Ai flew into the store, stood on the stair railing with his chest puffed out proudly, his pair of green eyes rolling around.

The large parrot with colorful tail feathers that flew in also flew into the store and landed on the counter next to Duncan. It pranced around on the counter with its head held high, as if it was at home and not at all restrained.

Duncan looked at this creature flying out of nowhere in astonishment. The big parrot also raised its head and looked at Duncan without any hesitation. After a while, it suddenly flapped its wings and made a loud and piercing sound: "Ah! Perri!"

"Your name is Perli?" Duncan asked curiously. He didn't expect the parrot to really answer anything. After all, the essence of a parrot's speech is just mimicry. However, he didn't expect the bird to actually nod and wave its wings after hearing his question: "Perli! It's Perli!"

Duncan's expression was blank for a moment, and he turned his head to look at Ai, who was standing on the handrail of the stairs and looking down at the first floor: "Where did you find this...'friend'?"

"A friend is coming from afar," Ai immediately flapped his wings, one eye on Duncan, the other eye looking out the window, "Now he's here!"

Nina beside him immediately asked curiously: "What does it mean?"

After learning the secrets of the Lost Homeland and Duncan, Nina of course also learned that Ai could speak. She was very surprised at the time, but now she has calmed down - but like everyone else, she finds it difficult to understand what the strange words that the pigeon occasionally says mean.

"Maybe it means it doesn't know where the parrot came from," Duncan used his imagination to translate for Ai, then turned his head to look at the parrot, then at the pigeon, and finally couldn't hold it in for a long time, "Ai Yi... I don't object to you making friends, but do you realize that you two are different species? At least find a pigeon..."

"The sea embraces all rivers, and it is great because it is tolerant," the pigeon spirit tilted its head and shouted with a blank look in its eyes, "It is great because it is tolerant!"

Duncan: “…”

He often thought about life and doubted himself while talking with Ai, wondering whether he was communicating on the same channel as this bird spirit.

This feeling of seemingly being incompatible yet being able to communicate magically is extremely subtle.

At this time, Shirley, Agou and Alice's attention was also attracted. The three "people" gathered around the counter and looked at the big parrot that was not afraid of people at all. Alice even poked the big parrot's wings out of curiosity, but the parrot just jumped to the side twice to dodge, then tilted its head and stared at the puppet.

"What is this?" Alice looked at Duncan curiously, "It looks completely different from Ai."

Shirley at the side immediately said: "Of course they are different, this is a parrot, and Ai Yi is a pigeon."

"What is a parrot?" Alice asked in her soul, "Can it be eaten?"

"No," Shirley shook her head and then asked the puppet, "Why do you always care about this issue when you don't even need to eat?"

"I am responsible for cooking for the ship...Mr. Duncan!"

There was a lot of chatter at the counter, but Duncan didn't join in. He just looked thoughtfully at the big parrot that called itself "Perly". For some reason, he always felt that the bird looked vaguely familiar, as if... he had just seen it somewhere not long ago.

"Where are you from? Why are you here?" he asked suddenly.

In the previous conversation, he had already vaguely realized that this parrot actually had a certain ability to communicate with humans - this obviously proved that its origin was not ordinary.

The big parrot turned around and tilted its head: "Perly! Go and deliver the message!"

"Send a message?" Duncan was stunned for a moment, and his expression became a little serious. "What message?"

The big parrot tilted its head as if thinking, and opened its mouth after recalling something. But before it could say anything, it heard Ai Yi suddenly fly over and yell at the top of his voice: "Give me some fries!"

The big parrot was startled: "Ah! Perri!"

"Give me some fries!" The pigeon landed in front of the big parrot and nodded seriously, "Give me some fries."

"Purley?" "Some fries!"

The two birds were talking so much that Duncan had to interrupt: "Stop - Ay, shut up. Perri, what message do you want to send and to whom?"

The big parrot was obviously stunned. After a few seconds, he hesitated and shook his body back and forth: "Order some fries."

Duncan: “…”

He suddenly realized that no matter what the message the parrot had been trying to convey, it had obviously forgotten it now...

Then, Perri the parrot seemed to have figured out some useful information from the little memory it had left. It suddenly jumped up and flapped its wings vigorously: "Tell the captain, tell the captain! Tell... some French fries!"

