The familiar house stood quietly at the end of the quiet block, with bright and warm light shining through the windows on the first floor.
The sky had completely darkened, and the streetlights on both sides of the road made the surroundings even quieter. Heidi slowed down slightly. During the last 100 meters near the door of her house, she slowly adjusted her emotions with slow and deep breaths.
She helped Fanna calm down, but she knew that her mood was actually not as relaxed and indifferent as she appeared.
The scene when she said goodbye to her father seemed to have happened a moment ago. At that time, she had no idea what would happen in the city-state - but her father was obviously aware of it at that time.
This is a life-and-death farewell that comes with hindsight.
His father asked himself to seek refuge in the cathedral, and he went to the antique shop in the lower city... But why did he go to that antique shop?
A doubt suddenly appeared in Heidi's mind, but soon she put it aside for the time being - the light in the foyer of her home was on, and it was waiting for her.
The dark gray car drove smoothly into the courtyard. Heidi opened the door of her home and walked a few steps inside. Suddenly she stopped in surprise.
What was waiting for him at home was not his father, who should have arrived home long ago in theory, but his mother - her mother was wearing a woolen shawl with dark blue stripes, sitting on a back chair by the dining table, wearing a delicate pair of
He was wearing glasses and looking at the newspaper attentively. There was a pile of newspapers piled on the table next to him. They seemed to be old newspapers that had been moved from his father's study.
Heidi was stunned at the door of the restaurant, unable to react for a moment.
She couldn't remember how long it had been since her mother had not left that bedroom - it seemed that for many years, the mother in her memory had been staying in that dimly lit bedroom, and there was always an empty table next to the dining table at home.
The seat, my father said it was for my mother, but no one ever sat on it.
Heidi always thought this was a very strange thing, but after so many years, she had become accustomed to her mother not leaving the house. Until now... when she saw her mother sitting on that chair, she felt a sense of confusion.
The unreal feeling of being in another world.
Heidi subconsciously took two steps forward. The sound of footsteps finally attracted the attention of the old woman at the dining table. The latter raised her head and smiled immediately after seeing her daughter: "Ah, Heidi, you are back.
.”
"I..." Heidi opened her mouth, but she didn't know how to talk to her mother. Although she went to her parents' bedroom to greet each other almost every day, she felt as if she and her mother had been together for more than ten years.
Never seen before, "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 gleam in her eyes that Heidi couldn't understand. She got up from the chair, slowly came to her daughter, and looked at her daughter in a daze.
Heidi's face reached out and touched 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 meet every day," Heidi said subconsciously, and then looked at the old woman in front of her with a little worry, "Why did you come out of the bedroom? Are you feeling better today?"
The mother smiled, as if talking to herself, and as if telling her daughter: "It's better, it's better... By the way, why hasn't Morris come back yet?"
"Father hasn't come home yet?" Heidi was stunned when she heard this, feeling a little worried in her heart, "He should have arrived home early. The place he went to was closer than the cathedral, and he didn't waste a long time like me..."
"Maybe the car broke down on the way," my 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 meals on the dining table - they were not the dishes that the temporary maids hired at home usually cooked.
"You made this?" Heidi raised her head in surprise, "You haven't cooked for a long time."
"Yes, I haven't cooked for a long time, and I can't find where the ingredients are. I asked the maid to help find many of them, and I don't know how they taste." The mother smiled faintly, "Fortunately, I still have them."
Remember the general process."
Heidi listened, her eyes fell on the food on the table, and she couldn't help but pick up her fork to have a taste. As soon as she raised her hand, she heard her mother's voice coming from the side: "We'll wait until your father gets home before we start dinner."
Heidi's movements suddenly stopped.
She had not heard this sentence 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 it was.
Then I heard the sound of taking out a key and turning the doorknob, and saw the door of the house not far away being opened.
Father is back.
Morris stood at the door in a daze. The dizziness caused by Ai's direct teleportation from the Homeless Ship had not faded away. The turbulent and chaotic senses made him dizzy, 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 that it was not an illusion.
The "miracle" he prayed to the subspace eleven years ago was finally solidified on this side of the curtain after the intersection of flames and history - something he did not even dare to dream of came true.
