Chapter 248: A Return Visit to a Stomping Ground

Chapter 248 – Returning to a Stomping Ground
The crisp bell rang along with the door opening, the afternoon sunlight poured into this old store that was almost filled with all kinds of dolls, the elf shopkeeper who was behind the counter concentrating on adjusting a set of doll skeleton heard the movement and looked up to see a tall black-haired man wearing a one-eyed eyepatch walking into the store.

The old elf woman looked at this “customer” who didn’t look like he was coming to the store to buy dolls, but after a few moments of confusion, she still smiled and greeted him – she didn’t recognize this tall, one-eyed man in front of her as the man who had bought something from her shop a century ago with his sister, but she didn’t recognize him. She did not recognize the tall, one-eyed man in front of her as the child who had brought her sister to buy something in her store a century ago, “Ah, welcome to the Rosebud Doll Museum, feel free to look around.”

She then paused and added casually, “Customers like you don’t come around very often.”

Tirian’s gaze slowly swept around.

The assortment of dolls, the age-old shelves and carved staircase, the warm and calm atmosphere, and the smiling old woman.

The yellowed fragments of his memories gradually came together, turning into familiar images that gradually overlapped with the scene before him.

It was indeed here, the path Lucrecia had pointed out was correct.

It was normal that that elf shopkeeper had not recognized himself – he had changed too much compared to a century ago.

Tirion adjusted his expression a little, trying to make his face look softer – half a century of wandering and plundering on the cold, cold sea had turned him into a cold, hard-faced man, and he was aware that he always had a lingering aura about him that made ordinary people uncomfortable, and that aura had clearly affected the kindly shopkeeper old woman, who was smiling in greeting, but under her eyes was a suspicion and a little caution that she could not hide.

“I would like to inquire about something,” Tirian wasn’t sure if he had adjusted his expression properly, he couldn’t quite recall the look and tone of voice he should have used to open his mouth and speak when he walked into the store like an ordinary person, “Did you ever sell a ‘Nilu’ doll here? ‘?”

He thought for a moment and added a couple sentences, “A three-quarter doll, about this tall – classical court style with a very ornate skirt.”

The elf shopkeeper was baffled for a moment, and spoke with some hesitation, “Indeed …… there was a doll like that that had been in the store for many years, and it was bought a while ago, but why are you inquiring about it?”

“What kind of person bought it away?” Tirian felt his heart beat a few minutes faster, he didn’t think that it would be really easy to find a clue, his own father really did buy that doll from the store in a positive way, “About when?”

The shopkeeper’s old lady was obviously taken aback by Tirian’s overly excited reaction, instead she became more and more vigilant, “I’m sorry, I can’t disclose information about my customers, it’s our businessman’s rule.”

Tirian was stunned, but he didn’t expect such a response from the other party, he quickly thought for a moment and hesitated for another two or three seconds, as if he had made up his mind about something, “…… You didn’t recognize me?”

“Recognize ……?” The old woman who owned the store frowned, looking up and down the strange human in front of her suspiciously, “I don’t remember receiving customers like you – most of the people who come to my store to buy dolls are women, or young men who come to pick out a gift for their lovers as well as fathers picking out a gift for their daughters. ”

“That’s because it’s been a long, long time since I was last here,” Tirian gave a quirky smile, “Do you remember a brother and sister taking a doll named ‘Luni’ from here a hundred years ago? ”

The shopkeeper’s old lady was stunned for a moment, followed by finally slowly opening her eyes wide and looking at Tirian with a face full of incredulity, “Ah, you are ……”

“I know you may not quite believe it, but I have something that can prove my identity,” Tirian’s thoughts were running quite fast, and while saying that, he fished something out of his pocket, “Elves like you are well-informed, and should have heard of my things …… You take a look at this.”

The elf old lady listened while puzzled and took a piece of paper handed over by the other party, opened it and looked at it, first of all it was a big avatar printed on the paper, below it was the body of the wanted notice, the bounty and the official seal of the Frost City State ……

“I should still be somewhat famous,” Tirian said in a serious voice, “Technically, all of our families are relatively famous …… though perhaps not in a pleasant way. ”

Old lady shopkeeper: “……”

After a good half day, this elf old woman was able to control her expression, looked up at Tirian, and held back a sentence in a strange tone, “It’s really you.”

