Honestly, Duncan suddenly realized that when the pigeon on his shoulder started talking, even if he had nerves thicker than a roof beam, it was hard to keep walking calmly.
At that moment, he desperately wished he could be like a normal pirate captain and have a parrot on his shoulder—or, failing that, a monkey.
But he had already pushed open the Gate to the Chart Room. There was no turning back now.
Inside the room containing the navigation table, Goat Head was enthusiastically rambling through the twelfth legend about fish stew. The sound of the Captain's Cabin door opening finally interrupted the noisy fellow. Its pitch-black wooden head immediately turned toward Duncan, its tone rising with delight. "Ah, Captain! You're finally out—I have to tell you, Miss Alice is truly an excellent conversational partner. It has been many years since I've had such an enjoyable chat with someone, you know..."
Duncan ignored Goat Head's loud babbling and immediately looked toward the victim across from the navigation table. The headless doll was sitting perfectly straight in her chair, holding her own head in her hands while pressing tightly over her ears.
Even so, Alice's eyes remained as unfocused as if she had just sat through twelve advanced calculus classes in a row. She did not react at all even when Duncan walked up to her.
Duncan: "..."
"She pulled off her own head," Goat Head explained before Duncan could speak. "Though I don't know why she did that..."
Just how terrifying was Goat Head's nonstop chatter that it had driven a Cursed Doll to pull off her own head to resist the sound waves?!
While Duncan was still reeling internally, Goat Head, high on its own rambling, finally noticed the unfamiliar creature the Captain had brought out. Its wooden head turned slightly, its pitch-black eyes abruptly fixing on the pigeon on Duncan's shoulder. "Hm? Captain, what is that on your shoulder...?"
"Her name is Ai Yi. She is my pet from now on," Duncan said succinctly, using as few words as possible to avoid any potential slipups while observing Goat Head's reaction.
"Your pet?" Goat Head was clearly stunned for a moment, then seemed to come up with its own explanation. "Ah, Lost Homeland did sense that you had temporarily left the ship... Did you go on a Spirit World Walk? Is this a trophy you brought back during your Spirit World Walk?"
Spirit World Walk?
A term he had never heard before had suddenly appeared. Duncan thought of the Brass Compass in the Captain's Cabin, of the writing left behind by the real Captain Duncan, and of the strange experience of his soul traveling and projecting itself far away. He vaguely connected them together, and after deciding he was probably right, he nodded calmly. "Just went out for a little fresh air."
As soon as Duncan finished speaking, Goat Head immediately began flattering him as expected. "Ah! As expected of the great Captain Duncan—even a simple Spirit World Walk brings back spoils! Is this a pigeon? Since she has become your pet, she must have something extraordinary about her, yes? You even hung your compass around her neck? Is that... Ah, of course, your judgment is always correct, but is there something special about this pigeon? Could she be...?"
Duncan heard something tactful in Goat Head's flattery. His thoughts stirred as he realized Goat Head clearly recognized the Brass Compass now hanging from Ai Yi's chest, and that the compass was obviously extremely important to the real Captain Duncan—important enough that it should not have been casually placed on a newly acquired "pet."
Yet even after noticing the problem, he could do nothing about it. The compass was now "bound" to the pigeon. In fact... judging from the feedback from his control of Spirit Body Fire, the pigeon now seemed to be the compass's actual body!
Duncan thought rapidly, though his expression remained perfectly still. In that brief moment of distraction, Ai Yi, who had been obediently perched on his shoulder, suddenly cooed loudly, then flapped her wings and flew in front of Goat Head.
Goat Head's black eyes instantly locked onto the pigeon. Ai Yi solemnly cocked her head and pecked Goat Head's face with her beak. "Wanna top up your Q Coins?"
Duncan: "..."
"An intelligent anomaly?!" Goat Head was obviously stunned as well, but then immediately came to its senses, sounding extremely surprised. "This pigeon can actually talk?!"
Duncan immediately offered a tactful reminder from the side. "You can talk too."
Pigeon Ai Yi also took two steps across the table, muttering to herself as she walked away, "Can you even say that? Can you? Can you..."
