The sailor becomes a peculiar new resident in the "witch's mansion" - but his joining doesn't seem to have the slightest impact on the daily operations of the mansion.

Most of the time, this mummy can stay in one place obediently like a real corpse. He doesn't need to eat or sleep. If no one talks to him, he can even go without speaking for two or three days. He always stays in his quiet corner as if thinking about something. He will find a place to stare blankly for the whole day without moving at all.

This made the other people in the house almost forget that there was a new "guest" here.

Only when Luni was cleaning would she have a few words with the mummy, and the main content of the communication was just a few sentences -

"Ah, move to the side." "Hey." "Okay, move back." "Oh."

Days passed one after another, and on the third day, the mistress of the house finally couldn't stand it anymore - Lucrecia found the "sailor" lying in a pile of sundries pretending to be a corpse in the storage room in the basement: "I heard my father describe you as not like this on the White Oak. You jumped up and down a lot every day. Why are you so quiet here?"

"Wouldn't it be nice to be quiet?" The sailor sat up from the pile of debris and looked into the witch's eyes in the dark. "From what I know, you are a person who likes quietness."

Lucrecia was stunned for a moment: "It's not bad... No, what I want to say is..."

But she was interrupted halfway through her words.

"I'm conserving my energy for the voyage," the sailor suddenly said. The mummy's eyes suddenly became serious. "We are about to have a historic voyage, ma'am. Although the captain didn't say it, you should know his plan. So in the coming days, I have to adjust my condition. The captain asked me to rest more these days and remember as much as possible about the 'Sea Song'. I have been doing this for the past two days."

"Voyage..." Lucrecia's expression changed slightly, but she recovered immediately. "So what do you remember?"

"Captain Kalani is a good man. The mess hall on the Sea Song is terrible, the crew members of the second shift are always noisy, and besides that, there is fog, a fog that never seems to end." The sailor stretched himself, and his shriveled and twisted joints made a series of terrible noises as if they were about to be torn apart. Then he fell back and lay in the pile of debris again. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't remember anything about the 'route', although the captain seems to have confidence in me..."

Few people dare to act so lazily and disrespectfully in front of the "Sea Witch" - Lucrecia's eyebrows raised involuntarily, but she quickly returned to her usual expressionless look: "Father always has his way."

The sailor was lying in the debris, smacking his lips noncommittally, and suddenly changed the subject: "What about you? Is your Brilliant Star ready to set sail?"

Lucrecia didn't respond, but just frowned.

"You are still resistant, and I can see that you are wavering," the sailor said calmly, "I roughly know what you are resisting... But please be prepared. This may be the greatest voyage in history, or it may be the last voyage. At least this time, you can choose to set sail with your father..."

A calm look that contained great pressure made the mummy shut his mouth.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?"

The sailor thought for a moment and said, "...I have been here for three days, and I only said a few more words today...Okay, I won't say any more."

Lucrecia looked at the mummy quietly for a while, then finally withdrew her gaze and turned to the door: "The Brilliant Star is always ready for a long voyage."

But she had just taken half a step when the sailor called her back: "Hey, wait a minute, there is something else..."

Lucrecia stopped and looked back in confusion: "What else?"

"Help me connect my lumbar spine and shoulders..." The sailor continued to lie arrogantly in the pile of debris, unable to move at all, "I stretched my head too much just now and pulled the joint off..."

Lucrecia's expression finally changed subtly. She looked at the mummy quietly for two or three seconds, and finally turned around and left without hesitation: "Lie down."

※※※

Duncan stopped writing and looked to the side - it was still night outside the window, but the bright electric light illuminated the study. Alice was sitting quietly in a chair near the window, the light falling on the doll's shoulders, her eyes half closed, as if she was about to fall asleep.

But after noticing the gaze coming from the desk, the doll immediately opened its eyes. She looked at Duncan with a happy smile on her face: "Captain! Have you finished writing?"

As she spoke, she stood up from the armchair and walked to Duncan's side.

"I've finished writing," Duncan said casually. He didn't put away his diary, but spread it out on the table. Because he knew that no one in the world could understand what he wrote. "If you feel sleepy, go back to your room and rest. You don't have to stay with me all the time."

