The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 551: Ellen Royal City

The Peters brothers lived in a poor district of Typhoon.

The houses here were also wooden, with lanterns hung outside. Longhouses had become the most popular type of construction since the fog from the sea's depths became a regular threat. Standard single-family homes didn't hold enough people, and if the lights suddenly went out, getting to a neighbor's house for help was far more difficult.

When Anna arrived at their house, she found a wooden box under the bed. Inside was the very same ancient book. Flipping through a few pages, Anna confirmed that the book posed no danger to Lu Li.

"The book is badly damaged," Anna said, holding it out to Lu Li.

Judging by its condition, the book looked as if it had been gnawed on by some animal—the edges were tattered, with visible teeth marks. Only a handful of pages remained whole, and even on those, much of the information was lost.

The only part that remained fully intact described the ritual John Peters had used.

The ritual allowed the user to transfer life force from one person to another, but the cost was monstrously high. To restore Mary's health, John Peters had been forced to sacrifice nearly a dozen people.

Anna wheeled Lu Li away from Typhoon. Seated in his wheelchair, Lu Li calmly studied the fragments of the tattered pages.

Even from the scattered lines of text, Lu Li could tell the book was filled mostly with descriptions of barbaric and cruel rituals.

Lu Li handed the book to Anna to destroy."You don't want to keep it?" Anna asked.

"I've already memorized it. Better to destroy it," Lu Li answered.

A gust of wind snatched the tattered scraps from the book. In an instant, Anna reduced them to ash, which settled on the damp cobblestones. Lu Li and Anna continued on their way, gradually receding into the distance.

A few minutes later, the Levius family carriage sped down the street, crushing the last remnants of the pages into the mud.

The carriage had just left John Peters's house. After questioning a few passersby, they had set off in pursuit of Lu Li without delay.

But when the carriage reached the city walls, Levius and his daughter saw no sign of a man in a wheelchair among the crowds.

"Perhaps he's still in Typhoon," Levius said, turning to a guard standing nearby. "Have you seen a man in a wheelchair leaving the city?"

"He just left..." the guard replied after a moment's thought.

"We still have a chance to catch him. Driver..."

"There's no need, Father," Mary said softly from inside the carriage.

"He doesn't seem eager to meet with us. Besides, once he's outside the city, finding him will be difficult."

"We still have to investigate," the viscount said with a frown. He couldn't believe that the mysterious man had come to the city merely to save a few commoners. He had to determine if he was an exorcist, or the one the priest had spoken of.

"It's not as if we learned nothing," Mary remarked quietly. "At least now we know his name."

Viscount Levais loved his daughter dearly. So when Mary became entangled in these events, even he found it difficult to remain calm.

But, as Mary had said, the man named Lu Li clearly didn't want to reveal the truth and had no desire to engage with them.

All he could do was remember the name and climb back into the carriage, displeased, as it headed for his estate.

The carriage lurched forward. The wind lifted the curtain flap, and a gust carried indistinct whispers along the road.

"Perhaps our paths will cross again. Hope... next time you will want to talk..."

...

"I thought you would meet with Mary," Anna said.

They soared high above the earth, hundreds of meters over the highway. Below, they could see the roads crowded with people leaving their villages.

"There's no point," Lu Li replied.

Mary had no shortage of questions. Lu Li had time to spare, but he didn't want to waste it.

Especially since he couldn't help her change the future.

Anna didn't press the issue. Instead, she asked, "Is Ellen Royal City far from here?"

"Not more than two hundred kilometers," Lu Li answered.

"We'll be there by morning," Anna stated. "We're arriving too early."

The Exorcist United Organization's meeting wasn't for another two days. Even with stops, Lu Li and Anna could have made it from the tip of the Allen Peninsula to the Kingdom of Ellen in less than a day, traveling through the Elm Forest.

Had it not been for the delays, they would have arrived even sooner.

"This gives us enough time to prepare for any potential difficulties," Lu Li remarked. He was accustomed to planning his routes in advance, gathering supplies, and scouting for shelters. Even when his plans needed to change, he always made sure to have a backup, a way to keep his mind from getting cornered.

Keeping his mind constantly working helped him stay in control.

As they drew closer to Ellen, the majestic city, a fixture for hundreds of years, felt like it should appear over the horizon at any moment.

The closer they drew to the city, the more abandoned villages and settlements they passed. The well-tended farmland had long given way to desolate wastelands. The homes had been empty for a long time.

Fortunately, the city was not much farther.

Finally, the silhouette of the city, encircled by ancient walls, appeared ahead of them.

It was difficult to compare Ellen to Belfast or Himmfast. Its sheer scale was breathtaking, sparking the involuntary thought that it must have been built to withstand some great beast, like a mighty rock amid the shallows.

"Now I understand why people seek refuge within the city, rather than seeing it as one giant larder," Anna murmured.

Lu Li added quietly, "Sometimes, you don't need monsters..."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, surprised.

"Ellen Royal City is home to about two million people," Lu Li began. "In times of disaster, everyone from the surrounding villages and towns flees here. The entire life of the kingdom is concentrated in this one place. If everyone becomes a refugee, the population could double—and a city this size can easily absorb that number of people."

"The problem isn't accommodating everyone. The city can handle that. But it can't meet a doubled demand for food and resources, especially not with the plague of dangerous plants. So..."

Lu Li gazed down at the spiderweb of roads surrounding the royal city.

"The supplies in Ellen won't last long."

The danger wasn't just on the outside.

Anna gazed at the city again, her expression now a mixture of sympathy and a deep weariness.

With less than ten kilometers to go, Anna descended to the highway that cut through the empty steppe, merging into the stream of people on the road.

Lu Li's prediction was proving true. The flow of people was entirely one-way—everyone was headed for Ellen, and almost no one was leaving.

Perhaps it was because of Lu Li's appearance or the Investigator badge on his chest—more than once along the way, passersby and cart drivers offered him a place in their wagons.

But Lu Li politely refused, and Anna pushed the wheelchair to the city gates herself.

The city was shrouded in a veil of murky clouds.

One of the Investigators' bases was located right in Ellen; Lu Li intended to find out the details of the upcoming council there. But first, he and Anna rented a room in a house not far from the gates.

When they went inside, they found the windows wide open, curtains fluttering in the breeze.

Ellen Royal City was not as damp as the Allen Peninsula. On the contrary—the floor, windowsills, and tables were covered in a layer of dust.

The mainland cities lacked the familiar sea breeze that would have kept the dust at bay.

After leaving their belongings, Lu Li and Anna headed for the Investigators' base.