Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Pulling Someone Out

Duncan looked in surprise at old Mr. Morris standing on the first floor. He was surprised by how bedraggled Morris looked and by the strange expression on his face.

He walked down slowly and greeted the old scholar: “Good day – what happened? You look like you ran all the way here straight through the wind and rain.”

“M-Mr. Duncan,” Morris finally came back to himself. He set aside the matter of the mysterious blonde lady for now, took off his already soaked hat as he walked forward, and said: “I need your help… I don’t know how to explain this to you, and I don’t know if you’re willing to act, but… I found Enders moving in the city. They’ve tampered with Pland’s history, I…”

The old man trailed off mid-sentence.

He suddenly realized how rash it was to come here asking for help. He realized how irrational it was to seek help from a Subspace being whose stance was unclear. Would Mr. Duncan even help with this? Why would he help? Did the survival of humans and the fate of the city-state mean anything to him? Did the Enders pose any threat to him at all?

Was he acting on impulse only because this Subspace being had shown a friendly attitude before, or only because the other party had happened to show interest in certain matters last time?

Morris stood there in a daze for a moment, then saw Duncan nod lightly.

“I know.”

The chaotic starlight, the broken mirror, the giant of light and shadow wearing a mortal shell stood on the stairs and spoke to him in a calm voice.

“You… know?” Morris froze, then reacted. His expression turned very strange. “Ah, right… of course you don’t need me to warn you, I…”

The old man tossed his hat aside and slapped his own forehead, as if he felt he had done something stupid. He muttered: “I’m really muddle-headed, to think you wouldn’t notice an Anomaly in the city-state. Then you must also know that Vanna…”

Duncan frowned at once: “Vanna? The city-state Inquisitor who gets along so well with Heidi? What happened to her?”

“Vanna… ‘vanished’,” Morris said blankly. He had not expected that reaction from Duncan, but still spoke on instinct. Then he hurried to add: “I don’t mean she’s missing. I mean that starting today she suddenly disappeared from the Mortal Realm. Heidi forgot Vanna existed. Everyone else forgot too. Even the city-state’s newspapers…”

Duncan came quickly down the stairs. He had realized halfway through Morris’s words that the situation was serious. His face was already grave now. “Sit down and tell me slowly. Alice, go make some hot tea – you still remember how to do that, right?”

“All right, Mr. Duncan.”

Morris saw the blonde woman with the elegant, mysterious air stand up at once when she heard Duncan’s order. He also noticed that every move this “Miss Alice” made looked slightly strange. Many of her motions were very small, full of a peculiar care and restraint. It made people think of those ancient nobles with fine upbringing and long family lines, and it made him even more curious about who she was.

But his curiosity gave way to the crisis at hand.

After he sat down by the counter, he at once told the “antique shopkeeper” in front of him about the Anomaly he had noticed, and also about the difficulties and obstacles he had met on the way here.

Duncan listened with a grave face and did not interrupt Morris once. Only when the old man finished did he murmur, almost like a sigh: “Enders… they really are a troublesome lot.”

“Those madmen who exiled themselves beyond the dimension of the Mortal Realm in ancient times always jump out from the cracks in time,” Morris said in a low voice. “They work to break the continuity of history and pose a great threat to the stability of the Mortal Realm… but they rarely get a chance to stir up something this big. Under normal conditions, the protection of the Gods blocks the Enders from seeping in, and the Flamebearer keeps reinforcing the walls of history. This time those madmen must have borrowed some other power to break the blockade…”

“Old mister, your tea.” Alice came over and set the hot tea on the counter.

“Thank you,” Morris said quickly. After coming through wind and rain all the way here, he really did need a cup of hot tea to warm himself. But after he brought the cup up and took a sip, he couldn’t help it. “Pft -”

Duncan looked calm on the other side: “Just make do. At least she really found where the tea leaves are, though the amount she used is… debatable.”

Morris turned his head in shock to glance at the mysterious lady named Alice, only to see her already leaning against the stairs, lost in a daydream.

[Just who is this mysterious person?]

Duncan calmly chewed the tea leaves and confirmed one thing in his heart.

The supernatural people of this world had indeed already discovered the Enders’s “nonlinear” nature, and they had countermeasures aimed at it.

But now it seemed that those countermeasures did not always work.

He closed his eyes slightly. In the darkness of his inner vision, a distant green flame suddenly leaped up at the edge of his senses.

