With countless questions and guesses in his mind, Duncan kept the brass key close to him, and Alice waited obediently beside him, her eyes moving around like a child expecting a secret.

"Do you feel any different now?" Duncan asked, looking into Alice's eyes.

"A different feeling?" Alice tilted her head and raised her hand to touch her back. After a while, she shook her head. "Just now I felt a little itchy at the keyhole, but it doesn't itch anymore."

Duncan frowned when he heard this: "...Nothing else? Just this?"

"Nothing," Alice answered honestly, then showed a curious look, "Is there anything? You look so serious... Have you figured out the key?"

Duncan frowned, and after a moment's hesitation, he finally sorted out his thoughts and words, sat down on the table opposite the puppet, and spoke seriously: "You may feel that only a moment has passed, but I have been in a strange place for a long time - it is a huge old mansion, and its name... is called 'Alice Mansion'."

The Gothic doll opened its eyes little by little and listened to the captain's story in surprise and confusion.

Duncan did not hide his experience in Alice Mansion. He told the puppet lady everything he saw and heard there, and then mentioned what he saw and heard in the deep sea, including his meeting with the Frost Queen Lei Nora.

Of course, he knew that Alice might only understand part of it, or even understand the part vaguely, and what she could remember afterwards would be very limited, but he still chose to tell everything.

Because this is something she should know - you can't just hide it from her with the mentality of "she won't understand it anyway", this is the minimum respect.

Alice was stunned to hear the end, and it was not until more than ten seconds after Duncan finished speaking that the Gothic puppet came to its senses: "...Wow."

Then she scratched her hair, with confusion and a little apology on her face: "I... don't quite understand, I feel dizzy... I'm sorry, Captain, you took so much effort to help me figure these things out, but I seem to be a little stupid..."

"No, you're not stupid, it's just that these things are too complicated." Duncan knew that the other party would definitely react in this way, so he smiled and shook his head. "Even I feel that these things are full of mysteries. There are too many clues and they are too scattered. It is obviously still a long way to go before the final fog is torn apart."

Alice nodded half-comprehendingly, then thought about it seriously for a moment, and suddenly became curious: "Are there a lot of people in that 'mansion'? And all of them have no leaders?"

"I only saw a man who claimed to be a butler, but according to that butler, there were indeed many people in the mansion, but they were all hiding," Duncan said as he recalled, "and from what I observed, those should be headless servants."

Alice frowned and muttered while trying to think: "Could it be related to my 'beheading' ability..."

"It's possible. It's possible that some of the servants are the souls of those who were beheaded by you." As someone who knew about the "Alice Guillotine", Duncan certainly thought of this direction. However, he changed the subject immediately and said, "But according to some information revealed by the butler, there are a large number of 'drifting' souls gathered in the mansion. They are like some kind of exiles who accept the protection of the mansion. These servants don't seem to be beheaded..."

He paused, thought for a moment, and then continued, "Perhaps it is your guillotine ability that makes the souls gathered in the mansion appear headless, regardless of their specific 'origin'."

"Oh..." Alice seemed to understand, and then she seemed to think of something, "What about the 'Frost Queen'? Is she really gone?"

"The room has indeed disappeared," Duncan nodded. "It seems that it is just as she said. When the ancient god's tentacles that serve as the 'connection point' are destroyed, the 'Drifting Land' will lose its restraints, just like a rope that has been untied..."

He suddenly stopped, his expression thoughtful.

"Captain?" Alice looked at Duncan in confusion. "Why are you suddenly silent?"

She asked twice in a row, and Duncan raised his head from his contemplation, with a hint of solemnity in his tone: "I was wondering, the 'drifting place' that Lenora mentioned, is it referring to her room, or the entire Alice Mansion."

"Ah?" Alice didn't react for a moment. "Is there any difference?"

"If the Drifting Ground refers to the entire Alice Mansion, then when the 'connection point' was burned by me, it should be the entire mansion that disappeared, not a single room on the second floor; if the Drifting Ground refers only to the room where she slept, then what is the relationship between that room and the entire mansion? In other words...isn't the 'connection' between her room and the entire mansion a 'connection point'?"

Duncan paused and pointed at Alice.

