happily, “It was fun, Captain! You don’t know, it turns out that our interfaces are all the same size ……”
Duncan corner of his eye twitched for a moment, and then noticed Luni’s small action of fiddling with her fingers, he somehow felt that this action was a bit familiar, after a moment of doubt, he thoughtfully looked at the “Witch of the Sea” beside him: “When you were a child, did you also like to pick your fingers when you did something wrong? ”
“Er …… that was when I was a child ……” Lucrecia did not expect the topic to suddenly fall on herself, first froze for a moment, followed by a slightly different expression. “You …… you still remember this?”
“…… don’t remember, but there’s still some familiarity,” Duncan gently shook his head, and immediately afterward, he coughed dryly twice, and returned his gaze to the two dolls, “Who came up with the idea first? ”
This time the two dolls finally answered in unison, “Shirley!”
Duncan: “……?”
A few moments later, Duncan and Lucrecia were still sitting slack-jawed on the dining room bench, but this time they were sitting across from each other with an extra Shirley in addition to the two jointed overlords.
Dog lying on the floor next to Shirley, while trying to hold his head with a grip while resting there muttered in a low voice: “Don’t look at me ah it’s none of my business I persuade to come and did not pull ……”
Duncan looked at the muttering Dog a glance, his eyes fell on Shirley, then recalled her when she fooled Alice to the neck of the deeds of glue, the heart can not help but some sighs – really still have to watch a little tightly this only the world in turmoil guy ……
“You say you have nothing to do to give them a bad idea,” Duncan sighed, helplessly looked at Shirley, “we are sailing in the spirit world, this is not like land – in case they are really dizzy and fall into the sea you are responsible for fishing out? out?”
Shirley had been lightly shrinking her neck to make the appearance of accepting criticism, after hearing the captain’s words, her eyes suddenly lit up, “That means you can play like this on land?!”
Duncan: “…… Do you want to hear what you’re saying?”
Shirley laughed awkwardly, but then her smile began to deteriorate and she playfully moved forward while chanting, “I can’t blame you Captain, don’t you think you didn’t think of that when you saw them both, two dolls that can take their heads off and use the same kind of joints, and in the words of the old man… …the spirit of exploration, right, you do not want to try ……?”
Shirley’s words in the inquisitive ears simply like a very seductive subspace pussy, Duncan eyebrows can not help but jump a little, but he just wanted to open his mouth, heard a faintly audible muttering from beside him, “It seems to have a certain truth ……”
Duncan’s expression was a bit subtle, and he twisted his head to look in the direction from which the muttering came – Lucrecia looked up a bit awkwardly, and after reacting, she hurriedly remedied the situation, “Of course this kind of behavior is not to be advocated, and experiments must be built on the premise of prudence and safety ……”
It took Duncan a great deal of effort to finally control the expression on his face, maintaining a calm and serious demeanor and pretending to ignore Lucrecia’s mutterings from earlier before sighing, his gaze falling on the two jointed bullies across the room, “Don’t play like that in the future, or at least don’t play like that on the ship – it’s not safe. Remember?”
“Aye, got it Captain!” “Aye, old master.”
“Go back to the house and stay there, if you really don’t want to do your homework and read a book, even if it’s a picture book,” Duncan waved his hand at Shirley again, “We’re just about to get out of the Spirit World, and we’re going to be in the Eternity Curtain after that, so don’t go around making any more messes until then.”
Shirley bowed her head and agreed honestly, “Oh, yes Captain ……”
The restaurant finally cleared out, Shirley leaving with Dog, and Alice tugging Lunie to a corner of the restaurant, muttering about who knows what – well, each with their own head, at least.
Duncan glanced in the direction they had each left and sighed with a shake of his head, but for some reason he was a little relaxed and pleasant.
It seemed as if he hadn’t breathed a sigh of relief like this in a long time, since the events of Lightwind Harbor.
However, Lucrecia’s slightly uneasy voice came from the side, “Are you …… angry?”
Duncan did not turn around, “Why do you say that?”
“…… We’re traveling to the border next to investigate the cultists’ holy land, it’s a dangerous and serious matter, and Luni is giving you a hard time at this time ……”
She was just in the middle of her sentence when Duncan suddenly spoke up and interrupted her, “Is that when you were a child?”
Lucrecia didn’t react for a moment, “…… Hmm?”
“Lunie,” Duncan raised his hand and pointed to the clockwork doll in the distance who was muttering with Alice and would occasionally smile happily, “When you were a child? Personality-wise, I mean.”
