Chapter 1 First Time

This was the first time since their "reunion" that Lucrezia saw such a complex, heavy, and warm expression on her "father's" face.

Before this, her father had smiled at her, and had displayed many human-like behaviors, but for some reason, she always felt a vague sense of disharmony behind those smiles and words. She always felt that it was the "kind appearance" that her father was trying to fake after losing his memory due to the subspace. This sense of disharmony always made her feel uneasy.

But at this moment, she finally saw some heartfelt emotion on the other's face—a sense of apology, and a regret that others could not understand.

But she didn't know if this apology was for herself.

"I still don't understand enough," the witch sighed softly. "I thought I had more or less caught up with your pace."

"...The Vanished finally crashed into the subspace. It's a good thing you didn't catch up," Duncan shook his head, then took one last look at the quietly floating "moon" and turned to walk towards the connecting bridge that led away from the platform. "Let's go back first, Lucy."

Lucrezia was a little surprised, "Aren't you going to study it more?"

"I'm not a scholar, and I don't have professional research methods and equipment," Duncan waved his hand. "I came just to see it with my own eyes, but how to uncover its secrets specifically depends on professional scholars."

Speaking of this, he paused, and added: "I will stay in the Breezy Port during this time, and I will pay attention to their progress under the 'moon'. In addition, if anything like what happened to Talan Eile happens to other elves, I need to know as soon as possible.”

"I understand," Lucrezia nodded immediately, then she hesitated for a moment, and asked,

"Regarding your arrival... can I tell Governor Sara Meier? Of course, I won’t let too many people know..."

"······Hmm, I'm a little tired."

Duncan walked over and sat next to Creesi on the wooden barrel.

"Boer-"

The doll smiled miserably, looking at Duncan with a confident look.

He didn't expect that Creesi, who usually looked carefree and extraordinarily clear-headed, would observe and notice these things, and even more so, that she would grab him like this and say all these things—

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

She nimbly climbed onto the wooden barrel, and waved to Duncan with a smile: "Captain, why don't you sit down too—Vanna said, if you blow the wind and look at the sea, your mood will be very good."

"That posture of yours isn't stable."

"Suit yourself," Duncan nodded. "You can tell whoever you want—their reaction has nothing to do with me."

Some out-of-tune associations appeared in Duncan's mind, but looking at the doll in front of him who still looked worried and puzzled, he didn't know what to say.

"Huh?"

"Because you have been sighing a lot these past two days, and you spend more time in the captain's room than outside—Nina thinks you have something on your mind, but she's too embarrassed to ask you," Creesi answered honestly. "Also, your face was very bad when you came back just now, it was like... you had a lot of things pent up in your heart. But now your face looks better than before."

"Creesi."

He stared blankly at the doll on the opposite wooden barrel. When the sea breeze blew from the side, Creesi's silver-white hair fluttered, just like her eternally bright and cheerful mood.

Duncan didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Didn't I just say it, you can't understand..."

She suddenly ran away, ran not far away and hugged a small wooden barrel that was half as tall as herself, and put it on the deck near the ship's railing, and then hugged another one and put it next to the small wooden barrel just now.

Creesi completed her theory, then turned around on the small wooden barrel, propped her chin with her hands, leaned her body back, and smiled faintly on her face:

"Captain, is this a brain teaser?" The next second, she heard a slight cracking sound from her neck.

Duncan looked at the doll in front of him with some surprise.

Creesi just blinked, and opened her mouth without hesitation: "Then you can tell me too." Duncan was a little dazed.

Creesi nodded extraordinarily earnestly, and then saw Duncan turn around, seemingly preparing to return to the captain's room. She couldn't help but open her mouth: "Captain, are you going back to rest?"

Creesi was still staring straight at the "captain" in front of her. She didn't think it was shameful that she couldn't understand many things, and she didn't think there was anything wrong with what she said at the moment—she thought of it, she was curious, so she said it.

"Yes, it's a brain teaser—now we've all turned around," he jumped off the wooden barrel and said to Creesi with a smile. "There's one more thing."

"I'll ask you a question." Duncan pondered. At first, he tried hard to think about how to make Creesi understand the concepts of "moon" and "starry sky," but now he suddenly realized that he didn't need to explain those simple things to her at all. "If you live in a place, and there is something that is unique to the place you live in—it can never come from anywhere else, and it can never belong to anywhere else. As long as you see this thing, you will know that it comes from there..."

