Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 490 - 490 Nine

490: Nine.

Gazing at the Oddity of Belfast 490: Nine.

Gazing at the Oddity of Belfast “Mayor Vanster doesn’t know what he’s doing, letting those fat pig Muggle councilors agree to such an unreasonable ban,” complained a corpulent lady in a peacock-like fluffy gown beside the carriage at the tail end of a long convoy under the street lamp.

With a strange accent that might have had something to do with pinching her nose, she continued, “As a result, I now have to stand with these filthy commoners, waiting and departing together.”

Clip-clop, clip-clop—

The crisp sound of horseshoes came from behind.

The lady glanced over and saw a tall figure in a raincoat on top of the carriage.

Her mood slightly improved, she instructed her butler in a voice loud enough for the figure on the carriage to hear, “Have the servants watch over this carriage.

It contains precious farewell gifts for Baron Joseph, my dear friend has been looking forward to them for so long.”

“Of course, miss,”

The butler summoned a maid with an umbrella and turned to instruct the servants.

Aileen’s farewell gift, is she also going to the Lennon Islands?

Hearing a familiar name, Lu Li glanced over and parked his carriage behind the lady’s carriage.

The guard came forward to collect information and told Lu Li that the convoy would be able to depart after waiting for four more carriages.

“Is the number fixed?” Lu Li asked.

“The more people, the safer, who knows if there are those ghostly creatures outside the city,” the guard said, leaving the carriage and heading toward a slowly approaching carriage in the distance of the street.

Lu Li opened the carriage door, informed Anna and Aunt Mary of the news that they would soon be able to leave Himfast, and then leaned against the wooden door, waiting for the convoy to set off.

Ten minutes later, the last carriage joined the convoy.

The guard holding an oil lamp shouted for the convoy to depart, stepped back to the edge, and watched the dragon-like procession, extending hundreds of meters, slowly make its way out of town along the road.

…

In the silent rainy night, the long line of carriages slowly left Himfast behind.

The torches and oil lamps on the carriages cast a blurry, dim yellow light.

Lu Li drove the carriage, the reflection of the fiery dragon ahead and the surrounding darkness mirrored in his eyes,

“Should we bring Annie along?”

Anna, invisible, sitting next to Lu Li, asked softly.

“She can only survive in the Elm Forest.”

A tree can’t stay alive crossing the ocean on a ship, going to the Lennon Islands that are unsuitable for its survival—even if it’s transforming into a true oddity.

“Hmm.”

Quiet returned to the front of the carriage.

Driving along the deep ruts in the road, once they were far enough from Himfast, Lu Li returned to the carriage.

Aunt Mary was already asleep.

Lu Li changed his wound dressing, ate some food, and then leaned against the carriage, closing his eyes.

Anna, keeping watch for the night, silently gazed at Lu Li’s sleeping face for a moment.

Once his breathing became steady, she drifted out of the carriage and released her vengeful spirit energy, as if to give a warning to the hidden creatures lurking in the darkness around them.

The undisguised aura spread out and was quickly noticed by the exorcists from the United Organization within the convoy.

They hurried over from the front of the convoy only to see a ghostly young girl’s silhouette sitting at the front, driving the carriage,

After a moment of pause, the exorcists formed their own guess, their expressions complex as they slightly bowed to Anna and silently withdrew to the front of the convoy.

Only the turning wheels and the sound of light rain falling broke the still, dark night, as the Fire Dragon Caravan quietly made its way.

Except for the occasional unexplained brief stops and the addition of carriages from nearby towns to the convoy, the journey was mostly uneventful.

Annie, already accustomed to the darkness and silence, sat undisturbed at the front of the carriage.

The darkness enveloped Anna for a long time until she heard the sound of Lu Li waking up in the carriage.

“How long have I slept?” Lu Li asked Anna, who had returned to the carriage.

“Less than half an hour before dawn.”

He lifted the curtain, pushed open the window, and the chilly air rushed into the carriage.

In front of the caravan, a sliver of pale dawn was beginning to emerge.

After closing the window to keep out the moisture, Lu Li rubbed his temples and asked, “Where are we?”

“The escort of the lead caravan shouted ten minutes ago that we are ten miles away from Sugard Mountain.”

Lu Li got up and stepped out of the carriage.

The outside coldness made his drowsy head somewhat more alert.

Under the glow of the oil lamp, his breath carried a faint white vapor.

Lu Li looked up, trying to gaze into the fading darkness of the distant sky, when he suddenly bumped into a shadowy expanse.

It was an immense figure beyond human comprehension, shrouded in a deathly blackness darker than the night itself, its entire body cloaked beneath a veil-like, somber cape that fluttered in the wind.

Despite Lu Li’s scrutiny, he could not see through the thin gauze to discern the essence of its silhouette.

It stood on the path the caravan was passing through, and the carriages were crossing beneath it, already halfway through as if this invisible giant contour had always been there.

No one noticed anything unusual overhead.

Even those who looked up at the sky while chatting atop the carriages could only see the gloomy clouds of the yet-to-arrive dawn,

“Can you see it?”

On the caravan, tens of meters away from it and almost at its feet, Lu Li stared at the terrifying and oppressive contour and whispered.

Nothing…

is it a door?”

Lu Li shook his head slightly, “Maybe it’s a projection from low Sanity Value.”

For a split second, he really thought it was “the door,” or the culprit of the Zenst atrocities, the “Terrifying Faceless Giant.”

This also served as a wake-up call for Lu Li.

Sanity Value and “the door” had both entered the second phase, with their boundaries becoming blurred and hard to distinguish.

When illusions appeared before Lu Li, were they projections of the Sanity Value, or were they visits from “the door”?

This could affect Lu Li’s immediate judgment and actions.

Extending further from this point, if the root causes of both issues were not resolved, even if he were to hide in the safe Lennon Islands, the shadow of “the door” would follow him like a specter, with danger always at his side.

For the recovery of Sanity Value, he could inquire with the Jimmy Siblings—Raimy and Jimmy, who should have already arrived in Belfast.

Regarding the latter, Richard was still at large.

Having led Lu Li into a trap, Richard must know something.

Lu Li pondered this as he witnessed the carriages crossing beneath the large, draped silhouette.

Turning back, he refocused on the immobile shape standing still before Sugard Mountain.

The cloak also obscured its face, and beneath it was a darkness that Lu Li couldn’t bear to look at directly.

It didn’t cast malevolent, hateful glares as the projections from the Inner World did in the second phase, attempting to influence Lu Li.

It stood solemnly before Sugard Mountain, seemingly gazing into the distance, disregarding the line of ants passing beneath its feet and ignoring the one ant that looked up at it…

Its appearance so close to Belfast might be a coincidence.

Or perhaps it was a sign.

As the caravan moved on, it vanished into the darkness before dawn, becoming invisible to Lu Li.

At the same time, shouts from the guards rang out ahead.

“Sugard Mountain is right ahead!

We are about to reach Belfast!”