Chapter 30: Downtown

In the past, every time Claudia crossed this dividing bridge, she had been a trembling mess, occasionally stopped and interrogated by the Enforcement Guards.

But with Luo Wei at the helm, the guards looked like they were practically begging her to just keep moving and leave them be.

Technically, Kolun County didn’t have a formal checkpoint between the Upper and Lower Districts; the Enforcement Guards were simply there for routine patrol.

While everyone called them the “Upper” and “Lower” districts, those were merely colloquialisms. Officially, the regions were designated as “Downtown” and the “Industrial District.”

However, due to the chasm between wealth and class—along with a myriad of other factors—the cost of living in Downtown had skyrocketed. This effectively strangled any possibility of the working class ever settling there.

Over time, the polarization deepened until Downtown and the Industrial District became two entirely separate worlds: the Upper and Lower Districts.

Deep within the most wretched, filthiest corners of the Industrial District lay the gathering grounds for homeless refugees—the Slums, often referred to as “The City’s Pustule.”

Even so, Kolun County lacked any explicit decree banning workers from the Lower District—or even refugees from the Slums—from entering the Upper District.

…Provided, of course, they could stomach the derogatory glares and the ubiquitous marginalization and loathing. This social wall was further reinforced by the Enforcement Guards, who kept a vigilant, hostile watch to prevent an “influx” of refugees.

Discrimination was woven into the very fabric of the streets.

Even though Claudia had changed into decent clothing and no longer looked like a refugee from the Slums, her bearing and temperament still betrayed her origins. In her memory, the Upper District was a man-eating beast. The gazes of the passersby were like rapiers, piercing through her, threatening to bury her deep into the mud.

To her, this place never belonged to someone of her kind; it was always a world of oppressive gray.

Perhaps that was why, at the site of the sacrificial ritual, a flicker of indescribable pleasure had flashed through the depths of her heart when she held up the heart of an innocent infant and offered a fresh soul to the Lord of Ravings, watching the terrified faces of the Downtown residents.

Luo Wei temporarily suppressed the information stream regarding Claudia’s memories.

“Too many messy memories.”

Luo Wei curled her lip in a slight sneer. She had no intention of critiquing the limitations of this era or the city, but she felt Claudia was being a bit oversensitive.

As long as you look decent, clean, and don’t act like a complete freak, no one on the streets of the Upper District is going to care. After all, who’s going to know you came from the Lower District?

Not even the Enforcement Guards would stop every single person to check their household registration…

“Downtown really is Downtown.”

Strolling through the streets of Kolun County’s Upper District, Luo Wei observed the cityscape with the discerning eye of an inspector.

It was a world away from the Industrial District. There, factories were everywhere, alleys were narrow, and houses were cramped and low-slung. Even outside the darkest slums, open gutters flowed with waste, the air thick with an unbearable stench.

In contrast, Downtown had established a sophisticated sewage system. The streets were lined with row houses built of red brick or gray stone, their porches adorned with intricate cast-iron railings. The carved glass windows of corner shops displayed a dazzling array of commodities.

The shouts of coachmen mingled with the rhythmic clatter of horseshoes on cobblestone. Shoe-shiners and chimney sweeps darted through the crowds, while vendors hawked coal, fresh flowers, and the “Kolun County Daily.”

Even the smog from burning fuel was noticeably thinner here.

It was starting to look like a proper modern metropolis.

Luo Wei plucked a discarded newspaper from the ground, intending to flip through it. Suddenly, a newsboy bounded in front of her, shouting enthusiastically.

“Miss! Miss! That’s a two-day-old paper. The news is already stale! Why not take a look at today’s edition? It’s got the latest stock price surges—yours for only seven Lira!”

A thousand Lira equaled one Krone, so seven Lira was roughly seven cents.

“No thanks. I only picked this up to wipe my ass,” Luo Wei replied with polite finality.

The newsboy: “?”

Stunned into silence by her bluntness, the boy didn’t even try to persist. He simply stood frozen in the wind, watching her walk past.

“Trying to use sales tactics on me? Hah.”

Kid, you think you can play Big Sis Wei like that?

Luo Wei opened the paper. The front-page headline screamed in bold type:

“ENFORCEMENT GUARDS SCORE TRIUMPHANT VICTORY LAST NIGHT! DOZENS OF CULTIST PRIESTS BEHEADED!”

The accompanying photo featured a valiant, tall lady dressed in light soft-armor, a rapier hanging at her waist. She stood beside a massive, somewhat grotesque Great-Armor, gazing into the distance.

She was quite photogenic.

However, even in the black-and-white photograph, one could clearly see that the woman was pale and haggard. Below the photo, her name and title were printed.

“Inquisitor Eliana… She’s quite the beauty,” Luo Wei muttered with a nod of appreciation. “She’s got that ‘clothes-rack’ figure that makes anything look good. Truly stunning. I’m actually jealous.”

It would be great if I could take Dominion over her.

Luo Wei startled herself with the thought, but upon reflection, it didn’t seem entirely impossible…

Of course, given her current situation, inviting an Inquisitor with such explosive combat prowess to attend a “book club seminar” was nothing short of a pipe dream.

But still…

“This news is two days old, meaning the event happened nearly three days ago? Digesting that ‘raw meat’ really does take quite some time…”

But “eating the meat” hadn’t been without its rewards. At the very least, Luo Wei now had a functional, if rudimentary, understanding of this world’s language and script. If she compared it to English, she was roughly at a sixth-grade level.

Aside from the blockbuster headline, the rest of the paper was filled with trivial fluff. News about the Archon’s inspections or Council bylaws made her yawn, and she couldn’t make heads or tails of the stock market.

After a quick skim, Luo Wei folded the paper and tossed it back onto the ground—public trash cans were a concept yet to be invented in this era.

By now, she had reached the vicinity of the Sanatorium where Clecia was staying. Though the fees were exorbitant by Claudia’s standards, it was pocket change to the lords of the Upper District.

Consequently, the Sanatorium was merely a five-story building covering about two or three hundred square meters. A small yard within the fence was decorated with a few flowers and plants. To Luo Wei’s modern eyes, it looked rather shabby.

Yet, this was already the finest environment Claudia could provide for her sister.

A caretaker at the entrance recognized Claudia from a distance and waved, greeting her warmly.

“Good day, Ms. Claudia! You seem to be here a bit earlier than usual today?”

In Claudia’s memory, the caretakers at the Sanatorium were among the few friendly faces in the Upper District—hard-earned friendliness, bought and paid for.