Chapter 143: Chapter 147: Appearing in the Real World?
“Uncle Duncan, I’m off to school!”
With a cheerful greeting, Nina darted downstairs. She turned to wave at the second floor, then headed towards the front door.
The rest day had ended; it was a school day again.
But before she reached the door, Nina suddenly stopped. She saw a figure swaying behind a nearby shelf—it was Sherry.
“Ah, Sherry,” Nina said happily, waving at the girl in front of her, “I was wondering where you went—shall we go together?”
“Together?” Sherry blinked, confused, “Go where?”
“To school. Today is…” Nina began instinctively, but then she rembered halfway and her face showed an awkward expression, “Ah, sorry, I forgot…”
Sherry wasn’t her classmate and didn’t attend school; their pleasant tis spent in the campus were rely a play—Nina knew this, but after all, it had indeed happened. Many tis, she still forgot.
Sherry’s face also showed an odd expression for a mont, and a hint of apology flashed in her eyes, but she quickly recovered and shook her head gently, “I won’t join you, my… ‘Scout activities’ at that school are done.”
“Right,” Nina pursed her lips, returning to her usual smiling self quickly, “Sorry, I forgot. Shall I go ahead then?”
“Yes,” Sherry nodded, but then seed to rember sothing, adding, “By the way, Nina, I… I’m going ho today.”
“Going ho?” Nina paused, seemingly unable to process the two words. In just two days, she had naturally co to consider Sherry as part of this place, so when the latter ntioned going ho, Nina was a bit slow to grasp the concept, “You won’t be here?”
“I have to go ho; I was only staying here temporarily,” Sherry explained, waving her hands, as she conveyed what she had wanted to say for a while. “I ntioned it to Mr. Duncan too, and he agreed.”
Nina fell silent, a bit dazed, and after a few seconds, she hesitantly spoke, “Then… will you co back?”
If she could, she wouldn’t co back—maybe even steal a ticket to flee to Frost to dodge the bullet.
The thought of fleeing crossed Sherry’s mind, but she imdiately felt as if eyes were piercing through the floorboards from the second floor onto her. She instinctively shrank her neck, “I… I’ll co to visit if I have the chance, I don’t live that far, haha, ha…”
Nina tilted her head, not sure why, but she felt Sherry’s reaction just now was a bit odd. However, she didn’t think much about it and was soon cheery again, satisfied with the promise of “visiting whenever possible.” She waved happily, turned, and ran out the door like a gust of wind, disappearing into the street outside the antique shop.
Sherry watched Nina run off like a breeze and only snapped back to her senses after a mont when she realized a figure was standing on the nearby stairs, watching her calmly.
She hurriedly turned around and bent in a bow with a politeness that was rare for her, “Good morning, Mr. Duncan!”
“You’ve beco much more polite, which suits a girl your age,” Duncan said lightly, descending the stairs slowly, “Did you clear things up with Nina? You’re going ho today?”
“I… clarified it,” Sherry said, her head bowed low, her voice barely audible as if afraid that the boss might retract the settled matter, “You agreed too; I can leave today.”
“Why have you beco nervous again? You were fine yesterday. Does your nervousness reset every morning?” Duncan shook his head, half amused, half exasperated. He stepped forward and gently patted Sherry’s slender shoulder, “Relax, I never said I’d confine you to a particular place; it was rely an invitation to stay as a guest for two days. You can go back whenever you want—and co back whenever you wish.”
“I… I understand,” Sherry nodded repeatedly, then slightly helplessly added, “Actually, I’m not that nervous. It’s Ah Dog that’s always on edge. Whenever you’re nearby, it instinctively gets nervous, and then its nervousness transfers to .”
“Ah Dog, huh… well, that can’t be helped. Its nervousness seems to originate from Profound Demons’ keen senses,” Duncan shrugged, then looked at Sherry, “But are you sure you don’t want to reconsider? You could stay here. The place you and Ah Dog stay doesn’t seem very comfy and it’s not safe at night either. Comparatively, this is a safe place.”
