Chapter 269: Chapter 273: Amulet?
A very tall figure suddenly blocked out the sunlight.
Sherry, who had just finished sprinkling water in front of the shop door and was preparing to return with an empty basin, paused for a mont and lifted her head to see the Judge standing quietly in front of her against the backlight.
“… Fuck!!” She instinctively exclaid in shock, but imdiately caught herself and coughed twice, nervously groping for words, “Uh, you… I an… You…”
Fenna slightly frowned, wondering why the small and frail girl looked excessively nervous upon seeing her. It had been the sa when she and Heidi had visited the antique shop last ti, and it was the sa now.
However, she didn’t dwell on it; after all, due to various reasons, she was quite accustod to this kind of “nervous reaction” from others when they saw her.
“I rember you’re called Sherry,” Fenna said with a smile, trying to use her smile to make the short girl relax, “Don’t be so tense. I’m just here to browse.”
Sherry quickly stood up straight, nodding stiffly: “Uh… Ah! Sure, welco to the shop…”
Fenna helplessly shook her head, walking past the still tense Sherry, and gave a slight nod to greet Nina who was curiously watching them, then headed straight for the antique shop in front of her.
Pushing open the door, the crisp sound of the bell breaking the silence on the first floor of the antique shop, Fenna stepped inside, her gaze shifting to the figure behind the counter.
The next second, she frowned in surprise.
In the morning sunlight sat a blonde woman behind the counter whom she had never seen before, a very… beautiful lady, exuding an elegance and mysteriousness that seed out of place in this location, perhaps even from this era. Her profile shimred with a warm radiance in the sunshine.
Upon hearing the noise at the entrance, the blonde woman behind the counter lifted her head and curiously glanced at Fenna as she walked in. She offered a faint smile, her voice soft and slightly magnetic: “Welco, would you like to look around?”
Fenna was montarily lost in thought, feeling for so reason that this new face in the antique shop shouldn’t be here. But the next second, she thought that the woman’s mysterious and refined deanor seed to fit the atmosphere the antique shop presented.
The place was filled with an assortnt of objects that looked quite ancient and mysterious, just right to have a lady with a mysterious and elegant air sitting behind the counter.
Yet everything in this antique shop was a fake.
Fenna stared intently at the blonde woman behind the counter.
Ah, yes, fakes.
“May I ask…” Alice looked puzzled at Fenna who, after walking in, stood there suddenly and began to daydream, confused as the situation seed beyond the “custor greeting procedure” that the captain had instructed her to follow, leaving her a bit at a loss, “Are you looking to buy sothing?”
Fenna jolted back to reality.
A chaotic numbness and dizziness pervaded her brain, making her thoughts disjointed. She vaguely rembered having seen sothing or thought of sothing just a mont ago, but the sudden confusion completely obscured everything she had known in that instant.
The next second, the soft sound of waves started ringing in her mind again, and in those wave sounds, she completely forgot the previous disorientation and dizziness.
She felt as if she had just entered the shop, and the young woman behind the counter was talking to her.
“Ah, is Mr. Duncan not here?” Fenna curiously surveyed the ground floor but couldn’t find the figure of the antique shop owner, “I know him.”
“Mr. Duncan? He went upstairs to put so things away; he’ll be down shortly,” Alice didn’t dwell on Fenna’s montary spacing out, figuring everything was fine as long as the conversation continued, “Are you looking to buy sothing? Do you have an item reserved? I can help you look for it—although I can’t guarantee I’ll find it…”
Such a candid statent.
Fenna felt strange, instinctively sensing sothing off about the beautiful young woman before her, but every ti she tried to focus on that feeling, she would imdiately forget what she was thinking, making her speech slower than usual: “I’m… just looking. I’ll be fine in a mont. Are you new here? I didn’t see you last ti I was here.”
“Ah, I’m new, my na is Alice,” Alice imdiately responded with a smile, clearly enjoying introducing herself, “Mr. Duncan asked to help with the shop.”
