Chapter 76: Chapter 80 Home Visit?
Before the last glow of twilight faded from the horizon, Duncan saw the familiar facade of the antique shop.
The gas street lamps on both sides of the road were already lit, the slightly yellow light illuminating the sign above the door and the dusty walls. The windows on either side of the entrance shone brightly; clearly, Nina had already come home—she had turned on the lights on the first floor and was waiting for Duncan to return.
Strictly speaking, from Duncan’s perspective, he had only just met Nina, but for some reason, when he saw the light on the first floor, he felt an inexplicable…guilt.
Was this guilt because he had been out and not returning home?
Duncan stepped forward, pushed open the door of the antique shop, and the bell hanging at the entrance chimed crisply. The next second, he heard a quick rush of footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs.
A girl in a simple long dress seemed to fly down from upstairs like a breeze.
“Uncle Duncan!” Nina stopped on the stairs, looking surprised and delighted to see Duncan appearing at the door, her eyes reflecting slight astonishment, “I thought you were…”
“I just went around the city and didn’t realize it was getting dark,” Duncan shook his head, “Sorry, I actually planned to pick you up from school in the Cross District, but then something unexpected came up.”
“You went to the Cross District?” Nina looked at Duncan, surprised and confused. She sized him up, as if checking whether her uncle had been drinking outside again or was under the influence of drugs, “To pick me up…from school?”
Uncle Duncan showed a side both strange and familiar, leaving Nina unsure how to react.
“I was just curious about how things are going at your school,” Duncan said casually, “Let’s not talk about that. From now on, don’t worry about me going out drinking or hanging out with ‘friends.’ If I come back late, it’s because I’m handling proper business, okay?”
Nina looked at Uncle Duncan in a daze as he entered the house and shut the door, observing his steady, spirited demeanor and subconsciously nodding.
“It’s getting late,” Duncan said as he walked towards the stairs leading to the second floor, speaking to Nina who stood at the foot of the stairs, “Have you eaten?”
“Not… yet,” Nina answered, still seemingly hesitant in getting used to her uncle’s recent change, “When I came back and saw you weren’t home, I wasn’t sure if you’d return tonight, so…I didn’t make dinner. But I bought some bread, and was thinking of…”
“Only eating bread isn’t nutritious enough, let’s go, there’s some good stuff in the kitchen,” Duncan was about to step up the stairs when he turned back and smiled at Nina, “I’ll cook today.”
Uncle Duncan cooking?
Nina felt like she was hearing a fantastic tale, but before she could ask, she saw Duncan stepping briskly upstairs and hurried to follow him. At the same time, she noticed Ai Yi securely perched on Duncan’s shoulder, which made her a bit surprised, “Uncle, has this pigeon been with you the whole time?”
“Yes, it’s quite clingy,” Duncan said casually, “Oh, by the way, I have named it Ai Yi.”
“Ai Yi? For a pigeon…that’s a strange name…” Nina scratched her head, already following him to the second floor. Watching as Duncan actually headed towards the kitchen, she couldn’t help but ask, “Did you buy something?”
“Actually, just some dried salted fish,” Duncan found the salted fish he had stashed in a kitchen cupboard, held up the stiff ingredient for Nina to see, his expression quite proud, “Don’t judge by its looks, it makes a tasty soup.”
“Fish?!” Nina’s eyes widened in surprise, “Is today some special day? Fish is so expensive, usually we don’t…”
She finally saw the dried fish in Duncan’s hand more clearly. The unimpressive-looking item puzzled the girl, and she blinked for a while, “What kind of fish is this? I’ve never seen it before?”
Duncan knew Nina would react this way.
Residents of the City-State, of course, had seen fish—despite the dangerous nature of the Endless Sea, with deadly creatures called “Spawn” threatening human safety in the deep sea, not all marine areas were as bizarre and extreme as the deep sea regions. Protected by the gods and the defensive systems of the City-State themselves, the shallow waters near the City-States and a few divinely favored shipping lanes were relatively safe. These areas often provided valuable resources for the civilization of the City-States.
