Chapter 55

Chapter 55: The Dinner Soup

The lack of surprise on Vanna’s face did not escape Heidi. This “psychiatrist”, who often worked with the Church, immediately guessed something from the inquisitor’s reaction.

After a brief hesitation, she asked carefully: “It looks like… there’s something very big behind this incident, isn’t there?”

Vanna nodded. “Very big.”

Heidi thought for a moment. While she quickly packed up her medical case, she said, “I have a day off tomorrow. I might just…”

“Heidi, you may already be connected to this matter,” Vanna said, glancing at her. “I’m sorry, but everyone who was on the scene at the time, myself included, was exposed to a certain kind of cognitive corruption. The mental problems you found in these cultists actually happened to every one of us. It’s just that… thanks to the Goddess’s blessing, our corruption wasn’t deep, so we ‘woke up’ by now.”

“…Damn it, I knew I’d run into something like this sooner or later in this line of work,” Heidi finally stopped packing the case and pressed a hand to her forehead. “I really should have listened to my father and inherited his business as an antique appraiser. Or even listened to my mother and gone to the public school in Crossroad District to be a history teacher… That would have been much safer than dealing with cultists.”

“Try to look on the bright side. At least your work now lets you live a decent life in the Upper City,” Vanna said, shaking her head. In front of Heidi, who was about her age and had known her for many years, she seemed much more easygoing than she was with her subordinates. “Anyway, tell me about your findings. They might help the Church and City Hall grasp the situation.”

“…It’s actually simple. There’s one obvious wrongness,” Heidi sighed, explaining the clues she had dug out of the cultists’ subconscious. “On the night of the sacrificial ritual, a sacrificial victim went out of control before the Sun’s totem and reversed the sacrificial rite on the priest who was leading the ritual. But according to the clues we found at the scene, that ‘sacrificial victim’ who caused the runaway was actually a ‘corpse’ that had already been sacrificed once. He truly resurrected and walked up onto the platform, right?”

Vanna nodded. “Of course. I remember it very clearly.”

“Then here’s the problem… Since that sacrificial victim had already been through the rite once, why didn’t a single cultist at the scene recognize him? Leaving aside the ordinary cultists, why didn’t even that priest himself realize that the person standing before him was a sacrificial victim he had personally offered up not long before?”

Vanna slowly furrowed her brow. “…The cultists at the scene watched as a sacrificial victim who had been offered up not long before appeared again right in front of them, yet not a single person noticed the anomaly… Their memories were altered. Their understanding was twisted.”

“Even we didn’t notice that obvious wrongness at the time, did we?” Heidi said with a bitter smile, spreading her hands. “In fact, until an hour ago, I still hadn’t realized I’d overlooked something so self-evident. And only just now did I learn from you that my own mind had been affected.”

For a moment Vanna said nothing. She turned and walked over to the cultist who was still in a dazed state.

The cultist, under the double hypnosis of a heavy dose of nerve drugs and strong incense, only swayed his head slightly and stared blankly at the tall lady before him.

Vanna suddenly looked back and asked, “These cultists hacking each other to pieces after the ritual went out of control—was that also because their perception was chaotic?”

“Yes. I ‘saw’ some flickering images in their memories,” Heidi answered. “Those images seemed to burn in very deep impressions, making them firmly believe that the others at the ritual were possessed and controlled by evil spirits or something similar. They didn’t think they were slaughtering their own companions. They thought they were driving evil spirits out of the others’ bodies…”

“That was most likely their souls instinctively sounding the alarm. A cultist is still a cultist. After all, there’s a Black Sun behind them giving them ‘divine blessings’. When a huge and eerie danger appears, cultists who have received divine blessings are very likely to sense something,” Vanna analyzed from experience. “Their mad hallucinations actually revealed a bit of the truth. Unfortunately, these untrained ordinary people had no idea how to judge the meaning of those warnings and instead fell into a state of collective frenzy.”

