In the prayer room where incense was burning and the statue of the goddess was watching, the two long-time friends fell silent at the same time. Only the blessing bestowed by the gods gently soothed the two frightened hearts. The subtle and gentle sound of the waves gently echoed in Vanna's ears. It was the whisper of the storm goddess Gemona.

The goddess is still paying attention here, more than ever before.

After an unknown amount of time, Heidi gradually calmed down. She carefully broke the silence: "What on earth was that I saw?"

Vanna hesitated for a moment before she spoke softly, "Perhaps... that is exactly what the Sun Heretics have been looking for."

"What are those heretics of the sun looking for?" Heidi was stunned for a moment, "You mean..."

"Sun fragments," Vanna nodded before Heidi finished speaking, "Perhaps only sun fragments can match the power you saw in the illusion."

As she spoke, Vanna slowly raised her head and stared at the statue of the Storm Goddess, muttering thoughtfully, "After all... those heretics claim that the solar fragments are the remains that fell off the so-called 'real sun'..."

Heidi was stunned, and her expression suddenly changed slightly: "If something like that really appeared in the real world, the Plande city-state would not be as safe and sound as it is now..."

"So that thing must be in some kind of sealed state," Vanna nodded. "Intelligence shows that the fragment of the sun appeared in the Plande city-state eleven years ago, but now it seems that the so-called appearance at that time should only be a slight leakage of power. In the past eleven years, it has always been dormant..."

"And now those solar heretics want to wake that thing up?!" Heidi said in horror, "Do they want to destroy the entire Plande?!"

"It's not the first day you've dealt with cultists," Vanna glanced at Heidi, "Don't you know their mental state? To those fanatical heretics, sacrificing one or two city-states is nothing as long as they can revive the 'Black Sun'. They don't even mind letting the whole world burn and become firewood for the revival of the Sun God!"

Heidi opened her mouth for a long time without saying anything, while Vanna calmed down and spoke slowly: "The most important question now is what happened to you when you saw that illusion - what happened to you, what happened around you, and what happened to the museum itself. Only by figuring out these things can we figure out in what state the fragment was sleeping and where it was sleeping."

"...No, I can't remember the details," Heidi tapped her forehead lightly, "but now I am roughly sure that I did see its projection while I was in a coma, and I performed emergency hypnosis on myself in order to preserve important clues... Let me think, I was rescued at the time and temporarily placed in a room on the first floor of the museum... According to what they told me after I came out, that room is close to the main exhibition area..."

While recalling with difficulty, Heidi asked thoughtfully: "Can't we conclude that the clue is in the museum?"

"It's difficult. Judging from mysticism, what you saw was not the real body of the fragment, but a little 'shadow' of a huge and extraordinary existence that leaked out of the real world. The museum is not necessarily the sleeping place of the fragment. There may only be a 'crack' there. When humans are in a coma, their mental barriers are weak, so your consciousness accidentally crossed the crack and saw the scene on the other side of the crack.

“This kind of gap on the edge of reality is often not fixed. It was in a museum before, but now it may have moved to another place.”

Fanna explained patiently, then suddenly shook her head: "Of course, we will still conduct a top-level search of the museum and maintain surveillance afterwards. After all, anomalies and phenomena are always out of the ordinary. Maybe the fragment will really remain in the museum in the form of some kind of sealing medium. Even if not, we may be able to find some clues in the fire scene to explain why the 'crack' happened to appear in the museum...

"But the subsequent search has nothing to do with you. From a safety perspective, you'd better not go near the museum for the next month."

"Of course, I'd like to keep my distance from this matter," Heidi nodded immediately. "I've had enough bad luck!"

Fanna silently looked at her unlucky friend, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she said nothing. She just stood in silence under the statue of the goddess for half a minute before she suddenly spoke: "Who saved you?"

