Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The girl named Eva was about 14 years old. She had fair skin and blue hair that reached her back, making her look as cute as an elf.
Eva replied with a simple “okay” to what her mother said, but she didn’t leave right away. Her bright eyes blinked as she studied Zheng Yang. He then winked his right eye at her, and she flashed a beaming smile in return.
“This is weird,” Zheng Yang thought to himself. The girl had a sense of purity about her that made him feel very serene and clean inside, preventing him from having any dirty thoughts.
Seeing that Eva wasn’t going away, Emily saw no choice but to introduce her daughter to Zheng Yang. “I’m sorry, this is my daughter. Her name is Eva.”
They talked as they went into the treatment room, where Emily took up the vaccine and injection needle, as well as sterilizing cotton and other apparatus.
Zheng Yang then said to Eva, who was right behind him, “Good day, I’m Zheng Yang.”
“Hello,” Eva replied in that serene voice of hers.
He thought that her voice sounded really pleasing to the ear, as if his mind was being cleansed. As such, he let Emily get on with the sterilization and injection while he kept talking to Eva. “Still in school now?”
“Yep. Form three in secondary school right now. What about you?”
“I never went to school. I was home-schooled by my parents up to middle school.”
“You could actually skip school? What are you doing now, then?”
“They gave me a boat, and I’m thinking of earning some money from fishing so I can travel all over the world.”
“Wow!”
…
The injection was quickly done as the boy and the girl chatted away.
“Come for the second shot three days later, then a shot on the eighth, 15th, and 29th day.”
Emily didn’t interrupt their chat. She simply finished her job solemnly and then told Zheng Yang about the follow-up injections.
“So, I need to stay in the English Harbor for at least 30 days, then,” Zheng Yang said pensively.
Emily rolled her eyes and said, “So you’ll have to stay here for another month. So what? Do you really think you can travel the world with that junk of a boat of yours at your age? I think you should keep going to school. Your life will only get interesting after you’re done with secondary school or vocational school.”
Zheng Yang snorted and said in a serious tone, “That’s not a ‘junk of a boat.’ The way I see it, that’s the best vessel in the world.”
“Alright, it’s a gift from your parents after all, and I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. Well then, Ms. Emily. Thank you, and see you in three days. Bye, Eva.”
…
After taking his leave, he walked outside the hospital and saw a small black car speed down the street and stop at the doors to the clinic.
The back door was pushed open, and Rovni got out of the car with a dour look on her face. She went inside the clinic, while Ricky and Venar both got out of the front seats of the car and followed her inside.
Emily and Eva were about to go up the stairs when they saw the commotion at the door as well.
“What now, Rovni? You never called and told me that you were gonna show up.” Emily patted Eva’s head and had her daughter go up the stairs before going to meet Rovni face to face.
Rovni and Zheng Yang walked past each other, and Zheng Yang gulped. He looked at the cold, aloof Rovni, and then at the cool-looking Ricky, wondering if he should get clothes like the ones Ricky was wearing.
“What?” Ricky turned around and looked at Zheng Yang.
Zheng Yang compared his height to Ricky and found himself to be just slightly shorter than the other man. But he could still grow taller, and he thought he would look cool in that getup as well.
As such, he pointed at Ricky’s clothes and asked, “Where’d you get those?”
“Oh? You mean my clothes?” Ricky immediately became excited. He took off his sunglasses and continued with glee, “They look cool, don’t they? Come, I’ll tell you where…”
Just when Ricky was about to drag Zheng Yang outside to talk about their presumably shared interests, Rovni, who was standing in front of them, called, “Ricky?”
Even Zheng Yang could detect the fury in her tone.
Ricky was stunned for a bit, soon recalling that he was there on official business. He flashed an awkward smile and quickly stuck a name card into Zheng Yang’s hand. “Call me later,” he murmured.
Emily brought the trio to her office on the second floor and shut the door. After they were inside, Rovni said, “That guy went nuts when he was interrogated last night, and he bit Moxley. I could confirm that it was a mutation brought about by the taint of demonic aura, causing him to lose all sense of reason. I need you to get me some mystic meds to prevent my people from getting infected.”
“You could have told me all of that on the phone instead of coming all the way here,” Emily said. “By the way, you don’t look well. If it’s something to do with your period, I can prescribe you something for it.” Emily flashed a sarcastic grin at her.
“Screw you. The leash and dog collar that the guy had on him were actually alchemical products of demonic nature. We looked into the details all night and deduced that he may be a demon tamer, which is rather rare. If that’s the case, then that rabid dog may actually be a demon. After suffering an injury, a hellhound like that escapes through water. If that dog’s rabies mutated into some new strand of the virus due to the demonic taint, I’m sure that you, someone from the mystic meds department, could imagine what kind of disaster that would pose to England.
“That guy’s name was Desmond, and he was living around these parts. We’re going to his place for further investigation, and we need to hunt down that hellhound. By the way, that boy who managed to injure the hellhound, he was definitely not some ordinary kid. He might actually be involved in the paranormal scene.”
Emily flashed a weird look at Ricky and said, “That kid who’s possibly from the paranormal side of things just left after taking an injection here.”
While the trio was stunned by what they heard, Emily’s expression became serious. She continued, “As for that hellhound… say, haven’t you people applied for a sacred relic with purification properties yet? Mystic meds alone won’t be enough to stop this kind of thing from spreading, you know. You need to purify it from the source.”
Rovni looked as glum as she had when she’d walked inside the door. “That’s what I’m getting a headache about. Those old farts at headquarters shot down my application again. Damn those as**oles. Why don’t they get wiped out by those things instead?
“Anyway, better get prepared, Emily. We might need a huge supply of meds after this to control the spread of demonized rabies. Get some meds for Moxley first. We’ll head to the docks to look for that kid and take a look at his boat. Then, we’ll head out to search that demon tamer suspect’s place.”
…
Zheng Yang didn’t return to the docks right away after he left Emily’s clinic. Instead, he took a stroll through the streets and bought some street food again, which he’d already eaten for lunch.
The last time his parallel world counterpart had come to the English Harbor was two years ago, and he hadn’t gotten to see much due to his parents being around. Now that he had all the time in the world, he just had to see the place up close for himself. Eldritch entities wouldn’t be looking for trouble with him in broad daylight after all.
The place was indeed lively, with all manner of cars and people going about their business. The rustic buildings on both sides of the streets housed a lot of shops and a lot of merchandise, and Zheng Yang was having a great time looking around.
He’d walked around for about half an hour when his satellite phone rang, and the number that popped up on his phone looked rather familiar.
He answered the phone and realized that it was that cool-looking young man he’d met at the clinic.
He realized why the number had immediately looked familiar. He had only scanned that phone number on the name card when he’d taken the card from the other man, instead of committing the number to memory. As such, he couldn’t recognize the number just by looking at it.