Lucrecia looked at the clockwork doll lying on the experimental table without saying a word. Alice stood opposite the experimental table with a nervous and uneasy look on her face, while Duncan stood next to Alice with a blank expression on his face.

After the awkward atmosphere lasted for a long time, Lucrecia finally broke the silence first: "...So, Luni took her own head off?"

"...The process is complicated," Duncan said with a straight face, "I'm surprised too."

Lucretia couldn't help but glance at Duncan.

She didn't know if it was an illusion, but she felt that her father, who always had a stern face and a serious and gloomy temperament, seemed to have a hint of... embarrassment in his expression just now.

"I'm sorry..." Alice finally spoke. She lowered her head and carefully grasped the corner of Duncan's clothes. She obviously realized that she had caused trouble again. "I saw that Luni was also a doll, and I thought that all dolls were the same, so... I was also surprised. It turns out that her head is not pluggable?"

"...I can see that Luni also thinks she is the same as you." Lucrecia looked at the "Anomaly 099" who had caused countless people to be terrified and vigilant with a subtle expression, "But I didn't design this 'function' for her."

At this moment, Luni, who was lying on the experimental table and working separately, suddenly moved. Her head blinked and her voice sounded a little out of tune: "Mistress, can you help me connect my head first? I'm sorry to trouble you..."

Lucrecia looked down at the clockwork doll expressionlessly, sighed, took the tools from the side, and began to remove the cover and decorative materials near the neck of Luni's body. While removing them, she couldn't help but ask: "Why did you follow Alice without thinking?"

"Alice... is a new friend," said Luni's head beside her. There was a slight noise when her mouth opened and closed. "A new friend brought by the old master."

Lucrecia paused for a moment, then continued to work without saying anything.

Alice looked at Luni's head a little uneasily: "Then will we still be friends from now on?"

"Okay," Luni blinked, "but I have to wait until the mistress fixes me..."

Alice suddenly became happy again, and then seemed to have discovered something extraordinary: "Ah, you don't stutter when you speak after taking your head off!"

"Yes, because my head can function independently. The mistress installed a complete vocal structure in my head, and my thinking is not affected by the missing body structure," Luni explained in a serious manner. "The difference between you and me is that my neck cannot be restored by itself after it is broken."

Alice thought about it, and although she didn't understand, she nodded: "Oh - that's amazing."

Duncan was watching this scene from the side and felt that it was so weird that it couldn't be any weirder.

What's even more bizarre than a cursed puppet that can lose its head is that this puppet has found another puppet as a friend - he hasn't introduced Alice to the other strange "servants" on the ship yet.

If this idiot were to take a stroll on the Brilliant Star, how lively would the ship be?

Lucretia, who was busy disassembling and repairing Runi's joints, suddenly felt a shock in her heart. She looked around blankly but couldn't find the source of this "shock".

But soon, her attention was focused on other things.

"What do you think about the 'eyeball' recorded by Master Taran El?" The "Sea Witch" turned her head and looked at Duncan beside her. "This matter must not be announced to ordinary people, but the Church of the Four Gods..."

"I am ready to tell them, but I haven't decided on how to do it, or whether it's necessary to have more direct contact with their top brass," Duncan quickly gathered up the messy thoughts in his mind and said seriously, "The key point now is not that 'Anomaly 001's body is an eyeball encapsulated in an artificial spherical shell'. After all, since the beginning of history, Anomaly 001 has been unknown to mortals. Its true appearance can be any weird or terrifying. What really matters is the appearance of the eyeball."

"The shape of that eyeball..." Lucrecia slowed down her movements and frowned slightly. "You said that it is very similar to... a certain structure of the Creeping Sun Disc?"

"The main body of the Creeping Sun Disc is an ancient god surrounded and scorched by the solar corona. Between the layers of tentacles, a huge eyeball structure is its main feature," Duncan nodded and said casually, "I was deeply impressed by that eyeball - it stared at me for a long time."

★ Illustration 3 ★

Listening to her father's story, Lucrecia suddenly looked around uneasily, and then looked at Duncan hesitantly: "Talking about the ancient gods directly on the sea..."

"It's not a big problem. Even if that guy's 'gaze' is really attracted, it will only fall on me." Duncan waved his hand, "And I have been looking for it all along."

Lucrecia opened her mouth, but suddenly didn't know how to respond.

During the century she traveled on the vast ocean, she had seen a lot of the world, dealt with even more lunatics, and participated in all kinds of topics and events, no matter how taboo or dangerous they were. However, those taboo and dangerous topics were not to be discussed in such a fierce atmosphere.

