Chapter 269

Chapter 269: The Subspace Nest Was Still Cozy Today

“Are you really sure this will work?”

Nina still felt uneasy as she looked at the big basin of water set on the dining table. She glanced at the nervous Alice beside her, then at Duncan’s blank face, and muttered under her breath.

“If this still doesn’t work, we’ll have to use solvent. But that stuff is corrosive. I don’t know if it will damage Alice’s body,” Duncan said crossly as he looked at the gothic doll, who had changed back into her normal clothes but still had a stiff, unmoving neck. “Or she can just keep that posture forever.”

Alice panicked at once and waved her hands: “No, no, let’s try the boiling water first!”

Nina’s gaze went back and forth between Alice and the basin several times. At last she gave a small “oh” and slowly reached her hand into the cool water.

She controlled herself very, very carefully, as if she were trying to pluck a single grain of sand from the desert. She guided that flame that burned deep within her soul, her mental guidance, outward into the water. For a sunlight young lady whose heart burned at six thousand degrees, this kind of precise control was not easy. But in all the free time she had over the past days, she had been practicing this fine control. By now she had improved a lot. In a short time, she succeeded.

The water boiled.

Alice turned to look at Duncan. Duncan looked back at Alice.

Then, without hesitation, he pushed the doll’s head down into the basin of boiling water.

“Let’s cook it a bit longer,” Duncan said helplessly as he held Alice by the shoulders. “But if you feel anything uncomfortable, stop right away.”

Alice answered at once: “Glub glub glub… glub.”

Duncan thought for a moment, then looked up at Nina: “I’m guessing she doesn’t feel anything wrong.”

Nina just stared wide-eyed at the scene in front of her. After a long time she could not help muttering: “I still think this looks really creepy…”

Duncan sighed. He did not need to say it—he himself felt the scene was so bizarre it was almost unwatchable. In the dim, narrow second floor of the antique shop, an uncle and a niece were pressing a gothic doll’s head into a basin of boiling water. The key part was that this gothic doll even raised her hands and stuck out her thumb from time to time to show she was fine…

Anyone who saw this at first glance would go report it to the constable.

If they took a second look, they would go call a Church guardian.

Right then, footsteps suddenly sounded from the stairs, and Shirley’s voice drifted into Duncan and Nina’s ears: “I’m back! Mr. Duncan, Mr. Morris came again, I told him to come straight up…”

The next second, Shirley appeared at the door—and her voice cut off.

In the somewhat dim room, Duncan and Nina stood quietly by the basin of boiling water. Nina’s hand still rested in the basin, keeping the water at a rolling boil, while Duncan pressed down on Alice’s shoulders, holding the gothic doll’s head under the water. The doll did not move at all. Only the bubbling sound of boiling water filled the room.

Duncan and Nina lifted their heads at the same time and looked at Shirley standing in the doorway.

Then Morris appeared, right behind Shirley.

The scene in the kitchen-slash-dining room reflected in the historian’s eyes.

The old gentleman thought for a moment and understood at once—oh, it was the Subspace Shadows and the Sun fragment stewing Anomaly 099.

Morris nodded. He decided that today the antique shop was as normal as always.

“Holy—!” Shirley finally let out a delayed scream. She almost jumped up, staring in horror at the scene in the room. But then she hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth, as if trying to shove the swear word back in, and let out a muffled, confused mumble.

“What are you yelling for?” Duncan glared at the jumpy girl at once. “Wasn’t it your idea to have Alice pour glue into her neck?”

Shirley instantly understood what was going on. Her first instinct was to turn and run, but under Duncan’s gaze, she did not dare move at all.

“I… I just said it casually. I didn’t think she would actually do it,” Shirley said, her voice shaking. “What normal person would believe that…”

Duncan heard this and was about to say something, when he suddenly felt Alice’s body sway. He quickly let go, and saw Alice shoot upright from the basin with a splash.

Only her body rose.

Her head was still cooking in the basin.

“Ah, it worked,” Nina said in surprise.

Alice’s body stood there in a daze for a few seconds, then began to feel around for her head with both hands. Her head floated up and down in the basin, making gurgling cries for help: “Help… glub glub… help… glub…”

Nina hurried to fish Alice’s head out and clumsily helped her put it back on. When they heard that familiar soft “pop,” everyone at the scene let out a long breath.

