“Aren’t you Theosophy Order people also seen as filthy rats in the eyes of the orthodox churches?
Madame Sharon shot Truman a charming glare and laughed behind her hand.
Since Truman had already made up his mind, she wouldn’t try to persuade him to leave Tingen.
Besides, Backlund might not send reinforcements immediately—Tingen already had nearly 10 Nighthawks, and they’d want to give their colleagues a chance to redeem themselves.
“Who said that?
We’re clearly adorable hamsters—much cleaner and more respectable than them!”
Truman shook his head.
If it weren’t for the risk of men turning into women, the Demoness Sect would really be a good supernatural organization.
Aside from the Demoness Sect’s habit of forcing men to consume Witch potions, the internal atmosphere was actually quite nice.
“What about that Conservative Party congressman, John Maynard?
What are you going to do with him?”
“Do you need me to help eliminate him?
I can guarantee his death will appear completely natural!”
Madame Sharon raised her white neck like a swan and smiled confidently.
“No need.
Trissy lost a bet with me.
He’s just an ordinary person—she can just stick an extra paper doll when she performs her curse ritual.”
“For now, it’s better for us to stay still.
You’re a well-known figure in Tingen.
As long as you don’t show any obvious flaws, the Nighthawks won’t bother you.”
Truman waved his hand, finished speaking to Madame Sharon, and got up to leave the courtyard.
….
He didn’t take a public carriage, but walked leisurely all the way to Iron Cross Street Lower Section.
This was Tingen’s slum.
Ragged children huddled against the walls at the roadside, their arms and legs as thin as matchsticks.
The air was filled with an unbearable mix of odors—urine, sweat, mildew, and the acrid smell of burning matches.
Truman had already changed into very plain clothes, but his handsome appearance and clean attire still stood out starkly against the surrounding environment.
However, his final destination wasn’t here either.
After avoiding three pickpockets and driving off a group of thugs who wanted to rob him, Truman passed through Iron Cross Street Lower Section and arrived at a somewhat tidier neighborhood.
“Just find a household in urgent need of help, give them some insignificant money to get them through their difficulties, and temporarily store some supernatural items at their place…”
He took a penny from his pocket and tossed it into the air, then used the first divination method to confirm his destination, and finally walked toward a alley on the left.
Knock!
Knock!
Truman gently knocked on the door.
No one answered from inside, but Truman saw a fearful gaze looking at him through the crack.
“Hello?
Please open the door.”
Truman asked again, his voice as gentle as the spring breeze in March, brimming with vitality.
Hearing Truman’s voice, a woman in her twenties emerged from inside.
She walked to the door and asked him softly.
“I’d like to make a deal with you.”
Truman looked the woman up and down.
She wore a loose coarse skirt, her face smeared with thick coal dust, but she had a pair of very beautiful eyes.
“Hmm…”
“Alright!”
The woman bit her lip hesitantly, but in the end she sighed as if resigned, and opened the door.
Truman followed the woman into the house.
It was a simple single room.
Against the wall on the inner side stood a single bed, and in the center of the room were some paste, cardboard, and other items.
“What’s this?”
Truman looked at the half-finished matchboxes on the table and the three baskets full of matchboxes in the corner, asking curiously.
“My work.
One basket of matchboxes gets me 2.25 pence.”
“One time, 12…5 soles.
If you can’t accept that, forget it!”
Anna looked up at Truman.
His silver hair was noble and elegant, so out of place with the simple and crude surroundings.
“That’s not important.
We can talk about that later.”
Truman stepped past the stove, toilet, and small amount of firewood piled on both sides of the door.
He sat casually on the edge of the bed and looked at Anna.
“Sir, I won’t cheat you.
This is already…
a friend’s discount!”
Anna glared at Truman with some dissatisfaction.
She fetched a basin of clean water and washed the coal dust off her face, revealing a delicate and refined countenance.
Somewhat awkwardly, she slowly took off the loose coarse linen dress she was wearing, and stood before Truman with an extremely stiff posture.
“I believe it’s a friend’s discount now.”
“You don’t look like someone who’s lived in Iron Cross Street Lower Section for long.”
Truman smiled at the somewhat nervous Anna.
He liked her smooth black hair.
But he was here to do a good deed, wasn’t he?
“This place isn’t really suitable for a beautiful woman like you to live in.
I ran into some gang members making a lot of noise on my way here.”
“What?
The gang?
They found me so quickly?”
“Sir, I think you should leave.
I’m really sorry about this…”
Anna bowed apologetically to Truman as she walked to the corner of the room and picked up a pair of black scissors.
“Not bad?
Although robbery does bring quick money, it’s illegal, you know!”
Truman watched the timidity on Anna’s face gradually fade away, as if she had made some kind of decision, and tilted his head with interest.
“Sir, you’d better leave quickly, or those debt collectors might drag you into this.”
Anna said to Truman seriously.
“My father borrowed a large sum of money a few months ago to buy a ship and open a trade route to the Southern Continent.
But on the return voyage, the ship unfortunately encountered the King of the Five Seas, Nast, and lost a great deal of goods.”
“But the misfortune hanging over the Alfalfa was far from over.
On the subsequent voyage, the passengers and crew of the Alfalfa broke out in fierce conflict, and both sides engaged in a bloody battle.”
“My father died in that chaos.
My mother couldn’t bear the cruel reality and the huge debts she had to face, and she passed away from illness…”
Anna’s eyes grew melancholy as she spoke.
As her emotions sank, the scissors in her hands gripped tighter and tighter.
“So now it’s just you left in the family?
And you fled to the lower city to escape your debts?”
Truman’s expression grew increasingly strange as he listened to Anna’s story.
The Alfalfa?
That name sounded familiar…
Wasn’t that the ship Trissy had caused trouble on?
“I originally had a fiancé.
He had sailed with my father…”
Anna’s eyes grew even more melancholic as she spoke.
“He died too?”
Truman felt a little guilty and looked away, asking casually.
“I was very worried about him before, so I went to the Divination Club and asked Mr.
Moretti to divine his whereabouts!”
“Mr.
Moretti’s divination was very accurate.
My fiancé did come back alive, but he didn’t tell me—after he returned, he came to break off our engagement!”
The more Anna spoke, the more grief-stricken she became.
If not for the shock of her fiancé’s betrayal, she might have already gone to the Goddess’s divine kingdom to find her father.
But now wasn’t too late either…
+++
T/N: That’s an interesting change.
In canon Anna and her fiance actually had a good relationship, maybe this might have something to with Trissy’s instigation.