The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 727: The Wanderer's Tavern

"You'd better not eat that. The contamination level is too high. Only people with no money eat that sort of thing."

Katerina finished, then lowered her voice again and asked, "Are you really... hmm?"

She didn't say the word, afraid of being overheard in the tavern.

"Repeating the question won't change the answer."

Lu Li had a general idea of what Katerina meant by "pureblood human": a high level of humanity and a high Mind Level. Perhaps there were genetic traits involved, but in a world of the supernatural, science didn't hold much weight.

Lu Li's words solidified Katerina's confidence. She threw her worn-out backpack onto the table, and it landed with a clatter of stones.

The tavern owner walked over to them. Katerina opened her backpack, revealing the dimly glowing fluorite ore inside.

"How much is this fluorite ore worth?"

"Did you go to the mine? Are those mantises still there?" The middle-aged owner, with heavy, dark circles under his eyes, rolled his eyes. His stooped back made him look gloomy and unwelcoming. "Eight shillings."

"Information costs extra, and that's too little," Katerina retorted. She wasn't some rookie hunter who would just give away information for free.The middle-aged owner lowered his head, plucked out his right eye, and placed it on the wooden table. Four thin, flexible, jointed limbs extended from beneath the eyeball, crawling around the backpack and inspecting it.

"Eleven shillings, information included. Can't go any higher, it's barely enough to sell."

With that, he snatched the eye as it tried to scuttle away, unnervingly shoved it back into its socket, and twisted it a few times until his cross-eyed gaze corrected itself.

"Deal."

Katerina pulled some shillings from the leather armor on her chest, still warm from her body, and handed him twenty. "Give me some black bread."

"Black bread? That's expensive and not very filling." The middle-aged owner turned to Lu Li and whispered, in a tone that sounded like he wanted to peel his skin off, "A new face, never been in town before..."

"He's... my cousin. Don't even think about messing with him," Katerina threatened, her left eye narrowing, ready to draw her Anomaly at any moment.

The middle-aged owner ignored Katerina's threat and gave Lu Li a creepy smile. "You have different hair colors."

"That's why he's my cousin," Lu Li replied calmly.

"The Sting, you're too tense," the middle-aged owner chuckled, dropping the subject of hair color, and went back behind the counter.

"He's the tavern owner, Old Pete. We call him the Hyena, because he's as sharp and cunning as one." After Old Pete left, Katerina whispered, watching his back, "We can't let him know what we're here to find out."

"Why not go to another tavern?" Lu Li asked.

"Because other taverns don't let hunters like me in." There was no sadness or any other emotion in Katerina's voice; she was simply stating a fact.

Hunters weren't as glamorous as the name suggested. While many hunters were as famous as legendary exorcists and even earned the respect of the church, authorities, and nobility, that didn't apply to most of them.

Most hunters were more accurately described as scavengers.

They were at the bottom of human society, roaming the outskirts of cities day after day, barely scraping by. The only moment of luxury in their lives was when they sold themselves.

And then went off to die.

Katerina wasn't one of them, but she wasn't much better off.

"I know a reliable hunter. He comes to the Wanderer's Tavern every two hours." Katerina glanced at the tavern door. "He should be here soon."

Two minutes later, the Hyena, Old Pete, brought over the black bread and the change, his eyes lingering on Lu Li again, especially on the linen shirt and coat that had clearly been stripped from a corpse, a hole pierced straight through them.

This time, however, he didn't try to probe him again.

The hard, cold black bread was difficult to cut even with a knife, its uneven black surface resembling dry tree bark. It was tasteless, expensive, and had no merits other than being "clean."

By comparison, the table next to them held a plate of fragrant, steaming meat, its aroma cutting through the tavern's din. But Katerina told Lu Li, "You don't want to know what kind of meat that is."

It could be human, or it could be an Anomaly.

Lu Li asked for a cup of hot water, struggled to soften the black bread, and ate it. The black bread, filled with wood shavings, was quite filling; at least the hunger pangs were gone.

"I want to take a bath and change my clothes," Lu Li said, looking at Katerina.

"That's too much of a luxury."

She said that, but she still ordered a room and a bucket of hot water for Lu Li, which together cost no more than the black bread.

"Need some entertainment, Mr. Cousin?" Old Pete, leaning against the counter, called out as Lu Li approached the stairs. "Three-legged prostitutes, four-legged ones, dwarves... or you can state your preferences, it'll just be a little more expensive."

"Not interested," Katerina answered for Lu Li. "When Mole gets here, have him find us in the room."

They went up the old wooden stairs to the dim second floor of the tavern. Loud shouts from some unknown room echoed down the corridor. Just before they reached their room, a woman in a translucent veil emerged from the one next door.

Two thin, spider-like legs, each the length of a forearm, grew from the woman's stomach, capable of extending and retracting. She winked at Lu Li as she passed, a cloud of cheap, pungent perfume trailing behind her as she descended the stairs.

Upon entering the room, they found a small, dim space with a single bed. The fluorite in the lampshade cast a faint light.

Lu Li went to the window and looked out.

The sky hadn't changed; the ring of lava was still dripping down.

Katerina held the fluorite, carefully checking the floor, walls, and ceiling for cracks, as well as for any listening devices.

Ten minutes later, a bucket of hot water was brought to the room. Katerina paid for the room and the water, then locked the door.

"Is your currency still shillings?" Lu Li asked, turning from the window.

"Yes. Your currency from back then, right?" Katerina tucked the remaining shillings into her bodice. "Maybe because they can't be produced anymore, or maybe out of nostalgia for the old life, people still use shillings, though some places use Anomaly Currency and gold."

The mention of Anomaly Currency reminded Lu Li of something, and he pulled the multi-faceted, matte stone from his pocket—the one the creature in the fog had given him.

"Is this it?"

Katerina examined it for a moment, then shook her head. "I've never seen Anomaly Currency either... If that's what it is, it's worth a lot of shillings, but I wouldn't recommend exchanging it."

Anomaly Currency was valued far higher than shillings, and almost no one was willing to trade it for them.

Steam rose from the bucket, and Lu Li began to take off his clothes.

Katerina had no intention of leaving. She sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes carefully scanning Lu Li's body, checking to see if he had grown any deformed organs.

Lu Li stopped when he was down to his shorts. In his pocket was the figurine from the Book of the Apocalypse. He stepped into the wooden bucket.

The hot water relaxed his pores, washing away his fatigue.

Lu Li took a deep breath and submerged himself, his black hair fanning out like seaweed in the water.