Annie looked blankly at the two "guests" in the small house.

Her gaze shifted between Agatha and Duncan. After a long while, the girl finally reacted slightly. "Ah, Uncle Duncan, are you going to be the cemetery keeper here?"

"Perhaps," Duncan said, looking at Agatha, who was still surprised. "Is that not feasible? Does the cemetery keeper have to be a veteran Guardian?"

Agatha finally came to her senses and quickly said, "No... Although generally speaking, cemetery keepers are retired Guardian veterans, if I put in a word, of course, I can arrange a position for you. The problem isn't here. The key is... do you really want to stay in this cemetery and be a keeper?"

"My identity in Pland is still that of an antique dealer."

Duncan said with a smile in his eyes, "The Vanishing Sail doesn't stay in one place, but my incarnation will remain in the city-state. I have to find something to do. I can't just spend my days doing nothing but drinking tea and reading the newspaper in that big house on Oak Street, can I?"

"This... I really didn't think about that problem." Agatha opened her mouth, feeling a little embarrassed. "I never thought about what your incarnation would need to do on a regular basis."

"It's normal. Most movies don't mention the protagonists changing jobs after the events are over, and the reality is that you're doing two people's work right now, while Tyrian is drowning in paperwork all month."

Duncan laughed. "For me, sailing a ghost ship that never docks, wandering the endless sea all the time, is also a very boring thing. Living a normal person's life in the city-state is my way of making sure I still seem like a 'human.' You can think of it as..."

Agatha interrupted, "I'll arrange it for you immediately. You can come to the cemetery to take up your post tomorrow!"

Duncan: "...I haven't finished speaking yet."

"I've heard the most important part."

Agatha said with a solemn expression, "Please rest assured that even if the Highest Sanctuary inquires, I will ensure that you can be a cemetery keeper here in peace."

"I feel like you've over-interpreted what I just said, but it's not a big problem."

Duncan said awkwardly, then really started asking about the "job."

"What does a cemetery keeper normally need to do?"

"Actually, there isn't much work. The keeper's task is just to ensure that the cemetery is not disturbed and to maintain the peace of supernatural forces."

"In addition, just register the living and the dead who enter and leave the cemetery."

"As for the maintenance of the cemetery facilities, the nearby church arranges people to take care of it..." Agatha explained.

"Given that even the nights in Frostwind City have become extremely safe, I think not only you, but all the cemetery keepers shouldn't need to do anything."

As Agatha said this, her tone was somewhat strange, and her eyes kept glancing at Duncan, obviously thinking about the relationship between the recent peace of Frostwind's nights and the person in front of her. And she had some words she hadn't said.

Even if the city-state's nights were still as dangerous as before, what would it matter?

With such a 'keeper' coming to the cemetery, wouldn't there be no more incidents of supernatural forces stirring?

It was estimated that even if something from the Subspace crawled out of the coffin, it would be slapped back by this new keeper. In any case, this was a good thing.

Duncan didn't know what Agatha was thinking. He himself hadn't considered things too complicatedly, because he really just wanted to find something for his body to do. Considering the last vestiges of will remaining in this body, and considering the "fate" between himself and this cemetery, he finally chose to stay here and become the new cemetery keeper.

He would continue to watch over Frostwind here, taking care of and protecting this city-state, just like he did in Pland. The hot tea in his hand had gradually cooled. Duncan placed the teacup on the矮矮 ai table beside him.

He stood up and silently surveyed the small house. The simple and unadorned furnishings in the room came into view, as if still retaining some traces of the old owner. On the wall next to the door, an old hunting rifle that looked very worn hung quietly on an iron hook. The firing pin still gleamed, reflecting the fire from the stove. Duncan looked at the old hunting rifle for a while, nodded gently, pushed the door open, and walked out of the small house. A lively and cheerful tune came from the direction of a street outside the cemetery...

Interspersed with the sound of firecrackers. Annie came out of the small house behind him, listening to the commotion on the street in the distance, and happily tugged at the corner of Duncan's clothes. "The new Governor's motorcade is going to pass through the cemetery district."

"Many people are still afraid of that new Governor."

Duncan lowered his head, a smile in the corner of his eyes. "You don't seem afraid at all."

"I'm not afraid. Mom said the new Governor is a hero who protects the city-state." Annie raised her face, squinting her eyes in the sunlight. "Like Dad, he's a very powerful person."

