Salted Fish Chapter 70.1: Dollhouse (Part 1)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Duan FeiZhou jumped out of the spell, grabbed the talisman paper, and stuffed it back into his pocket. He said, “Ms. Q and Miss Acheson are already here!” 

Mr. N nodded. “Let’s go!”

The three of them ran wildly towards the secret passage. As they passed a certain cell, Duan FeiZhou heard a familiar scream from behind the door, “Hey, kid! I know it’s you! You’ve come to rob the prison, haven’t you? Take me with you!” 

It was Palmer, who was willing to join anyone to get out of his cell.

“No time!” Duan FeiZhou yelled back.

Palmer howled, “I’m useful! I’m good at digging holes in the ground! Take me with you, it’s no loss!”

At the dungeon door, a variety of lightning and missiles grazed Duan FeiZhou’s cheek, and even cut off several strands of his hair.

He bent down to avoid a shock wave. However, the ground suddenly sprang up with countless vines, tangled and twisted plants that wrapped around his ankles. He fell to the ground with a whoomph.

Duan FeiZhou hurriedly shouted, “Wait! These are illusions!”

He had seen the same illusion once before. He concentrated his mind and used his will to dispel the illusions around him. Within seconds, the vines were reduced to ashes and the ground was intact, with no sign of any plant growth.

Xenophon gave him a few complicated looks and muttered, “Why didn’t I see that? Am I not that good?”

The sound of footsteps behind them became more and more chaotic as even more detectives poured into the dungeon. Duan FeiZhou and Xenophon turned around and ran. The fireball landed in the middle of the corridor and exploded with a loud bang, causing the cell door next to them to shake. The new superintendent of the Abnormal Case Investigation Unit smiled calmly as he walked towards the three bandits. There were only three of them, while there were more than ten on their side, so they could crush the other even with only the use of human tactics!

At that moment, a “click” came from behind him. It sounded like a typewriter.

…Why was there a typewriter in the dungeon? The superintendent froze.

Xenophon’s ears picked up the same sound. He yelled, “Get out of the way!” 

Before Duan FeiZhou could react, Xenophon lifted him by the collar and the two of them dashed around the corner of the corridor. There was another “click” then the bullets came pouring in like a rainstorm!

Miss Acheson, carrying the Gatling machine gun, stepped into the dungeon like she was on a leisurely stroll. The rotating barrel of the gun kept spitting sparks, and the bullets that flew out were a torrent of steel sweeping in.

“Damn it! Why do they have a Gatling in their hands? How the hell did they bring a Gatling into Scotland Yard?!”

“I know that woman with the Gatling! It’s their clerk!”

“I’m not well read, but don’t lie to me! There is no such clerk in the world!”

The dungeon was filled with cries of wolf. A detective who reacted quickly fell down or dodged in time, while those who reacted slowly were already shot and fell to the ground. Some tried to use their occult shields to ward off the bullets, however, Mrs. Q slowly stepped out from behind Miss Acheson and just as they summoned their shields, they were mercilessly destroyed by Mrs. Q’s occult magic.

The Gatling machine gun didn’t have a high hit rate, but then its most important role was fire suppression. The angled bullets made the enemy afraid to even raise their heads, let alone strike head-on.

Duan FeiZhou was crushed to death by Xenophon, as the two men covered their ears, crouched at the foot of the wall and shivered.

No wonder Z wanted to appoint Miss Acheson as the next chief. This was the power of a typist! Duan FeiZhou thought in awe. His uncle Joseph Chester also claimed to be a typist. What a terrible profession a typist was! He would never dare to underestimate the strength of a typist again! The horror of it!

The dungeon has been suppressed by Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q. Xenophon picked up Duan FeiZhou, pointed in the direction of the secret passage, and mouthed the word, Go!

Duan FeiZhou nodded, and the two crept forward together to avoid being accidentally injured by flying bullets. Unfortunately at that moment, a black shadow appeared behind Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q. Miss Acheson immediately stopped shooting, and turned around as she raised the Gatling to use as a shield to block her chest.

That was when a sword hit the Gatling hard and sparked.

