Duncan quietly looked at Alice, and Alice looked back at Duncan with a perfectly justified expression. After a moment, Duncan rubbed his brow, feeling a strange emotion welling up, a sense of incongruity lingering in his mind.

How could the same face express such vastly different temperaments?

"Captain," Alice said, blinking curiously at Duncan's reaction, as she leaned closer and asked,

"Why aren't you saying anything? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's not you." Duncan shook his head, shaking off the jumble of thoughts in his mind, then suddenly raised his eyelids, looking at the doll before him with a solemn and serious expression.

"Alice, have you ever been curious about the connection between you and the Frost Queen?" Alice was taken aback, raised a hand to scratch her head, and after thinking about it seriously, she said uncertainly, "I, I have been curious, but then I thought about it, it doesn't seem to be very important, so I stopped thinking about it." Duncan was a little surprised, "Not very important?"

"The Frost Queen is the Frost Queen, and I am me. No matter how great that queen is, that's her business, and I don't understand much," Alice said earnestly.

"I have things I'm good at, and I really like my life now, that's good enough. Besides, Mr. Morris also told me that everyone in this world might find another person who looks almost exactly like them, so I'll just assume that the Frost Queen is someone who looks exactly like me, even though I'm actually a doll." Duncan quietly listened to the doll's words, watching the natural and contented look in her eyes when she mentioned her current life, and a feeling stirred in his heart.

Perhaps, she really is just a special, erroneous copy created by an ancient god in the deep sea, perhaps she really is just the result of the strange fusion of Lei Nora, who fell into the deep sea, and the guillotine, or perhaps she hides even more secrets that even Lei Nora could not imagine. But as Alice herself said, it's not that important. She's not smart, but she's happy. There are many things she doesn't understand, but she never feels nervous or afraid because of these overly complicated things.

She was born and lives in a world full of weirdness, but this weird world is the most ordinary thing to her.

"Normal." She explores this world, which is full of novelty and unknown to her, with curiosity and anticipation, including everything in the future, like a child opening its eyes in the sunlight.

The multitude of beings in the mortal world are countless, but even the bravest warriors, the most learned sages, and the most devout believers cannot look at the world from Alice's perspective.

Duncan suddenly had a feeling that in this strange world where everyone is full of fear and everything is distorted, the doll Alice is more like a human than anyone else.

Just like in another world, in that world without anomalies and visions, without gods and weirdness, he saw ordinary humans walking calmly in the sunlight.

"Captain?" Alice's curious voice sounded again.

"Why are you spacing out again?"

"It's nothing," Duncan shook his head.

"I just suddenly think you're actually very wise." Alice was slightly startled when she heard the captain's compliment, and a happy look gradually appeared on her face, "Hehe." She didn't know why the captain suddenly praised her for having "wisdom," and didn't even think that she could have any wisdom, but since the captain praised her like that, it must be something to be happy about.

After Duncan finished praising her, he pondered for a moment, then slowly reached for the cold touch beside him—it was the brass key.

In Deep Sea Embers, the submersible was slowly ascending, and it would still take some time before "retrieval." The Frost Queen, Lei Nora, had revealed a lot of information to him, but there were still many gaps or ambiguities in that information that he needed to confirm.

The brass key—a rational Preacher of the End Times had handed it to Lei Nora, but even with the latter's abilities, she had ultimately failed to figure out the true "essence" of this key. At the same time, a corresponding keyhole appeared on Alice, this erroneous copy who seemed to have been born entirely by "coincidence"—was it still a coincidence at this point?

Did that Preacher of the End Times foresee all of this happening today? Or did the tentacles of the ancient god sleeping in Deep Sea Embers retrieve Lei Nora's memories when creating "Alice" and leave the keyhole on Alice? Perhaps he should try it.

"Alice," Duncan suddenly looked up and looked at the doll before him with a serious expression.

"Come with me."

"Ah?" Alice was stunned for a moment, but immediately reacted and got up to follow.

"Oh, okay."

"Steer well," Duncan said to the Goathead, getting up from behind the sea chart table. He took a light breath and turned to walk towards the captain's bedroom.

