In three hours, the sun will rise from the distant sea level, and the relatively safe and stable day will replace the disturbing night - if the sun really rises normally.
Duncan glanced at the mechanical clock hanging not far away. The hands on it were beating slowly.
"Are you going to wait for the sunrise?" The goat-headed voice suddenly came, "There are still three hours."
"...Waiting for three hours is not as interesting as sitting here looking at a basically pale sea map." Duncan shook his head, stood up and stretched his shoulders before slowly walking towards the bedroom, "I'll go back and rest for a while.
, if I haven’t come out before sunrise, you can just call me.”
"We are happy to help."
Duncan nodded, pushed the door open and returned to the bedroom. He threw the paper with the mysterious emblem on the table and walked to the bed not far away.
His body basically doesn't need much rest, but every once in a while, he will still take a nap before dawn - not to relieve any fatigue, but simply to "get up and welcome the sunrise."
This would allow him to maintain a sense of "aliveness" on the Lost Home and prevent him from gradually losing his humanity on this ghost ship - although he didn't know if there were any hidden dangers in this area, but after noticing
After realizing that the state of the Lost Home was not as stable as he thought, he had been consciously maintaining this habit of "maintaining a human lifestyle on the ship."
Duncan lay down like this, closed his eyes, and listened to the whispers of the wind and waves coming from the sea. He felt the small rocking of the big ship all the time under his body, and controlled himself to relax little by little.
…
In the captain's quarters of the Brilliant Star, which was decorated with a feminine atmosphere, Lucrecia, wearing a silk nightgown, suddenly sat up from the bed.
Her hair was a little messy, and she looked a little tired and irritable. When she stood up, she was holding a huge rabbit doll that was half a person tall, with a funny shape and a hint of weirdness.
The doll was made of pink and blue fabrics. It had horizontal scars on its face, and its jagged mouth was smeared with a strange bright red color like blood. The moment Lucretia stood up, the rabbit doll
He moved slightly, then turned his head slightly, looking at his mistress with button-nailed eyes, and a little girl's voice came from the cotton-filled body: "Mistress, I thought you fell asleep successfully..."
Lucretia glanced at the clock next to her and said in a slightly annoyed tone: "Let's just say I slept for a few dozen minutes before I was awakened by a strange dream... What time is it now?"
"Two hours before sunrise," the rabbit doll said as it jumped from the hostess's arms to the ground. It jumped to the cabinet next to it, opened the cabinet door with its soft-looking plush palm, and took out the cabinet door.
He drank the captain's treasured wine, poured a small glass and gave it to Lucretia, "You can still take a nap - this will help you calm down."
Lucretia took the wine glass and drank it in one gulp, but still stood up: "No need, lying down will only make you more irritated... clean up."
"Okay, Mistress."
The rabbit doll with the voice of a little girl answered crisply, then took the wine glass handed over by the hostess and put it away, and then started jumping up and down to make the bed, appearing to be very familiar with it.
At the same time, Lucretia snapped her fingers, and the lights in the room turned on. She exhaled slowly, shuffled to the dressing table, and tapped the mirror with her nails.
A certain drawer of the drawer - that drawer opened in response.
A toy sailor carved from wood jumped out. The sailor was wearing a naval uniform from the classical era and holding a small command knife in his hand. He first bowed to Lucretia and then stood on the top of the drawer.
Waving the command sword, he issued sharp commands.
A large group of toy soldiers ran out of the drawer. First, they quickly called the team and then ran to the side to pick up combs, hand mirrors, water glasses, and toothbrushes. They lined up and quickly and nimbly ran to Lucretia or
On the seat back behind him, the hostess began to wash herself in the morning.
Lucretia sat listlessly in front of the dressing table, letting the dolls toss around. She herself was fighting against the exhaustion and pressure caused by a night of insomnia and random thoughts, and at the same time she was thinking about something related to the Lost Home.
After a while, she took a deep breath and forced her mind to regain consciousness.
At this moment, a faint ray of golden light suddenly spilled in from the gap in the curtains not far away, and came into view of the "sea witch".
Lucretia saw that ray of light and had no reaction at first. But after only two or three seconds, her eyes suddenly froze, and then she suddenly raised her eyes to look at the mechanical clock next to her.
There is still one hour until sunrise.
This is not the time for the sun to rise!
She suddenly stood up.
The toy sailors were confused for a moment, and then they packed up their things and reorganized their formation in a familiar manner. The rabbit doll, which had finished making the bed, noticed the movement of the mistress and ran over: "Mistress, it's sunny outside.
It seems to be bright!”
