Damn Academy

247 – Shadow City (6)

I didn’t want to tell Hailey directly that I was going to the orphanage. If I did, she would start to think about my connection with the orphans. And maybe she would deduce that I grew up in an orphanage.

I didn’t want to drop any clues about my past.

Late at night, I caught a carriage and arrived at the Free Development Zone, located in the lowest area of Claridium. Randomly erected shanties without any planning. Even in a prosperous city, the life of the poor is mostly the same everywhere. This place was just another cluster of the impoverished that could be found anywhere.

[House of Love]

Under the tilted sign, I saw a familiar carriage. A luxury carriage fit for nobility’s guards, an unusual sight here, followed by a baggage cart. Why would a noble be in a place like this?

A man in knight’s attire was moving something from the baggage cart. It was too dark to see clearly, but upon closer inspection, all those items were food. He was delivering food to the House of Love.

I approached the man slowly so as not to startle him. However, he inevitably jumped in surprise and shouted,

“Who’s there!”

He grabbed a torch from the carriage and shone it on my face.

Thanks to the bright light, I could see his face too.

A familiar visage. It was the precinct captain I had met in front of the temple recently. He had scolded the guard who tried to stop us and let us into the temple.

“Isn’t that Mr. Demian?”

“What brings the Guardian District Chief to such a place?”

“That’s what I’d like to ask. Why is Eternia’s delegation appearing here?”

It was only then that I realized how strange my arrival must have seemed to them. Especially if they knew about the box containing a thousand crowns tucked under my arm.

“I came to donate something to the orphans. And what about you, District Chief? What brings you here?”

“…”

The District Chief had the look of someone caught stealing, far from confident.

“Why so?”

With a gesture, he swept away the cloth covering a pile of belongings, revealing an abundance of food. Freshly cooked, glistening with oil, were stews and meats, and fruits aplenty.

“I’ve brought leftovers from a banquet hosted by the city. Normally, these would be discarded… But it seems a waste to throw away untouched ingredients and fruits. Shouldn’t they go to those in need?”

It looked as though he had appropriated them without permission. Well, no noble would bother to make an issue of it. They’re all too busy with their own amusements.

A child burst out of a shabby house.

“What a delicious smell!”

“Wait inside.”

“I’m hungry!”

“Hurry along.”

The District Chief coaxed the child back inside.

“This isn’t your first time, is it?”

“When the nobles throw a party, the children of the slums get to share in the joy too.”

“I’ll help out as well.”

“Please do.”

I carried the food inside the house.

Inside the humble abode, two large round tables were surrounded by children. There seemed to be about twenty of them.

At the hearth, a blind old woman I recognized was brewing tea.

“Wow.”

“It’s the person who came with Pippi!”

“Must be a Guardian!”

Once all the food was brought in, the two tables were brimming.

“There was a lot left over from the grand party.”

After moving all the food, the old woman offered us tea.

“Thank you always.”

The old woman grasped the precinct chief’s hand and gently tapped the back of it. Her eyes were pale and unfocused, yet her actions were just like those of someone who could see.

The precinct chief awkwardly bid farewell.

“I’ll visit again next time.”

And I followed him out of the House of Love.

He climbed onto his carriage and said,

“I could give you a ride.”

“No, thank you. I’m fine on my own.”

He nodded once and flicked the reins. The carriage soon turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

It was an awkward time, but seeing the children was heartwarming. The bustling noise reminded me of my own childhood at the Akathes Temple. We were poor and pitiful, but when we gathered for feasts, I couldn’t have been happier.

Just as I was about to leave, the old woman opened the door and stepped out.

“Won’t you join us for a meal?”

“The children are many. There won’t be enough food.”

“In my eyes, you’re still a child.”

“…I should go. Someone is worrying about me.”

“And, you left a strange box behind.”

“That’s for you as well.”

“Isn’t it too big to just leave behind?”

“It’s winnings from gambling, so it’s not money I’ll miss. There are many mouths to feed, and I think you’ll put it to better use than I ever could.”

“Weren’t you here for a prophecy?”

I had kept my suspicions to myself, lacking concrete evidence, but I didn’t expect her to bring it up directly. This old woman was a Proxima priestess, seeing the future with the power of the saint.

“No, I wasn’t.”

If I heard a prophecy here, it would tarnish the goodwill of leaving the money. If she truly was a great seer and saw the fall of Claridium, then she would need the money even more.

The old woman approached me with a sorrowful look and firmly grasped my hand with her wrinkled one.

“Poor thing. This is all I can give you.”

“…”

“When everything is over…”

Her eyes were fixed on me, but she wasn’t really seeing me. I immediately protested.

“No, there’s no need for that.”

It was a prophecy. Once aware of the seer’s curse, I couldn’t just let her see into the future. But the old woman paid no heed.

“Wait for your master at the western port where the sunset fades.”

My heart sinks. It feels like I’ve heard something I shouldn’t have.

