novelraw Chapter 811: She's Here
Chapter 811: She's Here
“It’s nighttime.”
Katerina reminded Lu Li, who wanted to follow Her.
She had never heard of Anna, but she guessed this was the family member Lu Li had been searching for all this time.
“You all go back and wait for me.”
It was hard to discern any emotion in Lu Li’s eyes, which had merged with the darkness of the night.
“We’ve come this far, so we should see it through to the end...”
Katerina took in the scene—the feral cats, the corpses, the reek of blood, the roar of the sea wind, the constant meowing—and decided to follow him.
Prusius and the Merchant were no exception, and even the Fallen didn't turn back.
Torches and oil lamps lit their surroundings. The road beneath their feet had turned into an abandoned dirt path, and buildings no longer lined the sides. They had left Nis and, led by the Flowing Cat, entered the mountain forest.
The howling wind swept over the treetops. Ten minutes later, a hunter’s cabin appeared before them, blending into the forest.“Meow!”
The Flowing Cat sat by the door, its slender tail wrapped around its body like a silhouette painting, indicating this was their destination.
Click!
Everyone’s attention snapped from the hunter's cabin to him as he loaded a bullet into his Spirit Gun.
Katerina suddenly couldn’t understand Lu Li’s actions.
The one this man—who never showed emotion, as if he were the very embodiment of reason—was looking for, Anna, had to be an incredibly important person to him.
Not an enemy at all, and he certainly didn't hate her.
But why?
“Again?”
Suddenly, a gentle whisper full of sorrow echoed in his ears.
“You want to kill me again, don’t you?..”
Lu Li raised his dark eyes and looked at the silhouette slowly emerging from the depths of the forest.
Meow!
A cat's meow, like a summons, came from far away, then from close by, pulling Lu Li from his delirium.
The fog in the direction Lu Li was looking swirled like a whirlpool in the sea, then melted away and vanished into the depths.
The illusion was directed only at Lu Li, whose thoughts were in disarray.
Averting his gaze, Lu Li lowered the hand holding the Spirit Gun and pushed the wooden door.
Creeeak!
The dusty wooden door slowly swung open. Dust rained down, scattered by the rushing wind, and enveloped the cabin.
In the hazy gloom, before the dust had even settled, repetitive, disordered words appeared before their eyes, filling every corner.
"Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry"
The ceiling, the walls, the floor—the repeating words, expressing some kind of remorse, were written everywhere one could step or see.
They were like distorted eyes beneath a fog, glaring maliciously at the uninvited guests who stood at the door, entering the cabin and disturbing the peace.
A thick layer of dust covered the writing desk, which was also scrawled with the repeating words. The windows let in only a dim, murky light, and the ashes in the fireplace had long since been scattered by the wind.
Anna is here.
Or was, once.
“Where is Anna?”
Lu Li lowered his gaze to the Flowing Cat at his feet.
“Meow!”
“Elder Sister, what did She say?”
“It’s too complicated, I don’t understand!”
Elder Sister peeked out from the hood.
Lu Li silently approached the writing desk and opened the dust-covered notebook.
"Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry..."
The same thing was written on every page.
He flipped through page after page until he reached the last one, but no new content appeared.
The key once again came back to the Flowing Cat; She knew something, but communicating with Her was difficult.
“Do you have a way to understand what She’s saying?” Lu Li asked Elder Sister.
Elder Sister no longer shouted or answered brightly, sinking into a kind of hesitation.
“We could go to the church in Wigtown,” Katerina suggested, glancing furtively at the Flowing Cat, not daring to look at Her directly like Lu Li did.
“They’re believers. They must know what She said.”
Lu Li nodded slightly and looked at the Flowing Cat.
“Can you take us there?”
Meow!
The Flowing Cat gracefully exited the hunter's cabin. At the door, Katerina and the others stepped aside as Lu Li followed Her out.
Pausing, Lu Li calmly glanced back at the words inside the house, then quietly closed the door.
Thanks to the Flowing Cat, they didn't need to wait for dawn for the anomalous fog to dissipate before setting out.
The crowd of cats surrounding them held their hooked tails high, as if searching for food.
Prusius, being so close to his own kind, desperately wanted to jump in and play with them, but he was in no mood for it now. Even Elder Sister noticed the change in Lu Li’s emotions.
They had never seen such emotions from Lu Li.
Beneath the calm, stagnant surface, something was being held back.
They could only hope they would reach Wigtown soon, and that the answer would be there.
...
At midnight, a believer on duty was woken by a knock at the door and went to the gate, yawning.
Besides the knocking, he could hear cats meowing. The believer thought it was Old Hans; he was the only one who was always followed by so many cats.
But when he opened the gate and saw several figures outside, as well as a black cat—graceful and noble as a shadow—sitting at the feet of a man with black hair and black eyes, his shout woke everyone sleeping in the "church".
The hall of the Church of the Flowing Cat.
With no stained-glass windows or pews, the church hall was simply a modest ground floor where unnecessary tables and chairs had been cleared away.
“Messengers of the Lord!”
The church’s priest, a gray-haired, middle-aged man, bowed to them.
Lu Li explained the purpose of his visit, and the Flowing Cat meowed softly in response.
“It’s just... we cannot understand the Lord’s language,” the priest said, looking troubled.
“The Lord never bestows revelations upon us, nor communicates with us, nor demands sacrifices...”
The Flowing Cat was not a deity.
The church was small, had never made sacrifices, and their meager faith was not enough to sustain the Flowing Cat as a deity. Their rituals, inherited from a traditional church, were limited to mass, and they did nothing more.
Lu Li was silent.
Even the church couldn't understand the Flowing Cat's words.
“Is it very important for you to know what She is saying?”
Elder Sister suddenly asked, her voice muffled from within the hood.
“Very important.”
“...I need thread from a little girl’s most cherished doll, two buttons from the clothing a mother had contact with the longest, and the needle used to sew the most expensive doll.”
After a short silence, Elder Sister asked Lu Li for three strange items.
Lu Li looked at the priest, who said doubtfully:
“The first two can be found in town, but the last one...”
Without hesitation, Lu Li said to the Merchant:
“You will return to Vinnelag and collect them.”
“Let Mr. Merchant go? What if Barry shows up?” Prusius’s human-like face showed concern.
“The Fallen and the Flowing Cat are here.”
The Fallen was highly sensitive to malice, the Flowing Cat could possibly see through illusions, and also—
Lu Li took a notebook from his suitcase and opened it to a page where he had written: “Barry is an evil spirit.”
The priest called his parishioners to find the first two items, while the Merchant left the church and returned to the In-Between when no one was looking.
Prusius couldn't help but console Lu Li:
“Don’t worry, Mr. Lu Li, we’re very close to the truth now.”
“Yes.”
Barry also agreed:
“When the Merchant returns with the items, we’ll have our answer.”