Chapter 222 Reunion

Chapter 222 – Reunion
The familiar house stood quietly at the end of the quiet neighborhood, the first floor windows shining with bright warm light.

The sky was already completely dark, the streetlights on both sides of the road made the surroundings even more quiet, Heidi slightly slowed down the speed of the car, in the last hundred meters near the door of the house, she slowly adjusted herself with gentle deep breaths.

She’d helped calm Vanna, but she knew that her own mind wasn’t really as relaxed and light as it appeared.

It was as if the sight of saying goodbye to her father had happened in the last moment, when she had been completely unaware of what was going to happen in the city-state – and her father had obviously sensed it then.

It was a kind of afterthought of a life and death parting.

Father had told himself to seek refuge in the cathedral, and he had gone to that antique store in the lower town …… But why had he gone to that antique store?

A strand of doubt suddenly surfaced in Heidi’s mind, but she soon put it aside for the moment – the light in the foyer of her home was on, and it was waiting for her.

The dark gray cart drove smoothly into the courtyard, and Heidi pushed open the front door of her home and took a few steps inside before suddenly stopping with some surprise.

Instead of her father, who theoretically should have been home long ago, she was waiting for her mother, who was wearing a woolen shawl with dark blue stripes, sitting in a reclining chair next to the dining table, wearing a pair of fine glasses, intently reading a newspaper, and on the tabletop next to her was a large pile of newspapers, which seemed to have been moved from her father’s study. old newspapers that had been removed from his father’s study.

Heidi froze in the doorway of the dining room for a moment.

She couldn’t remember how long it had been since her mother had stepped out of that bedroom – it seemed that for years, the mother she remembered had stayed in that dimly lit bedroom, and there was always an empty seat at the family table, a seat that her father had said was for her, but no one ever sat on it.

Heidi always thought it was a very odd thing, but after so many years, she also got used to her mother not leaving the house, until this moment …… to see her mother sitting in that chair, she actually had a kind of unreal feeling like a world away.

Heidi subconsciously took two steps forward, the sound of her footsteps finally caught the attention of the old woman at the dining table, the latter raised her head and instantly revealed a smile after seeing her daughter, “Ah, Heidi, you’re back.”

“I …… “Heidi opened her mouth, actually a little bit don’t know how to talk to her own mother, obviously she would go to her parents’ bedroom to greet each other almost every day, she felt at this time as if she hadn’t seen her mother for more than ten years, in general. “I was delayed for some time over at the cathedral, are you …… you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m right here,” the mother smiled happily, there seemed to be some glow in her eyes that Heidi couldn’t understand, she got up from her chair and slowly came to her own daughter, looking at Heidi’s face a little out of her mind, and reaching out to touch the latter’s hair again, “Let me take a good look at you It’s been a long time since I’ve had a good look at you ……”

“Don’t we see each other every day,” Heidi said subconsciously, followed by a somewhat worried look at the old woman in front of her, “What brings you out of your bedroom? Are you feeling better today?”

The mother smiled, as if talking to herself and to her daughter, “Already better, already better …… By the way, why isn’t Maurice back yet?”

“Father hasn’t come home yet?” Heidi sniffed and froze, her heart was vaguely a little worried, “He should have gotten home earlier, ah, he went to a place closer than the cathedral, and it’s not like I was delayed for half a day ……”

“Perhaps the car broke down halfway,” said his mother slowly, “His driving has never been commendable. Come, let us wait for him together.”

Heidi nodded hesitantly and followed her mother back to the dining room table, where she then noticed the sumptuous meal on the table – it wasn’t the usual few dishes that were often prepared by the temporary maids employed at home.

“Did you make this?” Heidi looked up in a bit of surprise, “You haven’t cooked in a while.”

“Yes, it’s been so long since I’ve cooked that I can’t even find where the ingredients are, and I asked that maid lady to help me find many of the things, and I’m not sure how it tastes,” her mother smiled faintly, “Luckily, I still remember the general process.”

Heidi listened, her eyes fell on the food on the table, and she couldn’t help but pick up her fork to try a bite of the flavor, only to hear her mother’s voice coming from the side just as she raised her hand, “Wait for your father to arrive home before you start the meal.”

Heidi’s movements stopped for a moment.

It was a phrase she hadn’t heard in years either.

And just then a slight rattling suddenly came from near the door, that sounded like the flapping of wings of some very large bird, interspersed with a slight crackling sound, and just as Heidi was about to wonder what it was that was making the noise, she heard the sound of a key being pulled out and a doorknob being turned, and saw the door of the house, which was not far away, being opened.

Father had returned.

Maurice stood frozen in the doorway, the vertigo caused by Aye’s direct teleportation from the Lost Country still fresh, the tumbling confusion of his senses making him so dizzy that for a good ten seconds or so he thought he was hallucinating.

