Chapter 113: The Ruined Neighborhood
Chapter 113: A Broken Neighborhood
Shirley followed Duncan cautiously, the temporary silence did not relax her, but made her feel more and more depressed and fearful in the silence – she knew that this fear was not entirely from herself, but more from “Dog”! She knew that this fear did not come entirely from herself, but more from “Dog”.
Dog was feeling fear, and its emotions were spreading through the symbiotic shackles.
In order to alleviate this oppressive feeling in the silence, she muttered up in a small voice, “Actually, I wouldn’t have been caught skipping a ticket in the past …… Ah Dog helped me hide it from the public ……”
“You mean the ‘disguise’ that the Phantom Hound made for you?” Duncan raised an eyebrow, he remembered that Shirley had used some kind of ‘disguise’ power from Dog to infiltrate the cult’s den, the disguise seemed to be a kind of cognitive obfuscation, but he soon shook his head, “It doesn’t feel reliable at all, last time I was seen, and this time I was caught by the conductor…” .”
Shirley instantly held in a belly full of resentment at that – where had Dog’s disguise ever gone wrong! Wasn’t it only because the gaze of a certain terrifying being had eliminated it that it was exposed? Such a big man had to play this kind of joke with himself this is appropriate ……
But this stomach of resentment she did not dare to say out, so she could only hold back half a day and then turned into a string of dry laughter: “Ahahaha …… you’re right, you’re right ……”
Duncan shook his head, he didn’t care what was going on in Shirley’s head, he was just a little curious about what the girl was investigating, “Why are you focusing on that ‘accident’ eleven years ago?”
Shirley fell silent for a moment, as if she instinctively didn’t want to respond to that aspect of the question, but then pursed her lips immediately afterwards, as if realizing that there was no point in concealing such a thing in itself in front of a being of near subspace shadows, and spoke up in a low voice, “It’s not much really, I’m just trying to figure out… …about my parents ……”
After saying that she hurriedly added, “An existence like you must find this kind of thing boring, I know it, our mortal’s obsession with kinship is in your eyes ……”
“No, I understand,” Duncan interrupted the girl before she could blurt out anything off the cuff, for he could even guess what image of himself Shirley had in her eyes, and if her words were to come out that would be mixed with twenty pounds of sand at the very least, “and that’s a very important reason indeed.”
With that, he looked to Sherry, a more serious look in his eyes, “Your parents were involved in that ‘leak’ eleven years ago? Or were they attacked by cultists?”
Shirley looked at Duncan with some surprise, she didn’t quite understand why this big shot who didn’t eat people’s food or do anything at first glance was so concerned about this kind of thing, but still nodded her head honestly, “They …… disappeared eleven years ago… …Well, missing is a bit pretentious to say that they died, but they died for no reason …… Then I became dependent on Dog ……”
The girl’s voice trailed off a bit, these memories were not pleasant for her and Duncan didn’t let her continue, “How did you and Dog meet? Those Sunists said you were a follower of some Annihilation Cult, and said that only Annihilation followers could summon the Phantom Demon, but you don’t seem to recognize that claim.”
“I don’t believe in any ‘sect’! I only fucking believe in myself!” Shirley subconsciously yelled, but then hurriedly put away her voice and tried to put on a very cultured and polite appearance, “Dog …… and I just met eleven years ago.”
Duncan stopped abruptly and gazed into Sherry’s eyes, “Eleven years ago? So ……”
“It was after that so-called ‘factory leak’,” Shirley hurriedly stopped as well, lowering her head as she explained, “I can’t remember the specifics, and Dog said it couldn’t either… …It may have been summoned by whichever Annihilation Believer, but the person who summoned it must have been killed by the Deep Sea Church’s Guardians, and then it was somehow ‘tied’ to me …… “
Shirley hid a lot of things, and too many parts of the details were skipped over in her vague and brief narration.
Duncan could sense the girl’s concealment and evasiveness, but didn’t pay much attention to it.
This was a very normal kind of self-protection, even if she was facing an irresistible and powerful existence, she was instinctively avoiding to reveal all her details.
He himself might be able to force Sherry to reveal more by threatening her, but that wouldn’t necessarily get the whole truth, and on the other hand, there was a lack of the most basic trust between him and this girl right now, so this topic could end here for the time being.
