The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 846: A Black Cloak and a Black Tie Fluttered in the Wind

"They seem to be afraid of us."

Katerina stepped over the gradually cooling lava, lowering her voice.

The shelter dwellers on the other side clutched torches and an assortment of obsolete weapons. Relief at the anomaly's defeat was etched on their faces, but it was mingled with a deep wariness of the newcomers.

Most of them were middle-aged, with a few younger faces mixed in.

"This shelter isn't open to outsiders. To them, we're no different from the anomalies—just strangers who've broken in," Lu Li replied, scanning the crowd for a familiar face.

"At least we're not trying to kill them," Katerina said with a cynical edge.

Katerina had no love for shelter dwellers.

No one did, except for those who profited from them.

While people on the surface clung to life, fighting for survival against the tide of anomalies that had flooded the world, the shelter dwellers cowered in their deep subterranean bunkers. Everyone understood the purpose of the shelters—to preserve a spark of humanity—but understanding didn't equate to acceptance.

No one liked being abandoned.The tense atmosphere didn't ease, even after the anomaly was destroyed.

"Yelp!"

A sudden, pained cry tore through the silence. Prusius had accidentally stepped onto a patch of lava that hadn't fully cooled. The soft crust gave way under his paw, and the fur around it instantly singed from the intense heat. Tucking his tail between his legs, he scrambled back, whimpering and trembling at Lu Li's feet.

The episode broke the tension slightly. An overseer emerged from the crowd and stopped at the edge of the hardened lava. He placed a hand on his chest and gave a bow in the old noble fashion:

"Thank you for your assistance, strangers. But might I ask the purpose of your visit?"

"We found a tunnel in the ruins on the surface, dug by that anomaly," Lu Li answered.

"Thank you for your help..."

The elderly overseer appeared to hesitate, then made a decision, though his voice was laced with doubt:

"If you need food or supplies, we can provide them. But we ask that you do not spread word of this shelter's location."

A murmur of dissent rippled through the crowd. They clearly disagreed with the overseer's decision to let the strangers leave, an act that could expose their location.

"Don't you recognize him?" Their attitude only soured Katerina further. She sneered, "He's only the legendary exorcist of your era."

The overseer was taken aback:

"Forgive me, but who might you be?"

"My name is Lu Li. I'm an exorcist," he said calmly.

"I know Baroness Eileen Joseph and Investigator Tesla. I believe they are residents of this shelter."

"Tesla? That traitor—"

A middle-aged man in the crowd suddenly erupted in anger, but the overseer silenced him with a look. He turned back to Lu Li, his gaze lingering on the young man's unaged, handsome face:

"I have no way of confirming your identity, but... what is it you want?"

"I want to see Eileen and Tesla."

The Everlasting Dreamer's prophecy had pointed to this land. These shelter dwellers had to have information about Anna.

"...Please, follow me."

Lu Li's apparent youth puzzled the overseer, but he found it hard to believe that anyone from the surface would know the names Eileen and Tesla.

He wasn't sure if they genuinely knew the pair, or if Tesla had mentioned them.

"Strangers should not be allowed inside the shelter."

A young man protested, stepping forward, and several supporters rallied behind him, including the middle-aged man who had called Tesla a traitor.

"They're already inside, my boy," the overseer said, gently shaking his head.

"This cavern is the shelter."

The overseer's supporters pushed the dissenters aside, clearing the way for him to lead Lu Li and the others deeper into the underground complex.

Leaving the grumbling residents to clean up the mess left by the anomaly, they followed the overseer. The passage gradually narrowed, and the rough tool marks on the stone walls showed that it had been forcibly carved out.

After some distance, the passage opened into a vast, natural cavern.

Clusters of fluorite were embedded in the ceiling, glittering like stars. A large, shattered sphere made of hundreds of the stones hung in the center, casting a dim, moon-like glow over the cavern below.

Down on the cavern floor, children's laughter echoed as they chased each other in a game.

Katerina stared in stunned silence. She had never seen so many children in one place.

Children were always a symbol of hope.

Noticing the newcomers, the children stopped their games to stare with open curiosity at the strange visitors. Their gazes were fixed mostly on Prusius and the ghost of Ofelia, making the pair feel distinctly uncomfortable.

Huts were built up the side of a large hill in the center of the cavern. Stepping onto a gravel path that served as a street, they made their way toward the summit.

Lu Li asked the overseer:

"Why do your people call Tesla a traitor?"

"Because twenty years ago, Tesla fled the shelter."

Four years after Lu Li's disappearance, then.

As time went on and conditions on the surface deteriorated, the Traders became scarce. The line of communication between Tesla and Adamfuya must have been severed.

Considering how important Adamfuya was to Tesla, it wasn't surprising that he would leave the shelter for her.

Upon reaching the surface, Tesla would have gone to Sea Gaze Cliff. But Lu Li hadn't found any letter from him there... Perhaps Tesla had died on the journey, or maybe he'd left the note at his old estate instead.

However, that place was now infested by the Sigh-Worm and its minions, making it impossible to check.

Lost in thought, Lu Li followed the overseer to a lodge at the very top of the hill.

It was a simple two-story lodge, marked only by a flag bearing the shelter's emblem of a spark, yet it was the most impressive structure on the hill.

The overseer spoke to the guard at the door: "The anomaly has been dealt with, thanks to these outsiders. One of them, an exorcist named Lu Li, claims to know the Supervisor and wishes to see her."

The guard handed his spear to his partner and turned to enter the lodge with the message.

The guard returned a moment later. From the still-open doorway, a faint, agitated cry could be heard.

"The Supervisor will see the outsiders."

"Outsiders, please, go in," the overseer said, stepping aside to gesture them forward.

Lu Li pushed the door open and stepped inside.

A fire crackled in the hearth, and a fluorite-filled oil lamp on the desk cast flickering shadows across the bookshelves.

Behind the desk, a woman sat in a wheelchair.

Time had stolen her youth, but the lines of a faded beauty were still visible on her wrinkled face.

Her eyes, however, were bright, and as they reflected the firelight, they filled with anticipation.

The tall figure who stepped into the room did not disappoint.

"Lu Li? Is it really you...? Lulu! Lulu!"

Like an excited girl, Eileen drummed her fingers on the desk and cried out, "Hurry down here and see who's come to visit!"

A figure appeared at the foot of the wooden staircase. It was a woman with coarse, graying hair. She adjusted her thick, round glasses and looked at Lu Li with a calm expression.

"Who are you?"

"It's Lu Li, don't you remember?"

Eileen's excited cry caught in her throat, and she quickly composed herself.

Of course they knew Lu Li. But they also knew that more than twenty years had passed.

Lulu took out an old spirit-detecting radio, listened for a moment, then looked up. "He's not an evil spirit."

"Perhaps we're spirits of defilement, or even evil gods."

Their reaction prompted another sarcastic remark from Katerina.

"Then there would be no need to hide your identity," Lulu stated, her voice as unchanging as Lu Li's. She then asked, a note of puzzlement in her tone:

"But why haven't you aged?"