Deep Sea Embers

The price of a copy of the newspaper Plender is twelve pesos, which is equivalent to a shabby breakfast or the cheapest dessert in the Croisette district - the newspaper can be purchased from the passing newsboy, or you can walk a few steps to Buy a copy from the newsagent at the end of the other street.

Duncan held a few coins in his arms and bought a local newspaper at the newsstand. The owner of the newsstand was a middle-aged man who was immersed in reading. He heard Duncan put the coins into the box and waved his hand. I picked up the newspaper myself without even raising my head the whole time.

Duncan glanced at what the other person was reading and found that it was an analysis article on past lottery tickets, with all the unrealistic fantasies outlined in colorful lines.

He lowered his head and glanced at the newspaper he had just bought. The headline on the front page of the newspaper was the news he was most interested in:

The venerable Church Guardians, led by Inquisitor Vanna Wayne, successfully destroyed a Sun God cult gathering place, captured a large number of believers at the scene, and rescued several citizens at the same time...

The picture of "Your Excellency the Judge" was printed on one side of this page of news. To Duncan's expectation, it was a rather young woman with a striking scar over her left eye, but she could still be called a woman. A beautiful lady - she stood with her men, almost half a head taller than every man around her.

The judge wore a close-fitting and lightweight armor and war skirt, and also carried a two-handed sword that seemed to have come out of the cold weapon age. He looked like a sassy female knight in a medieval style - but behind this lady and a group of church defenders , but you can see a huge steam engine, and you can even see an obvious fort structure on the steam engine...

A wonderful and strange painting style, contradictory yet harmonious.

Duncan's eyes fell on the picture for a long time.

The news that the cultists' meeting point was wiped out was good news for him. Without worrying about his identity being exposed, he could see the gang of villains who performed human sacrifices being arrested and brought to justice without any psychological pressure. On the other hand, he was more concerned about the information revealed by this photo.

Female inquisitors who specialize in dealing with cultists, fully armed steam armored robots, church armed forces with both cold and hot weapons...

The information that is extremely difficult to obtain on the Lost Home can be clearly understood in a civilized society with only a twelve-peso newspaper.

As Duncan had thought before—when the Homeless drifted blindly for a century, times had changed.

Even if we don't think about it from the superficial perspective of "who is better at fighting than who", the mortal civilized society represented by Puland City-State has developed to a... stage that can be called wonderful.

The intersection was not a good place to read a newspaper. Duncan rolled up the newspaper and clamped it up. He still remembered that there was a "niece" named Nina waiting for him at the antique store, so he walked back.

Compared with wandering aimlessly in the city alone, a local who has an innate trust bonus in him is obviously a better source of intelligence.

As for the Lost Home, Duncan is not worried - even in the state of walking in the spirit world, he can still clearly perceive the situation on the Lost Home and the state of his other body, the goat-headed one. Alice seems to be quite content with being at the helm for him. He should be able to act here for a while longer.

Anyway, the original crew rules of the Lost Home stated that "the captain will occasionally leave the ship". It is not a big deal for the captain to walk in the spirit world for two days, right?

And as he continues to walk in the spirit world, Duncan feels that he is becoming more and more proficient in controlling this special "spiritual projection". Perhaps soon he will be able to try to control the physical activities of both sides at the same time - not to mention that he does not have to worry about himself. The situation on the ship during the spiritual world walk.

At this moment, a sweet smell suddenly drifted over from the side. Duncan subconsciously stopped and looked to the side. He saw a cake shop facing the street, with freshly baked pastries being placed outside.

This is the lower town of Puland City, so naturally there are no high-end dessert shops, but even some of the cheapest and inferior pastries stopped Duncan in his tracks.

There were a few coins in his pocket, which added up to less than twenty pesos, but it was more than enough to buy a cake.

After a slight hesitation, he went to the cake shop and bought a piece of the most ordinary honey cake - the packaging material used by the store to package the cake was some kind of thick paper with a rough texture, which felt rough to the touch.

