Chapter 22: Farewell Moment?
Chapter 22: Farewell Moment?
In front of the wide and ornate Parliament Square, Arthur in his frilly clothes looked out of place with the richly dressed crowd here.
Although Willox’s attack didn’t hurt him, it still gave him a few cuts on his jacket.
The gentlemen and ladies around him looked at him with strange eyes.
They didn’t know why this young man who looked clean and tidy on the outside would be wearing such a tattered jacket covered in sewage.
But Arthur didn’t care about their stares, he just walked on as usual.
He walked through Parliament Square at his familiar pace, just as he used to patrol the small lanes and narrow alleys of London’s East End.
Agareth was by his side, and the Red Devil couldn’t stop laughing along the way, occasionally commenting on the edgy outfits of the ladies around him.
“Look at that, what’s that on her head? Two flower feathers? Is she going to pretend to be a peacock?”
“Damn, can’t she wear less perfume? It smells like the Thames!”
Arthur wasn’t sure if he was getting impatient with the chatty red devil stirring him up, but he stopped and took a deep breath.
“Agareth.”
The red devil heard Arthur call out to him and came over to him with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry about today.” Arthur glanced at the officer’s knife that he held in his hand, “I shouldn’t have hit him so hard, I should have left him breathing and forced him to give up his soul. I’m sorry to have ruined your lunch.”
Agareth’s grin literally came up to his ears when he heard this.
“Whoa! Arthur, my good man! What are you being polite to me for?
I am a devil, and I want souls in order to torture them for my own pleasure. And what you have done to-day gives me great pleasure!
You don’t know how much pleasure I felt when I watched you take that shit sheriff’s life!
I felt as if it wasn’t you standing there, but myself. And that piece of scum that fell to the ground, it wasn’t Willox either, it was Barr!
Damn, I was so happy! One of these days I’m going to do the same thing, and sooner or later that asshole Barr is going to have to die at my hands!”
Arthur saw that the Red Devil was so happy that his tail actually stood up, which convinced him that he wasn’t telling a lie.
He let out a long breath, “I don’t know if I did the right thing or not. But I’ve always got a human life on my back, and the good thing is that once Willox is dead, there’s no way to continue the internal investigation, and with all the witnesses gone, how else are they going to investigate Tom and Tony?”
Agareth smiled and raised an eyebrow, “Tom and Tony are saved, but what are you going to do back there?”
Arthur looked up at the sky, the gray clouds were moving away and a glimmer of brilliant sunlight was vaguely visible in the gaps in the clouds.
He held the palm of his hand over his brow to avoid the light and squinted, “One step at a time. If I can’t, I’ll take a boat to America. Isn’t that where people who can’t make it in the country usually go?
Some of them go to North America, some go to South America. I can be active in the jungles of the Amazon, and I can also go to the Pampas grasslands to graze sheep.
By the way, I heard that those big old men in the North American colonies are engaged in some kind of westward movement, and I don’t know if gold has been discovered there yet.
If it’s found, maybe I can take advantage of the gold rush to sell water.”
Agares said in disbelief, “Arthur, what kind of brain are you in? People go for gold in the gold rush, why are you going to sell water?”
Arthur shrugged, “I don’t know, but that’s what a text I read as a kid taught me. It said there that selling water in the gold rush could make you rich and a business magnate, so I’m going to verify for myself if it’s lying to me or not.”
Agares had a look of contempt, “You’d better not verify it, you can only earn a few pennies by selling a bucket of water? Besides, isn’t it bad to stay in Britain?”
Arthur said helplessly, “I have to stay too. After I go to Scotland Yard to see Tom and Tony for the last time, this afternoon we can prepare to buy a ticket to America.”
“Do you have enough savings to get to America?” “I’m not like Tom and Tony; one of them has a wife and children to support, and the other is planning to get married. I, on the other hand, am an unattached bachelor, and I’m still saving up pretty fast. To tell you the truth, with the gold medal I won for my studies when I was at college, I’ve got a whopping ten pounds saved up on hand.”
A playful smile appeared on Agareth’s face.
“Wow, that’s a lot of money indeed! Let’s hope you do make it.”
Arthur stared at Agareth’s face for half a second as he read a hint of something amiss in the red devil’s expression.
“Agareth, are you hiding something from me?”
“Is there?”
Agares transformed into a file and polished his small nails while saying, “Actually, there are quite a few things I’m hiding from you, which one are you going to listen to?”
“Then you can start from the beginning, oh oh yeah, just don’t start with King Solomon.”
Hearing that Arthur wouldn’t let him mention King Solomon, Agareth threw the file to the ground in a violent rage.
“Arthur! Then I have nothing more to say!”
Arthur looked a little surprised as he returned with an apologetic face, “Sorry, Agareth, it’s my fault, I thought you were going to have a great career as a devil.”
Agareth’s head exploded with anger, and with a whoosh, he disappeared into thin air in front of Arthur.
Arthur sighed as he reached out and rubbed his face, hoping to look refreshed, before taking a step towards Whitehall Street.
4 Whitehall Street wasn’t all that far away, and he reached the place in no time.
Looking at the imposing and majestic London Metropolitan Police Force headquarters, Arthur always felt a bit strange.
Although he had been here many times, this was the first time he visited as an ordinary citizen.
He pushed open the door and inside were the London police officers who were busy as usual.
These former colleagues who were sitting at their desks organizing documents heard the figure of someone pushing the door and couldn’t help but look up at him.
For the first time, Arthur felt how awkward it was to be watched.
He looked down at the civilian clothes on his body, then at the London police officers whose uniforms were fully dressed, and raised his hand slightly in embarrassment.
“I’m looking for Tom and Tony, I’ve heard they’ve been confined and are under investigation?”
His gaze swept over every police officer present, yet as soon as his eyes were about to touch each other, they would all coincidentally lower their heads and bury their faces into the newspapers in their hands.
Not a single person in the packed office hall uttered a single word in response to his request, much less heeded his question.
Everyone was just busy with themselves, as if he was just a cloud of invisible air.
The world would not be better off with more of him.
Less of him doesn’t make the world any worse.
Arthur’s palm shook slightly as he gripped the doorknob, and after a moment of silence, he finally managed to let go of it, ready to leave a place that was no longer his, and to which he no longer belonged.
However, when he had just turned around, a gentle, broad voice sounded softly behind him.
“Excuse me, is this Officer Arthur Hastings?”
(End of chapter)