Chapter 55

Chapter 55 “Soup for Dinner”

The unsurprising expression on Vanna’s face certainly did not escape Heidi’s awareness, and the “psychiatrist” immediately guessed something was up from her long cooperation with the church.

After slightly hesitating, she cautiously asked, “From the looks of things... the incident is a big one?”

Vanna nodded, “A big problem.”

Heidi thought about it and replied quickly while packing up her medical kit, “I’m off tomorrow, so for the next while, I might not...”

“Ms. Heidi, you may have established a connection with this matter already,” Vanna stared deeply at her friend, “I’m sorry, but including me, all the people who were at the scene back then were exposed to some kind of cognitive pollution. The mental problems you found in these cultists must’ve happened to each of us as well, but... thanks to the goddess’s protection, we were able to avoid being deeply polluted. It’s the main reason we could wake up from it.”

“...... Damn, I knew sooner or later this kind of thing would happen to me,” Heidi finally stopped packing the medical kit and facepalmed herself. “I really should have listened to my father’s advice to inherit his career as an antique appraiser or perhaps listen to my mother’s advice and become a history teacher in the local public school.... That’s far safer than dealing with cultists.”

“Relax, at least your job now is enough to give you a decent living standard in the upper parts of the city,” Vanna shook her head disapprovingly that this life was bad. Compared to her usual uptight attitude, the inquisitor’s tone was far more approachable to Heidi since they’re so close of age and have been friends for many years. “Why don’t we discuss your findings instead? Perhaps that will help the church and city hall grasp the situation better.”

“...... It’s actually quite simple, an obvious violation of the norm,” Heidi sighed as she explained the clues she dug out of the cultists’ subconscious. “On the ritual night, a sacrifice got out of control in front of the sun totem and turned things around on the priest. But according to the many clues we found on the scene, the “sacrifice’ was actually a ‘corpse’ that had already been killed, am I right?”

Vanna nodded, “That’s right, I remember it well.”

“Then the problem comes... Since this sacrifice had already been sacrificed once, why didn’t any of the cultists at the scene recognize him? Why didn’t even the priest himself recognize the sacrifice in front of him?”

Vanna slowly frowned at the contradiction, “... The cultists at the scene watched as the sacrifice that had been killed once not long ago reappeared in front of their eyes, yet no one noticed the abnormality... Clearly, their memories had been tampered with and their cognition distorted beforehand.”

“That’s right Vanna, even we didn’t notice this obvious contradiction at the time, did we?” Heidi smiled bitterly and spread her hands, “In fact, even an hour ago, I didn’t realize that I had taken this matter for granted until you brought it up just now.”

It smells like fish soup.

Apparently, after gaining a better familiarity with the environment aboard the Vanished, Miss Doll here had come up with a new idea to “do something for the captain in her own way”.

“Dinner?” Duncan observed the doll curiously while also eyeing the arrangement on his table, “How did you suddenly come up with doing this?”

“I was finishing up cleaning the kitchen storehouse when I saw the bucket of... “fish,” Alice smiled and looked proud, “I can’t help with a lot of work on the ship, but cooking should always be OK. So from now on, I can take care of the cooking.”

“It’s good to have this heart,” Duncan didn’t know how to evaluate this strange doll. It’s just that in the face of Alice’s sincere smile, he had no courage to refuse the kindness and discourage her enthusiasm. “But as a doll, do you know how to cook?”

“I can learn it. It feels quite simple,” Alice said as a matter of course. “The most basic thing is to ask Mr. Goathead. He told me a lot of cooking things before...”

Duncan glanced expressionlessly at the goat head next to him and then at Alice.

A wood carving, a doll of unknown material, and now they dare to study the art of cooking when the two didn’t even have a digestive system? Just listening to them was frightening.

He didn’t know what mood fitted the situation, but he just picked up the soup spoon and stirred the fish in the bowl.

At least this thing smelled right....

But the next second, his hands froze at the sighting of a long silvery-white hair hanging off the spoon.

“Your hair has fallen in,” Duncan said expressionlessly.

“Ah, I didn’t drop my hair in it,” Alice immediately waved her hand, “I dropped my head in... But don’t worry, I caught it immediately, and I didn’t need anyone to help!”

Duncan: “...?”