Chapter 120 “Rescue”
This Translation is hosted on bcatranslation.com
In that surreal moment, it seemed as though time had ground to a near halt. Nina was enveloped by a deepening darkness and the stifling approach of heat, feeling her mind start to unravel in the oppressive atmosphere.
Memories came surging back to her like a relentless tide. She was transported back to her childhood, where she would spend her days “assisting” her uncle in his quaint antique shop. Though, in truth, she was often more of a charming hindrance, knocking things over and disrupting the order. She remembered how her uncle would regale her with elaborate stories about the provenance of the various items in the store, stories that she later learned were largely the product of his vivid imagination. Other memories flashed through her mind too: her first day of school, her initial awe at seeing a steam engine diagrammed in a textbook, the first time a teacher offered her genuine praise, her first friendship, and the subsequent painful loss of that friend.
Her thought process became erratic; her consciousness veered off course. Acrid smoke began to seep into the room, aggravating her confusion and making it harder to breathe.
These swirling thoughts and memories congealed into an inferno of recollection, each cherished moment seemingly set ablaze. A fire that existed only in her mind’s eye appeared to flicker back to life before her very gaze.
Nina’s focus drifted to the ground near her feet, almost as if she expected it to spontaneously combust. Just then, she was jolted back to reality by the cold touch of a hand on her forehead.
“Are you okay?” Shirley’s face was tinged with concern as she looked at her friend. “You zoned out suddenly and started mumbling something incomprehensible.”
“I’m fine,” Nina reassured quickly, shaking her head as if to dispel her disoriented thoughts. She clutched Shirley’s arm gratefully. “Thank you. I was just lost in thoughts about my family.”
“Family…” Shirley hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “Who is in your family?”
“It’s just my uncle now. My parents died many years ago, so he raised me,” Nina paused, then slumped, resting her head between her knees. “I promised him I’d be home early today.”
“You must share a close bond with your uncle, then?” Unsure of how to comfort Nina but wanting to keep the conversation going, Shirley fumbled for something to say. “What does he do?”
“He’s a simple man,” Nina began slowly. “He runs an antique shop in the less affluent part of town.” Noticing Shirley’s surprised expression, she hastened to add, “It’s not a grand antique shop or anything. Most of what we sell aren’t genuine antiques.”
“Even so, that sounds amazing!” Shirley quickly interjected, wanting to lend some positivity to the conversation. “Owning a store, no matter where it’s located, must mean you’re doing okay, right?”
In this momentary exchange, the two of them revealed more than just their immediate circumstances; they also gave voice to the deeper thoughts and emotions that usually remained unspoken. Despite the looming crisis surrounding them, they found a brief window of time to forge a meaningful connection, however brief that connection might be.
“Actually, the shop is quite unremarkable,” Nina elaborated, waving her hands as if to downplay its significance. “My uncle’s health has been deteriorating over the last few years, and the business hasn’t been doing too well either. We don’t have much in terms of savings. However, what’s incredible about my uncle is his ability to engage in lengthy, intellectual conversations with people like Mr. Morris, who insists that my uncle is a profoundly knowledgeable man.”
Shirley listened intently to Nina’s words and feigned a nod of deep understanding. “Once we get out of this situation, I’d love to meet this fascinating uncle of yours.”
Just as Nina’s lips parted to respond, a thunderous bang reverberated through the room, originating from the direction of the door. In the next instant, the already fragile door was violently kicked open, crashing to the floor with a clatter.
Nina’s immediate thought was that the fire from the corridor outside might now engulf them, a cautionary point she had absorbed from her school’s fire safety curriculum. However, her dread was instantly dispelled as a familiar figure stepped through the fallen door, absent the anticipated flames.
Shirley, too, was caught off guard by the jarring sound and sight of the shattered door. Her body tensed, her eyes widening in shock as she identified the intruder.
Standing in the doorway was an enigmatic figure who seemed to emanate an otherworldly aura. Shirley’s gaze flickered momentarily to the figure’s feet, where she noticed that the fire’s last embers seemed to retreat as though commanded to do so.
“Uncle Duncan?!” Nina’s voice was tinged with disbelief but mostly filled with an overwhelming sense of relief. It was as though all her fears had been vaporized the moment her eyes landed on him.
“Duncan” looked equally surprised, his eyes meeting Nina’s. He had followed the “mark” left on Shirley, intending to locate her first before scouring the rest of the museum. Therefore, finding Nina here was entirely unexpected.
His gaze then shifted to Shirley. So, the conversation he had eavesdropped on through the “mark” was between her and Nina? And the “classmate” that Nina had planned to meet was actually Shirley?
Reading the whirlpool of emotions on Shirley’s face, Duncan understood the situation’s complexity. Before she could utter a word, he stepped further into the room and scanned their surroundings. “It appears both of you are unharmed,” he noted.
That’s when he saw her—the third presence in the room. A young woman in a long dress lay unconscious on the floor, but from what he could tell, she was still breathing.
The air was thick with a potent mix of tension and relief. Each individual present had their own motives, fears, and surprises, and it was evident that these layered feelings were weaving a convoluted web. This tapestry of emotions and intentions promised to unravel in ways none of them could possibly predict as the situation continued to evolve.
In that pivotal moment, clarity rushed back into Shirley’s mind as though a fog had lifted. Her thoughts instantly rewound to the words Nina had shared just minutes before. Turning her head slowly, her neck tense, she looked at Nina. Her face was a complicated tapestry of awe and incredulity. “Nina… is this man really your uncle?”