People collected seafood and minerals from nearby marine areas and hunted whales and other fish of great industrial value in the god-protected shipping lanes, using these resources to sustain the survival of the City-State and support industrial development.
Under this premise, the profession of “fisherman” certainly existed.
However, the seas of this world were ultimately unlike Earth; even the safe maritime areas were safe only in comparison to the deep sea regions, making even nearshore fishing an extremely specialized, hazardous task that required knowledge and skills beyond the ordinary.
Fish, for those living in the City-States, was a known yet expensive food material.
Even though the sea was right beside them, brimming with countless fish.
Nina hadn’t eaten fish for many years — even before her uncle fell ill, a civilian like her rarely saw fish served at the table.
As rare as ordinary fish were, not to mention gifts from the deep sea.
Duncan even doubted whether the deep-sea fish he caught on the Homeloss had ever appeared within the Plunder City-State before — let alone a civilian girl like Nina, perhaps even the Governor and the high-ranking clergy of the City-State hadn’t had the chance to taste this delicacy.
Nina was in for a treat today.
“Don’t worry about what species it is, just wait to eat,” Duncan knew some things couldn’t be explained clearly, so he simply didn’t explain and turned back to the kitchen to start preparing tonight’s dinner.
The strange fish was not small, sizable even after being dried. Using it to make soup wouldn’t finish it in one go, so he cut the salt-dried fish into two sections, planning to use the head part first — the rest could be strung up with a rope and hung in the cabinet to dry further, possibly enhancing its flavor.
Uncle really started cooking.
Watching the familiar figure busy in the kitchen, Nina felt as if she were dreaming.
She didn’t care at all about the strange fish her uncle had brought out; she didn’t even care about tonight’s dinner.
Compared to these trivial matters, the changes in her uncle were the strangest and most worthy of her attention.
The sound of the knife hitting the chopping board rang out, the gas stove hissed, and the broth in the pot bubbled.
Nina felt somewhat dazed. How many years had it been since she last saw such a scene?
A hint of hesitation appeared on her face before she seemingly made up her mind. At the kitchen door, she said to the busy figure inside, “Uncle, tomorrow… Mr. Morris is coming for a home visit.”
“Home visit?” Duncan, busy cooking, was momentarily stunned. “Mr. Morris… your history teacher?”
Nina nodded, “Yes.”
“They make home visits at that school?” Duncan tossed the prepared fish pieces into the pot and, while putting the knives into the sink, looked back at Nina in surprise. “I thought that was a ‘feature’ only of the schools in the Upper City District.”
“The school… indeed doesn’t have this rule,” Nina said cautiously, paying attention to Duncan’s reaction. “But Mr. Morris is somewhat special, he… pays extra attention to his students.”
Duncan was silent for a moment.
The situation had slightly exceeded his expectations.
He hadn’t expected that his own “Captain Duncan” activities in the City-State would suddenly involve dealing with such a situation!
He had considered dealing with the church, with the sheriff, even with the City-State navy and the military police — willing or not, his backup plan was filled with Spiritual Fire, swords, and over a hundred Homeloss side guns.
But he had never anticipated in his plans that there would be an old man teaching history at a public school.
How did reality always turn out to be so unexpectedly peculiar?
“Uncle?” Seeing Duncan not responding for a long time, Nina couldn’t help but feel a bit worried. “Are you unwilling? I can talk to Mr. Morris… actually, I already spoke to him today. I told him you were not well, so we couldn’t accept the home visit. He didn’t say anything…”
Duncan looked at Nina’s somewhat nervous reaction and was thoughtful.
It seemed that Mr. Morris had likely made requests for home visits before.
So how many times had Nina rejected him with the same reason?
“…He teaches history, right?” Duncan suddenly asked again.
Although she didn’t understand why her uncle would ask this again, Nina still nodded, “Yes.”
“That’s good, I was just thinking of dealing with a professional in the field of history,” Duncan smiled, “What time is he coming tomorrow?”