The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 881: Mysteries of the Town

Roiling black clouds churned like an overturned sea. Lightning flashed within them, heralding an imminent storm.

Although the weather was as foul as the rainy season, the biting winter cold remained outside this area.

The Andrea stopped at the edge of the fog, from where they could vaguely make out a sprawling, gray, dreary town.

Any further, and they risked being spotted by the creatures that lived here.

A nest was always the safest place—and for its enemies, the most dangerous.

Before discussing how to infiltrate Innsmouth and retrieve Katerina, the people aboard the Andrea observed the town that seemed to repel the fog.

The buildings, arranged along the hills, huddled tightly together. Numerous collapsed houses gave the town a sinister, lifeless appearance. Two dilapidated towers rose on the hillside, one of them broken in the middle. The remaining spire and the second tower reached toward the starry sky, as if yearning to touch the secrets beyond.

What caught the attention of those aboard the Andrea were the weeds and trees growing between the shore and the gaps between the houses, the figures moving through the narrow, winding streets, and a factory with smoking chimneys by the bay where it met the sea.

The source of the seaweed left around Katerina's room became clear—

It made perfect sense for plants to still be growing in the waters here, since neither the Eternal Night nor the anomalous fog could penetrate the area.In any case, sailing directly to the town of Innsmouth was a bad idea.

Ophelia watched for a while, then turned her attention back to Lu Li, who was peering into the distance through a spyglass.

— What... have you found?

— People.

Lowering the spyglass, he revealed eyes as dark as the deep sea.

Without exception, all the figures walking the town's streets were humanoid silhouettes dressed in civilian clothes, from which one could roughly guess their occupations.

Were they, like Katerina, believers with warped minds?

But perhaps not. No one knew if there was a group of human-like anomalies that also liked to wear clothes.

They needed to get closer.

The Andrea moved along the edge of the thin fog toward the shoreline. The zone from which the anomalous fog had been driven back was large enough for them to approach the coast unnoticed, without disturbing the distant town, and run partially aground on the seabed just over a hundred meters from the beach.

Five wooden boats filled with people were lowered one by one over the side of the ship into the black, churning sea.

Bishop John grabbed an oar and only began to row after the other four wooden boats had spread out to surround them.

Lu Li held an oil lamp, his head bent as he gazed at the sea. The inky water reflected the faint light, but nothing could be seen beneath the surface.

However, if a heretic approached, Bishop John and the tentacled cultist would feel it immediately.

When they were still just over fifty meters from the shoreline, a series of horrible thuds echoed from beneath the hulls of several boats, like large knuckles rapping against the wood. But it was a false alarm: the coastal waters were filled with floating debris, such as fragments resembling shin bones and dead fish.

Lu Li peered through the spyglass at the town, the calm center in what felt like the eye of a storm, and worried that watching for too long would attract attention. His gaze lingered on the town for only a moment before he turned it back to the sea.

In the distance, a wavy black line appeared on the surface of the sea, rising slightly above the waterline like a false horizon.

It was called Devil's Reef. Once, it had been a reef shrouded in all kinds of strange legends, but now, it seemed those legends might not be unfounded.

The wooden boat beneath them suddenly lurched, having run aground on a shoal.

The believers from the Church of Shadows, clad in black cloaks, were the first to disembark. In the sea wind, they looked like a band of dark phantoms.

For some unknown reason, a strange anxiety and unease washed over everyone who stepped onto the gray-brown sand, a feeling that something sinister was about to occur.

The believers of the Church of Shadows quickly began to scribe magic circles in the sand, while the tentacled cultist and his subordinates paced restlessly. As heretics hostile to this place, they felt the oppressive atmosphere more acutely.

Lu Li stepped onto the unwelcoming sand, a coarse gravel mixed with shell fragments and fish bones; walking barefoot on such a beach would have been a bloody affair.

— What... next? — Ophelia asked.

Lu Li was still pondering. The figures he'd seen in the town through his spyglass had sparked a new idea: to infiltrate it.

No one objected, but disagreements arose when they discussed the details.

Even setting aside the ancient deity worshipped by the tentacled cultist and the Lord of the Depths' enmity, which was deeper than hatred, the cultists themselves were hostile to one another.

Because of their beliefs, and also because of mistrust.

Even if the people in Innsmouth were truly human, they were still believers in the Lord of the Depths.

Allowing the Church of Shadows or the church of the unknown ancient deity to approach would be to invite conflict—though that was precisely why they had come.

Only Lu Li and Ophelia, as non-believers, were suited to approach the town.

Even Prusius could not.

The disagreement was over whether Lu Li should enter the town.

Everyone unanimously agreed that Ophelia alone would suffice. As a Vengeful Spirit, she was more resistant to corruption, and her power was a natural deterrent to these heretics, who were clearly connected to the water.

But Lu Li wanted to enter the town of Innsmouth himself, and even Ophelia expressed her agreement.

— Wisdom... is also important.

Even if the people in town could be reasoned with, communication would be a challenge for Ophelia.

Because of Lu Li's insistence, no one objected any further.

The tentacled cultists didn't much care about Lu Li's life, and the believers of the Church of Shadows, who did care, did not dare to argue or interfere.

They would remain on the beach to set up the magic circles and provide support for Lu Li and Ophelia.

Lu Li hung the holster from his belt, and the drape of his black coat concealed the outline of the Spirit Gun.

— Mister Lu Li, you must bring Katerina back!

Prusius's human face shone with firm belief.

Ophelia waved to him and followed Lu Li toward the distant town.

With the Calamity held at bay, the edge of the fog retained a primal ecology: dense, dark-green shrubs and trees grew in tangled layers, entwined with python-thick vines, forming an abyssal forbidden zone where no one dared to tread.

The forest was frighteningly quiet. No insects, no birds, no beasts—it was like a green, silent hell. This atmosphere prevented Ophelia, who was seeing real plants for the first time in over twenty years, from feeling any sense of yearning—

Lu Li, however, was different. His Cursed Title, Treewhisperer, allowed him to sense the raw life force of the dense forest and a faint, subtle affinity.

Unfortunately, they were not anomalies and could not give Lu Li any information about the town of Innsmouth.

As they drew closer to the town, its outlines becoming sharper, signs of human existence began to appear around them.

Dry wooden stakes and haphazard footprints.

But among them were many disturbing things.

For example, the giant skeleton of a whale-like creature washed ashore, and the messy tracks of what looked like webbed feet in the sand.

Despite this, Lu Li and Ophelia encountered no one, human or heretic, on the rest of their journey, as if everyone was hiding in the town or in the bay.

Only the sound of the waves broke the silence, intensifying their inner revulsion. It was impossible to tell if this unease was purely psychological or if it was truly emanating from the approaching town.

In any case, they had already reached the town called Innsmouth.