Chapter 124

Chapter 124: The Fragment’s Reflection

Incense burned in the prayer room under the divine gaze of the Goddess’s statue. The two longtime friends fell silent at the same time. Only the divine blessing sent down by the God gently soothed their still-frightened hearts. A faint, calm sound of waves echoed in Vanna’s ears. It was the whisper of the storm Goddess Gamona.

The Goddess still watched this place, with an attention unlike ever before.

After who knew how long, Heidi finally calmed down. She carefully broke the silence: “What exactly did I see?”

Vanna hesitated for a moment before speaking softly: “Maybe… that was exactly what those Suntists have been searching for.”

“What those Suntists have been searching for?” Heidi froze for a moment. “You mean…”

“The Sun fragment,” Vanna nodded lightly before Heidi could finish. “Maybe only a Sun fragment could match the power you saw in that vision.”

As she spoke, Vanna slowly lifted her head and looked up at the statue of the storm Goddess, murmuring thoughtfully: “After all… those Heretics claim that the Sun fragments are the remains that fell from the so-called ‘true Sun’…”

Heidi paused, and her expression changed slightly: “If something like that really appeared in the Mortal Realm, the city-state of Pland couldn’t still be as safe as it looks now…”

“So it must have been under some kind of seal,” Vanna nodded. “Our information says a Sun fragment appeared in the city-state of Pland eleven years ago. But now it seems that so-called ‘appearance’ was only a bit of its power leaking out. For the past eleven years, it has probably stayed asleep…”

“And now those Suntists want to wake that thing up?!” Heidi looked horrified. “Do they want to destroy all of Pland?!”

“It’s not your first day dealing with cultists,” Vanna glanced at Heidi. “You still don’t understand their state of mind? For those fanatical Heretics, as long as they can awaken the ‘Black Sun’, sacrificing one or two city-states in a sacrificial rite is nothing. They wouldn’t even mind letting the whole world burn, just to become kindling for the Sun God’s recovery!”

Heidi opened her mouth but did not speak for a long time. Vanna steadied her own emotions, then slowly said: “The key now is what exactly happened when you saw that vision—what happened to you, what happened around you, and what happened inside The City Museum itself. Only by figuring these out can we know in what state that fragment is sleeping, and where it is actually sleeping.”

“…No, I can’t remember the details,” Heidi tapped her forehead lightly. “But I can now be sure that I really saw its projection while I was unconscious, and that I put myself under emergency hypnosis to preserve the important clues… Let me think. At the time, someone rescued me and temporarily placed me in a room on the first floor of The City Museum… After I came out, they told me that room was close to the main exhibition hall…”

As Heidi struggled to recall, she asked, thinking aloud: “Can’t we take this to mean that the clue is inside The City Museum?”

“It’s hard to say. From the viewpoint of occult studies, what you saw was not the fragment itself, but a little ‘shadow’ leaking from a huge supernatural existence into the Mortal Realm. The City Museum is not necessarily where the fragment sleeps. There might only be a ‘rift’ there, and because the mental defenses of humans are weak while they are unconscious, your mind accidentally crossed that rift and saw what lies on the other side.

“Rifts that hover at the edge of the Mortal Realm are often unstable. It might have been at The City Museum before, but now it may have already shifted somewhere else.”

Vanna explained patiently, then suddenly shook her head: “Of course, we will still carry out a top-level search of The City Museum and keep it under watch afterward. Anomalies and Visions are always irregular. It’s possible that the fragment really stayed in The City Museum in some sealed form. Even if it did not, we might still find some clues in the burned ruins to explain why the ‘rift’ appeared at The City Museum in the first place…”

“But the follow-up search has nothing to do with you. For safety, you’d better stay away from The City Museum for the next month.”

“Of course, I’d love to keep my distance from all this,” Heidi nodded at once. “I’ve already had more than enough bad luck!”

Vanna silently looked at this friend who had been unlucky since childhood. She seemed about to say something, but in the end she said nothing. She simply stood there under the Goddess’s statue in silence. After half a minute, she suddenly asked: “Who rescued you?”

