Chapter 1 Sherry's Troubles

In the crew quarters below deck, Sherry was frowning in her room, sighing at a pile of open workbooks on the table.

"So much… when will I ever finish…"

"You'll never finish if you keep sighing," A-Dog muttered beside her. "And it's not that much. You're just accumulating it by putting it off every day—Miss Alice can even finish these exercises on time every day, you know?"

"Can you even call what she does 'finishing' when she just fills in whatever comes to mind?" Sherry rolled her eyes, then buried her head on the table, mumbling, "I want to go ashore, I want to buy things in the city, I want to eat delicious food… Nina said Light Wind Port has so many delicious things, food from all over the world…"

But A-Dog had long been accustomed to Sherry's mutterings. It shook its head, its tone unwavering. "The captain said you can only go ashore when you finish your overdue homework."

Sherry pouted, then thought about the workbooks on the table. Suddenly, her eyes darted, a mischievous smile on her face as she cautiously leaned closer to A-Dog, who was lying on the floor. "Hey, why don't you help me out? These questions must be…"

But Sherry was only halfway through her sentence, and A-Dog hadn't even had time to respond, when a voice suddenly came from a mirror in front of the desk. "I'm watching."

Sherry gave a frustrated and exaggerated "Ah—" looking up at Agatha's figure emerging from the mirror, her expression as if she was about to cry. "Does he have to stare at people! Why does he pop out of the mirror whenever you try to do anything!"

Agatha in the mirror looked serious. "Because the captain said to watch you do your homework."

Duncan sighed deeply again and buried his head back under the workbooks on the desk, rolling his face around a few times before suddenly looking up again. "Maybe you could help…"

The Goat Head under the navigation table immediately turned its gaze. "What's wrong?"

The Goat Head oh-ed, not sure if it really understood the complaint. Sherry silently sensed the state of the Ghost Ship in various places, walked to the table and sat down, taking a deep breath. "It's time to let Duncan and Nina get some fresh air ashore. It's good that Lucretia is preparing to return to Light Wind Port, so let her take them."

"I seem to 'hear' Agatha's voice," Sherry said casually. Of course, he didn't really "hear" anything, but the ship was constantly transmitting information from every corner of the Ghost Ship to him. "She seems to be in Duncan's room, quite agitated."

Agatha frowned. "Where did this strange story come from?"

Duncun, who had just returned to the captain's room, raised his head with some doubt, as if listening to the movement coming from afar.

Under his gaze, the flame in the oil lamp suddenly jumped, and then quickly dyed a layer of ghostly green.

Was this actually a "field doctor" treated with supernatural power?

The Goat Head on the side exclaimed when it saw this scene: "Why did you burn it?!"

Such a great scholar, if he really noticed some extremely dangerous "factors" when observing Anomaly 001, then he would definitely try to control this danger with a more "professional" method as soon as possible, even if his sanity had already begun to be affected…

The Goat Head was stunned and let out an inexplicable sigh: "…Oho."

Eyeball.

Listening to Duncan's words, which were essentially just sophistry, the expression on Agatha's face suddenly became serious. After thinking for a few seconds, she looked at Duncan's eyes and asked, "Did the captain really tell Nina a 'magic mirror' story?"

"Yes… yes," Duncan didn't know why the other party would suddenly become serious, and replied a little nervously, "Just two days ago…"

The spirit fire expanded and burned, even rising from the opening above the lampshade.

As thoughts rose and fell, Sherry suddenly had an idea.

The ink left on the draft paper should not be a simple smear—so with conventional methods, it would never be possible to see the true appearance behind these "inks."

The Goat Head quietly paid attention to the captain's actions and expressions, and at this time finally couldn't help but open its mouth and said: "Looking at it, are you in a good mood?"

"Yeah—if it's too troublesome, I might not be able to do the mental arithmetic part…"

However, Agatha didn't answer her. After thinking hard for a moment, the "Gatekeeper in the Mirror" raised her head and glanced at Duncan: "Which question can't you do?"

The next second, his expression suddenly froze.

Sherry finally woke up from his daze. His gaze shifted away from the paper, and he looked up at the Goat Head with a strange expression: "…The true face of the Ancient God."

