Deep Sea Embers

Accompanied by that old but loud voice, Duncan heard a tinkling sound coming from the hut, as if someone got up in a hurry and bumped into something, followed by footsteps approaching, a hunched An old man with thin body, thin white hair, wearing a dusty coat, and a wrinkled face appeared near the door.

This so-called "old ghost" stood in his administrator's hut, bent over, his slightly cloudy eyes swept outside, and I don't know if he saw the figures of several people standing outside the door clearly. He hurriedly lowered his head and muttered: "The queen came to inspect... I didn't prepare well... Those assistants are getting more and more unreliable, and there are people who send orders..."

"Old ghost!" Nemo had to interrupt the old man's chanting with a loud voice, "The queen is not coming! The queen is not coming! We have guests today—the distinguished guests arranged by Captain Tirian, stop talking, they are here look at you."

While talking, Nemo turned his head and said to Duncan with an apology on his face: "Sorry——as you can see, he is a little nervous, and he often suddenly recalls things from decades ago. But don't Look at this, as long as he has to deal with pipes and valves, he will wake up in an instant."

"Awake? I'm awake!" Just as he was speaking, the "old ghost" suddenly rolled his eyes, as if he understood all of a sudden, he looked at Duncan and the others, and muttered, "Guest, Unexpectedly, there are still unfamiliar faces entering here... have you checked the tokens, and there are passwords."

"I've checked, of course I've checked everything," Nemo said immediately, and at the same time gave Duncan a careful look, "These are all distinguished guests, so you just... just pretend it's Captain Tirian in person."

"Oh, then come in, although I don't have anything to see here," the old ghost muttered, moving aside, "They are all old antiques, if you don't mind."

Fan Na turned her head to look at Morris, but Morris kept staring at the "old ghost".

After a while, Morris shook his head, and said in a low voice, "It's not easy to judge——his mind is not normal, and his memory is intermittent."

Duncan heard Morris' soft report, and his expression did not change. He just followed the nagging old man and walked into the abandoned manager's lounge.

The lounge is not big, and it is brightly lit by a gas lamp. As expected, it is filled with various things. Except for a bed in the corner, as far as the naked eye can see, it is almost covered. The bent and deformed shelves and the boxes on the ground are full of various mechanical parts, spare valve kits, and work tools.

Even if a skilled acrobat came over, he would have to be handicapped at level ten to get out.

"It's a mess," Alice looked at the chaotic scene in the room, and couldn't help muttering, "I really want to clean it up..."

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" The old ghost who was walking among the debris immediately turned around and bowed, "Your Majesty, I have neglected management recently, and this place is a bit chaotic..."

Alice was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"

Duncan's eyes also changed slightly in an instant, but when he looked at the old ghost and wanted to say something, the old man was suddenly in a trance, and while standing up, he said to himself: "Strange, where do I put the kettle?" It's...how can you not even drink your saliva when the guests come..."

Duncan and the others looked at each other.

"There's no need to look for your kettle. The guests just asked you for some information," Nemo said at this time. "They are here to investigate the current situation of the second waterway and your own situation."

"Investigate?" The old ghost stopped immediately, and turned around with a very serious expression, "General Tirian still needs to investigate his troops? Could there be a traitor? Is it from our area? Or from the central city? I think they've been talking about it lately..."

"There are no traitors, but there may be other lurkers who are threatened by some kind of extraordinary pollution," Fan Na took a step forward at this time, but almost tripped over the debris on the ground—this chaotic hut was very different from her 1.9-meter-long body. In terms of height, it is really a very challenging place, "Have you been in contact with people from other areas recently? Has anyone behaved abnormally?"

"Abnormal? It's not to this extent, but the connectors in the central city have been saying recently that there is a gurgling sound in the abandoned pipes on their side, as if someone is going to activate the second waterway," the old ghost waved. He waved his hand, "Well, you've all seen the situation of the second waterway. The things the queen built at that time were solid, but after all, they have been abandoned for so many years, and there are many areas below that can't be approached, and sometimes the underground river will infiltrate It's normal to bring some strange noises into the crevices of the rocks..."

