Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 501 - 501 Twenty

501: Twenty.

Farewell to Belfast 501: Twenty.

Farewell to Belfast The streets of Belfast had long been absent of hustle and bustle.

The fog had lifted, leaving only a light rain falling from the bleak, cloud-covered sky to blanket the city.

From the hilltop streets, carriages stretched in a long line, jamming the road leading to Rhodest Port.

The horns of steam cars stuck in the line echoed in the low sky, much like the ominous flocks of crows circling overhead.

The carriage leaving Sailor Street was quickly caught in the congestion, where a hatted driver in a steam car ahead sounded his horn incessantly, as if that would clear the road.

Beneath the noise, the horses were becoming agitated, snorting nervously.

“We can take a detour through the slums,” Anna’s voice sounded by my ear.

Lu Li took the reins, leaving the congested queue to head towards the southern district.

After passing several unfamiliar blocks, the carriage entered a familiar one: Holy Father District.

In the distance, amidst the fine rain, Kael’thas Cathedral stood tall in the middle of a secluded graveyard.

As the carriage approached the church, the varying heights of tombstones and the mournful statues of angels within the low fence of the graveyard came into sharper focus.

Caw!

Caw!

Caw!

Caw!

Flocks of crows descended into the withered trees of the graveyard, filling the branches and cocking their heads to gaze at the passersby and carriages outside the burial ground, as if heralding death.

For Jojo and Fran, looking out from the carriage window at the scene, the groups of crows perched on the branches were a bad omen.

However, Lu Li and Anna were calm—for investigators, crows were akin to companions.

It was more like a farewell from comrades.

Without lingering, the carriage left Holy Father District, and the cathedral gradually disappeared behind buildings and the hazy light rain.

Heading towards the eastern coast, even as we moved away from Belfast’s busiest districts, these peripheral streets still saw many families and carriages heading towards the port.

Some were locals, others were “smart people” like Lu Li who had changed their route.

The only difference was that when they approached the slums, they would avoid that chaotic area from a distance, whereas Lu Li drove straight through.

Unlike the other panic-stricken streets, an unusual calm pervaded the slums.

People going about their business or at home didn’t behave any differently than usual, as if today were just an ordinary day.

After all, for most people here, leaving Belfast was far too out of reach.

And perhaps the crisis of an anomaly’s arrival was not as frightening to them as an empty cupboard.

This peace lasted until Lu Li crossed the slums without any trouble.

The atmosphere on the streets became consistent with that outside the slum—frantic, fearful.

Ahead, the road was largely blocked by the police, among them stood several figures of Night Watchmen in black uniforms.

The source of the change in atmosphere was found.

An anomaly had appeared here.

The slowly moving carriage made its way around the edge and was about to depart when it gradually slowed down to a stop.

The reason the carriage halted was that Lu Li saw two familiar faces on the bodies now being covered with white cloths—faces he had just seen not long ago.

“What did you see?”

“What happened?”

Jojo and Fran’s inquiries came from the carriage behind them.

Lu Li didn’t answer their questions but took out a new badge from his pocket and showed it to an officer walking towards the carriage, “Investigator Lu Li, what’s happening up ahead?”

All officers in the Belfast area recognized the badge, “Please wait a moment, sir,” the officer said, turning to call a watchman.

One corpse after another was carried out of the casino, sharing a common feature: the upper half of their faces were hollowed out, showing signs of having been gnawed at, emitting unintelligible screams.

Some had been dead for a while; others were still gasping for breath, their tongues terribly trembling, exposed without the cover of their noses.

A watchman approached the carriage and, upon seeing the badge, solemnly said to Lu Li, “Sir, this place has been attacked by an Evil Spirit.”

The few survivors couldn’t speak, nor could they be saved, but many locals had nearly seen the whole process.

A gloomy new face had entered the Black Mamba Casino not long before.

He won several thousand shillings and was stopped by the casino when he wanted to leave—locals knew that the casino’s money was never allowed to flow outside, so they accused the new face of stealing chips.

They forced him to cut open his stomach for them to inspect, but he confirmed it in another way: by consuming the upper half of everyone’s faces in the casino, or rather, the area around their eyes.

He was letting them see clearly in their bellies.

After doing all this, the new face walked out of the casino, filled with screams and bloodshed, and soon disappeared into the distance.

It’s worth noting that, just ten or so minutes before this tragedy occurred, the same thing happened in the Black Mamba Casino—two foreigners won several thousand shillings and likewise faced obstruction from the casino, who also forced them to cut open their stomachs to be checked.

One of the foreigners really did it, foolishly cutting open his belly to prove his innocence.

The casino finally let them go.

However, when the police and watchmen arrived later, they found the ice-cold corpses of the two men in an alley outside the casino; they had been dead for quite some time.

“I understand.”

Lu Li nodded.

The watchman returned to the busy casino, and Lu Li also picked up the reins and circled around the casino, where dozens had died.

“It was those two people…” Anna murmured to herself in a low voice.

Aunt Mary and the others were puzzled, but seeing no signs of explanation from Lu Li and Anna, they suppressed their curiosity.

On their way to the port, the people in the carriage came across many similar scenes.

Passing by a park, there were several corpses lying in front of the benches, shrouded with bloodstained white cloths.

As the carriage passed by, they heard a nearby resident, scared out of their wits, tremblingly say, “At noon, I saw him and his family wandering the streets like ghosts from the basement window.

He moved the park benches together, told the woman to sit down, and the children too.

I didn’t understand what he was doing.

Then he… he shot his mother and son.

The girl begged him not to kill her, but he pressed her onto the bench and shot her.

Then he walked to the side, looked around, and committed suicide.”

At the edge of the park, many residents gathered, and an elderly man shouted, “Aren’t you afraid of the darkness of dusk?”

The people answered, “No!”

“Tell me why!”

“Because the sun will rise normally tomorrow!”

On the coastal street, officers were comforting a drenched sailor, surrounded by several watchmen.

“Keep calm, sir; you’re safe now.

We’re on land.”

“No, no!

You don’t understand!

They are out there in the fog!—Listen!

They are coming!

They’re here aaaaah——”

The man’s screams of madness ceased abruptly as a watchman approached and found that the sailor had been scared to death by extreme fear.

The carriage slowed down, queuing up before the congested port.

The bustling Rhodest Port lay ahead.