Chapter 81: Home Visit?

Chapter 81 – Home Visit?

Before the last rays of sunlight faded from the sky, Duncan met the familiar facade of the antique store.

The gas streetlights lining the road had long since been lit, and the slightly yellowed light illuminated the front sign and the grimy walls, and lights were coming on in the windows on either side of the front door, so it was clear that Nina had long since returned home – she’d turned on the lights on the first floor and was waiting for Duncan to return.

Technically speaking, from Duncan s perspective he and Nina had actually only just met, but for some reason, he felt an inexplicable …… apology in his heart when he saw the lights on the first floor.

This apology is because he went out and returned late?
Duncan stepped forward and pushed open the door of the antique store, the bell hanging in the doorway chimed crisply, and in the next second, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs.

The girl in the plain long dress ran down the stairs as if in a gust of wind.

“Uncle Duncan!” Nina stopped on the stairs and looked at Duncan, who appeared in the doorway, with surprise and joy, with some surprise still in her eyes, “I thought you were …… again today.”

“Went around town and didn’t notice it was getting dark,” Duncan shook his head, “Sorry, I was actually going to pick you up from school in the Crossroads neighborhood, then I ran into a bit of an accident.”

“You went to the Crossroads neighborhood?” Nina looked at Duncan in surprise and confusion, she looked up and down as if to make sure that her uncle hadn’t been out drinking again or was being mentally unstable from the effects of his medication, “To pick me …… up from school?”

Uncle Duncan was acting strange and familiar again, which again made Nina unsure of how to react.

“Just a little curious about what you’re doing at school now,” Duncan said casually, “Enough about that, you don’t have to worry about me going out for a drink or going to hang out with my ‘friends’ from now on, and if I’m late, it’s because I’m going to If I’m late, it’s because I’m on my way, okay?”

Nina stared blankly at Uncle Duncan entering the house and closing the door, looking at the other party’s steady gait and energetic demeanor, she subconsciously nodded her head.

“It’s getting late,” Duncan said to Nina, who was standing at the top of the stairs as he walked toward the stairs leading to the second floor, “Have you eaten yet?”

“Not …… yet,” probably because she still wasn’t used to the changes in her uncle nowadays, Nina always looked a bit hesitant when she answered, “I saw you weren’t home when I came back, and I don’t know if you’re still coming back tonight, so I just …… haven’t cooked yet. But I bought some bread, I was going to ……”

“Just bread isn’t nutritious enough, come on, there’s some good stuff in the kitchen,” Duncan was about to step up the steps when he smiled back at Nina, “I’m cooking today.”

Uncle is going to cook?

Nina seemed to have heard something out of the blue, but before she could ask a question, she saw that Uncle Duncan was already striding upwards, so she had no choice but to hurry to follow, at the same time, her eyes also noticed Aye, who was resting precariously on Duncan’s shoulder, and she was a little surprised, “Uncle, this pigeon has been with you the whole time?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda clingy,” Duncan said casually, “Ah yes, I named it Aye.”

“Aye? What a strange name for a pigeon ……” Nina scratched her hair, she had followed up to the second floor and watched as Uncle Duncan literally walked towards the kitchen, she finally couldn’t help but ask, “I’m sorry. “Did you buy anything?”

“It’s actually just a dried salted fish,” Duncan found the salted fish that he had put away from the kitchen cupboard, carrying the hard ingredient and shaking it at Nina with a rather smug expression, “Don’t look bad looking, it tastes pretty good for soup.”

“Fish?!” Nina’s eyes widened in surprise, “Is today a day? Fish is so expensive, isn’t it usually …… ah?”

She finally got a good look at the dried fish in Duncan’s hand, the unimpressive contraption made the girl very confused, she blinked her eyes for half a second, “What kind of fish is this? Why haven’t I seen it before?”

Duncan knew this would be Nina’s reaction.

Of course the residents of the city-state had seen fish before – although the Boundless Sea was dangerous, and there were dangerous things called “heirs” in the deep sea that threatened the safety of human beings, not all the sea areas were as weird and extreme as the deep sea areas, and due to the protection of the gods and the defense system of the city-state itself, there were no fish near the city-state, and there were no fish near the city-state. Due to the protection of the gods and the defense system of the city-states themselves, the sea is relatively safe in the shallow waters near the city-states and in the few routes that are blessed by the grace of the gods, which often provide valuable resources for the civilization of the city-states.

