Chapter 169

Chapter 169: Stepping into the Veil.

“Got it? Fries are made like this. It is very simple. Just make sure you neither burn them nor leave them half raw. You do not need to stick your face over the pot and stare the whole time, and you do not need to taste for salt. Remember?”

On the Vanished’s morning, Duncan stood in the kitchen, speaking very seriously as he guided a very nervous Alice. In the pot of oil in front of the two of them, still slightly pale fries rolled up and down in the hot oil, making a constant sizzling sound.

“I… I remember!” Alice stared unblinking at the boiling oil, one hand still gripping a kitchen knife. On the cutting board beside her lay potato chunks she had cut into terrible shapes. Those would become ingredients for other dishes.

Duncan looked at the pot, then at the doll beside it, and nodded slightly. In his heart he thought that such a simple task really should not be something this silly thing could mess up again. Then he noticed the knife in Alice’s hand and felt a little uncomfortable: “…Can you put the knife down first? When you finish cutting things, do not keep holding it.”

A cursed doll standing in the kitchen with a kitchen knife, radiating killing intent toward potatoes, was not a very lucky sight.

It felt as if the very next second the background music would switch to some scary track, and a blood-red health bar would pop up above Alice’s head, stabbing right out of the screen.

“Oh… oh!” Alice finally reacted. She hurriedly put the knife back on the side, then waved at the captain with great confidence. “Captain, you can go back now! I already learned this. You and AI just wait to eat!”

Duncan stared at Alice for quite a while. After he was sure this doll really was not going to make any more trouble, he finally relaxed a little. At the same time, a feeling of emotion rose in his heart.

After all this time, the Vanished could finally produce fries steadily.

…

On the second floor of the antique shop, at the dining table, Nina, who had a medical patch stuck on her forehead, raised her head curiously and glanced at her uncle: “Uncle, I have wanted to ask. You have been frowning all morning… and just now you suddenly looked like you relaxed and let out a breath…”

“Did I? I did not notice…” Duncan froze for a moment. His attention crossed the vast distance in an instant and fell back into this little antique shop. Then he smiled and shook his head. “It is nothing. I just remembered some numbers in the account book and did some mental math. I just worked it out.”

“Oh.” Nina nodded. “That makes sense. I thought your nerves were all tight just now.”

Duncan did not answer. He kept his calm smile, but in his heart he could not help muttering a line: [This young lady’s observation skills are pretty sharp.]

At this time Nina leaned forward and glanced at the small window at the end of the second-floor corridor that faced the street. After hesitating for a moment, she whispered: “Shirley did not come today.”

“…She has her own place to live.” Duncan looked at the young lady in front of him, whose face now showed a bit of loneliness. “And you still have to go to school today. How would you have time to go out and play with her?”

“I should have asked where she lives.” Nina spoke again. “Then when she does not have time to come find me, I can go find her.”

Duncan did not say anything at first. After two or three seconds of silence, he asked softly: “Do you like this new friend that much? You actually have not spent that much time together.”

“Shirley is really nice. She even saved my life in the City Museum.” Nina answered at once. “And… and…”

“And what?”

“And when she was staying here, I chatted with her and Dog at night and asked about her. I found out she has always only had Dog with her. They live in a little alley in the shantytown. At night there are not even proper streetlights there. The house lets in wind and rain, and I…”

“Nina.” Duncan suddenly interrupted the girl in front of him, his expression a little serious. “Friendship cannot be built on pity. That is even more true for a child like Shirley.”

Nina froze, then raised her head to meet Duncan’s eyes. After a moment she slowly scratched the hair at her temple. “Uncle, you suddenly said something very philosophical…”

Duncan: “…”

“But you did remind me. I might be a little bit sympathetic.” Nina went on. “But… I just want her to live better. I can feel it. Even though she was always strangely nervous when she was living here, she was actually very happy. I… if I make this kind of judgment for her, am I being a bit self-righteous?”

Duncan did not answer. He seemed to fall into brief thought. After a moment he smiled and shook his head. “Do not think so much. Next time we see Shirley, we will ask where she lives. As for now… hurry and finish eating. It is almost time for school.”

