The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 890: Traitor of Humanity

The silent Andrea drifted across the gloomy surface of the sea.

Lu Li slowly came to.

A sleeping body breathed evenly beside him, and light filtered through the cracks of the stove. Lu Li saw that everyone in the dark captain's cabin was asleep; even the Andrea was drifting quietly on the sea.

Lu Li woke the Elder Sister to rouse the Andrea, then went to wake the others.

— Where are we?

Prusius thought he had simply dozed off, until the Elder Sister relayed the Andrea's message: they had all fallen asleep before even approaching these waters.

— We... experienced... a dream?

Ophelia stood up, bewildered, and saw that the Merchant was also asleep.

— I'm afraid not.

Lu Li gazed at the churning darkness outside the window. The Book of the Apocalypse lay quietly in his pocket.The followers of the Church of Shadows also found no tentacled cultists on the ship.

At the same time, the gift from this journey manifested.

[Dreamwalker]

[Majestic and bizarre, strange and fantastic, vivid and colorful. From hyenas surviving in the wild to colossal beasts lurking in nebulae—all of them have dreams. This realm has but one fairness—who is to say a dream is not another world?]

[You can enter the dreams of those around you, experiencing beautiful visions or terrifying nightmares, until you become lost in the depths of the dream.]

[— Flaming dreams will melt you or the one who dreams them.]

— Let's get out of here first, — Lu Li said.

The Andrea set off once more, leaving the mysterious waters where reality and dreams intertwined.

Now, having lost Anna and Katerina, they would return to Vinnelag to rest briefly and research the Paradise Valley.

After a night's rest in the captain's cabin, the following morning—with the Eternal Night still blanketing the world—they were less than two hundred nautical miles from Vinnelag.

But bad news reached Lu Li through the Merchant.

— Who is it?

Ophelia asked.

— Mayor Matteus. He's asking us not to return to Vinnelag.

Lu Li said, looking up from the short letter, and then asked the Merchant.

— What happened in Vinnelag?

...

Slam.

The door to the mayor's office burst open, startling Mayor Matteus and making him jump to his feet.

— My apologies, Mr. Mayor, but the bad news I bring is a hundred times more serious than my sudden intrusion.

— Is there anything worse than Mr. Lu Li's connection to the Church of Shadows?

Mayor Matteus bent down to pick up the pen he had dropped.

— The Inquisition just announced they are withdrawing their support, — his aide, Valendo, said gravely.

— They never liked our exorcist, not since he arrived on that anomaly of a ship. Those fundamentalists want to 'cleanse' even the contaminated, so it's hardly surprising they've abandoned us.

Placing the pen back on his desk, Mayor Matteus sank into his chair, showing no surprise. Or rather, he had never believed the Inquisition would be on their side in the first place.

— The Council and the Privy Council are severely divided. Nearly two-thirds of the members either oppose us or are abstaining, — Valendo continued.

This was truly bad news. When Matteus became mayor, he had the support of two-thirds of the council, which meant his base of support had just been cut in half.

— Our troubles are endless, — Mayor Matteus sighed.

— And the Merchant? Those fools didn't try to kill him, did they?

— Since the exorcist from the Ancient Era is cooperating with the Merchant, they didn't make an issue of it.

— Hmph. Tell me something that isn't completely terrible.

— Although they used dirty tactics against the exorcist, they've paid a price for it. Their own support is dwindling, and many officials see this as a serious case of internal strife.

— That sounds... acceptable. But is there no truly good news?

The enemies who tried to seize the fruit of our labor have failed, which sounds wonderful, but the fruit no longer belongs to us.

The aide struggled to find a piece of news in this situation that could possibly lift his spirits:

— Because of the fog tides of the Eternal Night, the citizens haven't been protesting, and most of them haven't read about it in the papers yet.

— The newspapers...

Matteus's gaze fell upon several newspapers that had just been placed on his desk.

They were plastered with either photographs of Lu Li disembarking from the Andrea or attending a reception, or with text so full of exclamation points it would make even an illiterate citizen uncomfortable.

...

[The Disgusting Scandal of the Last Exorcist!]

[The Awful Truth: Vile Heretics Worship Our Hero, the Exorcist Lu Li]

[The Defiled Exorcist]

— How could... how could they... say such things!

Ophelia was furious at the headlines. Molten lava spilled from the cracks in her form, spreading across the floor.

Bishop John felt indignant toward the cultists who had betrayed Lu Li.

— Calm down, Ophelia.

Lu Li cautioned the out-of-control Ophelia. Prusius rushed forward with a flask, extinguishing the lava in a hiss of white smoke, but fist-sized scorch marks still marred the floor.

— Vinnelag has always been hostile to non-human beings. The Andrea isn't rejected because of me, but also because she is a ship built by humans, and people are familiar with ships. The Church of Shadows is a different matter.

People despise heretics; they are like a deadly plague, and the slightest complacency could turn a city into a tomb.

In their eyes, befriending heretics is an act of betrayal.

Lu Li was surprisingly talkative, and he spoke in defense of those who attacked him.

In truth, Lu Li could understand their feelings.

Although the revelation of his connection to the Church of Shadows had ugly political motivations, Vinnelag, which considered itself the "beacon of humanity," could not forgive Lu Li indefinitely.

Prusius, Ophelia, the Church of Shadows, and perhaps even more anomalies who would follow him in the future—one day, the citizens of Vinnelag would see the true face of their revered exorcist.

Regardless, returning to Vinnelag was impossible in the near future, and perhaps even the distant one. It was also out of the question to ask for their help with the investigation, both to protect Mayor Matteus and to keep his own location secret.

However, Lu Li could find information elsewhere, in other cities.

Vinnelag could not speak for all of humanity.

Lu Li ordered the Andrea to turn back—back to Belfast.

— Mr. Lu Li, what's your new Cursed Title?

Prusius asked awkwardly, clearly trying to change the subject to something less heavy.

— Dreamwalker.

As Lu Li spoke, the description of the Cursed Title appeared in the minds of his listeners.

Lu Li, who had returned less than a month ago, had already acquired quite a few Cursed Titles.

Beacon, Bloodied, Treewhisperer, Linguist, and Dreamwalker—but the powers they granted were indescribable.

After a day's voyage, the Andrea arrived at Port Roadster.

Allies from the Church of Fugitives received them. They stayed for a short while, inspected the ocean liner under construction, and then returned to the camp of the Church of Twisted Vines.

They rested there for two days, and on the third, something unexpected happened.

The tentacled cultists returned, bearing a divine revelation for Lu Li.

— The great Deep God has taken notice of you, insignificant one.