To Vanna, what happened in the past two days seemed to be always filtered through a filter that was not real enough. Her life had undergone earth-shaking changes, and the changes were so great that they seemed like an absurd dream. She often wondered if she had fallen into hallucinations without realizing it - and at this moment, her self-doubt finally reached its peak.
She actually saw Mr. Morris standing in front of her with a smile on his face.
The young judge suddenly closed his eyes and knocked his forehead hard. When he opened his eyes again, he found that Morris was still there and there was a tall figure beside the old man.
It was the ghost captain with a gloomy and majestic expression.
"Welcome aboard, Vanna," Morris began. "I know you have a lot of questions...
Vanna opened her mouth, but before she was about to say something, she suddenly heard a "bang" beside her. She didn't feel any threat from the sound, but she was still startled. She subconsciously turned her head and saw a large group of colorful paper and ribbons coming towards her - a beautiful lady with waist-length silver-white hair was looking at this side blankly, and a little smoke from burning gunpowder was still coming out of the paper tube in her hand.
Vanna: “…?”
Before she could react, she saw the silver-haired lady excitedly take the second paper tube from the side, fiddle with it in front of her, then lift it up and pull the thin string on the paper tube.
Seeing this, Vanna quickly reminded him: "Ah! You hold it upside down..."
Her reminder was a step late.
Agou immediately shook his head: "Ah, right, right."
"Hook, there is no hook.....A stick will do..."
It was in an antique shop in Uptown.
"How many more secrets are there?" Duncan's mouth finally twitched, and he regained the ability to speak. He looked at Alice. This respected scholar was an elder he had known since childhood. His appearance on the ghost ship was the most unbelievable scene for her today. However, at this moment, the elder was the only person she could think of asking, "When did you..."
Her face showed an expression - even though there seemed to be ten thousand complicated thoughts roaring and exploding in her heart, she really didn't know what the reaction on her face should be.
Nina's expression suddenly drooped: "...Not at all?"
"You can't drink alcohol," Shirley's voice came from behind Nina immediately, "even if you call it 'barley juice'."
Duncan: “…”
This was a welcoming ceremony—a very happy occasion if it had not happened on the Lost Homeland.
"oh."
Duncan was shocked: "...This demon can talk?!"
Before Shirley could say anything, Nina came running over excitedly and said to everyone happily, "We're having a dinner party tonight! We welcome the new crew members to the party!"
The deck was suddenly silent. The two girls were jumping up and down chasing after a head that was rolling around, while the silver-haired man who had lost his head was wandering around at a loss. Mr. Chris, who was halfway through his words, was covering his head and sighing uncontrollably. The air was still filled with the usual smell left over from the launch of streamer tubes.
The whole world had already changed quietly, she just didn't know it until now.
"We have a delicious fish soup!" Nina also shouted beside him, "The captain caught the fish himself."
“You can’t let Alice do this alone… ah, your head fell under the stairs!”
"Yes, Your Holiness reminded me to suppress my urge to spy when I am around you," Vanna sighed again and looked at the giant skeleton dog beside Nina. "If I am sure I am not mistaken, it is a Deep Hound? Is that little boy a summoner who coexists with the Deep Demon?"
"Hello!" Morris waved with a smile, a harmless smile on his face, "I didn't scare you just now, did I?"
"I..." Nina shrank her neck and spoke carefully, "I bought it with my own pocket money."
Vanna pursed her lips and turned to look at the owner of the ship.
「
And then there's the deck barbecue!" Nina added, "There's fish, beef, and barley juice!"
"Look, I told you that he has a group of very troublesome crew members," the gloomy and majestic Captain Duncan finally spoke, and her voice finally woke Vanna from her daze, "This ship is always so messy - but from another perspective, your life here should not be boring."
Vanna's eyes widened instantly, and even with her great concentration, she almost jumped up at that moment. Then, she heard a cry of surprise from behind her: "Ah! Uncle Duncan! Alice's head fell off again!"
