Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 535 - 535 54

535: 54.

Fall of Rodest Port 535: 54.

Fall of Rodest Port The door opened, and Finn stumbled into the cabin, holding Emily with the joy of a survivor.

His wet clothes were stained with sand from the beach.

Old Hand hurried to close the door and secure the bolt, as Lu Li then asked Finn, “Where have you come from?”

“The Exorcist let you in,” Emily whispered to her husband.

Finn didn’t hear her; his mind was completely captivated by the place Lu Li’s words directed him to, and he muttered dreamily, “The port…

it’s the port…

the port…”

“What happened at the port?”

Finn’s fearful muttering made Lu Li realize that there might be a problem at Rhodest Port.

“Mr.

Exorcist…

Finn.”

The landlord then said in a hushed voice, pointing at the wooden door, “Let’s talk in the room…”

He was worried that something from the fog might smash through the wooden door and burst in.

…

Detective Agency living room.

Finn and Emily were nestled together on the sofa.

The other residents had been sent back by the landlord, who inexplicably chose to stay, leaning against a door farthest from the window.

Finn was much calmer than at the start, his body only trembling slightly, whether from cold or fear.

In the midst of his tremors, he slowly began to recount what he had encountered at the port.

Finn was a sailor on the “Conch Corner,” a common small three-masted sailing ship.

It was lucky because “Conch Corner” had sailed out in the early morning, avoiding the port that had been sealed off due to a plague.

It was unlucky because it couldn’t dock at the port that had been locked down because of the plague.

According to the arrangements of the United Organization of Exorcists, “Conch Corner” could either dock at the port or anchor offshore for the night.

Both options were somewhat bad—the former could involve contact with the terrible plague, the latter, who knew what they might encounter when the Mist of Strangeness struck.

Thus, the captain of “Conch Corner” made an ambiguous decision: to get close to the port, but not dock at it.

Praying for a safe return home by morning, Finn and the other sailors gathered in a cargo hold filled with oil lamps and torches.

Although the strong fishy smell almost made them lose their sense of smell, it was better than staying in the dark on deck.

Then, the eerie Mist of Strangeness arrived, engulfing both Rhodest Port and Belfast.

And no one could have imagined the disaster would strike so swiftly.

Simon, who had been peeking at the port through the porthole, ran up to everyone nervously saying that he had seen a cluster of lights at the port go out.

“We’re at least three hundred yards from the port, and it’s dense fog, how can you see that far?”

a sailor said.

Neither the captain nor the sailors believed him, or perhaps they didn’t want to believe, because the thick fog had just begun.

Everything happened too quickly.

Simon was sure he wasn’t mistaken, pulling the half-believing first mate toward the port and telling him, “I’m absolutely sure!

You know…

you know there’s a workers’ dormitory there.

We just played cards with Paul and others there, right where the lights went out!”

The first mate stared out the porthole, his face manifesting a fear that made everyone uneasy.

They understood that something really did happen at the port.

The captain kept muttering that they were some distance from the port and should be fine, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

More sailors crowded to the porthole; shrouded in fog, they could barely distinguish the docked ships and the port’s outline, along with some dim lights.

The dreadful scene they dreaded happened again in less than a minute, spreading like a contagious disease, with another glimmer of light next to the previously darkened worker cabins vanishing abruptly.

At this moment, the harbor, which twinkled under the envelopment of the Mist of Strangeness, seemed to be missing a corner.

The ship’s cabin was surrounded by an anxious atmosphere.

“We can’t stay here any longer…

we need to find a way to shore,” one murmured.

The first mate murmured as he moved away from the porthole and walked over to whisper something to the captain.

The sailors looked up at them, and after a few seconds, the captain picked up a torch stuck between the planks, shouting to them, “Everyone on deck, weigh anchor and leave port!”

Although they knew the deck was equally perilous, if the danger from the port spread, all of them would be buried in darkness.

The sailors surged onto the deck with torches and oil lamps.

Finn followed them out of the cabin, the scattered lights on the deck providing him a slight sense of security that he was not alone, and he ran to the mast to raise the sails.

Gripping the rope, he looked up to raise the sail, occasionally gazing toward the distant harbor, where the gloom was spreading faster than before.

Finn faintly heard screams from the port, but it seemed to be just his illusion, for the noisy deck made it impossible to hear such subtle sounds from afar.

But the spreading darkness at the port was an undeniable fact.

While the sail was halfway up, a sailor who ran past Finn shouted at him, “It’s too late!

We need to find a way off the ship.”

What?

The slow-reacting Finn looked around in confusion and saw the fishing boat’s small wooden boat being lifted by the sailors and swung out to sea—they intended to escape on the small boats.

He turned again to look towards the bow, where the heavy anchor was still slowly being hauled link by link.

It would take minutes, perhaps even longer, to fully raise the anchor!

By then, no one knew what horror the port would have turned into.

The captain did not wish to abandon “Conch Corner”, but the “Conch Corner” did not belong to the sailors.

They were just workers, there was no need for them to die for a fishing boat.

More and more sailors dropped what they were doing and ran to the middle of the Conch Corner to get on the small boats.

The captain naturally saw this happening, but he was busy with the first mate, the second mate, and some loyal sailors raising the anchor and couldn’t leave.

After a brief hesitation, Finn clenched his teeth, dropped the rope, disregarding the falling sail, and ran to the small boats.

There were only two small wooden boats; a dozen sailors crowded onto them, then the accident happened—the sailors and the wooden boat plunged into the sea together.

A poor sailor, unfortunately, hit the edge of the wooden boat at his waist, Finn saw him fold in half like a shrimp, motionless as he sank to the bottom.

Several other sailors carrying torches fell into the water and never surfaced again, as if they melted into the engulfing pitch-black seawater.

What happened afterward Finn was reluctant to describe; he glossed over the details.

In the end, carrying an oil lamp, Finn and two other sailors rowed to shore, and when he set foot on the beach, he couldn’t help but look back—Conch Corner and the harbor had become indistinguishable.

A swath of darkness, eerily silent.

Finn was exhausted and terrified.

After finishing his tale, he was helped away from the Detective Agency by his wife, Emily.

The landlord obsequiously bade them goodnight, told Lu Li to seek him if needed, and retreated down the corridor to close the door.

The Detective Agency returned to silence.

Anna materialized, contemplating the thoughtful Lu Li.

The bad news wasn’t just about Rhodest Port itself.

The incident at Rhodest Port was highly likely to let the controlled epidemic spread to Belfast.

And what the destruction of the port led to—

“How will we get to the Lennon Islands?” Anna asked.