Chapter 178 Friendly

Duncan cautiously observed the old man's expression. The strange feeling hadn't dissipated since it began. He could clearly tell that Maurice was not quite right, but regrettably, he wasn't a doctor.

"Should I find a physician for you?" he asked with concern. "How do you feel right now? Are you dizzy or nauseous? Or perhaps disoriented?"

Maurice rubbed his forehead.

In his ears, Ken's voice seemed to be mixed with a million overlapping roars, and as the sound waves entered his ears, dazzling 'colors' rushed at him as well. These 'informations' seemed to be filled with knowledge beyond human comprehension, testing his mind every second, but at the brink of madness...

In that state, he still barely maintained his sanity and slowly shook his head. "I'm fine. I just need to rest for a bit…"

This 'being', whose true form was unknown, had shown concern for him. However, Maurice didn't dare to imagine what 'reality' lay beneath that facade of concern. Perhaps a thousand eyes were staring at him? Or maybe densely writhing teeth and tongues? Was that caring tone a whisper from the sub-space, or a calling sound from the deep sea of You Tu? Xie Lahem (Shelahem) had granted him this moment of dullness, so he didn't need to overthink the truth.

He was merely putting on a 'human' face, trying his best to respond normally.

At the same time, he was trying to see if he could voluntarily close the 'eye of truth' he had opened when he got out of the car—this divinely bestowed ability was the reliance of the followers of the God of Wisdom when exploring the world, but now it seemed that its cost was indeed worthy of being the most dangerous of the four gods' blessings.

He failed. The eye of truth was already open and couldn't be closed in a short time. And even if he could close it, what would be the point? A mind teetering on the brink of madness wouldn't automatically recover after closing its eyes—

Maurice thought in a daze. After a while, he slowly opened his mouth, "I just came to see you, to express my gratitude, oh, yes, gratitude, for my daughter. Thank you again for your help at the museum last time. She asked me to…"

He suddenly paused, hesitating for several seconds before reconnecting his thoughts: "She asked me to bring a letter, it's in my pocket."

The old man fumbled and took out a carefully sealed envelope from his pocket, handing it to Duncan. The latter opened it on the spot and saw that, apart from the initial greetings, it was a report on Nina's physical and mental health, as well as the doctor's advice.

This was what Heidi had summarized after Nina's hypnotherapy session last time. She had indeed said before that she would write a letter specifically to send over. Duncan still remembered this matter.

"There's no need to be so polite. Under those circumstances, it was my instinctive reaction to help," Duncan said earnestly to Maurice, after putting away the letter. "Also, please thank Miss Heidi for me—Nina has been much better since the last hypnotherapy session, and she hasn't had that strange dream these days."

Maurice nodded, pressing his fingers to his temples, guiding himself not to stare into Duncan's eyes while organizing his words: "Are you doing well these days?"

"Me? I'm fine," Duncan felt a little baffled, feeling that the old gentleman's way of starting a topic today was a bit strange. "Healthy, energetic, and in a good mood—except for the terrible weather today that makes one feel a little depressed, nothing's bad."

This small change in the weather could make an evil god feel 'depressed'—was this a new joke popular in the sub-space?

Maurice felt that his mind was a little better than before. After hearing Duncan's words, he even had the mind to mutter to himself, and at the same time, he heard Nina's voice coming from not far away: "Uncle! I've parked my bicycle, and I've closed the shop door! The wind outside is getting stronger. How is Mr. Maurice?"

"He's much better, but he didn't tell me he was feeling unwell," Duncan looked back at Nina who was walking towards them. "Why don't you stay with the old gentleman for a while? I'll go send Heidi a 'swift' telegram and ask her to come pick him up…"

"No, no, no, I'm fine…" Before Duncan could finish speaking, Maurice suddenly raised his voice and waved his hands repeatedly. "No need for her to pick me up. I just have some old ailments. I'll be fine after resting for a while."

Duncan was startled by the old gentleman's sudden and somewhat intense reaction. He sized Maurice up and down, and nodded after confirming the other party's state and attitude: "Alright, then I'll go. Nina, go upstairs and make some soup. Hot food might make Mr. Maurice feel better."

