Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 659 - 659 One hundred seventy-eight point four keys

659: One hundred seventy-eight point four keys 659: One hundred seventy-eight point four keys “There’s a note on the door.”

Not just one, many notes were stuck on the heavy metal door, some of which had fallen to the ground due to lost adhesiveness or other reasons.

Anna walked up to the door, and after noticing the content of the notes was the same, she casually peeled one off and handed it to Lu Li.

“The first key is where the Lady watches, the second key is in the land where the water has dried up, the third key is in the chest of stars, and the final key is within its flesh.”

“A…

riddle?” Anna’s gaze fell on the four keyholes at each corner of the metal door.

Deciphering indeed was an effective method to filter out the eerie, although there were loopholes: the eerie could simply wait at the entrance to the vault and greet humans as they arrived, like those lurking in the hall, abandoning human shells.

“The last key I can guess is inside that creature outside; what about the other three?” Anna thought the puzzle was too complicated, sifting out not only the eerie but also some of the humans.

“Somewhere in this bank,” Lu Li said, removing an oil lamp hanging on the wall and lighting it before stepping back into the hall with Anna.

Echoes of tearing and scraping emanated from the hall as Anna used a kitchen knife to divide the creature’s body in search of the key.

The keyholes on the vault door could fit a finger, suggesting the keys were not too small.

Three minutes later, Anna discovered a copper key expelled from a crevice in the corner, bringing it back to Lu Li.

“Didn’t find the other keys?” Anna asked, noticing Lu Li’s empty hands.

“They must be upstairs.”

The second floor was an office area, and the disarray of a few desks and chairs indicated that the bank had been manned when Inverted City descended.

Following the door plaques, Lu Li entered a manager’s office on the periphery.

Anna headed straight for the desk and file cabinets in the corners, while Lu Li set the oil lamp on the desk and stood at the window, parting the curtains to look downwards.

In the dim city afar, the council hall cap of the Royal Palace, towering above all other structures, almost seemed to merge with the reflection in Inverted City.

The crowd on the street below was undiminished, but upon closer inspection, one could see more figures leaving the central region of the Royal City.

After observing quietly for a while, Lu Li withdrew his gaze, his eyes fixed on the office.

His attention was drawn to a painting on the wall: an oil painting of a noble dressed in an ostentatious style from about two hundred years ago, seemingly peering beyond the portrait.

“Lady Ginny Ampleus”

The signature in the lower-right corner identified the woman in the painting.

Lu Li thoughtfully observed the painting for a few seconds, then suddenly turned to look where she was gazing—at the opposite wall hung another portrait: a middle-aged gentleman with a goatee and wearing a top hat.

“Sir Grayford Ampleus”

He was Lady Ginny’s husband, and their decades of love had also been the talk of Royal City’s nobility.

As if discovering something, Lu Li walked over to Sir Ampleus’s portrait and moved it.

Where there should have been flat wallpaper, a hidden compartment appeared, revealing the second key upon opening.

“Which key is this?” Anna asked, coming back to Lu Li’s side after her unsuccessful search.

“The first one.”

“Where the Lady watches…” Anna muttered to herself, glancing around the office once more, noticing the painting of Lady Ginny Ampleus on the wall, and understanding the logic of the riddle.

“So, the other two keys might also be hidden beneath such…

abstract riddles?”

The chest of stars…

could be placed outdoors.

The land where the water has dried up…

since there’s no fountain in the bank, it might be near a mural painted with rivers or lakes, or near a kitchen sink.

Anna had searched the entire second floor but failed to find anything related to the two key clues.

Instead, she discovered the answer placed on a puzzle in a box of miscellaneous goods.

A wooden box, studded with precious gems and surrounded by brooms and mop heads.

The gems on the box twinkled like stars.

The box itself was a precious artifact; it should have been stored in a well-secured treasury rather than left casually in a storeroom.

Its purpose was thus self-evident.

Upon opening the box, the third key, lying quietly at the bottom, appeared as agreed.

Immersed in the decryption game, Anna grumbled discontentedly, thinking that the person who had laid out the puzzles was not serious.

However, only the last key remained unfound, and half of the third floor was still unsearched.

The last room on the third floor of Amprus Noble Bank was an exhibition room: it was an exact replica of Mrs.

Amprus’s bedroom from two hundred years ago, the founder of the bank.

Perhaps someone had cleaned the bedroom at daybreak, meticulously filling it with the style of two centuries ago, even the dressing table was laid out with ladies’ accessories.

As soon as he walked in, Lu Li saw a copper key lying on the dark red bedspread.

However, Anna was puzzled, “Why would the key from the place where the water runs dry be in a bedroom?”

Lu Li’s gaze swept over the old painting of Mrs.

Amprus on the wall and he replied, “Some sort of twisted humor.”

All four keys had been found, and they returned to the first floor.

The ten or so minutes spent looking for keys were enough for the dry claws to clear the bodies.

Walking through the clean hall, they arrived in front of the vault door.

Anna inserted the four keys into the locks and turned them in a clockwise sequence.

Click—

A dull sound echoed through the hall, and the next moment, the sound of gears turning came from inside the metallic door, and the heavy vault door slowly opened automatically, revealing a staircase leading downward.

“I’ll go first.” Anna took the oil lamp from Lu Li’s hand and led the way into the cool treasury.

After stepping down the last stair and passing through a dungeon-like corridor, a hall lit with oil lamps and burning candles emerged before them.

Compared to the figure of Anna, busy at a table in the middle of the hall with her back to Lu Li, the surrounding safes seemed merely decorative.

“At last, someone has managed to come through all the trouble.” An aged voice sounded, gray-haired, still busying themselves with something at the table, without turning around.

The table and the floor around his feet were filled with mechanical parts.

“Do you know about the monsters outside?” Lu Li asked, frowning.

“Ah…”

The old man finally finished assembling the device he was working on, took a deep breath, and placed the fist-sized machine on the table, turning around to greet his guests.

He perfectly matched the stereotype of a scientist: always in a white coat, disheveled, neurotic, wearing thick glasses.

“Why not?

If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have called you here.” He suddenly lowered his head, looking past his glasses at Anna, “… A vengeful spirit?”

“My assistant,” Lu Li said.

“Of course… of course…

I’m not one of those antiquated Exorcists clinging to the old covenant.” The old man waved his hand nonchalantly, distinguishing himself from those traditional local families, casually showing his disdain, “Let me introduce myself, Albert, a scholar from the Demon Slayer Association—a scientist—you know what that is, right?”