Chapter 199

Chapter 199: The Historian’s Vigilance

Duncan felt that he had been careless.

He had only thought about Alice lacking common sense for living in the human world, but he had not thought about how extreme that lack could be. He had assumed that once she came over she could at least help a little in the shop, but he had not expected that she did not even recognize money.

But it was actually quite reasonable.

After all, when she was lying in a coffin, she had never needed to spend any money…

“Sigh… Since Shirley and Nina aren’t here, I’d better keep tutoring you,” Duncan said with a sigh, helplessly giving up his plan to go out for a walk in the afternoon. “First, I have to teach you a few of the most basic things in the human world, like currency…”

He paused, then sighed again. “Looks like I’ll really have to open a literacy class for you and Shirley later.”

“Oh, oh, Shirley, that’s the very short girl from just now, right?” Alice matched the name at once, her face full of joy. Being able to get to know someone new seemed like something worth getting happy about for her. “I heard you say she’s just like me, a… what was it called, an ‘illiterate’, right?”

“That’s nothing to be happy about!” Duncan knocked on the table. “And even Shirley is better than you—at least she knows how to dodge the fare when she rides the tram!”

“What’s fare dodging?” Alice asked.

Once again, Duncan had nothing to say.

…

Heidi let out a solid sneeze.

She stood up to close the window in the sitting room, rubbing her nose and grumbling about the recent swings between cold and warm weather. Then she lifted her head with some worry and looked at her father, who was sitting by the coffee table not far away.

School was already on break. The annual autumn vacation at all the public schools in Pland lasted more than two months. During this time, her father did not need to report to the school, and he normally had few social engagements, so in past years he usually spent this time soaking in the city’s major libraries, or else stayed at home like today, passing his days at leisure.

But for some reason, Morris’s condition today looked quite off.

He held a newspaper in his hands, but his gaze wasn’t focused on it at all. He sat on the sofa, keeping the same stiff posture for almost an hour. He seemed to be lost in thought about something, and he hadn’t even responded to the daytime maid’s question just now.

Heidi frowned.

It seemed that ever since coming back from Mr. Duncan’s antique shop, her father’s state had been like this—spaced out, sometimes showing strange expressions, ignoring other people and lost in his own thoughts.

He didn’t even go to his study—as if he was instinctively resisting books.

“Are you all right?” Heidi finally couldn’t hold back. She got up, walked over to Morris, and bent down beside him to ask with concern: “Are you feeling unwell?”

She asked twice in a row before Morris finally heard his daughter’s voice. He quickly lifted his head, and only when the buzzing in his mind eased a little did he wave his hand. “I’m fine… Oh, you didn’t go to the Cathedral or City Hall today? And you didn’t go to the clinic either?”

“The work at the Cathedral and City Hall was finished long ago. The clinic is closed today too,” Heidi said, her brow not relaxing. “I remember you already asked me that once this morning.”

“Oh, did I? I forgot.”

Morris tapped lightly at his temple, speaking a little hesitantly.

He knew his condition wasn’t very good, but he had no way to explain the problem to his daughter.

He could not casually reveal information about a being from Subspace—not only because it might anger that “Mr. Duncan”, but also because mishandling that information could produce corruption and affect Heidi.

A low buzzing sounded in his mind, interrupting his thoughts, but soon the noise died down again, letting his thinking steady.

Mental noise. That was a side effect left over from returning from the antique shop.

But in fact, compared with yesterday, these aftereffects had already weakened many times over.

Morris knew he should be thankful—after facing the Shadows of Subspace head-on, he had not only kept his life, he had even kept his sanity. It was the combined effect of the protection of the God of Wisdom and “Mr. Duncan’s” goodwill. He had some lingering symptoms caused by his madness threshold, but after a simple self-check he was sure those symptoms would quickly lessen over time and there was nothing to be too worried about.

But before the symptoms completely disappeared, his poor condition would probably keep worrying Heidi for a while.

Morris suddenly frowned. He remembered that his daughter was an outstanding psychiatrist—he could not let her keep noticing that his mental state was abnormal.