“Two girls still in school, and a man who looked to be in his forties,” Heidi thought for a moment. “Funny enough, one of those girls is exactly the student my father visited at home a few days ago, and the man is her uncle… I told you about him, right? His name is Duncan Strayne. He is an antique shopkeeper.”

“…I’m a little allergic to the name ‘Duncan’ right now,” Vanna’s mouth visibly twitched. “Even though I know it can’t be the same person…”

“My reaction was the same when I first heard that name from my father,” Heidi spread her hands. “Speaking of that, I promised that gentleman I would go to his place tomorrow afternoon to give his niece a psychological evaluation, and it will also be a proper visit to thank him. Everything was a mess today, and I said goodbye in a hurry. It really wasn’t very polite.”

“Strictly speaking, it’s not only that ‘niece’ who needs a psychological evaluation,” Vanna’s expression suddenly turned serious. She stared straight at Heidi. “All three of them do.”

“Why…” Heidi spoke without thinking, then suddenly realized. “Ah!”

“Right. They were all next to you at the time, and you saw the shape of the Sun fragment while you were unconscious,” Vanna looked straight into Heidi’s eyes. “If that really was the remains of one of the Elder Gods, its corruption may have already spread to them through your mind. The scope of that corruption might be small, but for an ordinary person, it could still be fatal.”

Heidi was stunned.

…

In the Lower City’s antique shop, Duncan had already closed up early. He sat in a relaxed posture on the chair behind the counter, while Nina and Shirley sat facing him, one on each side.

The two of them had taken a shower in the simple bathroom upstairs. Nina had changed into clean clothes, but Shirley still wore her black dress—not because Nina refused to lend her clothes, but because their body sizes were too different. Shirley herself had turned down those outfits that would hang far too loose on her.

Of course, whether she had other worries when she refused was another matter… Maybe Shirley thought that taking Nina’s clothes would be like accepting a gift from an Eldritch God’s retainer. Only she knew for sure.

On the other side of the counter, the pigeon AI was strolling about at ease.

A big pile of fries was stacked on the table behind it—that was what Duncan had promised it.

AI had finally gotten the fries it had been longing for. Nina had come home safe and sound. Duncan had rescued his niece and had become even more familiar with the Power of Flame.

Everyone was happy.

Except Shirley.

She was almost in tears—she had wanted to cry several times today.

“So… Shirley, you actually aren’t my classmate… You just used some kind of ‘detective trick’ to sneak into the school and investigate something,” Nina looked at the friend she had finally managed to make, her expression a bit complicated. “You don’t even like steam and machinery…”

“I can’t even understand those textbooks at all…” Shirley spoke carefully. She answered Nina, but her eyes kept drifting toward Duncan from time to time. “Sorry, I… I’m sorry.”

But Nina seemed not to notice Shirley’s apology. She only frowned in confusion: “But how did you do it? I… thinking back now, you always suddenly appeared in my classroom, and you often showed up around me, but you never really attended class. Even the teachers and classmates nearby never seemed to notice you, you…”

Shirley quickly glanced at Duncan again. After she confirmed that his expression was still calm, she muttered under her breath: “It was actually just a little supernatural trick…”

“supernatural?” Nina’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you a Church investigator?”

“No, no, I’m not with the Church, I…” Shirley stole another look at Duncan. She remembered the warnings this big boss had given her earlier when Nina went upstairs to bathe. She still had no idea why this big boss wanted to play a ‘pretend to be human’ game in this antique shop, but she still obeyed his orders honestly. “I’m more like a wild… a wild supernatural…”

Nina looked utterly shocked. “…There are wild supernatural too?!”

“If you’re not registered anywhere, then you’re wild,” Shirley spoke as if she had given up on something, her tone a little reckless. “The dogs in the Church… those troublesome people, isn’t that what they usually call people like us?”

Nina listened to Shirley’s explanation in a daze. Then Nina looked her up and down several times. That careful gaze made Shirley feel very uneasy, and she instinctively tried to dodge: “Why are you looking at me like that…”

“Then you’re amazing!” Nina suddenly said, very seriously.