The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 350: Lost Humanity

Lu Li was about to step into the carriage and leave the baroness’s estate, but he stopped.

A dim light from a streetlamp spilled onto the path. Lu Li stood beneath his umbrella, raindrops drumming against the taut fabric. His gaze was fixed on a dark silhouette among the withered bushes.

She was supposed to be standing before the blooming "flowerbed" now.

Why was the story continuing?

Lu Li suddenly realized they had missed something crucial. "Sara's" rest did not mark the end of the chapter.

Everyone had been misled by the initial information.

Lu Li paused, waiting to see what Sara would say next.

[“Is something wrong, miss?” Lu Li asked. “Are you going somewhere?” Sara had noticed that the servant, Lu Li, was not in his uniform and was holding an umbrella.]

“Yes,” Lu Li answered curtly.

[“Can you talk with me for a moment?” Sara asked, brushing a strand of hair from her face. Her voice sounded lonely.]“No,” Lu Li refused immediately.

[“...No,” Sara repeated the servant’s refusal. He looked at her like a jailer watching a prisoner. Sara seemed to guess something; a shadow of hurt flickered across her face, but she quickly adopted a disappointed expression. “Very well, go about your business. Good night.”]

“Good night, Miss Sara,” the servant bowed and turned to leave.

Lu Li acted in accordance with the Ancient Voice’s instructions.

[“I thought you were worried about Aileen...” Sara said, just loud enough for Lu Li to hear. The retreating footsteps froze. “What happened to her?” Lu Li asked, turning back.]

The Shadow Puppeteer was holding Lu Li captive with the power of its story.

“What happened to her?” Lu Li repeated, unable to resist the Shadow Puppeteer.

[“Aileen... she’s been having relations with the butler and other servants,” Sara said after a slight pause, lowering her gaze.]

[“Throne the butler?” the servant Lu Li exclaimed. The butler’s portly figure flashed through his mind. He wanted to object but couldn’t utter a word. The miss wouldn’t lie to him, which meant... it had to be true.]

[“She knew you liked her, but you were just a servant, beneath her station, so she despised you... I’m sorry, Lu Li,” Sara raised her head. The sympathy in her pale eyes would wound any man. She expertly wielded her charm. After surviving the death of her beloved, she had transformed overnight from a noblewoman into something terrifying.]

[“Did she say that herself?” Lu Li asked, his voice hoarse.]

[“Yes, she told me so herself,” Sara replied, watching her victim fall into the trap. “Were she... forced by the butler and the other servants?” Lu Li asked hopefully, as if grasping at straws, even though Sara had already told him Aileen despised him.]

[“Aileen did it of her own free will,” Sara let go of the “straw.”]

[“Do you hate her?” Sara asked softly. Lu Li didn’t answer. She knew the moment had come. “I’m sorry... Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that. You should go.”]

Forgetting all decorum, Lu Li didn’t say goodbye to Sara. He turned, lost in thought.

[“Wait, take this shovel to the gardener,” Sara called out, pointing to a shovel stuck in the ground next to the “flowerbed.” As Lu Li picked it up, she added, “Aileen might be in the butler’s bedroom right now. The butler is with Father. If you want to talk to her, you could go there now.”]

Having set the trap, “Sara” moved to the final stage of her plan: to push Lu Li into murdering the baroness.

Lu Li walked over to Sara, took the shovel, and left.

[The servant Lu Li’s back was completely exposed. Sara pulled a pair of scissors from her sleeve and raised them high... to snip the stems of the flowers in the “flowerbed.”]

...

“How cruel she is!” the baroness exclaimed, leaping up from the sofa. The blanket slid from her shoulders.

The butler silently rearranged the blanket.

The fireplace in the hall radiated a gentle warmth.

“You should have realized that after she killed two exorcists,” Vincent sneered.

“Witnessing the death of a loved one can easily change a person,” Petra remarked, looking at Lu Li, who had returned with the shovel. “What happened next? How did you escape the story? Or did you come back to kill Baroness Joseph?”

The head maid gasped. Petra’s words made the butler, Lulu, step in front of the baroness, but she pushed him aside. Looking at Lu Li, she declared, “Go on, then. If I, Baroness Joseph, am to die at the hands of my beloved, I shall have a heartbreaking love story worthy of a minstrel’s song.”

“No,” Lu Li said, handing the shovel to the head maid, who approached with apprehension.

The maid, taken aback, retreated to the sofa with the shovel.

“I spoke my thoughts aloud, feigning a retreat and a refusal to act on impulse.”

“Or perhaps you’re deceiving us, just waiting for the right moment to kill Baroness Joseph when no one is looking,” Vincent said with a chuckle.

“Mister Vincent,” the butler, Lulu, frowned.

Vincent shrugged and fell silent.

“In that case, you would have heard the voice,” Lu Li replied calmly.

The Ancient Voice was not sounding in the ears of those present in the hall.

“Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Petra said, clapping his hands to draw everyone’s attention.