The Bizarre Detective Agency Chapter 75

The night isn't what's truly terrifying—its arrival can at least be anticipated. But when fog shrouds the world, all one can do is surrender to fate.

"And if the fog appears during the day, will they come out as well?" Lu Li asked again.

The menacing, shadowy black figures all around them seemed to have been forgotten by both men. Gades showed no fear, perhaps because he had seen them many times before or simply knew they couldn't harm him. As for Lu Li... it was difficult to discern anything on his face other than complete composure, even when confronted with death and overwhelming terror.

"I don't know. It's never happened before," Gades replied, shaking his head with a hint of supplication in his tone. "Let's hope we never see fog during the day. It wouldn't bode well for anyone."

It would introduce a new variable, and this world, already so fragile and fractured, could hardly bear another.

"How do they appear?"

For a thousand shillings, Gades was prepared to answer any question he could.

"What are you asking about? The fog? Or those... things outside?"

"Everything."

Lu Li had been in this world for some time now, and it seemed that every strange occurrence pointed toward the depths of the sea.

"The depths of the sea... is that the source of all this?" Lu Li turned his head as if to look toward the eastern coast, but his gaze was met only by the walls of the dark, cramped agency.

"More or less. Everyone blames the sailors for venturing too far out to sea. Some believe they broke the seal on an abandoned temple, releasing an evil god. Others say the world is a deity's garden where humans were allowed to dwell, but in our ingratitude, we began to explore and plunder it, which angered the god and brought down this curse. Then there's the version where Solasivia Khim, the discoverer of the Fallow Lands, actually stumbled upon the place of an ancient god's exile, and his arrival showed the god the way back. If you ask me, it's all nonsense," Gades dismissed the theories with the disdain of a hardened skeptic who refused to believe in ghosts. "Aside from a few unlucky bastards who got shipwrecked, most sailors came back in one piece. If an evil god truly existed, it would've dealt with those small-timers right away instead of waiting for the right weather or a change in mood."

Lu Li remained silent, lacking enough information to offer a comment.

He did notice, however, that the usually greedy Gades made no attempt to conserve the expensive Truth Candle, which continued to burn down, growing shorter by the second.

It burned quickly. In less than five minutes, more than half of it was gone. A single Truth Candle probably wouldn't even last for ten.

"I thought you'd blow it out a few seconds after I saw what I needed to see."

"You can't blow it out. It has to burn all the way down," Gades said regretfully. "If you extinguish it, it just starts burning in the In-Between, and then..."

Gades didn't finish, but Lu Li understood what he meant.

The Truth Candle's properties would then manifest in the In-Between. Instead of humans seeing the black silhouettes, the silhouettes would see the humans.

"And if it goes out by accident?"

"Then pray you can run far enough away before they react," Gades grinned, flashing a gold tooth.

No sooner had he spoken than something unexpected happened.

It wasn't that the Truth Candle's flame suddenly went out. Rather, the black silhouette Lu Li had been watching, the one sitting in the corner by the bar, turned its head as if to look directly at him.

Lu Li and Gades both noticed the movement at the same instant.

"Don't worry, it can't see us," Gades said, waving a dismissive hand.

But he had barely uttered the words when the black silhouette stood up and stepped away from the bar.

The misshapen, round object it held in its hand dropped to the floor, and the silhouette began to move... toward Lu Li.

"Don't worry, it can't touch us," Gades added.

The black silhouette approached Lu Li's chair and tilted its head, as if trying to make eye contact across the dimensional divide.

Lu Li calmly met its gaze. After a few seconds, the silhouette moved again.

It raised its hand and reached for Lu Li's neck.

"Don't worry, it can't harm us," Gades insisted.

Lu Li had no intention of waiting for the silhouette's touch to find out if it was dangerous. The instant it reached for him, Lu Li's hand went to his belt and snatched out the Spirit Gun.

The moment the Spirit Gun cleared its holster, Lu Li felt an indescribable malice pour into the detective agency from the black silhouettes.

As if a switch had been flipped, they all froze in unison, then turned toward Lu Li.

It was a chilling sight, but Lu Li paid it no mind.

He aimed the Spirit Gun at the head of the silhouette, now just a foot away, and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The roar of the gunshot echoed through the confined space of the detective agency. Dust rained from the ceiling, and the deafening blast made Gades clamp his hands over his ears, his face contorted in pain.

The black silhouette's head instantly exploded. Its headless body froze for a moment in the same pose, then crumbled to dust, vanishing without a trace.

Quickly holstering the Spirit Gun, Lu Li scanned the room.

The creatures from the In-Between seemed to lose interest the moment the Spirit Gun's presence vanished, returning to whatever they had been doing before.

"I told you not to worry. It was just a common ghost," Gades grumbled, lowering the hands he'd clamped over his ears. "Your stare probably allowed it to sense you and project itself into our world."

He didn't even finish his sentence before hurrying around the bar, stirring a slight breeze as he went, and heading for the door.

Jingle-jingle-jingle.

Gades left the detective agency, presumably to explain the gunshot to the neighbors.

The gust of wind and rain that had burst into the room gradually died down, and the flame of the Truth Candle burned steady once more.

Lu Li picked the shell casing off the floor, loaded a fresh silver bullet into the Spirit Gun, and examined the weapon closely.

The first rose on the gun had bloomed completely, its delicate petals now covering a small part of the frame.

Lu Li didn't know the significance of the first rose's bloom, but he was certain it was more than just a simple mark.

Jingle-jingle.

The door opened, and Gades returned, slightly damp from the rain, and stepped behind the bar.

"That black silhouette seemed rather weak," Lu Li remarked.

"Isn't that to be expected? The ghosts we normally encounter are on the other side, in the In-Between."

"Don't they attack each other?"

"Maybe, maybe not. A Truth Candle is too valuable; no one's going to waste it just to watch what happens in the In-Between," Gades replied, sitting down with a shiver. "So, any more questions?"

Lu Li nodded, about to speak, but another voice cut through the silence of the detective agency before he could.

"Where are you?"

The voice, harsh and lifeless, seemingly female, echoed from the emptiness.