Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 628 - 628 147

628: 147.

Demon Slayer Association’s “Conspiracy 628: 147.

Demon Slayer Association’s “Conspiracy “Will it spread?”

Anna had answers to many questions in her heart, but she still liked to ask them out loud and hear Lu Li respond to herself.

“I hope not, but it’s difficult.”

The dandelions carried away by the whirlwind were only a large part, not all.

Some dandelions might have been absorbed by water, lingering on the cobblestone paths and puddles.

Some might have been trapped under clothing.

Some might have drifted into the wooden houses along the roadside—

Even burning down the entire block wouldn’t completely eradicate them; maybe some dandelions had already left that street, floating towards other places.

We can only hope that the United Organization has the means to detect the dandelions, or that the dandelions will rot and lose their oddity in a short time.

Whichever the case, a strange invasion in the Royal City of Arlen before the Exorcists’ Council was an unsettling matter.

I hope everything goes smoothly at the council tomorrow.

Back at the inn, the guests at the dining table were all talking about the strange events in the neighboring block, and many anxious guests had already taken their luggage downstairs, planning to leave this place.

“Perhaps we should go back too.”

Back in the room, Anna urged once more.

She certainly understood the importance of the Exorcists’ Council, but nothing was more important than Lu Li’s safety.

Suddenly, a knock at the door interrupted Lu Li just as he was about to speak, and Lilia walked in to inquire what had happened outside.

Lu Li briefly explained the dandelion anomaly and told Lilia to lock the doors and windows after she returned to her room.

Once Lilia had left, Lu Li turned to Anna, who had just finished checking whether the windows were tightly closed, and said, “I want to verify a speculation.”

“What is it?”

“About ‘the seed’.”

The speculation regarding the “seed” plan had shifted from fanciful to concrete, yet the myriad of issues it spawned still required thought.

For example, the arrangements for the exorcists not included in the shelter plans.

It could be interpreted from an optimistic, pessimistic, or even conspiratorial perspective.

For instance, optimistically, the refuge might just be a fallback planned by the Exorcists Association, akin to the plan’s name “the seed,” preserving the seeds of human elites who would emerge from the mountains and underground after the flood receded, restoring civilization’s splendor amidst the ruins.

And pessimistically, people would feel like they were the ones being abandoned, not believing that the light would pierce the clouds after the disaster—they wouldn’t leave this place.

As for conspiracy theories…

The Exorcists Association was as mysterious as the oddities.

Among exorcists, guardians, and investigators, only the investigators were rarely seen, while the first two were known to appear in slightly larger towns.

The members of the Exorcists Association hardly ever showed themselves, and their stance on oddities was ambiguous—their precedents of using evil spirits and other oddities emanated from them.

So, what if the Exorcists Association realized the invading oddity was too powerful to oppose and decided to compromise proactively?

Leaving behind the seed, abandoning resistance, gathering most forces battling against them along with themselves, and handing them over to the oddities…

The reason why conspiracy theories are so named is because they’re made up of the worst possible outcomes and extremely malignant assumptions about others, groundless yet hard to refute.

The trouble was, Lu Li’s speculation leaned more towards the last perspective among the three.

Therefore, if reality pointed towards the conspiratorial, something strange would certainly happen during the council meeting.

“Like the dandelions…” Anna murmured.

If Lu Li hadn’t happened to be staying here, the dandelions might have uncontrollably spread to the surrounding dozen or so blocks, infecting the entire southern part of the Royal City.

“Then why don’t we leave this place?” Anna asked, puzzled.

“Dandelions are not difficult to fight against.”

Yes, for ordinary people who know nothing, dandelions can indeed kill them easily.

But it wouldn’t be long before people learned the rules of the dandelions, just like the rituals of evil spirits.

By then, people would simply need to hide in their homes, enclosed places, or even in garments that covered all their skin to disregard them.

No Exorcist would be stupid enough to be killed by a Dandelion whose rules were known.

“What if the Dandelions are just the first wave?

The kind that comes looking for trouble to test the waters.”

“That’s why I’m waiting for the second wave,” Lu Li answered calmly.

Whatever appeared next would prove part of the conspiracy theory to be true: the abominations knew the gathering of Exorcists and wanted to capture them all in one fell swoop.

Whether this was related to the Exorcists Association or not, staying in the Royal City had become unsafe.

By nine o’clock at night, the pedestrians on the streets had become much sparser than usual, almost half of the hotel rooms were vacant, and people were staying as far away as possible from the streets where the abominations had broken out.

When Lu Li fell asleep, Anna covered him with a blanket, picked up the book that was at the bedside, and placed it into her handbag, quietly watching over the sleeping Lu Li.

If anything happened, she could take him and leave at a moment’s notice.

…

By five in the morning, the district was completely blockaded.

The surrounding districts were also controlled by the United Organization of Exorcists, only the ones stationed at the exits had gone from Exorcists to Royal City Guards.

“I feel like I’m going to freeze to death,” a muffled complain came from inside a metal helmet at the north side exit.

“Who thought it was a good idea to have us standing on the street in metal on a cold night?”

“Complain a little less.

The Exorcists inside are in much more danger than us,” his companion answered.

A gust of cold wind blew past, and the complaining guard shivered, his armor clanking with a “clang.”

Looking ahead, they could see the faint glow of a fire at the end of the street.

The United Organization of Exorcists had eventually adopted Lu Li’s suggestion to set the entire district ablaze to prevent the spread of the abominations.

Alliance members were going door to door, notifying the residents nearby not to panic or go outside aimlessly.

Buildings drenched in kerosene quickly turned into fireballs, crackling loudly and spreading to the structures on either side that had also been soaked in kerosene.

Dressed in beak-nosed protective clothing, the Exorcists retreated from the five o’clock district and continued to move back to avoid the oncoming heatwave.

The moisture in the air evaporated swiftly, becoming dry.

All impurities were turned to ash and thick smoke in the purifying flames.

People were looking up at the hellish scene, as if the flames would never extinguish, their eyes reflecting the blazing fire.

Unnoticed at their feet, a slender and shadowy paw was silently reaching towards the burning district.

…

Crackling—

The sounds of wood bursting open kept coming from all around.

The moisture inside the wood walls was quickly dried out, freeing a Dandelion that had been trapped by the damp.

Its fluff stuck together, and it should have fallen powerlessly into the soil.

But the heatwave lifted it up, carrying it onto the burning eaves.

Everywhere was engulfed in flames, but just as the solitary surviving Dandelion was about to be licked by the fire—suddenly, the fiercely burning district fell into a deathly still darkness.

…

There was a flapping of wings outside the window.

Anna pulled back the curtains.

A black crow stood outside the window, tilting its head to look at her, with a bamboo tube tied to its leg.

She opened the window to let the black crow in, and a chill, along with the smoky scent of the walls, invaded the room.

Lu Li had already woken up and took the note Anna handed to him, unfolding it.

It held just one line of hastily scrawled, barely legible short words.

[Run]