Chapter 164 Calling, No Answer

Alice left in good spirits, and it seemed she would be in good spirits for many days to come. Duncan, on the other hand, remained alone on deck, looking at the wooden crate containing "Nilu."

He controlled his "doppelganger" in the Pland City-State as it left the upper city, currently cycling back to the antique shop. Before leaving the doll shop, he had exchanged many more things with the old shopkeeper regarding Lucretia and Tirian, but without gaining much more.

Just as the shopkeeper herself said, she was merely an ordinary citizen, only blessed with a lifespan longer than humans and having personally experienced some things from many years ago. But beyond that one encounter and the information she had heard secondhand, her understanding of those two "descendants of Duncan" was actually limited.

Meanwhile, aboard the *Ghost Ship*, Duncan was lost in thought.

His current body actually had a pair of children, even a pair of living children, and from the sound of it, the siblings were no ordinary people—one had once been loyal to the Frost Queen and was now the biggest pirate leader in the Frigid Sea, while the other wandered the fringes of civilization for a long time, engaging in mysterious exploration activities, and was revered as the "Sea Witch" by captains.

Such a pair of "children" gave Duncan nothing but trouble and a bit of tension.

He was currently the "Captain Duncan" of the *Ghost Ship*, and it seemed that he would have to be "Captain Duncan" for the foreseeable future. Therefore, he had to find a way to maintain this identity. But if one day in the future...what would he do if he really ran into that pair of siblings?

Should he put on a show of fatherly love? Or should he put on a show of iron-blooded ruthlessness? Should he say hello, or should he coldly brush past them?

According to the shopkeeper, a hundred years ago, the Tirian siblings had a "falling out" with their father. The *Sea Mist* and the *Brilliant Star* had parted ways with his flagship, the *Ghost Ship*, after some mysterious "family conflict." This was what the world knew.

But what actually happened at the time was something that probably only the three involved knew.

Duncan sighed softly.

Regardless of what the real situation was at the time, one thing seemed certain: his relationship with that pair of siblings probably couldn't involve any fatherly love—if they really met, it would be best to play the family misfortune card…

He bent down and picked up the wooden crate containing "Nilu." Inside the velvet-lined box, the doll girl, only a few dozen centimeters tall, was lying quietly. This little fellow, born a hundred years ago, was now a new "member" of the *Ghost Ship*.

Was "she" really connected to Lucretia? Or rather, did Lucretia still have the doll named "Luni" that she had bought a hundred years ago?

Duncan hadn't thought much when he bought Nilu, but now his thoughts became active. Holding the wooden crate, he returned to the captain's cabin.

Goathead was steering the ship as usual. As soon as Duncan opened the door and came in, his usual noisy voice immediately rang out: "Ah! The great captain has returned to his loyal captain's cabin! You seem to have brought a lot of supplies from the city-state. Your loyal subordinate is extremely concerned about the food health on the ship. If you don't mind, I will personally guide Miss Alice to become a qualified..."

"Shut up. Don't mess around with those recipes with the doll again. I don't want my next meal to look like a pot of abyssal demon vomit," Duncan glared at Goathead. "What's our current position? How far are we from Pland?"

"Oh, we are still heading towards Pland at full speed, and we have performed several successful spirit realm accelerations in between—like 'skipping stones' on the edge of the real world. The *Ghost Ship* is now only ten days away from that city-state," Goathead said cheerfully. "I estimate that soon you will be able to feel the obvious power filling you during the process of walking in the spirit realm—the influence of the *Ghost Ship* will be the greatest help for your activities in the city-state…"

Duncan quietly looked at Goathead, who stopped his rambling and, after a moment of silence, suddenly blurted out: "The loyal first mate always understands the captain best."

"Very good," Duncan nodded, and holding the wooden crate, he walked towards his bedroom. But soon he stopped again, quickly pondering and combining words in his mind, and finally asked casually with a calm expression, "What do you think Tirian and Lucretia would do if they saw me again?"

This was a carefully considered test, the most normal question he could think of, one that wouldn't arouse suspicion and could still obtain some information.

