"One-third of the structure?"

Ted Riel was stunned when he heard what Duncan said, and looked at the lines he had drawn on the paper with some confusion. Even he felt that the lines he had drawn were abstract and messy. To be fair, he thought that his drawing was very bad, but this was the closest picture to the "original impression" that he could recall. The residual influence of the subspace had long interfered with his mind, making it impossible for him to clearly recall the details of those memories. It was difficult for him to fully outline the picture from these fragmented lines.

However, from Duncan's tone, he realized that this "Ghost Captain" not only saw what was drawn on the paper, but even... he knew what this thing should have looked like.

Duncan stood in front of the table, frowning as he carefully observed the details of Ted's painting. After a while, he pointed to a certain part of the picture and asked, "Is the structure here broken?"

Ted frowned and tried to recall for a while. Finally, a vague impression emerged in his mind: "It seems to be... but I'm not sure. I only glanced at it in a hurry and didn't even have time to see the complete structure of its side..."

"It's broken here, and then extends outwards. Here are some connecting structures." Duncan didn't pay attention to Ted's hesitation. He just picked up a pencil and quickly drew lines on the blank space on the picture. Under his pen, a strange thing with a symmetrical three-body structure was quickly outlined. In the eyes of Ted and Lucrecia, it had nothing to do with a "ship". "It is composed of these three main structures... This is where the engine group is..."

Lucrecia had unknowingly come close to this strange "picture". After staring at it for half a minute, she finally couldn't help but ask, "What... is this?"

Duncan didn't look up. After a few seconds of silence, he replied softly: "It's called 'New Hope'."

Lucrecia and Ted Riel looked at each other, then said in unison: "A New Hope?"

Alice also came over and asked a little later: "What is the New Hope?"

Duncan raised his head, and his complicated and strange gaze fell on the Gothic doll, but the latter seemed to have no reaction at all, and just tilted his head: "Why are you looking at me?"

"...It was a ship, a spaceship," Duncan retracted his gaze and said in a subtle tone that he himself did not know what emotion it was, "It arrived in this world many, many years ago... or rather, it crashed into the wreckage of the world we are in like other 'fragments'."

"Spaceship? A flying ship?" Ted Riel said with surprise, and then he reacted, "You mean another 'world fragment'? A flying ship called 'New Hope'. Part of its wreckage fell into the subspace and became the mansion I saw...?"

He raised his hand and gestured, with an incredible look on his face.

Duncan did not answer the doubts of the truth keeper. He just lowered his head again and stared at the picture on the table for a long time. Based on Ted Lear's drawing, simple strokes outlined the sketch of a huge spaceship. Although it was not very authentic, it was indeed the "New Hope" he saw in that illusion, dragging a long flame and falling into this world.

He still remembered how he saw that illusion at first.

In order to check Alice's "wind-up key", he spread his flame to the inside of the brass key - just like every time he used similar methods to explore extraordinary objects, he saw the "echo" retained in the "wind-up key".

In that "echo", Alice's clockwork key turned into some weird... data access medium, and the New Hope crashed in the final scene of the illusion.

For a long time, he had been looking for clues about the "spaceship", looking for legends or historical records left in this world that might be related to an ancient crash. At the same time, he often thought about a question -

[Why does Alice's "wind-up key" record the illusion of the New Hope crash? 】

What could be the connection between this harmless-looking Gothic doll and a spaceship that crashed in ancient times?

The gap between the "puppet" and the "spaceship" was so huge that even with Duncan's associative ability, he couldn't connect the two things together. However, now... an even more incredible clue appeared before him.

Ted Riel saw Alice Mansion in the warp - that mansion, at certain moments, would appear to be one-third of the wreckage of the New Hope!

Duncan did not doubt Ted Riel's memory or description, but he quickly ruled out the possibility of problems in this regard - Ted Riel could not describe something he had never seen out of thin air, and even if his memory was confused, he could not "accurately" outline the ship structure of the "New Hope" in the confusion.

