Chapter 247
I didn't want to tell Haley directly that I was going to the orphanage. If I said that, she would start thinking about the connection between me and the orphans. And she might deduce that I grew up in an orphanage.
I didn't want to leave any clues about my past.
Late at night, I took a carriage and arrived at the free development zone located in the lowest area of Claridium. Shanty houses haphazardly built without any planning. Even in a prosperous city, the lives of the poor are generally similar everywhere. This place was just another colony of poor people that could be seen anywhere.
[House of Love]
Under the tilted sign, I saw a familiar carriage. There was a luxurious carriage that was hard to see in a place like this, the kind that noble guards would use, and a luggage cart was attached behind it.
Why would a noble who doesn't fit in this shantytown be here?
A man in knight's attire was carrying something from the luggage cart. It was too dark to see clearly, but after looking carefully for a while, I realized they were all food. He was bringing food to the House of Love.
I approached slowly so as not to startle the man. However, he inevitably shouted in surprise, "Who's there!"
He brought a torch hanging on the carriage and illuminated my face.
Thanks to the bright light, I could also see the man's face.
A familiar appearance. It was the district captain I had met in front of the temple not long ago. He had scolded the guards who were blocking us and let us into the temple.
"Isn't it Lord Damian?"
"What brings a Guardian district captain to a place like this?"
"That's what I'd like to ask. Why is Eternia's delegation appearing in a place like this?"
Only then did I realize how strange my appearance must seem to the other person. If he knew I was carrying a box containing a thousand crowns, it would look even stranger.
"I came because I wanted to donate something to the orphans. And what are you doing in a place like this, District Captain?"
"..."
The district captain's expression was not confident, like someone caught stealing.
"What's the matter?"
He gestured and then abruptly removed the cloth covering the luggage. Inside were plenty of foods. Moreover, it was full of freshly cooked, greasy stew, meat, and fruits.
"I brought leftover food from the banquet hosted by the city. Usually, these things are thrown away... but it seems right to give the untouched ingredients and fruits to those who need them rather than wasting them, don't you think?"
From the looks of it, it seemed he embezzled them without asking for permission. Well, no noble would care about this. They were all too busy enjoying themselves.
A small child opened the door of the shabby house and ran out.
"It smells delicious!"
"Wait inside."
"I'm hungry!"
"Go on."
As the district captain admonished, the child scurried back inside.
"This isn't the first time, is it?"
"When the nobles throw parties, the children in this slum are happy too."
"Let me help too."
"Please do."
I carried the food and entered the house.
Inside the shabby interior were two large round tables with children sitting around them. There seemed to be about twenty of them.
At the hearth, the blind old woman I had seen before was brewing tea.
"Wow."
"It's the person who came with Pipi!"
"He must be a Guardian!"
When we finished bringing all the food from the luggage, the two tables were completely filled.
"It must have been a grand party, there's so much left over."
After moving all the food, the old woman handed us tea.
"Thank you always."
The old woman held the district captain's hand and patted the back of it. Although her eyes were faded white and unfocused, her actions were exactly the same as someone who could see.
The district captain said goodbye awkwardly, "I'll come again next time."
And I followed him out of the House of Love.
He got on the carriage and said, "I can give you a ride."
"No, I'll be fine on my own."
He nodded once and shook the reins. The carriage soon turned into an alley and disappeared from sight.
It was an awkward time, but it was nice to see the young children. Hearing the bustling sounds reminded me of my childhood spent at the Akates Temple. We were poor and shabby, but when we occasionally gathered for feasts like this, there was nothing happier.
Just as I was about to take a step, the old woman opened the door and came out.
"Won't you stay for a meal?"
"There are many children, aren't there? The food will be scarce."
"To my eyes, you're a child too."
"...I'll be going. There's someone worrying about me."
"And, you left a strange box."
"That's for you too."
"Isn't it too much to just leave behind?"
"It's money I won from gambling, so I don't particularly miss it. There are many mouths to feed, and I think you'll put it to better use than I would."
"Didn't you come to hear a prophecy from me?"
I had buried it in my heart without any definitive proof, but I didn't expect her to mention it directly like this. This old woman was Priestess Proxima, who could see the future with the power of a saint.
"No, I didn't."
If I were to hear a prophecy here, it would tarnish my goodwill in leaving the money. If she was truly an outstanding prophet and had seen the destruction of Claridium, she'd need that money even more.
The old woman approached me with a sad expression. She firmly grasped my hand with her wrinkled one.
"Poor thing. This is all I can give you."
"..."
"When everything is over..."
The old woman's eyes were directed at me, but she wasn't looking at me. I immediately tried to stop her.
"No, you don't need to do that."
It was a prophecy. Having recognized the prophet's curse, I couldn't just let her see the future. But the old woman paid no heed.
"Wait for your master at the western port where the sunset falls."
My heart sank. It felt like I had heard something I shouldn't have.
