Chapter 142 Homework

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

So much... when will I ever finish...?

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

"Can you even call her way of filling in whatever comes to mind 'finishing'?"

Shirley rolled her eyes, then buried her head on the desk, muttering in a muffled voice, "I want to go ashore and play. I want to go to the city-state to buy things. I want to eat delicious food... Nina said there's a lot of delicious food in Light Breeze Harbor; food from all over the world..."

However, Agou had long been accustomed to Shirley's constant mumbling. It shook its head, its tone unwavering, "The captain said you can go ashore and play when you finish your overdue homework."

Shirley pouted, then faced the workbooks on the desk, thought for a moment, and suddenly her eyes darted around with a mischievous grin. She carefully bent down and leaned closer to Agou, who was lying on the floor: "Hey, how about you help me? These questions must be easy for you..."

However, Shirley had only spoken half of her sentence, and Agou didn't even have time to respond when a voice suddenly came from a mirror in front of the desk: "I'm watching you."

Shirley immediately let out an exaggerated, tearful "Ah!" and looked up at Agatha's figure, which was emerging from the mirror, her expression as if she was about to cry: "Can't you keep an eye on someone else? Why do you always pop out of the mirror no matter what I do?"

Agatha in the mirror was serious, "Because the captain told me to watch you do your homework."

Shirley sighed again, buried her head in the workbooks on the desk again, rolled her face around in the books several times, and then suddenly looked up again: "Then can you help me..."

Agatha said without hesitation, "No."

Shirley immediately began to argue unreasonably: "That's not how it goes in the stories! The stories say that the magic mirror knows everything. As long as you make a request to the magic mirror, the mirror will tell the questioner the answer..."

Agatha frowned, "Where did you hear this strange story?"

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

Hearing Shirley's words, which were essentially just unreasonable, Agatha's expression suddenly became serious. After thinking for a few seconds, she looked into Shirley's eyes and asked, "Did the captain really tell Nina a story about a magic mirror?"

"Yes... yes," Shirley didn't know why the other party would suddenly become serious. She became a little nervous when she answered, "He told it two days ago..."

Agatha began to think very seriously, muttering softly, "He arranged for me to dwell in the mirror on the ship... so there was another deeper meaning..."

Shirley didn't react at all: "Huh... what?"

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

Shirley thought for a moment and pushed the workbook forward: "I can't do this one..."

"This one?"

"Yeah, if it's too much trouble, I might be able to do the mental arithmetic part at the beginning..."

"Do it yourself."

Duncan, who had just returned to the captain's cabin, raised his head with some suspicion, as if listening to the movements coming from afar. The goat head on the navigation table immediately turned its gaze: "What's wrong?"

"I seem to 'hear' Agatha's voice," Duncan said casually. Of course, he didn't really "hear" anything, but the ship was constantly transmitting information about every corner of the Forsaken to him.

"She seems to be in Shirley's room, and she's quite emotional."

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

"No need." Duncan shook his head. "Everyone who is responsible for watching Shirley do her homework will eventually become emotional, and this can be regarded as a tempering of their will..."

The goat head oh-ed, not knowing if it really understood the meaning of this complaint. Duncan silently sensed the state of the Forsaken everywhere, walked to the table and sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief: "It's time to let Shirley and Nina go ashore for some fresh air. Lucretia is preparing to return to Light Breeze Harbor, so let her take them along."

The goat head quietly watched the captain's movements and expression, and finally couldn't help but ask, "You seem to be in a good mood?"

"Perhaps it's because I've figured out some things, or maybe it's because I've temporarily let them go."

Duncan raised his eyebrows, and Alice's bright and sunny appearance couldn't help but appear in his mind, and a smile couldn't help but appear on the corner of his mouth. Then he shook his head, reached into his arms and took out the 'sketch' he had obtained from Lucretia earlier. Now that the depression in his heart had been swept away, it was time to study what Talan. Ai'er had drawn in the manuscript he left after observing anomaly 001.

"What's this?" Seeing Duncan's actions, the goat head immediately turned its head curiously, its dark obsidian eyes seeming to flicker with faint light.

"This is Talan. Ai'er's sketch after observing the surface of anomaly 001," Duncan said casually. He unfolded the paper and placed it in front of the oil lamp next to him to illuminate it.

"It may hide the true appearance of the 'sun' surface, but the most critical details were smeared out by Talan. Ai'er himself."

The goat head was stunned and let out an inexplicable sigh: "Ooh..."

"I thought you would remind me of the danger of doing this as soon as possible, like you used to do."

Duncan 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?"

"I used to worry about your safety, but now I only worry about the safety of those who try to oppose you."

The goat head immediately flattered, its wording extremely skilled.

A mere sketch would not threaten the great Captain Duncan. Even if the true face of the ancient god was drawn on this picture, it would be nothing more than that. Moreover, the person who drew the picture was just a mortal. What truth could that Talan. Ai'er see?

Duncan ignored the goat head's pile of obvious flattery and concentrated 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 those chaotic smudges. He even felt... those seemingly random lines were like some kind of "seal" with power. They "covered" the original image on this paper from a metaphysical concept, rather than just a layer of distracting ink. As his thoughts fluctuated, Duncan suddenly had a thought. A "seal" with "power?"

He lowered his head again and carefully observed the crisscrossing lines and large areas of smudges on the draft paper. Talan. Ai'er was a senior and experienced scholar, and a devout follower of the God of Wisdom, Raheem. Although he had a body full of problems due to his bad work and rest habits, his attainments in metaphysics were definitely deep enough. If such a great scholar really noticed some extremely dangerous factors when observing anomaly 001, he would definitely try to use more professional methods to control this danger as soon as possible. Even if his sanity was already being affected at the time, the ink left on the draft paper should not be a simple smudge. So, it would never be possible to see the true appearance behind these ink with conventional methods. This was actually a confidential letter processed with supernatural power?

Duncan frowned slightly, and a vague idea floated to the bottom of his heart. Then he turned his head and stared at the oil lamp next to him. Under his gaze, the flame in the oil lamp suddenly jumped, and then quickly dyed a layer of ghostly green. The spiritual fire expanded and burned, and even rose from the opening above the lampshade. After hesitating slightly, Duncan picked up the draft paper and placed it over the flame formed by the spiritual fire. In just an instant, the raging green flame engulfed the entire piece of paper.

There was indeed some kind of disguise formed by supernatural power remaining on it. The goat head exclaimed when it saw this scene:

"Why did you burn it?"

"The spiritual fire only burned the distorted parts."

Duncan gave the alarmed goat head a calm look, and with a flick of his wrist, he extinguished the raging flame on the draft paper. And under the flame, the fragile draft paper was indeed still intact.

"This is what it was originally like," Duncan said, taking the paper that had been processed by the flame and looking at the pattern that had reappeared on it. The next second, his expression suddenly froze. The goat head immediately noticed the change in the captain's expression and turned its neck worriedly and curiously to look over here. However, due to the angle, it could not see the content on the front of the paper, and could only shout loudly: "What's on it? Are you okay? That..."

Duncan finally woke up from his daze. He withdrew his gaze from the paper and looked up at the goat head with a strange expression: "It's the true face of the ancient god."

Goat Head: "?"

Duncan did not speak again, but slowly lowered his head and continued to carefully examine the painting on the draft paper, that sphere locked by double rune rings, that sphere shrouded in dark shadows, but covered with hideous blood threads and textures, as if it was glaring...