The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 629: The Last Storm

His eyes traced the coastline, stopping at Port Roadster, which loomed over the bay.

Even if he could make out the southern Elm Forest from here, the view from the clifftop would have been much the same.

Noticing Lu Li gazing into the distance, Anna returned in the afternoon with an object that immediately drew Remi and Jimmy, who crowded around it: a telescope.

It appeared to have been removed from a pier in one of the coastal districts—a scenic viewer, with the screws that once fastened it to a stone base still dangling from its stand.

Remi and Jimmy were thrilled. After setting up the telescope at the edge of the cliff, they immediately began scanning the sea and the ruins of Belfast. The image, however, was heavily distorted and the magnification was no more than sixty times. Before long, Remi returned to her farming duties to tend the vegetable patches, while Jimmy's monstrous alter ego flopped down on the small patch of sand he'd made by the hut, using sand he'd painstakingly carried up from the shore.

Once Jimmy and his sister's enthusiasm had faded, Lu Li walked over to the telescope.

He studied the ruins of Belfast and Port Roadster for a time, then swiveled the telescope toward the southern Elm Forest.

"—There are marks from wooden boats on the rocks around the Ghost Prison," Anna’s voice came from beside him. "The heretics may have already landed on that island."

Lu Li pulled away from the eyepiece. "I can't see anything."

The island was farther south. To get a clear view, you would have to either leave the bay or stand at the very southern edge of the Elm Forest.This was good news, in a way. At least the clifftop remained hidden from the inhabitants of the Ghost Prison and the heretics.

To his surprise, Adamfiya came over to try the telescope as well. She aimed it toward the hills of Belfast... toward the place where her home with Tesla had once stood.

...

After their afternoon tea, the residents emerged from the cave into the evening fog and dispersed to their huts. Lu Li drifted off to sleep after hearing Anna bid him good night.

Following his advice, Anna leafed through a novel that normally captivated her, but tonight, even its beloved plot couldn't hold her attention. The memories of Sara, dozens of times more vivid than any fiction, washed over her with renewed force...

Beneath her outward calm, a profound melancholy churned, threatening to break through the surface.

...

Morning arrived, and the swirling fog silently receded.

The freshly emerged sprouts glistened with morning dew, and nearly a third of the vegetable patches were already showing green.

Moreover, countless dormant seedlings had begun to push through the soil all around the cave. At first, Remi would carefully transplant them to the garden in front of her hut, but as the greenery became more abundant, what was once a rarity became commonplace, and she stopped marveling at it.

Any botanist, however, would have lost their mind at the sight.

"—It's a shame it's getting colder..." Remi remarked, watching her brother shiver as he emerged from under his blanket. She fetched a coat for him from the wardrobe.

Lu Li could neutralize the plant anomaly, but what could he do about the laws of nature?

The thought that the crops in the garden and the other plants on the clifftop would soon perish cast a shadow over Remi's mood.

"—Lu Li must have a... a spare f-fireplace in the cellar, right?" a shiver wracked Jimmy's body. "Or... or ask Anna to bring one from Belfast."

"—You can't install a fireplace in the hut," Remi answered. "And building one out of stone... that would take days, not to mention we'd have to find a place in the forest with enough rocks."

"—Then a stove or something, we could even just build a fire," Jimmy said, worried he'd catch a proper cold if the temperature dropped any further.

"—I'll go ask Lu Li," Remi said, pushing open the hut door. A piercing sea breeze immediately flooded the room. "He must be awake by now."

...

Lu Li stirred, waking from a deep sleep.

The embers in the fireplace had all but died, and the small flame of the oil lamp cast only a faint glow.

In the gloom, Anna was still at the table, a book in her hands. But judging by her place, she had barely turned more than a page or two since the previous evening.

"—Anna."

Anna started, as if waking from a trance. Her eyes, wide in the darkness, held a look of confusion. "...Did you have a nightmare?"

"—It's morning."

Her confusion faded, replaced by awareness. Anna glanced at the dying embers in the fireplace and the faintly glowing lamp. "I'm sorry... I lost track of time."

Anna brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead and tossed a few logs into the fireplace. An unseen current of air whispered through the hearth, and deep within the embers, a light flared. The flames slowly began to catch and grow.

As she refilled the lamp with kerosene, Remi came into the cave and told Lu Li that Jimmy wanted a stove to ward off the cold.

"—There's a spare stove in the cellar."

The compact stove didn't take up much space and provided good heat, which had suited Lu Li's needs perfectly. The only problem was that its smoke would fill the entire cave, which was why a fireplace with a proper chimney was a better fit for the main living area.

Remi returned to the hut with the stove Jimmy had requested.

Jimmy holed up in the hut until noon when the day warmed up, then he ambled over to Enni's tree to join Lu Li.

[Final Storm of the Year to Hit Himmfast at Dawn Tomorrow]

The rain clouds gathering over the Serma Mountains and the Plain of Repose were coalescing into a storm. Storms usually formed over the sea before hitting land, but this one was doing the exact opposite. Then again, so many strange things had happened this year that people had no energy left to question why. They simply, wearily, prepared for the next calamity.

"The Allen Peninsula Investigators" warned all residents of the peninsula to stock up on supplies before the disaster.

This storm was predicted to be the most severe yet.

The storm was expected to reach Himmfast in the morning, and Belfast sometime after, but no later than noon.

"A storm is coming."

Lu Li passed the newspaper to a sullen-looking Jimmy.

The boy took it with a confused look, then, remembering he couldn't read, carried it over to Remi.

A moment later, Remi approached Lu Li, clutching the copy of "The Allen Peninsula Investigators" in her hand. "We need to get ready," she said.

The vegetable patches and their tender sprouts would inevitably be destroyed by the storm, but with Lu Li there, they would sooner or later grow back.

They had plenty of supplies in the cellar, so the more pressing concerns were whether the hut would withstand the storm, if the roof would leak, and, most importantly, Enni's safety.

A storm of this magnitude could be catastrophic for the trees. If they didn't do something to protect her, Enni—who had only just recovered from a severe illness that nearly caused her to wither away—would be unlikely to survive.

Rather than have Anna stand guard over Enni during the storm, Remi proposed a better solution: build a temporary house for the tree.

It wouldn't be difficult or time-consuming. They didn't have to worry about doors, windows, or even leaks; the structure just needed to be strong enough to shield the tree from the powerful winds.

The most time-consuming part of building Enni's little house was Jimmy's search for logs, which took over an hour. Assembling the structure itself took less than twenty minutes.

Soon, the crude shelter protecting Enni was complete. It had no windows or doors, and the gaps between the logs were wide enough to stick a finger through.

Afterward, Jimmy, Remi, and Adamfiya—who had been helping them—set about reinforcing their own hut.

For the rest of the day, the lively sound of hammers striking planks echoed across the clifftop.