Seeing Nina's expression of excitement and curiosity after a moment of shock and nervousness, Shirley couldn't help but whisper, "You can't even describe this as bold..."

Nina didn't hear what Shirley was mumbling at all. Her attention was completely attracted by the dark skeleton hound in front of her. After jumping down from the chair, she walked around Agou twice, looking him up and down carefully. When she saw Agou's empty eyes filled with blood, she was finally startled, but that was all.

"So amazing..." She repeated it again, and even looked like she wanted to reach out and touch Agou's skull, but she retracted her hand at the last second and looked up at Shirley, "This is the first time I have seen such an extraordinary being with my own eyes... What is Agou? Is he a creature summoned by magic? Or..."

"It's a demon," Shirley answered frankly, as if she wanted to scare Nina and make her realize how dangerous Agou was. "The most dangerous kind of demon."

Nina was indeed a little shocked. She probably didn't expect that this polite Agou, who looked ugly but polite, would be called a "devil". She looked incredulous: "Is it... a devil?"

"Strictly speaking, it's the Deep Demon." Agou raised his head slightly, staring at Nina with his hollow eyes. "Miss, this may be the first time you see a Deep Demon. Don't get the wrong impression of the Deep Demon because of my existence. My compatriots are diverse, but what they have in common is that they are all extremely cruel and ruthless..."

“Deep…” Nina was stunned. She finally came to her senses from the novelty and nervousness of seeing a supernatural being for the first time, and recalled what was said in the book. “Shirley, you…”

"As you can see, I am tied to the Deep Demon," Shirley raised her arm and showed Nina the chain that was fused with her body. "So I don't want anyone to know my secret, do you understand? If the people of the Deep Sea Church knew, they would throw me into the fire or into the endless sea without hesitation."

Shirley's expression was particularly solemn. Nina realized something from her solemn attitude. She looked at Shirley with a slightly complicated expression, and then looked at Agou: "...I have read in the book that the Deep Sea is full of crazy evil creatures. They are the residue discharged from the Deep Saint. From birth to death, they are dominated by chaos madness, but Mr. Agou looks..."

"Agou is special," Shirley said calmly, "Normal deep sea demons don't have hearts, and don't understand human emotions, but Agou does. Although he himself doesn't know why he has changed, this change makes it impossible for him to survive in the deep sea."

Nina was stunned for a moment, then nodded, half understanding, "Oh."

As she spoke, she fell into a brief silence, then suddenly scratched her hair and looked at Duncan in distress: "Uncle, I feel a mess in my mind."

She recalled her chaotic experience of the day, her interactions with Shirley, and looking at Agou in front of her, a sense of absurdity that was detached from reality finally came to her slowly.

"You've been through a lot today," Duncan's gentle and calm words came, like a candlelight in the dim light, which made Nina's consciousness, which had suddenly become a little hazy for some reason, stabilized all of a sudden. "It's normal to be a little confused."

Nina blinked her eyes, finally realizing what she had overlooked from the beginning. She looked at Duncan steadily: "Uncle, if you have known Shirley for a long time... do you also know her secret? Do you also know Agou?"

"Earlier than you," Duncan smiled, "but I didn't know she was the 'friend' you mentioned."

"Then..." Nina hesitated, "Are you also investigating what happened eleven years ago? Are you investigating together?"

"I guess so. We've worked together once or twice by chance." Duncan nodded.

"...Why do I feel like you're hiding this from only me?" Nina muttered belatedly, "And you're investigating what happened eleven years ago... What secrets did that happen eleven years ago?"

"We don't know yet, but we all agree that there was a fire that was wiped out," Duncan said in a deep voice, his eyes falling on Nina, "I'm sorry, I did hide it from you, because this is not an area you can get involved in now. It's too dangerous."

"Uncle, what about you?" Nina suddenly got angry. "Uncle, aren't you in danger?!"

As soon as she said this, before Duncan could say anything, Agou and Shirley beside him covered their faces at the same time. Shirley even muttered quietly: "Of course your uncle is dangerous, your uncle is the most dangerous..."

Duncan looked at Shirley silently, then shook his head gently at Nina: "Uncle is an adult, and I am much more powerful than you think."

Nina's eyes kept moving between Duncan and Shirley. Her expression changed several times, and no one knew how many messy thoughts were running through her head. However, just when Duncan thought that this girl might become stubborn or act like an ordinary teenage girl, Nina suddenly sighed.

"It's getting dark," she looked up at the sky outside the door, as if all the previous conversations had never happened, "I'll go cook - Shirley, you should stay too, it's not safe to travel in the dark."

“Ah…ah?” Shirley was stunned for a moment and couldn’t follow Nina’s train of thought. Then she waved her hands hurriedly, “Ah, no, no! Agou and I can still catch up if we go back quickly…”

Before she could finish her words, Duncan's voice came from the side: "Stay put, the sun will set in a few minutes - by then the streets will be full of guards, are you sure you want to pass through the martial law district under such circumstances?"

Shirley's whole body froze. She looked back at the sky outside the shop, then at Duncan's calm expression, and finally realized that she would not be able to leave the antique shop today.

"Well... okay," the girl sat down dejectedly, and forced a smile to look at Nina, "Is there anything I can help with?"

"No, I've always been the one cooking at home," Nina laughed and said as she walked towards the stairs leading to the second floor. But she suddenly stopped when she was about to step on the stairs. She stood there and looked at Shirley very seriously. After several seconds, she spoke, "Shirley, are we friends?"

Shirley was stunned. Her first reaction was to look at Duncan, but the latter looked away. She had no choice but to turn back to look at Nina. After a few seconds of short but uncomfortable silence, she shook her head: "...No."

But then she nodded again: "But I can try."

Nina laughed. Even though the other party did not give a very affirmative answer, she seemed to have gotten the perfect answer. She ran upstairs quickly, her footsteps quick and brisk.

Shirley was a little dazed as she watched him run up to the second floor. Suddenly, she heard a calm voice coming from the side: "Thank you."

It was Duncan who was speaking.

Shirley was startled, and quickly sat back in her chair and turned to Duncan: "What are you thanking me for?"

"Nina has no friends at school," Duncan said calmly, having gotten used to her overly nervous reaction. "So when she mentioned that she had made a new friend at school the other day, she seemed very happy."

Shirley blinked in confusion, not quite understanding.

"So first of all, thank you for not telling Nina you were her friend, and secondly, thank you for saying you could give it a try."

"I... don't quite understand," Shirley was still confused. In fact, she was even more confused than before. "You are here... just acting as an ordinary person, right? Nina... doesn't seem to know how special you are. She doesn't have any sense of existence in school either. If it weren't for Agou's guidance, I almost couldn't find her when I first went to school. But common sense tells me that a 'favored' like her who is favored by you..."

"Not a relative, but a niece," Duncan emphasized again, and then looked at the other party with an extremely serious expression, "Now that Nina has left, I have a question for you."

"You said, you said..."

"It was Agou who guided you to approach Nina, right?"

"……right."

"Because Agou 'smelled' a certain scent on Nina? Based on this, he concluded that Nina was related to the fire eleven years ago?"

"right."

"What kind of smell is it? Is it the same smell as that factory? Or something else?"

This time Shirley didn't answer, she turned her gaze to Agou.

Under Duncan's gaze, Agou hesitated for a few seconds before finally lowering his head:

"There were ashes floating around her, countless ashes, Mr. Duncan."