novelraw Chapter 746: The Locals
Chapter 746: The Locals
With no other choice, Lu Li and Katerina returned to the Cape of Good Hope tavern.
They took a corner table, where only one other patron was seated, and settled in to wait for their transport to the Old Sewer.
The man at the next table, who had been eavesdropping on the two hunters' conversation, distractedly reached for his mug.
“We’re clean now!” a tiny voice suddenly piped up from the mug. The patron snatched his hand back in alarm and stared at the two-headed rag doll peeking out of it.
“Can we go now?” the second head asked, turning to Lu Li.
The heads seemed to exist independently of each other.
“Are you from the church?” Lu Li asked.
“Humans? We’re not humans!”
“The church? We’re not with them!”
Both heads shrieked at the same time.“Were you here before the church and the city?” Lu Li continued to inquire.
“This is our home!” the left head replied.
“Shh... He’s questioning us!” the right head warned the left, its cloth face seeming to scowl in anger. “You’re a bad man!”
“Elder Sister will punish you!” the left head cried in response.
Arguing, they leaped from the mug, leaving wet footprints behind, scampered to the edge of the table, and jumped down.
Katerina glanced under the table, but as expected, the doll was already gone.
After the little troublemakers vanished, the previously silent patron stared at his now-murky drink. Then, with a furious shove, he pushed his chair back, stood up, and pointed a hand at Lu Li, roaring, “You bastard, you’re paying for my beer!”
Katerina instinctively reached for her dagger, but before she could draw it, she saw Lu Li effortlessly catch the man’s wrist—which was thicker than his own arm. The scene was as incredible as if a speeding carriage had slammed into a person, only for them to remain standing perfectly still.
“Fighting is forbidden in the tavern,” Lu Li reminded the patron, who was trembling with exertion. With his other hand, he took three coins from his pocket and placed them on the table.
“Is this enough?”
“No.”
The man glanced at the three shillings, paused, and then lowered his arm, grumbling, “But it’ll do.”
He scooped up the coins and downed the mug of beer in one gulp, now mixed with dirt and something foul-smelling.
Before leaving, he turned and tossed a piece of advice over his shoulder to Lu Li: “As thanks for the compensation, here’s a tip: you’ve gotten on their bad side. Get out of here before ‘Elder Sister’ shows up.”
The man walked out of the tavern.
“You didn’t have to pay him. We’re stronger,” Katerina said, confused by Lu Li’s actions.
“His beer really was ruined because of me,” Lu Li replied.
“But...” Katerina started to object, then suddenly remembered who Lu Li was and said with reverence, “I understand... That is the noble way of an exorcist.”
Lu Li neither confirmed nor denied her words.
In a world where the strong devour the weak, morality is worthless.
He was more concerned with the question of who this “Elder Sister” was.
Perhaps the tavern keeper knew the answer, but Lu Li couldn’t afford to ask him.
Fortunately, there were only a few minutes left until their departure.
Soon, the tavern keeper’s assistant came over to their table to clear the mugs. “The carriage to the Old Sewer is waiting in the yard,” he informed them.
Lu Li and Katerina left the tavern and went around the building. A carriage was already waiting in the yard.
They were the last passengers. Besides them, a woman with pale skin and purple lips sat in the back of the carriage, clutching an exquisite doll.
“A curse hunter...” Katerina whispered with obvious apprehension. She pulled Lu Li with her to the edge of the bench, as far away from the woman and her doll as possible.
“What does that mean?”
Katerina didn’t answer—the cramped carriage was no place for a heart-to-heart.
“Hee-hee...” A faint, ghostly giggle echoed through the carriage. Lu Li glanced in the direction of the sound. The doll on the woman’s lap was staring at him, motionless.
“Jack... likes you very much,” the curse hunter hissed like a venomous snake. Disgusting worms and cockroaches writhed between her rotten teeth.
Lu Li gave a slight nod. “Hello.”
He showed neither disgust nor fear. His handsome face and... the sweet scent emanating from him only intrigued the curse hunter more. Before she could make a move, the coachman came out of the tavern, peered into the carriage, and said, “One, two, three... Good, everyone’s here. Should we wait? Maybe the boss will bring someone else.”
“No, we’re in a hurry. ‘Elder Sister’ is looking for us,” Katerina replied.
“Then let’s go. If she catches you, you’ll be in for it,” the coachman said sympathetically, hopping onto the driver’s seat.
“Why?” Lu Li asked. “Will she attack me?”
“No, but she’ll scare you so badly you’ll piss yourself and leave town like that.”
The coachman pulled on the reins, and the harnessed mushroom horse set the carriage in motion.
Lu Li’s appearance and the aura created by his humanity truly gave him many advantages. For instance, the coachman was now happy to chat with him.
Of course, there were side effects.
For instance, the curse hunter was now showing a heightened interest in Lu Li.
And talkative people usually know a lot.
“There are always rude folks who anger them... Er... Pardon me, guest, but what did you do to upset them?”
“I inquired about their origins,” Lu Li answered.
“So that’s it. They’re very suspicious and hold a grudge. Be careful, guest.”
“Do you know their story?”
“No, and I don’t want to. Knowing too much is dangerous,” the coachman replied, his voice laced with superstitious fear. “Knowledge is a curse.”
If people in the old days feared anomalous knowledge, things had only gotten worse now.
While they talked, the curse hunter watched Lu Li with keen interest.
The carriage rattled along the street toward a hill, bumping over a rough road full of puddles. The carriage shook.
Larvae fell from the curse hunter’s body, wriggling into the cracks of the carriage. Taking advantage of the jostling, the exquisite doll slowly inched closer to Lu Li.
“Help! I’m melting!” Lu Li heard a cry from outside. A clay doll was flailing in a rapidly vanishing puddle.
“Stop,” Lu Li requested, and the carriage came to a halt. He walked over to the puddle where the doll was drowning and pulled it out.
The poor thing had almost completely dissolved, with only its head and one arm attached to its neck remaining.
“Waaah, I’m dying!” the doll continued to cry.
Lu Li scooped up some mud and returned to the carriage with the crying doll.
“Do they die?” he asked the coachman.
“I don’t know...”
True to his principles, the coachman paid no mind to what was happening inside the carriage and, pulling on the reins, continued on his way.
“Why did you...” Katerina asked quietly.
“I’m trying to mend relations,” Lu Li replied, pushing the mud toward the doll. “Try to rebuild your body.”
“I don’t have a hand!” the doll sobbed, showing Lu Li its melted arm.
Lu Li rolled a new arm out of the mud and attached it to the doll’s body. As if imbued with life force, the arm, which had just been a lifeless lump of clay, began to twitch.
The doll took the mud with both hands and began to repair its body.