Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 543 Alice's Simple Theory

This is the first time since "Reunion", Lucrezia has seen such a complicated, heavy, and warm expression on her "father" face.

Before that, her father also smiled at her and showed many human actions, but for some reason, she always felt that there was a vague sense of disobedience behind those smiles and words and deeds. The "friendly appearance" she tried to pretend after she lost her memory because of space, this sense of disobedience made her always uneasy.

However, at this moment, she finally saw some kind of heartfelt emotion on the other person's face - a sense of guilt and regret that others could not understand.

But she didn't know whether the guilt was for herself or not.

"I still don't know enough," the lady witch sighed softly, "I thought I had more or less caught up with you."

"...The Lost Homeland finally crashed into the subspace. It's a good thing you didn't catch up," Duncan shook his head, then took one last look at the quietly floating "Moon", turned and walked towards the connecting bridge leaving the platform , "Go back first, Lucy."

Lucrezia was a little surprised: "Aren't you going to study it for a while?"

"I'm not a scholar, and I don't have professional research methods and equipment," Duncan waved his hand, "I just want to see it with my own eyes, but how to reveal its secrets depends on professional scholars. "

Speaking of this, he paused, and added: "I will stay in Qingfeng Harbor during this time, and I will keep an eye on your progress on the 'moon'. In addition, if any other elves have any problems with Taran If you have the same thing as Al, tell me immediately."

"I understand," Lucrezia responded immediately with a nod, then she hesitated and asked again, "About your arrival...can I tell Consul Sarah Mel? Of course, I will not casually Tell more people..."

"As you wish," Duncan nodded, "you can tell whoever you want—their reaction to it is none of my business."

Lucrecia lowered her head slightly: "Yes."

A moment later, on the Lost Homelander, which was staying on the surface of the sea somewhere outside the luminous geometry, a rotating and spreading flame door suddenly appeared on the front deck.

The door opened with crackling flames, and Duncan's figure stepped out of it - Alice, who was holding a big mop beside her and scrubbing the deck vigorously with several other mops, suddenly ran over happily: " The captain is back!"

Duncan waved his hand to disperse the flames behind him, looked at the goth doll in front of him with a mop in his hand and a happy smile on his face, and nodded simply: "Well, I'm back."

"Did it go well?" Alice threw the mop aside and looked at the captain happily, "You have been there for a long time, did you talk to Miss Lucrecia a lot? You went to that 'ball' What? What does it look like... ah!"

The mop thrown aside by Alice suddenly jumped up, hit the head of the happy lady doll with a wooden pole, and then jumped up and down on the deck to wash herself in the bucket.

Alice covered her head and looked at Duncan blankly and aggrievedly: "Why did it hit me?! I almost knocked it off..."

Duncan looked at this lady doll with simple and clear emotions, seeing her smile just now and her troubles at the moment, unconsciously, the boredom and sense of loss accumulated in her heart quietly dissipated a little.

Alice was still aggrieved.

"...you'd better check to see if it's a mop for scrubbing the deck, maybe it's 'working' in the restaurant," Duncan laughed, reached out and pressed Alice's head, and then asked curiously One sentence, "Also, I've always wanted to ask you—the mop and bucket on this boat can be cleaned by themselves, why do you insist on washing the deck by yourself?"

"Let me help!" Alice puffed up her chest confidently, "How tired they are from wiping themselves!"

The corners of Duncan's eyes trembled, and he turned his eyes silently, looking at the mops and buckets not far away who were cleaning the deck quickly, as if they were afraid that some puppet would catch them "helping" if they were too slow. After a moment of silence, he shook his head: "You are happy...just as long as you are happy."

Alice nodded in a daze, and then saw Duncan turned around, as if preparing to go back to the captain's cabin, she couldn't help but said, "Captain, are you going back to rest?"

"...Well, I'm a little tired."

"Captain..." Alice still looked worried. She walked over and tugged at Duncan's sleeve, "Are you alright?"

"Why do you ask that?" Duncan stopped in doubt, and turned to look at the not-so-intelligent puppet.

"Because you sighed a lot these two days, and you spent more time in the captain's cabin than outside—Miss Nina felt that you had something on her mind, but she was too embarrassed to ask you," Alice replied honestly, "In addition, when you came back just now, your complexion was also very bad, as if... There are many things in your heart. But now your complexion is better than before."

Duncan looked at the doll in front of him with some surprise.

