On the day of departure, everyone came to see them off. Shirley and Ashelica seemed very worried about Mary, but fortunately, with Lorena present, they reluctantly accepted Mary's explanation — though the looks they gave Duanmu Huai were not particularly friendly.
Duanmu Huai didn't much care. A few girls' feelings weren't going to interfere with anything, as long as they stayed out of the way.
The one thing that did catch him somewhat off guard was...…Professor Palmer had actually come.
"Honestly, I didn't expect you to show up, Professor Palmer. Haven't you been busy with your research lately?"
"Haha...…yes, that's true...…"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Professor Palmer gave an awkward smile, but quickly cleared his throat and reassumed a more serious expression, looking at Duanmu Huai.
"Mr. Duanmu, I've heard from Mary that you're a detective...…is that right?"
"I do work in that capacity, yes."
"Good...…"
Hearing that, Professor Palmer visibly relaxed.
"I heard you're heading to Cornwall — I wonder if I might ask a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Well...…this is a little awkward to bring up...…"
As he said this, Professor Palmer wore a somewhat embarrassed expression.
"I have an older brother — his name is Palard Fraser. His son has recently gone missing."
"...…Missing?"
"Yes. It's rather embarrassing to admit, but his son was a student at Miskatonic University. He fell in love with a girl...…well, how do I put it, the boy gave up his studies and said he was going to move to her city to be with her...…"
"So he eloped?"
"Ah...…more or less. But he's gone missing."
"He didn't run off with the girl?"
"No, that's not it."
Professor Palmer shook his head.
"He set out from here heading to Cornwall, and along the way he called my brother to say he would rest for a night at a hotel on the road to Cornwall. And then there was no further word. My brother also tried calling the girl, but she said the boy never arrived."
"Wouldn't reporting it to the police be the thing to do?"
"My brother is a banker...…well, having his son go missing while eloping is rather a difficult position for him. He doesn't want to make a big scene reporting it to the police over something like this. So when I heard you were planning to investigate in Cornwall, I thought of this — since you'll be passing through anyway, would you be able to look into where the boy might have ended up?"
"If we're passing through anyway, of course."
Duanmu Huai accepted the side quest without hesitation. Players loved quests that were along the way.
What he hated most were quests that sent you to buy a horse in the east market, a saddle in the west market, a bridle in the south market, and a whip in the north market.
Was it really not possible to just buy everything in one place? And honestly, how could people not tell Hua Mulan was a woman? No man ever fussed about things like that.
"That's such a relief."
Hearing this, Professor Palmer also let out a breath, then produced a photograph.
"This is the boy — James Fraser. He was driving a black Chrysler, license plate BN5698...…if you find anything, please do telephone me...…"
Well, a Chrysler, no less. Rich kids really were something else.
Duanmu Huai took the photograph and had a look — just an ordinary blond-haired, blue-eyed young man, not particularly handsome either. He couldn't imagine what kind of girl had swept him off his feet...…but that wasn't his business.
After that, Duanmu Huai had a brief chat with Professor Palmer about the Antarctic expedition. To his mild surprise, what was actually occupying the Academy's attention right now wasn't the expedition at all, but rather a comet that would soon be making an appearance.
"Well, it can't be helped — a comet only comes once every few hundred or thousand years, whereas Antarctica will still be there whenever. Besides, I haven't finished organizing my research report yet...…"
At that, Professor Palmer looked at Duanmu Huai again and hesitated.
"Mr. Duanmu, I hope this isn't too impertinent — but what exactly did you all...…do in Antarctica? And now you're heading to Cornwall...…I've asked Mary, but she seems unwilling to say directly...…"
Duanmu Huai, however, simply steered the conversation elsewhere.
"What do you think of dinosaur fossils, Professor Palmer?"
"Dinosaurs? Ah, I have done some research on them — honestly, holding their bones and imagining what those creatures looked like in the ancient world is a rather fascinating thing."
"But if a herd of actual dinosaurs appeared in the streets of the foggy city, that would no longer be fascinating. Wouldn't it."
"Well...…that's true...…"
"It's as simple as that."
Duanmu Huai fixed Professor Palmer with a steady look, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Your job is to study the fossils. Mine is to turn things into fossils...…because fossils don't talk, don't move, and pose no threat to human beings. I think we can both agree on that."
"This...…"
Professor Palmer was no fool — he understood perfectly well what Duanmu Huai meant.
