Chapter 141

Chapter 141: .

It turned out that in this world filled with strange things, the craft of “Mental Therapy” was much more hardcore than Duncan had imagined. It was so hardcore it no longer felt like a “technique” and was heading straight toward “industrial work”…

Luckily, that box of tools was not prepared for Nina. The psychiatrist lady noticed the horrified looks on the uncle and niece’s faces. She gave a smile that said she had seen this reaction many times before, then took a printed form from the very bottom of the box and handed it to Nina: “Fill this out roughly first.”

Nina let out a breath of relief at once: “I thought those… tools were for me.”

“These are for my work—when I work for the authority and the Church,” Heidi said with a small smile. “I often have to deal with dangerous people who are extremely stubborn and paranoid. Normal methods can’t pry open skulls that have been reinforced by Heretic thoughts.”

The more Duncan listened, the more he felt something was off. On the side, Shirley, who was trying hard to lower her presence but still could not help eavesdropping, shrank her neck even more. She quickly slipped to a spot farther away. While pretending to dust the shelves, she muttered through the mental link to Dog, who was in a hidden state: “So scary, so scary… this place is so scary… Mr. Duncan is already scary enough, and now there’s an Inquisitor here… and that Heidi too…”

Dog’s voice sounded in her mind, even more timid than she was: “How should I know?! Who would imagine you could get caught by a ghost captain while moving around on land, and then, while staying by that ghost captain’s side, you’d run into a Church Inquisitor coming over as a guest—are we the ones who’ve gone mad, or has the world gone mad? Would you believe it if someone told you this?”

While secretly watching what was going on by the counter, Shirley grumbled in her heart with a bitter face: [Who would believe that? If you told a fish it would one day die in a car crash, it wouldn’t believe it either…]

“…Don’t mention ‘fish’. I’m scared…”

Shirley paused: “Dog, when did you start being scared of fish?”

“And stop talking to me. Don’t let that Inquisitor notice anything—technically I’m in a hidden state right now, but when I’m near Mr. Duncan, I always feel like all my abilities work only half the time…”

Shirley hurriedly pulled back her thoughts and walked to the other end of the shelves. The people by the counter clearly did not put any attention on the unremarkable Shirley.

Nina looked at the form in front of her and found that it was full of very standard psychological test items. It was no different from the psychological forms she usually had to fill out before occult studies class at school or before visiting the City Museum. There were just more items, and a few questions that were not usually asked.

As she started filling it out, she asked curiously: “I heard before that your treatment methods are more professional. I thought you wouldn’t use the same kind of forms ordinary doctors use…”

“Forms are the basic step in psychological measurement. The difference between me and those half-trained people is that their diagnosis often ends once the form is done,” Heidi said with a smile. She took off the purple crystal pendant from her neck and played with it as she spoke. “My treatment only starts while you’re filling it out.”

Vanna’s gaze fell on Heidi’s crystal pendant without her noticing. She asked with some curiosity: “I keep seeing you wear this new pendant these two days… You seem to like it?”

Heidi paused, lowered her head to look at the pendant in her hand, as if she remembered something, then shook her head: “It’s just rare for my father to bring me a gift, that’s all. Ah, Vanna, did you know? This pendant was even ‘bought’ by my father from this shop.”

She put special stress on the word “bought”, as if she had to deny that the thing was just a free gift. Duncan, next to her, nodded with a gentle smile: “It really is a product of my shop—I hope this pendant has brought you good luck.”

Vanna could not help looking a couple more times at the “crystal” pendant that was obviously a fake. A sentence almost slipped out of her mouth: Even a famous scholar like Morris could fall for this?!

Luckily, she still cared about the feelings of Duncan, who was right there. That sentence circled around her windpipe once and then went back down into her lungs. At the same time, Nina quickly finished ticking off all the boxes on the form. She pushed the form to Heidi and said: “I’m done. Could you see if there’s any problem?”

“I already finished reading it while you were filling it out—including all the tiny details in your expressions and movements,” Heidi said directly as she put the paper away. “You have a psychological shadow that has been buried for many years, right? Have you had extra stress recently, making you think of that shadow from time to time? In the last two days, your strange dreams have eased… Is it because the stress has disappeared, or has it shifted?”