Then, the big parrot shouted "Some fries" and flapped its wings and flew straight to the door. Before everyone could react, it had already rushed out of the door, into the sky, and accelerated all the way to the upper city of the Plande city-state.

Nina wanted to stop the parrot but was too late. She could only watch with regret as the parrot flew farther and farther away. She turned around and muttered, "Ah, it flew away."

Duncan did not respond - after hearing Perley yell "Tell the Captain", his face suddenly became serious, and he recalled why he was vaguely familiar with this parrot.

He had indeed seen the bird—in a cabin of the Sea Mist when the Homeless and the Sea Mist overlapped each other!

"Aiyi, catch up with that parrot."

※※※

"That's pretty much it."

In a secluded reception room somewhere in Plande Cathedral, the old bishop Valentine, dressed in casual clothes, spoke to Tirian, who was sitting on the sofa opposite the coffee table.

"The Lost Homeland finally took away the fragments of the sun, preventing the advent of the creeping sun disc and eliminating the impact of historical pollution on the city-state - although we are still not sure... about your father's intentions."

Tirian's expression was somewhat subtle and somewhat stiff.

He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he had been shocked into this state of mental blockage - he could understand every word the old bishop said, but even in his wildest and most bizarre dreams, he had never thought that these things would happen!

"Did the Lost Homeland really just leave like that? It looked like it came here specifically to save the day?" The famous "Pirate Captain" said in disbelief. "It took the fragment of the sun away... and then what? Just like that? Nothing else?"

Valentine exchanged glances with Vanna next to him, and both of them had a bit of helplessness and hesitation in their expressions.

At this point, it's really hard to say "Your father robbed half the city of French fries" in front of Tirian.

"...There is nothing else." After hesitating for a long time, the old bishop still couldn't say it. He shook his head and sighed, "I know you are confused - Mr. Tirian, we are as confused as you. If even you don't know what your father wants to do, then we don't know even more."

"He can no longer be considered my father since a century ago," Tirian shook his head slowly and said in a deep voice, "He is just a replica that was torn apart by the warp and pieced together with clumsy means. There is no humanity in the hollow body..."

Tirian paused at this point. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the few seconds when the Homeless and the Sea Mist overlapped and passed each other, and the cold and distant words he heard.

"I'm busy."

The big pirate suddenly hesitated.

Is there really no humanity in that body on the Lost Homeland? Is the voice that spoke to me at that time, and the breath I felt from that figure, really just the empty and chaotic echoes of the subspace?

Just as Tirian was distracted, the young Inquisitor's voice suddenly came from the other side, interrupting his wandering thoughts: "The question of whether Captain Duncan has 'humanity' is exactly what we are going to discuss next."

"Hmm?" Tirian looked at Vanna in confusion. "What does this mean?"

"In fact..." Vanna hesitated for a moment, then turned her head and exchanged glances with Bishop Valentine, then nodded slightly, "We have communicated with your father more than once recently."

Matters related to the Lost Homeland were considered confidential information, and the conversation with Captain Duncan was even more so. These things should not have been revealed, but Tirian's identity was so special that these issues were obviously no longer a problem.

"Communicate? You and my father?!" Tirian was really surprised and almost stood up from the sofa. "Isn't this a bad joke?"

"Please calm down. This is a serious matter. No one would joke about this after the city-state was nearly destroyed." Vanna looked at Tirian calmly, then paused. "Strictly speaking, I have had several exchanges with your father, and based on my observations...'Captain Duncan' no longer seems to fit the description in the data."

Tirian noticed the other party's serious attitude. He quickly calmed down and his expression became extremely serious: "Miss Inquisitor, how did you establish communication? Why did he find you? And...what did he say?"

"It was an accident at first... No, now that I think about it, it may also be your father's deliberate arrangement." Vanna sorted out her thoughts and recalled as she spoke, "I came into contact with the 'flame' he left behind and established a connection with him. As for why he chose me... Unfortunately, no one knows..."

Vanna concealed the details about the "mark" she had been "marked" with and the "pollution that could not be removed", and instead vaguely summarized the process as "establishing a connection", and then told the "pirate captain" in front of her the details of her several exchanges with Captain Duncan.

The man who theoretically knew Duncan Abnomer best.