Some messy and broken clues seemed to be quietly connected, and some incredible guesses emerged in Duncan's mind.

As his thoughts raced through his mind, Duncan reached into his pocket and fumbled around, pulling out the brass key used to wind up Alice.

The brass key lay quietly in the palm of his hand, and the end of the cold metal key formed the classic "∞" symbol, as if all the secrets were hidden in infinite silence.

After a moment, he put away the key and when he looked up, he was met with the curious yet hesitant gazes of Lucrecia and Ted Lear.

"Let's talk about the other things first," Duncan shook his head and looked at Ted, "What else did you see in the subspace?"

Ted nodded. He realized that the "New Hope" might be pointing to some secret that was too ancient and dangerous, so he rationally controlled his curiosity and continued to describe the incredible scenes he had seen in the warp.

There were giants standing in the wasteland, huge thrones and headless figures, nameless warriors lying dead against wreckage, and all sorts of other bizarre things that made it hard to tell whether they were real or figments of the mind.

Duncan did not interrupt again. He listened attentively, nodding slightly from time to time, until Ted Lear finished his story, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

The headless corpse on the throne, the unknown warrior beside the strange wreckage, the huge structure standing in the wasteland... These things are indeed incredible, but anything is possible in the warp - at least in Duncan's view, these are much easier to accept than "Alice Mansion appeared in the warp" and "Alice Mansion is part of the New Hope."

"...It was such a wonderful and impressive journey," Lucrecia broke the silence in the room after also listening quietly for a long time. "Fifteen minutes... Sir Ted, your fifteen minutes of experience is enough for many scholars to study for a lifetime."

"I can use this fifteen-minute experience to write enough academic papers for the rest of my life, but to be honest, I would rather not have this experience," Ted sighed. "You know what? Until now, I can still hear the buzzing noises in my head from time to time... They are like living things drilling around in my consciousness. Even though I have received rigorous training in tough psychology and will control theory, it is extremely difficult to fight against this noise, and this sequelae may continue for a long time..."

He shrugged his shoulders and looked a little bad.

"What's worse is that I have to return to the academy tomorrow to face those stubborn students... The clear yet stupid opinions they express in the academic field are simply another kind of 'subspace noise' to me..."

Mr. Secret Keeper muttered, raising his hand to cover his forehead in pain. Apparently the remnants of the warp and the foreseeable shadows of the future were intertwined, casting a heavy shadow in his heart.

Duncan had no way to comfort Ted, so he could only sigh and pat Ted on the shoulder: "I understand how you feel."

Ted was a little surprised. He looked up at Duncan in confusion and asked, "How could you understand that?"

Duncan was stunned for a moment, feeling that this question was difficult to explain clearly, but soon, Shirley's homework book and Alice's graffiti book appeared in his mind.

"…I have students on my ship who are clearer than yours."

Ted was stunned for a moment, not knowing how much he understood, and nodded with a complicated expression: "It seems...it's not easy for you normally."

Then he calmed down, as if he felt a little tired after recalling things about the subspace for a long time and wanted to relax his mind, but less than half a minute later, he seemed to suddenly remember another thing.

"There is another situation." Ted raised his head, his expression becoming a little serious. "It's not about the warp, it's about... the White Oak."

"White Oak?" Duncan was a little confused. "What happened to that ship?"

"...I don't know if it was my illusion. After all, I was affected by the warp at the time, and my perception and thinking were confused, but I always felt that... something was wrong when I was talking to the 'sailor' on the White Oak."

Duncan's expression became serious as he listened to Ted's words.

"Sailor...you mean the 'anomaly' numbered 077? What's wrong with him?"

"I can't explain it, but after returning here, I recalled the feeling when I was talking to that 'abnormal'. I always felt as if I was not just talking to 'him' at that time," Ted Riel frowned, trying to recall while choosing his words, "I talked to him about some views on the world, about the perspective of looking at the world as an 'abnormal'. When he answered me... I always felt as if I could hear multiple voices... It was as if there was something else hiding on that ship, and hiding next to the 'sailor' at that time."