"The pursuit of science and truth may be a scholar's highest calling, but from our perspective, any existence that threatens humanity cannot be tolerated. I hope you can understand that, Professor Palmer. And I hope we'll be able to work together well."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai extended his hand.
"What do you say?"
"...…"
Looking at the hand extended toward him, Professor Palmer hesitated for quite some time before finally reaching out and taking it.
"I feel the same way."
"Good. Then it seems we'll be working together just fine."
The reason Duanmu Huai had taken notice of Professor Palmer in the first place was precisely because he was a middling scholar. Being middling meant he wasn't at the top — but it also meant he had a clear sense of his own limitations. What Duanmu Huai couldn't stand were geniuses, or people who fancied themselves geniuses — those types were completely arrogant in their areas of expertise, convinced that nothing could go wrong no matter what happened, and then they'd end up falling straight into an Evil God's trap.
And more often than not, they'd fall into the trap without even realizing it, thinking they had walked in of their own free will and that everything was under their control.
Under the Evil God's control, more like.
That sort of person with no self-awareness was the most insufferable kind.
By comparison, middling scholars like Professor Palmer might lack the drive to push the envelope — but what they had was caution and steadiness. As long as they were sensible enough not to develop the grandiose ambitions they had no business entertaining, they were far better than so-called geniuses and elites when it came to knowing when to keep their heads down.
The Antarctic incident had made that clear. Professor Palmer had obviously pieced together some idea of what Duanmu Huai and the others had been up to down there, yet he had simply gone on with his research quietly and methodically. A reckless fool might have been driven by curiosity to go looking for trouble — and that would have meant death.
Death indeed — because as a precaution, Duanmu Huai had unleashed a tremendous amount of black flame at the time. Those flames had spread through the entire ruins and would not extinguish for decades. Anyone who dared to approach would be consumed by the black flame immediately. If Professor Palmer had been foolish enough to go looking for those Shoggoth ruins, he would have been long dead by now.
Of course, Duanmu Huai saw no need to mention any of that.
After that, Duanmu Huai's group said their farewells and set off — with the maid at the wheel, naturally, driving that same heavy truck.
Incidentally, when Shirley and the others laid eyes on the pink itasha truck for the first time, their expressions were truly priceless. A shame that mobile phones didn't have cameras in this era, or Duanmu Huai would have genuinely wanted to photograph it.
The cargo space was large enough that Duanmu Huai, Lorena, and Mary could sit inside without feeling cramped, and Mary only felt nervous for the first little while. After that, she grew increasingly animated and excited — like an elementary school student going on their very first camping trip.
"Look at you getting all worked up — I should let you know, you might have to kill someone on this trip."
Seeing Mary fidgeting excitedly in her seat, Duanmu Huai poured a bucket of cold water over her enthusiasm.
"Hm?"
Sure enough, hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Mary immediately froze.
"Ki-kill someone?"
"Of course. If they're cult members, they'll definitely need to be killed."
"But, but we can arrest them and hand them over to the police...…"
"On what charge? Have you ever seen a court sentence someone to death for being a cultist or a witch? This isn't the Middle Ages."
"Well...…"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's counter-question, Mary was left speechless.
"Is there really no other way...…"
"Of course not. Obtaining a conviction for killing someone with magic is extremely difficult. Take Professor Čapek — what were we supposed to do, arrest him and take him to the police station, then tell them the killer behind the recent murders in the foggy city was the creature he had been controlling? Do you think the police would arrest him, or arrest us?"
"...…"
"In situations like these, having investigators deal with things on the spot is the most practical approach. From the official side's perspective, people like that are a nuisance anyway — leave them alive and they're a perpetual threat. Sentencing them to death isn't something current law can do. But conversely, as long as they're eliminated during the course of an investigation, whether it's self-defense or accidental death, with sufficient evidence there's no shortage of justifications."
"This..."
Mary was completely dumbstruck.
"And by the Inquisition's standards, we absolutely cannot let anyone who consorts with Evil Gods walk free. You should count yourself fortunate that Shirley lost her memories, and that she reached the Tartar Gate without having killed anyone — if she had gained power through killing, like the other Society members, she would not have been spared either."
"...…"
Hearing this, Mary's expression grew considerably more grave. But Duanmu Huai didn't ease up — certain things needed to be said clearly. The Inquisition's bottom line was not something that changed.
...…though, honestly, the Inquisition's bottom line was actually rather fluid and variable.