Just then Heidi’s voice came again: “Did you talk about something with Mr. Duncan yesterday? I feel like you’ve been absent-minded ever since you came back…”

“Some… topics in the field of knowledge, very profound knowledge,” Morris said. In his mind he couldn’t stop the related information about the “Creeping Sun Wheel” from rising, and he recalled the intelligence about the current state of the Black Sun that Mr. Duncan had revealed to him. With great effort, he held down those pieces of “knowledge” that seemed to have lives of their own, drilling all through the sea of his consciousness, and he smiled at Heidi. “It was pretty hard on the brain. I still haven’t figured it out, so I’m a bit distracted today… Anyway, forget about that. I suddenly remembered, didn’t you make plans with a friend to go to the cinema on your day off?”

Heidi froze. “…A friend? I don’t remember… making plans to go to the cinema with any friend… Did you remember wrong?”

“Did I remember wrong?” Morris rubbed his temple. For some reason, he suddenly felt a throbbing heat there. His memory grew hazy in waves, as if something forgotten was waking up inside his mind. “But I clearly remember that the day before yesterday you said you had a friend… what was the name… someone very tall, and also very familiar to me…”

Morris’s motion of rubbing his temple grew more and more impatient. He started lightly knocking his forehead with his fist, muttering under his breath. This turned Heidi’s slight confusion into sudden nervousness. She hurriedly crouched down to hold the old man’s hand. “Are you okay? Is your head hurting? Do you want me to do some hypnosis for relaxation or some calming mental guidance for you? Or find another doctor…”

“I don’t need a doctor, I don’t,” Morris said, waving his hand hard. The noise rose again in his head, but this time it was different from the earlier “mental noise”. This time, the sound seemed to be desperately trying to convey some message, desperately trying to wake something up. He felt as if another consciousness was waking inside his mind—that consciousness was still him, but had a subtle difference from his current thoughts. “I just need to remember, to remember something very important… Heidi, you have a friend, listen, you have a friend, and it’s very important…”

The worry and tension on Heidi’s face grew worse. She gripped Morris’s other hand tightly, and her words unconsciously carried the calming power of mental guidance. “Of course I have friends, but which one are you talking about…”

But Morris could no longer hear the rest of her words.

He felt a sudden roar inside his head, as if all the noise had been compressed into a single instant and then released at once. Right after that, the mental noise that had troubled him for so long vanished completely, and a flood of strange memories surged up from the depths of his consciousness. In a daze, he seemed to see that scene again—a giant, its whole body filled with starlight, formed from twisted, fused shards of broken mirrors. Then he saw an emerald flame, burning away, and as the fire burned, the mist cleared.

This time, however, he did not lose his sanity from seeing the giant. On the contrary, the images rising in his mind seemed to carry a strange great power, breaking through an invisible Veil.

The old man suddenly lifted his head and stared straight into Heidi’s eyes. “Where is Vanna?”

Heidi froze. “…Who is Vanna?”

“The city’s Inquisitor, one of your best friends, Governor Dante’s niece…” Morris said slowly. His breathing had already calmed, and his gaze had returned to its usual depth and sharpness. The noise disappeared, and the giant’s figure faded, leaving only two sets of memories in his mind that existed at the same time yet were completely different. He could clearly tell all the differences between those memories, as if he were reading two ancient scrolls of history unrolled before him—telling histories apart and searching for the truth was one of the things he was best at. “You don’t remember, do you?”

Heidi hesitated. “I… don’t know who you’re talking about, but your condition really worries me…”

“Don’t worry about me, I’m in excellent condition right now. We should be worrying about Vanna.” Morris suddenly stood up, his expression more serious than ever. “Heidi, there may be a big problem in our city-state. We have to act.”

Heidi stood up with him without thinking. She could tell that her father’s spirit had somehow become strangely energized, but she had no idea what had happened. “Act? Do what?”

“You go to the Great Cathedral and find Bishop Valentine, and tell him…” Morris spoke quickly, but he stopped halfway and shook his head after a tense, careful moment of weighing it. “No, Vanna may have gotten into trouble because she sensed the truth… When you find Bishop Valentine, just say that you want to seek shelter, a Highest-Grade Sanctuary. Tell him I told you to do this—that the most distinguished history scholar in the city-state of Pland told you to do this. Don’t say anything else…”

Heidi listened in a daze. She had already sensed that something dangerous and urgent might be happening and that those things could not be spoken of directly, so she held back the urge to ask more questions and got ready to follow her father’s instructions first. But then she noticed Morris picking up the coat beside him, and her eyes widened slightly. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

“…Go to the antique shop,” Morris said in a low voice.