The familiar house stood quietly at the end of a quiet block, with bright and warm lights shining out of the windows on the first floor.

It was completely dark, and the street lights on both sides of the road made the surroundings even quieter. Heidi slowed down the car slightly, and in the last hundred meters before her home, she slowly adjusted her mood with gentle, deep breaths.

She helped Vanna calm down, but she knew that she was not as relaxed and calm as she appeared.

The scene of saying goodbye to her father seemed to have happened just a moment ago, when she had no idea what was going to happen in the city-state - but her father had obviously noticed it at that time.

This is a kind of separation of life and death that is realized belatedly.

His father asked him to seek refuge in the cathedral, but he went to the antique shop in the downtown area...but why did he go to that antique shop?

A doubt suddenly emerged in Heidi's mind, but she quickly put it aside for the time being - the light in the hallway of her house was on, and it was waiting for her.

The dark grey car drove smoothly into the courtyard. Heidi pushed open the door of her house, walked a few steps inside, and suddenly stopped in surprise.

The one waiting for him at home was not his father who should have been home long ago, but his mother - his mother was wearing a woolen shawl with dark blue stripes, sitting in a chair beside the dining table, wearing a pair of delicate glasses, reading the newspaper intently, there was a pile of newspapers on the table next to her, they all seemed to be old newspapers moved out from his father's study.

Heidi stood at the door of the restaurant in a daze, not reacting for a moment.

She could not remember how long it had been since her mother left that bedroom - it seemed that for all these years, the mother in her memory had always stayed in that dimly lit bedroom, and there was always an empty seat at the dining table at home. Her father said that the seat was prepared for her mother, but no one ever sat on it.

Heidi always thought this was a very strange thing, but after so many years, she was used to her mother staying at home, until this moment... Seeing her mother sitting on that chair, she felt a sense of unreality as if she were in another world.

Heidi subconsciously took two steps forward, and the footsteps finally attracted the attention of the old woman at the table. The old woman looked up and smiled when she saw her daughter: "Ah, Heidi, you're back."

"I..." Heidi opened her mouth, not knowing how to talk to her mother. She went to her parents' bedroom to greet them almost every day, but now she felt as if she hadn't seen her mother for more than ten years. "I wasted some time at the cathedral. Are you...are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm right here," the mother smiled happily, and there seemed to be some light in her eyes that Heidi couldn't understand. She got up from the chair, slowly walked to her daughter, looked at Heidi's face in a trance, and reached out to touch the latter's hair, "Let me take a good look at you... I haven't taken a good look at you for a long time..."

"Don't we see each other every day?" Heidi said subconsciously, and then looked at the old woman in front of her with a little concern, "Why did you come out of the bedroom? Are you feeling better today?"

The mother smiled, as if talking to herself, or as if she was talking to her daughter: "It's all right, it's all right... By the way, why hasn't Maurice come back yet?"

"Father hasn't come home yet?" Heidi was stunned when she heard this, and she felt a little worried. "He should have been home earlier. The place he went to is closer than the cathedral, and he didn't take as long as I did..."

"Maybe the car broke down on the way," the mother said slowly, "His driving skills are never worthy of praise. Come, let's wait for him together."

Heidi nodded hesitantly and followed her mother back to the dining table. Then she noticed the sumptuous meal on the table - it was not the usual dishes prepared by the temporary maid hired by the family.

"You made this?" Heidi looked up in surprise. "You haven't cooked for a long time."

"Yes, I haven't cooked for a long time. I couldn't find the ingredients. I had to ask the maid to help me find many things. I also had no idea how they would taste," the mother smiled faintly. "Fortunately, I still remember the general process."

Heidi listened, her eyes fell on the food on the table, and she couldn't help but pick up the fork to taste it. As soon as she raised her hand, she heard her mother's voice coming from the side: "Wait until your father comes home before eating."

Heidi stopped moving suddenly.

She hadn't heard these words for many years.

At this moment, a slight noise suddenly came from near the door. It sounded like the sound of a large bird flapping its wings, mixed with a slight crackling sound. Heidi was just about to wonder what the sound was, when she heard the sound of someone taking out a key and turning a doorknob, and saw the door of a house not far away being opened.

Father is back.

Morris stood at the door in a daze. The dizziness caused by Ai being teleported directly from the Lost Homeland had not yet faded. The churning and chaotic senses made him dizzy, so much so that for more than ten seconds, he thought he was hallucinating.

He saw his wife sitting at the dining table, waiting for him to come home for dinner.

