Duncan looked at Alice quietly, and Alice looked at Duncan confidently.
After a while, Duncan rubbed his eyebrows and felt a strange emotion arise in his heart. The feeling of dissonance in his heart could not be dissipated for a long time.
It's obviously the same face, but how can it show such a hugely different temperament...
"Captain," Alice blinked curiously after seeing Duncan's reaction, then came over and asked, "Why don't you speak? Did I say something wrong?"
"...No, it's not your problem," Duncan shook his head to get rid of the messy thoughts in his head, then suddenly raised his eyelids and looked at the doll in front of him with a solemn and serious expression, "Alice
, have you... ever been curious about the connection between yourself and the Frost Queen?"
Alice was stunned for a moment, raised her hand and scratched her head, and seemed to think about it very seriously before speaking uncertainly: "I... was curious, but then I thought about it, it seems that this is not true
It’s something too important, so I don’t think about it anymore.”
Duncan was a little surprised: "Isn't it not important?"
"The Frost Queen is the Frost Queen. I am me. No matter how great that queen is, it is still her business. I don't understand it," Alice said seriously, "I have things that I am good at, and I
I really like every day now, which is great. In addition, I also heard Mr. Morris say that everyone in this world is likely to find another person who looks almost exactly like themselves, so I will be the Frost Queen.
The person who looks exactly like me is fine - even though I'm actually a doll..."
Duncan listened to the doll's words quietly, and looked at the natural and contented look in her eyes when she mentioned the current day, and suddenly felt something in his heart.
Maybe... she is really just a special false copy created by the ancient gods in the deep sea. Maybe, she is really just the result of the strange fusion of Le Nora who fell into the deep sea and the guillotine.
Perhaps, there are more secrets hidden in her body, secrets that even Leigh Nora could not imagine... But as Alice herself said, this is not important.
She is not smart, but she is very happy. She has many things that she does not understand, but she has never felt nervous or afraid of these overly complicated things. She was born and lives in a world full of weirdness, and this weird world has a great impact on her.
For her, it was nothing but "normal" in the world - she was exploring, curious, and looking forward to everything, including tomorrow, in this world that was new and unknown to her, just like...
A child opening his eyes in the sun.
There are countless living beings in the world, but even the bravest warriors, the most knowledgeable wise men, and the most devout believers cannot see the world from a perspective like Alice's.
Duncan suddenly had a feeling - in this strange world where everyone is afraid and everything is distorted, Alice, this "doll", is more like... a "human" than anyone else.
Just like what he saw in another world, a world without abnormalities and visions, without gods and weirdness, ordinary humans walking calmly under the sun.
"Captain?" Alice's curious voice rang again, "Why are you in a daze again?"
"It's nothing," Duncan shook his head, "I just suddenly felt... you are actually very smart."
Alice was slightly startled when she heard the captain's compliment, and then her face gradually showed a happy look: "Hehe..."
She didn't know why the captain suddenly praised herself for being "wisdom", and she didn't even expect that she had any wisdom. But since the captain praised her like this, it must be something to be happy about.
Duncan thought for a moment after he praised this sentence, and then slowly reached out his hand to his side - a cold touch came from his fingertips, which was the brass key.
In the deep sea, the submersible is slowly rising, and it will take some time before it is "recovered".
Frost Queen Leigh Nora revealed a large amount of information to herself, but there were still many flaws or ambiguities in that information, which she needed to confirm by herself.
The brass key... A wise preacher of the end handed it into the hands of Leigh Nora, and even with the latter's ability, she was ultimately unable to understand the true "essence" of the key. At the same time,
Alice, the wrong copy that seemed to be born by "coincidence", has a corresponding keyhole... At this point, is it still a coincidence?
Did the Evangelist of the End foresee all that would happen today? Or was it that the Tentacle of the Ancient God sleeping in the deep sea retrieved the memory of Leigh Nora when making "Alice" and left the "Keyhole" in it?
On Alice?
Maybe...it's time to give it a try.
"Alice," Duncan suddenly raised his head and looked at the puppet in front of him solemnly, "come with me."
"Ah?" Alice was startled for a moment, but she immediately reacted and got up to follow, "Oh, okay!"
