Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Bright Sunshine

The sunlight outside the window was bright and warm. The terrible weather from before now felt like a distant illusion. Only the water marks left on the windowsill and the wet ground on the street proved that a heavy rain had really fallen late last night. And this sunny day after the rain seemed just right for sleeping in at home.

But Shirley had already slept enough. She had never slept this long in one go before, and she was a little hungry, which pushed her to get up quickly.

Lying hungry in bed was not a pleasant memory for her. When she was younger, she had used sleep to get through the hungriest nights. If not for Dog waking her up and supporting her, she might have left this world long ago on some cold, hungry winter night.

When hunger passed a certain point, a person brushed shoulders with death in their sleep. That was one of Shirley’s hard-earned life lessons.

She left the soft, comfortable bed and got up to change clothes. At that moment, light, quick footsteps sounded right outside the door.

“Shirley! Are you awake? I heard something!”

It was Nina’s voice.

Shirley froze for a second, then quickly answered: “I’m awake.”

The door opened, and Nina appeared in the doorway in a white blouse, short jacket, and light brown plaid skirt. She saw Shirley, who had just finished changing, and smiled at once. Then she walked quickly over. “You really slept a long time! How do you feel now? Does your back still hurt? How are your wounds… let me see, let me see…”

“I used a lot of energy, so I slept for a long time… I’m fine now, really.” Shirley dodged a little at Nina’s overenthusiastic checking. But the girl who was usually so strong and powerful seemed to have no strength at all when trying to avoid Nina. In the end, she obediently turned around and let Nina check the wounds on her back and arms. “They’re just small injuries. I… heal very fast. And… hey, that tickles, don’t… it tickles, haha…”

“They really all healed!” Nina finally let go of Shirley, who had started hopping and squirming away from her fingers. Nina stared at her friend in surprise, as if she were studying some rare creature. “Last night it was still such a big wound. Now it’s not only gone, it didn’t even leave a scar… How did you do that?”

“I already told you, I have a symbiotic pact with a Abyssal demon. Dog’s traits are a tough body and regeneration,” Shirley said, straightening her clothes. The outfit she had worn yesterday had been ruined in the fight. The one she was wearing now was another old set she had brought from home, one of the few things she had managed to salvage after the attack. “My regeneration could actually be even better, but Dog says I’m malnourished, so my regeneration is kind of weakened…”

“Then you need to eat well here. Uncle’s cooking is really good now,” Nina said at once, then grew curious. “So… are all people like you… I mean, people who have symbiotic pacts with Abyssal demons, are they all this strong?”

“It depends on what kind of demon they have a symbiotic pact with. If it’s a Abyssal Hound, what you get is toughness and regeneration, plus a boost to your senses. With dreadfiends, what you get is willpower and resistance to mental corruption. Besides those, there are all kinds of demons, and I can’t name them all… Anyway, people with symbiotic pacts with Abyssal demons are the messiest kind of supernatural. Those demons are always very generous to their pact partners, just so they can act in the Mortal Realm.”

Shirley suddenly paused there, and her expression turned serious. She looked into Nina’s eyes. “That’s just talk, though. I still think you shouldn’t get too close to this side of things. By now you should know that, under normal circumstances, the ones who make symbiotic pacts with Abyssal demons are all madmen from the Cult of Annihilation. They’re not like me. Their demons aren’t like Dog.”

“I know, I know, I’m not a little child,” Nina said quickly, waving her hands, but she still could not hide the curiosity on her face. “But have you ever seen other people with symbiotic pacts? I mean those annihilation believers…”

“I haven’t, and I don’t want to. Just hearing Dog describe them is disgusting enough. If I ever do see them, I’ll be sure to beat them up… and then report them to the constables,” Shirley said, frowning. “Nina, you’re asking a lot of questions today… You didn’t ask this much even when you first met Dog. And don’t you have school today?”

