The steady rise and fall of his chest showed that the man had sunk into a deep sleep.
He slept as peacefully as anyone, making it hard to reconcile his harrowing story with the quiet scene now before them.
Lu Li turned his head toward Anna, who had appeared at his side. She shook her head slightly, indicating she hadn't sensed any presence manifest while the man was asleep.
Lu Li hadn't felt anything either.
He tried calling out to the man, but there was no response. Lu Li nudged his arm, but only the warm, damp fabric of his clothes shifted, leaving a wet patch on the sofa.
Lu Li tried other thods, splashing water on his face and shaking him, but the man remained unresponsive, as if under the influence of a powerful sedative. Lu Li pried open his eyelids and saw his bloodshot eyes darting rapidly beneath them.
The man was already lost in the world of dreams.
And, judging by the ti dilation he'd described, a few minutes of sleep in the real world could an he had already lived for months inside his dream.
Lu Li checked the man's pockets again but found nothing aside from so shillings and a book of matches wrapped in a waterproof packet.
Besides, the man had already insisted when he was awake that he hadn't co into contact with anything strange.
"You try waking him," Lu Li said to Anna, taking a few steps back.
Anna's thod was far more direct: she lifted the man into the air and began to spin him around like the hand of an alarm clock.
But he still didn't wake up.
Lu Li had Anna lower the man. "It seems he can't be pulled from his dream by force."
"Can't we help him?" Anna sighed.
The man was a truly pitiful sight, trapped in his own dreams with no way out.
"Perhaps," Lu Li replied vaguely, his eyes on the shadows passing outside the door.
The Trader was due to arrive today, and perhaps he would know sothing.
Convinced that the man could not be woken, Anna went back to the kitchen to cook, while Lu Li opened a newspaper to check the weather forecast for the next three days.
The good news was that the downpour would let up briefly tomorrow, and the day after was only expected to bring light rain, giving people a bit of a respite.
There was nothing in the paper about the Awful Giant at the port of Zenster; news of it likely wouldn't reach Belfast for several more days.
However, so of the better-inford had already begun to make preparations.
On his way back that morning, Lu Li had seen a wealthy man evacuating Belfast, his carriages stretching down the street in a long procession as he moved his belongings.
Of course, it could have just been a coincidence.
Half an hour later, Anna set a steaming pot on the table. "How much longer do you think he’ll sleep?"
The man remained motionless, not stirring in the slightest.
"He’ll probably wake in five or six hours," Lu Li replied, moving from his desk to the dining table.
"But he hasn’t slept for days," Anna said, surprised.
"That’s why he won't be able to sleep for too long."
Anna didn't quite understand, but she nodded.
After all, she had never seen Lu Li be wrong.
It was only eight in the morning. Lu Li finished his breakfast and waited a while longer, and right on schedule, the Trader appeared.
Lu Li had expected the Trader to arrive with the Deep Sea Stone—now cut into countless small cubes—in so special container or packed into his enormous rucksack. But the delivery was far simpler: the Trader appeared in the doorway carrying two wooden crates, each a cubic ter in size. Inside lay nearly a thousand processed cubes of Deep Sea Stone, along with a few smaller fragnts.
Lu Li picked up one of the cubes. It was surprisingly heavy; the small block, only ten cubic centiters in volu, weighed about two or three pounds. The surface was smooth and perfectly flat, like an unpainted Rubik’s cube, lending it an odd, minimalist beauty.
The Deep Sea Stone was heavier than Lu Li had anticipated. If he lined all the walls of his bedroom with it, the room would beco significantly smaller.
But it would be safe.
Putting the stone back, Lu Li first asked about the current price.
"10,100 shillings," the Trader replied coldly.
"It was 8,800 a few days ago," Lu Li pointed out.
The Trader said nothing. "It seems the third piece is out of my price range for now," Lu Li stated calmly.
He had already spent the reward from the "Cries for Help in the Alley" case on three large, one dium, and one small crate of canned goods, along with other provisions for the rainy season. He had a little over a thousand shillings left, seven hundred of which was the weekly Investigator’s salary he’d received on Monday.
"You can buy it," the Trader said unexpectedly.
Lu Li looked up and saw that the Trader had turned and was looking out the window from under his hood.
A Black Crow was perched on the windowsill, its head tilted as it watched the people in the room.
"One mont," Lu Li said to the Trader and went outside to retrieve the note tied to the ssenger crow's leg. Returning to the detective agency, he asked, "How many investigation points do I have right now?"
"960 contribution points," the Trader replied.
The sa amount that was listed in the note as the reward for the case.
Due to the danger of the Man-Eating House, the case was rated "Easy" despite its simplicity.
This ant that Lu Li's contribution to the investigation would be multiplied by five.
Discovering and eliminating the source of the danger earned Lu Li a 100% information reward. Uncovering the antique book’s thod of contagion, its inherent dangers, and its period of concealnt added another 92%.
Adding these values and multiplying by five, Lu Li received 960 investigation points.
This was the first ti Lu Li had completed an Easy case with 100% efficiency.
If he did that twice more, he would be promoted to Senior Investigator.
"Bring
the third piece of Deep Sea Stone next ti."
"Alright. Anything else?"
"Yes." Lu Li stepped aside so the Trader could see the man sleeping on the couch. "I want to know what’s wrong with him."
The Trader nad a price: "1,750 contribution points."
"And the solution?"
"His problem."
In other words, if Lu Li wanted to know the cause of the man's affliction, not the cure, he would have to pay 1,750 points.
Lu Li couldn't even afford to find out the cause of the man's condition.
In a way, that was information in itself: the entity tornting the man was extrely dangerous.
Anna looked at the man with sympathy.
"That's all for now, then. And please have the third piece of Deep Sea Stone cut and delivered as well."
"Mm."
The deal was concluded, and the Trader left the detective agency.
While the man slept, Lu Li went out and bought a book on gardening from a bookstore.
It could be useful for both Anna and for the Elm Forest.
Ti passed, and at around three in the afternoon, the man sleeping on the sofa began to stir.
"Where... where am I...?" a hoarse, slurred voice mumbled. The man sat up on the sofa, looking around.
He stared at Lu Li for a long ti as Lu Li t his gaze. "You haven’t aged a day..." he mumbled, as if his mory had malfunctioned.
A few more monts passed before he rubbed his forehead and muttered, "I rember now. You're an exorcist."
"How much ti passed in the dream?" Lu Li asked.
The man looked up again. His eyes were deep, as if he had lived a long and difficult life.
"Twenty-three years," he answered hoarsely.
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