Deep Sea Embers

On the other hand, Nina didn’t know how much was hidden under Shirley’s awkward and stiff smile. To her, this merely represented an excellent opportunity to learn more besides the textbooks’ regular stuff. Sure, she’s met transcendent from the church, but those trips didn’t count.

“Where do you usually live? Do you have your own secret base or something? Or is there a very mysterious organization?”

“Do you usually hide in caves? Or somewhere like a sewer? Is there a warehouse-like place to store all kinds of ceremonial items?”

“Were you born with special abilities? Or is there some sort of supernatural item you use? Are you one of those legendary mages? I’ve heard that this ancient profession is where they can unleash spells without relying on any gods, and their power is said to come from the bloodline….”

“What do you usually eat? Do you ever want to drink herbs or strange animal blood? Yes? No? Do you normally eat too? Is it all true?”

Nina’s questions came one after another, crackling endlessly like a tape recording on rewind. About halfway through, Shirley had already broken out into cold sweat on her forehead. Not because she couldn’t answer the other party’s questions, but because there was a Duncan next to her!

Meanwhile, Duncan had been silently watching Shirley from his seat with a cordial smile. From the surface, he looked no more than a parent supervising his children during a play date with a classmate.

“You seem to be afraid of my uncle….” Even if Nina was denser in this regard, she could still notice Shirley’s strange behavior towards her uncle. “Between you two… did something happen?”

“Noth… It’s nothing! It’s truly nothing!” Shirley almost jerked up from her seat and started waving defensively, “I… what can your uncle and I have between us? I’m still just a kid….”

As soon as Duncan heard this, he felt as if something was wrong with that comment. Nevertheless, he knew better than to stop the fun between the girls. Making a cough to clear his throat, he interrupts to keep Shirley from going on a tangent: “Actually, it’s nothing. We merely bumped into each other on the bus when she tried to dodge the fare.”

“Just because of that?” Nina looked at Shirley in surprise, “That shouldn’t have left such a big trauma… But my uncle is right. Dodging your bus fare is bad.”

Shirley’s tears were about to fall: “I really won’t skip the ticket in the future!”

Nina nodded, then seemed to remember something else and stared at the petite girl: “Then… can you tell me what exactly are you investigating? You befriended me because of your investigation?”

Shirley’s body jerked straight, her gaze wandering to the side where it met Duncan’s ominous stare that left her soul half departing for the afterworld.

“I was investigating the fire eleven years ago,” Shirley lowered her head and murmured in resignation, “the official records mentioned the factory leak happened in the sixth block…”

“The fire eleven years ago?” Nina’s eyes widened suddenly, her tone filled with astonishment, “Wait…you also know about the fire eleven years ago?!”

“…… You know it too?!” Shirley was also surprised and shot up from her chair, “You also experienced that fire?”

“Of course I know, my parents died in that fire. I was six years old when Uncle Duncan rescued me from that incident,” Nina said in a hurry, gesticulating with her hands subconsciously. “But everyone always said I was confused by the toxic fumes on the street. They all claim there was no fire at all, and even later, the newspapers printed that it’s a factory mishap…”

“That year… I was also six years old, and my parents died in the fire. I remember it clearly,” Shirley looked straight into Nina’s eyes, “but the people around me also told me there was no fire at all… No wonder Dog said that he smelled something familiar on you…”

As soon as her words fell out, Duncan’s voice suddenly cuts in from the side: “So, it was Dog who guided you to approach Nina by sneaking into the school? You don’t know why either, and that’s why you’re so surprised by Nina’s words just now.”

Shirley quickly nodded while meeting Duncan’s eye.

“Dog? Who is Dog?” Nina gave a somewhat puzzled look.

“Dog, he…” Shirley grew hesitant and didn’t know how to go about this. Shifting her gaze to Duncan for help, she then turns back to Nina after getting no signs of rejection. “Dog is my friend. He’s currently next to me, but his appearance may be a little scary…”

As soon as Shirley said this, her heart instantly flew into turmoil. Despite there being an obvious shadow of subspace sitting here with them, she still has to go with this weird, humorous act of pretending Dog is the scariest existence in the room. That’s just ridiculous no matter how she thought about it.

Nina looked around curiously for signs of this “Dog”; however, after not finding the individual that was supposed to be beside Shirley, the girl figured it was better to just ask. “Then can you let me meet Dog since he’s your friend? What is so scary about him if you’re both friends?”

Shirley was still a little hesitant, so Duncan stepped in by tapping his finger on the table to get their attention: “Then you have to be mentally prepared. I have seen Dog’s appearance. It is quite scary looking.”

“…… Then I’m even more curious,” Nina became even more excited after getting confirmation from her uncle. “Oh please, let me meet him~ I’m so curious about why her friend has such a strange name….”

“Well, since you want to see it,” Duncan shrugged and gave Shirley a helpless look, “Let Dog come out and say hello; after all, he is also today’s ‘guest’.”

Under normal circumstances, Shirley would never expose the secrets of herself and Dog to strangers. Walking with a shadow demon in the city-state of order was a highly taboo thing. The priests of the storm church would storm her with a six-barreled machine gun if they ever caught wind of this fact.

“Uhh, alright….” She nodded, then slowly raised her arm.

In the next second, in Nina’s astonished and slightly nervous gaze, pitch-black flames and smoke suddenly rose beside Shirley!

Chains extended from the flames, and at the end of the smoking blackness, the figure of a ghostly demon condensed and materialized.

To the dismay of his mistress and Nina, the dark hound appeared as quickly as he shrunk into a ball. Talk about embarrassing. For a skeletal demon dog, he was posturing with his paws cusped over his hollow red sockets like a baby pup.

Duncan shot a WTF look at Shirley right away: “To be fair, seeing Dog like this isn’t as shocking as knowing a skeletal dog can move and talk. He’s actually quite cute if you ask me.”

On the other side, Nina was flabbergasted and didn’t speak for the longest time until she gawked a word out, “AH!”

Shirley quickly spoke: “I did say you would be scared…”

But before they could go further, Nina suddenly exclaimed gleefully: “This is so incredible!”

Shirley: “…?”

“He… Hello?” While Shirley was lost in confusion, Nina had already begun to tentatively greet the hound, “Mr. Dog? Um, are you a ‘sir’?”

“Dark hounds have no gender, but you can call me that if you like,” Dog replied sullenly while glancing around at the room. “You’re… not afraid of me?”

“No, not really. Although you do look a little scary,” Nina thought for a moment, but then formed a big smile on her face, “but I’m quite bold too~”