Chapter 26: Starless Night

Truth be told, Duncan suddenly realized that, even if his nerves were as thick as the main house beam, it would be very difficult for him to walk with composed strides when the pigeon on his shoulder began to speak.

At this moment, he wished he could be like a normal pirate captain, with a parrot—or at worst, a monkey—perched on his shoulder.

But he had already pushed open the door leading to the chart room, and it was impossible to turn back now.

In the room with the navigation desk, the goat-head was enthusiastically jabbering about the twelfth legend of fish stew, when the sound of the captain's quarters opening finally interrupted the chatterbox. Its dark wooden head immediately swiveled towards Duncan, its tone rising with evident delight, "Ah, Captain! You finally came out—I must say, Miss Alice is an excellent conversationalist. I haven't had such an enjoyable chat in years, you know..."

Duncan blatantly ignored the goat-head's loud babbling and immediately turned to the victim across the navigation desk, only to see the headless doll sitting upright in a chair, cradling her own head in her hands and pressing firmly against her ears.

Even so, Alice's gaze was still as vacant as if she had just sat through twelve consecutive advanced math classes, showing no reaction even when Duncan approached her.

Duncan: "..."

"She pulled off her own head," the goat-head explained before Duncan could speak, "Although I'm not quite sure why she would do that..."

Just how intolerable must the goat-head's rambling be to force a cursed doll to pull off its own head as a defense against the noise?!

While Duncan was shocked, the overly enthusiastic goat-head finally noticed the strange creature the captain had brought with him. Its wooden head turned slightly, and the pitch-black eyeballs suddenly fixed on the pigeon on Duncan's shoulder, "Hmm? Captain, what is this on your shoulder...?"

"Its name is Ai Yi, and from now on, it's my pet," Duncan said succinctly, using as few words as possible to avoid potential pitfalls, while also observing the goat-head's reaction to this news.

"Your pet?" The goat-head was clearly taken aback, then seemed to conceive its own explanation, "Ah, the Homeloss did indeed sense that you briefly left the ship... Did you go on a sojourn to the Spirit Realm? Is this a trophy you brought back from your excursion into the Spirit Realm?"

Spirit Realm excursion?

An unfamiliar term suddenly surfaced, and Duncan thought of the brass compass kept in the captain's quarters, the handwriting left by the real Captain Duncan, and the extraordinary experience of soul translocation, which made him correspondingly nod indifferently after feeling that the guess was about right, "Just a brief diversion."

As Duncan finished speaking, the goat-head unsurprisingly began with compliments, "Ah! Truly befitting the great Captain Duncan, even a simple excursion into the Spirit Realm brings back trophies—Is this a pigeon? To become your pet, it must have extraordinary qualities, mustn't it? You even hung your compass around its neck? Does this mean... Ah, of course, your judgment is always correct. But what is special about this pigeon? Could it be that it..."

Duncan heard something subtle in the goat-head's flattery; he had a hunch that the goat-head recognized the brass compass now hanging on Ai Yi's chest and that the compass was very important to the real Captain Duncan—important enough that it should not be casually placed on a freshly emerged "pet."

But even realizing this impropriety, he was powerless to do anything, for the compass was now "bound" to the pigeon and, according to the feedback from the control of the Spiritual Body Flame, the pigeon seemed to be the very embodiment of the compass!

Duncan's mind raced with thoughts, yet his face remained impassive. During this moment of distraction, Ai Yi, who had been quietly perched on his shoulder, suddenly cooed loudly and flew toward the goat-head, flapping its wings.

The goat-head's black eyes instantly focused on the pigeon, which acted quite importantly, tilting its head and pecking the goat-head's face with its beak, "Want to top-up Q coins?"

Duncan: "..."

"A being with Spiritual Intelligence?!" The goat-head was also clearly stunned, but then snapped out of it, sounding extremely surprised, "This pigeon can speak?!"

Duncan gently reminded from the side, "You can also speak."

