Tirian felt himself surrounded by darkness, in which his senses fluctuated, as if he was being pulled by an invisible force, traveling through a dimension between reality and fantasy.

He tried to open his eyes several times, but could only see a faint green light and shadows moving rapidly in the darkness. After struggling for a long time, he recognized that it was the view overlooking the city-state.

It seemed like I was being carried up to the sky by something?

This was the only thought that came to his mind before he lost consciousness again.

By the time he could feel his body again, he had been sent to a safe place - there was a cold and hard touch under his body, as if it was a cold concrete floor. There were dim lights around him, like the low-quality electric lights used for lighting in the warehouse. A blurry figure was sitting next to him, seemingly lowering his head with curiosity.

Tirian finally regained consciousness.

But he did not open his eyes immediately. Instead, he continued to pretend to be unconscious, while carefully sensing his surroundings, trying to confirm his current situation from the wetness and dryness of the air, the subtle sounds beside his ears, and his slightly opened eyelids.

But just as he heard the faintest sound of traffic and confirmed that he might be on the street in a certain block, he heard the very familiar voice that he had heard before he fell into a coma suddenly rang beside him: "You're awake, your eyelids are moving."

Tirian was startled and knew he could no longer hide, so he could only open his eyes helplessly.

Then he felt his whole body stiffen, and the person he saw in front of him made him feel at a loss and shocked.

He saw Frost Queen Lenora - exactly the same as he remembered, not the blonde lady with a noticeably different hair color.

The "Frost Queen" with waist-length silver hair sat upright on a chair beside her, staring at Tirian lying on the ground with a calm and indifferent expression. The latter stared in amazement for several seconds before he suddenly reacted and stood up abruptly.

A sudden headache almost made Tirian lie down again, but the pain also stimulated his spirit, allowing him to finally get rid of the last bit of dizziness after coma. He first confirmed that he was indeed awake, and then quickly looked around to confirm where he was.

However, all he saw was a warehouse filled with shelves and wooden boxes - the shelves of different heights were filled with ancient objects whose specific age and origin could not be identified. The old wooden boxes were piled up in a somewhat messy manner against the wall. There were no windows in sight, and of course no view of the outside. The only door was behind the chair where the "Queen" was sitting.

This seems to be just a warehouse, and there is no way to tell where it is located in the city-state.

Tirian withdrew his gaze, and finally fell on the "Frost Queen".

However, after the initial shock and excitement, the first thing the pirate who had calmed down had in mind was doubt. He thought of the blonde lady he had seen before and what she had said to him, and frowned slightly: "You are not Her Majesty Lenora, who are you?"

"I told you, my name is Alice," the silver-haired woman on the chair said with a smile, "Ah, if you mean my hair... I disguised myself a little before because the captain said that my appearance might cause trouble in the city-state."

She mentioned the Captain again.

If Tirian was just a little confused when the other party mentioned "Captain" for the first time, when he heard this title again this time, the first thing that popped up in his heart was a huge sense of vigilance and crisis, because he had confirmed that this was not a bad joke, nor was it a ridiculous trap planned by a captain who had a grudge against him - behind all this, it was really possible that his terrible father was standing.

Tirian slowly stood up, looking warily at the silver-haired woman who called herself "Alice" opposite him, and said in a deep voice: "Is it really him?"

"Yes, he wants to see you," Alice got up from the chair and slowly walked to an antique mirror next to her, "Captain, he's awake."

The next second, a faint green flame rose from the edge of the mirror. Tirian seemed to hear an illusory crackling sound. Then, he saw the mirror suddenly turn black, and a familiar and majestic figure gradually emerged from the darkness.

"Tirion, we meet again." Duncan's voice came from the mirror.

"...Yes, we meet again," Tirian said hesitantly. Although he had met his father before, he still felt awkward talking to him again. "Why this way? Don't you mind contacting me in the cathedral?"

"We can reminisce about the past in the cathedral, but it's not suitable for discussing private matters. There are some things I don't intend to let Gemona sit in on," Duncan said slowly, his eyes sweeping over Alice. "You've already met Alice, so you probably have a lot of questions to ask."