After standing there like a sculpture for a long time, Morris finally took steps forward, walking faster and faster step by step.
Sharing the flesh and blood of the children of the deep sea with his family members on the Lost Home, listening to knowledge from the shadows of subspace, and becoming a member of a secret society... Not long ago, these things were weighing heavily on his heart like a heavy burden, but
Suddenly, the weight of these burdens seemed to disappear, and he seemed to have glimpsed the most reasonable interpretation in it——
The realization of any miracle requires payment of a price, and now, this price has fallen on myself in the gentlest and most affectionate way.
It's time to embrace it.
His wife stood up from the dining table, and Morris hugged her tightly.
"I finally saw you..." The old scholar's voice was low, as if he was afraid that Heidi next to him would hear it, and he was also worried that his wife in front of him wouldn't hear it, "I..."
"Okay, the kid is watching - you still have a long time to explain to me what happened, but there is no rush now."
"Oh...oh, you're right, you're right."
Morris responded in a panic. He let go of his wife, turned his head, and saw Heidi looking here with surprise.
"Ahem... I came back late. The car broke down on the way. I need to find someone to tow it back tomorrow." Morris explained a few words unnaturally, and then quickly changed the subject, "Are you okay? The cathedral.
Is everything okay over there?"
"Aside from being frightened and confused, I was as unscathed as the others," Heidi replied, looking her father up and down again, "but you...why do I think you are weird? It was on the way back.
Did something happen?"
"What can I do?" Morris said immediately, as if he was afraid that Heidi would bring the topic to his schedule in the past period. Then, he noticed the sumptuous meals on the table.
The expression on the old scholar's face suddenly became complicated.
"I...had already eaten before I came back," he said hesitantly. "On the ship...at Mr. Duncan's place."
Those ugly and scary "fish" appeared in his mind.
At the "Feast of Subspace", he was as nervous about fish as the weird deep hound, but under Mr. Duncan's gaze, he still bit the bullet and ate the flesh and blood of the descendant of the deep sea - what happened later
He couldn't remember things clearly.
I just remember how delicious it was.
Now he can't take a bite of anything.
But at this moment, my wife's voice came from the side: "I made this with my own hands."
"Mom hasn't cooked for many years," Heidi followed up and said, "She feels better today, so..."
"Then I'll have some more." Upon hearing this, Morris sat down at the dining table without waiting for his daughter to finish. He immediately picked up the soup bowl on the dinner plate and drank it in a big gulp.
"How does it taste...?" my wife asked expectantly.
"A bit...salty," Morris said hesitantly, but then he picked up the bowl again and took a few more mouthfuls. He smiled while swallowing, "It's salty, too salty...you always do this when cooking."
salty……"
"If you don't think it tastes good, don't eat it!"
"I didn't say it wasn't delicious..."
"Then just shut up and eat - there's so much talking at the dinner table?"
Heidi raised her head, looked at her father, and 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 off a piece of fried pork and put it in her mouth.
It's indeed a bit salty.
…
The uncle had already fallen asleep, sleeping deeply - it seemed that he had not had a good night's sleep for a long, long time, so much so that he dozed off in the middle of the conversation with himself.
Vanna slowly walked to her bedroom.
She had already put on her home clothes and tied her hair into a simple ponytail. After changing out of the scarred armor and putting down the giant sword, the judge who had returned from the battle had restrained his evil aura, as if
She became a young girl with her own life and her own joys and sorrows like an ordinary person.
When she was at home, she would not hide her emotions and worries, so her uncle obviously saw that she was worried, but in the conversation just now, he didn't ask anything.
The two of them also had a tacit understanding and did not mention the matter of "blessing from subspace".
It was obvious that my uncle did not want to increase his burden.
But Fanna herself knew that the burden in her heart at the moment was not just the so-called "subspace blessing", it had nothing to do with her own life or death.
She returned to the bedroom, closed the door, went to the dressing table, and took out the ornately decorated ceremonial dagger from the drawer.
This is a sacred object of the Church of the Deep Sea, and it was also a gift that Bishop Valentine personally blessed and gave to herself after she was baptized.
This sacred object symbolizes the beginning of her belief in the storm goddess Gemona.