“Not sleepy, not sleepy!” Alice waved her hands immediately, and then her eyes fell on the captain’s diary out of curiosity. “Is this your diary? Uh… I can’t understand a single word…”

Duncan smiled and shook his head. He didn't explain anything, but just asked casually: "Do you want to try to write a diary?"

"Me?" Alice was stunned for a moment, but soon shook her head, "I don't know... I don't know what to remember, and it requires knowing a lot of words..."

Duncan laughed. "Just write down things that you think are meaningful or interesting. You don't need a lot of words to write a diary. The vocabulary you have now should be enough. If you really don't know how to write, you can draw it."

The puppet listened quietly, and some light seemed to gradually appear in its eyes.

"I can draw!" she said happily.

Although what she meant by "being able to draw" was only that people could tell whether the painting was of a man or a woman, a person or a dog - ever since Duncan taught her the most basic drawing skills, she has always been proud to think that she "can draw".

Duncan just smiled, then reached out from the desk and pulled out a new diary, put a pencil in the book, and handed it to the puppet in front of him.

"Here you go. I brought it from the ship," he said. "You can write down anything you want to remember on it."

Alice happily accepted the "new gift" from the captain. She flipped through the blank diary and then lay down beside the desk, as if she was about to write something in the book. But as soon as she picked up the pencil, she thought of a new question and looked up at Duncan: "Why do you suddenly want me to write a diary?"

Duncan was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect the puppet to ask this question suddenly. After a brief thought, he nodded and said, "We will set off soon. This time we are going to a very far place. We may see all kinds of things on the journey... Memory is short-lived. If we don't want to miss the scenery on the journey, it is necessary to record them safely."

Alice listened to the captain's words with a vague understanding, and she had no idea what the doll was thinking at the moment. After a few seconds, she nodded "Oh", then lowered her head and carefully wrote a few words on the title page of the diary with a pencil - "Alice's Diary".

"It's done!" She happily showed the captain the name she had just written.

The line of letters was crooked, but it was indeed the best she had ever written since she started learning to read and write with Duncan.

"Very good," Duncan nodded with a smile, but then he couldn't help but remind her, "But you can't show your diary to anyone. You have to keep it safe..."

Alice tilted her head and pointed at Duncan's diary on the desk: "But you showed it to me."

Duncan's expression froze: "...This is because I know you can't understand the words on it."

"...Oh," Alice scratched her hair and looked at her diary with some confusion, "Is it not okay for me to show it to you?"

"No," Duncan said seriously, but then he noticed the confusion and helplessness in the puppet's expression. After thinking for a while, he added, "But if there is something you really want to share with me, then you can - other than that, I won't read it. That's your secret."

The puppet then became happy again: "Okay!"

Duncan just felt a little helpless, but no matter what, he felt a lot better after being interrupted by this puppet.

Alice didn't think so much, but she could feel that the captain's mood was getting better, which made her very happy. She watched Duncan put away the diary on the table, thought for a moment, and asked casually: "Captain, are we going to the border next?"

Duncan glanced at the puppet in surprise.

"Miss Vanna told me," Alice said immediately, "She also said that we will leave in two days. We must bring enough food and water on the ship this time, because the place we are going to may be very special..."

Duncan nodded slightly: "Yes, it will be very special... It is a place where even I don't know what it looks like or what will happen."

"...Farther than the 'Holy Island' we found before?"

"Farther than that."

"oh--"

Alice drew out the sound, as if trying to imagine what a place further away than the Holy Island would be like, but she couldn't.

"Aren't you worried?" Duncan looked at the puppet in front of him curiously. He couldn't seem to see any uneasiness in the other's clear eyes.

Alice held her head and shook it vigorously.

Duncan thought about it and deliberately made the matter sound more serious: "We may get lost outside the border, or encounter a time fault. Even if we are fully prepared, it may take us a very long time to return... or we may not be able to return at all."

Alice continued to shake her head, and then suddenly smiled.

"Don't be afraid, I will bring you back."

"You? Bring me back?"

"Um!"

Duncan laughed in surprise and helplessness: "How are you going to bring me back?"

"I don't know!" Ellie answered without hesitation.

Duncan: “…”

He looked helplessly at the puppet in front of him who always seemed confused, and at the confident smile on his face even though his mind was clearly confused.

But suddenly he seemed to have thought of something, and when he looked at Alice again, his helpless expression was filled with a hint of thoughtfulness...