"Not that long actually—just a little earlier than you," Chris smiled calmly and nodded slightly, "Heidi didn't know about this."
She came in front of Alice and lowered her voice: "Here... is it like this sometimes?"
"Normal 099, her former name was Puppet Coffin, but now they seem to just call her 'Puppet'. But I have my real name, you should know it, just call her Alice here," Shirley said calmly, and then added, "Don't worry, you are safe now."
Vanna nodded as she picked large pieces of colored paper out of her hair, "Oh."
Duncan was in a state of confusion, which was rare in his life. He stared at the chaotic scene on the deck, with several colorful ribbons hanging on his hair and shoulders. He seemed to vaguely understand what had just happened, but felt that it was better for him not to understand.
Duncan sighed deeply again. Shirley was silent for a moment, then turned to look at Morris: "Don't give him weird things to play with in the future. I'm telling you this first."
The next second, a boy who looked like a high school student rushed over from the side, frantically chasing the head that was rolling on the deck. Then another boy holding a huge black dog ran out from the other direction, helping to chase while shouting, "I told you it's unreliable to hold it!"
"It seems that I left in a hurry," Alice nodded, "I should bring you some northern specialties as a gift later."
"The sweet fruit wine we had last time was the limit," Shirley said with a straight face, "it's too early for you to try beer."
Vanna then ran to the side and found a colorfully wrapped paper tube from a wooden barrel. She ran over happily holding it up: "Morris, Morris! Here's another one! Do you want one..."
"We have been operating legally. Although the goods are not genuine, the prices are fair," Shirley said with a half-smile. "As for you not finding anything... it's actually a good thing. You know what I mean."
"I found the rope. Throw it down, throw it down... Miss Alice, bite it and I'll pull you up!"
"From what I know, sometimes," Shirley said in the same low voice, "sometimes even happier - especially when Miss Alice has some new ideas."
She raised her head and looked at the scene on the deck. She saw that Nina and Shirley had not yet "fished" the head out of the gap in the stairs, and were now frantically "putting it back to its place". A fat pigeon flew over from somewhere and whispered something incomprehensible like "Hammer Seventy, Hammer Seventy" beside her. She finally recognized the appearance of the silver-haired man and remembered where she had seen such a face before.
The other person had blonde hair at the time - now that I think about it, it was probably a disguise.
Vanna was stunned for a moment, then looked at Alice who was moving her neck. He had just noticed the details on her joints, and now he was thinking: "A puppet, could it be..."
"What's the next surprise?" She asked helplessly. What happened after passing through the flaming gate completely disrupted the mental preparation she had made since this morning. She had never felt so helpless and flustered in her life. "I'll tell you now so that you can be mentally prepared."
She looked at Duncan, Nina, and then at old Mr. Chris who was standing beside her with his hands spread out helplessly, and finally understood everything.
"Stop fiddling with this thing!"
Shirley glared, "So who bought this thing
Why isn’t it on the shopping list?”
Vanna touched her neck subconsciously, and then smiled a little stiffly as a response to the greeting from the cursed doll.
The trace amount of gunpowder pre-loaded in the paper tube exploded with a bang, and the silver-haired man was directly covered in the face by the streamers and confetti that sprayed out of the tube. He subconsciously leaned back suddenly, and then he heard a strange "pop" sound, and a head rolled onto the deck under Duncan's gaze.
"Not only can it speak, it can even spell its own name and do addition and subtraction within 100," Shirley said casually, "Among the crew members of the Lost Homeland, it is considered to have a relatively high level of education."
Vanna looked at Nina, then at Shirley, and after a long while she sighed softly, "So, there really is something wrong with this antique shop—and I didn't find anything."
"Ah, it seems that I really don't know. I was complaining to her today that you suddenly went out to do something without telling you the situation," Vanna said in a complicated tone, "Who would have thought... that you would appear in front of me like this, on this ship, the Lost Homeland."
"She doesn't dare to take it!"