He saw his wife sitting at the dining table, waiting for him to come home for dinner.

Then he realized it wasn’t an illusion.

The “miracle” that he had prayed to subspace for eleven years ago had finally been solidified on this side of the curtain after this intersection of flame and history – something he had never dared to hope for in his dreams had come true.

After standing like a statue for half a day, Maurice finally took a step forward, one step faster and faster.

Splitting the flesh and blood of the children of the deep sea with his dependents on the Lost Country, listening to knowledge from the shadows of subspace, and becoming a member of a hidden association …… Only a short while ago, these things were as heavy as a burden weighing heavily on his heart, but all of a sudden the weight of these burdens seemed to have disappeared, and it seemed to him that he glimpsed in it a most reasonable interpretation–

The realization of any miracle requires the payment of a price, and now that price had fallen upon himself in the gentlest and most gracious way.

It was time to accept it gladly.

His wife rose from the table, and Maurice clung to her.

“I see you at last ……,” the old scholar’s voice was low, as if he feared that Heidi beside him might hear, and that the wife before him might not hear, “I . …”

“Well, the child is watching – you’ve got a long time to explain to me what’s really going on, and there’s no hurry.” “Oh …… oh, you’re right, right.”

Maurice responded, somewhat flustered, as he let go of his wife and turned his head to see Heidi looking over with a surprised look.

“Ahem …… I came back late, on the road …… the car broke down, tomorrow I have to find someone to tow it back,” Maurice not too natural to explain a couple of sentences, then hurried to change the topic. “Are you all right? The cathedral side …… is also all right?”

“I’m as unharmed as the rest of them, except that I’m quite frightened and full of confusion,” replied Hetty, looking her father up and down again, “but you …… why do I think you’re strange? Did something happen on the way back?”

“What could have happened to me?” Maurice said at once, as if he was afraid that Hetty would steer the conversation toward his own trip some time in the past, and immediately afterward, he noticed the sumptuous meals on the table.

The expression on the old scholar’s face was suddenly complicated.

“I …… have eaten before I came back,” he said hesitantly, “on the ship …… over Mr. Duncan’s side. ”

The ugly and horrible “fish” came to his mind.

At the Subspace Feast, he had been as nervous about the fish as the queer Fathom Hound, but under Mr. Duncan’s watchful eye he had eaten the flesh and blood of that heir of the deep – and he could not quite remember what had happened afterward.

Only remembered that it smelled really good.

Now he couldn’t eat a single bite.

But his wife’s voice came from the side just then, “I made this myself.”

“Mother hasn’t cooked in years,” Heidi followed, “and she’s feeling a little better today, so ……”

“Then I’ll have some more.” As soon as Maurice heard this, he sat down directly at the table without waiting for his daughter to finish, and the first thing he did was to take up the bowl of soup on the plate, and pour it down in one large gulp.

“How is the flavor ……?” His wife asked with anticipation next to him.

“A little …… salty,” Maurice said hesitantly, but then immediately picked up the bowl, gulped and gulped a few more mouthfuls, smiling as he swallowed, “Salty, too salty… . you always cook so salty ……”

“If you don’t like it, don’t eat it!”

“I didn’t say it’s not delicious ……”

“Then shut up and eat – still talking so much at the table?”

Heidi looked up at her father and then at her mother.

She hadn’t heard a conversation like this in years – and after all these years, nothing seemed to have changed.

So she smiled, lowered her head, and sliced off a fried steak into her mouth.

It was indeed a bit salty.

……

Uncle had gone to bed, and slept soundly – it seemed he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long, long time, so much so that he dozed off halfway through the conversation with himself.

Vanna walked slowly towards her bedroom.

She had already changed into a homey dress and tied her hair into a simple ponytail. After changing out of the scarred armor and putting down the huge sword, the Inquisitor who had returned from the battle had collected her fierce aura, as if she had turned into a young girl who had her own life and her own likes and dislikes, just like an ordinary person.

When she was at home, she would not hide her emotions and matters of the heart, so her uncle obviously also saw that she had a preoccupied look, but in the conversation just now, he did not ask anything.

The two of them also tacitly did not bring up the matter of the “subspace blessing”.

Uncle did not want to add to his own burden, this is obvious.

But Vanna herself knew that the burden in her heart at the moment was not just about the so-called “subspace blessing”, but also had nothing to do with her own life and death.

She went back to her bedroom, closed the door, went to the dresser, and took out the ceremonial dagger with the magnificent decoration from the drawer.

This was a holy relic of the Church of the Deep Sea, and also a gift given to her by Bishop Valentine himself after she was baptized.

This holy relic symbolized the beginning of her faith in the storm goddess Gemona.

(End of chapter)