Chapter 1 An Image

Imagine this: You are on a creaking ghost ship, pushing open a wooden door at the deepest part of the corridor. A dim oil lamp swings gently, and in the flickering light, a headless doll in a long Gothic dress sits before a dressing table. The doll holds her own head in her hands, and that head turns to you, slowly revealing a stiff smile…

Duncan felt that if he hadn't spent so many days on this ship and wasn't so familiar with Alice, he would have already used Blink to draw his gun and start blasting.

Alice, however, had no idea how creepy she had just made the atmosphere. She obediently snapped her head back onto her neck with a "pop" and quickly regained her senses, greeting Duncan with a bright smile, "Good evening, Captain! Were you looking for me?"

Duncan steadied himself, looking at the doll with suspicion for a long time. "What are you doing here? Why did Goathead say you were in the cabin counting hairs?"

Alice moved her neck from side to side, then gently smoothed her slightly disheveled hair with her fingers, a somewhat embarrassed expression on her face. "I was just… seeing how many hairs are left."

Duncan looked at the doll as if she were an idiot, and then finally noticed something at the edge of the table: a spool of thread that had been rummaged out from somewhere, with a few silvery-white strands of hair wrapped around it. The source of the hair was obvious…

Duncan was expressionless.

Alice noticed the captain's gaze. She immediately picked up the spool and explained to Duncan with a serious expression, "You see, this one is called Miffy, this one is called Polly, this one is called Phymia, and this one, its name is…"

Duncan was finally shocked: "You even named every single hair that fell out?!"

"A memento," Alice said solemnly, with a hint of sadness in her seriousness. "Didn't you say I'm a doll? And dolls don't grow their own hair… If they all fall out one day, I can still use the list to remember the good times I had with them…"

Duncan was a little confused by the doll, and even forgot what he had come here for. He stared blankly for a long time before squeezing out a sentence, "I was just saying that offhand, you don't have to take it to heart… Speaking of which, no wonder you've been staying in the cabin these past few days. So you've been doing this every day? Counting hairs and naming the ones that fall out?"

Alice nodded in a particularly innocent way. "Yeah."

Duncan kept a straight face and sighed after a long while. "Okay, I'll look for you in the city-state later, see if there are any craftsmen who specialize in this field who can help you…"

Alice was taken aback. "You're going to kidnap someone and bring them onto the ship?"

Duncan glared at her. "…I'll buy you a few wigs to have on hand! The Boundless Sea Mobile Calamity kidnapping a doll maker in a human city-state, does that make sense?"

"Then the Mobile Calamity infiltrating a human city-state to buy wigs doesn't make much sense either…" Alice muttered subconsciously, but quickly swallowed the rest of her words. "Ah, I didn't say anything, hehe…"

"Don't 'hehe'," Duncan suddenly felt drained. He waved his hand and finally remembered the real purpose of his visit. "Forget it, you distracted me and I forgot the main thing—Alice, sit down, I came to you with something important."

Alice saw the captain's serious expression and knew it wasn't a time for jokes. She quickly restrained her ingratiating smile, put away the spool of thread, and quickly sat down on the wooden box next to the bed—sitting up straight, hands folded on her lap, looking completely elegant and dignified.

Duncan sighed. For some reason, he always found it easy to lose his composure in front of Alice—even when he first came to this world, he could remain indifferent and calm in front of Goathead. He could even keep a straight face when he possessed a sacrificial body with a generous chest, facing a floor full of remains, but only when facing this overly eerie doll did his expression and demeanor always teeter on the verge of collapse.

Thinking about it, this was probably the power of art style—Alice's art style really made it hard to keep a straight face.

He crooked his finger to the side, and a chair in the room creaked and ran to his back. He sat down on the chair, trying to restore his somber and majestic expression, and looked into Alice's eyes.

"Rei Nora, does that name ring any bells?"

"Rei Nora?" Alice blinked, her face showing genuine confusion. "Never heard of it… Sounds like a woman? And she has an elegant and noble feel… Someone you know?"