Duncan walked to the antique store with the newspaper and cake, but his mood became inexplicably happy.

Walk the streets, talk to people, buy things, return to your accommodation.

Such a simple thing made him feel like he was in another world - he almost savored the feeling of breathing on land, and regarded these ordinary daily life as something precious. Viewed from life experience.

Life on the Lost Home was actually okay, Goathead was noisy but reliable, and Alice was a fun guy, but it wasn't bad to experience life on land.

Not long after, Duncan returned to the antique store. Before opening the door and entering the store, he raised his head and glanced at the signboard of the store - a row of letters of "Duncan Antiques Store" were still printed quietly on it, with a seemingly An old texture that hasn’t changed in more than ten years.

As he pushed the door open and entered the store, the clanging sound of bells sounded crisply, followed immediately by the sound of hurried footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs.

The young girl with long brown hair hurried down and stopped suddenly in front of the stairs. She held on to the pillar next to her and looked at Duncan with wide eyes, her expression nervous and worried.

"Uncle Duncan, where have you been?" she said quickly, "You said you went to the door to have a look, but you disappeared in the blink of an eye... I thought you went to the pub or casino again..."

Duncan looked at the girl in front of him in surprise. He could tell that she was really nervous and worried about something.

She is worried about the only remaining relative in the world who is dependent on her - even if this relative is a drunken, gambling, decadent and violent person, and is also involved in the bloody deeds of cultists behind the scenes.

An indescribable feeling emerged faintly, but the expression on his face did not change: "I just went for a walk and bought something on the way."

As he spoke, he walked towards the counter of the antique shop and prepared to put the newspaper and cake on it. Nina seemed to suddenly feel relieved and ran upstairs again. As she ran, she said quickly: "Uncle, you are here." Wait a minute, I'll bring breakfast down - you must have missed breakfast at this time, I made corn and beet soup..."

Before Duncan could speak, Nina's figure had disappeared on the stairs, and after a while, she walked down carefully carrying a large tray.

On the tray was a modest breakfast for two.

Duncan watched the girl busy with a dull expression, watching her skillfully clearing a space on the counter, placing the food, and then moved an extra chair to the side for himself...

Her hands and feet were extremely nimble, and she had a sense of joy that came from nowhere.

Duncan watched her busy and wanted to help but found that he couldn't intervene at all.

He has dealt with many young people of this age, but he has rarely seen children as diligent and agile as her.

On Earth, she would be only a high school student, but even here, she looks like a student.

Duncan suddenly thought that living with an "uncle" who had fallen into a cult was not an easy thing to do - but this girl named Nina seemed to have fully adapted to this kind of life that could not be called a happy life no matter how you look at it. , and you can also find something to support yourself in life.

"Let's eat," Nina had prepared everything at this time. She glanced at Duncan and said as if she had said it countless times, "Doctor Albert said that if you can eat breakfast regularly and maintain a good Mood, in the long run it will be more effective than liquor...than painkillers."

Duncan didn't speak for a while, but just looked at Nina quietly. Just before her expression became awkward and nervous, he took the cake that he had put aside and unwrapped it and placed it in front of Nina.

Nina opened her eyes wide in surprise and looked at the thing in front of her in confusion: "This is..."

"Cake, bought from the street corner," Duncan said casually, "You are growing, eat something nutritious for breakfast."

Nina was stunned. She just stared blankly at the cheap pastries in front of her. It took a long time before she seemed to react, and she whispered almost to herself: "Are you really okay?"

"Of course I'm fine," Duncan said with a very natural expression, "I just suddenly remembered that I haven't bought you dessert for a long time."

"Indeed, it's been more than a year..." Nina muttered, but then she suddenly laughed and picked up the knife, "Then we are half and half. Doctor Albert said that you also need to have nutrition. s things."

Duncan felt strange, but after a moment of silence he nodded.

"……good."