Chapter 273

Chapter 273: charm amulet?

A tall figure suddenly blocked the sunlight.

Shirley had just finished sprinkling water on the ground in front of the shop and was carrying the empty basin back when she froze. She looked up and saw, backlit by the light, an inquisitor standing quietly in front of her.

“…Holy crap!!” she blurted out before she could stop herself. Then she suddenly caught herself, coughed twice in a hurry, and tried to put her words together with a very tense face: “Uh, well, you…you…”

Vanna frowned slightly. For some reason, she felt that this small, thin girl was much too nervous every time she saw her. It had been like this the last time she and Heidi came to this antique shop, and it was still the same now.

But she did not think much of it. For many reasons, she was already quite used to this “nervous reaction” when people saw her.

“I remember your name is Shirley,” Vanna said with a smile, trying to put the short girl at ease. “Do not be so nervous. I am only here to look around.”

Shirley quickly stood up straight and nodded stiffly: “Uh…ah! Right, welcome…”

Vanna shook her head in helplessness, stepped past the still?tense Shirley, and gave a small nod to greet Nina, who was watching curiously. Then she headed straight for the antique shop.

When she pushed open the door, the clear sound of a bell rang out, breaking the quiet on the antique shop’s first floor. Vanna stepped inside and turned her gaze to the figure behind the counter.

In the next second, she frowned in slight surprise.

In the morning sunlight, a blond woman Vanna had never seen before was sitting behind the counter. She was a very…beautiful lady, with an elegant and mysterious air that felt as if it did not belong to this place, or even to this age. Her profile seemed to glow with a warm light in the sun.

When she heard the sound at the door, the blond woman behind the counter lifted her head and gave Vanna, who was walking in, a curious look. She showed a faint smile, and her voice was soft and a little husky: “Welcome. Take your time and look around?”

Vanna went blank for a moment. For some reason, she felt that this new face in the antique shop should not be here. But in the next moment, she felt that the woman’s mysterious and elegant air oddly matched the atmosphere the antique shop gave off…

This place was full of all kinds of old and mysterious?looking things. It seemed right that a lady with a mysterious and elegant air should be sitting behind the counter.

But everything in this antique shop was a replica.

Vanna fixed her gaze on the blond woman behind the counter.

Ah, yes. replicas.

“Excuse me…” Alice looked at Vanna in some confusion. After coming in, Vanna had just stood there staring off into space, and this seemed to go beyond the captain’s usual “standard process for dealing with guests.” Alice suddenly did not know what to do. “Are you here to buy something?”

Vanna gave a little start and snapped back to herself.

A hazy numbness and dizziness filled her head, making her thoughts break apart. She vaguely remembered that she had just seen something or thought of something, but the sudden confusion wiped away everything she had seen and known in that instant.

In the next second, the sound of gentle waves rose again in her mind. In that sound, even the numbness and dizziness from just now faded from her memory.

She felt as if she had only just walked into the shop, and the young woman behind the counter was talking with her.

“Ah, is Mr. Duncan not here?” Vanna looked around the first floor in curiosity and did not see the antique shopkeeper. “I know him.”

“Mr. Duncan? He went upstairs to put something away. He will be down soon,” Alice did not care much about Vanna’s daze just now. As long as the talk could go on, she felt everything was fine. “Do you want to buy something? Did you reserve something? I can help you look for it—though I may not be able to find it…”

What a blunt way to put it.

Vanna felt strange. Her instincts told her that there was something off about the pretty young woman in front of her, but every time she tried to focus on that thought, it slipped away at once. Even her speech became slower than usual: “I…am just looking. I will wait for a bit. May I ask…are you new? I did not see you the last time I was here.”

“Ah, I am new. My name is Alice,” Alice said at once with a smile. She liked introducing her name to others. “Mr. Duncan asked me to help mind the shop.”