Alice followed Duncan into the bedroom, puzzled, and then turned back to close the door as he instructed.

She turned around and looked at Duncan curiously.

"Captain? What's next?" Duncan silently took the key in his hand and quietly looked at the doll. "I want to test this key." When Alice heard this, she was immediately surprised. "Ah? Didn't you say that this key might be very dangerous? That it might harbor the Frost Queen's soul or something?" The hidden dangers have been eliminated, Duncan said calmly. I eliminated them myself just now.

"Oh," Alice said immediately. Then she turned around and fumbled for the zipper on the back of her clothes, without the slightest hesitation.

"Then I'll unzip my clothes first."

"You only need to expose the keyhole." Even though he had been with this simple-minded doll for so long, Duncan was still a little embarrassed by this guy's unwavering actions at this time. He subconsciously reminded her,

Then he was a little surprised.

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Captain, you said there are no hidden dangers," Alice said, tilting her head. "And you'll personally wind me up, so you'll definitely protect me if something goes wrong, right?"

"Yes, I will protect you." After a brief two or three seconds of silence, Duncan slowly nodded, then raised his finger and pointed to a round stool next to the bed.

"Sit on this. I'm not sure what will happen after winding, so it's best not to stand."

"Oh," Alice agreed and obediently came to the round stool and sat down, with her back to Duncan. The clothes on the doll's back were already unzipped, and Duncan finally saw what the "keyhole" looked like. Right in the center of Alice's porcelain-smooth back, the keyhole was embedded there, surrounded by a ring of delicate and beautiful patterns with a texture that seemed to be烫金(tang jin, hot-stamped). Duncan lowered his head and looked at the brass key in his hand. The size and shape were indeed a perfect match. A strange feeling arose in his heart, mixed with a hint of tension. Duncan took a light breath, controlled the strangeness in his heart, and slowly brought the key closer to the round hole.

"Alice."

"Hmm?"

"Don't be afraid." The clockwork key entered the keyhole without resistance, and then Duncan heard a clear "click" that seemed to ring directly in his mind. Some mechanism had been activated, but it was not an ordinary clockwork mechanism. A slight force came from his fingertips.

Duncan instantly realized that the clockwork key was turning on its own. It slowly turned to a horizontal position, and then there was another "click." In the next second, everything in front of him began to change rapidly. Light and shadow were collapsing and reorganizing, his senses were undergoing conversion and resetting. It was that familiar slight dizziness again, that feeling of "transfer" as if he were "walking in the spirit world." Before he could exclaim "Not again," Duncan found that everything around him had stabilized again. He was in an old, gorgeous, yet sinister and bizarre mansion. The classical and solemn hall was wide and empty, with tall pillars arranged on both sides of the hall, supporting the gloomy roof above like gathering dark clouds. Narrow and high windows were embedded in the walls covered with patterns and reliefs, and the outside of the windows seemed to be covered with black thorns.

There were also chaotic shadows floating outside the thorns. In this gloomy and strange mansion, voices could be heard from time to time—whispers, intermittent laughter, the sound of footsteps walking across the floor, and even strange and blurry music, as if a ball was being held somewhere.

Duncan frowned slightly, his eyes sweeping across the gloomy old mansion. Something flashed in the corner of his eye.

Duncan quickly looked over there, but only saw an empty corner. However, he was sure that he had indeed seen something. A figure looked like a maid in a white dress. The figure had no head, and there was only a bare neck at the collar of her shirt.

Duncan stood in the empty hall for a moment, carefully observing the surrounding environment, sensing the vaguely floating, strange, and uneasy atmosphere in the air. Then he took a step and walked towards the staircase at the end of the hall that spiraled upwards.

He wanted to understand what this place was and why he was brought here after "winding up" Alice. He walked up the spiral staircase, and the steps, which seemed to have been abandoned for countless years, made strange creaking sounds under his feet. As he walked, a sense of familiarity suddenly appeared in Duncan's heart.

He stopped abruptly, his eyes widening as he looked at the various furnishings and styles in the mansion. He knew what that sense of familiarity was—the room where the Frost Queen, Lei Nora, had slept.