Chapter 122: The Figure on the Edge of the Square

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After asking for directions to the designated rescue area near the city square, Heidi walked away, clutching her head in apparent pain. Duncan, on the other hand, seemed uninterested in engaging with the emergency responders and other officials nearby. His disinterest was primarily due to his companion, Shirley, a mysterious girl capable of summoning shadow demons, who was keen on avoiding any contact with members of the Storm Church.

As Duncan watched Heidi disappear into the distance, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention to Nina, asking with concern, “Are you injured in any way?”

“I’m okay,” Nina responded, though she appeared a bit rattled. She had been gripping Duncan’s sleeve without realizing it and finally loosened her hold. Looking up at Duncan with a blend of astonishment and curiosity, she asked, “Why were you even at the museum, Uncle?”

“I was in the area for some work,” Duncan explained with a reassuring smile. “When I heard about the fire at the museum, I rushed over to make sure you were safe.”

Before Nina could continue the conversation, Duncan affectionately tousled her hair to calm her. “The ordeal is over now. The most important thing is that you’re unharmed.”

“I’m not a little kid anymore!” Nina objected, shaking her head to dislodge his hand. Her focus then shifted to Shirley, who was standing beside them. As she opened her mouth to speak, her expression changed to one of puzzlement, as if fragmented memories had suddenly surfaced. She scrutinized Shirley closely and mumbled, “Shirley… why do I feel something is off about you?”

Until that moment, Shirley had been paying attention only to Duncan. At Nina’s words, her face showed visible distress. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she cast an apprehensive glance at Duncan, who noticed her unease.

This made Duncan recall a previous incident when Shirley had been caught without a ticket. Her reaction now was eerily similar. He thoughtfully considered his past experiences with Shirley and the role she was currently playing. He remembered that both times he had encountered her, Nina had been at school. He also recalled that Shirley’s true personality was more abrasive than the “quiet, well-behaved girl” facade she was currently displaying. Furthermore, he remembered that one of the special abilities of Dog, the shadow demon connected to Shirley, was to obscure people’s judgment, allowing her to masquerade under different identities.

Her current identity seemed to be as a new friend that Nina had met at school—an identity rife with inconsistencies.

Duncan stroked his chin thoughtfully and placed a reassuring hand on Nina’s shoulder. Pointing towards Shirley, he inquired, “Are you certain you know her?”

“Yes, her name is Shirley,” Nina confirmed, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “She’s a new friend I made at school. But now that I think about it, I can’t remember exactly when she started attending our school…”

Duncan shifted his attention to Shirley, who was visibly trying to shrink into the background, making herself as inconspicuous as possible. After a lengthy pause, he began softly, “You still have an opportunity to explain yourself, or else I’ll have to…”

Before Duncan could finish, Shirley interrupted, her voice tinged with desperation. “I apologize! I infiltrated the school to investigate something specific. I swear, I haven’t harmed Nina! I actually helped her at the museum by shielding her from falling debris! Please, believe me! I had no idea she was connected to someone of your caliber. I’m not familiar with the tastes and inclinations of someone as distinguished as you. Please, just let me go!”

Duncan was momentarily taken aback by the urgency and speed of Shirley’s explanation. His initial reaction was that she must be highly skilled, perhaps even capable of holding her own against Goathead aboard the ship.

Interrupting Shirley’s frantic stream of words, he cleared his throat and corrected her misconception. “She’s not just someone I’m associated with; Nina is my niece.”

As Duncan spoke, he noted the faint scars of burns on Shirley’s hands, now mostly healed thanks to her supernatural recuperative powers. It seemed plausible that she had indeed sustained injuries at the museum, presumably while protecting Nina.

Oblivious to Duncan’s internal musings, Shirley replied in a somewhat bewildered tone, “If you say she’s your niece, then I accept that.”

Nina, beginning to piece together the puzzling situation, glanced at her uncle in astonishment and then back to her “friend.” “Hold on, how do you two know each other? And Shirley, why were you…”

“We crossed paths by coincidence,” Duncan interjected, cutting Nina off before Shirley could divulge anything inappropriate or alarming. “It appears, Shirley, that you and I have much to discuss, wouldn’t you agree?”

Shirley’s eyes welled up with tears; her voice was laden with a sense of impending doom as she stammered, “Whatever you say is fine…”

“What you mean to say is ‘yes,'” Duncan clarified.

“Yes,” Shirley conceded, barely audibly.

Concerned about the interaction and still confused, Nina said, “Uncle, please don’t be too hard on Shirley.” She could see her new friend was genuinely afraid of her uncle, and Duncan was showing no kindness toward her either. “I’m so disoriented right now. Can someone please clarify what’s happening here?”

