Duncan had indeed cast a spark into the mirrored Frost City-State - but he felt that this was far from enough.

He could clearly feel that Frost's situation this time was different from Pland's. The fire he cast did not spread rapidly on the "other side of the mirror", and his perception of the fire was also greatly weakened and interfered with. He guessed that this might be because there was a natural barrier between the worlds on the "two sides of the mirror", or because there was actually no exact correspondence between the mirror image and the real world, and those misplaced parts were interfering with his judgment.

Whatever the reason, he needed to find a way to strengthen his connection with the fire, and to strengthen his connection with the White Oak and Agatha.

During the conversation, Vanna suddenly showed a thoughtful expression: "Speaking of the mirror image... Are you sure you saw the gatekeeper's figure in the reflection of the glass, right?"

"Of course I can be sure."

"This is a bit strange..." Vanna frowned. "If she is really trapped in that mirror world, why hasn't the city-state heard anything about it yet? The Supreme Protector has disappeared mysteriously. Even if the news has been blocked for the sake of reassuring people, at least the Cathedral and the City Hall should have taken some other actions..."

She paused for a moment and summarized based on her own experience: "Secret searches, martial law in specific areas, changes in the frequency and distribution of night patrols by guards - even in the case of a news blockade, these details can be observed, but Mr. Morris and I have been active in the city-state for a long time today and have not noticed any changes in this regard."

Nina, who was reading a book, suddenly raised her head and said, "Maybe it's because the gatekeeper just disappeared not long ago, and the city-state hasn't reacted yet?"

"...If that's the case, then Frost is hopelessly rotten," Vanna shook her head seriously. "But from what I've observed over this period of time, although this city-state is in a state of decline, other aspects are not that bad. The church and the city hall are at least running in an orderly manner."

"Perhaps we will observe a change in the atmosphere in the city-state tomorrow during the day." Duncan said casually, and just as he was about to continue speaking, he suddenly felt a heavy touch on his arm, interrupting what he wanted to say.

Shirley had fallen over, her head hitting his arm and she was snoring evenly.

But the next second, before Duncan could react, he saw the girl wake up from her sleep with a startle, and even Agou, who was dozing at the foot of the sofa, was thrown into the air with her: "Yes, yes, yes... yes... no..."

Shirley didn't even stutter out the "I'm sorry" until the end, and Duncan heard a loud "bang". Agou, who had been thrown into the air just now, fell to the ground. The latter rolled over, his head buzzing: "What's going on? What's going on? Are they fighting?"

Then it realized that the atmosphere around it was a bit weird. It looked up and saw several pairs of eyes falling strangely on itself and Shirley.

"There was no fight. Shirley fell asleep," Duncan sighed with a smile, looking at Shirley who was still tense. "It's okay, go upstairs and go to bed. Minors need to get enough sleep. Nina, stop reading. It's time to go to bed."

"Oh." Nina reluctantly put away the book she had just read halfway, stood up and grabbed Shirley who was still nervous, and the two of them walked hand in hand to the second floor.

Duncan watched the two girls disappear on the stairs, then turned his head and nodded to Vanna, "Tomorrow you and Morris go to the upper town to see if there are any changes in the atmosphere at the cathedral. If possible, find out the reaction of the City Hall. As things have developed to this day, the presence of the Frost City Hall has always been very low. I am very curious about what they are doing."

"Okay," Vanna nodded, and then asked curiously, "What about you? What are your plans next?"

"I'm going to go to the Second Waterway again with Alice," Duncan said casually, "Let's go take a look at the corridor where the crow had the accident. Since it is now speculated that there is a 'Mirror Frost' and the crow was very likely to have mistakenly entered there, perhaps we can find some new clues from that corridor."

At this point, he suddenly realized, "By the way, is Alice still cleaning up in the kitchen?"

"It seems so," Morris said as he stood up and looked back, "She did stay in the kitchen for too long... Could it be that her head got stuck in a corner and couldn't be taken out?"

"It's really worrying... I'll go take a look." Duncan sighed helplessly, then got up from the sofa and went to the kitchen.