Vanna seemed to sense something faintly wrong. It hid in Alice’s reserved yet slightly stiff movements, in that perfect yet a bit too perfect smile, and even in the way she spoke with no breath flowing through her words.

The inquisitor frowned, but she still did not truly catch anything strange.

It was only a new shop assistant. There was nothing odd about that.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the nearby stairs, cutting off the talk between Vanna and Alice.

Duncan’s figure appeared on the staircase.

Just now he had already sensed Vanna’s arrival. To be sure of this inquisitor’s purpose, he had stayed on the second floor for a few extra minutes. Only when he saw that she did not seem to have any special reason for coming did he walk down.

“Looks like we have a special guest,” Duncan said to the doll behind the counter. “I will take care of this one. We know each other—Alice, go make some tea.”

“All right, Mr. Duncan!”

Alice stood up happily. After answering, she walked toward the small stove on the other side of the stairs. Duncan came over to stand in front of Vanna and greeted this inquisitor he had already met many times with a smile: “Long time no see, Miss Inquisitor.”

“Just call me by my name,” Vanna rubbed her forehead. “Sorry for coming without warning. I actually have some questions I want to confirm.”

“Questions?” Duncan raised his eyebrows. “What kind of questions?”

Vanna steadied herself and thought about how to begin.

Some vague clues pointed toward this plain little shop. Some instinct had led her here. The experience and senses of an inquisitor seemed to stir inside her. Yet the Church had already investigated this place through official channels and had found no anomaly at all. The only reason she really had to support this visit seemed to be her friend’s amulet.

“As far as I know, Heidi once had an amulet that came from here,” Vanna said slowly. “Before that Mortal Realm corruption disaster, she always wore it.”

“Oh, I remember that,” Duncan nodded as if nothing was out of the ordinary, with a faint look of realization. “I gave that amulet to Mr. Morris—and in the last two days I sent out another one.”

As he spoke, he turned around, took another amulet from the shelf behind him, and held it up in front of Vanna.

“Just like this.”

Vanna looked at the antique shopkeeper with a strange expression as he openly took his “treasures” off the shelf like mass?produced goods: “You have many of these charm amulets here?”

“I bought a whole crate. Counting the ones I gave away and sold, twenty?one have gone out so far,” Duncan nodded in all seriousness. “Are you interested too?”

As he spoke, he could not help giving the young inquisitor another look.

Vanna felt very strange to him today. She looked a bit absent?minded, and her words came out slightly slow. But more than these surface signs, what felt off was her unstable “aura” at this moment.

Duncan could not say what it was, but this young inquisitor now gave him the feeling that there was another person hidden inside her thoughts, another pair of eyes behind her eyes. She was standing here talking with him, yet deep in her mind something else seemed to be hiding.

Vanna seemed not to notice Duncan’s careful gaze. She was only a bit unused to his open way of doing business—though from the start she had known there was nothing truly genuine in this shop: “Uh…no, I am only here to ask about some things. I would like to know the exact supply channel for these charm amulets, and also whether they have ever shown anything special. Have the people who bought them ever reported anything unusual?”

“You mean…”

“Heidi believes that the charm amulet she wore back then gave her real protection and even helped her stay conscious during that disaster,” Vanna said briefly, without going into detail. “I think the charm amulet you gave Mr. Morris was very likely touched by some extraordinary power, so I came to investigate. Of course, you do not need to worry. From what we know so far, the influence does not seem to be harmful.”

She said this, but left one thing unsaid: an investigation was one thing, but before coming here she had not expected Duncan to have a whole crate of these charm amulets—and to have already sold so many!

Duncan, on the other hand, felt a small jolt in his heart when he heard Vanna’s words.

That thing…had really worked? The “gift” he had given away so casually had actually protected that psychiatrist’s sense of self?

Why had that happened?

What was the key?

Was it the act of giving the “gift” itself, or was it because that psychiatrist’s “inspiration” was unusually high?