Chapter 177 – A Warm Family

Chapter 177: A Warm Family

Nina appeared in Duncan’s line of sight – the girl trotted all the way with a pleasant smile on her face, and quickened her pace after she saw her uncle sitting in front of the antique store and fuming, while raising her hand in greeting, “Uncle, I’m back!”

Duncan snapped out of his musings, he put his thoughts aside for a moment and got up to greet his “niece”, he froze for a moment when he saw how out of breath the girl was, and frowned slightly, “Didn’t I give you money for the bus? How come you’re still running back from school?”

Nina gasped a few times after stopping in front of Duncan, scratching her hair somewhat embarrassedly, then reached into the school bag she was carrying to rummage around, and for a long time fished out a small paper bag and handed it over, “I …… passed by Dr. Albert’s clinic when I was coming back ……”

Duncan took the paper packet and squeezed it, realizing that it contained a few pills.

“Dr. Albert said that you have been using alcohol for a long time to relieve pain, although your health is better now and you have successfully quit drinking, but people who have been drinking for a long time are prone to adverse reactions once they forcibly quit alcohol instead,” Nina explained in a small voice, “This is a medicine used to reduce the withdrawal reaction to alcohol, if you don’t feel physically You can take a pill if you feel unwell …… In addition, Dr. Albert also said that if your health has not deteriorated recently, you can stop taking the medication completely, but it is still recommended that you have time to go to his clinic for a thorough checkup …… “

Duncan listened silently to this whispered, even slightly careful, explanation from Nina, and didn’t say anything for a long time, until Nina had finished, when he silently put the small packet of pills away carefully and close to him.

Then he reached out and pressed his hand to Nina’s hair, rubbing it gently.

“Uncle?” Nina raised her head a little puzzled, but saw that Duncan’s face carried an indefinable seriousness, and there was even a little bit of worry in that seriousness, which made the sensitive minded her a little uneasy at once, “What’s wrong with you ……? Is the body uncomfortable? Or ……”

“I’m fine,” Duncan smiled suddenly, bending down slightly and gazing into Nina’s eyes, “but don’t bring me the money from your own bus rides for medicine in the future – the family isn’t short of money right now, and you can usually bring more than enough pocket money …… If you don’t have enough, ask me for it.”

Nina looked at Duncan in a bit of a daze, she always felt that her uncle had suddenly become a bit strange, but couldn’t quite put her finger on what was wrong, and froze for a long time before nodding hesitantly, “Oh, oh ……”

Then she thought for a moment, and then poked her head to look at the store, before her face showed an expectant and hesitant expression, “Uncle, that …… you said that when I come back from school you will teach me to ride a bicycle …… “

“The weather can’t be good right now,” Duncan raised his eyebrows, “It might rain.”

“We’re right on the doorstep,” Nina muttered in a small and expectant voice as she grabbed Duncan’s arm, “We can go right back if it rains ……”

Duncan laughed and nodded somewhat helplessly, “Okay, you put your book bag away and I’ll teach you how to ride a bike – but only for a little while, dinner isn’t done yet.”

“Okay hey!”

Nina burst into a small cheer, and then ran into the antique store like a charge, casually threw her schoolbag on the counter, and pushed the brand new bike out – pushing the bike in a crooked position, and it took half a day’s effort next to the doorframe before she succeeded in pushing the car in front of Duncan.

“…… Actually, I think you’re going to have to learn how to even push a bike from scratch,” Duncan sighed in tears and laughter at Nina’s awkward appearance, before stepping forward to hold the handlebars, “but look at your expectant face, so why don’t you come up here first –I’ll hold the bike for you while you experience pedaling on it as well as the balance in walking.”

Nina nodded obediently, and when Duncan had held the car he gripped the handles as hard as he could and stepped on the stirrups to climb up to the seat of the car, emphasizing again and again as he did so, “You must hold it, Uncle! Don’t let go!”

“OK, OK, OK, you believe me on the line ……”

Slightly fishy salty and cold wind blew through the obsolete streets of the lower city, rolling up fallen leaves and flying dust among the low and dilapidated buildings, the dark clouds pressed down very low, but the rain, which did not know when it would fall, seemed to still hesitate in the sky, and did not fall down to the earth for a long time.

The tiny open space in front of the antique store rang with the excited and nervous exclamations of the girl, and the occasional jingling of the car bells, and, interspersed between, the occasional sounds of Duncan’s guidance and flirtation.

An old, plain black private car stopped in the clearing near the antique store, and an old man in an old-school scholar’s tweed jacket, cane in hand, and a short bowler hat pushed open the door and looked up in the direction of the antique store.

