Chapter 40: The Meeting
Clouds danced in the night sky, slowly obscuring the moonlight.
The night deepened.
I found myself standing in the narrow alley behind the tavern, gazing up at the old building a few meters away, its candlelight extinguished and now cloaked in darkness. The lively scenes from just moments ago had vanished into thin air.
After the drunks fled the cellar, the first floor was completely ransacked. Every morsel of bread and every barrel of beer was gone—some even made off with tables, chairs, and candles! By now, they had all scattered, leaving no one to care about what I had stumbled upon in the kitchen, or what I had done, leaving behind a lonely tavern, standing silently in the cold, empty alley.
I eventually let the three girls trapped in the cellar go. I gave them the last remnants of bread, food, and water I had, warning them this would be the final time anyone would deliver anything to them. If they wanted to survive, they had to leave.
But what if, once they left, they had no idea how to live? Or, if they had grown too accustomed to this grim existence? They could always head to the entrance of Jasmine Lane and seek out those brothels, where a job simply involved spreading their legs for a crumb of bread.
Though those girls were skin and bones, looking like a gust of wind would send them crashing, they weren’t entirely without appeal. If a boss shot them a glance and offered to feed them—as long as they played nice—at least they would have a relatively comfortable spot in this murky city, ensuring they wouldn’t starve… not right away, anyway.
That was the lifeline I offered them.
As usual, there was no dignity or shame involved, just the daily plaything of bodies, but hey, they’d still be alive! They wouldn’t end up as a side dish for some drunkard after they kicked the bucket—at least I hoped!
Unfortunately, the tavern’s maid had met her end in that pitch-black cellar.
Barry did it.
He likely loathed them even more than I did.
Stepping out of the tavern and watching the three lost girls shuffle away with frail figures, I couldn’t help but think—if this kind of thing could happen in such a remote tavern, it was probably happening elsewhere, too.
There were so many starving refugees in Alectine City, and not a few young, helpless women among them; men weren’t exempt either. The “selling of flesh” was an open secret. In a world where the poor went unprotected and unnoticed and food was scarce, the horrors of cannibalism were probably played out in hushed madness every night in various corners of the city.
I didn’t want to dwell on it any longer.
Suddenly, I had the urge to chuckle—
“So this is how it is…”
In the dark abyss of night, I stood in the empty alley, staring at the tavern, and a smile almost broke through.
So in this light…
Didn’t a lot of things just lose all meaning?
Boom!
I raised my hand, blazing red light flaring up from my palm. A glint of scarlet flashed in my eyes, and the brilliant glow quietly burst forth in the dark alley. The temperature in the air grew sizzling hot. I heard Barry gasp behind me, but I ignored him. With a flick of my wrist, the blinding fire swept out, cutting through the air towards the tavern—
Kaboom!
A deep, thunderous explosion erupted, as fiery crimson tongues of flame danced from the blast hole in the wall and surged out from the back door and second-floor windows. Half the tavern caved in instantly; wood splinters and debris flew into the air. The flames climbed swiftly up the wooden beams, and the warm rush of air sent my hair flying behind me.
“Sin… Sin Fire…”
The boy stammered in terror behind me. I turned to glance back at him, my expression calm and indifferent. His face was painted with disbelief, mouth agape, lost for words.
“You… You, sister, you…”
“Don’t ask.”
I replied coolly, turning back to the chaos.
“I never joined the Gate of Truth. In fact, it was obliterated about a year ago in the wilderness of the Eastern Continent. I watched their final d*ath throes and got a glimpse of the madmen’s motives; with such ideologies and antics, their destruction was inevitable…”
The infernal fire burned in front of me, horrifying temperatures devouring the tavern within moments, transforming it into charred ruins, but the flames continued to spread along the ground.
I raised my hand again, palm forward, as the crimson glow faded into a bright cerulean hue. Three thunderous blasts echoed through the alley, enveloping everything in an icy mist that swiftly choked out the flames, the steam rising from the wreckage, cooling the raging inferno until it quietly fizzled out.
“Isn’t it ironic? Before the Gate of Truth’s downfall, the disasters concerning the Abyss were nearly all handled by such lunatics.”
“Until over twenty years ago, when the church wiped them out, killing their leader—a self-proclaimed great demon—no one dealt with the terrible disasters, and Abyss Mud would soon consume the livelihoods of Ebboristians, leaving them with nowhere to go… Barry, don’t you think that’s ironic?”
…………
Three days went by in a flash.
“The tavern at the end of Jasmine Lane was burned down overnight”—this news didn’t stir much commotion in Alectine City. Like the hungry citizens, the destruction of this privately run tavern went unnoticed; with nearly no law and order, no one cared about such insignificant matters that didn’t concern them. It was just another fleeting gossip over drinks at some other tavern.
Of course, I didn’t hear those whispers anymore.
After that night, Barry never brought up Sin Fire again.
For three days, I brought him along, wrapping him in my old cloak while I managed to snag another one—after leaving Jasmine Lane that night, I ran into a few dimwitted bandits and taught them a lesson. After taking their money and cloak, we avoided taverns like the plague and instead hid in various back alleys by day, only venturing out at night to forage for food.
So three days passed. Though we had our share of squabbles with the refugees over “turf”, I let them have their way. We quietly moved to different spots, which proved quite pleasant; no one bothered us, nor did any “bounty hunters” come looking for trouble.
On the afternoon of the third day, I took Barry near the west gate of the city. I didn’t rush over; instead, I found a quiet corner below the city wall where few lingered, giving me a distant view of the gate, sitting down to nibble on dry bread and sip water while observing the patrolling soldiers and waiting for Lilith to arrive.
As darkness began to creep in, I spotted a War Chariot approaching from the east, slowly pulling up to the curb just across the street from the side gate.
This wasn’t the same chariot that Lilith had arrived in before; it looked a bit shabby and worn, much like one of those temporary rentals. However, when the carriage door swung open, a woman in a white cloth dress emerged, nervously scanning her surroundings. That was when I caught a glimpse of Lilith’s face.
“Barry.”
I nudged the boy, still munching away beside me: “Put on your hood, walk past Lilith and let her see who you are, but don’t say a word. Just slip away to a quiet spot; I’ll be watching you from the shadows.”