“Yes!” Nina exclaimed with jubilant relief, rushing forward to embrace Duncan tightly. “Uncle, what are you doing here? Is the fire out?”
“Not completely, but it’s manageable,” Duncan responded, his tone casual. He knew his vague answer might raise eyebrows under different circumstances, but seeing Nina so emotionally overwhelmed, he figured she wouldn’t question him too deeply for now. Clinging to his arm, she murmured, “Thank God, I thought today was going to be my last.”
“Enough with the small talk,” Duncan interjected, cutting off Nina’s emotional outpour. “This is neither the time nor the place for that.” His eyes swiftly scanned both Shirley and the unconscious young woman sprawled on the floor. “We have to bring her with us.”
“Ah… Right,” Nina said, her voice tinged with sudden awareness of the urgency. She hurried to the young woman’s side to help lift her. Shirley also sprang into action, rushing to assist. However, their height difference made the task a bit awkward. Sensing this, Duncan stepped in, preparing to lift the young woman himself.
As his hands reached down to grab her, Duncan paused, his eyes catching sight of something that made him hesitate: an amethyst pendant that looked oddly familiar. For a brief second, his thoughts drifted to a prior meeting with Mr. Morris, during which some curious details had come up in conversation.
“Uncle?” Nina’s voice snapped Duncan back to the present.
He shook his head slightly, casting a quick glance at Nina and then a seemingly casual look at Shirley standing beside her. With a faint smile, he murmured, “Small world, isn’t it?”
With that, Duncan effortlessly lifted the unconscious young woman and slung her over his shoulder with Nina and Shirley’s help.
The trio stepped out of the room into a corridor that, miraculously, showed no signs of the fire that had raged earlier. Even the thick smoke seemed to have mostly cleared for reasons unexplained. Shirley looked down the dim hallway, hesitating briefly before asking, “Which way should we go?”
Duncan lifted his gaze as if to indicate a direction, but then his senses picked up something through the residual “fire energy” that had filled the museum earlier. In an abrupt change of mind, he motioned towards a side exit. “This way.”
Guided by the inexplicably retreating flames, the group made a swift exit. Not long after they left, a squad of figures turned a corner and appeared near the bathroom—the storm guardians, a team that had earlier plunged into the danger zone.
The circumstances had morphed yet again. Whether guided by fate, random coincidence, or perhaps something far more calculated, their lives were now entwined in ways none could have anticipated. With every step they took, the stakes ratcheted higher, and the tension stretched tauter, setting the stage for the unpredictable twists and turns that awaited them.
The squad, looking fatigued and smeared with soot, stepped into the area. Despite their disheveled appearance, the protective aura of oceanic blessings that enveloped them was undiminished. Initially prepared to risk their lives, they found themselves unexpectedly unscathed due to the sudden disappearance of the fire that had earlier engulfed the museum.
“The fire here has been extinguished as well,” observed the lead priest, his brows knotting together in confusion as he scanned the eerily calm environment. “Even the smoke seems to have been sucked away.”
“Isn’t the fire being out a good thing?” remarked one of the guardians, his voice hushed, as though unwilling to disrupt the newfound tranquility.
“Of course it is,” responded the priest, his tone heavy with gravitas. “But fires of this scale don’t normally burn out this quickly or without explanation.” Just as he spoke, his eyes caught sight of the bathroom door—shattered violently and hanging off its hinges.
“Someone has been here,” another guardian deduced, stepping forward to scrutinize the area. He found enough traces to warrant a deeper investigation. Skillfully, he withdrew a censer and a prayer book from his satchel. He then donned a peculiar piece of headgear— a half-helmet fitted with a contraption of copper tubes, cranks, and a series of varying lenses. Some of these lenses bore etchings of intricate runes around their edges.
Setting the censer down on the ground, he fine-tuned the lenses on his helmet, squinting as he examined every subtle detail around him, every residual clue that might offer some explanation.
“There are no traces of supernatural energies,” he reported promptly, his voice tinged with surprise. “Just ordinary human auras, though it’s hard to discern the exact number because of overlapping energies. These were probably tourists trapped by the fire earlier. The way the door has been broken suggests that someone came from the outside to rescue them.”
“Are you absolutely certain no supernatural elements are involved?” pressed the priest, not willing to take any chances.
“Absolutely none, sir.”
“…Very well, continue the search upstairs.”
“Yes, sir!”
Though the immediate danger of the fire had been averted, the sudden and inexplicable dissipation of both flame and smoke only served to deepen the enigma for the storm guardians. They were acutely aware that something out of the ordinary had transpired—something that disrupted the natural order they were accustomed to. This unexplained occurrence only heightened their vigilance as they moved to the next phase of their search, mentally bracing themselves for the unsettling truths that might still be lurking in the shadows.
Thank you for the chapter!
How come they didn’t detect anything??
Every flame is under Duncan’s control whatever he wished is the ‘truth’ if the flame is normal then it is normal
The original fire has obscuring properties. Maybe it’s already at work? Or as the other replier pointed out, it’s not like Captain’s flames are things these low-level chumps can detect.
To answer that question; why do they all think Rob’s name is now Duncan? There ya go.
bah… and now mc and the psychiatrist meet
wow so much coincidence
I wonder what’s been manipulating them all to bring them and tie them together, and what its goal is.
for a JRPG team to form and to kill the Sun God at the end of their journey like all JRPGs