Then he realized it was not an illusion.

The "miracle" he prayed for from the warp eleven years ago was finally solidified on this side of the veil after the intersection of fire and history - something he had not even dared to dream of had come true.

After standing like a statue for a long time, Morris finally took a step forward, moving faster and faster with each step.

Sharing the flesh and blood of the children of the deep sea with his family on the Lost Homeland, listening to knowledge from the shadows of the warp, becoming a member of a secret society... Not long ago, these things were like a heavy burden weighing on his heart, but suddenly, the weight of these burdens seemed to disappear, and he seemed to have glimpsed the most reasonable interpretation in them -

The realization of any miracle requires a price to be paid, and now, this price has fallen on me in the gentlest and most intimate way.

It's time to embrace it.

His wife stood up from the table and Morris hugged her tightly.

"I finally saw you..." The old scholar said in a low voice, as if he was afraid that Heidi beside him could hear him, and he was also afraid that his wife in front of him could not hear him, "I..."

"Well, the kid is watching—you've got plenty of time to explain to me what's going on. There's no rush now."

"Oh...oh, you are right, you are right."

Maurice responded in a panic. He let go of his wife, turned around, and saw Heidi looking at him with surprise.

"Ahem... I came back late. My car broke down on the way. I need to find someone to tow it back tomorrow," Morris explained awkwardly, then quickly changed the subject, "Are you okay? Is everything okay at the cathedral?"

"Except for the shock and confusion, I am as unharmed as the rest," replied Heidi, and again she looked her father up and down. "But you--I feel that you are rather strange. Did something happen on the way home?"

"What can I do for you?" Maurice asked immediately, as if he was afraid that Heidi would lead the conversation to his itinerary over the past period of time. Then he noticed the sumptuous food on the table.

The expression on the old scholar's face suddenly became complicated.

"I...had dinner before I came back," he said hesitantly, "on the boat...at Mr. Duncan's."

Those ugly and scary "fish" appeared in his mind.

At the "Warp Banquet", he was as nervous about fish as the strange Deep Hound, but under the watchful eyes of Mr. Duncan, he still gritted his teeth and ate the flesh and blood of the deep-sea scion - he didn't remember what happened afterwards.

I just remember that it smelled really good.

Now he couldn't eat a single bite.

But then his wife's voice came from the side: "I made this myself."

"Mother hasn't cooked for years," Heidi followed up, "and she feels better today, so..."

"Then I'll eat some more." Upon hearing this, Morris sat down at the dining table without waiting for his daughter to finish speaking. He immediately picked up the soup bowl on the plate and drank it in one big gulp.

"How does it taste?" the wife asked expectantly.

"It's a bit... salty," Morris said hesitantly, but then he picked up the bowl again and gulped down a few more mouthfuls, smiling as he swallowed, "Salty, too salty... Your cooking is always so salty..."

"If you think it doesn't taste good, don't eat it!"

“I didn’t say it wasn’t tasty…”

"Then shut up and eat - why are you talking so much at the table?"

Heidi raised her head and looked at her father, then at her mother.

She hadn't heard such a conversation in years - and after all these years, nothing seemed to have changed.

So she laughed, lowered her head, cut a piece of fried pork chop and put it in her mouth.

It's a bit salty indeed.

※※※

My uncle had already fallen asleep, and was sleeping soundly - he seemed to have not had a good night's sleep for a very long time, so much so that he fell into a doze in the middle of talking to me.

Vanna walked slowly towards her bedroom.

She had changed into home clothes and tied her hair into a simple ponytail. After taking off her scarred armor and putting down her huge sword, the battle-hardened Inquisitor put away her murderous aura, as if she had turned into a young girl with her own life, joys and sorrows, just like an ordinary person.

When she was at home, she would not hide her emotions and thoughts, so her uncle obviously saw that she was worried, but during the conversation just now, he did not ask anything.

The two of them also tacitly did not mention anything about the "blessing of the subspace".

It was obvious that my uncle didn't want to add to his burden.

But Fanna herself knew that the burden in her heart at the moment was not just the so-called "blessing of the subspace", and it had nothing to do with her own life and death.

She returned to the bedroom, closed the door, went to the dressing table, and took out the ceremonial dagger with ornate patterns from the drawer.

This is a holy relic of the Deep Sea Church, and it was also a gift that Bishop Valentine personally blessed and gave to her after she was baptized.

This holy object symbolizes the beginning of her faith in the storm goddess Gemona.