The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 459: The Old Rum Tavern

As Richard’s situation grew more desperate, Lu Li’s advantage only increased.

Sensitive, intelligent, irritable, and neurotic. Those were the traits Lu Li had ascribed to Richard after their brief acquaintance. The first two were strengths, the last two, weaknesses.

These were the weaknesses Lu Li planned to exploit.

Just as Anna had predicted, Richard wouldn't just stand by while the Bloody Tentacles vanished one after another. It was the perfect opportunity to draw him out.

After a brief respite at the agency, Lu Li and the invisible Anna headed to the market. They bought only a little more than last time, adding some sea fish to their haul, even though the price had nearly doubled.

Upon returning to the agency, Anna headed for the kitchen to prepare a meal for Lu Li and the black cat. Lu Li, for his part, went to the desk, picked up the telephone, and contacted the Investigators' base. He learned that Tesla was already at the shelter.

But that wasn't why Lu Li had called. He requested all available information on Richard, and within minutes, the police department delivered a neatly compiled dossier.

It contained information about Richard's past and his last known whereabouts.

Richard had no last name. Like Oliver and his sister, he had grown up on the streets and was once a member of the Black Viper, Blue Cliff, and Old Rom gangs. The first two had been wiped out in turf wars; only the Old Rom Gang, where Richard had spent most of his time, still remained.

The police suspected Richard was still in contact with the Old Rom Gang, but the leader denied it. He claimed Richard had left the slums—and Belfast entirely—three years ago, heading for the Sentry Post on the far side of the mountain.This information matched what the police already had. Apparently, he had fallen in with the wrong crowd there and been severely wounded. The injury affected his mind, and he was subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital just outside the city.

Richard was clearly not insane—at least, not completely.

There was no information about his time in the hospital. The facility had long been abandoned, and tracking down former staff was nearly impossible, especially given the severe manpower shortages.

Afterward, he hid in the basement of the abandoned hospital, where he set the trap with the Door for Lu Li. When Lu Li happened upon the hospital, Richard attacked him, but he was fought off and fled.

Richard was last seen a week ago.

After fleeing to the Main Continent, Richard had returned to the Allen Peninsula and hidden for a time in the ruins of Tenebrae. The local police nearly caught him, but he managed to slip away.

Lu Li sank into thought.

One way or another, the mysterious figure behind it all was drawing closer to Richard, who had recently come back to the Allen Peninsula.

Anna, having already read the dossier, was leafing through a cookbook. She looked up from its pages and asked Lu Li, who had just put the file down, "Where do you think he's hiding?"

"He must be in Belfast," Lu Li replied, unrolling a sheepskin map and pointing to several districts marked as slums. "I'm going to check on the Old Rom Gang. They have to know something."

"And the Bloody Tentacles? We're just leaving them be for now?"

"We need to give Richard the false impression that we've moved on to another target."

The element of surprise was crucial. Richard couldn't know Lu Li's true intentions, or he would lay traps in his path.

After all, Lu Li was the one who was exposed now.

"Just half an hour more, and it'll be ready," Anna called from the kitchen, her voice followed by the sound of water coming to a boil.

"Turn off the stove. We'll eat later."

"Alright."

The black cat remained at the agency with the sculpture.

Anna asked the sculpture to watch over the cat and to clean the grime off itself. Then, she and Lu Li left the agency and headed for the slums.

They bypassed several noisy, port-bound streets, likely choked with long lines of people, and after half an hour, their carriage reached the slums.

When Lu Li asked a ragged passerby about the whereabouts of the Old Rom Gang, the man recoiled from him as if from the plague and quickly vanished. Eventually, an elderly resident directed Lu Li to an old rum tavern three blocks away—the gang's headquarters.

...

The Blackwater District, main base of the Old Rom Gang.

Nearly every local was connected to the gang in some way: the young men joined its ranks, while the old men and women handled the domestic work.

Most slum gangs operated in this parasitic fashion. The larger ones controlled entire streets, sometimes several blocks at a time. The smaller crews scraped by in the territories the big gangs deemed beneath them, constantly fighting for their place in the sun.

The carriage trundled down filthy streets, the air thick with a stench that the light rain couldn't wash away. It finally stopped before a boisterous tavern with guards posted at the entrance.

Lu Li stepped out of the carriage, asked the guards to watch his horse, and then, under their astonished gazes, walked into the rowdy tavern.

He left the cold, desolate streets behind. Inside, the tavern was a chaotic swirl of heat, the air thick with the stench of liquor and tobacco smoke.

Weaving past drunken, staggering thugs and patrons slumped over wooden chairs, Lu Li made his way to the bar.

As he pushed deeper into the tavern, more of the thugs took notice, their chatter dying down as their eyes locked onto him.

Big shots like Lu Li didn't just wander in here.

Even the wealthy thrill-seekers who occasionally slummed it for excitement rarely ventured this deep, usually content with a brief tour of the outskirts.

The din in the tavern slowly died down, and more eyes turned toward Lu Li as he stood at the bar.

The bartender, who had been leaning against the counter, lifted his head and silently sized Lu Li up.

"I want to see the boss of the Old Rom Gang," Lu Li said.

For a moment, the tavern went still. Then the bartender grinned, showing a mouth full of gaps. He pointed a thumb at Lu Li and yelled to the room, "This fella wants to see the boss!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Get out of here, rich boy!"

"Booo!"

The next moment, the room erupted in a wave of derisive laughter. A few of the thugs began to shout crude jokes and make obscene gestures.

"Are you an aristocrat?" the lisping bartender asked with a smirk.

"No."

"A sheriff, then?"

The question came from behind. A leader of a small gang emerged from the crowd—a burly, bare-chested man with his arm around a dancer caked in makeup.

"Not that either."

"I see," the leader nodded and, turning to his men, said, "Take his valuables, strip him bare, and toss him out on the street."

Several bruisers, eager for a fight, cracked their knuckles and advanced on Lu Li, smirking.

"Can we... play with him?" someone suddenly shouted from the crowd.

Over the chorus of jeers, the young gang leader answered, his voice laced with mockery, "We're not the dregs from New Cliff."

As he said this, he noticed the dancer in his arms eyeing Lu Li with hunger. He paused for a moment, then added, "But before you do anything... you'd better ask the gentleman for his permission."

The thugs closed in on Lu Li amidst a roar of laughter, and in that instant, every single one of them felt an icy chill sweep across their faces.

The next instant, a powerful aura flared out from Lu Li, as if repelling all the surrounding filth. People and furniture flew through the air like scraps of paper, crashing into the walls in tangled heaps.

A few seconds later, the tempest died down. The center of the tavern was suddenly empty, save for the jumbled piles of tables, chairs, and groaning bodies ringing the walls.

With a clatter, a pile of furniture was flung aside. The young gang leader, now covered in blood, was hoisted into the air by an unseen force. He was dragged toward Lu Li like a limp ragdoll, dangling by the collar of his shirt. Lu Li watched him approach with a calm, dark gaze.

"Now can you take me to your boss?"