Tirian seemed to have also realized that something was wrong with this and smiled awkwardly, “It’s me.”

The old lady thought again, “After so many years of absence …… the zeros behind your name are already so many ah ……” Tirian pulled the corner of his mouth, “The bounty …… is indeed a bit much, but it’s just a formality, they add a zero after it every four or five years, and no one will go to claim the bounty anyway.”

“…… The first time I’ve seen someone who would carry their own wanted notice on their person as a supporting document, and a big pirate at that,” the old elf woman’s expression finally normalized a bit, she grunted as she folded the wanted notice and returned it. “Rather, I heard about the news of the Sea Mist ship docking in the harbor, and thought that I would have time to go to the harbor to see the action, but I didn’t expect you to run over here first. How is your sister?”

“She …… is having a more dashing time than I am,” Tirian said, followed by a glance at the old woman across the street with a strange expression, “I thought you would be scared for a moment, most ordinary people after seeing me have this reaction – even outside of the cold, cold sea.”

“I’ve seen more than my fair share of strange and bizarre things, and you’re not the only one who’s a great pirate, and the city-state has sent out a letter stating that the Sea Mist is a guest invited by Prendergast, and that what goes on in the northern seas is none of our business,” the old woman mumbled as she made her way to the counter, and the mumble turned into a nagging statement immediately afterward, “But I still have to talk about it. “But I still need to talk about you, being a pirate is not a serious business, it’s not a long term business, and it’s not good to talk about it, look at your sister, she at least has an honorary title for life in the Explorer’s Guild, and of course I’ve heard about it, you seem to have a complicated relationship with the city-states in the north… …”

Tirian’s brain started buzzing all of a sudden, he felt that he had now seen the calm margins of the long-lived races, and had to hurriedly interrupt the old lady’s recitation, “The Sea Mist Fleet is already undergoing a change, retaliatory behavior and plundering of the northern city-states is a thing of the past, now we mainly rely on collecting protection money… …”

Then without waiting for the old lady to react, he simply ended the topic and yanked it back hard, “Can you tell me now who bought that mannequin?”

“Oh, it’s a middle aged man who looks about …… the same as you or maybe a little shorter, and looks quite thin, like he’s not in very good health,” the old lady didn’t dwell on it this time, and blurted it out, “but I don’t think It’s impossible for you to find it, there are so many people in Prand. Are you trying to bring the other doll back to your sister that you couldn’t buy back then? Hey, that’s too bad, if you had come earlier it would have been good …… Wait, I just reacted, how do you know that someone bought ‘Niru’ away?”

Tirian, however, did not answer the other party’s question, but subconsciously frowned.

A person who was shorter than himself and had a thin body and poor health …… This couldn’t possibly be the father.

Could …… it be father s subordinates?

After taking back his humanity and sanity, he had even started to re-search for his ministry? What does he want to do? Is it to rebuild the Lost Country Fleet?

Tirion thought of a whole bunch of things for a while, and he didn’t wake up until the old elf woman called his name twice beside him, and then he thought of something else and immediately asked, “Then, besides purchasing the mannequins, what else did that guest say? Did he take anything else with him?”

“What was said …… was just a normal chat,” the shopkeeper’s old lady recalled, “It felt like that was a customer who liked dolls very much, he cared a lot about the restoration and maintenance of dolls, and learned a lot of knowledge from me, oh yes, he also bought away a wig and matching hairpiece that seemed to be for his own doll.”

Tirian’s expression was dumbfounded, “…… A wig? What kind of wig?”

“Long, straight blonde hair, one to one size, I’m quite impressed,” the shopkeeper’s old lady said, then suddenly remembered something, “Right, I have a similar one over here, you can take a look.”

While saying that, she had already turned around and dug into the storage room under the stairs to rummage around.

Tirian wanted to say that he didn’t have to go through so much trouble, but didn’t have the time, and just then, another strange tapping sound suddenly came from not too far away, catching his attention.

It sounded like someone tapping on a window outside.

Tirion turned his head in some surprise and looked in the direction from which the sound had come.

He saw a beautiful lady with blonde hair down to her waist standing outside the window, tapping gently on the window.

Tirion didn’t react at first, but after seeing the lady’s face, he instantly stiffened in place like a lightning strike.

That lady’s appearance …… was exactly the same as the Frost Queen Rae Nora from half a century ago!
(End of chapter)