novelraw Chapter 447: Back to Work
Chapter 447: Back to Work
Anna pursed her lips slightly. She knew Lu Li was just trying to reassure her. He turned to the man from Roostown and said, "You don't need to be afraid. I'm an exorcist, and she's my assistant."
Lu Li wasn't skilled at comforting anyone, except perhaps Anna. But for the frightened man, those words were enough.
Lu Li gestured for Anna to release the man. "I have a few questions," he stated.
"O-of course!"
Feeling that he could move again, the man shot a fearful glance at Anna, flinched, and began to speak in a rush.
"Who asked you to deliver the letter?"
The anxious townsman struggled to recall. "I don't know her... It was a strange woman!"
"A woman?"
Anna and Lu Li exchanged a look.
The man explained that the exorcists from Tenebrae had hired him and other carriage owners to transport belongings from the ruined town to Roostown. Just a few minutes ago, as he was preparing to depart, a mysterious woman in a long cloak had approached him. She asked him to deliver a letter to the carriage that had just left town, paying him several dozen shillings for the trouble.The man had assumed she was an exorcist, and since there was money involved, he'd agreed. That was how he had caught up to Lu Li.
"Did you notice anything distinctive about her appearance?" Lu Li asked. "Her voice, accent, build?"
The man stole a glance at Anna and quickly looked away, as if burned. "She was tall... almost my height..."
"Thank you for the information," Lu Li said, then asked Anna to disappear.
Anna's disappearance frightened the man even more. He looked like he was on the verge of tears as he asked if he could leave. Upon receiving permission, he grabbed the reins and scrambled back the way he came.
It seemed unlikely he would be returning to work in Tenebrae anytime soon.
"Could it have been a disguised accomplice of whoever is writing to us?" Anna's voice sounded out of thin air. She still doubted the man's story.
"Unlikely. Whoever is behind this must have realized we've figured out they exist. It would be a pointless risk for them to appear in person."
"A woman..." Anna murmured, trying to recall the women Lu Li knew. Baroness Joseph... Mrs. Slav, whose love letters she had secretly read... Jojo, who had already left the Allen Peninsula...
A sudden, ominous thought struck her. "Could it be the woman in the bird-beak mask we met in the swamp hut?"
Anna remembered that she had been tall, too. With the bird-beak mask on, her hat had been nearly level with Lu Li's head.
"It could be a false trail."
Lu Li didn't let the new speculation distract him. He focused on the most important fact: only Tesla, the Investigators' headquarters, and Richard knew about the Bloody Tentacles.
Tesla had no reason to do this. A leak was possible, but if information about the Bloody Tentacles got out, then so would information about the more dangerous source of contamination—the "Door."
The Bloody Tentacles on Lu Li's forehead hadn't harmed him yet, but the "Door" was constantly trying to pull him in.
What lay beyond it was unknown, though the diaries he'd read offered some clues.
If it was a leak, whoever received the information would be far more concerned about the "Door" than the Bloody Tentacles.
The silhouette of Richard loomed ever clearer behind these letters.
But even if it was confirmed to be Richard, Lu Li's situation wouldn't change.
Not unless he could lure Richard out.
Lu Li looked south again. Amidst the gloomy clouds, he could see the writhing Bloody Tentacles, stretching for many thousands of meters toward the mainland.
If the Bloody Tentacles were to disappear, would Richard continue to hide?
Lu Li had tried this before to force Richard into the open. But after destroying all the Bloody Tentacles on the Allen Peninsula, he had never caught a glimpse of his foe. The tentacles on other continents were too far away, and Lu Li had abandoned the idea.
But now...
Their position had changed. They were closer to the Allen Peninsula.
Perhaps, like Lu Li himself, they had been summoned by the one pulling the strings.
Whatever the case, this was his best chance to solve the problem and drag the instigator into the light.
Lu Li turned away and asked the reappearing Anna, "Do you want to see some new places?"
Anna understood what he meant and frowned. "The letter advised you to stay on the peninsula."
"The one who wrote it just doesn't want me to be gone for long. The other tentacles have moved closer, but they're still outside the peninsula's borders," Lu Li replied.
"All the tentacles are closing in on the peninsula? What is he planning...?"
"Perhaps his plan is beginning to unfold."
Just as Lu Li, sensing the growing danger in the world, had decided to leave for the Lennon Archipelago, the one behind all this must have felt the same threat and begun to act.
Regardless, Lu Li, an unwilling pawn in this game, had no intention of letting it continue.
"Wherever you go, I'll go," Anna said softly.
Lu Li took the reins.
"Then let's go."
At the fork in the road, he turned right, and the carriage continued on, bypassing Tenebrae.
The smell of ash and smoke that hung over the ruined town seemed to linger in the air. People scurried between the skeletal remains of houses.
Soon, Lu Li saw what had once been the tallest and sturdiest building in town—the church. Now, only ruins remained.
The confrontation between the old and new Mother of the Swamp had ended with the new Mother's victory and the destruction of Tenebrae. The few survivors would be sent to other towns. If the world ever became safer, perhaps the swamp road would allow a new settlement to rise here one day.
But more likely, these ruins would eventually fade into a desolate, abandoned wilderness, slowly dying along with the thousands of souls lost in Tenebrae.
After passing Tenebrae and entering the swamp road, which had been temporarily closed due to the recent events, the carriage reached a straight stretch of the path.
This time, there were no new letters. Theirs was the only carriage traveling the road that cut between the northern and southern parts of the swamp.
"Almost nothing is known about the creatures inhabiting the northern part of the Shadow Swamp. But there are no ominous rumors about the road itself. Perhaps those creatures are inactive," Lu Li said, answering a question Anna had asked earlier.
Time passed. To their left, amidst the withered trees of the southern swamp, dark silhouettes began to appear.
They were the Shadow People—the shadows of the Mother of the Swamp.
The Mother of the Swamp was watching Lu Li.
They only watched, never approaching the carriage.
The long journey continued under the steady gaze of the Shadow People. Near noon, as the carriage approached the end of the swamp road, the low, gray shapes of mountains appeared in the distance.
The mainland, the cradle of civilization, was close.