Starless Night

Honestly, Duncan suddenly realized that even with nerves as thick as a support beam, it would be hard to maintain his composure when the pigeon on his shoulder started talking.

In that moment, he desperately wished he could be like a normal pirate captain with a parrot on his shoulder – or at the very least, a monkey.

But he had already pushed open the door to the chartroom, and turning back now was impossible.

Inside the room where the navigation table was placed, Goat Head was excitedly chattering about the twelfth legend of the sea fish stew. The sound of the captain's cabin door opening finally interrupted the noisy fellow. His dark wooden head immediately turned towards Duncan, his tone rising with evident pleasure: "Ah, Captain! You're finally out—let me tell you, Miss Alice is an excellent conversationalist. I haven't had such an enjoyable chat with someone in many years, you know..."

Duncan completely ignored Goat Head's loud blabbering and first looked at the victim sitting opposite the navigation table. He then saw the headless doll sitting stiffly on a chair, holding its own head, while desperately covering its ears.

Even so, Alice's eyes were as unfocused as if she'd attended twelve advanced calculus classes. She didn't even react when Duncan walked up to her.

Duncan: "..."

"She pulled her own head off," Goat Head explained before Duncan could speak. "Though I have no idea why she did that..."

How incredibly potent was Goat Head's incessant chatter that it could force a cursed doll to rip off its own head to resist the sonic waves?!

As Duncan was shocked, Goat Head, who had gotten carried away, finally noticed a stranger the captain had brought with him. His wooden head turned slightly, and his dark eyes suddenly fixed on the pigeon on Duncan's shoulder: "Hmm? Captain, what's on your shoulder..."

"It's called Ai Yi, and it's my pet from now on," Duncan said concisely, using as few sentences as possible to avoid potential loopholes, while observing Goat Head's reaction to this statement.

"Your pet?" Goat Head clearly froze for a moment, then seemed to make up something on its own. "Ah, the Lost Homeland did indeed sense your temporary departure from the ship... Did you go for a Spirit World Walk? Is this a trophy you brought back during your Spirit World Walk?"

Spirit World Walk?

A word Duncan had never heard before suddenly appeared. Duncan thought of the brass compass placed in the captain's cabin, the handwriting left by the real Captain Duncan, and the wondrous experience of his soul traveling and projecting to a distant place. He vaguely connected the two and, feeling he had guessed correctly, nodded calmly: "Just needed some fresh air."

As Duncan finished speaking, Goat Head predictably began to flatter him: "Ah! As expected of the great Captain Duncan, even a simple Spirit World Walk brings back trophies—is this a pigeon? For it to be your pet, it must possess extraordinary qualities? You've even hung your compass on it? Does this... Ah, of course, your judgment is always correct, but does this pigeon have anything special? Could it be..."

Duncan heard something subtle in Goat Head's flattery. A thought struck him, realizing that Goat Head clearly recognized the brass compass currently hanging on Ai Yi's chest, and that this compass was obviously very important to the real Captain Duncan—so important that it shouldn't have been casually placed on a newly appeared "pet."

But even sensing something amiss, he could do nothing, because the compass was now "bound" to the pigeon. Moreover... according to the feedback from controlling the Spirit Body Fire, the pigeon seemed to be the true body of the compass at this moment!

Duncan thought quickly, but his expression remained unchanged. In that moment of distraction, Ai Yi, who had been obediently perched on his shoulder, suddenly let out a loud coo and then flapped its wings, flying in front of Goat Head.

Goat Head's dark eyes instantly fixed on the pigeon. The latter tilted its head with great seriousness and pecked Goat Head's face with its beak: "Want to top up your game currency?"

Duncan: "..."

"An anomaly with sentience?!" Goat Head was clearly stunned, but then reacted, its tone extremely surprised: "This pigeon can talk?!"

Duncan immediately and subtly reminded it from the side: "You can talk too."