Of course, that depended on the individual [Inquisitor].
After having cold water poured on her, Mary's earlier agitated excitement visibly settled down — though she still seemed somewhat resistant to the idea. That was understandable enough. This young lady had probably never so much as killed a chicken before, let alone a person.
After a while, perhaps to calm herself, Mary shifted to asking about Professor Palmer's commission. Duanmu Huai had no reason to conceal it and told her directly.
"Someone went missing? It couldn't be an accident, could it...…maybe he had a car accident and went off a cliff somewhere by himself...…"
"Not a bad theory, though I'd guess he's probably already dead."
"Hm? Why would you think that?"
"Because his [debuffs] are fully stacked."
"???"
A Miskatonic University student, on top of that going missing — dying outright would count as a good outcome. If he'd been transformed into some kind of creature, that would be a fate genuinely worse than death.
Though if you chose to attend Miskatonic, that sort of thing was pretty much par for the course.
"Either way, let's have a look first."
"How do we find him?"
"Before he disappeared, he called his father to say he'd be spending the night at a hotel on the way to Cornwall. If he was driving to Cornwall, he'd have taken the same route as us — so we just need to check the hotels along this road...…oh, actually, there's no need to search. There's only one hotel. We'll show them the photograph and that should be enough to get us what we need."
After checking the map, Duanmu Huai quickly settled on an answer. It wasn't particularly difficult — the road saw so few travelers that there were hardly any hotels along it at all. With only one hotel on the route, he simply intended to go and ask. If nothing came of it, so be it. It wasn't an especially complicated matter.
As Mary had said — if the boy had suddenly veered off the road and gone over some cliff somewhere, Duanmu Huai wouldn't be able to find him either.
Though the terrain in this area didn't really look like the sort that would have sheer cliffs.
It had to be said, the infrastructure here was truly abysmal. The road existed, yes, but once they left the main thoroughfare there wasn't a single streetlight — just pitch black in every direction after dark. Honestly, walking this road, Duanmu Huai felt that the possibility Mary had mentioned wasn't entirely out of the question — no cameras, no streetlamps, and if that rich kid had been drinking and drove into a lake, he'd be gone without a trace.
Of course, this was just a minor side commission. Whether they found anything or not was secondary — it was on the way, so Duanmu Huai wasn't treating it as a priority.
"It's so desolate here...…"
Looking at the scenery outside the window, Mary couldn't help but murmur. She had lived in the foggy city her whole life and was used to places with people in them. A road this empty and untraveled was something she was seeing for the first time.
"If you're going to Cornwall, most people take the train. I just didn't want to waste time is all."
Duanmu Huai said, glancing at the map. As he noted, anyone from the foggy city heading to Cornwall — whether people or cargo — would almost always travel by rail. Driving was inconvenient and much farther, and if not for the difficulty of taking a man of his size on a train, he too would have chosen the train over having the maid drive.
For exactly this reason, the number of people who drove to Cornwall was vanishingly small — the fact that they had been on this road for an entire day without passing a single other vehicle was proof enough.
"Ah, Mr. Duanmu, there are lights up ahead — could that be the hotel?"
"Oh?"
Hearing Mary's excited exclamation, Duanmu Huai looked up and glanced out the window. Sure enough, not far ahead, lights were showing beside the road — well, that was probably the hotel.
"Alright, let's go and see."
Though Duanmu Huai had mentally prepared himself for the fact that a hotel out here was unlikely to be anything decent, he was still genuinely taken aback when he pulled up outside.
"Good grief...…this is really something."
"Haah...…"
Even Mary stared at the hotel before them with visible bewilderment, unsure of what to say.
As Duanmu Huai had remarked, the hotel looked extremely run-down. It wasn't uninhabitable, exactly, but the oil lamps hanging outside were already making him somewhat speechless.
It was like finding a hotel still lit by candlelight in the twenty-first century — which also meant this godforsaken place probably had no electricity at all.
How it had managed to stay in business up to this point was genuinely beyond him...…
Duanmu Huai swept a glance around, then stepped up the stairs and pushed open the door.
"Jingle jingle...…"
As the door swung open, the bell hanging above it rang with a clear chime. Inside the hall, the front desk was entirely unattended. On the desk sat an oil lamp and a brass bell, and hanging on the wall behind the desk were two mounted boar heads. Between the boar heads hung a double-barreled shotgun, giving the whole scene a rather old-fashioned character.