Nina could not help widening her eyes, as if Heidi had hit some secret in her heart. Then she subconsciously glanced toward Duncan, a bit of hesitation on her face.

“We need a quiet and private place to do further mental relief and release,” Heidi said, looking up at Duncan. “Of course, first I need the consent of you, her Guardian, and also Miss Nina’s own cooperation.”

“Go upstairs,” Duncan nodded and looked at Nina. “Is that okay?”

“Okay.” Nina nodded very obediently, with no sign of refusal, though a trace of nervousness still showed in her eyes. That trace did not escape Heidi’s gaze.

“Don’t worry, Nina. It’s just a simple relaxation technique—you don’t really have any problem. You’re just a bit stressed and anxious,” Heidi said with a smile. A calming and trustworthy aura seemed to spread from that smile. Her voice was gentle, and the tension in Nina’s heart unknowingly faded away. At the same time she closed her medical box and set it aside. “I think we won’t even need any tools, incense, or medicine. I’ll just ask you a few questions.”

Only then did Nina completely relax. She nodded to Duncan, then led Heidi up the stairs to the second floor.

The sound of their two sets of footsteps slowly faded up the stairs.

Shirley still hid far away, focused on tidying the clutter in the corner.

At last, only Duncan and the Inquisitor sitting across from him were left by the counter.

Today was the first time Duncan had seen this Inquisitor face to face—the one who, by chance, had been left with the flame mark of the spirit form on her body. Right now, he could feel more and more clearly the mark left in Vanna’s body, and he sensed that this originally extremely weak mark was slowly growing stronger because he was near.

Even without physical contact, that tiny spark still drew more power from the “source” and began to smolder and spread in Vanna’s soul.

After noticing this, Duncan deliberately controlled the growth of that mark. He did not want this mark to be noticed by that unfathomable storm Goddess. If that happened, he would lose Vanna as this special “Node”.

He was very curious about Vanna. Strictly speaking, he was interested in her identity as a priest, and in the faith behind her.

On the other hand, Vanna was also curiously observing this place and the “Mr. Duncan” sitting opposite her.

She had indeed come today to accompany Heidi and pay a visit of thanks, but there was another reason. There had been far too many suspicious points in that great fire at the City Museum.

In theory, that fire absolutely should not have gone out in such a short time, yet it had suddenly put itself out. In the blaze, Heidi had seen a projection that seemed like a fragment of the Sun. And Duncan, this ordinary person, had rushed into the fire to save people and brought the trapped ones out without a scratch. There was no solid evidence to connect these things, but her intuition told her she should come to this antique shop and take a look.

“Mr. Duncan,” Vanna was the first to break the silence. She looked at Duncan with a calm face. “I have some questions about the great fire at the City Museum. May I ask them?”

“Of course,” Duncan nodded calmly. “I was there at the time, so I should be able to provide some information.”

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Vanna nodded slightly. “When you rushed in to save people, the fire at the City Museum was still burning then, right?”

“Yes,” Duncan nodded without hesitation. Because he did not know how much evidence this Inquisitor already had from the scene, he decided to tell the truth in parts where there might be proof. “The fire was huge at the time, especially in the corridor leading to the main exhibition hall. It was almost all burning.”

“But you all came out without a scratch,” Vanna asked next. “Can you tell me what happened after you went into the City Museum?”

Duncan put on a thinking look and pondered for two or three seconds before speaking, as if uncertain: “I also think it’s amazing that I could come out alive… But the fire inside the City Museum suddenly went down at that time. Can you imagine it? It wasn’t put out by the fire hoses outside, and it wasn’t because the fuel burned out. The fire just disappeared all at once. Even the smoke was gone…”

He clicked his tongue in wonder as he remembered, then finally raised his hand and gestured: “That must have been the Goddess’s blessing, right?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a crash from Shirley’s side—she had accidentally knocked over a wooden carving in the corner.

“Careful!” he shouted at once, turning his head just like a real shopkeeper scolding his employee. “I already broke that thing’s base once. It’s glued back on now. Don’t knock it off again!”

“…The Goddess protects everyone in the city-state,” Vanna’s expression changed in a subtle way as she looked into Duncan’s eyes. “I can see that you really are… an honest man.”

Duncan answered with a serious and open expression: “Of course. People like us who run an open shop live by not cheating anyone.”