Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 224 - 224 Eighty-one

224: Eighty-one.

The Birth of Investigators and Watchmen 224: Eighty-one.

The Birth of Investigators and Watchmen Tesla exhaled a breath and relaxed, “So I am glad to see a friend who shares the same ideals, especially since he is also in Belfast.”

Lu Li asked, “Are you part of that small group?”

“Yes.” Tesla thought of something, his brows softening, “I will invite you to my home when I have the chance, and you can meet my wife.”

Lu Li realized something and refrained from asking any inappropriate questions.

He asked about something he cared more about, “Can you tell me about the investigators?”

“Of course, that’s why I came here.”

The Demon Slayer lineage has lasted for over 700 years.

According to the tradition of every hundred years being a generation, it is now the seventh generation.

In the fourth generation, the Demon Slayers split into Exorcists and Demon Slayers, and in the sixth generation, investigators and night watchers were established, which was more than a hundred years ago.

Before that, the Exorcist Association had always adhered to a philosophy: We explore, we discover, we cleanse.

They either operated alone or formed small teams, traversing mountains, rivers, seas, and towns, resolving any troubles they encountered.

If they could not resolve them — they called for more Demon Slayers.

The world back then was not as harsh as it is now, and except for some ancient relics, most places were safe.

Although Demon Slayers perished in madness due to decreasing Sanity Value, they overwhelmingly dominated, and evil spirits mostly became research tools.

For instance, “Shadow Thief of Fire Extinguishing Capabilities” referred to using the evil spirit Shadow Thief of Fire to put out forest and town fires.

“Black Crow Disaster Early Warning” referred to using the evil spirit Black Crow to sense imminent disasters in towns, and “How the Soul Tree Materializes Sanity Value” and so on.

However, as time passed, the number of evil spirits inevitably increased, and the scale of evil spirits no longer tipped so highly in their favor, gradually diminishing the Demon Slayers’ advantage, though at least the situation remained under control.

Until the latter part of the fourth generation of Exorcists, about three hundred years ago.

The great explorer Solacevia Sim set sail and discovered Tillage Garden.

His voyage seemed to have triggered something in the deep sea, because since then, the Varxi Continent began to encounter beings other than evil spirits, known as: Evil Gods.

At the time, most people complained that Solacevia Sim’s exploration brought disaster to the world, and Him, distressed, departed one day on his beloved Zeni, never to return.

However, after investigation by the Demon Slayers, it was found that Evil Gods had existed in Tillage Garden for hundreds or even thousands of years before Sim’s arrival.

Solacevia Sim, at most, brought back the aura of the Evil Gods from there, making the Ailen Peninsula and the continent a suitable ground for Evil Gods.

Evil Gods and evil spirits both belong to chaos, and naturally, they are enemies of orderly humans.

Thus, the scale on the side of evil spirits now had two weights.

The other two systems among the four, evils and oddities, only appeared recently, a few decades ago.

Oddities emerged from the deep sea, mostly indescribable entities that spread from the deep sea to the near sea and land.

Evils, shrouded in mystery, were seldom encountered by Exorcists, and there was little information about them.

However, it is thought that over time, evils will gradually become well-known — although this is not a good thing.

At that time, there were only evil spirits and Evil Gods, the scale was nearing balance.

For the Demon Slayers, this level was still within their capacity to handle, but too many Demon Slayers died each year handling incidents.

Therefore, the fourth generation of Demon Slayers began to shift from chaos to order to reduce casualties, becoming more efficient.

That meant a split into Exorcists and Demon Slayers.

The former consisted of weaker Demon Slayers, responsible for maintaining the safety of towns and their surrounding villages.

The latter took on dangerous tasks, exploring hazardous areas nearby and eliminating dangers.

This situation persisted until the sixth generation when the public became more enlightened, and centralized kingdoms and archipelagic councils began to contact the Demon Slayers seeking cooperation, which brought more efficient management methods.

Thus, the Exorcists and Demon Slayers of that time began to cooperate officially and further split into Investigators and Night Watchers.

This marked the birth of the Investigators and the Night Watchers.

As Lu Li knew, the two organizations that were split off handled separate responsibilities, moving away from the Demon Slayers’ era of “We explore, we discover, we clean.”

Investigators were responsible for investigating strange phenomena and bringing back information and data, while Night Watchers handled the anomalies they found.

Investigators explored, Night Watchers cleaned.

Demon Slayers maintained the status quo, handling both tasks.

The advantages of this arrangement were obvious.

Exorcists with special talents were no longer risk-takers, dealing with events they were not skilled in.

For example, having an expert-level reconnaissance Exorcist eliminate an Evil God, or having an Exorcist whose head was filled with muscles sneak into the territory of an Evil God.

More importantly…

they began receiving compensation.

It’s not that the Demon Slayer organization didn’t provide compensation, but the contributions within the Demon Slayer organization were generally exchanged for Homogeneous Items or some materials and data, which had a very low cost-effectiveness when exchanged for money.

Therefore, the life of a Demon Slayer was mostly very straitened.

However, after cooperating with the officials, money was no longer a problem.

The tasks carried out by the Investigators were just as the name suggested.

Adventurous Investigators could explore anywhere, and the oddities they encountered could be sent back to their division, and based on the importance, they could get contribution rewards or money.

Those who were lazy and didn’t want to run around could take on regional or continental events published by the organization, go to the site to investigate, and then get rewards based on the clues they brought back.

These data would then be handed over to the Exorcist Association or the Night Watchers, who would go to solve them.

Of course, if you were willing to solve the incident while investigating the clues, the pay intended for the Demon Slayers and Night Watchers would also be given to you.

Investigators were not forced to take on events, nor were they as restricted as Night Watchers.

This meant an adventurous type of Investigator could roam mountains and rivers freely, and it didn’t matter even if they found no anomalies—the Investigator organization wouldn’t pay a penny for it.

This sounded very close to what Lu Li was expecting: a loose, less restrictive organization.

“If you want to know more specific details, you’ll have to wait until you join the Investigators before I can tell you.

Okay, that’s it for now; the rest is up to you to speak.”

Tesla finally realized it wasn’t time for an afternoon tea chat but a Sanity Value test.

“If I say too much and the branches of the Soul Tree consider me a contact, it’ll be trouble, as I can’t find a second branch for testing in Belfast yet.”

As his speech ended, he turned his head, no longer behaving like a gentleman, and rudely shouted towards the backyard.

“Old Pique, bring a drawing board over here, I know you’re hiding inside!”