"Stand the helm." Duncan stood up from behind the chart table, told the goat head, took a breath, turned and walked towards the captain's quarters.
Alice followed Duncan for no apparent reason and walked into the bedroom door together. Then she turned back and closed the door at the other's instruction, then turned around and looked at Duncan curiously.
"Captain? What's next?"
Duncan silently took the key in his hand and looked at the puppet quietly: "I hope to test this key."
When Alice heard this, she was a little surprised: "Ah? Didn't you say that this key might be dangerous? It might contain the soul of the Frost Queen or something..."
"Now the hidden danger has been eliminated," Duncan said calmly, "I just eliminated it myself."
"Oh!" Alice said immediately, then turned around and fumbled with the zipper on her back clothes without any hesitation, "Then let me unbutton my clothes first..."
"Just expose the keyhole." Even though he had been with this solid-headed doll for so long, Duncan was a little embarrassed by this guy's unhesitating behavior at this time. He subconsciously reminded,
Then he was a little surprised, "Aren't you afraid?"
"Captain, you said there are no hidden dangers," Alice turned around and said, "And you will wind up the clockwork for me personally. You will definitely protect me if something happens, right?"
"...Yes, I will protect you." After a brief silence of two or three seconds, Duncan nodded slowly, then raised his hand and pointed to a round stool next to the bed, "Sit on it - I won't
To determine what will happen after winding up, it's best not to stand still."
"Oh!" Alice agreed, then obediently came to the round stool and sat down, with her back to Duncan.
The clothes on the back of the doll have been untied.
Duncan finally saw what the "keyhole" looked like - right in the center of Alice's back, which was as smooth as white porcelain, the keyhole was abruptly embedded there, and there was a circle of fine and gorgeous patterns, with a texture like bronzing
, surrounding the keyhole.
Duncan lowered his head and glanced at the brass key in his hand.
...The size and shape really correspond to each other.
A strange feeling emerged from his heart, mixed with a little nervousness. Duncan took a gentle breath, controlled the strange feeling in his heart, and slowly approached the key to the round hole.
"Alice."
"Um?"
"Don't be afraid."
"Why!"
The wind-up key entered the keyhole without any obstruction, and then, there was an extremely clear "click" in Duncan's ear, as if it sounded directly in his mind.
Something was activated - but it wasn't any ordinary clockwork mechanism.
A slight force came from his fingertips, and Duncan instantly realized that the clockwork key was turning on its own - it slowly turned to the horizontal position, and then there was another "click" sound.
The next second, everything in front of me began to change rapidly.
Light and shadow are collapsing and reorganizing, and the senses are undergoing transformation and reset. There is that familiar slight dizziness, and that feeling of "transfer" that is like "walking in the spirit world"——
Before he could sigh in his heart, "That's it again", Duncan found that everything around him had stabilized again.
He is in an ancient, gorgeous but eerie and strange grand mansion.
The classical and solemn hall is wide and empty, with tall columns arranged on both sides of the hall, supporting the gloomy roof above like dark clouds gathering together. Narrow and tall windows are inlaid on the walls covered with patterns and reliefs, and the windows seem to be filled with people.
The dark thorns and chaotic light and shadow float outside the thorn bushes.
And in this eerie mansion, voices could be heard from time to time - whispers, intermittent chatting and laughing, the sound of footsteps walking across the floor, and even... weird and vague noises, as if a dance was being held somewhere.
music.
Duncan frowned slightly and glanced at this gloomy old mansion.
Something flashed out of the corner of his eye.
Duncan quickly looked over there, but only saw an empty corner.
But he was sure that he had indeed seen something just now. There was a figure... who looked like a maid in a black and white dress.
The figure had no head, and there was only a bare neck at the collar of the coat.
Duncan stood in the empty hall for a moment, carefully observing the surrounding environment, feeling the strange and uneasy atmosphere vaguely floating in the air, and then took steps towards the spiraling upward stairs at the end of the hall.
He wants to figure out where this place is - why was he brought here after "winding up" Alice?
He walked up the spiral staircase. The stairs, which seemed to have been abandoned for countless years, made strange creaking sounds under his feet. As he walked, a sense of familiarity suddenly appeared in Duncan's heart.
He stopped suddenly and stared at the various furnishings and styles in the mansion with wide eyes.