The sky outside was getting darker as Duncan finished sending off Morris and tidying up the shop on the first floor. Finally, he had time to talk to Nina about what her teacher had mentioned during the home visit. After all, that was the main reason Mr. Morris had come to visit today, even if their conversation had drifted off topic.
"Have you not been sleeping well lately? Or are you feeling unwell?" Duncan asked with concern while spreading butter on a slice of bread at the dining table on the second floor. "I heard from your teacher that this has been going on for several days."
Nina seemed a bit nervous. She probably guessed that her teacher would bring up these issues during the visit, but until recently, she hadn’t thought that Uncle Duncan would actually start paying attention to her situation at school. It was a strange mix of feeling cared for and anxious. "I just feel a bit... sleepy."
"Looks like what Mr. Morris said is true," Duncan observed Nina's expression carefully. "Is it something physical? Or is it something else? If you have worries, you can talk to me."
He paused for a moment, considering how to continue. "Of course, at your age, you might not want to share some things with an adult like me, and that's normal. You're growing up, developing your own personality and thoughts, and that should be respected. But remember, asking for help when you're facing difficulties is not shameful. If there's anything I can help with, just let me know, and we can figure it out together."
He tried to make his words sound trustworthy and warm, which wasn’t easy since he had never had to care for someone of Nina's age before. However, he had some experience dealing with students, so he spoke to Nina as he would to a teenager—believing his approach was gentle enough.
"I... I'm really fine, really!" Nina seemed a bit uncomfortable with her uncle's kindness, but deep down, she didn’t resist it. She waved her hands in front of Duncan, meeting his gaze. "I just feel sleepy lately, and I keep waking up suddenly when I sleep. Sometimes I even have dreams."
"Dreams?" Duncan furrowed his brow, suddenly recalling something. "Nightmares? Is it about that big fire from when you were a child?"
Maybe it was because he had been thinking about the sun fragments and the unsolved case from eleven years ago, but the thought crossed his mind. However, Nina shook her head. "No, it's not about my childhood."
"What is it then?"
"I keep dreaming about... being on a really high place, like a tower in the city, and below me, the streets are all dark, filled with ruins and ashes," Nina recalled slowly. "The ruins and ashes look like a huge scar stretching from the center of the lower city all the way to the edge of the upper city, as if something terrible is tearing the city apart. I'm trapped up there, wanting to leave, but there's an invisible wall blocking me..."
Nina continued to remember, shaking her head lightly. "It's always the same scene in the dream. If you ask if it's scary... there’s nothing scary in it, and no danger is approaching. It's just watching the city being crushed by something unknown, and I’m stuck in place, unable to move. Every time I wake up, I feel exhausted, and I start feeling sleepy in class the next day..."
Duncan listened carefully to the girl's description, his brow furrowing deeper. What Nina was describing was definitely not the fire from her childhood, nor was it the scene that Duncan remembered.
It felt more like a static "display," showing her something from an unknown time and space in Pland.
If they were on Earth, Duncan would have dismissed this as a recurring strange dream. But in this bizarre world, he couldn’t help but feel alarmed.
Nina had an odd memory of a fire that only existed in her and Duncan's minds, and now she was experiencing these continuous, seemingly "ominous" strange dreams.
"When did you start having these dreams?" Duncan asked seriously.
"About a week or two ago? Maybe even earlier... I can't remember," Nina said, taking a sip of vegetable soup, her voice a bit unclear. "I didn’t pay much attention at first..."
Duncan wanted to say, "You should have mentioned this earlier," but then he remembered that at that time, Nina's "uncle" was a person lost in cult activities and alcohol, and she had no one reliable to talk to. So he swallowed his words and instead asked, "Have you consulted a professional? Like a doctor?"
Nina looked up. "You mean a psychiatrist?"
"Yes, a psychiatrist." Duncan nodded after thinking for a moment.
In this world, psychiatrists were an essential profession because there were many things lurking in the darkness and the deep sea, watching the city. Ordinary people's minds could easily be affected by these presences, leading to various problems—nightmares, hallucinations, distorted perceptions, and even personality disorders. These issues troubled many people, and the treatment techniques in this field had advanced to an astonishing degree. The best psychiatrists could even use extraordinary powers to correct twisted minds.
Nina's frequent strange dreams likely fell into the category of "symptoms" that psychiatrists would pay attention to.
"I haven’t yet," Nina said gloomily. "Their fees are really high... I’m just having strange dreams."
"But these strange dreams are starting to affect your life," Duncan said seriously. "Continuously dreaming about such odd scenes might be a dangerous sign. You should have learned about this in school."
As he said this, he quickly considered in his mind—Nina's ongoing strange dreams must be problematic. Since he was living in a bizarre world, he needed to be alert to these extraordinary elements. However, he was a novice in theory, so he needed to consult some professionals.
Coincidentally, he also wanted to find an opportunity to interact with "professionals" in civilized society to see how they dealt with events that might involve the extraordinary.
Nina seemed hesitant, but in the face of Duncan's serious expression, she finally relented. "Then... we can first go to the community church this weekend and ask the deep-sea priest there for a blessing. It won’t cost much, and if it doesn’t help, we can look for a professional psychiatrist."
The church? A deep-sea priest? A priest serving the Storm Goddess Gmona?
Duncan felt a spark of interest. This could be a good idea—he was also curious about those who served the gods.
"Alright, it’s settled then," he nodded immediately. "You’re going to the museum this weekend, and when you get back, we’ll go to the church."
"Okay!"
After dinner, Nina went back to her room early, as usual. Duncan returned to his room and immediately noticed the lazy figure of Ai Yi resting on the windowsill.
The pigeon had come back after flying all day without any success.
Duncan closed the door behind him and walked to the window. The pigeon lazily raised its wings in greeting and made a cooing sound. "Just destroy everything quickly, I’m tired..."
"You’ve really worked hard," Duncan said, seeing how worn out the bird looked. He approached and removed the "cultist sensor" from the pigeon’s back, soothing it. "This isn’t easy, especially since they hide so well. Plus, the deep-sea church has been keeping a close watch, so they’ll be even more cautious..."
The pigeon rolled its eyes, shook its wings, and continued to lie still.
Duncan couldn’t help but chuckle. "Even so, this work still needs to be done... Of course, flying all day is a bit too much. I’ll make sure you have a better balance of work and rest."
He decided to treat the search for cultists in the city as a long-term task. Although he didn’t need to rely on "hunting" for money after today’s "big job," bothering those cultists still held significant meaning.
On one hand, this might help him fish out big information from the cultists—higher-level priests would surely know more secrets about the "sun" and might have more information about the sun fragments from eleven years ago, which was what Duncan was interested in.
On the other hand, there was a seemingly wild extraordinary girl wandering around the city, causing trouble for the sun cultists. She might also know some secrets about the extraordinary world. Duncan wanted to take a chance and see if he could talk to her about the deep sea and the dark demons—after his conversation with Morris, he was now very curious about the "starry sky" above the deep sea.
Noticing Duncan's serious expression, Ai Yi sighed human-like, realizing its future fate of being forced to work overtime.
"Alas..." The bird’s tone was filled with sorrow. "There’s a sad thick wall between us now..."
Duncan replied, "...Your vocabulary is quite rich!"
(End of Chapter)