Madame Boyle was holding a longsword, her face solemn. She had just left the floor when she heard the sound of a machine gun. Realizing that perhaps someone had broken into Scotland Yard to rob the prison, she immediately returned and stopped the two robbers at the dungeon door.

The Gatling machine gun wasn’t easy to use at close range, but that was no problem for Miss Acheson. She swung the heavy machine gun directly at the enemy as a melee weapon! 

Madame Boyle was surprised to see how strong the slender girl was. She swung her sword to block the machine gun swinging at her. She was surprised when her wrist went numb, and her sword almost came out of her hand.

She hastily retrieved the sword, and turned to use her occult art to deal with Miss Acheson. The machine gun was certainly powerful, but when it was used as a melee weapon, the attack speed was very slow, and after each blow it would reveal a huge break.

A lightning bolt struck at Miss Acheson, but it was deflected by the shield summoned by Mrs. Q.

The two women closed in on Madame Boyle.

However, without the Gatling’s firepower to suppress them, the detectives in the dungeon jumped up again, and rushed towards Duan FeiZhou and the others. Some of them even turned back upstairs and together they tackled Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q.

The two Nightmen were back-to-back. On one side was Madame Boyle, and on the other side were the occult practitioners detectives. They were pinned left and right. The two women were outnumbered and the situation was extremely unfavorable.

In the dungeon, Xenophon stopped in his tracks, looked back and said through clenched teeth “It’s that woman!”

The last time he was hung by that woman, and he still holds a grudge!

“I will go to the aid of Miss Acheson. You and Mr. N go!” Xenophon said.

Duan FeiZhou also hated Madame Boyle to the point of irrationality. She had tortured Z. Xenophon didn’t know, but he knew all about it. Not to mention that Madame Boyle also murdered Miss Madeleine with the goods she bought in the Trading House. With the old hatred and the new hatred together, he couldn’t wait to get rid of Madame Boyle.

Unfortunately, last time it took Xenophon combined with Mrs. Q, Mr. R and Yeats to defeat Madame Boyle. This time they had five people on their side, but the other side also had many occult practitioner detective helpers. If the two sides really fought he was afraid there would be heavy casualties.

The goal of their operation was to rescue Z and get out of the house, not to fight with to the death with the Committee.

Xenophon was about to rush up to rescue Miss Acheson, when Mr. N stopped him.

“Don’t be impulsive!” The restaurant owner whispered. He turned to Duan FeiZhou, “Go into the Trading House and open the guest door!”

Did he mean to say that Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q should disappear into the Trading House?

This would indeed allow the two to get away, but the problem was that women would leave the spell runes in place. If they wanted to leave the trading house, they would appear in the location of the rune papers.

Before they disguised the rune papers as a letter and successfully sent it into Scotland Yard, which fooled the detectives, but after this battle, the detectives would find out that the letter paper was the rune paper. They could guard the rune paper and wait for Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q to appear.

Duan FeiZhou didn’t know how the guests would leave the trading house after the paper was destroyed. Maybe they will be trapped there for life?

The only way to know about this kind of thing was to test it, but he couldn’t test it on a living person, right?

“Don’t stand still! Hurry!” Mr. N urged in a stern voice.

“But…” Duan FeiZhou chose to trust Mr. N. He was the man chosen by Z to be the chief’s assistant. If he wasn’t completely sure, he definitely wouldn’t have ordered Duan FeiZhou to enter the Trading House.

There was a lot more to Mr. N than just a Nightman who wanted to quit his job and open a restaurant. His mastery of the occult arts may be far better than they thought. Duan FeiZhou gritted his teeth, took out the talisman paper, and immediately entered the Trading House.

Z was still sitting there with his back against the wall. His head hung slightly, as his silver hair covered most of his face. Even after being wounded, he always looked calm and collected in front of his men. No one knew what he looked like when he was alone. He raised his head and asked, “Why are you back again?” 

Duan FeiZhou set the golden clock. Seconds later, Miss Acheson and Ms. Q leapt into the Trading House.

“There was a problem.” Duan FeiZhou replied. He was about to turn the clock back when Mrs. Q shouted. “Wait! They’re coming in too!”

Duan FeiZhou’s eyelids began to twitch. “Who’s coming in?”

