The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 601: The Four Keys

"There are notes on the door."

Not just one—a multitude of notes clung to the massive metal door, while others had already peeled off, littering the floor.

Anna approached the door. Seeing that all the notes were identical, she plucked one from the metal surface and handed it to Lu Li.

[The first key is where the lady looks, the second where the stream has run dry, the third in the casket of stars, and the final key within her flesh.]

"A puzzle?" Anna's gaze shifted to the four keyholes, one in each corner of the metal door.

Riddles were an effective way to filter out anomalies, though not perfectly. They could simply lie in wait by the vault, preying on humans, just like the anomaly in the main hall that had shed its human skin.

"The last key is obvious—it's inside the body of that anomaly outside. But what about the other three?" Anna found the riddle overly difficult, capable of screening out not just anomalies, but people too.

"Somewhere in this bank," Lu Li said, taking an oil lamp from the wall. He lit it, and he and Anna returned to the main hall.

The echo of scraping sounds filled the hall. Anna was dissecting the anomaly's body with a kitchen knife, searching for the key.

The vault's keyhole was the size of a finger, so the key couldn't be small. Three minutes later, Anna found a copper key spat out near a crack in the corner and brought it back to Lu Li."Didn't find the others?" Anna asked, noticing his empty hands.

"They must be upstairs."

The second floor was a workspace. The disarray on the desks suggested that people had been on duty at the bank when the inverted city appeared. Following the signs, Lu Li entered the manager's corner office.

Anna went straight for the desk and file cabinet, while Lu Li placed the lamp on the desk and drew back the curtains from the window.

In the gray distance, the spire of the royal Council of Elders Hall pierced the sky, almost merging with its reflection in the inverted city above.

The streets below were still teeming, but a closer look revealed more shadows flowing away from the city center.

After observing for a moment, Lu Li turned his attention back to the office. A painting on the wall caught his eye: a portrait of a noblewoman in an extravagant dress from two centuries ago, her gaze seemingly fixed on the viewer.

[Ginny Amples]

The signature in the corner revealed the lady's identity.

Lu Li studied the painting thoughtfully, then suddenly turned to follow her gaze—on the opposite wall hung a portrait of a mustached man in a top hat.

[Greiford Amples]

Ginny's husband, whose enduring love had become a legend among the royal nobility.

As if he'd realized something, Lu Li walked over to Sir Amples's portrait and slid it aside.

A secret compartment lay hidden beneath it, holding the second key.

"Which key is that?" Anna asked, returning to Lu Li's side after finding nothing herself.

"The first one."

"'Where the lady looks'..." Anna glanced around the office, noticed the portrait of Ginny Amples, and understood the riddle's logic.

"So the other keys might also be hidden in... abstract puzzles like this?"

The casket of stars... perhaps somewhere in plain sight. Where the stream has run dry... there's no fountain in the bank, so it could be near a mural of a river, or by a sink in the kitchen.

But after searching the entire second floor, Anna found nothing related to those clues. Instead, in a small supply closet, she discovered a literal answer.

A wooden chest studded with gemstones, like stars, was tucked away among brooms and mops.

The chest itself was a valuable item; it belonged in the vault, not among cleaning supplies.

Its purpose became obvious.

Opening the chest, Anna found the third copper key lying at the bottom.

Getting into the game, Anna muttered in annoyance that the puzzle's creator wasn't being serious. Only the last key remained, and they still had half of the third floor to search.

The last room on the third floor of the Ample's Bank of the Nobility was a museum: a perfect replica of the bedroom of the bank's founder, Ginny Amples, from two hundred years ago.

The bedroom, perhaps tidied just before dawn, exuded the style of a bygone era; even the dressing table was adorned with ladies' accessories.

Just as he entered, Lu Li spotted a copper key on the dark red bedspread.

"Why is the key for 'where the stream has run dry' in a bedroom?" Anna wondered, perplexed.

Lu Li's gaze drifted to a portrait of an elderly Ginny Amples on the wall. "A bit of dark humor," he remarked.

Having collected all four keys, they went back down to the main hall.

In the ten minutes they'd spent searching, the Dry Claws had cleansed the hall of the remains. They crossed the clean floor and stood once more before the vault door.

Anna inserted the keys into the keyholes and turned them clockwise.

Click!

A heavy thud echoed through the hall. From behind the metal door came the grinding of mechanisms, and the heavy slab slowly swung open, revealing a flight of stairs leading down.

"I'll go first," Anna said, taking the lamp from Lu Li and stepping into the cool vault.

After descending and walking through a tunnel that resembled a dungeon, they saw a large chamber lit by oil lamps and burning candles.

But it wasn't the shelves of money lining the walls that caught their attention, but the figure sitting at a table in the center, their back to Lu Li and Anna, engrossed in some task.

The table and the floor around it were cluttered with mechanical parts.

"Finally, someone made it past all the obstacles," a weathered voice remarked. The graying man didn't turn around, continuing to tinker with his work.

"You knew about the monster outside?" Lu Li frowned.

"Phew..." The old man finally finished his assembly, setting the fist-sized device on the table with a sigh of relief before turning to face his guests.

He perfectly fit the stereotype of a scientist: perpetually in a white lab coat, disheveled, high-strung, and wearing thick glasses.

"And why wouldn't I? If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have needed to call you." He suddenly leaned forward, peering over his glasses at Anna. "A vengeful spirit?"

"My assistant," Lu Li replied.

"Of course... of course... I'm not one of those hidebound exorcists who cling to the old ways." The old man waved his hand, emphasizing his difference from the local old families, and grimaced in distaste. "Allow me to introduce myself. Albert, from the Spirit Exorcist Association... a scientist of sorts. You do know what science is, don't you?"