The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 484: The Source of the Gnashers

"Your actions have certainly given us something to consider. The United Exorcist Organization will have to discuss whether we should..." Rachel paused, deliberately skipping a word that might upset Anna, "...whether we should seek out allies in the fight against anomalies."

"Is it that difficult?" Lu Li asked.

Aside from himself, he hadn't met any exorcists who approached anomalies without prejudice, though perhaps he simply hadn't interacted with enough of them.

"People don't trust anomalies," Rachel said, shaking her head, "even those who were once human."

Like Anna.

Even if she did nothing, the aura of the In-Between would eventually consume her, turning her into something malevolent. In fact, it should have happened long ago. For some reason, she'd managed to hold onto her essence—or at least, a part of it.

It's like how no one believes a person can hold onto childhood innocence forever. It's simply impossible.

"Tristan?" Lu Li remembered the former regional supervisor, the giant of a man who had been twisted into a servant of the Evil God.

"He vanished a few days ago." Rachel took a long swallow of her coffee as if it were hard liquor. "He wasn't at the ritual site we uncovered. Maybe he found a more secluded place to hide, or maybe he simply doesn't want us to find him."

The topic was a heavy one, and Rachel fell silent after that."Aren't you going to help them?" Anna asked, glancing out the window at the members of the United Exorcist Organization managing the cleanup.

"The Night's Watch and the Spirit Exorcist Association are better suited for this. Even the Alliance is more efficient," Rachel answered. Sensing Anna's veiled hostility, she added with a faint smile, "Don't worry, Miss Vengeful Spirit. I wouldn't mind a taste of romance before the end, but I'm not fond of overly mysterious men—especially not black-haired ones."

Anna remained silent.

A sudden commotion outside drew Lu Li's attention. He looked through the window and saw Deputy Mayor Gerard in a heated argument with someone.

"You're gambling with the lives of everyone in Belfast!"

The young man he was talking to was relatively calm, and his quiet voice was hard to hear through the window.

Judging by Gerard's furious reaction, however, the other man's words had struck a nerve. "I disagree! The port is still crawling with Gnashers spreading their contagion! Do you want to create entire ships full of monsters?!"

"The aristocrats don't want to wait? Do they even know what happened here?! Let them wait!"

The young man said something else and turned away, leaving Gerard with a grim expression. The deputy mayor headed for the cafe.

Ding-ding!

The bell on the door chimed as it opened.

Gerard removed his hat as he entered and sat down across from Lu Li.

"That was the mayor's aide," he complained, "that fool, Trankin Kashi, wants to open the port today."

"If it's too soon, the United Exorcist Organization won't allow it," Rachel said. She wasn't concerned about the port reopening ahead of schedule, knowing that politicians didn't have the final say in these matters.

"I hope so." Gerard looked at Lu Li and gave a slight nod. "Mr. Lu Li, what are your plans?"

"I'm taking care of a personal matter," Lu Li answered.

"Now?" Gerard looked at the fog-shrouded streets.

"Dawn is in two hours," Rachel said.

Gerard did most of the talking. Despite his title, he had no authority to command the United Exorcist Organization; he could only offer assistance on certain issues.

He soon turned the conversation to the mysterious epidemic, admitting with a sigh that while the immediate problem at the port had been contained, the source of the infection remained unknown.

"I might know a way to find it," Lu Li said unexpectedly.

"But it requires a live Gnasher, and a bit of luck."

Rachel and Gerard looked at him with interest. Lu Li explained: he needed a Gnasher from the very ship where the epidemic began.

"My pistol, The Atonement, can reveal the memories of the dying. If the Gnashers were infected by a specific source, I should be able to see it."

The chances were slim, however. He needed a Gnasher that had been infected directly by the source, not one that had been turned by another monster.

They decided to try. Gerard left first, and Rachel followed soon after. Only Lu Li remained in the cafe.

"We've done enough. You don't need to involve yourself any more than you already have," Anna said, clearly unhappy with his decision. Lu Li's Mind Level was already critical; he could fall into the abyss at any moment.

"Something about the appearance of these Gnashers feels too strange."

Or rather, too convenient.

Anna quickly connected it to the man they were pursuing: "Do you think this is Richard's doing?"

"That passenger ship wasn't arriving with tourists; it was supposed to be taking people from here to the Lennon Archipelago. That means the source of the infection was in Belfast, among those who boarded. Someone deliberately started the outbreak."

Until that moment, there had been no signs of the disease in the city.

Whether it was Richard or not, whoever spread this plague clearly had an agenda.

Anna seemed to calm down and fell silent.

A few minutes later, the sound of gunfire echoed from the port. The exorcists had begun their sweep.

After a while, as the hands of the wall clock neared five, Deputy Mayor Gerard returned to the cafe. He informed Lu Li that nearly all the Gnashers in the port had been eliminated, save for those still on the ship where the outbreak originated.

Lu Li followed Gerard back out to the port. Bonfires blazed everywhere, creating the illusion that the entire harbor was ablaze. In reality, members of the United Exorcist Organization were incinerating the remains of the Gnashers.

Even their remains were contagious.

"We don't have the resources to clear every ship. At dawn, we'll tow them out into the bay and scuttle them," Gerard said, pulling on a bird-beak mask.

The damage from such actions was difficult to estimate, but it was better than allowing the plague to spread to other continents, including humanity's new home—the Lennon Archipelago.

The Glanrit, built by the Margaret Company on the Main Continent, was an ocean liner with a capacity for 1,200 passengers and 700 crew.

The epidemic began shortly after boarding. Fortunately, a crew member noticed his colleague starting to bleed and his skin changing color, and immediately informed the captain.

The captain of the Glanrit, Okama, stood next to Lu Li and recounted what had happened.

Even more fortunately, Okama had encountered a similar epidemic several years prior, which allowed him to recognize the symptoms immediately. He ordered the crew to evacuate the passengers and contacted the police.

These actions helped contain the spread of the disease, at least on a large scale.

When the police and the Night's Watch arrived a few minutes later, the number of infected was "only" a few dozen, and they managed to lock them in the lower cabins.

It seemed everything was turning out for the best, but Lu Li and the others were about to confront the very thing that had thwarted a favorable outcome last time.

The anomalous fog that had nullified all their efforts was rolling in from the depths of the ocean.