Chapter 34 A World You Didn’t Know Existed
‘The central barrier was… So huge.’
The grey wall was huge to say the least.
It was more than twice the height of the surrounding two-storey buildings.
The sight of such a massive wall, stretching endlessly to the side, was awe-inspiring.
While Delphine was mesmerised by the imposing sight, a high-pitched voice suddenly called out from the front of the carriage.
“A carriage? Do you have a special pass for the Wall?”
“Yes, yes. I’ll just drop off my guests and be right back.”
“But first, take a passenger register. Hey! Same goes for anyone inside!”
On the east side of the central wall was the only gate for sending and receiving supplies.
A quick glance through the window revealed a large number of imperial soldiers guarding the massive gates as wagons passed through.
Delphine nervously pulled down the handkerchief covering her head, hiding her face more deeply.
“Yes, yes. Of course you’re leaving the walls, since you have identification, right?”
“What? Oh, right. No, I do.”
So this is what Betty had warned her about.
If she didn’t have her ID, she wouldn’t be allowed back into District 2.
Delphine wrote “Betty” in the name column of the list the coachman handed her after writing down her name.
She was very nervous about getting her name down on paper, but she knew she’d have to check it against her documents when she came back in.
“Here it is…”
Delphine handed the list back to her, awkwardly stretching the end of her sentence.
All of this was as foreign to Delphine as if it were another world.
“Through!”
The barrier, like the mansion, was not overly wary of the exits.
And so it was that she passed through the barrier unharmed.
But Delphine’s surprise did not end there.
Not long after crossing the central barrier, a terrible stench began to waft through the air.
‘What is this smell…?’
Plugging her nose with a silk handkerchief, Delphine peered over the carriage and was horrified by what she saw.
“Is this really… the capital of the Empire?”
A pungent grey smoke of unknown origin obscured half the sky.
The scene on the ground was just as dire.
Gone were the clean, well-groomed streets of the city, replaced by dirty strewn with rubbish.
Shacks stuck together like barnacles around a stream of filthy water.
As Betty had said, few people wandered the streets alone.
People hurried along, looking frightened or desperate.
She saw packs of filthy wild dogs pass by unchecked.
Delphine could hardly believe that a place like this was inhabited.
“We’ve arrived, ma’am.”
The coachman’s voice broke through her shock.
“Are you sure this is right… place?”
“Yes, 14 Beaker Street, that’s right.”
Delphine wordlessly paid the coachman and stepped out of the carriage.
She wondered what he’d called himself, but 14 Beaker Street seemed to be a residential street in the Third Ward.
‘So this… is really a house.’
A row of grey, rectangular buildings with no pattern or decoration stretched along the street.
Delphine could tell it was inhabited because old laundry hung from the narrow windows.
‘Is this the kind of place… where they live together?’
She had never seen this type of house before, even in District 2.
Even the mansion’s maids and users lived in more spacious rooms.
She looked around the buildings in shock for a moment.
Delphine soon pulled her pocket watch from her bosom and checked the time.
1.50pm.
She’d deliberately allowed herself to arrive late, as she didn’t think it would be polite to arrive too early.
But no matter how much she looked around, she didn’t see anyone who seemed to know her.
Besides, she doubt this chicken coop-like building is their home base…
As she pondered in front of the building’s iron gates, she could feel the residents glancing at her.
“Wow, there’s a Princess!”
One child in tattered clothes exclaimed, pointing in her direction.
A Princess…?
Turning her head to the side, Delphine soon realised that it was her that the child was pointing at.
The child had called her ‘Princess’ because of her maid’s outfit.
Certainly, compared to the clothes worn by the people passing by, the cleaned and pressed maid’s uniform looked like a fine dress.
‘I only have a maid’s dress…’
Suddenly, an indescribable emotion welled up in her chest.
“Hush, child, I told you not to point fingers at strangers!”
The old woman holding the child’s hand quickly looked at her and moved away.
Sure enough, everyone on the road was heading somewhere with nervous faces.