As if in answer to his question, Mr. N and Xenophon stumbled out of the spell, and almost bumped into the two ladies in front of them.

“Close the channel!” Mr. N ordered.

Duan FeiZhou did as he was told. The rescue team and the rescued people, six in all, were in this place. They were indeed safe for now, but the question was…

“How are we going to get out?” Duan FeiZhou stared at Mr. N.

He thought Mr. N’s plan was to hide Miss Acheson and Mrs. Q in the Trading House first, and then have someone find a way to collect everyone’s spell paper and bring them back to the restaurant, so that everyone could get out safely.

I never thought Mr. N would let them in to hide! So who’s going to collect the runes? That group of occult practitioners detectives?!

At the same time, in the dungeon, just as they were ready to fight with the bandits, in the blink of an eye all of them disappeared as if they had evaporated! The Superintendent wasn’t sure of what to do. He had long heard Sir Carter say that the Nightmen also had the strength of the occult practitioners, but this kind of in situ disappearing skills was something he had never heard of.

Madame Boyle looked grave, as she gripped the sword in her hand.

The superintendent couldn’t see it clearly, but she did. When she confronted the two women, they didn’t disappear, but went into the Secret Trading House. The evidence was the two pieces of paper that were left in their place.

She walked up, and picked one of them up with the tip of her sword.

“Madame Boyle, what the hell is going on here?” The superintendent pushed aside his men, and came striding toward her.

The female occult practitioner aimed the point of her sword at him. The superintendent’s heart shuddered. He thought Madame Boyle was unhappy with his lapse in work and was going to take him to task. Luckily he quickly understood, Madame Boyle meant to show him the paper picked up by the tip of the sword. He took off the paper and looked at it several times, but he didn’t see anything.

“It’s just a letter,” he said. He had seen a lot of advertising letters from insurance companies in his life.

“Idiot.” The word spilled from the red lips of the female occult practitioner. Madame Boyle had the audacity to scold him in front of his men! What an arrogant woman! However,  he didn’t dare to say anything back. Although he had been following the Committee for a long time, Madame Boyle was the new favorite of Sir Carter. He wouldn’t dare to offend Sir Carter. If that woman tried to turn on him, not only would His Excellency, Sir Carter not pursue the matter, but he might even help her destroy the body.

“I don’t understand, madam.”

“That’s the kind of paper they move through.” Madame Boyle could only say so much. If she went further, it was the same as telling the superintendent that it was the key to the Trading House, which would trigger the secret contract.

That hateful secret magic! Even though her key had been destroyed, the contract on her body had failed to be released! Instead of hiding, he and the Nightmen waltzed into the prison and took her work like nobody’s business…! And when she hadn’t yet been able to extract information from him about the Trading House!

If Sir Carter knew about this…

Madame Boyle coldly stared at the Superintendent. Those council-raised losers. All young men who hadn’t experienced the toxic beatings of society, that had so carelessly allowed the Nightmen to barge in. If Carter brought the blame down, it was right that they should take the blame. Anyway, she has done enough for Carter. They were clear.

The Superintendent was creeped out by Madame Boyle’s glare. The woman looked young, but her eyes were old and poisonous; the opposite of her delicate appearance. The Superintendent couldn’t understand how such a young shell could be inhabited by such a grim soul.

The other person was a big red man in front of His Excellency Carter, and he wouldn’t dare to offend him. Since Madame Boyle said that the prison bandits were moving through these papers, the Superintendent would just destroy them. He had received the letter only after a momentary lapse of attention, and he must try to make up for his fault.

“Madame, I will send someone to burn the papers to prevent those people from sneaking up on us through these papers again,” he said in a curt tone.

Madame Boyle tugged at the corners of her mouth. The Master of the Trading House and the Nightmen were now in the Trading House, if their keys were burned, what would happen? She really hoped that they would be trapped in that other dimension for life. However, the Master of the Trading House must have expected this risk. Wouldn’t he leave a way out for himself?

“Then why don’t you go and do it?” she said without good grace.

The superintendent hurriedly told his men to collect the other papers and gather them to burn.

This was the second mistake he had made that day.