The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 531: The Man from Hell

Gades had been to Hell, and not because he died.

"Is this... the passage?" Ruth stared skeptically at the headstone. That wasn't something you saw in Hell. "Who's Gades?"

"The one who proved the passage exists," Lu Li answered, glancing around. He saw nothing strange or out of place.

So, it must be underground.

Lu Li picked up a sharp stone and began to dig at the gravel in front of the headstone.

Ruth stood by and watched as gravel flew into the air. Soon, a dull thud echoed from the pit Lu Li was digging, the sound of stone striking something solid.

A bone, caked with sand and dirt, came into view.

Ruth gave Lu Li a suspicious look. He picked up another piece of stone and unearthed the bone.

"The bones of a starving demon."

Ruth remarked, glancing at the pile of bones Lu Li had tossed aside.After unearthing the entire skeleton, Lu Li dug deeper. Before long, another sound came from the bottom of the pit—a hollow thud against something solid.

Ruth raised an eyebrow slightly and leaned over, peering into the bottom of the pit.

Lu Li brushed away the sand at the bottom of the pit with his palm, revealing a wooden plank.

He tapped it with his index finger. A hollow sound echoed back, confirming the space beneath was empty.

Suddenly, Ruth spun around and strode away, drawing a pistol from its holster. She methodically picked off the starving demons that had been wandering nearby.

A few minutes later, having dealt with every moving thing in the vicinity, Ruth returned to the gravesite. Lu Li had already cleared the earth from around the plank and was lifting it away.

Beneath the plank lay a low, cramped, and dark space.

The walls clearly showed signs of being hand-dug, though the work must have been slow. Only the top layer was soil; beneath it lay cooled volcanic rock. A pickaxe and shovel lay nearby, just the tips of their handles visible.

Wooden crates, coated in a thick layer of dust, were stacked in a corner. Deeper inside, a black, intricately carved door was set into the wall, looking like something out of ancient myth.

Ruth had a feeling this door was the key to Lu Li's return to the human world.

Lu Li dropped down into the cellar. Hunched over, he approached the obsidian-like stone door.

Something was carved on its surface, but it was hard to make out the details in the gloom.

Ssshh—

Dust trickled down from above. Ruth jumped in, her eyes meeting Lu Li's as he turned around.

"I can see better from here," she said, crouching to soften her landing before straightening up. She paid no mind to the stone door Lu Li was examining, instead walking over to the wooden crates and prying one open.

The crate was filled to the brim with coins bearing the image of Macdonald I.

She presumed the other crates held the same.

Ruth let out a low whistle, her tone an odd mix of sarcasm and admiration. "His name's Gades, right? Hiding his money in Hell... The man's a true genius."

There was nothing more secure than a fortune stashed in Hell.

And Gades, with his obsession for money, was exactly the kind of person who would do something like this.

Tearing his eyes away, Lu Li approached the stone door. A strange sensation prickled between his eyebrows. His heightened senses told him that touching this door would return him to the world above.

"Is that the one?" Ruth's gaze returned to Lu Li, noticing how long he'd been staring at the stone door.

"Yes."

Lu Li nodded and turned to face her. "The journey is over."

Hearing this, Ruth pressed her lips together, a sudden sense of loss welling up inside her.

It had been a truly thrilling journey; it was just a shame it had been so short.

Lu Li had taken but a single step into the vastness of Hell; the distance he'd covered was barely a fraction of it.

To put it in human terms, he hadn't even left the slopes of Sugard Mountain.

And many of the people Lu Li had expected to meet in Hell never appeared—people like Oliver, or Sarah and Adam.

The latter were merely characters from the Shadow Puppeteer's story and might not even exist. As for Oliver, he had died in the Elm Forest. If his soul was still around, it would be thousands of miles from here, in whatever part of Hell corresponded to the Elm Forest.

"Will you come back?" Lu Li asked.

Ruth seemed touched, but she shook her head. "I... don't think so. There's nothing for me in the human world anymore. I'll be fine here in Hell, even if I'm weak."

Ruth wasn't a demon. If she returned to the human world as a soul, she would just become a ghost, following the same path Anna had.

And it was far from a pleasant path.

Seeing her resolve, Lu Li didn't press the matter. He simply gave her a slight nod. "Farewell."

He turned and walked toward the stone door. Behind him, Ruth raised a hand in farewell.

"Wish me luck getting stronger. That way, when you finally die, maybe I'll be powerful enough to take you on as my underling."

Lu Li's soul flickered, growing translucent before vanishing completely from the cramped, dark space.

"Whew..."

Ruth let out a long breath. She glanced down at the wooden crates, her lips twisting in a dismissive sneer. Then she climbed back to the surface, pushed the excavated dirt and bones back into the pit, and restored the grave to how it had been.

Shading her eyes with a hand, she gazed toward the distant Black Rock Volcano, which loomed like a mountain range on the horizon. This time, there was no more hesitation, no more doubt.

Now she had a way out. A safe haven.

...

"Nine hundred and sixty, nine hundred and seventy, nine hundred and eighty... one thousand shillings."

Sentry Post. The Fiery Gades Detective Agency. A silhouette flickered behind the second-floor curtain, counting money.

The money in his hands and on the table represented Gades's entire take for the day.

While a terrible disaster unfolded on the other side of the mountain, plunging everyone into fear, anxiety, and despair, Gades was one of the few who remained untouched by it all.

Or rather, he was currently quite content.

After counting the shillings a dozen more times, Gades brought the stack to his face and inhaled deeply. A blissful smile spread across his lips, revealing a gold tooth. "The smell of money."

He started to wonder if he should rent out all the rooms on the second floor tomorrow, except for his own bedroom and the decoy room with the fake gold bars.

That would bring in a few hundred more shillings...

As he mulled it over, a powerful sense of foreboding suddenly gripped Gades's heart.

He'd had this feeling many times before, usually when his property was threatened.

The feeling was different when he himself was in danger.

"Why do I feel so uneasy? It must be those refugees from Belfast downstairs!"

Gades leaped to his feet in a panic, knocking over the wooden chair behind him.

Before heading downstairs, he didn't forget to hide the day's earnings in a sock. He then stuffed the sock into an old, patched coat, tossed the coat into a pile of rubbish in the corner, and only then, after grabbing an oil lamp, did he leave the bedroom and hurry downstairs.

Thump-thump-thump.

The wooden staircase shuddered under his weight. Gades paused on the landing. Down in the main hall, which was set up like a tavern, dozens of refugees from Belfast were lying or sitting about. Some tossed and turned restlessly, while others whispered quietly among themselves.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... seventeen. Everyone's here."

Gades muttered, and then a chilling horror washed over him.

My vault! And my secret vault!

...

Darkness swirled around him, and strange whispers echoed in his ears.

Despite the ominous atmosphere, the presence of the Night Calamity was proof that Lu Li had truly returned to the human world.

Lu Li remained calm. He was currently in his soul form, which meant the Night Calamity couldn't harm him.

Just then, a door creaked open, and a figure holding an oil lamp appeared in the doorway.

"Lu Li!? What are you doing in my vault!"

Gades let out a piercing shriek, sounding like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"You son of a bitch! You broke into my vault!"