“We’re going to be late…”
“We better get to work or we’ll be taken to ‘there’…”
Where is everyone going?
And when are those mysterious humans who called her here going to show up?
Delphine checked her watch once more.
Five minutes.
Four minutes.
Three minutes.
With each passing minute, she grew more and more impatient.
It was polite to arrive five minutes early, no matter how late.
She wonders if she can trust these people to be punctual.
Two minutes.
One minute.
… Surely, she’s not mistaken about the address?
The minute and hour hands of the pocket watch overlapped at the right time.
It was then.
A carriage, a common sight on the road, appeared from the distance, rumbled up and stopped before her.
With a click, the door opened and a customer was already inside.
It was a man in a strange-looking rabbit mask.
“Please get in.”
A low, calm voice.
Delphine hastily climbed into the carriage, feeling strangely nervous in this unfamiliar situation.
The carriage pulled away before she could close the door.
“Why did you come early, I didn’t say two in the afternoon.”
That was the first thing the rabbit mask said.
Puzzled, Delphine raised one eyebrow and replied.
“Well, it’s polite to arrive at least ten minutes before…”
“Oh.”
The man clicked his tongue briefly.
All Delphine could see were black eyes through the slits in his mask.
‘Black… eyes?’
The eyes swept over Delphine’s entire body.
“As for not being seen, I didn’t think I’d need to say it.”
She could feel his displeasure, even though all she could see were his eyes.
Delphine exclaimed, momentarily appalled at his lack of knowledge of such basics.
“I have nothing in the manor more modest than this.”
But all that came back was a sneer.
“Ha! Noblemen…”
Suddenly, Delphine felt a flash of recognition.
“Wait. He’s too good to kill. I’ll take him back to headquarters.”
Then. The voice she’d heard when she’d been swept up in the protests in District 2.
“… You.”
Delphine looked into the dark eyes behind the mask.
“The one who told me not to kill you that day in District 2. Is that you?”
“You have a good eye.”
The man said in a light tone, something akin to a compliment.
But Delphine was only more confused.
“So Glasscok is part of that protest group…? Who are you, and where are you going now?”
The man asked, his eyes searching her intently from behind his mask.
“I have to ask, why did you just get in that carriage, if you don’t know who we are?”
“You could have told me then through that black thing. I came to know the truth.”
“And when do you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you knew the truth, would it make any difference to me? Maybe it would only make it harsher.”
Delphine paused and stared at the man.
He was testing her now.
What could she, a woman who’d been born into central nobility, who’d never left District 1, who’d come dressed in what she called the most modest of clothes, a maid’s uniform, possibly do?
“My father’s throat was cut. In front of my eyes.”
The words came out of her mouth with a calmness that surprised even her. Maybe she’s used to it already.
“The downfall of the family, the deaths of everyone in the manor simply because I couldn’t remember their names.”
Delphine looked him straight in the eye with her fiery emerald eyes and chewed him up.
“You’re telling yourself that I’m a nobleman who’s been bred to be a nobleman.”
“…”
He doesn’t deny it.
But the way he wears his feelings on his sleeve, without hypocrisy, from the moment they first met, makes her feel at ease.
He’s wearing a mask, but it feels like he’s not.
“I’m not going to close my eyes and be swept along by my fate. To do that, I must find out the truth.”
The man made no reply.
Instead, he seemed to stare into her emerald eyes for a moment, as if mesmerised, and then suddenly jerked his head away.
Just as Delphine was about to cringe again, he suddenly handed her a black cloth.
“Cover your eyes, it’s for security purposes, you’ll understand.”
Her words must have reached the man.
Delphine did as he was told.
As soon as she shielded her eyes, she felt the carriage suddenly pick up speed.
And so Delphine was carried away in a rattling carriage without any dialogue for some time.
Being blindfolded naturally heightened his other senses.
Hearing, smell.
“… What is this stench, anyway?”
Delphine suddenly asked, and the man answered briefly.
“It’s the smell of factory wastewater.”
Wastewater?
