Heidi didn't notice anything unusual in her father's tone.

"Yes," she nodded calmly, "I went to Mr. Duncan's antique shop with Vanna, chatted with him for a few words, then gave Nina hypnosis treatment, and then came back with Vanna."

She hesitated briefly at the end, wondering whether to tell her father what she had heard from Nina about the fire and Vanna's strange reaction after hearing about it, but finally gave up the idea.

Vanna still remembered the extremely serious expression on her face in the car at that time. There might be dangerous hidden powers involved behind this matter, and it might be so serious that it would attract prying eyes as soon as it was spoken out. Although her father was also a believer in truth who served the god of wisdom Lahm, like herself, and could be considered half a supernatural being, like most believers in truth, he was more like a pure scholar and was not good at dealing directly with those dangerous things.

Morris still had a gentle and calm expression on his face. He nodded gently and said casually, "You must have stayed there for quite a while... Did you forget the time while chatting with Mr. Duncan? He is indeed a man with a strong thirst for knowledge."

"Um... that's not the case," Heidi said with a look of embarrassment on her face. "It's just that... I wasted some time on Nina's hypnosis treatment."

"When you hypnotize Nina?" Morris raised his eyebrows when he heard his student's name. "Didn't it go well? Was her mental state very bad? Was it affected by the previous museum fire?"

Heidi couldn't help but roll her eyes when she heard her father's series of questions. "You really care about your student. Don't worry, she's fine. She was just a little anxious. After my relaxation counseling, she's completely fine now. It won't affect the final exam. The delay I mentioned... is because of something else."

Morris made a curious sound: "Oh?"

"Ahaha, maybe I've been a little too tired lately," Heidi laughed awkwardly. "After I hypnotized her, I fell asleep myself and slept until the evening..."

"You fell asleep while hypnotizing Nina?" Morris's expression finally changed slightly, but he quickly regained control. "This is not like you."

"Everyone is always careless, and it's been a long time since I last had a vacation," Heidi waved her hand impatiently, "Don't ask me any more. I'm already an adult, and you and mother are so nervous when I come back a little late, asking questions one after another..."

Morris just looked at his daughter quietly for a few seconds, then his face showed his usual gentle expression, and he smiled and shook his head: "Okay, then I won't ask - there is food in the kitchen, you just need to heat it up, I'll go see your mother."

"Okay," Heidi nodded, said goodbye to her father and walked towards the kitchen, but after a few steps she suddenly turned back and said, "By the way, you are planning to visit that antique shop later, right?"

"Yes," Morris was already standing at the door of the bedroom. The wall lamp on the wall of the corridor next to him cast a dim light, casting mottled shadows on his old face. "What's the matter?"

"I left in a hurry today and didn't have a good talk with Mr. Duncan about Nina's situation. I will write a letter later, and you can take it with you when you go."

"No problem," Morris nodded, and then, as if speaking to himself, he murmured softly, "I'm going to go again..."

Heidi left, but the gray-haired old historian still stood quietly at the bedroom door. He seemed to be in deep thought. After nearly ten seconds, he finally let out a breath and pushed open the dark wooden door.

The light in the bedroom was still dim. Only a small wall lamp was on in the elegantly decorated bedroom. The dim light sprinkled down, vaguely illuminating the outline of the bedroom.

Morris turned around, carefully locked the door, and slowly walked to the head of the bed.

"Honey, are you okay?"

He spoke softly to the pile of squirming ash that maintained the outline of a human being.

A faint murmur came from the pile of ashes that kept floating and squirming with vague human outlines, as if responding gently. Among the ashes, the knotted ribbon that was almost finished made a slight friction sound. The gorgeous silk rope slowly shuttled through the ashes, slowly and firmly weaving one knot after another.

"Yes, it is very pretty, and you always have very good knitting," Morris heard the reply amid the faint murmur, and smiled as he praised his wife's knitting skill. "I still have the one you knitted for me hanging in my study."

The room fell silent. In the dim light, time seemed to be frozen in this moment as if it had been deceived. But after half a minute, Morris broke the silence: "Heidi went out today. When she came back, a red agate on her bracelet was missing."

**The ember suddenly stopped moving and a low murmur was heard.

"It's still unclear what happened. If that was a protection from our Lord Lahem that took effect, it means that Heidi encountered a danger that was strong enough to penetrate her rational barrier today. But Heidi herself knows nothing, and I didn't detect any malicious thoughts from her," Morris said slowly. "It looks more like she brushed past 'something' without realizing it, and passively triggered the protection of the bracelet..."

Morris suddenly stopped and listened to the low murmurs coming from the ashes.

"Well, with my reminder, Heidi saw the missing part of the bracelet. That's the problem - she thought the red agate didn't exist in the first place," Morris nodded. "This is a self-protection mechanism. It may come from her intuition or the 'enlightenment' of the God of Wisdom. But in any case, this protection is preventing her from continuing to understand certain things...

"Me? I want to investigate. I'll go by myself."

**The pile of ash heaved slightly.

Morris shook his head. "It might be a little risky, so I will pray and do divination in advance, but I have to go there. Actually, I have been to that place once. It looks like an ordinary antique shop. There lives a diligent shop owner and a studious child. At that time, I did not sense any malicious or evil forces entrenched there...

"So if the danger was present in the store today when Heidi visited, then the owner of the store might also be at risk - my students live there and I have to go check it out.

"After all, I am her teacher and the servant of the God of Wisdom..."

Morris spoke softly, and then he heard a faint whisper from the ashes of the **. He listened for a long time before slowly shaking his head.

"No, we can't alert the people in the cathedral... Although their actions may be more effective, their overly drastic style may also harm my students. For the guardians of the church, suppressing heresy and eradicating evil is too high a priority, and..."

Morris paused for a moment, sighed, and continued, "And I don't really want to attract the attention of the cathedral. After all... I'm a heretic in hiding who has already wavered."

His voice was low, and his eyes were gently gazing at the ashes of the **, at...his wife who had died in the fire eleven years ago.

Watching the shadow she left in this world.

The ashes slowly rose up, and one of the ashes seemed to condense into the shape of an arm, gently brushing across Morris' face.

“I know… I know…” Morris lowered his head, as if he was talking to himself, or as if he was confessing to some invisible being, “I am a person with wavering faith, and I am too cowardly to completely degenerate… The God of Wisdom gave me eyes that could see through illusions that day, but I closed them weakly and made unrealistic wishes. I wanted to keep you in this world, but I couldn’t completely deceive myself… Instead, I stuck myself in this most embarrassing situation…”

He raised his head and gently grasped the drifting wisp of ash, but his fingers passed directly through the dust.

"How I wish I were as ignorant as Heidi, so that I could see your other side... I haven't seen you for eleven years."

There was a soft sound coming from the ashes, like the friction of sand, or the crackling of a warm fire. As Morris listened to the sound, his mood gradually calmed down.

"I understand, I understand... all of this will end. The stage will always come to an end. No matter what responds to my wish that day, it will come one day to take the destined price. I have actually been prepared for a long time. When it collects the price, I will make myself disappear completely from this world. Even the shadow of the subspace will never be able to interfere with the real world through this 'wish', but..."

Morris looked up and stared at the outline of the ashes in the dim light.

"But, before that day comes...please stay with me for a while longer."