As soon as he arrived in the kitchen, he saw the Gothic doll standing next to the sink. Her head was not lost as Morris guessed, but she was looking up at a corner of the ceiling at a weird angle.

Perhaps because she was too engrossed, Alice did not hear Duncan's footsteps. She just stared blankly in that direction where there was nothing. Then she stretched out her hand holding the kitchen knife and fiddled with the air. Then she changed direction and continued to fiddle with the air - as if she was trying to catch an invisible fly.

The Gothic puppet was in the kitchen with a dull expression, holding a kitchen knife and cutting the air. The scene was too weird, as if a health bar that could fill the entire screen would appear on the puppet's head in the next second, and an organ-style background music would sound around it. Duncan finally couldn't help but asked, "What are you doing?"

"Wow!"

Alice was startled for a moment, and subconsciously reached out to support her head - but she forgot that she was holding a sharp knife in her hand, so the next second, with a "puff" sound, she stabbed herself in the forehead with the knife.

With a "crack", the head was poked off by herself.

Although he had seen this doll's scary and unreliable appearance many times, Duncan was still dumbfounded at this moment. He quickly stepped forward to support Alice's shaky body, and then saw the latter waving her arms frantically - the sharp kitchen knife was still in her hand, with the tip of the knife poking her head. After waving it several times, she reacted belatedly, and quickly hugged her head with her left hand, and pulled the kitchen knife from her forehead with her right hand.

Then the puppet fumbled to throw the kitchen knife aside, picked up its own head and pressed it against its neck with ease. After a "pop" sound, the object returned to its original place.

"You scared me!" Alice turned her head and looked at Duncan a little aggrieved, but soon her eyes were attracted by the thing on Duncan's arm, "...Captain, this knife looks familiar."

Duncan held the handle of the kitchen knife on his arm with an expressionless face (some of it was also blocked by the bandage), pulled it off and threw it aside: "Nonsense, this is what you stabbed me with just now."

"…I'm sorry!" The puppet suddenly exclaimed, and hurried forward to check the situation, "Are you okay? Do you want a bandage?"

"No need, it's a corpse anyway." Duncan's mouth twitched, but his eyes couldn't help but fall on Alice's forehead.

Miss Doll had just stabbed herself on the forehead, leaving a huge wound, but at this moment, the wound was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye - there was no blood in the wound, only a surface as smooth as jade, and after just a few breaths, it was restored to its original state.

Alice felt a little uncomfortable with Duncan's gaze and subconsciously touched her face: "Why are you looking at me..."

"...What are you made of?" Duncan frowned and reached out to touch the place where Alice was injured. The touch was similar to skin, but cold and lifeless. "There was a hole in your head just now. Did you know that?"

Alice was stunned for a moment, raised her hand to touch her forehead, and answered stupidly, "It's healed."

"Of course I know it's healed!"

“…I don’t understand,” Alice shook her head. “I don’t know what material I’m made of… but it doesn’t seem to be wood or ceramic…”

Duncan held his breath for two seconds, then curled his lips: "I shouldn't have expected to get any answers from you - forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. What were you doing just now? Why were you staring at the ceiling in a daze?"

'There are threads,' Alice answered honestly. 'There were threads suddenly appearing just now - and now they are gone again.'

Duncan's expression changed instantly: "Line?!"

Alice can see special "lines", and these lines represent "people"!

"Yes," Alice nodded, looking serious, "I'm also curious about why the thread appeared. There's no one else here... But I remember what you taught me, that I can't just grab other people's 'threads' casually, so I just used a kitchen knife to poke it..."

Duncan didn't pay attention to what the puppet said in the second half of the sentence. His attention was already focused on the "lines" that Alice mentioned, which suddenly appeared and disappeared.

His eyes quickly swept across the kitchen, looking for anything that might be related to the "mirror image".

The glass on the window, the stagnant water in the pool, the blade of the kitchen knife - these all seem to be able to be used to establish a connection with the mirror space, but none of them appear abnormal.

But Duncan believed Alice, she would not lie.

Just at some moment just now, the mirror frost intersected with the reality here - perhaps it was only a very, very weak and brief intersection, but it was enough for the puppet to catch the line "floating" from there.