Maurice saw the familiar and outdated store and the uncle and nephew who were practicing cycling in the open space in front of the store.

Ordinary downtown streetscape, cozy and ordinary family daily life, everything looks so normal, even in this dark clouds hanging low, cold autumn winds under the depressed streetscape, not far away from the scene looks particularly warm and peaceful.

Yet Heidi had consumed one of God of Wisdom Rahm’s enchantments after only half a day in this antique store – and that was with the protection of a Deep Sea Inquisitor.

In the aftermath, neither Heidi herself nor Inquisitor Vanna could notice the slightest abnormality. Maurice inhaled softly, his heart slowly beating faster despite watching such an everyday sight.

He then gritted his teeth, and instead of hastily going to greet the uncle and nephew who were moving around in front of the antique store, he was ready to finish observing that store first – he really didn’t want to involve uninvolved people in the transcendental incident if possible.

The old man fumbled in the pocket of his jacket for a moment, and fished out a monocle with a thin, pale golden chain, one end of the thin chain clipped to the inside of the pocket, while the other end was attached to the frame, which had the name of the god of wisdom, Rahm, and a number of sacred symbols inscribed in the ancient Cretan script, while there was a shimmering light floating faintly through the transparent lenses.

“May Wisdom give me eyes and enlighten my mind, so that I may see the truth and peer through the fog ……”

Morris whispered a few prayers, then clamped the monocle in his eye socket, and then “opened” his eyes, which had been voluntarily closed eleven years ago, in the direction of the antique store. ……

Morris was in a trance for a moment, looking down at the monocle in his hand, and saw that the name of Rahm and many sacred symbols were engraved on the frame, and that there was a shimmering light floating in the transparent lenses.

“May wisdom grant me discerning eyes ……”

He whispered a few prayers, clipped the monocle to his eye socket and looked up ……

Morris was in a trance for a moment, looking down at the monocle in his hand.

A cold wind suddenly blew from across the street, a low murmur wrapped in the wind, and the old scholar suddenly stopped the movement he was about to carry on, followed by a violent lifting of his right wrist.

A string made of colored stones and silk thread was being worn on his wrist, with a total of eight stones.

The cold wind blew over, wrapping the fallen leaves on the roadside as well as the cold of late autumn, the sound in Morris’ ears seemed to have faded away, the traffic on the street and the bells of the church in the distance were distant as if they were coming from another world, he could only hear his heart thumping, and the sound of the blood drumming was like thunder, and in the midst of the heartbeats, there was only one voice coming from a single direction that was still clear —

A girl’s cheerful and a little nervous voice: “Uncle you hold ah! Ah, crooked crooked …… car is going to fall!”

A middle-aged man with a smile gentle voice: “I hold it, can not fall — you put the handlebars to support the right will not be crooked …… pedal forward, continue to go, the bike is like this, as long as the pedal forward to hold the handle will not fall! .”

“You must hold it well! I go forward ah!”

“Go on, I’m behind you.”

Maurice suddenly heard another sound, the creaking and crunching of sinews rubbing together, and along with it, a slight shift and rotation of his own immediate field of vision – it took him a second of thought before he finally realized what was happening.

He was slowly rotating his neck, shifting his vision from the antique store to the clearing in front of it.

Strong warning signs surged up from his soul, a low, strange sound came from the bracelet that still had eight stones in it as if it were whimpering, and each stone became searingly hot, tugging futilely at his sanity as if it were trying to pull a drowning man out of the water; Maurice was still able to think, and knew that those bestowals he had put on himself before he set out had been activated and were working, but that’s about all the basic thinking he could do — His neck was still turned, his eyes were looking uncontrollably in some most dangerous direction.

Close your eyes! Close your eyes! Close your eyes!
A million voices exploded in his head, but Maurice’s reason could not drive his muscles to accomplish even the simplest of actions, so he slowly turned his head, and then finally saw the direction of the voice with his blessed eyes “open”.

He saw a wildly writhing vortex of light and shadow, a shattered mirror that seemed to reflect all of time and space at once, all of which blended together into a star-strewn giant with a barely human outline, who was slightly bent over, carefully supporting ……

the arc of an erupting blaze.

A boom exploded in Maurice’s head, and then the whole world fell silent.

(Push book time is here, this time the recommendation from Bachren’s “The World Doesn’t Need Phantoms to Save It”, the author is still a book lover, partial fantasy style light novel, one million words, the main character male half phantom, interested in checking it out.)
(End of chapter)