The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 638: Observations in the Ruins of Belfast

[Belfast]

[A city of trade, a port city, a tourist town]

[From the peak of Sugard Mountain, one of the world's most beautiful vistas unfolds: the orderly panorama of the city, a port bustling with life, and a sparkling, picturesque bay]

[And by Agate Lake, you'll find elegant, stately, and beautiful neighbors]

A leaflet bearing the old words drifted through Anna's mind. When the image faded, all that remained was the sight of a shattered, gray ghost city lying in ruins.

Beneath a thick layer of clouds, the leaden surface of the sea shifted. Far in the distance, a black sun hung in the void.

Before, when Anna headed for the Oak Grove on the coast, she would follow the shoreline. Now, she cut straight through the ruins of Belfast.

Of course, she avoided the obviously dangerous zones, like the shipwreck district that had become a forest of rusted hulls, or the ash district where ash fell without end, like snow.

Up ahead, gaunt vagrants scurried through the streets and alleys. They were the lowest predators of this city, possessing an insatiable curiosity—or rather, a hunger for food. Their first reaction to any object was to try and bite it.

"Vagrants" was the name Anna had come up with for them. They never seemed to stop, constantly moving like gears in a clockwork mechanism. Anna wasn't sure if they existed elsewhere, but when Lu Li sold the information about them to a Trader, it had fetched 70 investigator points.They occupied several blocks outside the Elm district, huddling in packs. Anna had tried to stalk them while hunting several times but could never find an opportunity to catch one alone. Finally, after several days, one vagrant strayed from its pack, and Anna managed to capture and kill it.

They were weaker and more fragile than she had expected. They had no hard carapace, and their skin was thinner than a human's; when she touched it, the subcutaneous fat rippled in waves.

It wasn't fat. When an invisible dagger sliced its throat, a thick, festering ooze gushed out from under the skin.

Once the subcutaneous fluid had drained, all that was left of the vagrant was a thin shell of skin, like a deflated balloon.

Even without a sense of smell, Anna could feel the nauseating stench emanating from the creature. Now she understood why the weak packs of vagrants had managed to establish themselves here.

They were like walking pieces of rotting meat. No anomaly would want anything to do with them, save for creatures with peculiar tastes.

Anna did not enter the In-Between. Ghosts in the In-Between could sense one another, which would mean a complete lack of cover, rendering her actions pointless.

She hadn't come here just for safe passage through Belfast.

As she ventured deeper into the city's ruins, Anna saw more sights that were new to her. For example, buildings entangled in countless hideous growths, wooden houses riddled with innumerable holes, and eerie sacrificial sites: desiccated bones arranged in bizarre poses, facing steps made of stacked wooden beams.

Anna gave that place a wide berth.

The task Lu Li had faced during his investigator exam had strangely materialized in reality—a little girl, like a porcelain doll in a clean dress, was wandering along a ruined street.

It could have been a vengeful spirit or some other anomaly disguised as one. In any case, Anna observed the area from a distance and skirted around it as well.

Bypassing dangerous areas and corners from which she might have been watched, Anna moved steadily along her intended path. Twenty minutes later, she emerged onto Sailor Street.

Her former... home.

The longhouse had retained its old appearance, untouched by the fire that had once spread. The wooden door, however, was gone—perhaps broken down by residents as they fled, or for some other reason.

Anna entered the silent corridor. The door to the detective agency was wide open, the floor was strewn with wood shavings, and the interior was a mess, showing clear signs of a recent search.

Someone had broken into the detective agency looking for something. It was most likely survivors, as some of the food from the kitchen was missing.

In the oppressive silence of the longhouse, Anna silently entered the detective agency's bedroom, sat on the damp, waterlogged bed, and, just as she used to, turned her head toward the living room.

From here, she could see Lu Li at his desk.

For a moment, she thought she truly saw him: Lu Li sitting at the desk, reading peacefully, slanting rays of light from the window illuminating the room, the noise of passersby and the clatter of wheels drifting in from outside.

When Anna came to her senses, all that was before her was cold twilight and desolation.

A wave of longing washed over her. Anna felt an unbearable urge to return to Lu Li, but she suppressed it, left the longhouse, and headed toward the opposite end of the Belfast ruins.

Looking closely, Anna noticed signs of survivors everywhere. After all, only humans made fires for cooking and used their light.

But their fate remained a mystery.

Perhaps some survivors still eked out a miserable existence in these ruins. Perhaps they had failed to escape the rampaging anomalies.

Skirting dangerous spots and corners where she might be watched, Anna reached the Oak Quarter.

The Oak Grove in the distance had also long since withered, but it wasn't as hostile to outsiders as the Elm Forest on the other side of the Belfast ruins.

Moving through the sparse trees, Anna began to notice signs of logging, which grew more and more numerous.

The trees closest to the shoreline had nearly all been felled to build boats. Now, those boats lay abandoned on the sand—the heretics had accomplished their task and left, rendering the boats unnecessary.

The forest floor was a mess of haphazard, frequent tracks; those on the sand had been washed away by the storm. Aside from a dozen boats, the beach was empty.

Anna entered the In-Between and looked toward the solitary island in the distant sea.

She couldn't sense the presence of any ghosts. Perhaps it was due to the great distance, or perhaps the Deep Sea Stone was blocking their auras. It was also possible the heretics had taken the "inmates" of the Ghost Prison with them.

Anna leaned toward the last possibility, as she hadn't felt any strong ghostly presences during her entire journey.

There was something strange about it, and she needed to investigate.

Dropping her concealment, Anna glided low over the dark water toward the island where the Ghost Prison loomed.

The water grew darker and blacker, a fact that not even the white foam crashing against the coastal rocks could hide.

Up close, Anna saw the prison rising from the island's peak. It resembled an ancient fortress, covered in the stains of time, its walls draped with dead seaweed and countless shells.

It was all Deep Sea Stone...

Anna recognized the material from the massive black walls. The entire prison had been lavishly built from Deep Sea Stone, and the ghosts were kept in sealed cells. But it was no longer intact: an ugly breach, left by a forced entry, gaped in the wall.

She couldn't sense the slightest presence of ghosts.

The prison was apparently empty, but Anna didn't venture any closer. She gathered some fragments of Deep Sea Stone and headed back to the cliff with them.

Lu Li would appreciate these.

As Anna departed, the endless roar of the surf once again dominated the island. The sea wind blew at the entrance to the breach, as if carrying with it a soft sigh.