Alice turned her head from side to side. Her neck still felt a bit stiff, but it did move. She immediately grinned and looked at Duncan: “Captain! I can move again!”

“Take her to dry her hair. Her collar’s wet too, help her dry it,” Duncan said with a sigh as he looked up at Nina. Then he glanced at Shirley, who looked like she was about to die of panic, wanting to run but too scared to move, and said sharply, “Copy the alphabet twenty times later, and copy each new word twenty times.”

He ignored Shirley’s sudden “world-ending” expression, and turned to Morris: “What happened? Is it something new about that symbol?”

Morris might not have fully recovered from the eerie, chaotic, and absurd scene just now. He stared blankly for a second before reacting and speaking: “Ah, no, it’s not about the symbol. I suddenly got some news from a friend at City Hall today, and I thought… you might be interested.”

“News from City Hall?” Duncan frowned. “Tell me in detail.”

A few minutes later, Morris finished explaining what he had learned early that morning.

“Visions–Pland…” Duncan sat at the table, his expression slightly serious as he repeated the term. Then he looked at Morris. “When will this be announced to the public?”

“They haven’t decided yet, but likely in the next few days,” Morris said with a nod. “From a normal point of view, Pland is still in the aftermath of the recent disaster. Most citizens’ ability to accept bad news is still high. If they announce the city-state’s transformation into a Vision now as one of the conclusions of the disaster’s aftermath, it might not cause too much chaos. But if they wait until the city is completely calm and everyone has been living peacefully for a long time, then announce it, it could cause a new wave of panic.”

Duncan nodded lightly and did not answer. In his mind, he could not help recalling the news he had just read in the paper.

The Storm Grand Cathedral was coming to Pland.

Changes to the register of Anomalies and Visions were issued outward from the major Churches, so the Storm Grand Cathedral must be the first to know about the situation.

“A city-state turned into a Vision and still running as usual. That’s already very strange. But what’s even stranger is that this new Vision has no number,” Morris added. “Do you… have any thoughts on that?”

Of course Duncan had noticed the problem of this unnumbered Vision. But what opinion could he have? His knowledge of occult studies was not even as good as Dog’s…

He definitely could not say that out loud. So he only paused for a moment, then shook his head calmly: “I have no opinion. The ‘codes’ of the Anomalies and Visions that the Churches publish mean nothing to me and make no sense to me.”

“This…”

Morris opened his mouth, then thought of the green flames that once burned across the entire city-state, of the collapsing Black Sun, and of Anomaly 099, who had just been held under boiling water but behaved so obediently.

All of these seemed the same to Captain Duncan. They were just… “everyday problems” that needed a bit of handling.

No one needed to care what each speck of dust they swept up every day was called.

“All right, then it really doesn’t mean much to you,” the old scholar said, looking at Duncan with a touch of awe. Then he hesitated again and slowly chose his words. “Also, even though there shouldn’t be any doubt, I still want to confirm. It was you who transformed Pland into a Vision… right?”

Duncan tilted his head a little: “Do you have any doubts about that?”

“No, I don’t doubt it. I’m just curious what plans you have for this city-state,” Morris said, still choosing his words carefully, trying to make himself as clear as possible. “You transformed it into a Vision because you want to…”

“I have no wish to control this city-state’s fate, and I don’t intend to interfere with anyone’s future,” Duncan said, cutting him off with a small shake of his head. “If I have to say anything…”

He paused, turned, and looked out the window, at the peaceful scene on the street.

“I rather like this place. So I hope it can stay safe in the future.”

…

Inside the Storm Grand Cathedral, Vanna suddenly stopped in the middle of a conversation with Heidi and turned her head with a puzzled look.

“What is it?” Heidi asked, curious as she looked at her friend.

“I seem to have heard a bell ring just now, and someone whispering to me,” Vanna said with a frown. “I must have heard wrong.”

“You definitely heard wrong. I didn’t hear anything,” Heidi waved her hand. “You’ve been too stressed lately. Do you need me to give you a…”

“No!” Vanna quickly cut her off. “I feel like my mental state is just fine. And if I really run into a problem, I can handle it myself. You know that priests are half psychiatrists.”

“Fine, fine, if you don’t need it, you don’t need it. No need to be so tense,” Heidi muttered helplessly. “Right, where was I just now?”

Vanna thought for a second and reminded her: “You said your father went to the antique shop and bought a shell back, and now you’re very worried about his mental state…”