Duncan thought for a moment, then reached out and gently pressed the girl's furry hat. Indeed, he would be an excellent Governor.

On the boundless sea.

Duncan walked through the stern deck and returned to the captain's room. The goat head was earnestly steering the ship, and the thick fog floating on the surface of the large bat chart on the navigation table was flowing and dissipating little by little. Duncan stood in front of the chart for a while, his eyes sweeping over the gradually clearer routes near Frostwind. Then, he stepped to a corner of the room. The oval mirror with its simple and elegant design was still hanging quietly on the wall of the captain's room.

The mirror reflected the scene in the room, and in the interplay of sunlight and shadow, the scene seemed a little vague for some reason.

Duncan stepped forward, bent his finger, and gently tapped the mirror surface.

At the edge, the surface of the seemingly ordinary mirror suddenly fluctuated with layers of hazy light and shadow.

It was as if countless mists and dust were spreading and rising from the world in the mirror. Then, a figure appeared in the misty light and shadow... Agatha, the gatekeeper in the mirror, appeared in front of Duncan. "Captain," Agatha's slightly magnetic voice came from the mirror.

"It's a pleasure to see you."

Duncan nodded and casually asked, "How are you feeling? Are you still getting used to it?"

"I'm feeling pretty good," Agatha said slowly.

"When I first transferred to the ship, this vast and empty mirror world made me a little nervous. But perhaps as I gradually adapted to this place, those vast expanses of darkness have gradually faded..."

"I also tried to communicate with that 'Martha' woman. She told me many techniques and knowledge about being a mirror image. They are very useful."

Duncan raised his eyebrows when he heard this. "Oh? Can you directly contact Martha here?"

"The Black Oak is wandering in the reflection of the nearby sea. In the mirror world, she and I are neighbors."

Agatha laughed. "This is a wonderful experience—the world in the mirror is neither continuous nor discontinuous, yet everything is connected. I can jump from one mirror to another, and I can appear in many mirrors at the same time, or hide in the vast emptiness behind the mirrors... Perhaps it will take many, many years for me to fully understand all of this."

Duncan listened with interest as the "mirror image" described to him the "mirror rules" that were beyond the comprehension of ordinary people and unimaginable.

When she finished speaking, he nodded lightly. "It sounds like you're enjoying the process. That's good."

Agatha paused, and said softly, "Yes, it's better than I thought."

The captain's room was silent for a while. After an unknown amount of time, Duncan suddenly broke the silence. "I want to know, what made you decide to leave Frostwind and embark on this journey with the Vanishing Sail? This will be the longest journey of your life. This ship may go to many places, remote city-states, sealed secret realms, the spirit world... the deep, even the Subspace..."

"...

Agatha in the mirror pondered. She considered this question very seriously. After several minutes, she slowly opened her mouth. "I think it was when 'we' went down to that dark deep sea together..."

Duncan didn't speak, but looked at the person in the mirror, waiting for her to continue. The voice in the mirror came again, "I have all of Agatha's memories and emotions. In that memory, I was born in Frostwind, accompanied by relatives and friends. I studied and trained, and accepted the trials of the church. And those streets, those old clock towers, those dilapidated... yet very familiar things. All of these things are in my mind, clear and profound... just like I experienced them myself."

"But what we all know is that until the day of the mirror image invasion, the life that truly belonged to 'me' only lasted for three days. So, when my consciousness recovered again, when I returned to this world in the form of a mirror image, I kept thinking about this question—am I the gatekeeper Agatha, or just a 'person' who inherited someone's memories and was reborn in this world?"

She stopped. As a "mirror image," her eyes were bright, and those eyes were now seriously watching the captain outside the mirror.

"You're right, people can't live forever as someone else's shadow."

"Almost all of my past life memories came from another individual, but even so, there were three days in that memory that belonged to me."

"But if I stay in Frostwind, that only three days of 'life' will sooner or later be buried by a greater, deeper memory. I can't sever the relationship between myself and that city. I can't avoid my own human weaknesses as a mortal. I am destined to be a shadow, a shadow full of regrets, trapped in memories. And as time goes on, this regret will sooner or later turn into resentment and hatred..."

"I can't accept this possibility."

"But in that 'deep dive' journey with you, what you said to me... gave me a new possibility!"