Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Appearing in the Mortal Realm?

“Uncle Duncan, I’m off to school!”

With a cheerful shout, Nina thumped down the stairs. She turned and waved toward the second floor, then ran toward the front door.

The rest day was over. It was a school day again.

But before she reached the door, Nina suddenly stopped. She saw a figure moving behind a shelf not far ahead—the figure stepped out. It was Shirley.

“Ah, Shirley,” Nina stopped happily and waved at the girl in front of her. “I was wondering where you went—want to walk together?”

“Together?” Shirley blinked in confusion. “Together where?”

“To school, today is…” Nina spoke without thinking, but halfway through she realized, and her face turned a bit awkward. “Ah, sorry, I forgot…”

Shirley was not her classmate and did not go to school. The pleasant time they had spent together on campus had only been a play. Nina knew that, but it had still truly happened, and many times she still forgot.

Shirley’s expression also turned strange for a moment, and there was apology in her eyes. But she quickly pulled herself together and shook her head lightly: “I won’t be going with you. My… ‘investigation’ at that school is already finished.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Nina pressed her lips together, then soon went back to her usual bright smile. “Sorry, I forgot. Then I’ll head out first, okay?”

“Mm,” Shirley nodded, then as if suddenly remembering something, added: “Oh, Nina, I… I’m going home today.”

“Going home?” Nina froze. In just two days, she had already taken it for granted that Shirley was one of the people who belonged here, so when the other girl mentioned going home, she couldn’t react for a moment. “You’re not staying here anymore?”

“I have to go home. I was only staying here for a while,” Shirley waved her hands as she finally said something she had wanted to say for a long time. “I already talked to Mr. Duncan. He agreed.”

Nina did not say anything for a while and only stared blankly. After several seconds, she finally asked in a hesitant voice: “Then… then will you come back later?”

If she could help it, she really never wanted to come back here again. She even wanted to steal a boat ticket and run off to Frostholm to lie low.

That heartfelt desire to run flashed through Shirley’s mind for a second, but then she suddenly felt as if a gaze had passed through the second?floor floorboards and fallen right on her. She hurriedly shrank her neck without thinking. “I… I’ll come visit you when I have the chance. My home isn’t that far away anyway. Ha, haha…”

Nina tilted her head. For some reason, she felt that Shirley’s reaction just now had been a bit odd. But she soon stopped thinking about it. She was happy again because of the promise that Shirley would “come find her when she had the chance,” and that was enough. So she waved cheerfully, then turned and ran out the door like a gust of wind, disappearing into the street outside the antique shop.

Shirley stared blankly as Nina ran off like the wind. After a moment, she shivered and suddenly came back to herself, realizing that a figure was standing on the stairs not far away, calmly watching her.

She quickly turned around and bent in a bow with a level of politeness she rarely showed in her life. “M?Mr. Duncan, good morning!”

“You’re much more polite now. This is how a girl your age should act,” Duncan said lightly as he walked down the stairs. “Did you explain everything clearly to Nina? You’re going home today?”

“I… I did explain it,” Shirley kept her head down. She didn’t even dare to raise her voice, afraid that the big boss would get annoyed and go back on his word. “And you agreed that I can leave today.”

“Why are you nervous again? You were fine yesterday. Does your nervousness reset every morning?” Duncan shook his head, half amused and half helpless. He stepped forward and patted Shirley’s rather thin shoulder. “Relax a bit. I never said I would lock you up somewhere. I only invited you to stay here as a guest for two days. When you want to go back, you can go back. When you want to come, you can come anytime.”

“I… I understand,” Shirley nodded again and again, then added helplessly, “A?actually, I’m not that nervous. It’s Dog that keeps getting nervous. Whenever you get close, it gets nervous on instinct, and then that nervous feeling spreads to me.”

“Dog, huh… Well, that can’t be helped. Its nerves seem to come from the sharp senses of Abyssal demons,” Duncan shrugged, then looked at Shirley again. “But are you really not going to think about it? You could stay here. The place you and Dog live in seems a bit shabby, and it’s not very safe after nightfall. Compared to that, this is a very safe place.”

