Deep Sea Embers

Nina didn’t know why her Uncle Duncan suddenly agreed to the home visit. But nevertheless, she’s not going to bash a good thing. It’s been a very long time since they managed to share a happy moment like this.

“It’s time to eat,” Duncan beckoned his “niece,” who was in a daze, to sit at the table. He had cooked up a pot of fish stew and warmed up the bread Nina bought this afternoon. There were also some onion rings and fries he found in the grocery bag, but that’s not really something he’s interested in. “Remember to get up early for school tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay, Uncle Duncan.” Nina agreed and obediently came to the table.

The aroma of fish soup had already drifted up from the table, so the smell hit the young lady as soon as she sat. With a disbelieving look at her uncle: “It’s so fragrant… Uncle, when did your cooking become so good?”

“Can this also be considered good?” Duncan couldn’t help but smile. Compared to Alice’s headless cooking, Nina’s evaluation definitely fell into line. “Could it be that I was very bad at cooking?”

“That can no longer be described as very bad. You used to cook according to the standard of being passable as long as it doesn’t kill the person. Every time you would pull me over to test the poison with you….” Nina muttered, recalling the bone-chilling experience of the tastes that hit her tongue in the past. “Once you made a dish so unpalatable that you couldn’t eat it yourself, you had to throw it in the trash. Then afterward, we ran over to the family restaurant next door to solve the lunch problem. When we returned, we saw the neighbor’s dog lying beside the trashcan and vomiting nonstop. Since then, that dog would run away whenever he sees you…”

As the young lady continued, her voice expectedly grew weaker: “Actually, forget what I just said. You never did like it when I mention these things….”

Duncan was silent.

In the remaining memories of this body, there was nothing of that sort mentioned by Nina. In fact, those fragments only contained the happiness they shared. Guess there were also a lot of weird and silly interactions that dissipated following the man’s death. Duncan would need to be more careful when touching such subjects.

As Nina silently broke a piece of the hard bread and dunked it into the delicious broth, Duncan took this opportunity to reach out and rub the child’s hair.

“Uncle?” The girl looks up in surprise.

“Don’t worry. Your uncle’s research on the new dish was successful.” Duncan said solemnly like he meant it.

The two exchanged a long look with each other as if to confirm whether the other was lying. Then out of the blue, the girl broke out into a hysterical laugh: “Uncle, you look so funny!”

“Don’t make fun of adults,” Duncan shot a sideway glance at Nina while smirking mischievously, “Oh right, I intend to tidy up the store in the coming days. So if you see any strange objects lying around that you don’t recognize, don’t touch them until I come back.”

He’s preparing for the next shuttling of items between the two places as he develops Ai’s ability. Unfortunately, there are bound to be items he couldn’t hide from Nina’s eyes, so it’s better if he gets her vaccinated for the changes in advance.

Nina didn’t suspect anything and quickly nodded as the ghost captain continued: “I also plan to add an extra hand in the store to look after things. This is in case I go out during the day, so don’t get surprised if you find a stranger in the store, okay?”

This time, he was paving the way for Alice’s arrival.

There are still many things to consider before letting the puppet doll enter Pland. Like making sure Alice’s supernatural existence wouldn’t cause harm to the surroundings or covering up those joints so others wouldn’t realize she’s a puppet. But most importantly, he needs to figure out how to keep that head screwed on properly without falling off randomly.

Nina looked at Duncan in surprise: “Uncle, you’re even hiring a new clerk to help with the store? That’s a big deal…. Have you chosen someone yet? What kind of person are they?”

Duncan thought for a moment, trying to filter out a long list of not-so-good adjectives out of his head until he grimaced. There are really not many positives he could say.

“That’s uhhh…. a hard-working young lady.” In the end, the only word he could use to describe Alice in a positive light was “hard-working”.

Then he saw the expression on Nina’s face change subtly.

The girl was eyeing her uncle up and down until she couldn’t hold back: “Young lady? Uncle, are you…”

Duncan had experience in this field, so he knew exactly what the niece was thinking. Immediately knocking the table to reimpose his status as the elder: “Focus on dinner! Quit thinking about other things!”

Nina immediately held back her laughter and made a “scream” inside. The nosy inner fairy was running amok right now. However, that giggling delight was promptly replaced by a widened eye surprised face after tasting the fish: “It’s so good~!”

Duncan laughed while breaking some of the bread to feed Ai. “Then eat more. There’s still some more in the kitchen.”

Just like that, Nina and her Uncle Duncan shared a warm and happy dinner that hadn’t been possible inside this antique shop for many years.

And after everything was cleaned up after dinner, Duncan stopped the girl again, who was about to return to her room for rest.

He had something to confirm.

“Nina, I have something I want to ask you.”

“Huh?” Nina grew curious, “What’s the matter?”

“Do you remember… things from when you were a child?” Duncan deliberated on where to start and recalled what he had heard from the cultists. “The stuff that happened when you were six.”

Nina frowned over the odd question. She didn’t know why her uncle suddenly mentioned the old incident eleven years ago.

Eleven years have passed, and she was only six years back then, so her memories aren’t the greatest. As such, her heart didn’t feel too much sadness when mentioning the tragedy back then.

“I was young and can’t remember many things, but I do remember it was a mess… There were panicking adults everywhere. Some say there was a factory leak near the Crossroad. Others claim there was a collective frenzy in the Lower Third Street. Some even claimed it happened in the Upper Sector too… Most of what I know was retold to me by the adults later on…”

Duncan thought for a moment and locked eyes with Nina’s: “Then do you remember a fire? I fled from that big fire with you. Your parents… they were in that fire…”

He only tentatively mentioned it, but he didn’t expect Nina to suddenly widen her eyes and react so strongly: “Fire? Uncle, you really remember that there was a big fire at that time?!”

“…… Of course I remember,” Duncan knew that something was really wrong based upon Nina’s reaction, “Is it wrong that I remember there’s a fire?”

“I also remember that there was a huge fire,” Nina said quickly, a little excited even. “But when I told the adults around me, no one could remember it. They all said I was scared and imagining things. There was no place to catch fire… Then later, when I grew older, I even went out of my way to find the original newspaper…”

Speaking of this, she stopped and slowly shook her head with a strange expression: “But even the newspaper didn’t mention any fire… All the records say that there was a leak in a factory. The chemicals caused widespread hallucinations…”