The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 131: A Hazy Picture

The mysterious man—or, more accurately, the Inquirer—had left.

The tavern keeper behind the counter didn't try to hold him back, so it looked like Lu Li wouldn't have to pay for the door after all.

— When are we leaving?

Back in their room, Anna finished the last page of 'The Marvelous Journey.' Her voice carried a mix of determination and a faint melancholy from the story's conclusion.

— When dawn breaks, — Lu Li replied, his gaze fixed on the pale sky outside the window.

It was only five-thirty in the morning, still a while before the sun would fully rise.

Wary now, Lu Li refused to eat any more of the food in Tenebrae. The water and bread he was consuming had been brought all the way from Belfast. They were cold and hard, but under the circumstances, it was the safest option.

Still dwelling on the book's ending, Anna wasn't ready to start the next one. She drifted over to the narrow bed and sat on the edge, legs dangling, her eyes wandering aimlessly around the room.

Bored, she let her imagination trace shapes in the grain of the wooden floorboards. One pattern looked like a girl in a long dress, while another resembled a strange-looking axe.

She was happily lost in her game of make-believe until her gaze drifted upward to the ceiling.— Huh...?

Her eyes caught on a finger-sized hole with charred edges that had suddenly appeared in the ceiling.

A strange, unsettling feeling washed over Anna. It was as if someone were spying on them from the attic through that very hole, or as if it had been pierced by a bullet...

— We're cut off from the outside world because of the Abyss, aren't we?

Lu Li, who had been silently chewing his food, heard Anna's question and looked up. — What is it?

Anna remained silent, simply pointing a finger toward the odd mark on the ceiling.

......

A few minutes later, Lu Li appeared on Trio Street.

He found a phone booth a little ways from the Great Wave Tavern.

Entering the booth, Lu Li glanced at the red-covered telephone directory next to the phone, dropped in a coin, lifted the receiver, and dialed a number.

After a brief wait, the call was answered.

— Gades Detective Agency. Gades speaking, head of the agency. How can I help you?

— It's me, — Lu Li said simply.

A brief silence fell on the other end of the line. — ...He's not in. This is his brother.

Ignoring him, Lu Li asked directly, — Do you know about lightfruit?

— I do not! — Gades had thought he was finally rid of Lu Li for a while. He never imagined the man would call him with another question from two hundred miles away.

— Fifty shillings.

— One hundred!

— Fine.

Lu Li didn't haggle.

Besides, as his own knowledge grew, he found himself needing Gades less and less. He was only calling now because he had no better option. JoJo would have had a hard time finding information about lightfruit on such short notice.

— Looking it up now...

Soon, the rustling of pages could be heard from Gades's end.

— Found it. It's the fruit of a plant that grows in damp, sunny environments. Usually found in swamps—the Shadow Swamp has them, too. Since you're asking, I assume you've already heard of it. Some people dry it, grind it into a powder, and use it as an anesthetic, or give it to artists for inspiration.

Lu Li gazed out at the street through the glass of the phone booth. — Tell me about its hallucinogenic properties.

— It induces subconscious hallucinations. It's like a dream, but clearer and more stable. For example, if deep down you were thinking that an old aristocrat worth several hundred thousand shillings was about to walk into your agency and hand over his entire fortune, his beautiful daughter, and his title...

Gades would say anything for a few shillings.

Though that particular subconscious thought sounded more like one of Gades's own fantasies.

Lu Li asked, — So the hallucination changes based on a person's subconscious?

— The book doesn't specify.

Lu Li, look ahead and to your left...

Anna's voice whispered in his ear.

Lu Li looked up, his gaze passing through the lightly misted glass of the phone booth toward an old-fashioned shop across the street.

Fifty meters away, the Inquirer stood at the shop's entrance, a small case in his hand. Across from him, a man in a tall top hat, holding a black cane, was speaking quietly with him.

At that distance, their faces were impossible to make out, but the man's attire reminded Lu Li of a portrait he had seen.

That particular portrait hung in a prominent spot behind the bar at the Great Wave Tavern.

— That's the head of Tenebrae, Jefferson, — the old woman had replied when Lu Li had asked about it.

The Inquirer might have been real, but that didn't mean the man across from him was truly Jefferson. Besides, the Inquirer was supposed to be in a carriage on his way to the mainland, not chatting with someone who looked just like the town's leader.

— We're going back, — Lu Li said, hanging up the phone on Gades's protests and stepping out of the booth.

......

The scales tipped back and forth between truth and lies.

At first, upon their arrival, the tales of ghostly figures, Six-Armed Savages, and the tavern keeper's warnings had all weighed on the side of truth, leaving the side of lies empty. But after Thomas Dio's article appeared, the scales began to level out.

It only takes one loose brick to bring down a building, and only one seed of doubt to destroy trust.

As night fell, Lu Li had barely regained consciousness before he was attacked by an evil spirit. The encroaching darkness, the appearance of the Shadow that Steals Fire, the ghostly figures, and the mysterious man with his explanations—all of it added more weight to the side of truth.

After everything he had experienced, no one could have said with any certainty, "This is all a lie."

But now, the scale was tipping once more, the side of lies slowly descending to take the dominant position.

Lies gain purchase more easily than the truth, because people are naturally inclined toward self-doubt. The smallest details can be magnified, re-examined, and twisted.

Take the bullet hole in the ceiling. If they were truly cut off from the outside world, where did it come from? Or the moment the mysterious man stopped him from shooting at the ghostly figure—was he afraid Lu Li would hit a towns-person in disguise? And why did the man ask him to return to reality first? Was it so the townsfolk playing the part of ghosts could slip out of the tavern unnoticed?

This was especially true now that he had confirmed the lightfruit's hallucinogenic properties.

The keeper of the Great Wave Tavern had definitely been adding the fruit to her food.

It felt as though all hope of turning the case around had vanished, and the side of lies had won a decisive victory on the scales.

— Maybe, maybe not.

But Lu Li's answer remained noncommittal.

— Why don't we just ask her directly? — Anna suggested.

— Because there's no point, — Lu Li said as they walked back toward the tavern. — Don't forget why we're here. The truth about Tenebrae isn't worth my time.

Lu Li had found a caravan heading deeper into the mainland that was willing to take him along.

He left the carriage temporarily at the Great Wave Tavern. He and Anna went back to their room to pack the essentials into his rucksack.

Insect repellent, a water flask, a rain slicker, a compass, and—of course—matches and an oil lamp, items he never traveled without.