The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 783: The Prisi Caravan

Taking the jug from the false Beru, Lu Li returned to the caravan.

"Are you just going to tell her the truth?" Prusius asked, trotting behind Lu Li.

"Yes."

"But it'll hurt her so much!" Prusius protested, thinking it was too cruel to do that to an old woman.

Even Katerina thought so.

"You don't have to tell her the truth," she suggested. "Just say a girl named Beru sent it."

"She'll find out the truth sooner or later," Lu Li replied calmly.

"At least we won't be the executioners," Katerina retorted with a shrug, feeling that Lu Li's rationality sometimes bordered on coldness.

Not far ahead, the old woman stood by a wagon, waiting for a girl who would never return.

"Remember what I told you when we first met? You should try to change, not be so cold..."Katerina spoke quietly as she and Lu Li approached the old woman.

"Beru, is that you?"

The elderly face, hidden behind a black blindfold, turned toward the sound of their footsteps.

"Yes."

Katerina spoke before Lu Li could say a word.

The old woman tilted her head slightly, her blindfolded eyes seeming to study her. "Who's with you?"

"We're her new friends," Katerina replied, adding,

"We're traveling with her in the same caravan."

"You've made new friends? That's wonderful," the old woman said with relief, accepting the water jug that "Beru" offered her.

Bwoooom!

A low horn blast echoed over the caravan, announcing their imminent departure.

"We're leaving soon. Go back to your wagon, Beru," the old woman said.

Lu Li played the part of the mute girl, Katerina said goodbye to her, and they returned to their wagon.

"Did we just do a good deed?" Prusius asked, his tail wagging quickly once they were back in the wagon.

"That's my first good deed!"

"It's not a good deed, okay? At best, it's a white lie," Katerina frowned, loosening her tightly fastened leather armor.

The wagon trembled slightly as the caravan slowly departed from the Shelter and continued on its way.

In the Age of Anomalies, night always fell quickly. It was hard for the young to understand that in the old days, dusk was only just beginning at nine in the evening.

They couldn't even grasp the concept of "dusk," for they had never seen the sun.

That beautiful sunlight, brighter than any lamp and warmer than any fire, existed only in the stories of the old and in paintings.

The Prisi Caravan's next stop was Octorown, located just beyond the Gloom Wastes.

After a quiet night's journey, the caravan arrived at Octorown the following morning.

...

The sounds from outside the wagon woke Lu Li and the others from their slumber. When they opened the window, the noise of a bustling market flooded in.

The scent of perfume suddenly grew stronger. Katerina pressed her face to the window and said with envy,

"I've never seen a caravan this huge in Mantistown... How did she get here?"

Old Karolina was wandering along the edge of the caravan, leaning on her cane, feeling her way along the road and asking passersby for directions, gradually drawing closer to them.

But she was blind, and the noise made it hard for her to hear. The old woman collided with a worker carrying a load.

She fell, and an iron box slipped from her grasp. The worker, who was carrying a wooden crate, also tripped over her cane and tumbled to the ground.

Karolina anxiously felt around on the ground, found the iron box, and nervously checked if it was damaged, paying no mind to the dust on her clothes.

"Excuse me, have you seen a girl with a scythe who can't speak?"

"Uh... I haven't."

The worker, rubbing an arm scratched by the wooden crate, couldn't complain since the old woman was a passenger. He picked up his crate and hurried away.

The old woman's back seemed to bend even lower, her movements slower as she continued her search for her niece.

"Katerina, call her over."

Lu Li, who had been watching the scene in silence, spoke up.

"Right," Katerina didn't object this time. She climbed out of the wagon and went over to the old woman.

After a brief conversation with the delighted old woman, she led her to their wagon.

Covered in dust, the old woman carefully took her precious iron box from her robes and opened it.

"I baked your favorite sweet cakes yesterday but forgot to give them to you... They might be a little cold and hard by now."

Inside the iron box were several burnt, unappetizing-looking round cakes.

Lu Li reached out and took the iron box.

After a brief silence, Katerina spoke for Beru: "Beru thanks you."

The old woman smiled, satisfied. "Of course, I know... The child has always been so withdrawn."

"Ooo-ooo," Prusius whimpered from where he was curled up in his black cloak.

"Who else is in the wagon?" the old woman asked, turning her head toward Prusius.

"Prusius, a little dog," Katerina said, grabbing Prusius by a protruding hind leg and pulling him closer to the old woman's hand.

The old woman raised her hand and gently stroked Prusius's coarse, yellowed fur. When she tried to pat his head, he dodged away.

"He's so mischievous," the old woman smiled good-naturedly and gestured gently to Lu Li. "Come here, child. Let me braid your hair."

Lu Li and Prusius, who was hiding in the corner, both looked at Katerina at the same time.

Katerina shot a glare at the two of them, let down her hair, and sat down awkwardly in front of the old woman.

She was unusually stiff as she let the old woman gently braid her hair.

Katerina's and Beru's hair seemed to be the same length, so the old woman suspected nothing.

"All done. Beru, I'll be going now. I'll come see you again the next time the caravan stops."

The old woman left the wagon, and they watched her unsteady figure retreat into the distance.

"Ooo-ooo..."

Prusius couldn't help but whimper again.

"Are you crying, hyena?" Katerina asked, looking at him.

"It's your perfume... it's too strong," Prusius's human-like face turned away.

Lu Li didn't eat the sweet cakes. He simply put the iron box away.

After that, the old woman would visit them every time the caravan stopped in a village, and over time, they grew closer.

Sometimes the old woman would tell Katerina stories about the Shelter and why they had wanted to go to Vinnelag: because of a dream.

They had heard about Vinnelag once, and that was all it took for them to set out.

Except on this journey, Karolina was alone.

Sometimes the old woman would suddenly fail to recognize them, or she would think she was still in the Shelter.

Lu Li and his companions were very good at pretending, and the old woman, whose mind was failing, never learned the truth.

Until noon on the third day.

"She clumsily dropped a hot cake into the furnace, and when she pulled it out, it was covered in wood ash... Beru didn't wash it off; she just ate it, and she looked like a little soot-covered cat..."

The old woman was smiling contentedly, but she suddenly fell silent. Her elderly face turned toward Lu Li, and she asked,

"...You're not Beru, are you?"

The warm atmosphere in the wagon gradually grew cold.

Before Lu Li could answer, frantic shouts erupted from outside the wagon, signaling trouble.

Fragments of the cries reaching the wagon revealed that a leader-class anomaly was chasing the caravan from behind.

"Do you know what it is?" The anxious Katerina instinctively placed a hand on her dagger, looking at Lu Li.

She had a vague suspicion of what kind of leader anomaly it was.

The mother of the Model, the one they had encountered in the Old Sewer.