She felt that it might take her a long time to learn how to get along with her father again.

Duncan didn't pay attention to Lucrecia's subtle expression. After a moment of contemplation, he thought of another thing: "Do you remember the 'invader' that appeared in Taran Eyre's dream? The projection of the Son of the Sun."

"I remember you said it looked like a smaller version of the Creeping Sun Disc," Lucrecia nodded. "And you also mentioned that the Sun Child had a brief exchange with you, and that it and its minions were looking for something in that dream."

Duncan nodded slightly, and then spoke slowly: "The core of Anomaly 001 is an 'eyeball' that is extremely similar to the core of the 'Creeping Sun Disc'. Twelve hours after Anomaly 001 went out, the Son of the Sun invaded the 'Dream of the Nameless' through Taran El's dream, and brought his minions to search for something in that dream. There is obviously a connection between these two things;

"On the other hand, for thousands of years, the followers of the Black Sun have claimed that they worship the 'real sun god' and called the sun in the sky the 'false sun'. All along, the world believed that this was just their crazy delusion, and that it was the spiritual pollution of the Black Sun that caused the followers to have a distorted understanding of the world. However, when the sun went out, Taran El discovered that there was indeed an eyeball sealed inside Anomaly 001 that was extremely similar to the core structure of the 'Creeping Sun Disc'.

"Finally, there was the Annihilation Cultist who invaded the Nameless One's Dream. According to the intelligence I gathered, the Annihilation Cultist's goal was different from that of the Sun Cultist. They were looking for the 'original blueprint before the Lord created the world' in that dream. But according to the records in the Book of Blasphemy, the 'Lord of the Deep' guided the Crete clan during the creation of the world, and may have even helped them create Vision 001. So strictly speaking... Vision 001 today, which is the 'false sun' in the words of the Sun Cultist, can also be regarded as the 'masterpiece' of the Lord of the Deep and part of the original blueprint.

"The last point may also explain the 'cooperation' I observed between the Annihilation Cult and the Sun Cult - they are indeed cooperating, but their relationship is obviously not harmonious."

Duncan slowly spoke about what he had been thinking about during this period of time, then raised his eyelids and looked into Lucrecia's eyes.

"What do you think of this information?"

Lucrecia had unconsciously stopped what she was doing. Her expression changed several times, and she looked solemn and uneasy. After a long time, she broke the silence with a low voice: "...Even if a cultist who worships the Black Sun stood here, I'm afraid he would say this is a bit extreme..."

"...I heard something similar not long ago," Duncan shook his head and said, "Now I just hope that the deepest truth of our world is not crazier than this - otherwise, in the face of real history, even the most extreme cultists will seem conservative."

Lucrecia said nothing, but slowly lowered her eyes in deep thought.

Luni's head was still lying on the experimental table, meeting the eyes of the thoughtful hostess.

After a while, Luni couldn't help but speak: "Madam...are you still pretending? Why don't you go to the next room and rest for a while? You can ask the rabbi to come and help..."

Lucrecia exhaled, temporarily shook off the distracting thoughts in her mind, picked up the tools in her hands and continued to work: "The rabbi will only stuff your head into its own stomach to satisfy its endless desire for 'cotton' - don't move, I'm going to put your head back."

"oh."

※※※

At the same time, in the Governor's office of Breeze Harbor, Governor Sarah Meier unfolded a document that had just been delivered to her desk. Looking at the contents on it, the elf who had lived for a long time frowned little by little.

The document came from the Church of the Four Gods—it was not issued by a single church, but was signed by four popes, witnessed by four gods, and sent to every city-state on the vast ocean.

Establish an early warning system jointly constructed by the city-state, the church, and the Explorers' Association to monitor the city-state, the sea surface, and the abnormal movements below the sea surface that may occur at any time, and be alert to the recurrence of the frost crisis and the awakening of the ancient gods;

The Church of the Four Gods transferred part of its patrol fleet from the border to the interior of the civilized world to be ready to respond to emergencies around the world at any time.

Although the above two points are worrying, they are still normal. At least for the rulers of the city-state, this is still understandable "work content".

What really made Governor Sarah Meier frown was a particularly eye-catching and important item that seemed to be mentioned casually at the end of the document:

[Each city-state must pay attention to any warning signals from the Lost Homeland or the Lost Homeland Fleet. If the Lost Homeland is found operating in the waters around the city-state... it must not take any hostile actions, and should... cooperate as needed.]