ASHES OF DEEP SEA

Chapter 264: Chapter 268: Alice with a Stable Head

Watching Alice with her neck stuck out in a confident pose, Duncan’s emotions became disjointed—”And he suddenly realized this silly posture wasn’t confidence or pride at all. It was just frozen and unable to move…

But the doll herself seemed completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation, still wearing a smug expression, handing over the newspaper to Duncan while giggling foolishly, clearly very happy about succeeding in shopping alone. “Here you go, the newspaper, and I even remembered the change!”

Duncan finally took the newspaper expressionlessly and after two or three seconds, he reminded the silly doll, “Alice, just nod your head.”

“Why?” Alice was puzzled, but she still chose to obey the captain’s order. As a result, her head just shook slightly, a strange noise came from her neck, and then it couldn’t move anymore.

After two seconds of being stunned, the doll finally reacted and exclaimed, “Mr. Duncan! I can’t move! Help, please help!”

Duncan looked at the doll wearily, turned around, and walked towards the antique store. “Stop shouting outside, we’ll figure it out when we get back.”

Alice hurriedly followed Duncan’s footsteps, with the equally puzzled and helpless Nina trailing behind them. The three entered the antique store, and Nina who was last, turned around to close the door carefully, making sure to hang the ‘Closed for Break’ sign.

Duncan casually threw the newly bought newspaper on the counter, ready to check on Alice’s situation when his eyes inadvertently swept over a headline on the front page of the newspaper.

His attention was drawn back to the newspaper.

It printed in bold black letters:

“The Storm Cathedral will arrive at loyal Plunder at noon tomorrow—the glory of the Storm Overlord blesses us all.”

The Storm Cathedral? The Deep Sea Church’s mysterious “sea headquarters”? Was the messenger of the Storm Goddess, Gomona, coming to this city-state because of the historical pollution incident? Or because of the Homeloss? Or both?

Duncan frowned, picked up the newspaper, and glanced through the headline article.

Source: .com, updated on ƝοѵǤօ.сο

Meanwhile, Alice, who was dreadfully agitated, kept bustling about. She finally realized that filling her neck joint with glue was not a wise decision. Noticing that the captain was too busy to attend to her, she turned to Nina for help. “Miss Nina, help! Save, save, save, save me…”

Nina was also panicking, stepping forward and shaking Alice’s head from side to side, only to find the glue had completely hardened. “This… this can’t be pulled off! It’s obvious it’s super glue!”

“Think of something,” Alice seemed almost about to cry, holding her head with both hands, “Miss Nina, didn’t you study something about repairing mechanics, you even know how to fix those complicated steam cores, fix me.”

“I don’t know how to repair dolls though!” Nina, also frantic, ultimately turned her pleading eyes to Duncan, “Uncle, please think of something, Miss Alice’s head is completely stuck…”

Duncan finally put the newspaper down and turned to look at the two causing a ruckus beside him, his gaze landing on Alice. “How much glue did you pour in, what kind was it?”

“A whole bottle, about this big,” Alice gestured with her hands, “I found it in your room, a brown little glass bottle.”

“You poured it all in?!” Duncan’s eyes twitched visibly, “How did you manage that?”

“I just took off the head, turned it upside down, poured in glue, shook it slightly, then immediately put it back on,” Alice’s voice almost whimpered, “Sherry said this would make it secure…”

Duncan stared dumbfounded at her. He could feel the beautiful doll’s profound despair—though dolls couldn’t cry, all their sorrow must just flow within their hollow hearts—a rather poetic sentiment if one could overlook the detail that “the doll’s despair stems from her head being glued on.”

Duncan sighed, tossed the newspaper aside, stepped forward to remove Alice’s lace decoration on her neck, examining the rigid superglue at the joint edges. After a moment of silence, he turned to Nina, “…Where did Sherry go?”

“She… said she got a headache from memorizing vocabulary and went out to clear her head an hour ago,” Nina responded, shrinking her neck, “Did she flee because she’s guilty?”

“I highly doubt she thought that far. The only thing she usually thinks about is skipping class,” Duncan sighed and shook his head, “No use, it’s completely dry, at least half an hour dry. It’s fast-acting glue, you can’t pull it off by force now.”

“What should we do then!” Alice looked helplessly at Duncan, “I… need to take off my head when combing my hair, I can’t comb it with the head attached.”