A Shadow of Subspace calling his own lair a safe place—those words were both reasonable and ridiculous at the same time. Shirley thought it over for a long while and still couldn’t find any point to argue with (and mainly, she didn’t have the nerve to argue). In the end, she could only let out a silly laugh: “Ah… ahaha… um…”

“Forget it, I was just saying. Don’t get hung up on it,” Duncan saw her reaction and knew how it was. He waved a hand. “If you want to go, then go. You already know how to contact me now. If you discover any new clues about those Suntists, remember to call me anytime.”

Shirley nodded silently.

After these two dreamlike days, she finally had permission to leave this place. She had been given the chance to get away from this terrifying being. But when the chance truly appeared… she suddenly found she didn’t quite know what to do.

Chatting and joking with a “friend.” Living under the care of an “elder.” A warm bedroom, bright lights, good food, and a peaceful life without fearing nightmares or hiding from Guardians.

Now, she was allowed to leave.

For some reason, an absurd thought rose in Shirley’s mind—

A bright world had opened its doors to her for a brief time. Now, those doors were about to close.

Not long ago, this had been what she dreamed of—honestly, it still was. She was just… a little conflicted.

Through the mental link, she suddenly heard Dog’s low mutter: “Our life is going back on track, Shirley.”

“Yeah, it’s going back on track.”

Shirley murmured softly in her mind. Then she raised her head, wanting to say goodbye to Mr. Duncan.

But just then, Duncan’s expression suddenly changed a little.

In some unseen way, he sensed a presence flash by in the distance. That presence… was one of the Marks he had left behind!

“Mr. Duncan?” Shirley noticed how his face suddenly grew serious and immediately tensed up. “You…”

“I sensed a presence,” Duncan said softly, not waiting for her to finish. He lifted his head and looked into the distance. “It seems to be coming from that direction.”

Shirley did not understand at first. “A presence?”

“It’s the little flame I left on that ‘little bug’,” Duncan lowered his head slightly and fixed his gaze on Shirley’s eyes. “Do you remember the Umbrella Fiend that attacked you at the edge of the dream?”

Shirley froze for a second, then her eyes went wide. “The fragment you let ‘go home’? But… but that was in the dreamscape…”

“Yes, that attacker appeared in the dreamscape,” Duncan’s tone grew meaningful. “But now I’ve sensed that mark in the Mortal Realm.”

Shirley stared, wide?eyed. She suddenly remembered what Mr. Duncan had said to her in that nightmare—

Maybe, that was not just a dream.

“Shirley,” Duncan’s voice suddenly came, cutting off the girl’s thoughts. He lowered his head a bit, a smile on his face. “Before you go home, want to come investigate with me again? Of course, if you don’t—”

“I want to go!” Shirley answered at once before he could finish, her attitude so firm that she even scared herself. Then, as if to smooth over the awkwardness, she quickly added, “Th?that ‘thing’ appeared on the street after the great fire. It must be connected to that fire back then…”

Duncan pressed down on Shirley’s shoulder. “Then we’ll go together.”

“How are we going?” Shirley drew a slow breath. “You can pinpoint where that thing is, right? Are we taking the bus again like last time…”

Duncan shook his head with a smile. “Now I have a more convenient way to travel.”

Shirley blinked in surprise and was just about to ask what this more convenient way was when, out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a shadow swoop down from the second?floor stair landing. At the same time, a string of sharp, strange female cries rang out: “Twin Immortals Bridge, via Chenghua Avenue… seats! Seats in the back… sunflower seeds, drinks, mineral water! Feet in, both sides, pull your feet in!”

The sudden darting shadow and the sudden shout both startled Shirley. When she finally saw what it was, her eyes went even wider than before: it was that weird pigeon! The one that could eat almost its own body’s worth of fries in a single meal!

The next second, under Shirley’s dumbfounded gaze, AI had already swept in a fast circle through the air. emerald flame burst up around it. A moment ago it had been just a chubby, harmless?looking white dove, but in the blink of an eye it turned into a terrifying skeletal dove in spirit form.

Shirley: “…?!”

Her neck stiff, she slowly turned her head, wanting to confirm something with Duncan. But before she could speak, her vision suddenly blurred…

Amid AI’s nonstop chatter of “Seats, seats in the back,” a vortex like a doorway of flame flashed into being. The next second, a swift white dove shot out of the antique shop and flew straight into the distance.