A Subspace Shadow claiming its lair was a safe place was a statent with both plausible and absurd features. Yet, after pondering for a while, Sherry found no point to argue against it (primarily due to lack of courage), thus, she ended up with a silly laugh, “Ah… aha ha… that…”
“Never mind, I was just saying; don’t dwell on it,” seeing her reaction, Duncan knew what was happening, and he waved it off, “Go if you want to go, but you know how to reach now. If you find new leads on those Sun Cultists, rember to call anyti.”
Sherry silently nodded.
After what felt like a dreamy two days, she had finally obtained permission to leave this place, and the chance to distance herself from this formidable presence. But when the opportunity truly arose, she suddenly found herself sowhat at a loss.
Chatting happily with a “friend,” living under the care of an “elder,” enjoying the warmth of the bedroom, the bright lights, tasty food, and a peaceful life free from the fear of nightmares and the need to hide from the guardians.
She had been permitted to leave now.
For so reason, Sherry suddenly had an absurd thought—
A bright world had briefly opened its doors to her, and now, those doors were about to be closed.
Just recently, this was what she had longed for—in fact, it still was; she was just… sowhat conflicted.
In the psychic link, she suddenly heard Agou’s low murmur, “Our lives are going to be back on track, Sherry.”
“Yes, back on track.”
Sherry murmured softly in her mind, then lifted her head, intending to say goodbye to Mr. Duncan.
But at that mont, Mr. Duncan’s expression subtly shifted.
In the depths, he sensed a flash of an aura far away, one of the marks he had left!
“Mr. Duncan?” Sherry noticed the sudden seriousness on his face and imdiately beca a bit nervous, “You…”
“I sensed an aura,” Mr. Duncan interrupted Sherry softly, looking into the distance, “It seems to be coming from that direction.”
Sherry was montarily at a loss, “An aura?”
“It’s a small fla I left for that ‘little bug,'” Mr. Duncan slightly lowered his head, gazing into Sherry’s eyes, “Do you rember the umbrella-wielding assailant who attacked you at the edge of the Dreamscape?”
Sherry paused, then her eyes widened, “The fragnt you sent ‘ho’? But… but that was in the Dreamscape world…”
“Yes, that was an assailant that appeared in the Dreamscape,” Mr. Duncan’s voice beca suggestive, “But now I’ve sensed that mark in the real world.”
Sherry stared wide-eyed. She suddenly rembered what Mr. Duncan had told her in that nightmare:
Perhaps, it was more than just a dream.
“Sherry,” Mr. Duncan’s voice suddenly ca, breaking the girl’s reverie. He slightly lowered his head with a smile, “Before we head ho, do you want to co scout with one more ti? Of course if you don’t…”
“I want to go!” Sherry imdiately responded before he could finish, so decisively that she even startled herself. Then, as if to ease the awkwardness, she explained, “That… ‘thing’ appeared on the street after the great fire, it must be related to that fire from years ago…”
Mr. Duncan pressed on Sherry’s shoulder, “Then let’s go together.”
“How will we get there?” Sherry inhaled softly. “Are you certain of the exact location of that thing? Are we going to take the bus like last ti…”
Mr. Duncan shook his head with a smile, “Now, I have a more convenient mode of transportation.”
Sherry paused, about to ask what this convenient mode of transportation was, when from the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a shadow swoop down from the second-floor staircase, accompanied by a series of shrill, strange female voices: “To Erxianqiao, take Chenghua Avenue… Plenty of seats! Seats in the back… Seeds, beverages, mineral water! Tuck in your feet on both sides!”
The sudden appearance of the swift shadow and the strange voices startled Sherry, but once she could see what it was, her eyes widened even more than before: It was that bizarre pigeon! The pigeon that could eat nearly its own size in fries in one al!
The next second, under Sherry’s astounded gaze, Ai Yi quickly circled in the air, and green flas rose around it. In the blink of an eye, the clumsy-looking white dove transford into the terrifying Spiritual Body Bone Dove.
Sherry: “…?!”
Her neck stiffly turned as she seed to want to confirm sothing with Mr. Duncan, but before she could speak, her vision blurred…
Amidst Ai Yi’s continuous chirping of “Plenty of seats, seats in the back,” a vortex resembling a fiery doorway flashed past, and the next second, a swift white dove burst out of the antique shop and flew straight into the distance.
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