Chapter 47 In front of the iconostasis
Chapter 47 In front of the Icon
Nina was happy because it had been a long time since she’d had a normal meal with Uncle Duncan like this, exchanging information about what had happened in school, not to mention seeing a smile on Uncle Duncan’s face.
It even made her think back to the old days, to the time when her uncle hadn’t been sick yet – since she had lost her parents at the age of six, this man who was like a father to her had become her only family member in this world, but since four years ago, the disease that even the doctors couldn’t find out the reason for it had transformed her uncle into something else, and all this time it had been …… honestly, it’s hard to get through.
Uncle is still paying for his own schooling, in the maintenance of their own basic life, but Nina can feel, about the “future” of all the colors have gradually faded from this familiar and intimate store, dissipated in the spirits, pills, and those and uncle deal with the suspicious “friends” time and time again eerie. “in the eerie and depressing gatherings of those suspicious “friends” with Uncle.
She had no hope of getting her life back to the way it had been a few years ago, but she was glad to see that things were getting a little better.
Duncan was happy too, for he had finally come into contact with more information about this world, had finally touched the veins of its history – even if it was only a part of it – and it gave him a pleasant feeling of having lifted the clouds.
The completely lost prehistoric “Order Era”, the “Great Annihilation” event that reshaped the order of all things, the Deep Sea Era that continues to this day, the anomalies and anomalies all over the world …… were all things that he was once completely unaware of, or just a little bit unaware of, or just a little bit unaware of. These things that he once knew nothing about, or only half-understood, finally had a clearer outline at this moment.
Breakfast was over, and Nina got up to clean up the dishes; she was handy, and could see that she did these chores often on a regular basis – no doubt she was the one who cleaned up the upstairs bedrooms as well.
A guy who was seriously ill and disheveled, and who had devoted most of his energy and passion to the cult, obviously wouldn’t be doing these things.
But as he watched the girl in front of him go about her business, Duncan couldn’t hold back in the end, and he got up to take the large tray from Nina’s hands, “I’ll carry it for you – it’s a struggle to get up the stairs.”
Nina looked at Duncan in surprise, and she was just about to say something else when the latter had already taken a big step towards the stairs.
The girl could only rush to follow, reminding while following behind, “Uncle you be careful, the doctor said your condition is still unstable ……”
“The doctor …… Dr. Albert?” Duncan did not turn around, while going up the stairs while searching for a corresponding impression in the memory fragments, but there are only a few flickering fragments, “It doesn’t matter, anyway, he can’t even find out the cause of the disease until now, the most effective medicine prescribed is also painkillers.”
“…… That should have been on the doctor’s advice too,” Nina muttered as she followed Duncan up to the second floor, walking towards the kitchen, “He at least knows what to do to stay healthy… …”
Nina was halfway through her sentence when a flapping of wings suddenly interrupted her movements.
She and Duncan looked in the direction of the sound at the same time, and saw a shadow flickering in the crack of the ajar master bedroom door.
“Uncle Duncan, something flashed past in your room!” Nina said in surprise, before stepping forward and grabbing the doorknob, “Could it be that cat next door ……”
“Hey you don’t ……”
Duncan only had half a chance to stop it before he saw that Nina had already pushed open the hidden door of the room with one hand, and the pigeon hiding in the room then appeared in front of the two of them.
Aye was standing on top of a cupboard, one paw grasping a French fry and stuffing it into its mouth, the sudden opening of the door to the room caused the pigeon’s entire bird to stand still, and it stayed frozen there with one paw stuffing a French fry, its two green eyes staring blankly at Nina, and the wall on the other side respectively.
Then it saw Duncan, and its wings flapped twice, making a loud noise, “Ah …… coo coo?”
Duncan jumped out of the corner of his eye, and saw that a window not far away was wide open, and that was obviously Aey’s escape route – while directly in the distance, a dock could be vaguely seen bathed in sunlight.
This pigeon had gone to the docks to fix some fries and come back ……
“Pigeon?” Nina finally responded at this point, looking at Aye on the counter in surprise, “Uncle Duncan! There’s a pigeon in your room!”
“I saw it,” Duncan grimaced, “I don’t recognize it.”
Aye immediately tossed his fries and fluttered over, landing on Duncan’s shoulder and shaking his head.