When Tirian heard his father mention the name of the Storm Goddess, he couldn't help but have a strange expression on his face, but soon his attention was drawn to Alice, who looked exactly like the Frost Queen. After frowning and thinking for a while, he suddenly remembered something and his expression suddenly changed: "The Explorers' Association issued a warning to all captains on the Infinite Sea, mentioning that Anomaly 099 was out of control..."

"As you can see," Duncan smiled, "she is right in front of you."

Tirian immediately looked at Alice, who looked harmless, in horror, as if he had just noticed the inhuman characteristics hidden in her overly delicate and perfect face, as well as the ornaments on her body that were obviously used to cover her joints. The next second, he subconsciously touched his neck.

Obviously, as one of the most experienced captains on the vast sea, and as someone who was extremely interested in intelligence related to the Frost Queen, Tirian was quite aware of the characteristics of Anomaly 099.

His actions caught Duncan's attention.

"Relax," the voice in the mirror said, "Anomaly 099 is now under control."

"...The puppet in the container has awakened and is moving freely outside, and you call it 'controlled'," Tirian said to Duncan while being alert to Alice's movements, and felt a chill on his neck. "How did you do it? You made this 'abnormal' with such a high number work for you, and even suppressed her instinct to behead?"

"Alice is a friendly puppet, not as scary as the world thinks - at least that's the case around me," Duncan said casually, "and you, I thought you would mention the Frost Queen first. After all, as far as I know, you have been loyal to the Queen for even longer than you were in the Lost Homeland Fleet."

Tirian gradually came to his senses. He looked at the figure in the mirror warily and said, "You want to get information about Her Majesty Lenore from me?"

"Are you resistant and unwilling to mention it?"

"...I still don't fully believe in your 'humanity'."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before he spoke in a low voice: "Do you know what my original plan was?"

"What was your original plan?"

"Let Alice disguise herself as Frost Queen Lenora, pretend to be resurrected from the dead, or act out a ghost projection, or even directly intervene in your dreams - this is very easy for me," Duncan looked into Tirian's eyes, "I can guarantee that you will not be able to distinguish the truth from the false, and will be guided to say many things, and I can easily get the information I want in this way."

Tirian suddenly felt a chill on his back.

He believed that everything his father said was true, believed that his father could do it, and knew that he would definitely be fooled - even if he could detect something wrong in a certain detail, he would definitely be tricked into revealing a lot of information before that!

Because even just now, after having seen "Blonde Alice" in advance and knowing that the person in front of him could not be Lenora, he almost thought that the person in front of him was the Frost Queen who had resurrected from the dead!

Tirian subconsciously lowered his eyelids slightly, as if he wanted to avoid direct eye contact with his father in this way, and asked in a deep voice: "Why didn't you do this?"

Duncan looked at Tirian calmly.

Why else? Because Alice couldn’t memorize such long lines, couldn’t act out such a long scene, and would panic to death if the other party bluffed her. Once she forgot the lines, she would shout to the captain for help without hesitation… 17 times a second.

It's unbelievable how useless it is.

"Of course it's because I don't want to get along with my children in a deceitful way - even though I have forgotten a lot of things." Duncan's expression was solemn and his voice was low.

Then he paused and added, "I don't want to use this kind of 'farce' to insult the monarch you once served. Although I am not familiar with her, from the 'one-time encounter' I have seen, Ray Nora should be a person worthy of admiration."

“Pah pah pah pah——”

Hearing the captain's righteous reply, Alice beside him immediately applauded - although she basically didn't understand what the captain was saying.

Then Duncan and Tirian looked at the doll with strange eyes.

“…Shouldn’t I applaud?” Alice shrank her neck and looked at the captain in the mirror cautiously. “I just think the captain is right…”

A wave of fatigue surged into his heart, and Duncan sighed: "...as long as you are happy."

At the same time, Tirian suddenly realized a detail in his father's words, and he was shocked:

"Have you met Her Majesty Lenora?!"