Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 534 - 534 Fifty-three

534: Fifty-three.

Candle head 534: Fifty-three.

Candle head Lu Li had encountered the Mist of Strangeness before, when he first met Anna in the gallery.

Back then, not everything was as bad as it is now, the world, the Mist of Strangeness itself, and Anna…

“Cough cough…”

The faint coughing of children seemed to stamp through the corridor; the Long House was much quieter than usual.

Desperate cries that could barely be made out sounded; it was said that a woman’s husband was trapped at the harbor, a pitiful situation.

[…Shshsh… Exorcists United…]

The voice from the radio was intermittent and noisy.

Lu Li reached out to adjust the frequency, trying to make the voice clearer.

This wasn’t a special broadcast, the content was aimed at all the public in Belfast City.

A faint smell of burning wood drifted from the kitchen; Anna had nearly lighted everything that could be burned in the Detective Agency, except for the house itself.

There were three oil lamps emitting steady yet faint light, the stove in the kitchen, and a few candles.

But when the thick fog rolled in from the street, completely enveloping Sailor Street, the already dim candlelight snuffed out in an instant.

Everything in the house seemed to have a veil thrown over it; the sculptures huddled in corners far from the windows, motionless.

Silhouettes seemed to walk on Sailor Street beyond the curtains that covered the windows.

Now and then, the night was slit by the sound of shattering and screams, which then abruptly ceased.

Someone was dying because of the Mist of Strangeness.

[No one knows…

Shshsh…

what it is…

The Exorcists United Organization’s advice to you is…

Shshsh… avoid…

ignore them.

Hide in a closed and bright…

Shshsh… is safe, even if you make a small noise, it will not…

Shshsh… be found by the Mist Monster…]

The Mist of Strangeness was affecting the radio signal, making the voice increasingly indistinct.

[…

The Mist of Strangeness will not yet be recognized…

Shshsh…

as an evil spirit…

We are still unclear about its origin…

Shshsh…

for a longer duration…

roaming…

Shshsh…

it might only disperse at dawn…

or…]

[Keep your light sources bright…

There are beings in the mist that dare not invade the presence of light… Shshsh…

Asatori…]

Hollow, deep, and mingled with the moaning sound of the wind prayers suddenly intruded into the broadcast, persisting and disturbingly resounding.

The original content of the broadcast mixed with the church-like prayers, difficult to discern, but as time went on, they became more distinct, as if they were nearby—

At this moment, Lu Li looked up towards the window.

A row of silhouettes holding lights slowly moved past the street.

Would anyone still venture out at this time?

Lu Li furrowed his brow at the thought, then suddenly reached out and turned off the noisy radio.

The silence that followed the radio’s shutdown only lasted for a moment because Lu Li heard the murmured prayers still coming through.

From outside the window.

Anna and Lu Li exchanged glances, drifted towards the window, and peeked out from the edges.

She scrunched her brow as if seeing some incomprehensible spectacle and returned to Lu Li’s side after a dozen seconds.

“It was a group with candle heads…” Anna recalled the scene she had witnessed, describing it to Lu Li: “A group of figures with candle heads… They were wearing long robes, moving in two lines down the street like followers…”

Anything strange might exist in the Mist of Strangeness.

The good thing was, light sources would disperse the mist, and they only existed where the fog lingered.

Lu Li turned the radio back on, and Anna returned to the window to continue her observations.

As the candle-headed figures on the street gradually moved away, the praying sounds from the radio also gradually faded away, returning to the bustle of the broadcast.

“Could Richard be up to something during the night?”

Something was moving within the churning mist, Anna frowned and stepped away from the window, turning to Lu Li.

“Like us, he can’t move freely in the Mist of Strangeness.”

Unless Richard had a way to avoid danger, or he was crazy enough to venture out in these conditions.

Therefore, Lu Li and Richard were relatively on the same footing—Lu Li was slightly behind.

Because all Lu Li needed was to act, while a whole night’s delay would be enough for Richard to come up with new methods of dealing with the situation.

Regardless, with only the last Blood-Colored Tentacle remaining, Richard’s schemes and traps could only occur there.

“Go rest, I’ll keep watch,” Anna said.

The broadcast had said that the mysterious fog would dissipate at dawn, and after a night of rest and recuperation, they would resolve the issue with the last Blood-Colored Tentacle and Richard in the early morning, and then they would head to the safe Lennon Islands.

“Mm.”

The bed in the bedroom was too damp to lie down on, Lu Li turned down the volume of the small radio, simply draped his woolen coat over himself, and rested with his head on the desk.

Anna watched him quietly for a while, then sat down on the couch under the window where she could see Lu Li and the door, and flipped through a book she had read several days earlier.

During the night shrouded in the Mist of Strangeness, the Detective Agency returned to its dim, deathly stillness.

…

Bang bang!

Bang bang bang bang!

The urgent knocking sounds penetrated their ears.

Lu Li, who was lightly sleeping, slowly woke up, and in his black eyes appeared the trembling desk and the water in the glass rippling in circles.

It wasn’t the door to the Detective Agency being knocked, but the door to the Long House.

At midnight, with the mysterious fog yet to disperse, the continuous knocking sounds kept coming.

More and more residents of the Long House were awoken from their sleep, as they crawled out from under the beds and from inside the closets.

They looked at one another with panic, mothers clutching their children, and fathers gripping completely useless sticks, anxiously staring down the corridor of the Long House.

Bang bang bang bang!

The knocking and the vibrations continued, until at some point, a timid voice asked, “Who…

Who is it!”

The knocking paused for a moment, then a fearful, cracking voice erupted, “Old Hand?

It’s me!

I’m Finn!

Finn!

Quickly, let me in!”

“It’s a human, he has an oil lamp, no monsters.”

Anna said to Lu Li, who had sat up.

Lu Li nodded, put on his coat, and walked to the door, pulling open the door of the Detective Agency.

The knocking suddenly became clear.

Lu Li could see many doors along the corridor ajar, with figures peering from behind them.

“I can’t let you in, you…

you could be a monster!”

Old Hand, guarding the door, called out in terror to the outsider.

“A monster?

I’m not a monster!

Emily…

Emily, are you there!

Quickly, tell Old Hand to open the door!”

“Finn…”

A woman unable to contain her emotions cried out as she pulled open the door and ran into the corridor, only to be held back by other residents who had come out.

Just as Old Hand was about to refuse the person outside the thin wooden door, Lu Li walked up beside him and said, “There’s a person outside, he has an oil lamp, the light will disperse the fog.”

“I recognize my husband’s voice, it must be him…

it must be…” sobbed Emily, supported by another woman.

The bewildered Old Hand looked to the landlord who approached, and the landlord said through gritted teeth, “Listen…

listen to the Exorcist, quickly open the door and let him in.”

“Thank you…

thank you, landlord, thank you, Exorcist…”

Emily continued to cry and apologized repeatedly, while on the other side, Old Hand quickly removed the door bolt—