The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 639: Time Erases Everything

The heretics had clearly gotten what they wanted.

Lu Li reflected on this after Anna returned with the fragments of Deep Sea Stone.

It was unlikely they had released the inmates of the Ghost Prison out of goodwill—besides, the number of ghosts in Belfast hadn't increased noticeably.

Having achieved their goal, they vanished, as if plotting some unknown conspiracy. But there was a silver lining: a lot of Deep Sea Stone remained in the Ghost Prison, and even a small portion would be enough to expand the shelter.

But now was not the time.

The heretics had only just left, and the prison might still be under their watch. Frequent visits could attract unwanted attention.

Anna temporarily focused on scouting the districts surrounding the Elm Forest.

Several districts, including the one around Elm Street, had been overrun by anomalies, but due to their distance from the city center and proximity to the outskirts, there weren't many. During the day, they rarely wandered the streets, preferring to hide in the ruins or dark alleys.

"I plan to eliminate some of them," Anna told Lu Li after her reconnaissance, "and leave only those that can be used as food."

"I'll go with you," Lu Li said, setting his book aside.He had been living on the cliff for nearly two weeks. The monotony didn't bother him, though it did go against his original plans.

"No, I can handle it alone," Anna said, not wanting Lu Li to accompany her—it would be a distraction.

"Be careful," Lu Li didn't argue, looking at her intently. "Don't forget our agreement."

Anna's cold heart clenched for a moment. She met his gaze, his black eyes bottomless. "Of course, I won't forget."

Taking The Atonement and the silver-plated bullets, Anna said goodbye to Remi and Adamfiya and left the cliff.

Even as she approached her first target, she couldn't calm her thoughts.

Lu Li rarely spoke without reason—every word he said had a purpose and a meaning...

Had he suspected something?

Anna's thoughts were drawn away from the invisible anomaly quivering in a mug. Constricting the space around it, she simply tossed The Atonement in as if it were a set of keys.

The pistol fell into the mug, creating ripples as if landing in liquid. Then, steam hissed and billowed out, and after a piercing scream, everything fell silent.

Anna snapped back to reality, remembering that Lu Li received fragments of humanity. A long-forgotten memory surfaced: the victims of The Atonement showed Lu Li the Memories of their death.

Because of the distance and the lack of contact with them when Anna hunted with the spirit pistol, Lu Li hadn't seen the Memories. The peculiar nature of Prada in Paradise had also prevented him from seeing the Memories of the anomalies killed there.

But the deaths of Sara and Adam were an exception.

He had finished them off himself, and their connection was profound.

So what exactly did Lu Li see then?

...

Lu Li closed the book, releasing a puff of air from between its pages.

"Rodrigo's Romance" was the kind of book Anna liked, but Lu Li, having picked it up by mistake, had read it to the end anyway.

There were hundreds of books stored on the cliff, but the paper of that era was thicker, the font larger. A standard volume, two fingers thick, barely contained twenty thousand words.

At his pace—one or two books a day—the supply would last less than two months.

As for the plot, it was a love story between an aristocrat and a commoner. Formulaic, trite, and filled with all the clichés of the genre. Only the tragic ending gave the banality some depth: the young man eventually gave up, while the girl continued to fight, only to be betrayed by her lover in the end.

The book reminded Lu Li of Sara and Adam.

In reality, Adam's death had echoed the story of the Shadow Puppeteer: he fell from Sara's balcony and died among the flowers.

In the Memories of Death, Lu Li stood by the flowerbed, unable to save Adam as he fell from the balcony.

He was still alive, choking on blood, and managed to whisper, "Guard your feelings. Don't let time erase them."

Then came Sara's Memories: pale but beautiful, dressed in a rough shirt, standing on the scaffold. Below, a crowd screamed vile words and threw stones.

The guards stepped back, afraid of being hit.

Sara stared over the heads of the crowd, trying to maintain her pride. A sharp stone cut her brow. Her right eye swelled shut, and blood trickled down her cheek.

Lu Li stood in the crowd, watching in silence, not interfering.

This was her punishment.

The noose tightened around her neck, the trapdoor opened—and her body hung, swaying slightly.

Her face quickly turned purple, but strangely, Sara showed no sign of suffering. Her twisted lips looked more like a smile.

Her eyes found Lu Li's calm gaze in the crowd. The blood on her lips made her smile sinister.

The shouts of the crowd faded, losing their meaning. All Lu Li could hear was Sara's hoarse whisper: "You'll see... when... your beloved... meets the same fate... if you'll still be... indifferent..."

Lu Li had thought she was talking about the fate prepared by her memory. But now he understood—she meant something else.

The Abyss—the end for all ghosts. The path is long, but the destination is inevitable.

Lu Li opened "Rodrigo's Romance" again. On the title page was the author's dedication, from a Moritz Johnston:

"Time erases everything, including the love of the past."

The phrase suggested that Moritz Johnston was a man with a past. Perhaps... the story in the book was his own.

But the past had sunk into oblivion, and there was no way to verify it. The Trader might have known, but Lu Li wouldn't spend investigator points on it.

He chose to trust Anna. But if Anna truly lost herself and fell into the Abyss...

His fingers reached for his belt, but The Atonement wasn't there—Anna had taken it with her.

...

Anomalies were bizarre.

The invisible entity in the mug, destroyed by Anna, was just one example.

Anna didn't even learn what its abilities were, having dispatched it as easily as it had killed humans—quickly and effortlessly.