Calm and Normal

The sea had calmed down.

Alice watched the tentacle fall onto the deck, along with chunks of flesh and blood containing immense power that landed by the captain's feet. The vitality rapidly drained from those pieces of flesh, while at the same time, some enormous creature lurking beneath the waters around the Lost Homeland began diving deeper at an accelerated pace. Having paid the "price" of a tentacle, it swiftly fled the waters where the Lost Homeland was located, almost as if it were escaping in panic.

As that enormous shadow sank back into the deep sea, the ocean regained its calm at an astonishing speed, and the dark, ink-black clouds in the sky completely dispersed as well.

...Perhaps those had not been storm clouds at all.

Alice looked up at the sky. She still remembered what those clouds had looked like. Recalling their outline as they dispersed, she finally vaguely connected them with the shadow beneath the water around the ship.

That dense mass of clouds in the sky seemed to have been a shadow cast into the heavens by some enormous creature in the sea.

The crackling sound of flames burning came from the edge of the deck, interrupting Alice's daze. She hurriedly looked toward the captain, only to find that he had already returned to his usual appearance. A cheerful smile was on the tall man's face. He had noticed Alice standing some distance away and waved for Miss Doll to come over.

When Alice came before him, Duncan kicked the large fish on the deck, his tone lifting slightly. "Look, I caught a big fish!"

"A... big fish?" Alice's expression went blank. She stared at the thing by Duncan's feet. Amid the twisted, writhing flesh, countless split-open eyes still gazed at the sky half-open, while jagged fangs gleamed with a metallic chill between the eyeballs.

At Duncan's kick, half the eyes on the severed tentacle suddenly blinked, but they all immediately closed again.

"Yeah, a big fish," Duncan said happily. "Look, hauling this thing up took quite a bit of effort."

Though she was only a doll, Alice still felt as though the "muscles" at the corners of her eyes twitched at that moment. She opened her mouth to speak, yet had no idea where to begin correcting this topic.

She looked at the "fish" by Duncan's feet.

An ugly big fish lay there—pitch-black in color, with a pitted hide, strange grayish-white patterns near its fins, bony spikes extending from its head, and a pair of lifeless fish eyes meeting her gaze.

There were also many "small fish" scattered across the surrounding deck.

Alice suddenly lost all expression and speech. She stared wide-eyed at the scene before her, at those "fish" lying on the deck, at things that had not been "fish" one second ago.

Miss Doll, lacking life experience, did not yet understand what it meant to question one's entire life. But at this moment, she truly began doubting everything. She even wondered whether she was "dreaming"—where had that tentacle and those chunks of flesh gone?

Perhaps her momentary blankness had been too obvious. Duncan immediately noticed that something was wrong with Alice. He raised his brows and looked at the doll. "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

"I..." Alice opened her mouth, but just as she was about to correct something, the rules Goat Head had told her suddenly surfaced in her mind.

On the Lost Homeland, Captain Duncan was the absolute authority. His words were absolute "fact"—if the Real World contradicted Captain Duncan's words, then the captain's judgment took precedence.

"There's no problem at all!" Alice abruptly came to her senses and answered quickly. Then, as though trying to hide the excessive nervousness in her voice, she hurriedly changed the subject. "By the way, Captain, that storm just now was terrifying..."

"A storm? You mean those waves?" Duncan looked at Miss Doll in confusion. "Those waves were indeed pretty big, but they were nowhere near a storm... Though I suppose you've never seen a real storm."

Alice said, "...You're right."

Captain Duncan called the storm that had nearly covered the entire sea "waves," so they were waves. Captain Duncan believed the thing he had caught aboard was a "fish," so these things were fish.

"...I feel like you're a little nervous. Are you really all right?" Duncan still noticed something off in Alice's tone. He looked at his "first crew member" with some concern. "Could you be seasick? Can you get seasick?"