Duncan rubbed his fingertips together. Green flames suddenly leaped up, and the pigeon pacing across the table vanished from the air in the blink of an eye, reappearing on his shoulder the next instant.
"Yes, an intelligent anomaly, and one directly under my control." Duncan nodded at Goat Head. "Any more questions?"
Goat Head hurriedly replied, "Ah... Of course not, of course not. Then there is no problem at all—everything is within the great Captain Duncan's grasp."
Duncan stopped paying attention to Goat Head. After swiftly ending the subject, he turned his attention to Alice, who was still blankly holding her head. Perhaps his earlier broad-minded experience had further strengthened his nerves, or perhaps he had simply gotten used to seeing it after several times. At this moment, watching Alice sit there hugging her head no longer seemed especially bizarre. Instead, he found her somewhat... cute.
He reached out and patted Miss Doll on the shoulder. "Wake up, wake up."
Alice's body suddenly shuddered, as though she had awakened from a long nightmare. Then the head she held in her hands opened and closed its mouth, making a sound. "Cap... Cap... Cap..."
Duncan: "Put your head back on first."
Only then did Alice realize what had happened. She hurriedly and clumsily put her head back in place. With a click as the joints locked together, her voice finally returned to normal. "Ah, Captain, you're back? It seemed like something happened just now... Is Mr. Goat Head finished?"
Goat Head on the table immediately spoke up. "No, we had only reached certain legends concerning fish stew. This topic can continue next time..."
Duncan said succinctly, "Shut up."
"Oh."
The moment Goat Head spoke, Alice visibly trembled. A look of horror appeared on the face of a dignified Cursed Doll. Even though Goat Head obediently shut up under the Captain's command the next second, she still cast a lingeringly fearful glance toward the navigation table.
Duncan suspected that for quite some time to come, Miss Doll would not set foot in the Captain's Cabin again.
Thinking of this, he finally asked curiously, "What did you come to see me for?"
"I..." Alice looked somewhat dazed, as though her original purpose for visiting the Captain's Cabin had been completely erased by her conversation with Goat Head. But after a few seconds, she remembered. "Ah, right. I just wanted to ask if there's somewhere on the ship where I can bathe? My wooden chest got seawater in it earlier, and now my joints feel somewhat... uncomfortable."
By the end, Miss Doll's expression was clearly a little embarrassed. But Duncan should have been more embarrassed than she was—after all, he had been the one to throw her chest overboard earlier.
And he had thrown it overboard several times.
The embarrassment in his heart passed in an instant. Duncan tried hard to keep his expression unchanged, his tone flat. "That's all?"
Alice sat stiffly in her chair. "That... that's all."
"For many ocean-going ships, fresh water is an extremely precious resource. Bathing is a luxury and must be done sparingly," Duncan said seriously at first, but then a faint smile suddenly appeared on his face. "However, you're lucky. Lost Homeland is no ordinary ship, and fresh water is not a problem here. Come with me. There's a place to bathe in the cabins beneath the mid-deck. To get there, we first have to cross the upper deck."
Alice immediately stood up—she truly did not want to remain another second in a place with Goat Head.
Before leaving the room, Duncan glanced back at Goat Head. "Keep steering."
Only after giving that instruction did he rise, push open the Gate of the Captain's Cabin, and lead Alice onto the deck.
By now, night had fallen.
The night sky over the Boundless Sea was clear.
After many consecutive days of overcast skies, this was the first time Duncan had stood beneath a clear night sky in this world.
He suddenly stopped, raised his head to look at the sky, and stared motionlessly at the night above.
The night sky was black and starless, without a single celestial body.
The only thing visible was a faint grayish-white "scar" that seemed to tear across the entire sky. It stretched along the horizon, fine cracks spreading from its edges as though torn flesh had split open. A dim gray-white glow slowly seeped outward from the scar, like blood spreading through a pool of deep water.
This Pale Scar stretching across the sky illuminated the entire Boundless Sea, more than twice as bright as the moonlight Duncan remembered.
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