Pale Night

Reality is different from fantastical stories. The biggest difference is that living in reality means you have to consider a whole host of real and trivial details—

Do cursed dolls that move need joint maintenance? Will Alice suddenly falling apart while walking be a consequence of her frequently disassembling her own joints? Are the preserved meats and hard cheeses on the ghost ship actually expired?

Do superheroes who socialize during the day and fight evil forces at night ever sleep? Do the evil forces who fight superheroes usually need to go grocery shopping?

Stories never tell you these things. People in stories are always as pure as snow, moving like the wind. Cursed dolls in stories only need to suddenly pop out from a dark corner to scare people, just like the Ghost Captain in stories never had to worry about the ship only having preserved meat and hard cheese that had been expired for a century.

But a cursed doll in reality, after soaking in seawater, would be itchy all over, and even a bath would require figuring out how to deal with the salt grains in the joint seams…

Duncan, standing outside the cabin, sighed, realizing more clearly that surviving on this ship for a long time would require more than just determination.

He also had to consider a lot of practical issues, especially with an increased crew.

Duncan was well aware that the ghost ship didn't have very abundant living supplies.

This ship had unlimited fresh water, but that was the only thing it had in unlimited supply. The food stored in the pantry would not automatically replenish after being consumed, and the only edible items there were preserved meat and hard cheese. Although, due to the special nature of the Lost Homeland, they showed no signs of rot, Duncan still reasonably suspected they had been stored for at least a century.

Besides that, the ship also lacked replacement clothes suitable for Alice's size (though the cursed doll hadn't mentioned any such need), and there was nothing for entertainment—not even a chess set or a deck of cards.

The Boundless Sea was vast and boundless, yet the Lost Homeland could hardly obtain real supplies from this immense ocean. The ship also seemed to lack a reliable "home port" to stop and rest, nor did it have any channels to exchange goods with the civilizations on land.

Goat Head seemed completely unconcerned about these issues, but Duncan was now seriously contemplating—he needed to find a way to improve the Lost Homeland's current lack of supplies.

Furthermore, he was also considering how to establish contact with the "city-states" on land.

Wandering blindly on the sea forever was an extremely inefficient method of exploration. Information about this world must be obtained from land; this was Duncan's deepest realization after his "Spirit World Walk."

Putting that aside, even for his own mental and physical well-being, he had to try to interact more with the "city-states" on land, to engage with the civilized society of this world—otherwise, he genuinely worried that after a long drift, he would truly become a twisted, gloomy, and reclusive Ghost Captain.

Thinking of this, Duncan turned his head slightly, looking at the pigeon Ai Yi, who was honestly squatting on his shoulder and preening its feathers.

His gaze was mainly fixed on the brass compass on Ai Yi's chest.

The pigeon tilted its head to look at its "master," and suddenly blurted out, "Set up a branch base! Spread the creep! Hey, do you know how to operate it?"

Duncan was momentarily silent. This pigeon was often erratic, but its occasional remarks were so spot-on that it made one wonder if it was profoundly wise beneath its foolishness.

As it stood, Spirit World Walk seemed to be the only feasible way to "go" to the land city-states.

Although this method seemed to have too many uncertainties, and a mysterious accident like "Ai Yi" occurred after its last use, Duncan knew that he would soon undertake the next Spirit World Walk—not only to gather intelligence from the land but also to quickly verify and master a very useful ability.

And just as important as Spirit World Walk was the "special ability" of the pigeon Ai Yi to bring back a ritual knife from the distant land.

If it could bring back a knife, could it bring back more? What were the rules and limitations of this bird's item carrying? Could this process be controlled?

After a moment of thought, Duncan decided to directly ask the pigeon, "Do you know how you brought that knife back?"

The pigeon thought for a moment and said in a deep tone, "You need more crystal ore."

Duncan: "..."

He decided to temporarily abandon communication with the pigeon. It would be more reliable to try these things himself during the next Spirit World Walk.

Inside the cabin, Alice finally fumbled her way through understanding how to use the water pipes and roughly figured out how to take a bath.

On the limited ghost ship, she could only take a cold shower, but for a doll, this was not a problem at all.

But before jumping into the bathtub, Alice decided to greet everything in the cabin first.

She patted the large oak barrel, then knocked on the pillars supporting the cabin. She kicked the floorboards with her toes, then tiptoed to reach the ropes and hooks hanging from the ceiling.

"Hello, my name is Alice," she cheerfully greeted these cold objects, just as she had greeted Mr. Goat Head before. "I'll be living on this ship from now on."

Nothing in the cabin responded to her greeting, but Alice didn't mind at all.

Goat Head had said that the Lost Homeland was alive, and many things on this ship were alive.

Even though they didn't seem to possess true "intelligence" like Goat Head, or even the ability to communicate, this didn't stop Alice from treating the entire Lost Homeland as a "neighbor" who needed to be greeted.

The Lost Homeland was a living object, and so was she.

Confident that her greeting was polite and proper, Alice's mood became even more cheerful. Then, she shed her ornate dress and clumsily climbed into the oak barrel already filled with water.

First step, take off her head and rinse it—the joints on her neck weren't very sturdy anyway.

Miss Doll thought her plan was very reasonable.

The Pland City-State, late at night, finally ended its day-long hustle and bustle. Under the pale moonlight of the night sky, this prosperous "Pearl of the Sea" gradually fell into slumber.

But in the quiet darkness, sentinels watched over the sleeping city.

On the Pland City-State's tallest building, the Grand Clock Tower, a young lady with long, gray-white hair and an unusually tall and imposing figure stood by the window, overlooking the city.

This lady had beautiful features, but a striking scar across her left eye made her look formidable. Her build was even larger than that of an average man, and she wore silver-gray light armor and a battle skirt. She was clearly well-trained, with well-developed muscles and evenly proportioned limbs. Within easy reach beside her lay a greatsword emitting a faint silver glow—the sword's hilt was inscribed with runes symbolizing waves, and its blade shimmered with a light like flowing water.

Behind the lady, the sounds of mechanical operation continuously echoed—the Grand Clock Tower's movement was running smoothly, driven by steam engines. The complex and precise gears and linkages ran through the roof and floor, powering the four clock faces above and the simulated planetarium hidden deep within the building.

Judging by the sound, this massive and intricate machine was operating in excellent condition, with no evil forces disturbing the sacred steam core.

But Inquisitor Vana still felt a vague unease, a nagging premonition that certain events were about to happen or had already happened, and that she was destined to be powerless to stop them.

Footsteps approached from the direction of the stairs. The gray-haired woman by the window turned at the sound. She saw a priest, dressed in the robes of a Sea Priest, ascending the stairs. The priest carried a copper censer, from which clean smoke slowly swirled around him.

The priest walked to the central mechanism pillar in the room, removed the old censer hanging on the pillar's guardrail, and replaced it with a new one. He observed the smoke escaping from the censer, confirming that it floated unimpeded around the rotating gears and linkages. Then, he quietly chanted the name of the Goddess of Storms and turned to look at the gray-haired lady standing by the window.

"Inquisitor, good evening—are you on watch again yourself?"

"I have a bad feeling, it's been like this for the past few days—even more so tonight."

"A bad feeling? About what?" The priest looked up, his deep eyes filled with concern. "Did the Goddess send you an omen?"

"Not a very clear message," the young female Inquisitor shook her head. "I just have a vague feeling... something is approaching this city."