Duncan returned to the Lost Homeland's upper deck with Alice—the cold, desolate World's Creation still hung high in the night sky.
Duncan had thought he had spent a very long time exploring the ship's interior. He had even suspected that an entire night had passed, but judging by how deep the night still was, it seemed he had only been down there for a few hours.
Yet the bizarre and uncanny things he had seen in those few hours had already left a deep impression on him.
He still remembered the cabin where light and shadow had been inverted, as well as the Gate at the bottom of the hold... especially that Gate. What exactly was behind it?
The lantern in Duncan's hand had gone out. He and the doll slowly made their way toward the Captain's Cabin, neither of them saying much—Miss Doll seemed to be rehearsing cooking in her head already, while Duncan's attention rested on the structures around the deck.
Comparing them against his memories, he confirmed that the dim, dilapidated cabin beyond that Gate was indeed part of the Lost Homeland. Their styles were entirely identical, and there was a faint continuity in their structures.
And now that he thought back on it, he had the distinct feeling that there had been something else at the very deepest part of that ruined cabin, hidden in the darkness.
That was an unknown "hidden area" of the Lost Homeland—a hidden area that even Duncan, the captain, could neither sense nor detect.
Did Goat Head know about that Gate? Did it know what lay beyond it?
Should he ask it?
They had reached the Captain's Cabin, but Duncan's thoughts were still unsettled. He led Alice inside and saw Goat Head still resting quietly on the navigation table, its hollow