Chapter 176

Chapter 176: A Warm Family

Nina appeared in Duncan’s sight. The girl ran all the way toward him, a happy smile on her face. When she saw her uncle sitting in a daze by the door of the antique shop, she sped up and raised her hand to wave: “Uncle, I’m back!”

Duncan snapped out of his thoughts. He put his worries aside for the moment and stood up to greet his “niece”. When he saw the girl out of breath, he paused, frowned a little, and said: “Didn’t I give you money for the ride? Why did you still run back after school?”

Nina stopped in front of Duncan and took a few deep breaths. She scratched her hair in embarrassment, then reached into the schoolbag in her hand and started rummaging around. After a long while, she finally pulled out a small paper packet and handed it over: “I… passed by Doctor Albert’s clinic on the way back…”

Duncan took the packet and pinched it lightly. He realized there were several pills inside.

“Doctor Albert said you’ve been using alcohol to dull the pain for a long time,” Nina explained in a small voice, “and even though your health is better now and you’ve successfully quit drinking, people who drank for a long time can easily have bad reactions when they suddenly stop. This is medicine to ease alcohol withdrawal. If you start feeling unwell, you can take one…

“Also, Doctor Albert said that as long as your health hasn’t worsened recently, you can stop taking the medicine you used before. But he still suggests that, if you have time, you should go to his clinic for a full check-up…”

Duncan quietly listened to Nina’s soft, even slightly cautious explanation. He did not speak for a long time. Only after she finished did he silently tuck the little packet of pills carefully into an inner pocket close to his body.

Then he reached out and placed his hand on Nina’s hair, gently rubbing it.

“Uncle?” Nina looked up at him in confusion. She saw a hard-to-describe seriousness on Duncan’s face, and in that seriousness there was even a hint of worry. Her sensitive heart suddenly became uneasy: “What… what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick? Or…”

“I’m fine.” Duncan suddenly smiled. He bent down a little, his gaze meeting Nina’s eyes, and said: “But from now on, don’t use your fare money to buy medicine for me. Our family doesn’t lack money anymore. You can also bring more pocket money with you… if it’s not enough, just ask me.”

Nina stared blankly at Duncan. She felt that her uncle suddenly seemed a little strange, but she could not say exactly what was wrong. She stared for a long time before she finally nodded hesitantly: “Oh… oh…”

Then she thought of something. She craned her neck to look into the shop, and an expression that was both expectant and hesitant appeared on her face: “Uncle, um… you said that when I came back from school, you’d teach me to ride the bicycle…”

“The weather isn’t very good right now.” Duncan raised his eyebrows. “It might rain.”

“We’ll just stay by the door,” Nina said in a small, hopeful voice as she grabbed Duncan’s arm. “If it rains, we can go back inside right away…”

Duncan laughed and nodded helplessly: “Alright. Put your schoolbag away first. I’ll teach you to ride the bicycle. But we can only practice for a little while. I still haven’t cooked dinner.”

“Okay!”

Nina let out a small cheer, then dashed into the antique shop like a charging soldier. She tossed her schoolbag onto the counter and pushed out the brand-new bicycle. Her pushing posture was crooked. She wrestled with the doorframe for quite a while before she finally managed to get the bike in front of Duncan.

“…Honestly, I feel like you even need to learn how to push the bike from scratch,” Duncan said. He looked at Nina’s clumsy movements and could not help sighing with a half-laugh, half-cry expression. Then he walked up and steadied the handlebars. “But seeing how excited you are, just get on first. I’ll hold the bike for you. You just try pedaling and get used to keeping your balance while it’s moving.”

Nina nodded obediently. Once Duncan had the bike steady, she grabbed the handlebars, stepped on the pedal, and climbed up onto the seat. As she struggled her way up, she kept repeating: “Uncle, you have to hold it tight! Don’t you dare let go!”

“Alright, alright, just trust me…”

The slightly salty, cold wind blew over the old streets of the Lower City, whipping up fallen leaves and dust between the low, rundown buildings. Dark clouds hung very low, yet the rain that might fall at any time still seemed to hesitate in the sky, refusing to drop to the ground.

On the small patch of open ground in front of the antique shop, a girl’s excited yet nervous cries rang out, mixed with the bike bell’s random jingling and, every now and then, Duncan’s instructions and teasing.