He didn't expect that Alice, who usually looks heartless and confused, would observe and notice these things, and he didn't expect that she would just grab himself like this and say all these words——

Maybe it's because she doesn't think much about things on weekdays, so she doesn't know how to hesitate and hesitate?
Some incoherent associations appeared in Duncan's mind, but looking at the puppet in front of him who still looked worried and puzzled, he didn't know what to say.

After all, even facing the knowledgeable Lucrezia, there were too many things he couldn't explain clearly.

"You don't understand." After a moment of silence, Duncan shook his head. "Things are very complicated, so complicated that they can't be explained to others. Not to mention you, even Morris may not be able to understand."

Alice just blinked, and said without hesitation: "Then you can tell me too."

Duncan couldn't laugh or cry: "Didn't I just say that, you don't understand..."

"But I don't understand a lot of things you usually say." Alice took it for granted, "I don't understand a lot of things, but you can still tell me—I'm very suitable for listening to people talking Yes, I will listen whether I understand..."

Duncan's expression was suddenly a little subtle. Hearing that this silly puppet was so straightforward, even with a bit of "proud" magical logic, he couldn't find a place to refute it for a while.

Alice still stared straight at the "captain" in front of her. She didn't feel that it was a shame that she didn't understand many things, nor did she feel that what she said at the moment was wrong—she thought about it, she Curious, so she spoke up.

If you have something in your heart, you can just say it - in Alice's uncomplicated world view, everything works like this.

She ran away suddenly, ran not far away and carried a large wooden barrel half her height, and placed it on the deck near the ship's railing, then carried another one, and placed it next to the large wooden barrel just now.

She climbed onto the wooden barrel nimbly, smiled and waved to Duncan: "Captain, you should also sit down—Miss Fanna said, enjoy the wind and look at the sea, and you will feel good."

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

This puppet is working hard, trying to use her limited cognition and experience to find a way to make the "captain" feel better.

Duncan walked over and sat down on the barrel beside Alice.

His mood hadn't been changed by the sea breeze - but he had definitely gotten a little better.

"Alice."

"Ok?"

"Let me ask you a question," Duncan thought. At first, he tried hard to think about how to make Alice understand the concepts of "moon" and "starry sky", but now he suddenly found that he didn't need to explain these complicated things to her at all. Things, "If you live in a place, and there is a thing that is unique to the place where you live-it can never come from anywhere else, and it can never belong to anywhere else, just look at this thing and you know, It came from there..."

Alice thought for a while, then asked curiously: "It's like I live on the Lost Home now, and you are the only captain of the Lost Home?"

Duncan froze for a moment, then said hesitantly: "Your analogy is not quite right...but it can be understood in this way."

"Oh, then what?"

"...Then, you left there and couldn't go back," Duncan's tone suddenly became a little low, "You went to a very far away and strange place, everything here is different from home, you are here Living for a while, trying to find the way home, but suddenly, you saw that 'thing' - that theoretically only possible in your hometown, in any case should not be seen in a foreign land..."

Duncan's voice fell, but Alice was still thinking blankly, but after thinking for a while, she suddenly laughed.

"Then I must have returned to the Lost Home!"

"Back to the Lost Home?"

"What you said, can be understood in this way-you are the only captain of the Lost Home, one day I was sent to a place far away from the Lost Home, and I couldn't find my way back to the ship, but you suddenly appeared again In front of me——then I must be home! After all, wherever you are, that’s the Lost Country.”

The puppet smiled happily and looked at Duncan confidently.

"As you said, that thing can only appear in the 'hometown', and now that it appears in front of you, it means that you are at home now!"

Alice finished her theory, then turned around on the big wooden barrel, put her hands on her chin, leaned forward, with a big smile on her face:
"Captain, is this a brain teaser?"

Duncan was a little taken aback.

He stared blankly at the lady doll on the opposite wooden barrel. When the sea breeze blew from the side, Alice's silver-white hair flew up, just like her eternally bright and happy mood.

Then he laughed.

"Yes, it was a brain-teaser--we're all round it now," he said to Alice, laughing, as he jumped down from the barrel. "And there's one more thing."

"Ok?"

"Your posture is unstable."

Alice, who was still leaning forward and propped her chin with both hands, was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"

In the next second, she heard a slight click on her neck.

"Bob-"

With two thuds, Alice fell to the ground twice, and immediately after that, her signature, stuttering sound came from the deck——

"Captain, save, save... save..."

(End of this chapter)