Chapter 215 “The Well-Behaved Sun”
“Say, what do you think is going on over there in Pland?” After a long silence, Shirley finally asked the old scholar in front of her.
“…… I don’t know, but I think Mr. Duncan may have solved the problem already. Though I can’t imagine how he solved it,” Morris rubbed his forehead as he pondered the matter. “But compared to that, I’m more concerned about this place…”
He raised his head and glanced around at the flaming sails that were stirring against the wind.
“This ship makes think of that legend, the legend about the Vanished…”
“Yes,” Alice’s voice joins in from the side after Morris’s remark, her face proud and joyous, “This is the Vanished. Welco aboard!”
Morris’s forehead rubbing stopped as his eyes widened in shock: “Is this really the Vanished?! Then Mr. Duncan’s identity…”
“Obviously the captain, Old Sir, you are too slow in catching on,” Shirley pouted from the other side. After being a nervous wreck for so long, she finally felt a little giddy knowing she’s in the know while others are not. “He is called Duncan, after all. What did you expect?”
“You already knew about this?” Morris stared incredulously at the petite girl in front of him, “I thought you were on this ship for the first ti like …”
“I am, this is my first ti aboard, but it’s not the first ti I’ve seen Captain Duncan’s true face.” Shirley puffed up her chest triumphantly, “I t Captain Duncan with Dog way back… Earlier than you, at least!”
Morris doesn’t care what Shirley has to offer in the latter part of the sentence because he’s already preoccupied with the “true face” part.
“If possible, I would like to never see his true appearance…” He mutters strangely to himself.
Shirley blinked: “Huh? Old Gramps, what did you say?”
“Nothing… so things are best left unspoken. It’s better for one’s ntal and physical health.”
“Tsk, you bunch always talk so cryptically,” Shirley pouted so more, but that didn’t last long before she began comnting on the open deck. “Hey, do you think Nina will be okay? She suddenly disappeared from our eyes earlier…”
Alice’s soft and confident voice sounded from the side, comforting Shirley, who was a little worried: “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. The captain did say it’s only temporary.”
Shirley raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar lady. The gothic girl didn’t understand why this unusually beautiful and mysterious lady would follow Captain Duncan’s orders so closely. It’s as if she had insider information or sothing. “Why would you say that? You know where Nina is…?”
“No, and didn’t the captain say it already?” Alice smiled, “He said not to worry.”
Shirley couldn’t argue with her on that. In addition, she also got the perception that Alice wasn’t very smart at all after the interaction…
……
Simultaneously, Duncan was busy watching the bright flaming arc floating around himself in the rear of the deck.
Right now, he was one hundred percent sure that this fla was a sun fragnt, at least morphologically. Ignoring its erupting properties that one would find in a solar flare, the intense heat radiating off of its surface was enough to cause harm to Duncan. In fact, the power here alone had already surpassed that Creeping Sun Wheel he t when he donned that golden mask.
Naturally, Duncan had no idea how a small segnt of a star could break off from the main body and still exist in this form. All he could speculate on was that the phenona had sothing to do with this world’s weird nature.
Just like how he couldn’t understand what caused the great destruction to bring upon the Deep Sea Age, he won’t dig any deeper into the subject. Besides, none of that matter for the ti being.
Inhaling deeply, Duncan concentrated his mind again and tentatively extended his right hand, allowing the flicker of green fla at the fingertip to guide the arc.
“Nina, try again,” Duncan said, “and rember what it was like to ‘co back’ to the mont of transformation. We were very close to success just now.”
The fla jumped in the air a few tis at the guidance of his ghost fire. Finally, the surface of the sun fragnt bulged, and then a golden fla rose and entwined into a human-shaped figure that’s still burning.
Nina lowered her head and seed intrigued by her own body’s blurred shape. But in the next second, the fla that had just gained form shattered again, gushing and erupting back into the flaming arc.
“Don’t be discouraged. Let’s try again.” Duncan did not lose patience and continued to support the girl gently with his guidance. “I will ‘support’ you. Since you can recover to this extent, it ans the idea is feasible…”
The flaming arc swelled again, and a crackling sound ca from the golden flas that transford into Nina’s figure but with more clarity.
Unlike his own reassurance, Duncan watched this scene with much nervousness. Similar attempts had been made several tis before, and they always failed halfway through. Nevertheless, he’s sure the procedure could work based on the feedback from the ghost fire he implanted in the sun fragnt.
Exactly then, the flas in front of him instantly shattered and blew into a blast of light. A familiar young girl had jumped out through this portal with radiant hair still sparkling against the light.
Nina smiled and looked at her “Uncle Duncan,” who was completely different from her mory, yet it was undoubtedly him. “Uncle, I’m back!”
Only then did Duncan finally breathe a sigh of relief. With his eased tension, the entire Vanished also reacted by loosening the cables and creaking boards.
It was as if the whole ship was cheering and celebrating with the captain.
“Calm down,” Duncan said to no one specific, and imdiately, the entire vessel quieted down. “You still recognize ?” He turns to the nice and asks curiously.
“Yes, you’re Uncle Duncan,” Nina said as a matter of course, but then scratched her face – a habitual move she used to disguise her embarrassnt and confusion. “But… I don’t know how I’m able to recognize you. Regardless, I just know it’s you. It’s the sa as when you beckoned for to co down when I was floating up in the sky.”
She hesitated and stopped, examining the man up and down with narrowed eyes.
It’s not at all like how she rembers her Uncle Duncan in the antique shop, but nevertheless, her instincts told her this was him and without fault.
“This is good too,” Duncan exhaled softly, “I was wondering how I should explain this ship and my other appearance to you.”
Nina quickly dodged the hand that tried to ruffle her hair like it always did. Unlike the uncle back in the city, this Uncle Duncan was much taller and bigger than she’s accustod to, especially with that huge hand. The calloused fingers are making her head itchy.
After a while of this silliness, she raised her head and stared straight into the other party’s gaze, “I actually have two ‘uncles’… right?”
Duncan did not dodge the eyes. Although this mont ca quite suddenly, it did not surprise him. From long ago, he already knew this mont would co sooner or later.
If any force in this world could resist the power of “Captain Duncan”, then the “sun”… no matter which sun it was, would be an expected option.
He quietly t Nina’s gaze. “You noticed?”
“…… Mhmm.”
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