"More importantly, after I turned the clockwork key in you, I entered the 'Alice Mansion'. Obviously, the connection between that mansion and you is the strongest. You two should even have some kind of 'one heart and one body' relationship. If the 'Drifting Land' needs a connection point to exist stably... then you are obviously the most stable connection point."

Alice blinked and listened carefully, trying to understand - but she couldn't.

But her strength has always been sincerity: "What are you talking about?"

"The room where the Frost Queen slept was 'torn' away from the main body of the mansion. There were obvious signs of damage on the edge. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, but just now it suddenly occurred to me...Lennora might have hidden something from me.

"The so-called 'drifting place' should theoretically refer to the entire Alice Mansion, and that mansion is closely connected to you. From what I have observed, it has no tendency to 'drift'. So it is very likely that Lenoira took advantage of the opportunity when I burned the ancient god's tentacles and took advantage of the opportunity when some kind of 'connection' was weakened to forcibly 'separate' her room from the main part of the mansion."

Alice continued to try to understand.

But this time, she finally understood most of it.

"You mean the Frost Queen took advantage of your fire to 'drive' away her room? Just like taking advantage of the fog to drive away the lifeboat on the ship?"

Duncan was stunned when he heard this, and looked at the puppet in surprise: "Your metaphor is subtle and makes sense... How did you come up with it?"

"Mr. Goathead has told me a lot of stories about this. How mutinous sailors stole the lifeboats, wine barrels, cheese, and salted fish on the ship during the fog. Then the wise and brave captain would cross the entire ocean to get the stolen salted fish back... Are you going to catch the Frost Queen who stole the room?"

Duncan was stunned when he heard this. After Alice finished speaking, he curled his lips in a strange expression: "Let's not talk about why the mutinous crew members stole the salted fish, and why I crossed the entire Infinite Ocean to snatch a salted fish back - where can I find the Frost Queen? Besides, you should be the one to catch her, because she stole your room - you are the mistress of Alice's Mansion."

"...Right." Alice thought about it and simply agreed with this logic, then shook her head. "Then I won't catch her. After all, the room originally belonged to her. But...why did she do this? Didn't you just say that once the drifting ground loses its restraints, it will fly everywhere, and may even fall into the subspace, just like exile - isn't this a terrible thing?"

Duncan couldn't help but ponder, and slowly spoke while thinking: "Yes, why..."

He recalled the Lenora he had met, the "Frost Queen" who seemed to have been in shackles since birth, was crowned in shackles, and was overthrown in shackles, and even fell into the deep sea, she was always imprisoned in nightmares.

She said she always slept in the cage, even though the bars were later removed.

Now, she's escaped—and she's taken her cage with her.

"Probably for 'freedom'." Duncan said softly.

But is it just for "freedom"?

※※※

The pointer on the dial on the control panel was shaking rapidly, and the shaking was becoming more and more obvious as it approached the water surface. Through the thick glass porthole, some light shining from above could be vaguely seen in the deep and boundless sea outside.

Sunlight appeared in the water column - a sign that the submersible was rapidly approaching the surface.

However, the gradually filling light could not completely dispel the depressing impression left by the deep sea - as if in the vast darkness below the submersible there was still something constantly floating up and escaping, extending invisible tentacles, opening its arms upwards, and retaining the uninvited guests who had entered the deep sea.

The things that Duncan told himself during the ascent were still lingering in his mind - thrilling, bizarre, strange, and shocking to his worldview.

Whether it is the soul of the Frost Queen who has lived with the ancient gods in the deep sea for fifty years, or the horrific possibilities hidden in all things in the world, it is enough to make a person with a firm mind and devout faith feel a deep chill in the sun.

All things in the world are descendants of the ancient gods. The flesh and blood of the ancient gods exist in all living things and are gradually awakening.

Even in the most blasphemous, heretical and filthy books, no one dared to record such remarks - those most insane cultists of annihilation only dabbled in theories like "the creation of the world by the Holy Lord of the Deep".

The sunlight coming from the sea became brighter.

The dead body cannot feel any warmth.

Agatha clasped her hands in front of her chest, silently calling out Bartok's name, wanting to pray to her own god.

But I couldn't calm down no matter what.