At the fringes of order, the composition and operating laws of information took on bizarre and fantastical forms—Duncan pondered it seriously for a long time before deciding to stop thinking about it.
At any rate, the good news was that Lei Nuola had not been sent flying by the Lost Homeland, nor had she been crushed beneath its hull—the bad news was that she had been rammed "into" the ship, and she was still dazed.
It reminded Duncan of a famous painting:
A dog gets hit by a car on the road, ends up embedded in the front bumper, and gets taken onto the highway.jpg.
Duncan coughed twice and shook the somewhat ridiculous association from his mind. He and Alice took two steps forward, his face showing a little apology and concern. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention while sailing... Are you all right?"
Beside him, Alice lowered her head, apparently lost in thought. Then she suddenly poked Duncan's arm. "Captain, I remember the Lost Homeland hit the White Oak first, and that's how I came aboard your ship. Now it's the Frost Queen's turn. Doesn't that mean it's come full circle?"
Duncan immediately glared at her. "That's not how you use 'come full circle'!"
Lei Nuola seemed to have recovered a little as well. Rubbing her throbbing, dizzy head, she adapted to the situation and rose from the bedside. "I'm fine. The impact was just rather strong—I didn't expect your manner of arrival to be so... 'spectacular.'"
As she spoke, her gaze had already fallen on Alice beside her, carrying a slightly strange and complicated look. She carefully examined the doll whose appearance was almost exactly identical to her own, while Alice turned to look at Lei Nuola with earnest curiosity.
After a long while, Lei Nuola suddenly smiled and