Chapter 116

Chapter 116: Everything Was Normal

Shirley quickly left with Dog, while Duncan withdrew his gaze from the distant intersection and let it fall again on the factory ruins.

After the fire of the spirit form faded, the invisible Veil closed again, and the factory returned to its former “normal” appearance—the traces of the blaze were wiped clean, and the omnipresent ash sank into nothingness.

Duncan’s line of sight slowly lifted, moving above the factory, up into the sky.

He imagined a thin, gauzy curtain quietly draped over everything, hiding the truth beneath the Mortal Realm. The Sixth District did not have many residents left, but there were still a few thousand people. And right under the eyes of those thousands, the invisible Veil had covered the truth for eleven years.

The residents here had even forgotten that fire from their memories. They only thought it was a “chemical corruption” leaked from the factory that left the district in ruins.

Thinking of this, Duncan suddenly frowned.

The truth inside the factory was a great fire, and Dog had also confirmed that there was no chemical corruption residue around the factory. Since there was no so-called “corruption” at all… then what had kept the entire Sixth District from seeing a single newborn for eleven years?!

If the break in newborns was not caused by chemical corruption… was it some power from the supernatural field that stopped new lives from appearing in the Sixth District?

Duncan looked at the sky, deep in thought.

It seemed… that invisible Veil was even larger in scope than he had imagined.

…

“Did we get out… did we really get out?”

In a shabby alley a ways away from the Sixth District, Shirley poked her head out of the shadows. She carefully checked the street nearby for patrolling constables, then lowered her voice and spoke toward the corner of the wall beside her.

At the corner of the wall, a clump of inky shadows coiled there, as if formless darkness had turned thick and sticky. Dog hid inside that shadow and spoke in a low, muffled voice: “We didn’t get out. Some big shot let us go.”

“Same damn thing.” Shirley waved a hand and plopped right down on the ground, not caring at all how she looked. “Hell, I was scared to death… I didn’t even dare breathe too loud, couldn’t swear the whole time, had to pretend to be all obedient… Dog, you have no idea…”

“I know. I can see more things than you. Did you forget?” The voice in the shadows spoke in a faint tone. “How did it feel? Walking next to a smiling Subspace shadow, was that more tiring than dealing with a bunch of fierce constables and Guardians?”

“…Stop talking, I’m getting chills.” Shirley rolled her eyes. “It’s all your fault for scaring me like that last time. If I didn’t know anything, I wouldn’t have been scared today… Tell me, why do big shots like that have to pretend to be ‘ordinary people’? He even squeezed onto the public bus like an ordinary person, even bought a ticket! Who would think they’d run into him that way?!”

Dog went quiet for two seconds. “…Maybe it’s just a hobby. Maybe he’s watching you. That’s what I’m most afraid of… We’ve already dealt with a being like that. I’m afraid our fate is already tangled up.”

Shirley shivered a little and asked carefully: “You mean… we’ll really run into him again? Give me a break…”

“Did you forget what he said when you parted?” Dog sighed. “He will find us.”

Shirley did not speak for a moment. She just lowered her head in silence. After a while, Dog suddenly said: “What is it? Scared now? Regretting it? It might be a bit late for that… I warned you before. Once you step into the supernatural field, you have to be ready to deal with all kinds of higher-order powers. Most of those things are beyond human imagination—if you had listened to me a few months ago and not started digging into those old events, you could still be living your peaceful life…”

“Like hell I regret it!” Shirley cut him off fiercely, still keeping her head down. “I never regretted it from the start, and I never will! Stop saying that depressing crap to me!”

“Alright, alright, I won’t say it—have you rested enough? We should get moving. Didn’t that ‘new friend’ of yours make an appointment with you?”

“I… I’ll wait two more minutes.” Shirley scratched her hair, her voice a little muffled. “My legs are a bit weak. Let me rest a bit…”

Dog said nothing more, only let out a hoarse purring sound. The writhing shadows hiding him slowly shrank and melted into Shirley’s own shadow.

