The Lost Homeland's hull was very likely sailing through Subspace all along—this shocking revelation left Duncan with an extremely complicated feeling.
He had always known that the Lost Homeland was strange and dangerous, but he had never imagined it could be strange to this extent. He knew little about Subspace, perhaps even less than Nina's history teacher, but he at least knew that Subspace was the most dangerous thing in this world—the "bottom of all things" that kept saints awake at night and made even the gods deeply wary. It was so terrifying that, aboard ships about to set sail, some superstitious sailors did not even dare to casually say the word "Subspace" aloud.
Even though Subspace was not an intelligent deity and would not turn its gaze upon people merely because they spoke its name, people still feared mentioning it at sea.
Yet the Lost Homeland, this ghost ship that had wandered for a century, might have had a part of itself sailing through Subspace all along. It even... had a Gate in its hull leading to Subspace.
The dim, ruined cabin beyond that Gate might have been a part of the Lost Homeland's structure already completely occupied and corroded by Subspace—and that Gate was a seal.
Duncan instinctively lowered his head and looked at the dark-colored deck beneath his feet, as if his gaze could pierce through the layers of planks and see that shattered cabin, as well as the chaotic light and shadows outside it.
He suddenly felt as though he were standing atop a lit powder keg—the tiny crack opened in that Gate was its fuse, and he still had no idea how long that fuse was.
But after the brief shock and tension passed, Duncan gradually realized something else: Goat Head's reaction seemed to reveal