Chapter 183

Chapter 183: The Invasion After nightfall

“Teacher just left like that?” Nina came down to the first floor and widened her eyes in surprise when she heard that Morris had already left. Then she complained: “Uncle, why didn’t you ask him to stay a bit longer? The weather is so bad and you still let Teacher go…”

“It would be completely dark if he stayed any longer,” Duncan turned around and locked the front door, then spoke casually as he walked toward the stairs. “He drove here. A bit of rain won’t affect him much.”

“But Teacher didn’t look very well,” Nina followed him, muttering as she climbed the stairs. “He should have rested a bit more…”

Duncan thought for a moment. He figured that if the Old Gentleman really stayed here to rest a bit longer, then it would not be just “not feeling well” anymore. It might turn into ten straight Will Tests all failing. Then forget about tomorrow’s Sun—he might not even see tonight’s World’s Wound…

But there was no way he could explain that to Nina, so he only brushed it off with a few casual words and went to the dining table on the second floor.

Nina had already prepared a hot meal—beet soup, toasted bread, vegetable rolls, and sliced ham.

There was clearly enough for one more person.

“If we can’t finish, we’ll save it for tomorrow morning,” Nina muttered. Then she looked up at Duncan with some curiosity. “What did you talk about with Teacher? I couldn’t hear clearly upstairs just now, but it sounded like you two were talking quite happily…”

Duncan quietly watched Nina. He had been watching her like this for a while, watching this girl moving about busily.

She was just like always, always smiling. Even when she complained, she never really looked angry. She kept busy with this and that, as if she always had endless things to do, endless energy to use, and she was always looking forward to tomorrow.

Duncan could only see this kind of Nina. He did not have eyes that could see through reality like Morris, and he could not see the surging flame inside Nina.

If he had not just heard it with his own ears, he really would never have imagined that the shard of the Sun that tugged at the nerves of countless people was quietly “sleeping” right here, right under his nose.

The shard of the Sun… what exactly was it?

Duncan had once thought it was a tangible supernatural item. Later, through various clues, he confirmed that it was a solar prominence that had been stripped away. Yet now he had discovered that this thing was very likely sleeping inside Nina’s body…

If that thing really came from the “star” he knew, then what kind of change would a star have to go through to peel off such a strange… “shard”?

“Uncle Duncan?” Nina noticed the gaze from across the table and twisted her body in slight awkwardness. “Do I have something stuck on my face?”

“…No, nothing at all,” Duncan shook his head lightly. As he lowered his head to break the bread, he asked as if casually: “By the way, have you felt unwell recently? That strange dream from before… has it appeared again?”

“No,” Nina waved her hand. “The hypnosis Miss Heidi did for me last time worked pretty well. I haven’t had any strange dreams since then, and I’ve felt energetic every day.”

She paused for a moment, then looked at Duncan with some worry: “Uncle, is something wrong with you? I feel like… you’ve been a bit strange since you finished talking with Mr. Morris… Ah, it can’t be my last test score…”

“No, stop imagining things. Your Teacher didn’t come here to complain about you,” Duncan raised an eyebrow. “Eat first, eat first.”

Nina answered and lowered her head to eat. At that moment, though, Duncan seemed to sense something and looked in confusion toward a certain direction outside the window.

……

In the Lower City, deep in a shabby, dim alley, gas lamps lit in a hurry finally drove away the surrounding darkness before the veil of night completely covered the streets. In the dull light from the gas lamps, Shirley lay on the windowsill, a bit dazed as she looked at the dark street outside.

The clatter of chains rubbing against each other came from behind her, followed by Dog’s voice: “You’re leaning out to look again? What’s there to see?”

“I just can’t sleep. It’s so early and there’s nothing to do,” Shirley muttered. “I’m so bored…”

“…How about we go out tomorrow and keep making trouble for cultists?”

“…Feels like we’ll still find nothing,” Shirley thought for a bit and shook her head. “I don’t know if the people from the Church suddenly got better at their jobs, but lately the cultists in the city-state seem to have been caught clean. Even you can’t smell their stink anymore…”

“The Suntists who were active in the city recently really are gone. Maybe they really were all caught,” Dog came closer and flopped down lazily at Shirley’s feet. “But I don’t think you’re bored because of that at all…”

Shirley rolled her eyes at once: “Then what else could it be?”

