Deep Sea Embers

The large parrot with beautiful tail feathers flapped its wings and left the Sea Mist, flew over the dock area at an astonishing speed, and flew straight to the city-state.

"First officer, what shall we do? Just wait here?"

On the bridge of the Sea Fog, a sailor looked at Perry's figure flying far away, and turned his head to ask the silent Aiden.

"...I can only wait first," Aiden lowered his head and glanced at the ground under his feet. He was weighing quickly to keep his cold mind running as much as possible. "It's not just because of the captain's order, More because of the current state of the Sea Fog."

The second half of his sentence made several restless subordinates quickly settle down.

The captain only brought a few cronies ashore, and left his first mate and all the rest of the sailors with him. The obvious explanation for this was that most of the undead sailors on the Sea Mist were weird and frightening, and it was easy for them to live in the city-state. Cause riots and hostility, but in reality Aiden is well aware of the situation.

Because the Sea Fog had just encountered its flagship not long ago.

The ship is in a very bad state, not only because of the damage to its hull, but also because the... "soul" of the ship is restless. There was a hollow sound, and the pressure in the steam pipe hadn't completely stabilized until now. The ship has indeed returned to "this side" now, but it's hard to say whether it will still get out of control.

When the ship was in an unstable state, the sailors who had served on the ship for more than half a century were the "anchor" of the ship - the anchor of the Sea Mist allowed it to dock on the sea, and the "humanity" composed of immortal people An anchor" can stabilize it in the dimension of reality.

Aiden didn't dare to reduce the number of sailors on board rashly—especially after he vaguely noticed the strange situation of Purand, he didn't dare to let the members of the Sea Mist enter the city-state casually, because it was very likely to cause "touching", Let the "soul" of this ship just stabilized wake up.

Similarly, he didn't dare to let the Seafog directly send signals to the city-state of Purand, including honking the whistle, ringing the bell, or directly contacting the city-state authorities by telegram, because he was afraid of alarming some power hidden in the city-state of Purand.

Letting the parrot Polly pass the message is the least risky solution he can think of so far. I hope the captain can return as soon as possible after receiving the news—hope he hasn't been trapped by anything, and hope it's not too late.

Of course, he can't put all his hopes on "waiting"-if the captain still hasn't returned after a day, he can only send a small part of the crew to the shore to take a risk.

Aiden frowned tightly, staring at the city of pearls shining brightly in the sun, recalling every detail of the captain leaving with the city-state judge, trying to find anything wrong in it, to explain what happened just now. Unusual manifestation of anomaly 203.

...

Duncan, who was sitting by the counter flipping through the newspaper, suddenly stopped what he was doing, raised his head and looked out the window thoughtfully.

Alice, who sat next to him and flipped through the newspapers imitatingly, noticed it and asked curiously, "Mr. Duncan, what are you reading?"

"...I suddenly felt something looked at me just now," Duncan frowned, muttering uncertainly, "but it disappeared in the blink of an eye."

"Oh oh, I know, this is called 'the shock of the strong'! Mr. Goathead told me," Alice said happily immediately, "it said that the stronger the person, the easier it is to feel the gaze directed at him or even Mind, and a strong person like you will always be excited..."

Duncan put down the newspaper in his hand and looked at Alice blankly: "It really said that?"

The smile on Alice's face froze instantly: "...the last sentence was deduced by me."

"Don't make such useless reasoning." Duncan said casually, and then he concentrated a little bit, and began to search for the source of the "spirit" just now.

He didn't take that flash of feeling as an illusion—after staying in this weird world for so long, he has developed the habit of paying attention to any "sudden intuition" and asking the bottom line.

Duncan's perception quickly expanded and spread towards the edge of the city-state. In just a split second, he felt that Purand had a clear outline in his mind like the Lost Land, as if he could feel the loss of the land. He began to feel the complex "tactile senses" conveyed to him by the city-state under his feet, and among these tactile senses, one of the most obvious and abrupt messages entered his mind.

In the southeast port of Prand.

"...Tirion's ship?" Duncan was a little surprised after sensing the source of the breath, "Why is he here?"

Immediately afterwards, he recalled his previous encounter with that steel warship, recalling the position of that ship and the intentions shown by the opponent in the battle. After a short thought, the expression on his face His expression looked a little weird.

The Sea Fog appeared near Purland and launched an attack on the Lost Homeland...... Could it be the "reinforcement" called by the Purland authorities? Is it to intercept yourself?

He vaguely guessed the cause and effect of the matter in his mind, but Duncan just felt dumbfounded. He didn't know whether he should first feel the relationship between the father and his son, or should he feel the professionalism of Tirian as a reinforcement—after being beaten like that by the Homeless, Even when the ship was almost sunk, it was still unswerving to reach Purand. What kind of spirit is this?

This must not be the spirit of maintaining world peace.