The pigeon Ai Yi also paced a couple of steps on the table, muttering to itself as it walked away: "Is this proper? Is this proper? Is this proper..."

Seeing this, Duncan rubbed his fingertips, and accompanied by a sudden leap of green flames, the pigeon pacing on the table vanished into thin air in an instant and reappeared on his shoulder the next moment.

"Yes, an anomaly with sentience, and directly controlled by me," Duncan nodded at Goat Head. "Any other questions?"

Goat Head quickly replied: "Ah... of course not, of course not. That makes perfect sense—everything is under the great Captain Duncan's control."

Duncan stopped paying attention to Goat Head, quickly ending the topic, and then focused his attention on Alice, who was still holding her head and spacing out. Perhaps the previous open-minded experience had further strengthened his nerves, or perhaps he had gotten used to it after seeing it a few times. Looking at Alice holding her head and spacing out now, he didn't feel it was too eerie; instead, he found her a bit... cute.

He reached out and patted the doll lady's shoulder: "Wake up, wake up."

Alice's body jolted as if waking from a long nightmare. Then, the head she was holding opened its mouth and made a sound: "Cap... Cap... Cap..."

Duncan: "Attach your head first."

Alice then reacted and hastily put her head back in place. With a click as the joints closed, her voice finally became fluent: "Ah, Captain, you're back? Did something just happen... Did Mr. Goat Head finish talking?"

Goat Head on the table immediately spoke up: "No, we were just discussing certain legends about sea fish stew. We can continue this topic next time..."

Duncan said concisely: "Shut up."

"Oh."

Alice, standing nearby, visibly flinched the moment Goat Head spoke. The cursed doll actually showed a look of horror on its face. Even though Goat Head immediately fell silent at the captain's command the next second, she still glanced at the navigation table with lingering fear.

Duncan suspected that for a considerable time in the future, this doll lady would not set foot in the captain's cabin again.

Thinking of this, he finally asked curiously: "You came to find me, what's up?"

"I..." Alice looked a bit dazed, as if her original goal for visiting the captain's cabin had been completely forgotten during her conversation with Goat Head. But after a few seconds, she still reacted: "Oh right, I just wanted to ask if there's a place to bathe on the ship? My wooden box got seawater in it earlier, and my joints feel a bit... uncomfortable now."

As she spoke, the doll lady's expression became noticeably awkward. But perhaps more awkward than her was Duncan—after all, her box had been thrown overboard by Duncan earlier.

And he had thrown it several times.

A fleeting sense of awkwardness passed through him. Duncan tried his best to maintain an unchanged expression and said in a calm tone: "Just for this?"

Alice sat on the chair nervously: "Just... just for this."

"For many ocean-going vessels, fresh water is an extremely precious resource, and bathing is a luxury that requires restraint," Duncan said with a serious face at first, but then suddenly revealed a slight smile. "However, you are very lucky. The Lost Homeland is no ordinary ship, and fresh water is not a problem here. Follow me; there's a place to bathe in the cabins below the middle deck. To get there, you first have to cross the upper deck."

Alice immediately stood up—she truly didn't want to stay in the place where Goat Head was for another second.

Before leaving the room, Duncan glanced back at Goat Head: "You continue to steer."

After giving the instruction, he then got up, pushed open the captain's cabin door, and led Alice onto the deck.

The night had already fallen.

The night sky over the boundless sea was clear.

This was the first time Duncan had stood under the clear night sky of this world after several consecutive days of overcast weather.

He suddenly stopped, looked up at the sky, and stared motionlessly at the night sky.

The night sky was dark and starless, with no celestial bodies present.

The only thing visible was a faint, gray-white "crack" that seemed to have torn through the entire sky. The crack stretched across the horizon, its edges extending fine cracks like torn flesh. A dim, grayish-white halo slowly diffused outward from the crack, like bloodstains spreading in deep water.

This "Pale Scar" stretching across the sky illuminated the entire boundless sea, more than twice as bright as the moonlight in Duncan's memory.