The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 852: Problems and Opportunities Abound in Belfast

Before releasing the statues, they still had one problem to solve: if the statues could communicate, how would they understand their language?

“Can Elder Sister understand?” Prusius asked.

“Probably not,” Lu Li replied.

Elder Sister’s ability was to sense emotions, not to translate languages.

“We could go to the shelter again. They know the people of the previous generation, so maybe they know their language too,” Katerina suggested.

“But the shelter is already sealed,” Prusius said, crouching down to scratch an ear with his hind paw.

“We’ll just dig it up again,” Katerina said, glancing at Lu Li.

“To Winnelag first.”

Two stoves warmed the captain’s cabin. Lu Li took off his black cloak and hung it on the ship’s wheel, giving the Merchant the task of going to Winnelag to “find someone who knows the language of the previous generation.”

The new Merchant, who had crawled out of the coals, accepted this assignment, along with the task of finding seeds for the shelter. Upon arriving in Winnelag, he would remain there to rebuild the Merchant network.The old Merchant continued to follow Lu Li, searching for more of his kind.

While the new Merchant was investigating in Winnelag, Prusius asked the old Merchant:

“What’s your name?”

“A Merchant has no name.”

“We still need something convenient to call you. There are going to be more and more Merchants, after all!”

Prusius looked at Lu Li expectantly.

“Master Lu Li, are there any other names that start with ‘An’?”

“Andy?”

Katerina recalled the name of a dead hunter.

“That... name... isn’t suitable.”

Ofelia said hoarsely:

“We could... call him... Anthony.”

The Merchant’s objections were useless, and everyone scrambled to give him a new name to distinguish him from the other Merchants.

It seemed pointless, but everyone was pleased with the Merchant’s new name.

The Merchant—or rather, Anthony—relayed information about the progress of the Merchant in Winnelag:

Mayor Matteus promised to find a batch of seeds for Lu Li; Mayor Matteus was investigating any leads related to “ruins, the Abyss, cultists, a tree, a brown wagon”; Mayor Matteus had sent people to search.

The first results to come in were on an unrelated matter.

“They found Moni Alaya in Winnelag. She is now the wife of the captain of the Inquisition’s Steam Knight Order,” the Merchant, Anthony, reported.

Lu Li carried many records and letters with him, including those left in the shelter, which he had also collected. The diary of Naslam Alaya, a resident of the shelter who died in the collapsed ruins; the diary of the night watchman Matthew from the investigators’ base; the letters from Remi and his sister—

Lu Li opened his suitcase and handed Naslam Alaya’s diary to the Merchant, Anthony, so he could deliver it to Moni Alaya.

“I am dying. Whoever reads this, I am Naslam Alaya. Please deliver this diary to my daughter, Moni Alaya, and tell her that all my property is under the floorboards by the fireplace in our old home. Also tell her that I love her. Remember, it is I who loves her, not you.”

Lu Li still remembered the last words from the diary. But now the words themselves had not vanished, and he no longer needed to convey them on that father’s behalf.

Meanwhile, information arrived about the cultists of the “Church of Shadows,” who worshipped Anna. They had recently gathered in Imodburg, in the west of the Main Continent, and sacrificed all the survivors there.

The place was a long way from the Allen Peninsula. But if no information came from the statues, and if there were no traces of Anna in Himpfast, Lu Li might very well have gone to Imodburg.

Andrea caught several fish and threw them onto the deck. Ofelia came out of the captain’s cabin and brought the fish back in.

They no longer cooked the fish into a stew; the lack of sufficient spices meant that everyone except Prusius found the fish chowder inedible, with a fishy smell so strong it was like chewing on a raw fish.

Fried fish was simple enough and hard to mess up, but it made them very thirsty afterward. However, having two Merchants meant there were no problems with supplies—whatever they needed, if it was in Winnelag, it could be delivered in minutes.

Gurgle.

The smallest fish was tossed to the black crow, which snatched it, landed on the control panel, pecked it apart, and swallowed it.

The Sanity Counter made a sound, but no one paid it any mind. Katerina, refusing Andrea’s idea to fry the fish “personally,” scaled the fish, gutted it, placed several on the stove, and sprinkled them with salt and simple spices, waiting for the skin to turn golden brown.

“Caw!”

The black crow suddenly spread its wings and shrieked piercingly, unable to dispel the cadaverous, overpowering fishy smell emanating from the fish carcass at its feet.

“What a stench... what happened?”

The smell, like an invisible malevolence, brazenly assaulted the senses of everyone in the captain’s cabin.

Lu Li kept an eye on the Sanity Counter as he used his dagger to lift the belly of the fish that the black crow had pecked open.

A pile of black waste, resembling deep-sea sludge, lay in the fish's belly, exuding a monstrous, tangible stench.

“Bleh...”

Prusius, who had been scratching at the door, was gagging until Katerina opened the cabin door and saved him.

“What... is this? It’s not... in any books.”

Ofelia examined the foul-smelling fish carcass; she couldn’t smell a thing.

“I don’t know.”

Lu Li wrapped up the dead fish and threw it overboard. With the source gone, the stench in the captain’s cabin gradually dissipated.

The unknown in the world was as plentiful as the grains of sand on a beach.

Once the smell had faded, Katerina closed the cabin door.

However, for Lu Li and Prusius, a foul odor still lingered in the cold air.

Other than the smell, the contents of the fish’s belly seemed to have no other effects; nothing had happened to the black crow.

Near midnight, the Merchant, Anthony, brought more news.

“They found someone in Winnelag with the Cursed Title ‘Linguist.’ He can translate the language of the previous generation.”

As the Merchant, Anthony, spoke, the inscription “Linguist” surfaced in the depths of their minds.

“Linguist”

“Vibrations in the air, the movements of breath, the emanations of consciousness—you understand the languages they speak. You know whether they are discussing the new neighbor or how to roast or boil you.”

“But be careful. They don’t like being eavesdropped on, and they don’t like their language being defiled by the weak.”

“—Language itself possesses power.”

“Is it a person? How will he get here? Can your Merchants bring him?” Katerina frowned.

“They can, but he will be contaminated by the In-Between.”

“Use another way,” Lu Li said calmly.

This holder of the Cursed Title was able to translate the language of the previous generation. Now only one problem remained.

How to communicate with the people of the previous generation.

Lu Li assigned this to the Merchant. He wrote down questions on a piece of paper and asked the Merchant to take them to the holder of the Cursed Title for translation. Then, the Merchant was to deliver the questions to the people of the previous generation, retrieve their answers, have them translated, and bring them back.

If that didn’t work, they would have to choose another, less safe method: bring the statues out of the In-Between and ask them in person.

Had there been any outsiders in the underground ruins recently; did they remember anything related to “the Abyss”; what could be connected to “ruins, the Abyss, cultists, a tree, a brown wagon”—

Lu Li folded the parchment covered in questions and handed it to the Merchant, Anthony.

Then he began to wait for a reply.