“So you’re only worried about that after your head got stuck?” Duncan glared at Alice and then waved his hands wearily, “Alright, stop frowning. Although this glue is solid, it’s not resistant to heat or water. Just soak it in hot water, it will loosen.”

Alice felt like she had been rescued, and the anxious Nina immediately reacted, quickly stepping forward to take Alice’s hand, “Then I’ll take you to the bathroom, I can heat up water very quickly!”

The Sun Shard, with its head glued on, went thumping upstairs, while Duncan sighed helplessly, picking up the newspaper he had set aside.

According to the news released, the arrival of the Storm Cathedral in Plunder was just a regular docking for repairs. The Pontiff of the Deep Sea, Helena, would be visiting the Plunder Cathedral during this time and discussing some church matters with the Archbishop and the Judge. The newspaper made no mention of the previous historical pollution incident or anything related to Homeloss.

Even without a mention in the newspapers, any keen observer would have known that the Pontiff of the Deep Sea was here because of those two major events.

Duncan didn’t care about the faith of the Storm Goddess, but he couldn’t help but ponder what impact this event might have on him.

Or rather, could he use this opportunity to gather some information?

He still remembered the message that he suspected had come from the Storm Goddess: “Thank you.” Even if that hadn’t happened, he was still quite curious about the deities of this world and also quite interested in the Storm Cathedral that was said to cruise the Endless Sea year-round.

On the other hand, he was curious if the highest spokesperson of the Storm Goddess arriving here might notice something unusual about the Plunder City-State, or perhaps notice him, the “Subspace Shadow” hidden within the City-State.

Things were getting interesting.

Duncan set the newspaper aside and sat down next to the counter, thoughtfully stroking his chin.

The antique shop was very quiet; even the faint sounds from Nina and Alice in the second-floor bathroom managed to trickle down, Nina’s voice being the clearest:

“Wow! These joints are really amazing… so beautiful!

“Miss Alice, can your wrist really rotate 360 degrees… really?!”

“Miss Alice, there’s a keyhole on your back, huh? You don’t know what it’s for?”

“Is it okay if the keyhole gets water in it? Oh, then I’m relieved…”

Duncan rubbed his temples with a slight headache.

He began to suspect that the two upstairs had completely forgotten about their actual tasks.

But soon, the noise from upstairs quieted down, followed by a rush of frantic footsteps clattering to the staircase, with Nina’s voice trailing behind, “Uncle Duncan! This won’t do! Come see, it just won’t come off!”

Duncan: “…?”

He ascended the stairs baffled, seeing Nina standing helplessly in the hallway, and he looked towards the bathroom at the end of the corridor to see Alice peeking out somewhat awkwardly.

Then the doll Miss came out, her whole body wet, wrapped in a towel, her head still perfectly in place.

“Captain, it didn’t work,” said Alice with a downcast face.

“It didn’t budge at all,” Nina muttered quietly, “even after flushing with hot water for ages.”

Duncan looked at Alice, then at Nina clutching at her clothes nearby, and finally sighed deeply.

“Use boiling water.”

“What?” Nina was immediately startled, “Really… really?! Can Miss Alice endure that…”

“She once deep-fried her head; she definitely won’t fear this temperature,” Duncan spread his hands, “It seems using hot water is ineffective, boiling her head might still have some hope.”

Nina’s eyes seemed a bit glazed as she pondered the process for a while, hesitatingly said, “Boiling water is easy, I can make that quickly, but… we don’t have a pot big enough or a tub to submerge her whole body. To boil her head, Miss Alice would have to crouch in the water, right?”

She gestured as she spoke though being academically excellent at school, at this moment, Nina still felt her imagination struggling to keep up with reality.

However, Duncan didn’t have such limitations in his thinking; he just looked at the pitiful, towel-wrapped gothic doll nearby, then turned to Nina and said, “It’s simple, just find any large pot, let her dive headfirst into it… I’ll hold her steady if needs be.”

Nina visualized it, though her tone remained especially hesitant, “It just seems a bit pitiful for Miss Alice…”

“Pitiful my ass!” Duncan finally lost his temper, swearing like never before, “She let an illiterate swindle her into pouring an entire bottle of glue into her joints. She needs to learn her lesson!”

(Bad news, wife tested positive, so did the kid, and I’m not feeling great either. It’s going to be tough to keep up with writing… Not sure if I can maintain updates, but I’ll try my best. Will write whenever I have the energy, trying not to stop.)

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