Faintly, Fenna sensed sothing was amiss, an oddity hidden in Alice’s modest yet sowhat stiff movents, in that perfect yet overly perfect smile, and even in the breathless sound of her speech.
The Judge furrowed her brows, not truly detecting anything unusual.
“`
It was just a new clerk, nothing out of the ordinary.
At that mont, a series of footsteps suddenly ca from the staircase beside them, interrupting the conversation between Fenna and Alice.
Duncan appeared at the top of the stairs.
He had sensed Fenna’s arrival earlier, but in order to confirm the purpose of the Judge’s visit, he deliberately waited a few more minutes on the second floor; now that he saw she didn’t appear to have any special intentions, he ca down.
“It looks like we have a special guest,” Duncan said to the lady behind the counter, “I’ll take care of it, it’s soone I know—Alice, you go make so tea.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Duncan!”
Alice stood up happily, agreed, and then headed towards the small stove on the other side of the stairs, while Duncan approached Fenna, smiling as he greeted this Judge whom he had actually t several tis before, “Long ti no see, Miss Judge.”
“Just call by my na,” Fenna rubbed her forehead, “Sorry for the sudden visit, but I actually ca here to verify so matters.”
“Matters?” Duncan raised an eyebrow, “What matters?”
Fenna steadied herself, pondering how to begin.
So vague clues pointed to this ordinary-looking shop, and so instinctual guidance brought her here; the experience and intuition of a Judge seed to be quietly throbbing, yet previous official church investigations had revealed no abnormalities. It seed that the only reason supporting her visit to scout this ti was a “talisman” belonging to a good friend.
“From what I know, Heidi had a talisman from here,” Fenna slowly said, “She had been wearing it before the reality contamination disaster occurred.”
“Oh, I rember that,” Duncan nodded nonchalantly with a flash of recognition, “That was a talisman I gave to Mr. Morris—and I’ve given out another one these last two days.”
As he spoke, he turned and took another talisman from the shelf behind him, showing it to Fenna.
“Like this one.”
Fenna looked strangely at the action of the antique shop owner who was frankly presenting an item from the store’s “collection” as mass-produced goods, “Do you have many of these talismans?”
“I bought a large box of them, and have given or sold a total of twenty-one so far,” Duncan stated matter-of-factly, nodding, “Are you also interested?”
As he spoke, he subconsciously sized up the young Judge again.
Fenna today seed odd to him, appearing sowhat absent-minded and slightly slow in speech. More unsettling than those surface peculiarities, however, was her unstable “aura” at the mont.
Duncan couldn’t explain what was happening, but sohow it felt as though there was soone else tucked inside the young Judge’s thoughts, another set of eyes hidden within her gaze. She was here conversing with him, but it seed sothing else was concealed deep within her consciousness.
Fenna, however, seed unaware of Duncan’s assessnt. She was just slightly uncomfortable with his frank business deanor—although she had known from the beginning that this store didn’t have anything genuinely authentic, “Uh… no, I’m just here to investigate so matters. I want to ask about the specific channels through which these talismans are acquired and if they have ever exhibited any peculiar properties, or if the people who bought them have reported any unusual experiences?”
“Do you an…”
“Heidi believed the talisman she wore had provided actual protection, even helping her remain clear-headed during the ‘disaster’,” Fenna summarized without going into too much detail, “I think it’s very possible that the talisman you gave to Mr. Morris had been affected by… transcendent forces, hence my inquiry. Of course, there’s no need for concern, as the current information suggests it’s not a harmful influence.”
As she spoke, she left one thing unsaid: investigation aside, she hadn’t expected Duncan to have an entire box of similar talismans! And that he had already sold so many!
anwhile, Duncan felt a slight stir in his heart upon hearing Fenna’s words.
Did that thing… really work? The “gift” he had casually given away had actually protected the spirit doctor’s self-awareness?
Why had this happened?
What was the key factor?
Was it purely the act of “giving the gift” itself, or because the spirit doctor’s own “intuition” had been too strong?
“`
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