"It's not daybreak now," Lucretia said quickly, walking quickly to the window, "Where are we now?"
"Still moving along the planned route last night," the rabbit doll said quickly, "It's already close to the direction where the 'big guy' that we observed before fell down!"
The moment the rabbit doll finished speaking, Lucretia had already opened the thick curtains, and then pushed open the window reinforced with fine metal mesh.
A layer of thin and hazy fog floats on the sea outside the window. This is the most common scenery in border areas. And deep in that layer of thin and hazy fog, there is a large-scale, vaguely diffused pale golden shimmer.
It is floating quietly on the sea, and it is temporarily impossible to judge how far it is from the Brilliant Star.
A huge, glowing thing floating on the sea.
Lucretia stared in that direction, then took a deep breath, and her body suddenly turned into a pile of flying colored papers - the colored papers swept out of the window, flew across the deck, passed through the stairs, and flew to
Located in the cab on the upper middle level.
In the cab, Runi, a clockwork demon dressed in a maid costume, was steering the wheel. She immediately noticed her mistress approaching and had already let go of the steering wheel when the colored paper flew into the circle. The next second, Lucretia
The figure had already condensed out of the colored paper, and reached out to take the rudder.
"Mistress, I was just about to send someone to call you," Lu Ni stepped aside and said, "The golden light suddenly appeared from the fog. Judging from the direction, it should be the 'falling object' we are tracking."
"Raise to full speed, all crew members are on standby, and the stern of the ship is ready to dive into the spirit world at any time," Lucretia said quickly, "Are there sufficient reserves of ectoplasm dust and witch oil?"
Luni responded quickly: "The reserves are sufficient and your order has been conveyed."
Lucretia nodded, and then, the Brilliant Star fully woke up under the captain's order.
A large number of clockwork sailors, golems and ceramic soldiers rushed to their respective jobs. The specially-made paddle wheel structures on both sides of the ship also began to rotate at an accelerated speed. The engine device that seemed to be behind the times gradually released power that exceeded that of modern propeller engines.
The power quickly increased the speed of the entire ship, and in the second half of the ship's hull, the ghostly "original hull" became more illusory and blurred, and there were dark hair-like stripes gradually moving from the stern to the stern.
The surrounding sea area spread, and from a distance, it seemed as if a dark tail wave extended from behind the Brilliant Star.
Under Lucretia's personal control, the entire ship actually showed a coexistence of magic and machinery, a mixture of beauty, elegance, and horror and ugliness!
As the speed of the Brilliant Star further increased, the huge golden luminous body floating between the mist and the sea finally appeared more and more clearly in Lucretia's eyes.
Also presented is its increasingly larger true scale.
Even the clockwork demon Runi gradually opened her eyes and couldn't help but exclaimed in a low voice: "Oh my god... Mistress, what is that?"
Lucretia didn't speak, but just stared ahead, staring at the huge golden shadow that gradually emerged from the mist, already like a small mountain peak.
It is so large that it is almost impossible to judge its complete outline from a single perspective, and it is so majestic and perfect that it does not look like something that humans can build.
A huge and complex golden geometry floats quietly on the sea, its entire body exuding a soft and soul-stirring light golden shimmer. Its height is almost three times more than the highest flagpole of the Brilliant Star, with two sides on both sides.
It extends out like a city wall, its upper part tilts slightly outward, like a terrifying cliff, and there are no unnecessary trivial protrusions on its surface, and every part looks natural.
As the distance got closer, Lucretia and Rune began to be able to observe more details of the behemoth.
"It seems to be translucent?" The doll Luni lay curiously in front of the open viewing window. "It looks... like a piece of glowing stained glass?"
"...No, it seems to be more than just transparency..." Lucretia shook her head. She stared straight ahead without blinking, as if she saw something inconsistent from the edge of the huge luminous geometry.
place, and at this moment, a small black dot suddenly flew out of the nearby fog and entered her field of vision.
That was a seabird - even on the boundless sea, even on this border full of strange phenomena, there is still such a thing.
Rather, it is precisely because they do not have complex intelligence like humans that these "wild animals" live better in the strange border waters than those brave and powerful explorers.
Lucretia's eyes were attracted to the seabird, and she noticed that the poor guy seemed to be confused by the golden light on the sea, and in panic, he rushed straight towards the shimmering "peak mountain"
”.
However, the next second, the expected tragic impact and death did not happen - the bird flew directly in, and flew into the slightly sloping "cliff".
After a while, out of the corner of Lucretia's eye, she saw the bird flying out from another direction, seemingly intact.
Lu Ni also saw this scene, and the clockwork puppet muttered in surprise: "...Is that a phantom?"