Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 688 - 688 207

688: 207.

Gathering Before the Storm 688: 207.

Gathering Before the Storm Raimy floated up with a plank to the cabin roof and nailed shut the holes that were usually ignored.

The patchy wooden boards around the cabin were as unsightly as a molting lamb, yet, inexplicably comforting.

“Do you need to rest at night?”

Raimy, floating down, was suddenly asked by Lu Li.

“Not usually, only when I’ve expended energy do I need rest to recover… What’s happened?” Raimy looked at Lu Li curiously.

“If possible, could you keep Anna company for the next few nights?”

Lu Li didn’t give a reason, but Raimy guessed some of it—Anna’s personality had changed a lot; something she didn’t know must have happened.

Raimy thought, “Maybe we can throw a party.”

A party…

For Sara, as an Evil Spirit experiencing the passage of a long time, parties had been few and far between, if held, not likely to bring up much of Sara’s memories.

“How shall we do it?”

“Leave it to me and my brother, I’ll go now and talk to Miss Anna about the party.

When do you want to hold it?”

“Before the storm arrives.”

“Then it’s tonight,” Raimy understood, set down the hammer in her hand, and walked toward the cave.

A child clumsily helped a mate pick off the mud stuck to the scorched skin; Raimy passed them, found Anna, talked about the party, and didn’t forget to mention it was Lu Li who suggested the party—

Anna should have guessed Lu Li’s intention.

Anna, holding a book, tilted her head slightly; she indeed had guessed Lu Li’s intention: “Now?”

“Later,” Raimy felt somewhat envious of the relationship between Anna and Lu Li.

This clumsy care was far more romantic than any novel.

“Hmm… then I’ll go to Belfast to fetch some food and drinks.” Anna closed the book, still a dozen pages short of finishing, left the cave, and found Lu Li, “I’m going to Belfast to get some things for the party.”

“Be careful,” Lu Li’s tone was as calm as ever.

“I will.”

Anna raised her pale palm, tiptoed, and touched Lu Li’s head, mussing up his black hair, then drifted into Elm Forest.

At that moment, Jimmy, holding a stack of freshly sawed planks, came around the back of the wooden cabin.

He greeted Lu Li and looked up at the sky, muttering, “Has the wind started already?”

Raimy returned in front of the cabin to continue her busy work.

The siblings repaired their own cabin, then helped Aidanvoya reinforce hers, and the children’s as well.

By four in the afternoon, Anna had returned.

Somehow, in a noble’s cellar, she’d found a box of red wine, a box of canned swan meat, and a few sets of unused silverware.

Jimmy stayed on the cliff top, building a bonfire, while Raimy followed Lu Li and Anna down to the rocky area below the cliffs, pulling out fishing cages with a rope.

Three fish, the size of rats, struggled and jumped inside the cage, suffocating, and several snails clung to the wire mesh.

An invisible hand grabbed the three fish, their gills opening and closing near Anna—they were normal, without any strange organs or features.

After setting fresh bait into the water, they waited for the fishing cage to sink into the unseen depths of the sea, then returned to the cliff top.

Raimy gutted the fish, throwing the innards to Jimmy as a pre-dinner treat.

“Although I can eat anything…” Jimmy looked at the innards, now dirtied with sand on the ground, and complained to his sister, “Could you show a little respect to your brother?”

“If you don’t want them, I’ll use them as fertilizer for Annie,” Raimy said, threading the fish onto a stick and not looking back.

Normally, Jimmy might have used a Monster Avatar to devour…but anyways, there would be roasted fish to eat at night.

“Give it to Annie,” he said, then voluntarily reached out a claw to grab the innards and buried them under the Annie Tree.

Rustle rustle—

Annie responded by gently shaking the bushes.

A campfire gathering is more suitable to start in the evening.

A group of people gathered around the campfire, chatting and roasting food, enjoying the lively atmosphere of the gathering.

However, these were too conspicuous on the cliff top, and after envelopment by the Mist of Strangeness, it wasn’t very safe either.

So, the gatherings of the Elm Forest residents were set before five in the afternoon, as when the Mist of Strangeness spread from the deep sea, the gathering would end.

The warm flames roasted those in front of the fire, and Amber was dragged over to lie on the perimeter of the fire pit, blocking the cold, damp sea breeze blowing up the cliff.

Raimy, who had taken over Lu Li’s task, was responsible for livening up the atmosphere.

Anna listened quietly, occasionally turning the fish roasting over the fire, sprinkling spices that ignited a swath of sparkling effect.

“Do you remember Insmouth Town?

I almost know what’s going on with the people there,” the conversation inevitably turned to the strange.

“They must have been contaminated by some entity influencing their cognition,” Raimy said after adding wood to the fire.

“Over time, not just cognition, but eventually consciousness and self will belong to that entity, just like the Heretics.”

“At that time, it must have been something on you that attracted that entity, so the contaminated cognition changed the villagers, making them subconsciously want to capture you.”

“How do you know all this?” Jimmy asked, puzzled, as his sister had always stayed on the cliff top.

“Don’t forget my role is ‘scholar,'” Raimy lifted her chin confidently, “After leaving the story, I was no longer controlled by the Evil God, but my role remained.

Originally, the breath of the Evil God looked after me and taught me knowledge, but now the breath of the Inner World looks after me and teaches me knowledge.”

Jimmy only understood half of it: the phrase “After I left the story, I was no longer controlled by the Evil God” because he felt the same way, so he looked helplessly towards Lu Li, hoping for an explanation.

“It’s like fish that left the water to evolve limbs and become animals.

They didn’t stop breathing because they left the water, but learned a new way of breathing.”

But more than the explanation itself, the people around the fire were more interested in Lu Li’s comparison.

“Animals from fish!?”

“Are animals actually evolved from fish?”

The Jimmy Siblings asked simultaneously, and Anna, who just picked up a roasted fish to hand to Lu Li, also stopped her motion, waiting for Lu Li to continue.

“…Maybe,” Lu Li said ambiguously.

Is there no theory like evolution, or do they just not know?

The sky gradually darkened, and only silhouettes were left in the distance, with the rustling of the wind sounding over Elm Forest.

Perhaps because of the approaching storm, the Mist of Strangeness did not appear on the dim sea surface even then.

“We’re tired, it’s time to rest,” Raimy sensed that Anna had something to say to Lu Li, pulling the reluctant Jimmy back to the cabin.

After the siblings left, the warmth around the lively fire pit quickly cooled down.

“I remembered a dance,” Anna’s eyes reflecting the fire pit, shimmered.

“Do you want to see it?”

“Hmm.”

Lu Li watched as Anna stood up.

The wailing sea breeze blew atop the cliff, causing Anna’s hair and dress to sway with the wind.

The dance was clear in the shadows, surrounded by flames stirred by the wind, illuminating the sleepless camp.