Chapter 1 Vanna's Guess

Of course, Vanna's unsurprised expression didn't escape Heidi's notice. This "spiritual physician," who often collaborated with the church, immediately guessed something from the inquisitor's reaction.

After a moment of hesitation, she cautiously asked, "It seems... the problem behind this incident is quite significant?"

Vanna nodded. "The problem is significant."

Heidi thought for a moment, and while packing her medical kit, quickly said, "I'm taking a vacation tomorrow, and may be for a while..."

"Ms. Heidi, you may already be connected to this matter," Vanna glanced at Heidi. "I'm sorry, but everyone who was present at the scene at the time, including myself, was exposed to a certain degree of cognitive contamination. The mental problems you found in these cultists actually happened to each of us. However... thanks to the Goddess's blessing, we weren't deeply contaminated, so we 'woke up' at this point."

"...Damn it, I knew doing this job would eventually lead to something like this," Heidi finally stopped packing her medical kit, and rubbed her forehead. "I should have listened to my father's advice and inherited his business as an antique appraiser, or even listened to my mother's advice and become a history teacher at the public school in Cross Street... that would have been much safer than dealing with cultists."

"Look on the bright side, at least your current job allows you to maintain a decent life in the upper city," Vanna shook her head. In front of Heidi, who was about the same age and whom she had known for many years, her attitude was much more approachable than in front of her subordinates. "Tell me about your findings, it might help the church and the city hall grasp the situation."

"...Actually, it's very simple, an obvious incongruity," Heidi sighed, speaking of the clues she had dug out from the subconscious of those cultists. "On the night of the sacrificial ritual, a sacrifice lost control in front of the sun's totem and performed a reverse sacrifice on the officiating priest. And according to the clues we found at the scene, the 'sacrifice' that caused the loss of control was actually a 'corpse' that had already been sacrificed. He walked onto the high platform, resurrected from the dead, right?"

Vanna nodded. "Of course, I remember it very clearly."

"Then here's the problem... Since this sacrifice had already been sacrificed once, why didn't any of the cultists at the scene recognize him? Ordinary cultists aside, why didn't even the priest himself recognize that the sacrifice in front of him had been personally sacrificed by him not long ago?"

Vanna slowly frowned. "...The cultists at the scene watched as a sacrifice who had been sacrificed once before reappeared in front of them, but no one noticed anything unusual... Their memories were tampered with, and their cognition was distorted."

"Even we didn't notice this obvious incongruity at the time, did we?" Heidi smiled bitterly and spread her hands. "In fact, I didn't realize that I had overlooked this obvious thing until an hour ago, and it wasn't until now that I learned from you that my own mind had been affected."

Vanna didn't speak for a moment, then turned around and came to the cultist who was still in a daze.

The cultist, doubly hypnotized by a large dose of nerve medication and a potent incense, simply shook his head slightly, looking blankly at the tall woman in front of him.

Vanna suddenly turned her head and asked, "Did these cultists kill each other after the ritual went out of control because of cognitive confusion?"

"Yes, I 'saw' some flashing images in their memories," Heidi replied. "These images seemed to imprint a very strong impression on them, making them firmly believe that everyone else at the ritual site had been occupied and controlled by evil spirits or something similar. They didn't think they were killing their compatriots, but that they were driving out the evil spirits from the bodies of their other compatriots..."

"This is most likely their soul's instinct warning them—cultists are also believers, and after all, they have a dark sun 'blessing' these people. When a huge and bizarre danger appears, these blessed believers are very likely to sense something," Vanna analyzed based on her experience. "Their crazy hallucinations actually revealed the truth to some extent, but unfortunately, these untrained ordinary people don't know how to distinguish the meaning of these warnings, and instead fell into a state of collective madness."

Heidi looked at Vanna's serious face, hesitated several times, and finally cautiously opened her mouth, "So... what exactly is behind this thing? More evil than that ancient sun?"

Vanna thought for a moment, and gently shook her head. "Don't ask, Heidi. Your connection to this matter isn't deep yet, but if you learn more about it, some unbreakable connections might be established."

"Okay, since even you, an inquisitor, say so, then I'd better protect my own life," Heidi said, picking up her packed medical kit. "I really need to take a vacation... Don't worry, I'm not running away. There's an exhibition at the Ocean Museum in a few days, and I'm quite interested in it."

Vanna nodded. "Visiting the Ocean Museum is a good way to relax. The Goddess's blessing also fills those exhibits."

Heidi smiled, picked up her medical kit and walked towards the door, but just as she was about to push the door open, she suddenly stopped, and looked back at Vanna with concern, "I said... has the contamination really subsided?"

"Don't worry, of course it has," Vanna spread her hands helplessly. "We just caught up with some 'residue'. You've been in this quiet underground sanctuary for so long, the Goddess's blessing has already cleared away the effects you suffered."

"Then I'm relieved," Heidi finally breathed a sigh of relief, and pushed open the door. "See you next time, Inquisitor Vanna."

Vanna watched Ms. Heidi leave the room.

And beside her, the sun cultist, muddled by the potent incense and nerve agents, also half-opened his eyes, staring blankly at Vanna.

The potions made by modern civilization, the incense passed down from ancient times, the serene sanctuary environment, the sun's "blessing" deeply rooted in the soul—these chaotic forces intertwined, converged, and produced subtle effects in the cultist's body.

In the cultist's eyes, Vanna's hazy figure was reflected.

He saw the inquisitor standing in front, tall and firm.

He saw a vague phantom standing behind Vanna, a near-transparent illusion, with a ghostly green flame burning around the phantom.

The tall phantom stood silently behind Vanna, expressionless.

...

Duncan sat expressionlessly in the chart room, watching the doll Alice bustling about in front of him.

She brought a large tray with clear and shiny tableware, and a large bowl of steaming soup.

It smelled like fish soup.

Obviously, after further familiarizing herself with the environment on the Vanishing, this doll had come up with a new idea, to "do something for the captain in her own way."

"Dinner?" Duncan looked curiously at the doll, watching her place the tableware and fish soup in front of him. "Why did you suddenly think of doing this?"

"I cleaned up the kitchen's food storage, and then I saw the... fish in the bucket," Alice said with a smile, with a proud look on her face. "There are many things on the ship that I can't help with, but I should be able to cook. I'll cook for you from now on."

"It's a good thing to have the thought," Duncan didn't know how to evaluate this strange doll, but facing Alice's sincere smile, no one would be embarrassed to refuse. He was just a little curious, "But as a doll, can you cook?"

"I can learn, it feels pretty simple," Alice said with a matter-of-fact expression. "I can just ask Mr. Goat Head about the basics, he told me so many things about cooking before..."

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

A wooden sculpture, a doll of unknown material, the two of them couldn't put together a digestive system, and they got together to study cooking, one dared to teach, and the other really dared to listen?

He didn't know what mood he should be in, he just picked up a spoon and stirred the fish soup in the bowl, thinking that at least it smelled right, but the next second, his movements froze.

After a moment of silence, he reached out and scooped a long, silvery-white hair from the spoon.

"You dropped your hair in it," Duncan said expressionlessly.

"Ah, I didn't drop my hair in it," Alice waved her hands immediately. "I dropped my head in it... but don't worry, I picked it up right away, without anyone's help!"

Duncan: "...?"