The goat-headed figure emitted a slight creak from below its head, its neck turning slowly atop its pedestal, silently observing Duncan as he returned to the captain’s quarters, its gaze following the captain’s movents.
Upon reaching the chart table, Duncan sat in the high-backed chair, hands bracing the table’s surface. The mariti chart on the table was shrouded in a swirling mist, rendering everything hazy. It seed even this incredible chart had lost its reference value in this "sea area," which had long crossed the boundaries of the known world.
Yet Duncan’s attention was clearly not on the chart clouded by mist—his eyes were focused on a far more distant place, as if peering through the table and floor of this room, contemplating the vast emptiness beyond the Holoss.
After a while, the goat-headed figure finally ventured cautiously, "I noticed just now... The ’environnt’ around the Holoss has undergone significant changes. Was that your doing?"
Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere, the typically boisterous first mate this ti refrained from unnecessary chatter.
"I conducted so tests," Duncan murmured, "I verified the hypothesis that information is imperishable, and confird that information within this ’Sea of Ashes’ can still sustain the operation of things... In the brief test, ripples of change did indeed reappear in this cooled ash."
"But they didn’t last, did they?" The goat head hesitated, "I felt it... the ergence and fading away of this ’ripple’ you ntioned. Although I don’t understand the principles and processes involved, I can sense that there’s sothing missing behind those changes."
"The Pri Mover, a process that can instantaneously reset and fully reboot the entire ’mathematical machine’," Duncan did not conceal the knowledge he had touched upon in that brief "ripple," "To put it simply, short-term, localized grants to a portion of the raw materials in this Sea of Ashes are futile. The overall ’entropification’ of the Sea of Ashes is causing all changes to revert to zero, so if we truly want to transform the ’raw materials’ here into a new world, we need to reset the entire system—which might be relatively easier than figuring out how to ’import’ saved data from the old world during the reset process."
The goat head was silent for a long ti. After much contemplation, it slowly lifted its head, "I’m not sure what you an by ’entropification,’ but it sounds like you are considering so rather dire solutions. Forgive my frankness, Captain... Miss Nina would be heartbroken. You made a promise to her."
Duncan remained silent, rely watching the goat head atop the table.
"You believe you are the most suitable ’Pri Mover’, is that it?" The goat head seed to have missed the captain’s gaze, continuing on, "Resetting the entire ’mathematical machine’ sounds like an enormous amount of energy and ’information’ would be required, and you possess both these qualities ’within yourself’..."
"That’s why I’m considering alternative solutions," Duncan calmly interrupted the goat head.
The neck of the goat head made a series of creaks and groans, clearly taken aback, "...I thought you were planning for self-sacrifice..."
"Yes, I have considered that, but Bartok reminded of sothing before he left," Duncan spoke with a serene expression, "One should not easily use sacrifice to lay the foundation for a new world—sacrifice should always be the very last resort, not the primary plan. To sacrifice too readily degrades its very own essence—and besides, I promised Nina and Lucy that I would return ho."
As he spoke, he took a deep breath.
"Of course, if there truly were no other choice, I would not shirk from death, but for now... I believe I should strive harder to find a better solution."
"Do you have an idea?" The goat head asked with sudden curiosity, "Do you have an alternate thod to ’initiate’ the process?"
"In theory, what I need is only information and energy, and since the ’information’ part can actually be completed by a later grant, what I really need is energy—the energy to restart the mathematical machine and get ’information’ running," Duncan said slowly as he thought, "I already have a vague idea on how to solve this, but whether it’s feasible..."
He suddenly paused, seemingly gazing at so non-existent entity in a certain direction, pondering for a mont before continuing, "I think I need to talk to a certain soone I made plans with."
While speaking, he casually asked, "What’s Alice doing right now?"
The goat head was montarily stunned, briefly checked on the ship’s situation, and a subtly human expression appeared on its stiff wooden face, "...She’s currently leading the Frost Queen around, preparing to do sothing really weird..."
If even the goat head found the situation to be weird—it must indeed be very strange.
On the spacious mid-deck, Alice was leading Lei Nora to appreciate her newest triumph learned only recently—the doll was so pleased with herself, dragging the befuddled Frost Queen onto a barrel, then pointing to her own head, "I’ve just learned this! It took so long to get it right with Luny!"
