The sea had calmed down.
Alice saw the tentacle fall onto the deck, along with some bits of flesh that contained a powerful force; life quickly faded from these remnants. At the same time, some immense creature lurking beneath the sea around the Homeloss began to rapidly dive deeper—after sacrificing one tentacle as a "price," it quickly retreated from the waters where the Homeloss was located, its departure almost resembling a hasty escape.
As this giant shadow submerged back into the deep sea, the ocean restored its calm at an astonishing pace, and the dense, ink-like clouds in the sky also completely dissipated.
...Those might not have been clouds at all.
Alice looked up at the sky, recalling the appearance of the clouds from before. She remembered the contours of the clouds as they vanished, and finally managed to faintly associate them with the shadow that had been in the water around the ship.
The heavy clouds in the sky seemed like a shadow, cast by some colossal creature in the sea.
The crackling sound of flames burning came from the edge of the deck, interrupting Alice's trance. She quickly looked toward the captain's direction, only to see the captain had reverted to his usual demeanor: the tall man's face bore a cheerful smile as he noticed Alice standing not too far away and gestured for the doll-like lady to come over.
Seeing Alice approach, Duncan kicked at the large fish at his feet, his tone slightly rising, "Look, I caught a big fish!"
"Big... big fish?" Alice looked somewhat bewildered as she gazed at the mass at Duncan's feet. Among the twisting, writhing flesh, countless eyes, split open and bloody, were still staring half-open at the sky, while sharp, jagged teeth gleamed with a metallic sheen between the orbs.
With Duncan's kick, half of the eyes on the severed tentacle suddenly blinked, but then all closed for good.
"Yes, a big fish," Duncan said cheerfully. "You see, it took quite an effort to haul this thing up."
Though merely a puppet, Alice felt a muscle in the corner of her eye twitch at that moment. She opened her mouth to speak but was at a loss where to begin correcting the topic.
She looked down at the "fish" by Duncan's feet.
An ugly big fish lay there—dark and uneven skin with bizarre grey-white patterns near the fins, bone spurs protruding from its head, and a pair of lifeless fish eyes confronting her gaze.
Many "small fish" were scattered across the surrounding deck.
Alice suddenly lost all expression and speech, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her, at the "fish" lying on the deck, at these things that just a second ago were not "fish".
Toy-like Miss Alice, lacking in life experiences, did not yet understand the concept of "doubting one's life," but at that moment, she indeed began to doubt everything, even questioning whether she was "dreaming"—where had the tentacle and those fragments of flesh gone?
Perhaps her momentary stupor was too evident, as Duncan immediately noticed Alice's odd behavior. He raised an eyebrow, looking at the doll-like girl, "What's wrong? Is something amiss?"
"I..." Alice opened her mouth, but just as she was about to correct something, the rules Goat-head had told her suddenly sprang to mind.
Aboard the Homeloss, Captain Duncan was the ultimate authority, his words the absolute "fact"—if the real world contradicted Captain Duncan's words, then his judgment was to be trusted.
"There's no problem at all!" Alice quickly recovered, speaking swiftly as if to cover the nervousness in her tone and hurriedly changed the subject, "By the way, Captain, that storm just now was quite frightening..."
"Storm? Are you talking about that wave?" Duncan looked puzzled at the doll-like miss, "That wave was indeed no small matter, but it hardly qualifies as a storm... Though, that's right, you haven't seen a real storm."
Alice: "…You are right."
If Captain Duncan called the storm that had nearly covered the entire sea area a "wave," then it was a wave. If Captain Duncan believed the things he caught aboard were "fish," then those things were fish.
"...I sense you are a bit tense, are you truly alright?" Duncan still noticed something off in Alice's tone. He looked at his "first mate" with some concern, "Are you seasick, perhaps? Can you get seasick?"
"I'm fine, just that the boat was rocking a bit too much just now..." Alice looked at the captain, who showed a look of concern, unsure whether to feel relieved or more afraid, and could only awkwardly switch topics, "By the way, what do you plan to do with these… 'fish' that you've caught?"
"What else?" Duncan instantly laughed, "To eat, of course!"
Alice's expression instantly froze: "...Eat?"
"What else? Haven't you noticed that the food supply on the Homeloss is too monotonous?" Duncan was clearly in a good mood, "I plan to split this big one, stew some and roast some; these slightly smaller ones will be salted to make dried fish…"
He happily talked about his upcoming plans, but although he sounded confident, he was quite unsure whether he could succeed—his cooking skills were just average, and he had no experience dealing with such huge sea fish. Moreover, his knowledge of making dried fish was purely theoretical, with no practical hands-on experience.
But how would he know without trying?
The only problem... was to not upset his stomach.
In his joy over the bountiful catch, Duncan still kept a bit of rationality. He looked cautiously at the large fish at his feet, guessing whether this gift from nature could be poisonous.
The safest method would be to find some unfortunate soul to taste it first.
His first thought was of the goat head in the captain's cabin, but he immediately dismissed the idea. Then, he glanced at the Curse doll opposite—it was also not an option.
Alice didn't have a stomach.
In the end, he looked at the pigeon on his shoulder.
The pigeon also cocked its head to look at him.
Ai Yi did not seem like a normal creature, but if he had to choose a living, flesh-and-blood being on the ship, it seemed the pigeon was the only option left…
A moment later, Duncan left the deck with his "harvest"—lunchtime was approaching, and he couldn't wait to improve the Homeloss's meals.
Alice stood there in a daze for a while before approaching the door of the captain's cabin.
She had not planned to look for the goat head. Ever since she experienced the "first mate's" incessant chatter, she had developed a deep respect for the entire captain's cabin.
If possible, she did not want to step into the captain's door on her own volition.
But today's events were too strange, and she felt it necessary to consult with the experienced Mr. Goat Head to see if this was a normal occurrence on the Homeloss.
She had not violated the crew's code of conduct, just inquiring about the situation, so it should not be taboo.
After hesitating for a full ten seconds or more, Alice finally mustered the courage and pulled open the captain's cabin door.
The next second, she was startled to see that the goat head had already turned towards the door, staring dead at her—it looked as if it had been waiting for her to come.
"What happened outside?" The goat head asked, uncharacteristically concise.
Alice sensed something was off from the other's abnormal demeanor, quickly shut the door behind her, approached the navigation desk, and told everything she had seen.
And after her words had fallen, the goat head fell into an uncharacteristically deep silence—for as long as a minute, it didn't utter a word.
The wooden goat head couldn't make any expressions, but Alice could clearly feel that matters seemed a bit beyond the "first mate's" judgement.
Alice grew nervous, leaning forward subconsciously: "Is this not a normal occurrence on the Homeloss? Could it be the captain really…"
"Everything on the Homeloss is normal," the goat head finally snapped out of its silence, answering swiftly as if it was trying to plug a leak hastily and cut Alice off, "Listen, everything on the Homeloss is normal, always normal, and the great Captain Duncan is as always!"
"But... I was just looking at your reaction…"
"It's a little beyond my expectations—but that's due to my limited imagination and cognition," the goat head's speech flowed quickly and smoothly, and it seemed to be regaining its usual state bit by bit. Then, its mood visibly started to rise, its tone becoming both passionate and excited, "Yes, the great Captain Duncan—he should indeed be even greater and more powerful! There's nothing abnormal, Miss Alice, listen, everything on the Homeloss is as usual! Let the captain do what he thinks is right, and don't continue this topic... from today on, just remember this fact:
"There are fish in the kitchen of Homeloss, and fish is a delicious ingredient."