The old man's words would go off track from time to time, and Duncan had to forcefully bring the topic back: "The central city you mentioned...is it the area where the Boiling Gold Mine is located?"

"Boiling gold? Ah, yes, boiling gold, it's all there - the cathedral is there, the queen's palace is there, and the mine is also there. The mine is so deep, it must be hundreds of meters deep," the old ghost said. Going to his own bed, he patted his leg suddenly while talking, "Ah, by the way, it should be the sound from which floor of the mine, the second waterway over there is quite close to the mine... I Let’s just say, the connector over there is too nervous, talking about it..."

The old man began talking to himself again, but this time Duncan didn't interrupt—he was lost in thought.

He recalled the situation when he first came to Frost, and recalled the first body he used here—a worker who fell to his death in the Boiling Gold Mine, fell into the bottom of the mine, and was finally taken away by the search personnel. What came up was a fake made of "elements".

And now, the old ghost mentioned that the "connector" lurking in the central city once heard a strange sound coming from the pipe of the second waterway. It sounded like something was surging inside—the second waterway in the central city , very close to a certain layer in the Boiling Gold Mine.

Considering that they are all "antiques" left over from the Queen's era half a century ago, Duncan even suspects that the relationship between the two is not just "very close".

Maybe those pipes are all interconnected!

He quickly wrote down this clue, and then asked: "Is there a way to go directly to the underground of the central city from here? How do you usually meet with the connector?"

"From here? That's not okay. There is a road in the middle that is completely black and has been polluted long ago. The other roads have also collapsed. You have to start from the ground, but the ground is now full of minions of the rebels, so be careful... muttered the old ghost, but suddenly shouted again, "Queen's Guard! The rebels are coming, blow up the shaft!"

The old man stood up suddenly from the bed and looked around nervously, as if the rebels would attack this place in the next second, but suddenly he stopped again and his eyes fell on Alice.

"Oh, I was mistaken, the queen is safe and sound..."

Alice was a little flustered, and quickly waved her hands: "I...I'm not the queen..."

Duncan looked deeply at the old man standing by the bed, but the latter became dazed again. After a few seconds, he looked at Alice dully: "Girl, who are you?"

"Old ghost, you are really old and confused-this is not only the problem of smoking too much poisonous smoke, but also your eyesight problem!" At this moment, Nemo's voice suddenly sounded, interrupting the conversation. At a weird moment, the informant nodded apologetically to Duncan, "I'm sorry, although the old ghost is usually a little distracted, but today he seems to be very serious. He may not have dealt with outsiders for a long time. See When you get a little excited, you will remember the events of the year in confusion."

"...It's okay." Duncan said lightly, his eyes slowly withdrawing from the old man.

He didn't really care whether the old man really saw the shadow of the Frost Queen from the disguised Alice—was it a brief sobriety in the muddy mind? Have you seen through this disguise? Or just plain memory confusion? None of this matters.

If this crazy old man really saw a little phantom of the Frost Queen from Alice, and felt a moment of peace in his heart because of this, that would be a good thing.

And at this moment, Nemo seemed to suddenly recall something, and frowned: "It's strange, why hasn't the crow come back at this time?"

"Crow? He went to check the northern corridor," the old ghost waved his hand. "That guy is a slow-witted person. He didn't want to hang out for a long time before coming back."

Nemo's furrowed brows didn't relax at all: "... No, even if it's a little bit longer, he should be back by now. The lights over there often fail, and his lantern can't last for so long... old ghost , when did he leave?"

"Two or three hours?" The old ghost thought for a while, and seemed to be a little serious, "So, it seems that I have really been away for a long time."

"I have a bad premonition. The crow stayed in the deep waterway for too long," Nemo finally said with a serious tone, and looked up at Duncan and the others. "I have to find him."