“…Are you thinking about ‘over there’?” Dog lifted his head, faint light flickering in his hollow blood-red eye sockets. “Thinking about that warm house, that bright room, the hot meals, the days when someone called you to get up and urged you to eat. Or… are you thinking about that Subspace Retainer called Nina? Maybe even that Duncan…”

“Damn it, shut up! You’re so annoying!” Shirley yanked hard on the chain in her hand, cutting Dog off roughly. “I’m not some whining little brat. How could I be that weak!”

Dog did not care at all about Shirley’s rough reaction: “…Longing for light and warmth isn’t weakness. It only proves you are still a Human.”

“Ugh…” Shirley suddenly shivered, then looked disgusted. “Why the hell are you suddenly so mushy? And talking all fancy? ‘Proves I’m still a Human’… Are you praising me or saying I haven’t improved at all in all these years?”

“…Don’t think that just because you’ve been fused with me, a Abyssal Demon, for eleven years, you’ve really turned into a Demon too. There’s nothing wrong with calmly admitting the human side of yourself,” Dog shook his ugly big head. “Besides, don’t forget, the thing linking you and me isn’t just this chain—how could I not understand it when your emotions change?”

“…Shut up,” Shirley turned her face away and looked outside irritably. “If you keep nagging, I’ll really take you to see Nina tomorrow. Then I’ll keep Nina company, you can keep Mr. Duncan company, and both of us will have a bright future—see if that doesn’t scare you till you pee yourself!”

Dog finally fell silent.

After a brief silence, Shirley could not help nudging the Abyssal Hound beside her with the tip of her foot, taking the initiative to break the quiet: “Stop worrying so much. I still have you with me, don’t I?”

“You’re even mushier than I am,” Dog shifted, the chain clanking. “Stop talking. If you keep going, I’m going to throw up—and then there will be another hole in the floor.”

The Abyssal Hound kept grumbling, but through the spirit link between them, Shirley could feel that “Dog”, who had almost eaten her alive and then raised her to adulthood, suddenly felt much better.

In the dim dusk and the faint glow of the streetlamps, the thin girl curled her lips, hiding the small smile on her face.

This was good. Everything had gone back on track. The familiar days had returned, and she only needed to keep living them. She must not think about peace and warmth that did not belong to her, especially when that peaceful, warm place still had a Shadow from Subspace lurking in it.

That warmth was far too dangerous.

Shirley let out a soft breath.

But in the next second, she frowned slightly. She felt as if something malicious was approaching, and the hairs on her back stood up.

Dog also suddenly rose from his lying position. Black smoke and flames burst from the huge Abyssal Hound’s body. The red light in his hollow blood-colored eye sockets flared as he swept the room with sharp wariness and hostility.

The room was dark. To save money, Shirley had blown out the Oil lamp on the table the moment the streetlamps lit up, so now only the light from outside shone into the room. In the dim, spreading light, the simple furniture inside cast mottled, strange Shadows on the floor and walls.

In the shabby home, everything was in plain sight, familiar and clear.

Yet for some reason, Shirley suddenly felt that all the furnishings in her home were a bit strange. In the staggered lights and shadows, in the corners of the table and chairs and the gaps at the foot of the bed, an unfamiliar, wrong kind of aura kept seeping out!

Shirley tightened the chain in her hand on instinct: “Dog!”

“I know,” Dog growled at the same time. “I’m looking! Something is coming in here… surrounding us… damn! What is this, my eyes are going blurry!”

Before the Abyssal Hound finished speaking, Shirley suddenly noticed that the light from the streetlamps shining in through the window was starting to twist and dim!

It was as if a heavy black curtain suddenly fell over the whole house. The street scene that had been clear a second ago turned blurry in an instant. The light from the streetlamps was cut into broken pieces, scattered as pale glimmers across the room. Then those pale glimmers and the shadows everywhere started writhing all at once. Together with a series of nauseating, low whispers and strange sounds, several figures abruptly surfaced from between the light and shadow—

They wore tattered black robes, and the arms exposed beneath the robes were thin as sticks. A pitch-black Black Codex hung at each of their waists. The Black Codex looked soaked in inky filth, with black, suspicious liquid seeping and dripping from the books without stopping. On each of their chests hung an iron emblem like a wreath of thorns, and in the center of each emblem a pale, muddy flame flickered.

The black-robed figure in the lead raised a hand and pointed at Shirley. Muffled, hoarse syllables that no Human throat could make came from under the hood: “You shall perish…”

Dog’s shout finally reached Shirley’s ears: “Damn it, it’s a Ender!!!”