In the vast ocean, Duncan, sitting at the desk in the captain's room, frowned slightly.

He reached out and opened the secret compartment under the desk, and took out the brass key that Agatha had discovered and handed to him from the hidden place, and placed it in front of him to examine it carefully.

The quaint-looking clockwork key exudes a cold metallic texture, reflecting the sunlight coming in from the window. On the key handle that resembles an infinity symbol, tiny decorative patterns catch the eye.

This was not the first time Duncan had looked at the key, but this time, his mood when he looked at this "Queen's relic" was completely different from before.

This might be Lenora's "soul container" - this possibility made his eyes gradually become complicated.

The Frost Queen is a great person, and the secrets hidden in her attract Duncan's attention. If there is a chance for Duncan to establish communication with Lenora, it would certainly be a good thing - but the premise of all this is that Alice cannot be the gambler.

In Frost City, Duncan, wearing a black coat, narrowed his eyes slightly. He seemed to have gathered his scattered thoughts for a moment, and his gaze fell on Agatha again, and the hazy shadow "Agatha" next to him.

"Do you still remember your experiences in the city-state as a 'fake'?" he suddenly asked.

“Yes, I remember it all,” the hazy shadow seemed to nod, “I also remember my experience as I entered the mine and merged into that strange darkness…”

"I already know this information, Agatha... I mean, the 'genuine' Agatha has already reported this to me," Duncan said, with a thoughtful expression on his face. "To be honest, your appearance... reminds me of someone."

"Alone?" the two Agathas said almost in unison.

"A soul shadow named 'Martha'," Duncan said slowly, "She is Lawrence's wife and a new member of my fleet. In the past ten years, her identity has been a 'fake' swimming in the mirror frost."

The hazy phantom "Agatha" moved slightly.

"Over the past decade, this 'fake' has been wandering in the mirror space, attracting and gathering a huge number of thoughts and memory fragments, which has allowed her to grow into a huge 'hybrid', and 'Martha' is the core personality of this hybrid," Duncan continued, his eyes falling on the hazy figure, "From the current situation, your situation is very similar to 'Martha's', the difference is that you have not yet become a 'hybrid' like her - you are still in an early, pure stage. Of course, considering that the mirror Frost has been destroyed, you will probably remain stable at this stage in the future."

"There is actually... such a thing," said the genuine Agatha, with a tone of disbelief, "I thought what happened to me was a special case..."

"It's not a special case, so it arouses my curiosity," Duncan said calmly, his eyes still fixed on the hazy figure. "When the mirror frost faded, all the 'fakes' disappeared, but now two 'personalities' remain. Does this mean that the power supporting the fake 'Martha' and the fake 'Agatha' is not the mirror city, but something else? The personality and memory copied in that sea area can exist stably in the real world, and Martha is now even outside the frost sea area. Does this also mean... that the power that maintains the fake 'Agatha' and the fake 'Martha' is something as huge and stable as the real world?"

The hall where the submersible was parked fell silent for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, Agatha raised her head and looked quietly into the eyes of her "shadow".

Duncan suddenly broke the silence: "Have you ever thought about the future?"

"The future?" Agatha was stunned for a moment, as if she had never considered this direction. "You mean..."

"You can't live forever as another person's shadow - a literal shadow," Duncan stared at the hazy phantom. "You should think about your future life."

The hazy phantom fell silent. After an unknown amount of time, she spoke with a hint of hesitation: "But I am indeed her shadow."

"I emphasize again, a 'human' cannot live forever as another person's shadow," Duncan continued to gaze at her calmly, "You have your own personality and your own memories. Perhaps more than twenty years of those memories belong to others, but at least the last few days of them belong to you. So what's next... Agatha?"

When Duncan said the name "Agatha", the two figures subconsciously raised their heads at the same time.

Duncan glanced at the two of them, then he exhaled softly: "Think about it carefully, it's okay, we still have a lot of time."

※※※

A knock on the captain's door interrupted Duncan's thoughts.

Temporarily withdrawing most of his attention from the "incarnation" of the Frost City-State, he raised his head and looked at the door of his bedroom: "Come in."