Duncan shook his head, looking at the slightly dilapidated streets on both sides, as well as those passers-by who were obviously more idle and slower-paced than the rest of the neighborhood, and said with a slight sigh, “…… Hardly see any children, ah, on the road are either old people or middle-aged people, and there aren’t even a lot of youths. ”
“This kind of old city are like this,” Shirley is a very natural look, she seems to understand, “those who can afford to move to the cross neighborhoods, can not move away either the elderly, or is a mixed-up guy, plus this kind of neighborhoods are also unlikely to have a community school, the children naturally will not stay, surely They all followed the adults ……”
Listening to Shirley’s fervent analysis, Duncan, however, just gave a noncommittal hmmm.
He could imagine the tendency of the aging population in this kind of old city, but even so, the twilight atmosphere on this street was still a bit too concerning. In the midst of his thoughts, Duncan’s eyes noticed an old, gray-haired man who was sitting in front of a street-front store, who appeared to be sunbathing, but had noticed the presence of a stranger in the street and was now casting a somewhat bewildered and confused gaze.
Duncan, with Shirley in tow, then walked straight over.
“Good morning,” Duncan greeted the old man sunbathing in the doorway, “we’re from the fourth neighborhood and wanted to ask how …… to get to the church?”
He didn’t really care where the church was, he just found a random excuse to climb into conversation with the locals.
“Church? The church isn’t open these days, God knows where that nun has gone,” the sunbathing old man sobered up a bit from his lethargy and sat up to curiously survey the stranger in front of him, “That’s a rarity, we don’t usually have a lot of outsiders happy to come here …… What are you guys doing here? ”
“Visiting friends,” Duncan said casually, “Not many people are usually happy to come? Why?”
“It’s not the damn factory,” the old man grumbled indignantly, seemingly quite unhappy with the derelict state of the neighborhood as well, “It’s been years! The area around the factory is still in that same dilapidated and unkempt state, and everyone says that the chemicals that leaked back then haven’t been cleaned up at all, and even the people in the nearby neighborhoods walk around when they pass by here, so who dares to go near it ……”
Duncan exchanged a glance with Shirley, and then spoke up immediately afterward, “I saw an old newspaper, and it was saying that the area around that plant had been cleaned up ah ……”
“The newspaper said that …… The newspaper said a lot of good things! The paper even said the new consul would revitalize the West Side Industrial District!” The old man spat to the side, “And what happened? The West Side is getting worse by the day, and our old factory here is still in ruins …… I’m telling you, this was a great place when the factory was still here, and the Sixth Street District was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the Lower East Side, and now look at what the hell it looks like… …”
The old man complained up on the rambling, it is not easy to come to a stranger to listen to him read, so that he just sunbathing in the languor of that all of a sudden disappeared without a trace, Duncan saw the situation hurriedly interrupted: “By the way, I just noticed that there are not many children in this place ah …… young people are also not much, are following the moved away?”
“Move? Here can no one move, this shitty place at least have everyone’s old house, other neighborhoods of the rent that is easy to pay?” The old man shook his head, “There aren’t many young people that’s because the young people are old, the kids …… ch ……”
The old man suddenly sighed.
“This place, it has been eleven years since a child was born!”
“Eleven years without a newborn?!” Duncan finally widened his eyes slightly, “Really?”
“How can it be false? I’ve lived here most of my life,” the old man rolled his eyes, “If you ask me, it’s all because of that factory …… The land near the factory, it’s all polluted …… “
Duncan didn’t say anything, just slowly stood up straight, his eyes looking to the end of the block, to the location of the abandoned factory, which he had found on the map earlier.
Shirley beside him, on the other hand, was still curiously talking to the old man, asking the other side about that factory, about the residents who stayed in the sixth neighborhood, about how many people had moved away from it in the past eleven years.
The old man seemed to be running out of patience, however, as he waved his hands in annoyance, grunted something whiny, and mostly just glossed over Shirley’s questions.
“Let’s go,” Duncan said suddenly to Shirley, diverting the cranky girl’s attention before she could seize up, then he glanced at the old man, who had already resumed his sunbathing, and nodded slightly, “Thanks.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” the old man waved his hand, “Take care.”
(Time for another book push, from Foxhive’s The Abyssal Special, an underground (netherworld) adventure story full of life – yes, I pushed it once, and now I’m going to push it again!)
(End of chapter)