“We’ll sort through all of this when we get home,” Duncan replied with a tired sigh. He glanced at the smoke-ridden ruins of the museum and then in the direction from which they had come. “The environment here is far too tumultuous. Besides, both of you look like you’ve been through the wringer. It’s best we head back, get cleaned up, and change into fresh clothes.”

Shirley, her voice tinged with hesitation and uncertainty, stammered, “So… am I coming along with you both?”

Before Duncan could reply, she quickly nodded as if reassuring herself. “You’re absolutely right!”

Duncan released an amused sigh at Shirley’s eagerness. It seemed that whatever her original intentions regarding Nina, she now posed no threat. Shaking his head in mild disbelief, he prepared to depart with the two young women.

Just as he was about to take his first step, his eyes were instinctively drawn to the periphery of the square near the museum.

Standing there, on the edge of the crowd, was a figure that caught his attention.

A tall, slender man draped in a black trench coat that flowed down to his ankles stood with his back to Duncan. He seemed to be observing the fire. Strangely, the man also held a large black umbrella aloft despite the absence of rain and the clear skies overhead.

In the still air of the sunny day, the sight of a tall man in a trench coat holding an umbrella seemed conspicuously out of place. Yet, oddly enough, among the assembled crowd, no one appeared to notice the umbrella-carrying man.

“Uncle?” Noticing Duncan’s sudden halt, Nina followed his gaze. “What are you looking at?”

“There’s a man over there holding an umbrella even though it’s a sunny day. Seems odd,” Duncan commented, trying to sound casual.

“A man with an umbrella on a clear day?” Nina paused and squinted in the direction Duncan was looking. “I don’t see anyone like that.”

“I don’t either,” chimed in Shirley, who had also been trying to discern what had captured Duncan’s attention. She rubbed her eyes as if to improve her vision. “Are you sure you’re not mistaking him for someone else?”

“You both really didn’t see him?” A frown etched itself onto Duncan’s forehead. He quickly glanced at Shirley and Nina to gauge their expressions but found nothing out of the ordinary. When he returned his gaze to the spot where the man had been standing, the mysterious figure had vanished without a trace.

“Uncle?” Nina’s eyes widened, a look of growing concern appearing on her face. “Did you inhale too much smoke from the fire earlier? Are you feeling all right?”

“I’m fine, perhaps I ‘mistook’ someone,” Duncan replied, shaking his head dismissively to alleviate Nina’s concerns.

However, his gaze lingered on the area where the man had stood. He gave it one last, deep look before finally turning away.

If it were just a random man with an umbrella, he could dismiss it as insignificant.

But if it was a figure only he could perceive, the matter potentially had far deeper implications.

With this in mind, Duncan mentally archived the image of the mysterious man, filing it away in the recesses of his memory for future reference.

…

Vanna, accompanied by an entourage of elite guards specifically trained for high-stakes operations, arrived at the Oceanic Museum’s vicinity. By the time she reached the scene, the firefighters and emergency teams had nearly quelled the blaze that had engulfed the building.

A figure soon emerged from the crowd to greet her—a storm priest who appeared battle-worn, his face covered in soot and grime. Flanking him were a handful of guardians, all of whom looked like they had just escaped the jaws of the fire.

With a bow of deep respect, the priest promptly reported to Vanna, “Inquisitor, the fire has largely subsided on its own. Oddly, despite our initial fears, we haven’t detected any signs of supernatural forces being at play here.”

Vanna’s expression darkened at the priest’s summary. “The fire extinguished itself without external intervention?” she questioned gravely. “When you led your team into the heart of the blaze, did you encounter any unusual circumstances or clues that might explain this?”

“Yes, Inquisitor,” the priest nodded earnestly, clearly concerned. “As we were evacuating the civilians, we observed widespread panic, hallucinations, and disoriented behavior among them. This led us to suspect supernatural contamination within the museum’s walls. However, despite our exhaustive search, we found no anomalies—apart from the fire’s mysterious and sudden abatement.”

As he spoke, the priest reflexively made a solemn prayer gesture towards an amulet dedicated to the goddess. “It’s thanks to this inexplicable recession of the fire that my team and I managed to escape with our lives.”

Vanna took a moment to process this, her eyes narrowing as she pondered the priest’s account. “Very well,” she finally said, nodding slightly. “Once the fire is completely extinguished, I will commission a secondary, more thorough investigation of the museum. We need to scrutinize every artifact to identify any possible alterations or anomalies that could have been overlooked.”

Having issued her directive, Vanna raised her eyes, meticulously scanning the crowd of civilians receiving medical attention and emotional support. It was as if she were searching for a specific face among the throng.

Just then, her keen eyes caught motion in the crowd, and she heard a voice call out, “Vanna! Over here!”

Turning towards the voice, Vanna’s eyes met the disheveled appearance of Heidi. Despite the chaos and her untidy state, Heidi was energetically waving her hand, trying to catch Vanna’s attention from where she stood among the survivors.

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