He didn't ask Goathead for his opinion of the siblings, because such a question was too blunt, nor did he ask about what happened between the siblings and the *Ghost Ship* in the past, because that would expose his situation—the way he finally chose to ask was more in line with his identity and his relationship with Goathead.

Goathead was obviously stunned for a moment, and his voice entered Duncan's ears after a long hesitation: "You mean…your children…I'm sorry, Captain, I don't know if I should talk about your family affairs, because you rarely mention them to me, but if I had to say, if I had to say…"

Goathead, who was usually extremely eloquent, stuttered several times before finally continuing: "If I had to say, I think we might have another fight with Tirian, just like back in Frost, after all, he always likes to solve problems with cannons, and as for Miss Lucretia…she would probably hide far away…"

Duncan remained noncommittal, but suddenly, he realized two things!

First, he remembered that Goathead had once revealed that the *Ghost Ship* had "fought a battle" near the Frost City-State, and that battle was actually with Tirian!

Second, Goathead's initial reaction was very strange, and he specifically emphasized that Duncan rarely mentioned the siblings to him… Judging from this sentence, could it be that this Goathead had never actually spent time with the siblings? Was his understanding of the siblings only based on Duncan's "mentioning" them?

Wasn't this guy on the *Ghost Ship* from the beginning?!

Duncan's eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't show anything on his face. He simply nodded to indicate that he had heard Goathead's reply, and then continued to walk without a word, returning to his bedroom.

The thick oak door closed behind him, blocking Goathead's view from the chart room and allowing Duncan's mood to slowly return to calm.

He took a long breath, took "Nilu" out of the wooden crate, and placed her on his desk. He stared at the doll for several minutes, and finally greeted her, "Hello, my name is Duncan."

Of course, the doll didn't respond.

She really was just a doll.

Duncan suddenly felt that his behavior was a bit foolish. He smiled awkwardly, thinking to himself that it was a good thing that no one on this ship dared to spy on the situation inside the captain's bedroom. Then, he opened the drawer next to him and took out something.

It was a small, exquisite hairpin with a wave and feather design.

This was an "old item" that Alice had found in the cabin.

Duncan quietly stared at the small hairpin, and as before, that strange feeling of nostalgia once again spread from the bottom of his heart.

This seemed to be the only wisp of "humanity" left by the original owner of this body, remaining in his heart in the form of a faint emotional fragment.

"This is probably Lucretia's…" Duncan whispered to himself, "A gift that couldn't be sent, or the only souvenir left on this ship after she left…"

He slowly picked up the hairpin, gently turning it in the sunlight. The sunlight shone through the window, creating a bright glow on the silver edge of the hairpin.

A small cluster of green flames spread from Duncan's fingertips, instantly engulfing the hairpin, and then the flames flowed in the air, wrapping around the doll "Nilu."

Duncan calmed down and tried to feel whether there was any extraordinary power remaining inside these two objects, or even a little bit of "connection" that could point to the "distance."

However, the flames quickly faded, and neither the doll nor the hairpin reacted in any way.

Was it because they were really just ordinary mortal objects, or because Lucretia was currently on the edge of the civilized world, too far away, so that the "connection" remaining in these two items had become so weak that even the spiritual fire could not capture it?

Duncan frowned, and once again spread the flames, while holding the mentality that even he couldn't explain, and tried to call out: "Lucretia…Lucy?"

He used the nickname of Lucretia's name—perhaps the connection established by this nickname would be a bit stronger than the formal name?

Nothing happened.

Duncan waited for a long time, and finally had to extinguish the flames in disappointment.

At the same time, in a distant borderland, on the edge of the eternal curtain, the clockwork doll "Luni" who was wiping the table suddenly stopped.

This "engineering creation," which had been modified countless times by Lucretia herself and could now almost be considered an "alchemical life," emitted a series of ear-splitting howls of gears and bearings turning madly inside its body, followed by a pile of "squeaking" noises.

The wind-up key behind Luni's back popped out with a click and fell to the ground, while the alloy-reinforced arm hung down stiffly, and a wisp of green smoke slowly emerged from the opening seam behind the maid's shell…

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