Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 358 - 358 215

358: 215.

Family of the Elm Forest 358: 215.

Family of the Elm Forest 5:30

The sky, which was usually beginning to brighten at this time, remained as dark as a void.

An endless rain poured down upon the land.

A heavy, elongated carriage traveled along the streets of Belfast, with the windows along the roadside reflecting the silhouettes of people moving inside.

Most families had already woken up, preparing breakfast and getting ready for work, praying for today’s rain to lighten a bit.

The rainy season had not yet arrived, and this persistent, sudden downpour caught most families unprepared.

They could only spend all their savings to repair their homes and buy food that had become very expensive to store.

People carrying oil lamps to work could occasionally be seen on the streets.

Despite the heavy rain and the dark sky, the factories’ starting time was as unforgiving as ever.

As the elongated carriage passed the area with street lamps, the stone houses on either side of the cobblestone road gradually became lower and more dilapidated, with tasteless wooden houses taking over the majority.

After a while, the elongated carriage stopped in front of a Long House on Shelov Street.

Lu Li didn’t know which room the lame Barton lived in, but he remembered the window.

Approaching the window, he knocked several times until the curtain was lifted, revealing Barton with his messy hair.

He spoke, his voice muffled by the rain, and then rubbed his eyes as he walked toward the door.

“You wait here for me,” Lu Li said to Anna, and stepped into the dimly lit Long House, through a door that had been opened.

Barton’s home was cluttered with miscellaneous items.

Lu Li stood by the door, “Is the map ready?”

Barton, who had opened the door, turned around and, still rubbing his eyes, gestured towards the dining table that still held leftover food with his back facing Lu Li.

Lu Li walked to the table and picked up the brand-new Parchment, with the terrain and forests drawn out, marking the logging areas and Silent Hill, with dashed lines symbolizing roads.

Clearly, such detail was not Barton’s handiwork.

Lu Li placed the agreed-upon payment on the table.

Barton then put down his cup, picked up the 300 Shillings reeking of alcohol, and asked, gesturing towards the carriage outside the window, “What’s in the carriage outside?”

“Trees.”

“Did you bring them from Elm Forest?”

“I am taking them there.”

“What will you do?”

“Plant trees.”

“You came to me so early for a map just to plant a tree?”

“Yes.”

Barton had no response and waved his hand to indicate that Lu Li could leave.

Taking the map and leaving the Long House, Lu Li returned to the carriage.

As Barton raised his cup in parting through the window, Lu Li picked up the reins and drove the carriage away.

Without returning to the Detective Agency, Lu Li, having obtained the map, headed straight for Elm Street at the northernmost end of Belfast.

Anna told Lu Li that Annie couldn’t hold on much longer.

6:23

At last, a hint of light began to break through the gloomy sky, and the streets were no longer empty.

Elm Street—An elongated carriage entered Elm Forest from here.

Nearing Elm Forest, a sorrowful atmosphere began to permeate the heart.

Although Lu Li, who had been overwhelmed by turbulent emotions the day before, seemed to have developed some resistance, this sadness did not affect him at all.

It might also be because his impression of the forest had changed.

Anna was deeply affected; the flame of Annie’s life in her senses was already so feeble that it was about to be extinguished.

Already sorrowful, she clutched her head, looking down in silence.

Lu Li drove the horses, which were now slightly more resistant after entering the forest, along the route indicated on the map and the path they had taken the day before, heading towards the cliff.

As they delved deeper into Elm Forest, the pervasive sadness in the air gradually gave way to a mix of other emotions.

These emotions were indescribable, resembling some form of attentive presence; they danced around the carriage, gently touching Annie, who was near death.

Anna looked up, stunned, feeling the slow stabilization of Annie’s soul flame and murmured in disbelief, “Annie is no longer deteriorating…”

“They are helping Annie.”

Lu Li said as he looked up; the moods of the forest around them had no substance and could not be observed.

The forest emotions, or perhaps wills, continuously touched Annie, and her flame was no longer frail, even starting to stabilize.

The diffused emotions were no longer just sadness; there were hints of barely perceptible anticipation and joy, as if they were waiting for Annie, as if she were one of their own.

In fact, Annie was a part of an elm tree.

Their efforts had not been in vain, this forest indeed could save Annie.

A part of the emotions gently brushed over Lu Li and Anna, as well as the horse, seeming to soothe them.

The horse became more cooperative, and the muddy mountain path became relatively easier to navigate.

Anna’s emotions also relaxed a bit, her palm never leaving Annie’s trunk, feeling her condition.

An hour later, the horse reached the back of the cliff cave.

Before them was a muddy slope too difficult to traverse, and after several attempts, the carriage could not successfully climb it.

With the cliff less than a hundred meters away, Lu Li stopped the carriage there, got a shovel from inside, and began digging a hole near the cave in the spot they had chosen the day before.

The rain-soaked earth was easy to dig up, and Anna, with another shovel in hand, wanted to help but was stopped by Lu Li.

Her abilities were needed elsewhere.

Twenty minutes later, Lu Li had dug a hole the size of the wooden box.

He then fetched some dry earth from inside the cave to line the bottom of the hole.

“Too much water can drown it.”

Lu Li said to Anna, but that seemed futile as the dry earth quickly turned dark and moist.

Putting the shovel down, Lu Li and Anna returned to the front of the carriage, where she used her powers to transport Annie there.

The cold, sinister aura sent shivers down one’s spine, hair as thick as syrup flying about, and Anna’s long dress fluttered violently as she used her powers to make the several-hundred-pound Annie levitate towards the cliff.

Lu Li’s gaze lingered on Anna’s distorted shadow for a moment, and then he looked around.

Although the surroundings were vast and open, they seemed filled with presences, watching them.

This forest had emotions but no will, yet they were indeed observing Lu Li, as if every tree in the forest had turned into invisible eyes, silently watching everything Lu Li did.

With Annie’s wooden box propped beside the hole, Lu Li opened the lid, allowing Anna to take out Annie and the mud that wrapped her roots, placing them together into the hole.

He filled the gaps with the piled-up earth, stepped back a bit, and watched Anna with her palm on the tree trunk, then looked around again.

They were still there, bearing a kind of joy and goodwill.

“Annie knows everything we’re doing for her,” Anna said at that time.

“Yeah.” Lu Li picked up the shovel Anna had discarded to the side and looked at her.

“From now on, we have to rely on the help of this forest.”

Anna pursed her lips and shifted her gaze from Lu Li to the invisible presences around them, softly saying, “I’m begging you…

Please bring my sister back to life…”

As her words faded, a touch of self-mockery rose within her.

I’m actually talking to a bunch of trees…

With Soul Projection and her aura concealed, Anna turned to Lu Li: “What do we do next?”

“Get ready to build the refuge and transport the supplies.”