"I'm fine. It's just that the ship was rocking so badly just now that I..." Alice looked at the captain's concerned expression, unsure whether she should feel relieved or even more afraid. She could only stiffly change the subject. "By the way, what are you planning to do with these... 'fish'?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Duncan immediately laughed. "Eat them, of course!"

Alice's expression instantly froze. "...Eat them?"

"What else? Haven't you noticed that the Lost Homeland's food supplies are far too limited?" Duncan was clearly in high spirits. "I'm planning to cut up the big one, stew part of it and grill part of it. As for these slightly smaller ones, I'll salt them and make dried fish..."

He happily spoke of his plans, but although he sounded confident, he was actually rather unsure whether he could pull it off. His cooking skills could only be called average, and he had never handled such enormous sea fish before. He only had a little theoretical knowledge about making dried fish too, with no practical experience whatsoever.

But how would he know if he did not try?

The only problem... was not getting food poisoning.

Even amid the joy of such a bountiful catch, Duncan retained some rationality. He cautiously studied the big fish by his feet, wondering whether this gift from nature might be poisonous.

The safest option was to find some unlucky fellow to taste it first.

He first thought of Goat Head in the Captain's Cabin, then instantly ruled out that option. Next, he looked at the Cursed Doll across from him—she would not work either.

Alice did not even have a stomach.

In the end, he looked at the pigeon on his shoulder.

The pigeon tilted its head at him as well.

Ai did not look like a normal creature no matter how he looked at it, but if he had to find a living thing of flesh and blood aboard the ship, this pigeon seemed to be the only one left...

A moment later, Duncan left the deck with his "catch." Lunchtime was approaching, and he could not wait to improve the Lost Homeland's meals.

Alice stood there in a daze for a while before making her way to the door of the Captain's Cabin.

She had not intended to come to Goat Head. Ever since witnessing that "first mate's" ability to ramble on and on last time, she had developed a deep sense of awe toward the entire Captain's Cabin.

If possible, she never wanted to step through the Captain's Cabin door of her own accord.

But what had happened today was far too strange. She felt it was necessary to consult the experienced Mr. Goat Head and see whether this was truly a normal occurrence on the Lost Homeland.

She was not violating the Crew Code. She was only asking about the situation, so it should not be forbidden.

After hesitating for more than ten seconds, Alice finally gathered her courage and pulled open the Captain's Cabin door.

The next second, she saw in astonishment that Goat Head had already turned toward the door and was staring fixedly in her direction—as though it had been waiting for her to come.

"What happened outside?" Goat Head spoke with extremely rare brevity.

Alice sensed that something was off from its unusual behavior. She quickly turned back to close the door, then went to the navigation table and told it everything she had seen.

After she finished speaking, Goat Head fell into an extraordinarily abnormal silence—for a full minute, it did not say a word.

The carved wooden goat head could not make expressions, but Alice could clearly sense that... the situation seemed to have exceeded this "first mate's" judgment.

Alice immediately grew nervous and instinctively leaned forward. "Could it be that this isn't something that normally happens on the Lost Homeland? Could the captain really..."

"Everything on the Lost Homeland is normal," Goat Head finally snapped out of its silence and answered quickly, interrupting Alice as though plugging some kind of loophole at the first opportunity. "Listen, everything on the Lost Homeland is normal, always normal, and the great Captain Duncan remains as he always has!"

"Then... I only saw how you reacted..."

"This is somewhat beyond my expectations—but that is due to the limitations of my imagination and understanding," Goat Head's words rapidly became fluent. It seemed to be gradually recovering from its shock and returning to its usual state. Then its emotions visibly rose, and even its tone became impassioned and excited. "Yes, the great Captain Duncan—he ought to be even greater and more powerful! There is nothing abnormal, Miss Alice. Listen, everything aboard the Lost Homeland is as usual! Let the captain do what he believes is right. Do not continue discussing this matter... You only need to remember this fact from today onward:

"There are fish in the Lost Homeland's kitchen, and fish are delicious ingredients."