These areas often provide valuable resources for city-state civilizations. People gather seafood and minerals from the offshore areas, and hunt whales and other fish of great industrial value on the routes sheltered by the gods, using them to sustain the city-states’ existence and support their industrial development.

Under this premise, of course, the occupation of “fisherman” exists.

However, the oceans of this world are not like the earth, even if it is a safe sea, it is still “safe” compared to the deep sea area, so even inshore fishing in this world is an extremely professional, thrilling and even need to test the extraordinary knowledge and combat skills of things.

Fish is a known but expensive ingredient for those who live in the city-state.

Even if they were surrounded by the sea, even if there were countless fish in the sea.

Nina hadn’t eaten fish in years – even before her uncle’s illness – and commoners like her didn’t get many chances to see fish served on the table.

The common fish were still so rare, let alone a gift from the deep sea. Duncan even suspected that this kind of deep-sea fish he caught on the Lost Country ship was the first time it appeared in the territory of the city-state of Prand – not to mention Nina, a commoner girl, I’m afraid that even the city-state’s consuls and the church’s high-ranking clergymen didn’t have a chance to taste this.

Nina was blessed today.

“Just don’t care what species it is, just wait and eat.” Duncan knew that there were some things that couldn’t be explained, so he simply didn’t explain, he turned around and returned to the kitchen to start preparing today’s dinner.

The strange fish was not small, even after air-drying the size was considerable, if used to make soup it could not be eaten in one sitting, so he divided the dried salted fish into two sections, ready to use the head part first – the rest could be threaded with a string and then continue to hang in the cupboard, after further air-drying it might instead be more flavorful.

Uncle really started cooking.

Watching the familiar figure get busy in the kitchen, Nina felt like a dream.

She actually didn’t care at all what was going on with the strange fish that her uncle took out, she didn’t even care about today’s dinner at all.

Compared to these trivial things, the changes that had occurred in her uncle’s body were the most odd and most worthy of her attention.

The sound of a knife clanging against a cutting board came, the gas stove hissed, and the base soup in the pot gurgled and bubbled.

Nina was in a bit of a trance, she hadn’t seen a sight like this in years?

A hint of hesitation appeared on her face, and it was only after a moment that she seemed to have suddenly made up her mind, and she said to the busy back inside from the kitchen doorway, “Uncle, tomorrow …… Mr. Morris is coming for a home visit.”

“Home visit?” Duncan, who was busy cooking, froze when he heard this, “Mr. Morris …… that history teacher of yours?”

Nina nodded, “Yes.”

“And the teacher at that school does home visits?” Duncan threw the processed pieces of fish into the pot and looked back at Nina in surprise as he placed the knives in the sink, “I thought this was a ‘specialty’ only in those schools uptown.”

“The school …… really doesn’t have that rule,” Nina said carefully while keeping an eye on Duncan’s attitude, “but old Mr. Morris is rather special, he . . pays extra attention to the students.”

Duncan didn’t say anything for a moment.

Things were slightly beyond his expectations.

He had never thought that he, “Captain Duncan”, would suddenly come across such a situation to deal with while he was carrying out his activities in the city-state!
He had thought about dealing with the Church, he had thought about dealing with the Magistrate, he had even thought about dealing with the City Navy and the Military Police – like it or not, his plans were filled with fire, sword and the Lost Country’s hundred or so sidearms.

But he’d never considered in his preliminaries that there would be an old man who taught history in the public schools.

How was it that this reality was always so unexpected?

“Uncle?” Nina couldn’t help but feel a little concerned when she saw that Duncan didn’t respond for a long time, “Are you reluctant? Then I can talk to old Mr. Morris …… In fact, I talked to him today, I told him that your health is not very good, so this time there is no way to accept the home visit, he did not say anything at that time ……”

Duncan watched this somewhat nervous reaction from Nina as thoughts flooded his mind.

That old Mr. Morris looked like it wasn’t the first time he had made a request for a home visit.

So how many times had Nina declined for the same reason?

“…… He teaches history, right?” Duncan suddenly asked again.

Although she didn’t know why her uncle was asking the question again, Nina nodded, “Yeah.”

“That’s good, I happen to want to deal with a professional in the field of history,” Duncan smiled, “When is he coming over tomorrow?”

(End of chapter)