Heidi looked at the serious-faced Vanna. After hesitating a few times, she finally spoke carefully: “So… what exactly is behind all this? Is it even more twisted than that ancient Sun?”

Vanna thought for a moment and gently shook her head. “It’s better if you don’t ask, Heidi. Your connection to this matter isn’t deep yet, but if you learn more, certain links that can’t be severed might take shape.”

“All right. If even you, an inquisitor, say so, then I’d better focus on keeping myself alive,” Heidi said as she picked up her neatly packed medical case. “I really am going to give myself a vacation. Don’t worry, I’m not running away. In a couple of days the City Museum is going to have an exhibition on the ocean, and I’m quite interested in it.”

Vanna nodded. “Visiting the City Museum’s ocean exhibition is a good way to relax. The Goddess’s divine blessing also fills those displays.”

Heidi smiled and headed for the door with her case. But just as she was about to push it open, she suddenly stopped, turned back, and looked at Vanna uneasily. “Tell me… has the corruption really faded?”

“Relax. Of course it has,” Vanna said, spreading her hands helplessly. “We only ran into some ‘residue’. You’ve been in this quiet underground sanctum for so long that the Goddess’s divine blessing has long since cleansed away the influence on you.”

“Then I’m relieved,” Heidi finally let out a long breath and pushed the door open. “See you next time then, Inquisitor Vanna.”

Vanna watched Heidi leave the room.

Beside her, the Suntist, made groggy by the strong incense and nerve drugs, half-opened his eyes and stared blankly at Vanna.

Modern medicines, incense passed down from ancient times, the quiet environment of the sanctuary, and the “divine blessing” of the Sun deeply rooted in the soul—these tangled, chaotic forces twisted together and gathered, producing a subtle effect inside the cultist.

In the cultist’s eyes, Vanna’s figure appeared hazy and blurred.

He saw the inquisitor standing ahead, straight and firm.

He saw a vague shadowy figure standing behind Vanna. It was an almost transparent apparition, and ghostly green flames burned around it.

That tall apparition stood motionless behind Vanna, its face expressionless.

…

Duncan sat expressionless in the enchanted sea chart room, watching the doll Alice bustle about in front of him.

She was carrying a large tray. On the tray were shining, polished dishes and a big bowl of steaming soup.

From the smell, it might have been fish soup.

Clearly, after getting more familiar with the environment on the Vanished, this doll of a miss had come up with a new idea: she wanted to “do something for the captain in her own way”.

“Dinner?” Duncan looked curiously at the doll as she set the dishes and fish soup before him. “What made you suddenly think of doing this?”

“I finished organizing the pantry in the kitchen, and then I saw the… fish meat in the barrel,” Alice said, her face full of smiles and pride. “There are many jobs on the ship I can’t help with, but I can at least cook. From now on, I’ll cook for you.”

“It’s nice that you have the heart for it,” Duncan did not quite know how to judge this strange doll. Faced with Alice’s sincere smile, it was hard for anyone to say no. He was just a little curious. “But as a doll, do you even know how to cook?”

“I can learn. It feels pretty simple,” Alice said as if it were obvious. “For the basics, I just have to ask Mr. Goathead. He already told me lots and lots of things about cooking…”

Duncan, still expressionless, glanced at Goathead beside him, then at Alice.

One was a wooden carving, the other a doll made of who-knew-what. Put together, they couldn’t even make one full digestive system, yet they had teamed up to study cooking. One actually dared to teach, and the other really dared to listen?

He had no idea what he should be feeling. He just picked up the spoon and stirred the fish soup in the bowl, thinking that at least it smelled right. But in the next second, his movements froze.

After a brief silence, he reached in and fished a long, silvery-white hair out of the spoon.

“Your hair fell in,” Duncan said, his face still blank.

“Ah, I didn’t drop just my hair in,” Alice said at once, waving her hands. “My whole head fell in… But don’t worry, I pulled it right back out. I didn’t even need anyone’s help!”

Duncan: “…?”