The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 472: The Story of the Last Man

In the boundless white space, only a wooden chair and Lu Li, seated upon it, remained.

Lu Li waited patiently, certain the trial would eventually explain everything.

Suddenly, the confessional materialized once more around Lu Li and the chair, a stark silhouette against the white void.

Vivid colors, like brushstrokes on a canvas, began to bleed into the emptiness, painting the church walls, the stained-glass windows, and the pews, bathing everything in a soft, gentle light.

As the world settled back into place, the soothing melody of an organ once again flowed through the church.

The restoration, however, was incomplete. Beyond the carved screen in front of Lu Li, indistinct images flickered.

"I can open it," Lu Li thought, and acting on a sudden impulse, he reached for the screen.

It wasn't a window, and the wall of the confessional didn't crumble at his touch. Yet, as if he truly had opened a window, the blurry images sharpened into perfect focus: Viscount Levais was pushing a wheelchair across a desolate cemetery toward an elegant carriage waiting at the edge of the road.

Lu Li noticed that not a single plant grew in the cemetery; every tree was withered and dead.

The other panels of the screen still showed only the church and the organ. Only this one had changed, displaying a scene from the outside. This split in reality made Lu Li slightly dizzy.Fighting off the unsettling sensation, Lu Li continued to watch.

"What's written on that paper?" Levais asked, watching a maid help his daughter into the carriage. The young woman clutched a coarse sheet of paper in her hands.

"Something you won't believe... I want to verify it first, then I'll tell you."

"If it's another one of the church's tricks, don't believe them," Viscount Levais said grimly. "If God truly exists, why would he allow such sorrow? Why would he condemn her child to such despair..."

"That's all in the past, Father," his daughter's gentle voice soothed him. Levais, a man whom all feared, smiled at his daughter and climbed into the carriage. They returned to their estate.

The young woman returned to her room, conferred with her maid, and began to read a book titled "Geological Records of the Fallow Lands."

A short while later, the maid returned and announced that the viscount was preparing to leave.

The young woman closed her book, placing a bookmark inside, and asked the maid to take her to her father.

Viscount Levais was descending the grand staircase when he saw his daughter in the hall.

"May I go with you?" she asked.

"Of course," the viscount replied, pleased that his daughter wanted an outing, even though he was merely on his way to visit an old friend.

Taking his daughter with him, the viscount departed from the estate.

The young woman sat by the open carriage window, watching the street. The viscount found her curiosity strange. Stranger still, after a short while, she asked the coachman to stop.

A woman with a frightened expression stood in the middle of the road, her arms spread wide.

The coachman flinched; lost in thought, he had nearly run her down.

"Are you Olivia?" the young woman asked softly.

Still trembling, Olivia replied, "Yes..."

"Please, get in the carriage," the young woman said.

Turning away, she finally answered her father's questioning gaze. "He told me... the priest in the church."

She handed her father the slip of paper.

Viscount Levais scanned the note, suppressing his anger. "You believed those liars from the church... This is surely a performance they've staged together!"

Levais gestured to Olivia, whom the coachman was helping into the carriage. "This woman is deceiving you!"

"I'm not... I... My child..."

"Silence!"

"Father, you mustn't shout at her," the young woman said gently, and shaking her head, she asked Olivia about her child.

Olivia spoke in a rush. "My... my child has asthma. I went to the church to pray, and he told me to seek help from a doctor or a nobleman, and then I..."

"Just as I said! Nothing but a band of swindlers!" The viscount's face darkened.

"Father," the young woman sighed, trying to dispel his prejudice, "if not for this note, Madam Olivia would have been struck by our carriage."

Viscount Levais glanced at the coachman. "I don't believe my coachman is foolish enough to run someone down."

The coachman, covered in a cold sweat, lowered his head and said nothing... After all, if not for the young woman's warning, he truly would have hit the woman, lost in his thoughts as he was.

Beginning to suspect something was amiss, Viscount Levais merely grunted and turned away.

"I want to verify the rest. Let us part ways here," the young woman said and, with her maid's help, got out of the carriage.

"I'm going with you. Let's see what these charlatans have planned," Viscount Levais declared.

"But you have a meeting with your old friend."

"He can wait."

Though the young woman felt awkward, her father's presence proved useful. Scowling, Viscount Levais ordered one of his guards to escort Olivia home and take her son to the finest clinic. He then accompanied his daughter to the police station, following the directions on the paper.

Viscount Levais found it difficult to speak of the matter, so his daughter explained to the police chief that the Ripper was John Peters, and that Ol Peters, the man they had arrested at the church, was innocent. The presence of the scowling viscount made an impression, and the chief agreed to release Ol. Before doing so, however, they decided to use Ol as bait to lure out the hiding John.

Having betrayed his brother, John Peters would hardly miss the chance to see him before his execution.

Leaving the police station, Viscount Levais's carriage headed for another impoverished district.

"Do you believe it now, Father?" the young woman asked.

"Hmph," was Viscount Levais's only reply.

Following the directions on the paper, they arrived at the location where the next event was predicted to unfold: a gang's headquarters. They arrived just in time. Shortly after they entered the tavern, several thugs dragged in a bloodied, middle-aged man.

The gang leader, who had just been bowing obsequiously to the viscount, froze when he saw the young woman staring at the captive.

"Are you Green Piers?" she asked quietly.

The man struggled to open one blood-caked eye.

"Can you take him to a doctor?" the young woman asked the gang leader, her brow furrowed.

"Of course, miss!" the leader exclaimed, thoroughly confused. "You scoundrels, who dared to touch my guest?! Get him to a clinic, now!"

"Thank you. And one more thing," the young woman in the wheelchair continued softly, "this morning, a girl stole something from you. Have you found her?"

The gang leader froze.