Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 505 - 505 Twenty-four

505: Twenty-four.

Returning to one’s old profession.

505: Twenty-four.

Returning to one’s old profession.

Anna pursed her lips gently, clearly understanding that Lu Li’s words were not meant in that way; he was merely comforting himself.

She silently watched Lu Li as he said to the townsperson, “You don’t have to be afraid.

I am an Exorcist, and she is my assistant.”

Lu Li wasn’t good at offering comfort to anyone, except for Anna.

But as a life-saving straw thrown to the townsfolk, it was enough.

Lu Li gestured for Anna to release the townsman, saying, “I have a few questions.”

“Of… of course!”

Realizing he could move, the townsman looked at Anna fearfully, his body trembling, then hurriedly stammered out his response.

“Who asked you to deliver the message?”

The fearful townsman struggled to search his memory: “I don’t know her… She was a very strange woman!”

“A woman?”

Anna and Lu Li exchanged glances.

The townsman told Lu Li that the Exorcists of Shadow Town had hired him and some other townsfolk with carriages to transport things from Shadow Town to Rose Town.

Just minutes before he was supposed to leave for work, a mysterious woman in a long robe approached him.

She asked him to deliver a letter to the carriage that had just left town and gave him several dozen shillings for his trouble.

The townsman thought she was an Exorcist, and as there was payment involved, he saw no reason not to do it, so he chased after Lu Li, which led to the scene that had just unfolded.

“Did she have any features that are particularly memorable to you?” asked Lu Li, adding, “Tone of voice, accent, physique.”

The townsman sneaked a glance at Anna, then quickly looked away as if burned, “Does her being very tall count…?

Almost as tall as me…”

“That’s fine, thank you for the information,” Lu Li said, indicating for Anna to hide again.

Anna’s disappearance only added to the townsman’s terror, and he almost cried as he asked Lu Li if he could leave.

After getting a response, he took the reins and hurried back the way he came, in no mood to take on the job in Shadow Town any longer.

“Is it possible that the townsman is actually the person behind the scenes in disguise?” Anna’s voice emerged from the void; she still harbored doubts about the townsman’s identity.

“The likelihood is small.

The person behind the scenes must know that we suspect his existence by now, so taking the risk to show up in person is pointless.”

“A woman…” Anna murmured to herself, pondering over the women Lu Li knew.

Baron Joseph…

Mrs.

Slav, from the love letters she had peeked at…

Jojo, who had already left the Ailen Peninsula…

A mysterious, eerie silhouette suddenly emerged: “Could it be the woman with the Bird Beak Mask we met in the swamp cabin?”

Anna remembered she was also quite tall, almost as tall as Lu Li with the brim of her mask.

“It could also be a ruse designed to lead us astray.”

Lu Li wasn’t distracted by the new clue.

He just needed to remember one thing—only Tesla, the Investigator Headquarters, and the originator, Richard, could possibly know about the Blood-Colored Tentacles.

Tesla had no reason to do this.

There might be a possibility of information being leaked, but alongside the Blood-Colored Tentacles was the terrifying source of contamination, the information about “the door.”

The Blood-Colored Tentacles on his forehead had not affected Lu Li so far, yet “the door” had relentlessly and repeatedly pulled Lu Li inside it.

What lay beyond it was unknown, but a glimpse could be seen in the diaries he had once perused.

If it were a leak, the person peeking at the information should be more concerned about the threat of “the door” instead of the inconsequential Blood-Colored Tentacles—in comparison to the door’s significance.

In the background of the letters, Richard’s silhouette was becoming clearer and clearer.

But even if they confirmed that Richard was the man behind the scenes, it would not fundamentally change Lu Li’s current situation.

Unless they could lure Richard out.

Lu Li looked to the south again.

In the gloomy clouds, where the tens of thousands of meters long Blood-Colored Tentacles meandered to the edge of the horizon, there lay the Main Affinity Continent.

If the Blood-Colored Tentacles were all to disappear, would Richard still continue to remain hidden?

Lu Li had attempted this before, trying to force the hidden Richard out of hiding.

However, even after dealing with all the Blood-Colored Tentacles on the Ailen Peninsula, Richard still did not show up, and the tentacles on other continents were too far away to be bothered with.

But now—

Their locations had changed, seemingly moving closer to the Ailen Peninsula.

Perhaps, like Lu Li, they were summoned by the person behind the scenes?

Regardless, this was the best chance to thoroughly solve the problem and bring out the existence behind the scenes.

Lu Li took his gaze back and turned to ask Anna, who was emerging, “Do you want to go check out a new place?”

Anna knew what Lu Li meant and said softly with a frown, “The letter asked you to stay on the Ailen Peninsula.”

Lu Li replied, “That person just doesn’t want me to leave the Ailen Peninsula for too long; the other tentacles, although closer, are still outside.”

“All the other tentacles are approaching the Ailen Peninsula?

What does that person want to do…”

“Perhaps his plan is about to begin.”

Just as Lu Li felt the world was becoming increasingly dangerous and wanted to find refuge in the Lennon Islands, the person behind the scenes sensed the same crisis and started to initiate his plan.

Regardless, as a victim inadvertently pulled into the plan, Lu Li could not allow it to continue.

“Wherever you go, I will go.”

Anna’s soft voice rang by Lu Li’s ear as he picked up the reins.

“Then let’s go.”

Turning right at a fork in the road, the carriage passed by Shadow Town.

The stench of gunpowder and char seemed to still linger above Shadow Town, with silhouettes moving through the collapsed buildings and streets.

After a series of events, Lu Li saw the once tallest and sturdiest church in town, now collapsed into ruins, no longer in its former glory.

The final outcome of the conflict between the old and new Mothers of the Swamp ended with the victory of the New Swamp Mother and the downfall of Shadow Town.

The surviving few more than a dozen people would be sent to live in other towns.

If the world did not become more dangerous, this place might be reborn with life due to Marsh Road and see the emergence of a new town.

But a more likely fate was that, as time passed, these ruins would become a wilderness that nobody dared to set foot in, aging together with the thousands of undead that died in Shadow Town.

After bypassing Shadow Town, the carriage arrived at Marsh Road, which was temporarily closed due to the incidents in Shadow Town, and drove onto the straight Marsh Road.

This time the existence behind the scenes did not send another letter.

On Marsh Road, separating the North and South Swamp, there was only a carriage moving slowly.

“The existence in the North Shadow Swamp, the Mother of the Marsh, is deeply taboo, but there are no strange rumors about Marsh Road, so maybe the entities inside aren’t very active,”

Lu Li now answered Anna’s initial question.

As time moved on, dark silhouettes began to appear standing amongst the Withered Forest of the South Swamp to their left.

The Shadow Figures were the shadows of the Mother of the Marsh.

The Mother of the Marsh was watching Lu Li, who was passing by.

They merely observed silently, without approaching the traveling carriage.

Throughout the long journey, the observation by the Shadow Figures never ceased.

Time was nearing the morning, and the carriage was about to reach the other end of Marsh Road.

At the end of the visible road ahead, a low and dull mountain range began to emerge.

The Main Affinity Continent, the cradle of civilization, lay ahead.