"Theoretically, she should be someone you know, but you say you don't recognize her… Okay, I believe you," Duncan wasn't too surprised by Alice's answer. He continued, "What about Frost City-State? Are you familiar with it? Do you have any impressions?"

"Frost City-State? I heard about it when I was in the box. It seems to be a city-state on the Frigid Sea, and there's a place called Cold Harbor, which is the gateway between Frost and the Central Sea," Alice thought for a moment. "But I don't know the specifics, I've only heard the name."

"What about 'Alice's Guillotine'?"

The doll looked puzzled. "I know Alice, that's my name—but what's a guillotine?"

Duncan asked several questions in a row, but the responses he received were all similar.

This was basically what he had expected.

Alice was completely clueless about all of this, just like she said when they first met. She didn't know her own past, didn't know the truth behind "Anomaly 099," she had no knowledge of that Frost City-State, and had never heard of the Frost Queen who had died half a century ago.

Even though her appearance was exactly the same as that Frost Queen.

Duncan hadn't expected to get many positive answers when he asked these questions. He just wanted to test and see if Alice would have any special reactions when she heard these "keywords"—now the test was over, and the doll was still that silly doll.

He believed that this timid doll wouldn't dare to fake her real reaction in front of him—her intelligence probably didn't support her performing such a high-level operation.

So… maybe he should focus not on the doll, but on the "coffin"?

Duncan's eyes gradually sharpened, and his attention fell on Alice's ornate and heavy wooden box.

The ornate wooden box that had been used to hold the doll was still in the room, and Alice was now sitting steadily on top of it.

Alice liked her box very much. She used it as a stool and a storage cabinet, and sometimes she even slept in it—even though there was a normal bed in the room.

"Open the box, let me take a look," Duncan said.

Alice felt a little puzzled, but quickly jumped off the box and opened it casually.

Duncan stepped forward to look.

The wooden box was lined with soft red velvet, and there were some miscellaneous items piled in the corner: a comb, a spool for winding hair, a small mirror, and a few small metal ornaments.

"I found them on the ship, in other cabins," Alice pointed to the miscellaneous items in the corner of the box and explained carefully, "I asked Mr. Goathead, and he said these were all unclaimed items. I… can I keep them? I think they're very pretty…"

Duncan looked at the old ornaments.

Perhaps a century ago, someone on this ship had worn them in their hair or on their chest.

These were the remnants of when the Forsaken Ship had belonged to the human world.

"They're yours, keep them," Duncan nodded, but then his gaze suddenly noticed a small object in the pile of miscellaneous items, and he couldn't help but pick it up. "This thing…"

It was a small hairpin, exquisitely made and unlike anything that would appear on the Forsaken Ship. It was shaped like a silvery-white feather, with a few scattered waves adorning the edge. Although it had been through a century of time, it was still as good as new—this was completely different from those old objects.

Duncan frowned. For some reason, when he saw this hairpin, he felt a faint… nostalgia in his heart.

There was even a name that almost came out of his mouth.

But he couldn't remember what that name was that was about to come out of his mouth.

Duncan blinked. He was a little surprised, wondering where this feeling that suddenly emerged from the bottom of his heart came from, but gradually, he understood.

Just as he had known the name "Duncan Abernathy" the moment he came to this ship… he had once again touched the remaining "echoes" in his body!

He looked down at the hairpin in his hand, wondering how such a delicate and small object could resonate with the greatest disaster on the Boundless Sea, but soon, Alice's voice woke him from his thoughts: "Captain? Captain, you…"

"Sorry, I can't give you this hairpin," Duncan said to Alice, but then he felt that this was a bit cold for the doll, so he added, "I'll buy you some new ones in the city-state when I have the chance—these things are all old."

"Really?!" Alice immediately showed a surprised expression. "You're so nice, Captain!"

"Don't be in a hurry to praise me," Duncan shook his head and casually put the hairpin away. "The important matter isn't finished yet… Alice, I'm going to tell you something, something about your 'essence,' you have to listen carefully."

(Book recommendation time~ This time it's Toad's new book *Tales of Strange Immortals*, an indescribable world of cultivation. Toad's books shouldn't need much introduction, just read them~)