“Is it really okay to tell me this?”

Hiding away for the final moment, I wonder if it’s alright to give away a prophecy so easily.

The old man, having let everything go, smiles a gentle, faint smile.

And then he nods his head, tapping the back of my hand lightly.

I can’t understand the old man’s choice. For what purpose? I didn’t want to hear prophecies that gnaw away at others’ lives and fates.

“You must have had a hard time.”

The old man sympathized with me. It was sad to see him, too, bearing immense misfortune while still feeling compassion for others.

“I’m fine.”

Then, a girl opens the door and steps out. She was the girl named Pippi we had briefly taken care of on the day the sky galleon fell.

Quietly, she comes up to me and hands me something.

It was a windmill made of pure white paper.

“This.”

“…What is this?”

“I made it. It’s a basic artifact of magic engineering.”

“Is it for me?”

“Yes. Please come again. With your sisters.”

I couldn’t even make empty promises. If I leave this time, I won’t have a reason to return to Claridium.

All I can hope for is that the arrow of destruction misses them.

“Next time, you come. To Eternia.”

***

As soon as the sun rose, I headed straight to the Guardian Assembly Hall for the market’s request.

The clerk, with disheveled hair, brings in the documents and places them on the desk. The weight was considerable, causing the desk to tilt slightly.

“Sewer maintenance department?”

“Yes, there’s quite a bit of work there?”

“Did the mayor assign this personally?”

The clerk flips through the papers indifferently and says,

“No. The mayor doesn’t manage every little thing. The higher-ups just told us to assign it where the workforce is urgently needed. If you want, I can transfer you to another department.”

“What options do I have?”

“The Revenue Management Department and the Trade Security Bureau are also involved. The Sewer Maintenance Division has the most backlog of work.”

“What’s the problem with the Sewer Division?”

“You’ll have to meet the person in charge directly to hear about it. But the number of complaints seems abnormally high. When did it increase like this?”

“What seems to be the issue?”

The officer flipped through the documents, furrowing his brow in surprise, and scratched the back of his head vigorously.

“The number of requests for Guardian dispatches has exceeded sixty in the past three months. Why has it increased like this?”

“How does it compare to other departments?”

“It’s a lot if there are one or two cases every couple of months. It seems like the Sewer Division has been whining abnormally, so they’ve been somewhat ignored, but it’s certainly the place that needs hands the most urgently.”

“Have you considered dispatching a Guardian to the sewers?”

“As far as I know, they’ve sent a few dispatches, but to no avail. People often refer to the sewers as ‘the dungeon of the city.’ It’s practically a second city in itself. It’s so vast that it’s easy to get lost if you’re not an expert, and no one wants to wander around a sewer filled with stench and filth.”

“…”

A chill runs down my spine. The dungeon of the city? I had completely forgotten about the existence of the sewers. If a demon escaped in the middle of the city, with no witnesses or victims, and then suddenly vanished, where could it have gone? If someone didn’t hide it intentionally, there’s no place but the sewers.

“I’ll take on the sewer job.”

“Oh, will you? Just a moment.”

The officer brought over a parchment, wrote something on it, stamped it with a seal, and handed it to me. It was an official request from the Claridium City Council.

“If you show this to the manager of the Sewer Division, they’ll guide you.”

“Thank you.”

***

The manager of the Sewer Division was an old man with greasy hair and a grimy, unkempt beard. When I presented the request, he slammed his notebook onto the floor.

“Damn it! I’ve been saying we don’t have enough people. After all my talk, they send just one person?”

“Calm down, please.”

The Sewer Division building looked quite impressive from the outside, but the inside was empty. Including the manager, there were only five people. It seemed like a severe shortage for managing the sewers of a large city.

“How can I calm down? They send one kid and expect what? Everything’s been neglected!”

“I’m here simply for an investigation. What happened at the Sewer Division?”

“Problems? Problems are everywhere. If workers go into the sewers, they disappear, die, or get injured. It’s chaos. Everyone’s too scared to continue, and when we try to find more workers, no one will come. What’s the use of training workers if they all get torn away. Damn it.”

“People die or get injured?”

“Yeah, there was a panic about ghosts in the sewers. Every one of the workers who went in came out pale-faced and quit on the spot. And when bodies started appearing, reporting it to the higher-ups did nothing. They’re all out of their minds.”

“And there were no measures taken?”

“What’s the use of me saying anything? Trash piles up in the drains, filth accumulates in the passages, and there’s no one to clean it up. I’ve pleaded that if left alone, the stench will spread throughout the city, but no one listens.”

It’s much worse than I thought. This is a deliberate neglect of the problem.

While the upper and ruling classes indulged in debauchery and irresponsible pleasures, the city was rotting and festering from the bottom up.

And it felt as though the shadow of doom that hung over Claridium had drawn perilously close.

“Where is the area said to be haunted by that ghost?”