Pigeon Ai Yi took a couple of steps on the table, mumbling to itself as it walked away, "Does it make sense, does it make sense, does it make sense...."

Upon seeing this, Duncan promptly rubbed his fingertips together and with a sudden leap of green flame, the pigeon walking on the table vanished into thin air, reappearing on his shoulder the next instant.

"Yes, a being with Spiritual Intelligence, and directly under my control," Duncan confirmed to the goat-head with a nod, "Any more questions?"

The goat-head hurriedly replied, "Ah... certainly not, of course not, all is well then—everything is in the great Captain Duncan's control."

Duncan then ignored the goat-head and quickly concluded the conversation before turning his attention to Alice, still cradling her head in a daze—perhaps the previously broadening experience had further strengthened his nerves, or maybe he had gotten used to the sight after seeing it a few times, but he now found Alice's head-cradling daze not so weird as it was somewhat... endearing.

He reached out and patted the doll Miss's shoulder, "Wake up, wake up."

Alice's body jolted as if she had awakened from a long nightmare. The head she was holding in her hands then began to speak, its mouth opening and closing, "Ship… ship… ship…"

Duncan said, "You should put your head back on first."

It was then that Alice realized what she needed to do, hurriedly and clumsily reattaching her head. After the click sound of the joint closing, her voice finally became smooth, "Ah, Captain, you're back? Something seemed to have happened… Is Mister Goat Head done talking?"

The goat head on the table immediately spoke, "No, we just got to some legends about fish stew, a topic we can continue another time…"

Duncan was concise, "Shut up."

"Oh."

Alice, who was standing to the side, visibly shuddered the moment the goat head began to speak, showing a look of horror on her face, the cursed doll's expression. Even after the goat head obediently closed its mouth following the captain's order, she still cast a wary glance toward the navigation table.

Duncan suspected that for a considerable time to come, the doll mistress would not set foot in the captain's cabin again.

With that thought, he finally asked out of curiosity, "You came to see me, what's the matter?"

"I…" Alice's expression was a bit dull as if her original purpose for visiting the captain's cabin had been completely forgotten amidst her conversation with the goat head, but a few seconds later she remembered, "Ah right, I just wanted to ask, is there a place on board where I can take a bath? My wooden box got seawater in it, and now my joints feel a bit… uncomfortable."

Toward the end, the expression on the doll Miss's face was noticeably awkward, but the person who should have been more embarrassed was actually Duncan—since it was he who had thrown her box overboard.

And not just once, but several times.

A twinge of embarrassment flashed through his heart, but Duncan tried hard to keep his facial expression unchanged and his tone indifferent, "Just for that?"

Alice sat restrainedly in the chair, "Just… just for that."

"For many ocean-going vessels, fresh water is an extremely valuable resource, and taking a bath is a luxury that needs to be restrained," Duncan began seriously, but then suddenly he smiled, "However, you're in luck, Homeloss is no ordinary ship, and fresh water is not an issue here. Follow me, there is a place for bathing below the mid-deck cabin, to get there we must first go through the upper deck."

Alice immediately stood up—she truly did not want to stay a second longer in a place with a goat head.

Before leaving the room, Duncan glanced back at the goat head, "You keep steering."

After giving the instruction, he stood up, opened the door of the captain's cabin, and led Alice up to the deck.

The night had already fallen at this moment.

The night sky over the Endless Sea was clear.

After many days of cloudy weather, this was the first time Duncan stood under the clear night sky of this world.

He suddenly stopped, looked up at the sky, and gazed motionlessly at the night canopy.

The night sky was pitch-black without a star, devoid of any celestial bodies.

The only thing visible was a faint greyish-white "crack" that seemed to tear through the entire sky. The crack sprawled across the horizon, its edges fraying into intricate fissures like flesh ripped open, with a dim greyish-white halo slowly radiating outwards from the crack, like a bloodstain spreading in a deep pool of water.

This sprawling "pale scar" across the sky lit up the entire Endless Sea, shining more than twice as bright as the moonlight Duncan remembered.