Nina blinked her eyes, looking puzzledly between Duncan and her teacher, wondering why she felt the atmosphere here was a little strange, but soon she nodded obediently: "Oh!"

The girl ran lightly up the stairs, the sound of her footsteps gradually fading away.

After Nina left, Maurice also felt that his mental pressure had decreased a little bit again. However, compared to the enormous pressure brought by Duncan, this relief was almost negligible. He still let out a soft breath.

Then, the old man, who dealt with history all day long, was silent for a moment before cautiously organizing his words and speaking: "Was my performance just now very inappropriate?"

Duncan's eyes were always focused on Maurice's changes. At first, he only felt that the other party's words and deeds were particularly strange today, but slowly, he seemed to see a familiar feeling from the old man's reaction. While recalling where this sense of familiarity came from, he casually responded: "It's a bit strange, so what exactly is going on?"

Maurice pondered for two or three seconds before opening his mouth in a low and cautious voice: "My profession, which often deals with history and knowledge, makes my spirit occasionally more sensitive."

He just wanted to test, to try out what attitude this 'sub-space being', who had always shown himself to be very kind and had never caused any trouble while living here, really had.

After hearing the other party's seemingly profound words, Duncan frowned immediately. Suddenly, he knew what that sense of familiarity was!

Maurice's strange reaction had also appeared on another familiar 'person'—A Gou!

The You Tu hound beside Sherry, that You Suiei (You Sui) demon with special 'true sight'! The dog was also so frightened and nervous when it saw him because it could see some of the 'truth' beneath his human body. But the difference was that A Gou was a You Suiei (You Sui) with extremely high resistance to pollution.

A demon, while Maurice was a fragile human, so the latter's reaction would be stronger. In other words…

Duncan vaguely guessed the truth, and immediately looked up at Maurice's eyes: "You saw something you shouldn't have, didn't you?"

Maurice gently sucked in a breath of cold air.

But in the next second, the expected doomsday did not arrive—on the contrary, he once again felt the mental pressure he was bearing rapidly decreasing, even to the point where, even without Lahemu's (Lahem) blessing, he as a human could barely withstand it!

Duncan silently transferred his 'main consciousness' to The Vanishing Island, controlling the body in the antique shop only through the 'remote control' technique of spiritual realm walking.

Through this period of 'training', even when he was remote controlling, he could command the distant body as usual and sense the environment around it. The only effect was that the power he could call upon would be weaker, but there were no enemies here anyway.

Let's see if this can make Maurice feel better.

"Feeling better?"

Duncan's deep and gentle voice rang out from the side, startling Maurice awake.

The old man quickly raised his head, seeing Duncan's stable, clear, and harmless human form. In the corner of his eye, he noticed that the surrounding environment had stabilized.

The chaotic light and shadows disappeared, the noise was gradually ceasing, and the torn houses, flowing flames, and writhing, distorted dark things all disappeared from view—his mind was rapidly recovering, and there were even signs of improvement in his dangerous, madness-threatening state.

He looked at Duncan in disbelief, the latter nodding knowingly. "Sorry, I really didn't expect a human to have this kind of…good eyesight—I've only ever scared a You Tu demon before, but You Suiei (You Sui) demons are much tougher than humans."

"I…I'm much better," Maurice swallowed, the process of his spirit gradually recovering was actually not pleasant, he could feel his heart beating as if it were about to explode, but anyway, this allowed him to regain most of his ability to think—and also allowed him to analyze useful information from Duncan's words.

"I…alas, I didn't expect that I would see your true appearance, I was too careless, these years of living a life away from faith have made me lax."

Duncan didn't care about Maurice's murmuring behind him.

He was thinking quickly, thinking about how to end this situation.

After all, this great historian was not like A Gou, who could be dealt with by scaring him a little. He couldn't use such crude methods on the old gentleman.

"I'm curious," he said suddenly in thought, "Why can you see it?"

"I…" Maurice opened his mouth, hesitated slightly, and then told the truth, "I am a follower of Lahemu (Lahem), the God of Wisdom."