Nina's focus seemed to be on a very subtle point, but for Shirley, it was a good thing.

She had already regarded this seemingly innocent and ordinary girl in front of her as a follower of a certain subspace shadow, and a follower like her own daughter. The less negative impression she had in front of this follower, the higher her chance of survival in front of the boss would be.

Nina had no idea how much was hidden under Shirley's awkward and stiff smile. The girl was surprised and a little excited because she had never been in such close contact with a real supernatural person (going to church did not count), and her knowledge of this matter was limited to books. In her eyes, Shirley, who used some kind of "supernatural illusion" to sneak into the school to investigate the incident, seemed to have been shrouded in a mysterious and powerful aura.

She even forgot the other party's little "deception" to her for a short time, and instead focused all her attention on the extraordinary life and adventures of the extraordinary people - even though these adventures were basically made up by her own mind: "Where do you usually live? Do you have your own secret base or something? Or is there a very mysterious organization?

"Do you usually hide in caves? Or sewers or something like that? Is there a warehouse-like place where you store various ritual items?

"Are you born with special abilities? Or do you have some powerful supernatural item? Are you the legendary 'mystic'? I heard that there is such an ancient profession. Mystics can cast spells without relying on any gods. It is said that their power comes from their blood...

"What do you normally eat? Do you often drink herbs or strange animal blood? Huh? You also eat normally? Really?"

Nina's questions came one after another, and there was no end to it. Shirley was halfway through answering the questions when she started to sweat - it was not because she couldn't answer the other party's questions, but because there was Duncan next to her!

Duncan had been watching Shirley silently since the beginning, with a gentle and kind smile - on the surface, he looked like a parent who shows up to entertain his child's classmates.

Simple, friendly, and harmless to humans and animals.

But whenever he laughed, Shirley would break out in a cold sweat.

"You seem to be very afraid of my uncle." Even though Nina was slow to react in this regard, she could still notice Shirley's strange behavior. When she recalled her reaction at the museum, she couldn't help but ask, "What happened between you two?"

"Nothing... nothing! Really!" Shirley sat up straight with a start, shaking her hands vigorously, "What... what can happen between me and your uncle? I'm still a child..."

Duncan felt something was wrong when he heard this. He knew he couldn't let the two girls continue to play freely, so he coughed twice to interrupt Shirley before she could talk nonsense: "It's nothing, it's just that she was evading the fare on the bus and I happened to catch her."

"Is it because of this?" Nina looked at Shirley in surprise. "That shouldn't leave such a big shadow... But uncle is right, evading the ticket is not good."

Shirley was about to cry: "I really won't evade tickets anymore, okay?"

Nina nodded, and then seemed to remember something, and couldn't help but look at Shirley seriously: "Then... can you tell me, what are you investigating? You are friends with me because of your 'investigation'?"

Shirley's body was stretched straight and her eyes began to drift to the side, but halfway through she met Duncan's calm gaze.

"I'm investigating the fire that happened eleven years ago," Shirley suddenly lowered her head slightly, as if she had figured something out or simply given up on something. She said in a low voice, "It's the factory leak in Block 6 that's mentioned in the official records..."

"The fire eleven years ago?" Nina's eyes widened, her tone filled with astonishment, "Wait... you also know about the fire eleven years ago?!"

"...You knew that too?!" Shirley was also surprised. She stood up from her chair and asked, "You also experienced that fire?"

"Of course I know. My parents died in that fire. I was six years old that year, and Uncle Duncan rescued me," Nina said hurriedly, gesturing with her hands subconsciously. "But everyone has always said that I was confused by the poisonous smoke on the street. They all said that there was no fire at all. Even the newspapers later said that there was only an accident in a factory..."

"That year... I was also six years old, and my parents died in the fire. I remember it clearly," Shirley looked straight into Nina's eyes, "but people around me also told me that there was no fire at all... No wonder, no wonder Agou said he smelled a familiar scent on you..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Duncan's voice suddenly came from the side: "So, it was Agou who guided you to get close to Nina and you sneaked into the school - and you didn't know why you did it, so you seemed so surprised after hearing what Nina said just now."

Facing Duncan's calm gaze, Shirley nodded quickly, while Nina looked a little confused: "Agou? Who is Agou?"

"Agou..." Shirley said, but hesitated the next second. She looked at Duncan, then at Shirley, "Agou is my friend, he is right next to me, but he may look a little scary..."

Shirley said this, but she felt very strange in her heart - because there was clearly a Warp Shadow who was countless times scarier than Agou sitting next to her, and this Warp Shadow was with Nina day and night. As a result, she had to cooperate with the boss's "personal hobby" and pretend that Agou was the scariest existence here, and she had to treat the boss as an ordinary human being...

To be fair, she usually uses Agou's camouflage ability to move around, and has dealt with cultists, sheriffs, and even pastors in local churches, but all these experiences combined are not as thrilling as sitting in this antique shop for ten minutes.

In her eyes, this ordinary shop was almost on the same level as the entrance to the subspace.

Nina just looked around curiously, searching for the figure of "Agou" beside Shirley. She looked around for a long time before asking curiously, "Then let 'Agou' come out to see me. Since he is your friend...what is there to be afraid of me?"

Shirley was still a little hesitant, and Duncan suddenly knocked on the table and said to Nina: "Then you have to be prepared. I have seen 'Agou', and he is really ugly."

"...Then I'm even more curious." Nina became even more curious after seeing Uncle Duncan and Shirley's reactions. "I really want to meet Mr. 'Agou' and want to know why Shirley's friend has such a strange name..."

"Well, since you want to see it," Duncan shook his head and looked at Shirley helplessly, "Let Agou come out and say hello. After all, he is also today's 'guest'."

Under normal circumstances, Shirley would never expose the secret between herself and Agou, because in the orderly city-state, traveling with the dark devil is itself an extremely taboo thing. Even if the priests of the Deep Sea Church just sensed a little bit of the dark breath, they could directly put the eight-pound cannon and six-barrel machine gun in front of her.

However, now, a Warp Shadow-level being asked her to summon Agou.

"……oh."

She nodded, then slowly raised her arms.

The next second, in front of Nina's astonished and slightly nervous eyes, dark flames and thick smoke suddenly rose up around Shirley!

Chains extended from the flames, and at the end of the thick smoke and black flames, the figure of a dark demon condensed.

The Deep Hound appeared in the flames and quickly huddled up in a second, hugging its head with its front paws to hide its most frightening eye sockets. It greeted Nina in a muffled voice in the black smoke: "Good evening, Miss. I'm Agou, Shirley's friend and guardian dog. My appearance does not conform to the mainstream aesthetic of humans, but you can look at me with an abstract and tolerant eye. In this way, I am just a pile of cleverly stacked bone fragments and a ball of flame with a slightly strange color..."

Duncan glanced at Shirley calmly and said, "To be fair, I have never seen a dog that can act on its heart like this in my life... In terms of personality, it's quite cute."

Nina on the other side was stunned. She looked at Agou in amazement for a long time before she finally cried out: "Ah!"

Shirley quickly said, "I told you you might be scared..."

Before she could finish her words, she heard Nina add the second half of her exclamation: "This is also amazing!"

Shirley: “……?”

"Hello?" While Shirley was stunned, Nina began to greet Agou tentatively, "Mr. Agou? Um, are you a 'Mr.'?"

"The Deep Demon has no gender, but you can call me that if you want," Agou answered sullenly, seeming a little surprised, "You... are not afraid of me?"

"It's okay. Although it does look a little scary," Nina thought for a moment and smiled brightly, "but I'm pretty brave~"