novelraw Chapter 611: They Have Come
Chapter 611: They Have Come
"I'm Valentine, the acting head of Flarand. Are you the exorcists who've come to help?" Valentine set down his quill pen, his question echoing in the empty hall.
"No," Lu Li replied. "We don't have any special methods for dealing with the dandelions."
A flicker of disappointment crossed Valentine's eyes. He rubbed his temples, trying to soothe a headache. "Then tell me, why are you here?"
Lu Li explained their purpose, adding that Flarand was no longer habitable and advised him to contact the Exorcist Alliance and the southern cities to warn them that the dandelions were moving toward the Plain of Repose.
"The Flarand Sanatorium... I don't recall it, but the name should be familiar to someone. Ford, go ask the old-timers in the safe zone."
The servant departed. Valentine turned his gaze back to his guests. "We've already accounted for the wind. We sent warnings to the neighboring settlements half an hour ago."
"As for abandoning Flarand... The dandelions don't decompose, do they?"
"We don't know. But it's foolish to risk hundreds of thousands of lives on a phantom hope."
A mass exodus would be a problem in itself, but the threat of the dandelions returning is far more severe.
"Perhaps you're right. We wouldn't survive a second time," Valentine said, his voice devoid of nostalgia for the city, only concern for its people. "I've considered it, but hope and my attachment to Flarand held me back... You've opened my eyes. We have to leave."Valentine leaned forward, looking at Lu Li. "Will you stay and help our people?"
Before Lu Li could answer, a shriek echoed from the entrance.
"They're back!"
The sound of frantic footsteps followed. A man stumbled into the mayor's office, fell, and scrambled back to his feet, hastily adjusting a mask that had slipped from his face.
"Just now?" Valentine realized "they" didn't mean the dandelions. "Where?"
"Half an hour ago... on Patchwork Street... That woman... they made her..." The man's voice trembled, raw with the terror of what he'd witnessed.
"I see..." Valentine rubbed his forehead again. "Have the cleaners evacuate people to the safe zone... No, bring them to the city hall. I'll issue further orders after they've been decontaminated."
After the terrified messenger had gone, Lu Li asked, "Who's back?"
"The fiends who terrorized Wayneford County. One of them was once the pride of Flarand... Sarah and Adam."
They had arrived in Flarand at almost the same time as Lu Li and Anna. Was it a coincidence? Was Adam feeling remorseful? Or had Sarah sensed something?
Anna wanted to pull Lu Li away, but he had already spoken to Valentine. "We'll help."
"Thank you!" Valentine's sincerity was palpable. To the residents of the Plain of Repose, Wayneford was the backwoods. The region's poverty meant that a city of a million people was protected by only a single clan of exorcists, and even they had left for Ellen. Any help now was priceless.
"Why did you call one of them the city's pride?" Anna asked, her gaze shifting from Lu Li.
Beyond the similarities in their fates, they knew little of Sarah and Adam's true story.
"A century ago, Sarah was a representative in the Flarand League. She inherited her father's title—beautiful, young, intelligent, and... unmarried. Everyone in Flarand knew of her, partly for her renown, partly for her actions."
"She took in refugees, sheltered them on her estate, and even befriended the destitute. Before she was exposed, everyone thought she would succeed the old mayor—the first woman ever to hold the post."
"But the lies unraveled. Her rise to power threatened an old aristocrat, the legitimate successor. He went on the attack, dug up dirt on her—and found what he was looking for."
"The filth beneath the polish."
"Sarah was performing dark rituals. People started disappearing from among the refugees she'd taken in. When they threw her in a dungeon, they found heaps of bones in the cellars of her estate..."
"The public was in an uproar. Sarah was quickly hanged in the city square before thousands of witnesses. That should have been the end of it... But a few days later, she returned. Twisted. Filled with hatred. And with her lover."
Valentine gave a soft cough. A poor ending, where evil goes unpunished. Though for Sarah, it was the best possible outcome.
"They left Flarand decades ago," he rasped, his cough subsiding. "But the legends live on. Even the children know the stories. I never thought they would return... especially not now."
Only a fool or a man desperate beyond reason would believe they'd come to save Flarand from the dandelions. Their purpose was surely the same as it had always been...
"The only silver lining is that they kill more slowly than the dandelions... I'll work on the evacuation plan. In the meantime, you can help my assistant in the affected district. We'll have the information you requested delivered later."
The mayor's assistant led them out. On their way, Lu Li asked, "Why did you say you were the 'acting' head?"
Valentine answered candidly, not hiding the scandal. "The real mayor fled through a secret passage the moment he heard they were back. His deputy was found dead—his body had become their nest. But there's an upside: that passage is now our best way out of the city."
They followed the assistant out.
"Why did you stay to help instead of leaving?" Anna asked quietly.
She didn't like his decision. She had noticed changes not just in herself, but in him too—the Lu Li of the past would never have willingly walked into danger like this.
"They're here, too. If we go to the sanatorium now, they might find us."
"You know that's not what I'm talking about."
A brief silence passed between them. Lu Li finally answered, "Because of my humanity."
A phantom humanity, one that existed only in his mind.