"Two girls who are still in school, and a man who looks to be in his forties." Heidi thought for a moment, "What a coincidence, one of the two girls is exactly the student my father visited a few days ago, and the man is her uncle... Did I mention him to you? His name is Duncan Strahan, and he is the manager of an antique shop."

"...I feel a little allergic to the name 'Duncan' now," Vanna's mouth twitched visibly, "Although I know it's definitely not the same person..."

"My reaction when I first heard the name from my father was the same as yours," Heidi spread her hands. "Speaking of which, I also promised that gentleman that I would go to his house tomorrow afternoon to do a psychological evaluation for his niece. It would be a good opportunity for me to go and express my gratitude formally then... Everything is a mess today, and it's really not polite for me to say goodbye in a hurry."

"Strictly speaking, it's not just the 'niece' who needs a psychological evaluation," Vanna's expression suddenly became serious, staring straight at Heidi, "all three of them need one."

"Why..." Heidi started unconsciously, but then she realized, "Ah!"

"Yes, they were all beside you at the time, and you saw the appearance of the sun fragments while you were unconscious," Vanna looked into Heidi's eyes. "If those are really the remains of an ancient god, the pollution may have spread to them through your consciousness. Perhaps the scale of this spread of pollution is small, but it could be fatal to ordinary people."

Heidi was stunned.

※※※

In the antique shop in downtown, Duncan had closed the shop early and was sitting in a chair behind the counter in a relaxed posture, while Nina and Shirley were sitting opposite him, one on his left and one on his right.

The two of them took a shower in the simple bathroom upstairs. Nina changed into new clothes, but Shirley was still wearing her black dress - it was not that Nina was unwilling to lend her clothes to her, but the difference in their figures was quite big, and Shirley took the initiative to refuse those clothes that were too big for her.

Of course, it was unknown whether this guy had other concerns when he refused... Maybe she thought that accepting Nina's clothes was equivalent to accepting a gift from the evil god's followers? Only she knew.

On the other side of the counter, Ai the pigeon was strolling leisurely.

There was a pile of French fries on the table behind him - that was what Duncan promised him.

Ai got the fries he had been longing for, Nina returned home safely, Duncan rescued his niece, and became more familiar with the power of fire.

Everyone is very happy.

Except Shirley.

She was about to cry—she had felt like crying several times today.

"So... Shirley, you're not actually my classmate... You just used some... 'detective skills' to sneak into the school to investigate some things," Nina looked at her finally made friend with a complicated expression, "You don't like steam and machinery either..."

"I can't even understand those textbooks..." Shirley said carefully. She answered Nina's words, but her eyes looked at Duncan from time to time. "Sorry, I... I'm sorry."

Nina seemed not to notice Shirley's apology. She just frowned in confusion: "But how did you do it? I...now that I think about it, you always suddenly appeared in my classroom, and then often appeared around me, but you never attended classes normally, and even the teachers and classmates nearby didn't seem to notice you, you..."

Shirley glanced at Duncan again, and after confirming that his expression was still calm, she began to mutter softly, "It's actually just a little bit of extraordinary skills..."

"Extraordinary?" Nina's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you an investigator from the church?"

"No, no, I'm not from the church, I..." Shirley glanced at Duncan again. She recalled the precautions that this boss had left behind when Nina went upstairs to take a shower. Although she still had no idea why this boss wanted to play the "pretend to be human" game in this antique shop, she still followed his instructions obediently, "I am considered a wild... a wild extraordinary person..."

Nina was surprised: "...There are wild extraordinary people?!"

"If they are not registered, then they are wild," Shirley said with a kind of self-abandonment, as if she had completely given up on something. "Isn't that what those dogs in the church... those troublesome guys usually call people like us?"

Nina listened to Shirley's explanation in a daze, and then looked her up and down several times. This scrutinizing look made the latter feel uncomfortable. Shirley dodged subconsciously: "Why are you looking at me like that..."

"You're so awesome!" Nina suddenly said very seriously.

Shirley was immediately confused: "... Is that what you're feeling?"

"yes!"