Chapter 22 - Rules

Chapter 22 Rules

Alice stopped in front of the captain’s cabin door.

The puppet lady raised her head and looked at the heavy black oak door. She noticed that on top of the frame was the carving of a sentence. “Door of the lost.”

There was no surprise that such a sentence would be carved on top of the door to the captain’s cabin, but Alice still frowned. The thing she was curious about was not the door but why she could read the words.

She had no memory of learning how to read, to be more precise, she had no memory of ever learning anything. She also could not remember ever spending time outside or even talking to another person. That was why she was confused as to why she had knowledge of the language she was reading.

She could understand the words and even knew the purpose of everything that was placed inside the cabin. These were things that she would not be able to understand just by listening to other people’s conversations while lying inside the coffin. “Where did I learn these from?” she asked herself in her head.

Up until that moment, Alice had never thought of such a question. However, after conversing with “Captain Duncan”, the emotion of “curiosity” suddenly appeared inside the puppet’s calm mind.

She thought about it and realized that the change had happened as soon as Duncan asked her about the origin of her name, Alice. The second he asked, she started to question many things that she thought were natural. She tried to remember the origin of her name, and then it felt as if something in her head had shifted.

Alice had no idea if the change was good or bad, but she didn’t like the feeling of not knowing. That was why she quickly shook her head and left the questions aside. She calmed herself down in front of the door before putting her hand on the handle and pushing the door forward.

The door didn’t move.

Alice was stunned for a second. She tried to push again, but the wooden door felt as if it had been bolted down.

Just as she wanted to try again, a hoarse and deep voice came from inside the cabin. It sounded as if it came from inside a tree. “Miss, you’ll have to pull on the door.”

As it wasn’t Captain Duncan’s voice, it made Alice jump back a little. She was able to quickly recover and hurried reply with an “oh”. She then pulled on the door and easily opened it.

It was only then she recalled that the captain did pull the door open in the past when he brought her to the cabin.

In the end, the knowledge in her head was still knowledge, not experience. Slumbering inside the coffin for too long had caused her to lack experience in survival. Alice reflected on that before carefully peeking her head into the cabin.

There was no one inside the cabin. The prominent map table quietly sat under the light with the chart covered by a thin fog. Another thing on the table’s edge was a black wooden goat head. It was slowly turning around and looked at the puppet with her obsidian eyes.

“Please, come on in. The captain is still busy. Ye can wait for him inside here,” the goat head said. It sounded more polite than Alice had thought. “However, I would have to warn ye not to peek your head in to check the surrounding like what ye just did. It would make a sensitive being here on board the Lost Home feel like it was being hated on. It’ll be trouble to calm it down. Also, if your head drops, I won’t have the hands to help you…”

“It’s talking! The wood head is really talking!” Alice exclaimed in her head.

She had heard about it from the captain before, that the goat head on the table could talk, but she was still surprised by how much the goat head was speaking. It took her a while to reply, “Ahh… Okay. My head doesn’t fall off that easily. I even made sure that… Wait. Did you just say that there’s a sensitive… Could it be that there are other…”

It was only then Alice noticed the information from the goat head’s words. She got anxious right away and started to scan her surrounding. At that moment, she felt as if everything inside the captain’s cabin, and even the entire Lost Home, had started to shake. They had become “weird objects” like the weird goat head. The goat’s voice then entered her ears. “Is that even that surprising? Ye need a lot of manpower to run a huge ship like this. Do ye really expect the great and almighty Cap’n Duncan will scrub the deck himself?”

The goat head’s words made a lot of sense. Alice’s mind that had just woken up felt as if something was off with that, but after thinking hard and coming to no answer, she could only nod. “You’re right… So, there are a lot of objects like you on this ship?”

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“There’s only one loyal first mate on this ship. The rest aren’t that bright. Ye don’t even have to consider having a conversation with them. They have no interest in talking with other people.” The goat head interrupted Alice. “However, considering that ye are new on this ship, it’s normal that ye don’t know the norms around here. As Cap’n Duncan’s first mate and second mate… it’s me responsibility to let you know the basic knowledge to survive on this ship since it’s not right for cap’n to do this. Miss, are ye ready?”

Alice listened to the goat head dumbfoundedly. She had already forgotten her original goal of entering the captain’s cabin. All she could think at that moment was how much the goat head could talk at once. It had already started to lead the conversation, especially after telling her all its titles. At that moment, all she could do was instinctively nod. “Huh? Oh… I see… Okay… Uh-huh…”

“Good. Next are the rules and regulations that every person on this ship should know. This will help newcomers like ye get used to the new surroundings and accept Cap’n Duncan’s protection on this vast ocean…”

It was clear that the goat head was satisfied with Alice’s reply. As it continued to speak, it shook its head and sounded glad.

“First, Cap’n Duncan is the supreme lord of this ship. Everything the cap’n said is always correct. The cap’n’s judgment is always right.

“Second, we can only move in regions that the cap’n has allowed us to. Ye must not enter other regions unless the cap’n allows it. Just pretend that those regions do not exist.

“Third, if ye entered the forbidden area and managed to make it out alive, ye must stay there and wait for the cap’n to take you back. Either that or ye wait for ye death. Ye must not come back on ye own accord because ye won’t be returning to the Lost Home.

“Fourth, the Lost Home is always on the right course. Ye shall not question the cap’n’s plan. If ye notice that the Lost Home’s surrounding is not the same as what ye have expected, or if ye realize that the Lost Home has sailed into ‘deeper’ regions, it’s all part of the plan.

“Fifth, the cap’n will leave the ship from time to time and might not come back right away. The Lost Home will continue its voyage, but no one is allowed near the helm. The helm system will lack a sense of security when Cap’n Duncan isn’t around. The ropes at the poop deck will strangle anyone who shows the intention of ‘treason’.

“Sixth, there are only and only six basic rules on the Lost Home.

“Seventh, ye pull on the cap’n’s door to open from the outside.”

It sounded as if it wasn’t the first time the goat head had briefed a newcomer about Lost Home. Everything it said came out smoothly, but Alice was a little confused about the last two rules. “Umm… Mr. Goat Head, about the sixth rule…”

“The sixth rule is that there are six basic rules on this ship,” the goat head replied immediately without hesitation.

Alice started to wonder whether she or the “first mate” in front of her had a screw loose or not. “But, didn’t you mention the seventh rule?”

“Yes. The seventh rule is that you open the door with a pull from the outside,” the goat head naturally answered.

Alice looked at the black goat head dumbfoundedly, starting to wonder if her brain was working right or not. However, she quickly realized that she did not have a brain. “Umm… Isn’t there a contradiction?”

“There’s no contradiction.”

Alice opened her mouth as she heard the goat head’s determined answer and looked at the obsidian eyes. However, she swallowed the question back.