But before Lei Nora could react, the puppet embraced her own head and yanked upwards; with a ’pop’, her head was tossed into the air.
Then she moved her body below, adjusting her position left and right, using her neck joint to aim at her falling head in mid-air...
It wasn’t until then that Lei Nora finally understood what the puppet intended to do—but she felt like she might as well have remained ignorant.
And what’s worse, the puppet hadn’t caught it yet.
Her head tumbled down, crown first—thumping solidly onto her neck joint with a "thud," then rolling on the ground all the way to Lei Nora’s feet, looking up innocently and blinking, "Just... just a minor, tiny... mistake, help pick... pick it up..."
Lei Nora’s eye twitched as she watched this unfold, despite being the Frost Queen who had once presided over the Abyss Project and faced rebels without batting an eyelid, she now seed to be struggling to keep her composure.
Duncan arrived on deck just in ti to witness the scene.
He felt a great shock—though probably less so than what Lei Nora felt.
Then he quickly stepped forward, grabbed Alice’s head and pressed it back onto her neck joint, and only after a "pop" sound did he turn to look at the still confused Lei Nora, wearing an apologetic and rather awkward expression: "Sorry, Alice’s thought process is sotis unconventional..."
At this point, it seed Lei Nora had just recovered from the shock, staring blankly at Duncan for a mont before finally saying, "...This is my first ti seeing this scene from a third-person perspective."
Duncan: "..."
But what surprised him even more was the Frost Queen’s second sentence: "Honestly, it’s quite amusing."
Duncan was dumbfounded and after a long pause he managed to respond, "... You’re really broad-minded."
"I was chatting with Alice when I heard her ntion that her neck joint tends to loosen easily, so I curiously asked her what exactly she ant," Lei Nora spread her hands, her expression much more Calmness than before, "Of course, her way of demonstrating was indeed a bit more thrilling than I had anticipated..."
What could Duncan say? He could only twitch the corners of his mouth and turn his head to look at the humanoid automaton—who was walking over while adjusting the angle of her head without realizing the mood was a bit delicate—and she bent over directly in front of Duncan, presenting her neck: "Captain, there’s a hair clip caught in the joint, help get it out."
Duncan’s eye corner twitched, and with an awkward expression, he started to disentangle the hair from Alice’s neck joint while giving Lei Nora an embarrassed smile.
Lei Nora, however, seed unconcerned, her interest piqued as she watched this scene—which was far removed from "simple and normal life" yet sohow strangely peaceful—before she finally laughed and said, "It seems she does live quite happily."
"It’d be better if she didn’t always lack worries like this," Duncan sighed helplessly, "Seriously, are you okay? About that scene just now... I thought you might be traumatized..."
"I’m fine," Lei Nora took a breath, "Back when it was cut off, I didn’t see it myself—imaginary issues can be overco."
Duncan thought about it and realized that this "Frost Queen" obviously had a very strong inner strength—and even stronger peripheral nerves.
At this mont, Alice also seed to realize sothing, turning her head to Duncan: "Captain, are you here to find ?"
"Yes," Duncan carefully freed the last strand of hair stuck in the joint and nodded, "We have arrived here, and there’s an appointnt... it’s ti to honor it."
Alice blinked, finally rembering sothing, "Ah, that flaming atball hanging at the door..."
Duncan was sowhat surprised; he was astonished that the automaton could accurately rember this matter but was even more impressed by Alice’s refreshingly unconventional description.
Lei Nora, clueless on the side, watched them without understanding what they were talking about, and couldn’t help asking curiously, "An appointnt? Where are we heading next?"
"It’s an appointnt for Alice and ," Duncan said with a smile, "Don’t worry, we won’t leave this ship, we’re just going to briefly visit another dinsion, we’ll be back soon."
"Right, the captain is going to wind up!" Alice also said happily, waving to Lei Nora, "You go back to your room first, I’ll co to play with you after I’m wound up!"
Lei Nora listened and was even more bewildered: "Wind you up?"
But the automaton apparently had no intention of further explaining and was already tugging the captain towards the rear deck, both of them walking away quickly.
Leaving the "Frost Queen" standing there with a face full of confusion, her mind brimming with question marks.
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