“Okay!” Nina nodded obediently. Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, excitement lit up her face. “Right, does that mean today I can… ride that new bicycle to school?”

“No.” Duncan lifted his eyelids and refused without hesitation. “Did you forget how badly you fell yesterday?”

As he spoke, the scene from yesterday after Nina came home rose in his mind. The girl’s first glance had landed on the brand-new bicycle parked on the first floor. She had almost jumped in place from excitement, then rushed to climb on and try it. After about thirty seconds, there was a loud crash, and she fell at the doorway…

She still had a patch on her forehead now.

“I… I thought riding a bicycle would be easy.” Nina lowered her head in embarrassment. “I saw that my classmates can all…”

Duncan sighed.

He really should have thought of it. If there had never been a bicycle in the antique shop and Nina had not had any friends for so many years, how could she possibly have had the chance to learn to ride? When he bought the bicycle, he had completely ignored this point.

“Take the bus to school today. Do not run there. Our family does not lack this little bit of fare now.” Duncan took a few coins out of his pocket and put them in front of Nina. “When you come back, I will teach you how to ride. It really is not hard. With how clever you are, you will probably learn it in a few days.”

Nina was a little dejected at first, but soon she became cheerful again and nodded happily. “Oh!”

After a while, Nina ran out through the front door of the antique shop. Duncan stood at the small window on the second floor of the shop, watching the girl’s figure cross the street in the morning light and run toward the bus stop not far away.

More and more carriages, traffic, and street noises were echoing through the alleys. This district was slowly waking up in the sunlight. Golden-red sunlight spread along the distant rooflines, like a shimmering, rising Veil.

A Veil of flame that swept across the entire city-state.

Duncan’s expression suddenly froze. He frowned and fixed his gaze on the dense rows of houses in the distance.

The majestic scene of the flaming Veil sweeping across the city-state vanished from the glow of the clouds, as if the image that had just flashed into his mind had been a baseless illusion.

Yet the deep crease between Duncan’s brows did not relax at all. He just kept staring into the distance, as if trying to find another layer of Mortal Realm overlapping behind that magnificent dawn.

Only after several minutes did he slowly pull his gaze back.

He focused for a moment, then beckoned toward the empty air beside him: “AI.”

In the next second, a ball of ghost-green flame burst suddenly in the air. An undead bird coiled out of the fire and took shape. AI flapped her wings and landed on Duncan’s shoulder, burping loudly as she shouted: “Burp… who is calling… burp… the fleet?”

Duncan’s mood broke apart at once. He turned his head and stared, dumbfounded, at the pigeon that looked almost twice as plump as before. “…How much did you eat on the ship?”

AI flapped her wings and stretched her neck as far as it would go. “The hour of feasting has come… burp!”

Duncan looked at the bird without expression. After a moment he sighed. “No wonder Alice was fussing over there for so long and still brought so little food into the cabin. So you intercepted it all… Fine, we will call it not wasting food. Can you still fly? Head to the Sixth District.”

The pigeon let out a loud squawk at once: “Mission accepted! Mission accepted!”

In the next second, there was a flash of fire at the small window on the second floor of the antique shop. The swollen fat pigeon leaped out of the window and wobbled away through the air in the direction of the Sixth District.

At the same time, deep in the Sixth District, two dark gray steam cars were moving along an empty, chilly street.

The tall Vanna sat in the back seat of one of the cars. Her greatsword rested at her side, and she was quietly using her gaze to watch the scene on the street outside.

Because she was not sure what state that small cathedral was in, Vanna had not driven an eye-catching steam walker directly into the area. Instead, she had chosen to personally lead a small elite unit in quietly first, while the support team waited on standby in the nearby neighborhoods.

After entering the Sixth District, she had indeed sensed the “atmosphere” here at once… and it felt very wrong.

A community that was far too lacking in vitality. Residents who were sparse, lazy, and slow to react to outside stimuli. Old facilities that were long out of repair, even beyond what the Lower City’s bottom line should allow.

An aura lingered over everything. The entire district gave her the feeling… that time had frozen in a crack that the world had forgotten.