Lucrecia didn’t say anything for a while, she just pursed her lips, and after a while, she whispered, “…… Luni was the first doll I made, and I …… took some parts of my soul that could easily lead to my own mistakes sealed inside her. While for the most part these sealed souls don’t affect her functioning, on occasion, they do cause her to exhibit rather odd demeanor.” “So most of the time Lunie seems calm and reliable, but when she’s with Alice she comes alive?”
“…… Yes, and it seems that this causes her to make mistakes – or at least raises the chances of doing so.”
Duncan glanced back at Lucrecia, “Is that level of ‘making mistakes’ a problem?”
Lucrecia was silent for a few seconds and replied softly, “It’s easy to die at the border for making mistakes.”
Duncan didn’t say anything for a moment, just gazed thoughtfully at the two mannequins who were gleefully gossiping about something in the distance, and after a moment he said in a quiet tone, “It’s okay to make mistakes when you’re around me.”
Lucrecia seemed a bit dazed for a moment, she opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end nothing came out, just her eyes following the direction her father was gazing:
Alice seemed to be telling Luni about certain interesting things on the ship, or at least things she perceived as interesting, and Luni was listening with great interest – Alice rarely talked so much with anyone other than the captain, and Luni …… as the “First Mate” aboard the Radiant Star was a very good friend. As a servant of the “First Mate” and the “Witch of the Sea” on the Radiant Star, Luni had probably never met a kindred spirit who could communicate so well as Alice.
The two dolls seemed to get along very happily.
At this moment, Duncan seemed to suddenly remember something: “By the way, there is something that I have been delayed ……”
While saying that, he casually waved his hand in mid-air, and Aey who was munching on fries on a table not far away instantly disappeared in place, and in the next second, a constantly rotating ring of ghostly green fire appeared beside Duncan, and the latter reached out and probed from the ring of fire for a bit, and then he touched out one thing from there, and put it on the table in front of him.
Lucrecia looked at that thing with some surprise – it was a delicate wooden box about seventy centimeters long, and apart from its exquisite and ancient workmanship, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it.
But gradually, she felt a long-lost …… familiarity and affinity from this wooden box.
“This is Nilu,” Duncan opened the wooden box, and an exquisite three-quarter doll appeared in front of Lucrecia’s eyes, “I said I would give it to you a long time ago, but there were too many things going on during this time, so I delayed, and now it’s just the right time to see Alice and Luni together… …Take it, it’s a way to reunite them as ‘sisters’.”
Lucrecia’s expression seemed a bit odd as she took the wooden box, carefully lifted the three-quartered doll named “Niru” out of the box, placed her on the table, and let her sit down leaning against the wooden box, while her thoughts seemed to drift away –
In that distant afternoon, along with the sound of crisp wind chimes, she and her brother held hands and walked into the doll store, where Luni and Nilu sat quietly in the window, the warm sunlight shining on their delicate hair and dresses, like a layer of misty veil.
At the time, she could only take one of them.
But that was one of the few warm memories she had left of her childhood – and on those warm days, the sun was still something destined to rise in the sky the next day.
The “witch” was in a trance, and in the middle of the trance, the little figure sitting on the table, leaning against the wooden box, slowly turned her head and gave her a hollow smile.
Lucrecia snapped out of her trance and saw that the little figure was still sitting quietly on the table, its head tilted obediently to the side, its soulless shell empty.
She reached out and tapped her finger to the doll’s forehead, “Go back to sleep.”
The body of the mannequin suddenly shook, as if it had been infused with a moment of life, and then she stiffly crawled up, stumbled into the delicate wooden box, and grabbed the lid of the wooden box on the side in an effort to put the lid back on.
But her strength was too little.
Duncan casually pushed a hand to the side and helped the mannequin close the lid of the box.
“Thanks.” A small voice rang out from the box, then silence once more.
“It’s marvelous.” Duncan looked up, somewhat surprised, and said to Lucrecia.
“We are entering the border, and many things are active,” Lucrecia said, “Infusing some things with souls ahead of time prevents certain unwanted guests from ‘sneaking in’- -That’s how Luni first ‘woke up’ many years ago.”
“…… It’s about time to get some air on the surface.” Duncan nodded, slowly rising from behind the table as he spoke.
As he did, the Lost Country began to gradually float up from its Spirit World depths, and the light of day was brightening beyond the portholes of the dining room.
The shadows that had coiled themselves in the spirit world were gradually receding from all sides.
(End of chapter)