But what caught the eye most immediately were the license plates hanging along the walls on either side. They were all quite old, and came in an enormous variety — the place felt less like a hotel and more like a license plate museum. Duanmu Huai swept his eyes around the room, then walked to the front desk and pressed the bell.
At the sound of the bell, a door behind the desk soon opened, and a white-haired old man came out, pushing a wheelchair. In the wheelchair sat another elderly man of similar age. Both of them were briefly startled at the sight of Duanmu Huai, but they came out regardless.
"Welcome to the Lakeside Hotel, everyone."
The man pushing the wheelchair gave a polite nod to the group.
"I'm William, and this is my brother Robert."
As he said this, he gestured toward the man in the wheelchair, then smiled apologetically.
"Forgive me — Robert doesn't speak much. He had a bit of an accident a few years ago...…this hotel is run by my brother and me. Oh, pardon me, old men do tend to ramble on — are you all here to stay the night?"
"That's right. Do you have rooms available?"
"Of course. Please write your names here."
As he said this, William came around to the desk and produced a guest register. Duanmu Huai signed his name, then picked up the register and flipped through it.
"By the way, I'm looking for someone who should have stayed at your hotel. His name is James Fraser — have you seen him?"
As he said this, Duanmu Huai reached into his jacket and produced the photograph, handing it over. William took it and peered at it carefully, while the old man in the wheelchair simply sat in silence and gave a small shake of his head.
"I'm sorry, I don't recall seeing this young man. I'm afraid he hasn't stayed with us here."
"I see."
Duanmu Huai took the photograph back, watched the others write their names in the register, then turned to look at the two old men again.
"By the way, it looks like a page is missing at the back of the register?"
"Ah — that's because I accidentally knocked over my teacup and ruined the page, so I tore it out."
"Is that so. Incidentally, don't you two worry about your safety out here? This place is quite far from town — it looks rather dangerous."
"Heh...…what a thing to say, sir."
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, William gave a wry smile.
"We're just two lonely old men — who would bother with us? And as you say, hardly anyone comes through here on most days. Most guests only stay one or two nights. Oh, right — we have eight rooms. Rooms one and five each have two single beds, rooms four and eight each have a double bed, and all the other rooms have just one single bed. Rooms six through eight are already occupied, so you'll have to choose from what's left. It's fifty pence per room per night, to be paid upfront. Hot water is available in the rooms, but for lighting there's only oil lamps. As for meals, you'll need to see to that yourselves."
"That'll do."
Duanmu Huai paid and booked one room with a double bed and one single room. Lorena and Mary would share room one, which had two beds. The maid would take room two. As for Duanmu Huai, he chose to stay in the truck — compared to the hotel rooms here, his cargo space was honestly more spacious anyway.
Before leaving, however, Duanmu Huai gathered the three of them together.
"Before you go to sleep tonight, check your rooms thoroughly."
Duanmu Huai glanced toward the hotel and lowered his voice.
"There's something off about those two old men."
"Hm? R-really?"
Hearing this, Mary was somewhat taken aback.
"But to me they just looked like two ordinary grandfatherly old men."
"Heh. Someone like me had already hinted that this place wasn't safe and basically threatened them — and those two old codgers didn't flinch in the slightest. Either they've got something to hide, or something's got their back. Either way, I'm not buying the innocent act. You'd all best be careful."
Duanmu Huai had been an [Inquisitor] long enough to tell at a glance what was normal and what wasn't. When he had produced the photograph earlier, the two men's reactions had been very strange. The old man in the wheelchair hadn't even looked at the photograph — even when Duanmu Huai had deliberately held it up in front of him, he hadn't so much as glanced at it. And William's explanation was nonsense.
Duanmu Huai knew that James had called his father before arriving to say he was planning to spend the night at a hotel — which meant by all logic he would have definitely checked in somewhere. Not to mention he had noticed a page missing from the guest register. A page that had gone missing not a day sooner or later, but conveniently right when his group arrived?
Who was he trying to fool?
If those two old men weren't suspicious, Duanmu Huai would twist his own head off and use it as a football.
"And what about you, sir?"
Hearing Mary's question, Duanmu Huai let out a quiet chuckle, then reached into his pocket and stroked the black cat inside.
"Me? I'll be in the truck, of course. Let's see if those two old men have the nerve to try anything funny right under my nose."
(End of Chapter)