"Is it okay to tell me this?"
While living in seclusion for the final moment, is it okay to give a prophecy so easily?
The old woman smiled faintly with a resigned expression.
And she nodded. As she did so, she patted the back of my hand.
I didn't understand this old woman's choice.
What is it for?
I didn't want to hear a prophecy at the expense of eating away at someone else's life and fate.
"You must have had a hard time."
The old woman sympathized with me. It was sad to see her showing compassion for others while enduring such great misfortune herself.
"I'm fine."
Just then, a girl opened the door and came out. It was Pipi, the girl we had briefly taken care of on the day the sky sailship crashed.
The girl quietly came in front of me and handed me something.
It was a pinwheel made of pure white paper.
"This."
"...What's this?"
"I made it. It's a basic magic engineering artifact."
"You're giving it to me?"
"Yes. Come again. With the big sisters too."
I couldn't say such things even as a lie. If I left this time, I wouldn't have a reason to come back to Claridium again.
I could only hope that the arrow of destruction missed them.
"Next time, you come. To Eternia."
***
As soon as the sun rose, I headed to the Guardian assembly hall for the mayor's request.
The clerk brought documents with a drowsy head and placed them on the desk. The weight was considerable, causing the desk to tilt slightly.
"The Sewer Maintenance Department?"
"Yes, there's quite a bit of work there."
"Did the mayor assign this directly?"
The clerk flipped through the documents indifferently and said, "No. The mayor doesn't personally oversee such things. Those above just said to assign where manpower is urgently needed, so that's what we did. If you want, we can move you to another department."
"What other options are there?"
"There's also the Tax Management Department and the Trade and Commerce Security Office. The Sewer Maintenance Department has the most accumulated work."
"What's the problem with the Sewer Maintenance Department?"
"You'll have to meet the person in charge there and hear it directly. But the number of problem reports is abnormally high. When did it increase this much?"
"What's it like?"
The clerk flipped through the documents, seemingly surprised himself, frowning and scratching the back of his head.
"The number of Guardian dispatch requests has exceeded sixty in the past three months. How did it get like this?"
"What's the average for other departments that makes this stand out?"
"One or two cases every couple of months is considered a lot. It seems they've been ignoring it to some extent because the Sewer Department has been complaining abnormally, but in any case, it's the place that needs manpower the most urgently."
"Aren't there plans to dispatch Guardians to the sewers?"
"As far as I know, they sent dispatches several times but there were no results. People often call the sewers the 'city's dungeon'. It's practically like a second city. It's so vast that it's easy to get lost unless you're an expert, and no one wants to wander around sewers full of stench and filth."
"..."
A chill ran down my spine. The city's dungeon? I had completely forgotten about the existence of the sewers. If magic creatures escaped in the middle of the city, but there were no witnesses or victims and they suddenly vanished, where could they have gone? If someone didn't intentionally hide them, there was nowhere else but the sewers.
"I'll take the sewer job."
"Oh, you will? Just a moment."
The clerk brought a parchment, wrote something on it, stamped it loudly, and handed it to me. It was an official request from the Claridium City Council.
"Show this to the manager of the Sewer Maintenance Department, and they'll guide you."
"Thank you."
***
The manager of the Sewer Maintenance Department was an old man with greasy hair and a dirty, bushy beard. When I presented the request form, he threw the notebook he was holding onto the floor.
"Damn it! I told them we don't have people. I told them we don't have people, and they send just one person?"
"Please calm down."
The Sewer Maintenance Department building looked quite decent from the outside, but the interior was completely empty. There were only five people, including the manager. It seemed far too few to manage the entire sewer system of a large city.
"How can I calm down? What are we supposed to do with just one kid? They've neglected everything!"
"I'm just here to investigate. What happened to the Sewer Maintenance Department?"
"Happened? Everything we try to do goes wrong. Workers who go into the sewers go missing, die, get injured, it's a mess. Everyone's too scared and quitting, and when we try to hire, no one wants to do it. What's the point of training workers? People are all getting ground up. Damn it."
"People are dying or getting injured?"
"No, everyone was in an uproar saying there were ghosts in the sewers. Out of ten workers who went in, all ten would come out with pale faces and quit, taking off their clothes and leaving. On top of that, when we report finding corpses to the higher-ups, there's no response. The guys up there are all out of their minds."
"And there were no measures taken despite this?"
"What's the point of me saying anything? Garbage piles up in the drainage and waste accumulates in the passages, but there's no one to scrape it out. Even if I plead that the stench will spread to the city if we leave it like this, they don't listen."
It was much more serious than I thought. This was at the level of deliberately neglecting the problem completely.
While the upper class and leadership indulged in debauchery and irresponsibly pursued pleasure, the city was rotting and festering from the bottom up.
And I felt like the shadow of destruction looming over Claridium had come right up to our noses.
"Where is the area where these ghosts are said to appear?"