The door was pushed open. Alice stretched her head to look inside, then she slipped into the room like a thief, holding a plate of still steaming snacks in her hands. "I learned how to bake cookies!"

With a smug tone, she placed the snacks on the table in front of Duncan, then looked around, as if looking for Ai.

"Aiyi is in the Frost," Duncan said casually, his eyes fixed on the Gothic puppet in front of him.

This was the "back room" of the captain's cabin, his bedroom. In the entire ship, the only people who could enter this room so casually were Nina and Alice.

The first person he met after coming to this world... a humanoid.

He trusted her, even though she was not so reliable, but Duncan knew that the honesty and trust of this doll lady in him surpassed everything else - even though this almost extreme trust came more from her solid brain, but in this cold and strange world, this original and deepest trust still seemed invaluable.

Alice finally noticed Duncan's gaze. She turned her head in confusion, first checked her clothes, then touched her neck: "Why are you looking at me?"

"Nothing." Duncan retracted his gaze and took a biscuit from the plate and stuffed it into his mouth. "...It tastes okay."

Alice laughed happily.

Then she noticed the brass key lying on the table.

"Ah, you are studying this key," Alice said, picking it up, and fiddling with it curiously, and then she began to feel her back. "Are you going to wind it up for me?"

"Don't touch it," Duncan said as he reached out and took the key back. His tone became particularly serious. "From now on, you can't touch this key without my permission."

Perhaps it had been a long time since she saw Duncan react so seriously, Alice was even a little scared. She quickly retracted her hand, and a nervous and frightened look appeared on her face: "I'm... I'm sorry..."

"I'm sorry to scare you," Duncan reacted and immediately slowed down his tone. "You didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not criticizing you. It's just that this key... may be dangerous to you."

“Danger?” Alice blinked, seemingly unable to understand. She reached out her hand and touched her back in confusion, and touched the keyhole through her clothes. “But I heard from Shirley and Nina that… this key should be used to wind up the toy soldier for me… Ah, Nina also bought a wind-up toy soldier in the city. I played with it for a long time, and the wind-up key of the toy soldier is like this…”

Duncan rubbed his forehead. Although he knew it might be difficult for Alice to understand, he still patiently explained: "This key is not a simple thing. It is an extraordinary item. Do you understand? Queen Lenora left this thing, and I now suspect... this is some kind of method of resurrection for her."

Alice stared into Duncan's eyes for a long time before she stretched out her voice: "Ah...ah?"

"Leonora's memories and soul may be stored in this key." Duncan was not surprised by Alice's reaction. He just sighed softly, pressed the key on the table, looked at the doll in front of him and said, "And you look exactly like Leonora."

After being stunned for a while, Alice finally understood. She looked down at her body, then at the key that the captain had pressed on the table. After a long while, she spoke: "So, if you wind me up, the Frost Queen may be able to control my body?"

"I am indeed worried about this," Duncan nodded. He did not hide his thoughts in front of the simple-minded puppet. "Of course, this worry is not so...reasonable. There are still many doubts."

"Suspicious points?"

"The most important thing is that there are too many uncontrollable factors in this process," Duncan said. "You should know how you were discovered - the puppet coffin was drifting in the sea near Frost and was salvaged by a passing ship. But where is the key? The key is in the hands of successive governors of the city-state. They have passed it down for half a century, but no one knows the connection between the key and you, the puppet. If this is the resurrection method left by the Frost Queen, then this method relies too much on luck.

"The puppet may not be with the key, and the person who gets the key may not know the connection between the key and the puppet. Even if they know, they may not turn the key. Even Tirian doesn't know this, so who will wind you up? Moreover... with the terrible name of Anomaly 099, how many people dare to approach the puppet coffin casually?"

Alice listened to the captain's words with a half-understanding. After finally understanding most of it, she asked curiously, "Then...what are the other doubts?"

"Other suspicious points..."

Duncan thought about it, and in his mind, he suddenly recalled the Frost Queen he had seen in the "illusion" when he was investigating Alice's "coffin", and the words the Frost Queen had left behind -

Please don’t pollute history.

The Frost Queen, who calmly faced death in the face of fate... would she really arrange a backup plan to resurrect herself decades later?