Chapter 1634: The Truth
“What happened? What did you do?” the captain asked, very much curious.
Ning kept to himself for a second, before coming out with the truth. Before he told him about the most important one, he needed to him about what Tima wanted.
Ning explained what he saw. He told the man that he knew what had happened and understood how his daughter felt because of what he could do.
“Your daughter loves you so much, and seeing you sad and miserable is sad for her as well. All the time you were there, crying while you thought she couldn’t see or hear you, she could. Ever since she started becoming sick again, she never saw you smile. That is all she really wants from you, a smile.”
The captain took in a deep breath, finding it hard to contain his tears. He wiped them off his eyes but they kept piling up.
“I’m a failure of a father,” he said. “My daughter died, and I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t find anyone to save her.”
He began crying even harder, the tears now streaming down his face. “I’m sorry, Tima. I don’t deserve to be your father.”
“Don’t say that!” Ning snapped. “Your daughter is listening to you. Do you want her to be sad still?”
The man put his head in his hand and simply cried. The ghost of the young girl wrapped her arms around her father’s neck, her face slowly changing as her father cried.
Shara couldn’t see the young girl, but seeing the father cry made her tear up as well. She wondered, if her father was present, would he feel the same way about her.
The director of the Spirit Department had told her that it was her father who had also been like her in the past. Their lineage was something special and seemingly important to the Empire for some reason.
Ning felt sentimental but didn’t tear up. “How long has it been since she passed away?” he asked.
“2 years,” the captain said.
“And you’ve never met any Spirit Detective within that time, or a Channeler?” he asked.
The man shook his head. “Ever since my Tima died, I threw myself into my work as I couldn’t stand the thought of being in that house where I let my daughter die. I needed to get away from there, and in this line of work, you rarely see any detectives at all.”
“Not even at Whitebridge?” Ning asked.
“Not really,” the man said. “The northern harbor isn’t known for having a lot of people go in and out. The ones that do are usually nobles and they go in their carriages. It’s very rare that someone like you comes there, asking for a ride. And when that happens, most of the time we aren’t even there.”
Ning nodded. The man was in the bay most of the time, spending his time on the ship. Given that he hadn’t come across any new people in that line of work, he understood how the young girl had gone unnoticed for 2 whole years.
Had she been alive, she would’ve been 10 years old right now.
“There was a woman,” Ning said suddenly. “About 25 years old, maybe. Your daughter’s caretaker.”
“Vyra,” the man said. “What about her?”
“Who is she?” he asked. “As in her background.”
“Why do you ask?” The man was a little confused. “She is a worker at a local tailor shop in my town. She agreed to help me when Tima was sick. She’s now a sort of personal maid for me. A caretaker for my house, if you will.”
“So she isn’t someone with a medicinal background?” Ning asked.
“None whatsoever,” the man replied.
“I see,” Ning said and took a deep breath. “Then I am almost certain that your daughter didn’t die of a random disease or injury. She died of poisoning.”
It took the man a few seconds to comprehend what he had been told. The words that came out of Ning’s mouth were a little too strange for him.
Poison? Why would his daughter die of poison?
“No, no, it can’t be,” the man said. “I brought in doctors and healers of all kinds. They gave me medicine. If she was poisoned, she would’ve been healed long ago.”
Ning shook his head. “Not if there was someone constantly administering more poison even after the medicines were being fed.”
“Who?” the man asked, suddenly getting straight and angry. The answer came to him at once. “Vyra?”
Ning nodded. “I saw her pull something out from her pouch every time and feed it to your daughter. And the situation kept worsening after that. I could feel her get weaker.”
“No, but… but Vyra was supposed to be there to take care of my daughter. How could she…?” the man was in shock, unable to accept.
“I do not have the answer,” Ning said. “I do not even know if what I’m saying is true or not. All I know is that was what I saw. Didn’t your daughter begin getting sick after you got Vyra?”
The captain paused for a second and then slowly nodded. “She was alright at first. So cheerful and happy. But then… she began becoming weak and no longer smiling.”
“Yeah, I’m certain the woman had some hand in this,” Ning said. “But… is there a way to get the truth out of her?”
“I will get the truth out myself,” the man said, face taking on a demonic look, like someone who was going on revenge.
Ning looked at him and realized the man was going to kill Vyra at this rate. He would hurt her to get his answers out.
“Thank you for helping me,” he said. “You can stay here if you want or go to the deck. I’ll take you all the way to the town with no charge at all.”
Ning looked at the man, whose eye refused to meet with him. “Thank you,” he said and pulled Shara away, going back to the deck.
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