novelraw Chapter 678: The Curtain is Raised
Chapter 678: The Curtain is Raised
"Did we leave the door open?"
Someone remarked in surprise, seeing the tavern door flung wide open.
Back inside, they found the main room deserted. Their eyes were quickly drawn to a wallet and a note lying on a round table.
"What's this?"
After handing the wallet back to the friend who had lost it, the man unfolded the slip of paper.
[It's taking me...]
The boozy warmth fled his veins in an instant, and his face drained of all color.
"The monster's back! It's taken him!"
...
Darkness swallowed the last glimmer of light on the horizon, leaving the streets deserted.In the distance, the lights of the port slowly dissolved into the fog.
A strange fog rolled in from the streets, and through it, the figure of Emin Grolin emerged, holding a lantern.
"I did some digging and found this letter," Emin Grolin offered, holding out an envelope like a child hoping for praise.
"Where did you find it?"
Lu Li unfolded the letter—it was a note from Anna.
Anna wrote that she had also noticed the strange occurrences in two nearby towns. The disappearances were similar to what happened with Aunt Mary. She had secretly followed the trail and discovered the anomaly's likely lair—an abandoned mine in the eastern hills near the settlement of Peschanaya Obval.
She was going to try and infiltrate it for reconnaissance.
Emin Grolin answered his earlier question. "In an abandoned cottage. I saw it on the door..."
She was interrupted by a sudden scream from the alley behind them.
Lu Li turned toward the sound, tucking the letter into his pocket as he and Emin Grolin headed for the alley.
...
The tavern was packed with people.
It had not seen such a crowd in ages, but the mood was one of fear, not festivity.
Horror was etched on every face. All eyes were fixed on the round table, still littered with plates and empty bottles.
"That's Best's handwriting... He's been taken," the village elder sighed, setting down the note. He turned to three men slumped in their chairs. "What exactly happened?"
"We don't know anything..." the man, his breath thick with stale liquor, mumbled deliriously. "Best always locked up at nightfall... He closed early today because he met..."
His gaze fell upon the tavern doorway, where a girl in a cloak stood, leading a dark-eyed, black-haired man by the hand.
"That's him!" the man shouted, pointing at the entrance.
Every eye in the tavern snapped toward Lu Li and Emin Grolin. People shrank away from the doorway as if they were carriers of the plague.
"No, no... Best said he's an exorcist from the Main Continent, come to help us!" the man added hastily.
"I spoke with him recently," Lu Li scanned the crowd, not finding the tavern owner among them. "Was he attacked by an anomaly?"
"Yes... He's the latest victim," the elder looked at Lu Li. "Best said you were an exorcist, is that right?"
Lu Li swept aside the fold of his cloak, revealing the holstered pistol, The Atonement, to the villagers.
The Spirit Gun was more persuasive than any badge. The desperate townspeople were clutching at straws, and they quickly accepted Lu Li's claim, pleading with him to help them deal with the anomaly.
Emin Grolin also hoped that Lu Li would stay to help; technically speaking, she was the exorcist sent from the Main Continent to deal with the events in Peschanaya Obval.
Lu Li showed Emin Grolin Anna's letter—their goals were aligned.
Standard exorcist procedure dictated that they should interview the residents, investigate for traces of the anomaly, and then lie in wait for it to claim another victim.
But thanks to Anna, they already knew the anomaly's location and could go straight there.
The elder and a few of the villagers pleaded with them to wait until dawn, when the fog would lift. But Anna still hadn't returned, and Lu Li worried she might be in trouble.
Before leaving, Lu Li asked the elder about the abandoned mine in the eastern hills. The elder frowned, saying it had been abandoned decades ago, the ore long since depleted.
On a cart provided by the townspeople of Peschanaya Obval, Lu Li and Emin Grolin left the small town, heading down the road and into the gloomy fog.
"The exorcist's handbook says we should avoid traveling at night, especially in this kind of fog," Emin Grolin remarked.
"Urgent matters are an exception."
The lantern at their feet cast a dim glow, pushing back the fog and darkness immediately around their cart.
It was only a few miles from Peschanaya Obval to the abandoned mine. You could say that the settlement itself owed its existence to that mine.
There were many such towns in the Wastelands. Some fell into decline due to resource depletion, while others were lucky enough to survive thanks to other nearby resources, like Peschanaya Obval.
[East Hills Mine]
[To Raintown]
At the crossroads stood a signpost with a faded inscription.
The cart turned left. The dirt road gradually gave way to black coal dust, and empty coal crates were scattered along the roadside.
The cart stopped at the mine entrance.
The clatter of hooves died away, and a dead silence instantly fell over the area.
Emin Grolin, holding a detector, gave Lu Li a slight shake of her head. "No anomalies nearby."
Lu Li placed his hand on The Atonement, intending to sense their surroundings through the Spirit Gun, but Emin Grolin stopped him. "I wouldn't... When you feel for them, they can feel you, too."
Creatures could emerge at any moment from this kind of fog.
Lu Li nodded and removed his hand.
"There's a letter..." Emin Grolin raised the lantern higher, illuminating a fresh note attached to the roadside signpost.
Lu Li took down the message left by Anna and unfolded it.
[It's not what I thought... It's weak. It's not alone; it's part of a group.]
[Unbelievable, but it seems anomalies can worship other anomalies.]
[Aunt Mary isn't here. Another follower from their group took her. I pretended to let the one I had cornered escape and followed it back to their main lair.]
[Raintown. I think that's the name of the town over there.]
[P.S. There are a few townspeople this thing captured down in the mine. I told them to stay put until morning since it's too dark. Come get them at dawn—don't risk it before then.]
Anna was clearly not far away, perhaps only a few minutes ahead of him.
"Another one from Miss Anna?" Emin Grolin asked.
"Yeah."
Lu Li slipped the letter into his pocket and headed for the mine. "Let's go in. Anna's already handled it."
When they found the people who had been captured by the anomaly's followers, they were sitting around a campfire, warming themselves.
Lu Li looked them over—all were unfamiliar faces. The tavern owner, Best, was not among them.
"I'm an exorcist."
At these words, the people's wariness vanished instantly. Lu Li began to ask what had happened, and they all started talking at once, explaining that they had been saved by a girl who called herself Lu Li's assistant.
One of the women held out a letter, saying the "assistant" had asked her to give it to Lu Li. But it was the same letter that had been hanging on the signpost.
They had resigned themselves to waiting until dawn and were stunned to see Lu Li arrive just a few minutes later.
The campfire hadn't even had a chance to get properly going yet.