“Well, it flew in this morning,” Duncan sighed, “probably a pigeon someone else raised to get acquainted with, but not very smart in the head, and it wouldn’t go away when I gave it something to eat.” Aye listened, making loud cooing noises.
If it hadn’t been for the presence of outsiders and Duncan’s earlier orders, it would have started a loud “ah yes, yes, yes, yes” by now.
Nina didn’t doubt her uncle’s statement for a second, she just looked at the pigeon with glowing eyes, and then cautiously came over to Duncan while observing the pigeon’s reaction, “So …… are you going to keep it? Can I keep it?”
The girl’s mind was written all over her face, and while it was obvious to her that Aye was just a pretty and cute white dove, Aye cocked her head at Duncan and made a questioning cooing sound in her throat.
Duncan suddenly felt that the bird was surprisingly more intelligible when it didn’t speak than when it did ……
After a moment, he pretended to hesitate before nodding, “Yes – but only if the dove is willing to stay; it may fly away at some point, so don’t complain when you do.”
Nina was instantly beaming, “Great! I knew Uncle Duncan that you were actually a reasonable man!”
……
In the central prayer room of the Deep Sea Cathedral, Valentine, the Bishop of the City State, who was wearing a black background and gold patterned clergyman’s robes, was standing in front of the Storm Goddess’s icon with a serious face.
He was tall and thin, with thinning white hair and eyes as calm as deep water.
The large candlestick in the prayer room was quietly burning, and the flame of holiness illuminated the room, the icon of Gemona resided on the platform, the goddess had no face, her head was covered with a black veil, and a long dress depicting many waves and waves fell from her body to the edge of the platform – even though it was only a stone statue, the power of the divine nature was still manifested in this place! Even though it was only a stone statue, the power of divinity was still manifested here, and the entire statue exuded a strong sense of presence, and as long as one stood around the statue, one could feel a vague sense of being watched, of being sheltered.
This feeling of being watched and sheltered was real, and it was under this watchfulness and shelter that Vanna, who had come to discuss things with the bishop, was able to feel at ease and boldly reveal all the images she had seen in her dream.
“…… If what you saw in your dream was good, it was indeed the Lost Country.”
City State Bishop Valentine turned around and looked at the young Inquisitor who had come to him early in the morning – despite the fact that from the point of view of the Church’s priesthood, the Inquisitor who was in charge of force and the City State Bishop who was in charge of ceremonial rites were on equal footing, when it came to the study and judgment of transcendent events, it was not unusual for the Inquisitor to approach the Bishop to seek advice or even seek guidance.
“So it really is the Lost Country?” Despite having the answer in her mind, Vanna couldn’t help but widen her eyes after hearing the Bishop’s judgment, “I thought ……”
“You still thought that ship was just a legend nowadays, the same as the various legends of ghost ships that those nervous sailors were bragging about in the taverns?” Valentine knew what Vanna was trying to say, the old man with thinning white hair shook his head, his tone deep, “The existence of the Lost Country is a fact recognized by all the city-states and the Church, it’s not a legend, it’s something that can be found in the Church rolls.”
“That I know, it is true that the Lost Country once existed, some of the construction drawings and start files for that ship from over a century ago are even available in the city-state archives in Prand, but all of that tangible information is limited to the time when the Lost Country was still a ship sailing in the real world, and limited to the time when Captain Duncan was still human… …”
Vanna said, her tone serious as she looked to the icon behind the bishop, her expression growing more cautious at the mention of certain words.
“The point is, that ship was definitively documented to have crashed into subspace …… A century ago, thousands of fugitives from the thirteen islands of Visserland witnessed that ship, along with their homes homelands, being swallowed up by the border collapsing and crashing straight into the shadows of subspace, and in the decades that have followed. While there have been eyewitness reports of seeing the Lost Homeland reappear in the real world, all of them have lacked real evidence, and a considerable number of scholars are skeptical of that ship’s ‘return’ ……”
The young Inquisitor spoke while looking at the old man in front of him.
“Is it really possible for something that was swallowed by subspace to reappear in the real world?”
“…… So far, nothing other than the Lost Country ship has returned to reality after falling into subspace, even the Lost Country ship, only eyewitness reports after the fact exist, scholars from all walks of life are doubtful about that ship’s return, that is indeed true, but that’s not the point …… “The old man said, his eyes suddenly fell on Vanna, his face with a certain strange seriousness, “The key is, Inquisitor, are you afraid of something?”
(End of chapter)