Honestly speaking, Duncan found it hard to keep his calm no matter how thick his skin was when the dove spoke over his shoulder.
Why can't I have a normal parrot-like those pirate captains from the movies? If not, a monkey will do too!
But he had already pushed open the door to the mapping room, meaning it was impossible to turn around.
Right now, the goat head was happily chanting away about the twelfth legend of the fish stew in his repertoire when Duncan interrupted his noisy blabbing. "AH, captain! You're finally out. I must tell you; Miss Alice is such a wonderful conversation partner. I haven't had such a good conversation in years, you know…"
Duncan directly ignored the goat head's loud blabbing and turned to face the victim sitting across the table, whom had placed her own head on the table with those hands firmly pressed against the ears.
Duncan: "…"
"She pulled her head off herself," the goat head explained without waiting for Duncan to speak, "though I don't know why she did it…"
How powerful is the nagging of the goat head to make a cursed doll behead herself to avoid the sound waves?!
At the same time as Duncan was shocked, the goat head had also noticed the strange bird brought out by the captain. His obsidian black eyes were staring hard at Ai: "Huh, Captain, on your shoulder is…"
"She's called Ai, and it's my pet from now on," Duncan said with as little detail as possible to avoid possible loopholes.
"Your pet?" The goat head obviously froze for a moment, and then it acted as if it's come to a decision: "Ah, I did sense your departure from the Vanished earlier…. You take a spirit walk? This must be the loot you brought back from the trip into the spirit world."
Spirit walk?
Duncan immediately brought up the image of the compass in his head over this new term. Considering how he had just experienced a soul projection for himself, this must be something commonly done by the real Captain Duncan. Nodding his head indifferently: "I went out for a stroll."
The goat head promptly chased the reply with compliments: "Ah! Truly worthy of the great Captain Duncan, even a simple spirit walk can bring back treasures. Is this a dove? If it can become your pet, then it must be something extraordinary. You even hung your compass on it. Is this… of course, your decision and judgment are always correct. But what is special about this dove? Is it…"
Picking up on a key point from the goat head's flattery, Duncan realized the compass must be an important treasure to the real captain. Otherwise, this statue wouldn't have put so much emphasis on the item.
But nothing he could do now. The compass was "bound" to the dove, and… according to the feedback of the ghost fire, the dove seemed more like the real body of the compass than vice-versa!
Thinking fast with an unwavering expression, Duncan was trying to come up with something to say when Ai suddenly jumped off his shoulder and flew in front of the goat head with its flapping wings.
"Want to charge Q coin or no?" The bird pecks the statue and asks.
Duncan: "…"
"An anomaly with intelligence?!" The goat head was also stunned by how it spoke, "This dove can talk?!"
Duncan immediately gave a euphemistic reminder: "You can also talk."
"Like words, like words, like words…" The dove Ai paced around the table and spoke to no one in specific.
Duncan snapped his fingertips as he saw this, and with the sudden flicker of green flame, the dove pacing on the table disappeared in a blink of an eye and returned to the shoulder.
"Yes, it's an intellectual anomaly, and it is under my direct control," Duncan nodded to the goat head, "is there any problem?"
The goat head hurriedly replied, "Ah… Of course not, of course not, there is no problem at all. Everything is as the great Captain Duncan wills it."
Ignoring the goat head before the conversation overextends itself, Duncan turns to face Alice. Patting the doll on the shoulder: "Wake up, wake up."
Alice's body stirred over the intervention. As if awakened from a long nightmare, she started to stammer some words while trying to speak: "Cap… Cap… Cap…"
Duncan: "Put your head back on first."
Widening her eyes as it hit her, Alice hurriedly plopped her own head back on the neck with an audible click. Only then did her speech return to normal: "Ah, Captain, you are back? Just now it seems to have… Mr. Goathead is finished?"
The statue on the table immediately chimes in: "No, we were just about to go over the legend regarding the fish stew. The next topic is…."
"Shut up," Duncan sternly orders.
"Okay."
Alice visibly shook when the goat head attempted to continue. It's quite apparent she's been horrified by the experience and showed fear in her eyes. In fact, Duncan had the strong speculation that Miss Doll here wouldn't want to step into his quarter's again for the next while.
Thinking of this, he finally got back to the main subject, "What did you need?"
"I…" Alice's expression was a little dull, as if her original goal of visiting the captain's quarter had been forgotten with the conversation between her and the statue. Then a few seconds later: "Ah yes, I wanted to ask if there's a place to take a bath on the ship. I got soaked with seawater before so my joints are a bit uncomfortable…." At the end, the expression on Miss Doll's face was blushing red with embarrassment.
In hindsight, Duncan also felt embarrassed over the matter. He did, after all, throw the lady overboard several times.
Unchanging in his voice: "Is that all?"
Alice sat reservedly in her chair, "Yes… that is all."
"For many ocean-going ships, fresh water is an extremely valuable resource so bathing is a luxury that needs restraint." Duncan said solemnly at first but then suddenly formed a smile, "But you are lucky, the Vanished is not an ordinary ship so fresh water is not a problem here. Come with me. There is a bathing place in the cabin below the middle deck. To get there, you have to go through the upper deck first."
Alice stood up at once—she really didn't want to spend another second in this room with the goat head.
"You continue to take the helm," Duncan glanced back and ordered.
After he had finished his explanation, the pair soon came out to the main deck where the night sky was abnormally clear today. Unlike in the past, the world was always gloomy with dark clouds hovering over his head. This time around though, he could see as far as the eye could see, which was a lot.
For example, there weren't any stars up there, or a moon for that matter. Instead, there's only a gaping crack of faint glowing grayish-white running across the world from end to end. If he had to describe this image, it would be someone cutting open a wound across the heavens and leaving it there.