Morris watched in curiosity as Duncan suddenly began to “rest with his eyes closed”. “Mr. Duncan, you…”

“Don’t worry. Vanna is still alive,” Duncan opened his eyes and said calmly. “She just… lives outside Pland’s city-state at this moment.”

“You can confirm her location and condition?” Morris stared, stunned. He had actually come mainly to pass on news of the historical corruption. He had only mentioned Vanna’s situation in passing. In his view, there should be no special connection between Duncan and that city-state Inquisitor. He had not expected the other party to have already set his sight on Vanna.

“I’m keeping an eye on her. She’s a very good Inquisitor,” Duncan said. He did not explain anything more, only nodded calmly and suddenly rose from behind the counter. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Morris jumped up in surprise: “Where are you going?”

Duncan was already walking toward the stairs. He stopped when he heard this and looked back slightly. “To bring Vanna back – and to see what’s going on over there.”

Then he paused again and glanced at Morris’s bedraggled state. “Do you want to go upstairs, take a hot bath, and change your clothes? I’m taller than you, but you should still be able to wear my clothes.”

[Take a bath in this Subspace lair, then put on the clothes of an Eldritch God?!]

[Even the ‘Four Great Achievements of a Mad Scholar’ wouldn’t dare list those two!]

Morris felt his scalp prickle and shook his head at once: “No, no, no, that won’t be necessary. I’ll just wait here…”

“As you wish.” Duncan nodded, then walked up the stairs.

As soon as he reached the upper floor, he saw Nina and Shirley standing at the top of the stairs.

Shirley looked uneasy. When she saw Duncan, she came over at once and asked: “Mr. Duncan, did… did something happen?”

“Why do you say that?”

“We just… heard noise from downstairs,” Shirley rubbed her hands and lowered her head like she had done something wrong. “Actually it was Ah Gou who heard it. He said the Enders showed up again, and something about historical corruption, and someone named Vanna going missing? It sounds like she’s very important…”

Nina also looked over with an uneasy face. She was clearly even more confused than Shirley. “Uncle, what’s wrong?”

“…Just some small matters,” Duncan said. He looked at the two young ladies, who had vaguely sensed unrest coming and were nervous because of it. After thinking for a moment, he comforted them: “Just stay in the rooms and rest. If you’re bored, you can go down to the first floor and chat with old Mr. Morris. It’s fine.”

Shirley gave a small “oh”. Nina looked a bit hesitant. She held back for a long time, then couldn’t help stepping forward to grab Duncan’s sleeve. “Uncle, I feel… I feel a bit scared. Is it really okay? And you… what are you going to do?”

Duncan stopped and met Nina’s eyes with a quiet gaze.

Just as he had noticed before, Nina’s senses were actually very sharp. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sense anything. She was simply too sensible.

But the situation now went a bit beyond the limits of being sensible.

“Your uncle is actually a very powerful person,” Duncan suddenly smiled and put his hand on Nina’s head. “I just can’t explain it to you yet… Stay with Shirley for now. When everything is over, I’ll tell you what happened.”

Even such a simple comfort was enough to calm Nina down. She nodded obediently, her voice very soft: “…Okay.”

Nina and Shirley went downstairs.

Duncan let his expression fade, hurried back to his own room, and summoned the pigeon AI, who had been busy eating a pile of fries on the Vanished.

“We have to go find someone,” Duncan said seriously as soon as the pigeon appeared, not giving her a chance to speak. “Official business. Important business. When it’s done, the ketchup will be doubled.”

AI jumped in place at once: “My loyalty is beyond words, beyond words!”

Duncan let out a small breath, calmed his mind again, and sensed that distant, flickering flame.

That was the mark he had left on Vanna.

What had happened to Vanna was an accident for him, but that accident had also brought an unexpected gain.

Through this window that was Vanna, he had just sensed something else – those were the flames he had released earlier in Shirley’s dream!

Those flames had once appeared briefly in the small Cathedral in the Sixth District. After the Veil closed again, they vanished without a trace. He could only confirm that the flames were still spreading, but he could never pinpoint them. Yet now… he could clearly feel those flames. He felt them all around Vanna.

He still did not know how any of this had happened, but one thing was beyond doubt –

Vanna had reached the other side of the Veil.

And now this powerful Inquisitor, bearing Duncan’s mark, had become a path for Duncan to step into that Veil.

“Spirit Realm Walk.”