The mop that Creesi threw aside suddenly jumped up, and used the wooden pole to hit the head of the doll who was happily dancing around, and then hopped on the deck to rinse itself in the bucket.

The corner of Duncan's eye twitched. He silently turned his gaze, watching the mops and buckets that were desperately cleaning the deck, as if afraid that if they were one step slower, they would be caught by a certain doll to "help." After a moment of silence, he shook his head: "If you're happy... it's good if you're happy."

Lucrezia lowered her head slightly: "Yes."

"You said that this thing can only appear in 'hometown,' and now it appears in front of you, which means you are at home now!"

"Is everything alright?" Duncan casually threw the mop aside, and looked at the captain happily: "You've been gone for a long, long time. Did you talk a lot with Lucrezia? Did you go to that 'ball'? What does it look like... Ah!"

Then he laughed.

"You said so, you can understand it that way—you are the only captain of the Vanished. One day, you were sent to a place far away from the Vanished, and you couldn't find the way back to the ship, but you suddenly appeared in front of me again—then I'm back home! After all, wherever you are, that's where the Vanished is."

This doll was working hard, trying to use her limited knowledge and experience to find a way to make the "captain" feel better.

Creesi covered her head, looking at Duncan blankly and aggrievedly: "Why did it hit me?! It almost knocked me off..."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and hesitated: "Your analogy isn't quite right... but it can be understood that way."

Creesi was still aggrieved.

A moment later, on the Vanished, which was still staying on the sea surface somewhere inside the glowing geometry, a rotating and spreading flame portal suddenly appeared on the foredeck.

With two gulps, Creesi landed on the ground in two stages. Immediately afterwards, her signature, stuttering voice came from the deck—

"Captain, save, save...save..."

Duncan's voice fell, but Creesi was still thinking blankly, but after thinking for a while, she suddenly smiled.

"You don't understand." After a moment of silence, Duncan shook his head: "The matter is very simple, so simple that it can't be explained to anyone at all, let alone you, even Morris probably can't understand."

His mood did not change because of the sea breeze—but his mood did improve a little bit.

"······You'd better check to see if that's a mop for wiping the deck, maybe it 'works' in the restaurant," Duncan laughed, reached out and pressed Creesi's head, and then asked curiously, "Also, I've always wanted to ask you—the mops and buckets on this ship can clean themselves, why do you still insist on washing the deck yourself?"

"I'm helping!" Creesi straightened her chest with good reason: "They must be tired from wiping it themselves!"

"But you usually say that I don't understand a lot of things," Creesi said matter-of-factly. "I don't understand many things, but you still tell me—I'm very suitable for listening to people, I will listen whether I understand or not..."

Creesi, who was still leaning back and propping her chin with her hands, was stunned when she heard this: "Ah?"

Perhaps it was precisely because she didn't think about many things on weekdays that she didn't know how to hesitate and waver?

"Return to the Vanished?"

Duncan waved his hand to disperse the flames behind him, looked at the gothic doll in front of him who was holding a mop and had a cheerful smile on her face, and nodded extraordinarily earnestly: "Yeah, I'm back."

After all, even when facing the knowledgeable Lucrezia, he had too many things that he couldn't explain clearly.

If you have something on your mind, it's good to say it—in Creesi's simple world, everything works that way.

Duncan looked at the doll with complicated but distinct emotions, looking at her smile just now and her current confusion. Unknowingly, the feeling of boredom and loss that had accumulated in his heart quietly dissipated a little.

The door opened with a crackling sound of flames exploding. Duncan's figure stepped out of it—Creesi, who was holding a big mop next to her and was scrubbing the deck hard with several other mops, immediately ran over happily: "Captain is back!"

"······Then, you left that place, and you can't go back," Duncan's tone suddenly became a little low. "You arrived in a very distant and unfamiliar place. Everything here is different from home. You lived here for a while, trying to find a way home, but suddenly, you saw that 'thing'—that thing that theoretically can only appear in your hometown, and should never be seen in a foreign land no matter what..."

"Captain..." Creesi still looked a little worried. She walked over and tugged on Duncan's sleeve. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

Duncan's expression suddenly became a little subtle. Listening to this silly doll's straightforward and even "proud" magical logic, he couldn't find a rebuttal for a moment.

"Why do you ask?" Duncan stopped in confusion and turned to look at this not-so-stupid doll.

Creesi thought for a while, and opened her mouth curiously: "Is it like I live on the Vanished now, and you are the only captain of the Vanished?"

"Oh, so what?"

"Then I've returned to the Vanished!"