…

At lunchtime, Vanna stuffed a piece of bread spread with jam into her mouth. She gulped it down in big bites while reading the briefing papers at her hand. She felt a bit choked, so she grabbed the glass next to her and took several big gulps.

Her uncle Dante’s voice came from across the table, full of helplessness: “Vanna, eat a little more elegantly—and stop drinking wine like it’s water.”

“Heretics don’t wait. The sooner I shorten my meal, the sooner I can send those heretics to meet their lord.” Vanna looked up at her uncle as she struggled to swallow the food in her mouth. “And it’s not like we’re at some banquet outside…”

“Even family meals need proper manners—behaving like this, you’ll never get married.” Dante looked, head aching, at his niece, who had reached marriageable age and had not brought home even one boyfriend. “Sigh, actually, I should say you already can’t get married…”

Vanna finally slowed down. The young Inquisitor looked a little embarrassed. “I… an Inquisitor’s duties are rather…”

“The Deep Sea Church doesn’t forbid priests to marry. Inquisitors also have normal families. I’ve read the Storm Canon too.” Dante shook his head. “Seriously, there really isn’t anyone suitable?”

Vanna lowered her head and poked the bread on her plate with her table knife. “The main problem is that none of them can fight.”

“…You really should ask if that vow can be taken back.” Dante sighed, looking deeply worried. “You shouldn’t have made that oath so casually when you took your rites back then, especially the first line, insisting that only someone strong could walk beside you. Bishop Valentine should have stopped you…”

Vanna lowered her head even more. Though tall and strong, she now looked completely embarrassed. Being scolded by her uncle, she was just like when she was a child, even her voice sounded muffled: “You can’t just take back a vow. It’s a sacred promise made before the Goddess. And… I wouldn’t call it casual. Almost every female Guardian has that line in her vow. It’s a symbol of the courage the storm gave us, and it is to prove to the Goddess that…”

Dante silently looked at his niece, who was a head and a half taller than he was. “Did you ever think that one day you might train yourself to be unbeatable?”

“…That was for the second and third lines of the vow…” Vanna muttered.

“…Sigh.”

This had become a topic the uncle and niece brought up every few days in the past year or two, and every time it ended in awkwardness. This time was no exception.

But Vanna quickly adjusted her mood. She finished the battle on her plate at an amazing speed, then gathered the papers at her side and got up to leave: “I’m done eating, Uncle, you… huh?”

Vanna suddenly stopped. She stared in surprise at Dante Wayne’s face and pointed at his ruby prosthetic eye. “Uncle, the wound around your eye is bleeding… Are you alright?”

“Huh?” Dante froze for a moment. He quickly raised a hand to touch it. Seeing the blood on his fingers, he hurriedly stood up to get a mirror and checked his artificial eye. He saw, to his shock, that the edge of that ruby eye was slowly seeping blood. The blood ran along the wrinkled scars around the wound. There was not much of it, but it looked frightening.

“Don’t move yet.” Vanna rushed over and pressed her hand near Dante’s eye while quietly reciting lines from the Storm Canon: “May the sea wind moisten the flesh and make this body whole again.”

Under the sacred prayer, Dante felt a slight itch around his wound, and the little bit of bleeding soon stopped. He sounded a bit helpless: “No need to make such a fuss. This isn’t the first time over these years. It’s cold stone and metal after all. A little ‘small conflict’ with living flesh now and then is normal.”

But the expression on Vanna’s face did not relax at all. She kept staring at Dante’s ruby eye. After a long time, she asked: “Do you feel anything else? Any burning pain? Or do you see any phantoms through this ruby gem eye?”

Dante blinked. He looked at Vanna. The blessed ruby gem eye clearly reflected everything it saw—

Flames burned fiercely behind Vanna. Ash and char marks covered the dining room. Shapeless charcoal and melted heaps hung down from the ceiling like an inverted omen.

The ruby gem eye grew slightly hot, then slowly cooled again.

Dante smiled. “Of course not. Everything was normal.”

—