Ashes Of Deep Sea - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: All Her Elegance Was Gone

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The “coffin” was back.

On the poop deck of the Lost Home, Duncan looked at the elegant wooden case lying silently in front of him without any expression. The water from the case slowly dripped down next to his foot. The water was proof that he did indeed throw the case back into the ocean and that it was drifting on the endless sea.

The strange situation was terrifying, yet, unable to explain why Duncan was calmer than he thought he would be.

Perhaps it was because he was already standing on a ghost ship that was full of mysteries itself, or maybe it was because he had just experienced an exciting and terrifying “speeding” which almost resulted in a head-on collision, or perhaps it was because he had been conversing with the weird wooden goat head for the past few days. Duncan felt he had formed a type of immunity toward all the supernatural phenomena.

The truth was that when he last tossed the “cursed puppet” back into the ocean, he had a feeling that things wouldn’t just end there.

He lowered his head, and just as he had expected, the nails and the chains that sealed the lid shut had disappeared. He bent forward and used his sword to pry the lid open again.

The gorgeous gothic puppet still lay quietly above the red liner with her hand resting above her other one. She looked elegant and peaceful.

However, this time, Duncan clearly noticed that the edge of her dress was wet by the seawater. He could also smell a hint of the ocean fishy breeze from inside the coffin.

Until then, other than returning on her own, the puppet didn’t do anything that would seemingly endanger him. However, her act of returning to the deck was already more than enough to consider her a “cursed object.”

Duncan studied the puppet without any expression for a while before breaking the silence with a chuckle. “I have the sudden urge to satisfy my curiosity…”

After saying that, he turned around and headed to the door that was not far away as he wasn’t worried about leaving the puppet on the deck anymore.

Although he was still wary of the puppet and had no intention of letting her stay near him, his understanding of the goat head convinced him that leaving the puppet on the deck wouldn’t cause too many troubles. Even if she were to attack him suddenly, the countless “living beings” on the ship were more than enough to take her down.

He also couldn’t waste more time on the puppet as he had some “preparations” to do.

Duncan walked past the poop deck and opened the door that led to the hull beneath the main deck. He walked down the wooden stairs and easily navigated himself to another cabin. It was known as the “gun deck,” where the cannons were stored at. The ancient front-loaded cannons sat on both sides of the deck. The front of the barrels was covered with wooden boards that had turned black from molds. Black firepower barrels and iron cannonballs could be found between each cannon. The dust that had gathered looked as if the weapons had been sitting there for over a century.

Duncan scanned through the objects that looked ancient, and a question suddenly came to his mind.

“If there’s no human other than me on board this ship, then… who’s going to manage and fire these cannons?”

He wondered if, just like the Lost Home, he could automatically load the cannons and fire them without touching them.

“Then, what about the fresh water tank? Does it replenish on its own? And the damaged parts too. Do those repair themselves? Or… could it be that this ship will never get damaged?”

There were a lot of questions that popped into his head, and he couldn’t find the answer to any single one of them.

Duncan understood that there was still too much unknown to him about the ship. Despite having explored the ship to a certain extent for the past few days, he had only made his way through the upper section of the ship. The deeper parts of the ship were much scarier. Since his focus in the past was to get out of his “studio apartment room” and return to his original world, he had not put much attention into learning about the Lost Home, causing him to lack the motivation to explore the other side.

However, now, the ship had piqued his interest, or, to be more precise, he had more urge to control the ship now.

The ship was his. Thus, he should learn more about the “Lost Home.”

That was probably one of the changes that happened after he placed his hands on the helm.

Duncan shook his head and temporarily put his plan to explore the ship behind his head. He then approached where the cannonballs were stored at.

After a few minutes, Duncan returned to the poop deck with a couple of cannonballs in his arms. Just as he had thought, the cursed puppet was still lying silently inside the coffin.

“Did she move or anything?”

“No, Captain,” the goat head replied in his head. It was as if he had been holding back for too long, and he started to talk in long sentences again. “The lady has been as quiet as she looks. Cap’n, you should’ve trusted in me. She won’t bring any harm to ye. Since she keeps coming back onboard, she must’ve somehow connected to the Lost Home. A great gardener once said…”

“Shut it.”

“Aye…”

Duncan stared at the puppet inside the coffin without any expression.

He had no clue if she could not move or was very good at pretending to be dead. Whichever it was, it didn’t matter to him much.

Now, he just wanted to satisfy his curiosity.

The iron cannonballs were extremely heavy. When pirates would have traitors walk the planks, tying a cannonball to them would have even the most experienced sailor drown to death.

Ducan first put four cannonballs into the coffin and returned to the gun deck to get four more.

All eight cannonballs had filled the empty spaces inside the wooden case. The elegant and dignified gothic puppet was now surrounded by cold hard steel. It made her look more like a general than a princess now.

At least, instead of being elegant, she looked as if she was cursed.

Duncan sealed the lid again before pushing the case to the edge of the deck again. It was tolling on his body even though his body was now stronger than Zhou Ming’s.

He then threw a kick toward the back of the coffin and sent it to the ocean.

The loud splash could be heard from above and the elegant wooden case sunk deep into the ocean.

Duncan stood quietly by the deck and had his sight focused on where the coffin sank. He remained standing there for a while.

The goat head suddenly interrupted him. “Cap’n, are ye regretting your choices? If ye feel bad for throwing away ye loot, the Lost Home can try and recover it using its anchor. Although that’s now how we’re supposed to use the anchor, it said it could try to do that…”

“Shut up!”

“But, ye have been standing there for a long time…”

“Shut it.”

“Aye.”

Duncan let out a sigh.

There was no way he could tell the goat head that his foot was hurting.

That was why he stood still as he tried to maintain the level of dignity a captain should have. He didn’t move until he felt like he was a statue and started slowly moving back to the upper deck under the main deck.

After a few minutes of silence, Duncan predicted it should be about time. He suddenly moved to the rear of the upper deck and opened the window between two cannons to check the situation out in the ocean.

The goat head didn’t remain silent for too long. It could not hold itself back and ask, “Cap’n, what are ye…”

With his sight still focused on the ocean, he replied, “I’m curious as to how that ‘cursed puppet’ keeps returning.”

“Maybe… because she’s a cursed puppet?”

“I like how you can be content with superficial understandings, but I believe there has to be a process for her to return to our ship. She’s pretending to be dead, but she keeps returning here. There has to be a reason. I’m also sure that she can communicate with us… but she refuses to do so for now. All I can do now is find out how she moves and force her to talk to us.”

The goat head remained silent for a couple of seconds after hearing its captain’s explanation. He suddenly asked, “Cap’n, are ye… interested in it? This is a good thing! Ever since ye woke up, ye have been down and have lost interest in a lot of things! Ye loyal first mate and second mate and…”

“Shut up.”

“Aye.”

After the goat head had quieted down, Duncan continued to study the sea. However, all he could see was the calm water.

It was as if the coffin had sunk into the ocean and would not reappear on the deck again.

However, after having experienced it twice, Duncan was extra patient now. He silently counted down as he waited and studied as the time slowly passed.

It was as if he didn’t notice that he was expecting the puppet to reappear again.

It was then he spotted something tiny in his view.

He saw something on one of the waves. It was an elegant wooden case riding the wave with the beautiful gothic puppet standing on top of it. She was using the lid of the coffin as a paddle to paddle herself forward.

It was a gothic puppet swinging a coffin lid around as a paddle.

All her elegance was gone, and she looked even more cursed now compared to her being surrounded by eight cannonballs.

Duncan’s eyes widened at the scene.