The most likely thing is the spirit of endless fun fighting with Dad.

"Mr. Duncan, you are in a daze," Alice's voice sounded from the side again, and the puppet tilted its head slightly to look at this side, "Do you want to go out?"

"No," Duncan shook his head, while maintaining his perception of the Seafog. Since the latter hadn't become his "collection" like the Lost Home and Prand, he couldn't perceive the people on that ship. However, considering the "connection" between himself and the Seamist and Tirian, he has already begun to search for the location of his "eldest son" - but Alice will listen to these complicated things He didn't understand, so he didn't explain at all, but couldn't help frowning when he saw the puppet tilting its head, "Don't tilt your head, the head will fall."

Alice quickly nodded slightly: "Oh."

At this moment, there was another sound of footsteps behind the small door behind the counter, and then the door opened, and a petite figure came out from inside.

"Mr. Duncan," Shirley patted the dust on her skirt, and greeted Duncan with a face full of credit, "The warehouse has been cleaned up! All the sundries you told me have been put on a shelf!"

"Well, well done." Duncan kept a part of his attention on the port side, and at the same time he turned his head and nodded to Shirley, "There is still a little dust on his shoulders."

"Oh," Shirley turned her head and patted the dust, then looked at Duncan nervously, "Mr. Duncan, what are you doing next...?"

When talking with Duncan here, the expression on her face is obviously not as frightened as on the Lost Home, but there is still some obvious tension. It seems that this tension will not be completely eliminated for a while, but Compared to that time at the beginning, her current state is obviously more than a little bit better.

Obviously, at least intellectually, she knew Duncan's kindness towards her. As for the tension that could not be eliminated... Agou's tension had to be resolved first.

Duncan nodded, and then glanced at Alice who was flipping through the newspaper, but actually didn't know a single word.

illiteracy.

He looked at Shirley on the opposite side again.

Another illiterate.

There is also Agou who hides in the shadows beside him, although he has never shown his face, but his breath is becoming more and more difficult to hide.

Still illiterate.

Ask these three to come to the store to help, and I don't even understand the account.

Duncan sighed in his heart, and then he remembered a previous idea of ​​his own, as well as his old profession.

"Come on, you all sit here, Shirley, you sit on Alice's right," Duncan casually pulled a chair from the side and put it next to the counter, "Ah Gou, you sit behind the counter...don't hide, I saw your shadow Come here, I have an arrangement."

Shirley hurriedly sat down on the chair obediently, and Alice on the side finally put down the newspaper she couldn't understand, and cast her eyes curiously: "Ah, what's the arrangement?"

"Anyway, Nina hasn't come back from shopping yet, so she's just idle. I'll teach you how to read," Duncan said cheerfully, and got up to straighten his clothes. "You can't be illiterate all the time, right?"

Xue Liwan didn't expect that the dignified Captain Duncan's serious "arrangement" turned out to be this matter, and she was immediately stunned on the spot. Alice was full of curiosity, and even her eyes lit up slightly, while she was squatting obediently behind the counter. A Gou looked up at Duncan, then at Shirley, the dog's head was full of question marks: "But I'm just a dog..."

Duncan lowered his head and glanced at the words. Before he could say anything, the secluded demon suddenly became excited, and his entire upper body straightened suddenly: "But I can try to be a cultured dog. I have the enthusiasm and confidence... "

"That's all right," Duncan said in a cheerful tone. He kept paying attention to the port, and at the same time reached out and took out a few blank white papers from under the counter, and said while distributing them to several "students", "Then this is for You guys are good as an alphabet book, let's start with the most basic letters..."

Shirley took the notebook Duncan handed over with a confused face.

Then, she entered a more encircled state.

Alphabets and spelling, the door to a completely incomprehensible new world.

Only a few minutes passed, and Shirley confirmed one thing: It's easier to fight the cultists with a dog!

But Duncan obviously didn't pay much attention to Shirley's distressed expression - or rather, he had long been accustomed to this expression.

He only feels happiness, which is a kind of happiness when he suddenly comes into contact with familiar things and suddenly does familiar things when he is wandering in a foreign land.

But this happy time didn't last too long——when Shirley started to stumble and learn to write the fourth letter, crisp bells and brisk footsteps suddenly came from the door, interrupting this "subspace shadow" imparting knowledge to dependents" class time.

Nina's cheerful voice sounded at the door: "Uncle Duncan! I'm back!"

Duncan raised his head from the pleasant teaching and saw Nina pushing the door to enter the store, but immediately after, he noticed something flying in behind Nina.

"I saw Ai when I came back," Nina said happily, "Ai seems to have brought friends back!"

"friend?"

Duncan frowned slightly, and then saw Ai Yi flying into the store following Nina, followed by a big parrot with colorful tail feathers...

Duncan: "...?"