A pure black, old-fashioned private car stopped in the open space near the antique shop. An old man wearing an old-style woolen scholar’s coat, carrying a Gatekeeper’s cane, and wearing a short top hat pushed open the car door and looked toward the antique shop.

Morris saw that familiar, old shop, and he also saw the uncle and niece who were practicing riding the bicycle on the open space in front of it.

It was an ordinary Lower City street scene, a warm and simple bit of family life. Everything looked so normal. Even under the low-hanging clouds and the chill of the autumn wind, the scene in the distance still looked especially warm and peaceful.

However, Heidi had spent only half a day in that antique shop and had already burned through one of the God of Wisdom Rahm’s blessings—and that was with a Deep Sea Inquisitor guarding her.

Yet afterward, neither Heidi herself nor Inquisitor Vanna had noticed even the slightest anomaly.

Morris took a quiet breath. Even as he looked at such an everyday scene, his heart started beating faster.

He clenched his teeth. Instead of calling out to the uncle and niece in front of the antique shop, he decided to finish his observation of the shop first. If possible, he truly did not want to drag unrelated people into an supernatural incident.

The old man searched in the pocket of his coat and took out a blessed monocle with a thin pale-gold chain. One end of the fine chain was clipped to the inside of his pocket, and the other end was attached to the frame. On the frame, Rahm’s name and many holy symbols were carved in ancient Critt letters. In the clear lens, faint light flowed.

“May wisdom grant me keen eyes, enlighten my mind, let me see the truth, and pierce the fog…”

Morris murmured a short benediction, then clipped the blessed monocle into his eye socket. He turned his face toward the antique shop and “opened” the eye he had chosen to seal eleven years ago…

Morris felt dazed for a moment. He lowered his head and looked at the blessed monocle in his hand. He saw Rahm’s name and the holy symbols carved on the frame. Faint light stirred in the clear lens.

“May wisdom grant me keen eyes…”

He whispered the benediction again and clipped the blessed monocle into his eye socket, then raised his head…

Morris felt dazed again. He lowered his head and looked at the blessed monocle in his hand.

A cold wind suddenly blew from the other side of the street, carrying a low murmur. The old scholar stopped the motion he was about to make, then suddenly raised his right wrist.

A bracelet woven from colorful stones and silk thread circled his wrist. There were eight stones in total.

The cold wind blew by, dragging fallen leaves and the chill of late autumn with it. The sounds in Morris’s ears seemed to fade away. The noise of traffic in the street and the bells from the Cathedral in the distance became so faint that they might have been coming from another world. He heard only the pounding of his own heart. The roar of his blood filled his ears like thunder. Amid that heartbeat, only the sounds from one direction stayed clear—

A girl’s happy yet nervous voice: “Uncle, hold it steady! Ah, it’s tilting, it’s tilting… the bike is going to fall!”

A middle-aged man’s warm voice, carrying a smile: “I’m holding it. It won’t fall. If you keep the handlebars straight, it won’t tilt… Pedal forward and keep going. That’s how a bicycle works. As long as you pedal and hold the handlebars, it won’t fall over.”

“You really have to hold it! I’m going forward!”

“Go on. I’m right behind you.”

Morris suddenly heard another sound, a creaking noise like grinding bones. As it came, his field of vision shifted and turned a little. He needed a second to understand what was happening.

He was slowly turning his neck, moving his gaze from the antique shop to the patch of open ground by its door.

A strong warning surged up from his soul. The bracelet on his wrist, which still held eight stones, let out a low, sobbing sound. Each stone became burning hot, like they were trying to drag a drowning person out of the water by force, pulling at his reason in vain. Morris could still think. He knew the divine blessings he had placed on himself before leaving home had been activated and were working. But he could only do this basic thinking—his neck kept turning, and his eyes, out of his control, were looking toward the most dangerous place.

[Close your eyes! Close your eyes! Close your eyes!]

Countless voices exploded in his mind, but his reason could not drive his muscles to finish even this simplest action. He turned his head, inch by inch, and finally, with both his eyes “opened” by the divine blessing, he saw the source of the voices.

He saw a frenzied, writhing vortex of light and shadow, and a mirror that seemed to reflect all times and all spaces at once, shattered into countless fragments. These things were mixed together, tangled into a barely human-shaped giant whose surface was covered in starlight. The giant bent down a little and carefully supported…

Supported a spraying arc of blazing flame.

A thunderous blast went off in Morris’s mind, and then the whole world fell quiet.