Agatha began to think very seriously, muttering softly as she pondered, "He arranged for me to live in the mirror on the ship… Is there another deeper meaning…"

Duncan didn't react at all:

"Uh…"

"Ah?"

After a slight pause, Sherry picked up the draft paper and placed it in the air above the lamp flame formed by spirit fire.

"No need," Sherry shook his head. "Everyone who is responsible for watching Duncan do his homework will eventually become agitated, and this can also be regarded as a kind of tempering of the mind…"

"The captain told Nina, and then Nina told me."

"Do it yourself!"

He even felt that… those seemingly random lines were like some kind of powerful "seal", they "covered" the original image on the paper from a mystical concept, rather than just a layer of ink that interfered with vision.

"What is that?" Seeing Sherry's actions, the Goat Head immediately turned its head curiously, and a faint light seemed to be floating in its dark obsidian eyes.

The Goat Head immediately noticed the change in the captain's expression, and immediately turned its neck to look over here with worry and curiosity, but due to the angle, it couldn't see the content on the front of the paper, so it could only shout loudly: "What's on it? Are you okay? That…"

"What the spirit fire burned was just the 'distorted' part," Sherry looked at the fussing Goat Head with a calm expression. He shook his wrist and extinguished the burning flames on the draft paper. And under the flames, the tenacious draft paper was still intact. "This is its original appearance."

Talan Ehlers was a seasoned and experienced scholar, and a devout believer in the God of Wisdom, Rahm… Although he had a series of problems due to his irregular schedule, his attainments in mysticism were definitely deep enough.

The main body of Anomaly 001 is a huge eyeball sealed in a dark spherical shell.

It really left a "camouflage" formed by some kind of extraordinary power on it.

But Sherry didn't speak again, but slowly lowered his head and continued to carefully look at the drawing on the draft paper—the sphere locked by double rune rings, covered in dark shadows, but with hideous bloodshot and textures all over the surface, as if glaring angrily…

"Perhaps it's because I figured out something, or maybe it's because I put it down for the time being." Sherry raised his eyebrows, and Alice's dim appearance involuntarily appeared in his mind, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but bring a smile. Then he shook his head and reached out from his arms to take out the "sketch" he had obtained from Lucretia before.

Duncan immediately began to argue: "That's not how it is in the story! The story says that the magic mirror knows everything. As long as you make a request to the magic mirror, the mirror will tell the person who asks the answer…"

Sherry frowned slightly, and a vague idea emerged from the bottom of his heart. Then he turned his head and looked at the oil lamp placed next to him.

A "seal" with "power"?

In just a moment, the blazing green flames devoured the entire piece of paper!

With that said, Sherry took the draft paper that had been "processed" by the flames and looked at the pattern that had reappeared on it.

Sherry ignored the Goat Head's pile of obvious flattery, but focused on studying the pattern on the draft paper, but after looking at it back and forth for a long time, he still couldn't analyze anything from behind the chaotic smears.

"This is the sketch Talan Ehlers drew after observing the surface of Anomaly 001," Sherry said casually. He unfolded the paper and shone it in front of the oil lamp next to him. "It may hide the true appearance of the 'sun' inside, but the most critical details were smeared out by Talan Ehlers himself."

He lowered his head again, carefully observing the intersecting lines and large patches of smudges on the draft paper.

"I was worried about your safety before, but now I'm only worried about the safety of those who try to oppose you." The Goat Head immediately flattered, using words and sentences skillfully. "A mere sketch won't threaten the tiny Captain Duncan, even if the true face of the ancient god is drawn on this picture—what's more, the person who drew the picture is just a mortal, what truth can this Talan Ehlers see?"

Agatha flatly refused: "No."

Duncan thought for a while and pushed the workbook forward: "…This one doesn't."

Goat Head: "?!"

"Do you need to check the situation? Or should I call her over?"

Now that the boredom in his heart had been swept away, it was time to study what Talan Ehlers had drawn in the manuscript he left after observing Anomaly 001.

"I thought you would remind me of the safety of doing so as soon as possible, just like you used to do," Sherry was a little surprised by the Goat Head's reaction. He raised his eyelids and glanced at the guy, "Why aren't you nagging this time?"

"This one?!"