“I have to learn more about you if you’re going to be living in my home from now on. I heard from Uncle that your house was destroyed in a gas explosion and you don’t have anywhere else to go…” Nina said seriously as she grabbed Shirley’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “And school is on break! We have almost two months of vacation. You didn’t know?”

“How would I know? I’ve never gone to school…” Shirley muttered under her breath as Nina dragged her out of the room toward the kitchen, where the smell of food was already drifting out. She noticed that the whole second floor was very quiet and could not help asking, “Is Mr. Duncan not here?”

“Uncle went down to the first floor. He said he needs to receive someone and told us to eat upstairs first,” Nina explained. She pulled Shirley to the kitchen door, then suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly turned to drag her toward the washroom. “Oh, right, wash your hands. You have to wash your hands before eating, or Uncle will start lecturing again.”

“Oh… okay.” Shirley let Nina pull her back and forth in a daze. She did not know if it was because she was hungry or because she had slept too long, but her head felt a little foggy. Still… it was not a bad feeling.

At the same time, beside the counter on the first floor of the antique shop, Duncan was carefully explaining something to the person sitting across from him. The person across from him was a young lady in an elegant dress and a fine checked veil, with long golden hair and a dignified, beautiful face.

“…That’s pretty much it. There’s an awful lot of common sense you need to know if you want to live in human society, but for now it’s enough if you understand the most basic parts. That’s enough for your current range of activity. You won’t be doing much here in the shop either. Just get used to the simplest things at first, like sweeping the floor and putting things back on the shelves,” Duncan finally finished explaining the things she needed to watch out for here. But he still looked uneasily at the golden-haired maiden sitting up straight in front of him. “And the things I taught you on the ship before… you still remember them?”

“I remember, I remember!” Alice nodded hard at once. After two big nods, though, she suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly made her nods smaller, lowering her head in a very proper, elegant way. “Don’t worry, I remember it all very clearly!”

“Right, small nods. At least you remembered that.” Duncan let out a breath and let his gaze slide over Alice again, checking each detail.

A golden wig covered her original long silver hair. A bit of makeup had softened some details of her face. A veil hid the lower half of her face. She wore long white silk gloves on her hands, and a frilled choker around her neck to hide the special joints there.

Basically, every part that could be disguised had been disguised.

Of course, if someone who knew Queen Ray Nora of Frostholm extremely well stood here, or someone who had once seen Anomaly 099 up close with their own eyes, they would probably still notice something suspicious in the brows and eyes of this “golden-haired maiden.” But the chance of that was almost zero.

Queen Ray Nora of Frostholm had lived half a century ago. And anyone who had ever been close to Anomaly 099 was almost certainly no longer alive.

Ordinary people, even the Guardians of the Church, definitely would not recognize that this Alice was the cursed Doll in a runaway state.

Duncan could not help sighing again in his heart.

At first, he had planned to wait a while longer before letting Alice come to a human city to “see the world,” to give her a few more days of lessons on the ship. But he could not stand the way she leaned on the railings, staring longingly into the distance and muttering to herself when she had nothing to do, so he moved the schedule up a bit.

Still, within what he could manage, he had crammed as much basic knowledge into her as possible, and poured the most basic “normal worldview” into her. He figured… it should be enough.

Probably.

Right now, Nina and Shirley were eating upstairs. Duncan had picked a time and asked AI to bring the doll from the ship to the shop so she could get used to the place. The first thing Alice did when she arrived was poke and prod everything in sight. It had taken him a lot of effort to “pin” her to the chair by the counter. Even so, he could tell that the doll’s attention was almost never actually on what he was saying.

She had started looking all around again. Even though she tried her best to sit up properly, her darting eyes and the neck that kept wanting to turn this way and that were impossible to hide.

Elegant, ladylike posture matched with eyes that just could not sit still—Duncan could only think: this really was Alice. Somehow, elegance and total airheadedness could appear on the same person at the same time.

After a round of looking everywhere, her attention finally returned to Duncan. Her eyes were full of barely hidden focus and… curiosity.