“A dust-proof cloth? There’s no such thing.”
After leaving the estate, Lu Li asked Katerina about the dust-proof cloth, but she said she had never heard of it. “I’ve never heard of it, and even if it did exist, I doubt I could afford it.”
Another fabrication. Recalling that the cloth’s material was identical to the wagon’s tarpaulin, Lu Li realized the truth.
“We need to return to the Cape of Good Hope tavern,” Katerina said, turning back toward the center of the town below. “The innkeeper knows how to get to Midnight.”
“You said you’d been there before,” Lu Li remarked calmly.
“...A long ti ago. I’ve almost forgotten,” Katerina replied with feigned nonchalance.
“You told
you survived an anomaly attack as a child and then fled to Mantistown.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you the truth.”
An embarrassed Katerina confessed, “I’ve only heard about Midnight from others. Don’t look at
like that—bragging is common among hunters. To seem more dangerous and experienced, every hunter has a few half-true, half-fabricated stories to tell. My title, for example.”
For the inhabitants of Mantistown, a town lost deep in the Gloom Wastes, a visit to Midnight was genuinely sothing worth bragging about.
“So you don’t actually know what it’s like there?”
“...It’s very bustling, like cities from the Old Era,” Katerina replied after a brief silence.
Lu Li suspected Katerina’s aloofness wasn’t due to her personality, but because she couldn’t answer any questions about Midnight.
“Over here, over here!” suddenly ca a pair of high-pitched voices. In a dark, filthy alleyway, a two-headed rag doll stood atop a trash bin, waving a cloth arm at Lu Li. “I’ve found a treasure, hurry!”
Lu Li rembered Katerina’s warning: “Don’t go over there; you’ll find either a corpse or a monster. But don’t ignore them, either. They’ll get angry and find an excuse to make trouble for you. Just decline politely.”
Pinching his nose, Lu Li followed her advice. “It stinks too much over there,” he replied. “I’ll pass.”
Before the two-headed doll could repeat its invitation, Lu Li and Katerina had left the alleyway.
“I thought you’d be more blunt,” Katerina couldn’t resist saying. “...That sounded a lot more natural than I expected.”
He would have been, but the Book of the Apocalypse had doubled even his “acting skills.”
Soon, the sign of the Cape of Good Hope tavern ca into view.
Their return to the bustling tavern didn’t surprise the innkeeper. “Told you an opportunity would co up,” he said.
“You just got lucky,” Katerina, who clearly disliked the man, said curtly. “We need to get to the Old Sewer.”
“A guide will cost you five shillings each.”
“Why so expensive?” Katerina frowned. “You’re only guiding us to the Old Sewer, not to Midnight itself.”
“Because it’s safe this way. The things that live down there won’t mistake you for stray food,” the innkeeper said, glancing at Lu Li and holding out his hand. “Every day, poor fools who can’t pay try to sneak in. They always end up as soone’s al.”
“Fine... we’ll pay,” Katerina agreed through gritted teeth. Selling off the ghoul nest and catching the thief had refilled her purse, so ten shillings wasn’t a major loss. “When do we leave?”
“In forty minutes. You can wander around town, but be back before we leave, or you’ll have to buy your passage again.”
Katerina paid the ten shillings, and she and Lu Li left the tavern once more.
“Cheapskate. He charges for everything, and he didn’t even give
a discount on my room after it got robbed...”
So that was why Katerina disliked the innkeeper.
“Where is the Old Sewer?” Lu Li asked.
Katerina pointed to a road that wound up the side of a low mountain. “Up there.”
“Tell
about it.”
“Hmm... I don’t know that much.” Katerina had been to neither Midnight nor the Old Sewer. She could only relay the little she’d heard from others.
The Old Sewer had once been a colossal subterranean structure, built during the Old Era with a single, grand purpose: to channel ltwater from the World's Spine mountains to the arid plains of the Old Riverbed, now known as the Gloom Wastes.
The ambitious, almost mad project was abandoned with the dawn of the Age of Anomalies, leaving behind nothing but unfinished ruins.
That is, until Midnight was founded right on top of those ruins. As the city expanded, the subterranean Old Sewer was put to use once more.
Under Midnight’s protection but beyond the jurisdiction of its church, the Old Sewer quickly beca a cesspool of vice. Criminals, mutants, hybrids, heretics, spirits of defilent, and even anomalies—anyone with no place on the surface found sanctuary there. To say it was a realm of chaos and lawlessness would be an understatent.
As more of society’s dregs gathered there, the Old Sewer began to expand. At first, it only extended to the edge of Midnight’s safe zone. But with the advent of the Shelters, people realized it was safer underground than on the surface, and the Old Sewer began a rapid expansion, both inward and outward.
Over twenty years, it transford into a massive subterranean labyrinth, its tunnels branching out to every corner of the Gloom Wastes. No one knew how deep the Old Sewer truly ran, or how many passages it contained.
The tunnel from the City of Phantoms to Midnight was on the uppermost level, where the chaos was less intense than in the depths. Of course, that was also because the closer one got to Midnight, the more “influential” beings resided there.
“‘In the Old Sewer, you can find everything, but you can also lose it all.’ Katerina repeated a saying she’d once heard, though she doubted its veracity—the rchant who told it to her had been drunk at the ti.
Regardless, this place was destined to be a whole new experience for Lu Li. He was about to confront the true Age of Anomalies.
“Where are we going now?” Katerina asked, noticing that Lu Li was heading toward the town’s exit.
“To get so clothes.”
Beneath his black cloak, Lu Li was still wearing the torn black coat and linen shirt from the Shelter.
“I know a place...”
Katerina abruptly fell silent when she saw Lu Li enter a clothing store whose window display spoke of high prices.
It was too late to stop him, and Katerina followed him in, watching as Lu Li addressed the shopkeeper: “I need a suit.”
A white shirt, a black wool coat, trousers, and a necktie—all in the style of the Old Era.
When Lu Li erged from the fitting room, Katerina couldn’t help but admire his appearance. But when he paid, her own heart clenched.
After donning his cloak, Lu Li and Katerina exited the shop.
“You spend money more freely than any aristocrat I’ve ever seen,” Katerina said, breathless with indignation. She couldn’t believe a few articles of clothing could cost 180 shillings. “Were you very rich before?”
“Sothing like that.”
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