Friedrich Payne had moved into this house when he officially signed a contract with the Foundation Union and was hired as an external contractor.
In fact, strictly speaking, this house wasn’t originally owned by the Foundation Union.
However, Friedrich believed that, regardless of legal ownership, he had the right to live here, and the Foundation Union respected him enough to let him have it his way.
Clack, clack.
Friedrich used the house as he pleased.
There was no one interfering with him, and because access to the Foundation Union’s information was restricted, he had to gather intelligence personally.
Newspapers, magazines, trivial gossip, rumors, info from police connections, and movements of political and financial figures.
The amount of information to collect was overwhelming. Unfortunately, Friedrich’s brain capacity had limits.
No matter how capable, he couldn’t remember everything.
Screeeech!
So he turned the house itself into his brain.
Headlines of important cases were posted at eye level on the walls, with less important ones placed higher or lower.
He pinned photos of people and connected them with strings to mark relationships.
Useful knowledge applicable to any case was always laid out on the living room table for quick reference.
Every morning, he arranged clipped news articles on the dining table to skim through and pick valuable information or find missing pieces of the puzzle.
With this vast and meticulous system, Friedrich had turned the place into his personal domain.
So, the sudden contact that morning was far from welcome.
Clack, bang! Beeeep!
Codename Cozet — someone Friedrich was at least acquainted with — belonged to the Foundation Union’s Anomaly Management Field Operations department.
Though the name sounded grand, she was essentially the assault squad acting on the front lines.
Because of this, Cozet ran into Friedrich frequently compared to other departments.
After her senior got promoted and officially handed over the task of collaborating with external contractors to her, she maintained a close relationship with Friedrich.
Friedrich, for his part, had a decent, easygoing relationship with her.
But the Foundation Union sent bad news through Cozet.
They planned to send someone to assist him and requested cooperation so they could live together.
At first, Friedrich thought they had found him a well-behaved assistant as he requested.
But instead of an assistant, they hired a clueless kid as an equal external contractor.
Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch...
…In any case, Friedrich was displeased.
This house wasn’t just a residence.
It was his long-established hideout, a records center, and his brain all in one.
There was information about him everywhere, so if that idiot wanted, he could quickly figure him out.
He liked observing strangers, but hated being observed in return.
Wearing black gloves, Friedrich sat down in his ‘office’ on the second floor and tapped the desk with his finger.
He needed time to think.
Why did that man come here?
If it was a Foundation Union decision, proper courtesy would be to notify at least a week in advance.
Sending a surprise notice that morning through Cozet meant one thing: the Foundation Union didn’t trust him—
Tap, tap, tap, tap. Screech. Tap, tap, tap!
“Hey!”
“What the hell are you doing outside making so much noise? I can’t think!”
Irritated to the brink, Friedrich flung the door open.
But he had overlooked two facts.
First, that someone else was currently in the house, not him.
Second, that person was scrubbing the devil’s den clean from the floorboards up.
The reason for cleaning the second-floor hallway floor first, rather than the first or third floors, was probably because that person wanted to finish quickly before Friedrich came out.
Unfortunately, Friedrich was forced out of his room by the unexpected noise.
So—
“What the—Aaaah!”
He slipped on the soapy floor,
“Ugh.”
He just happened to step right in front of a bucket filled with soapy water.
The person scrubbing the floor knelt, eyes wide in shock, and stood up.
Friedrich fell backward, drenched from head to toe in dirty soapy water.
Thud!
“H-hey, hey! Are you okay?”
All of it was inevitable.
Raimund was confident in cleaning.
His house in Sector 5 was old and shabby, and there were clear traces of someone lying on the floorboards.
Still, he had managed to make it somewhat livable.
This house should be the same if only he cleaned it.
He searched through the dirty corners and barely found something that could be called detergent.
It wasn’t cleaning detergent exactly, but a kitchen soap someone had opened.
Still, with soap bubbles, he could scrub away some of the grime.
He grabbed a shoe brush from inside the entrance shoe cabinet and a rotten dishcloth hanging over the sink, then filled a bucket in the basement with water.
He dumped all the kitchen detergent he could into the water, stirred the soapy water, and pondered.
Where should he start?
Considering the weight of the bucket, it seemed best to start from the third floor and work downward.
The first floor would take the longest because he’d have to remove the carpet and put books back on shelves.
The kitchen was a mess; he didn’t even know where to begin.
That left the third and second floors.
The third floor was empty when he saw it earlier.
He’d only need to organize clothes and shoes and dust.
The problem was the second floor.
From what Raimund saw, the man mostly used the second floor.
All the doors were closed, and the hallway was the dirtiest.
Since the man’s hygiene was so poor, Raimund guessed he wouldn’t appreciate cleaning there.
Better to finish the second floor quickly.
The man couldn’t very well demand Raimund mess it up again after already cleaning it.
For that reason, Raimund had been scrubbing the second-floor wooden floor carefully while Friedrich was holed up.
But the man coming out earlier than expected was truly an accident.
On the first floor, Raimund barely dusted off the sofa.
The man held an ice pack to the back of his head.
Actually, it was frozen bread, but Raimund didn’t think he needed to say that.
Raimund glanced sideways at the man, whose eyes had lifted twice as much as before.
“What are you looking at? Never seen someone fall before?”
“I’m just looking.”
He had never met someone with such a terrible temper.
The man cooled his head with the frozen bread for a long time, then threw the pack onto the table.
His attitude was extremely arrogant.
“You tried to kill me but failed. If you wanted to assassinate me, you should have put more effort into it.”
“No, it was an accident, I swear.”
“You put soap all over the floor without any warning, and that’s an accident?”
“That was an act of cleaning—”
“Enough. Stop while I’m being nice. I’ve tolerated you being a kid until now. Why the hell does the Foundation Union send someone like you here to waste time on nonsense like this?”
“I told you it was an accident! And I apologized many times!”
“If saying sorry solved everything, why do police and laws even exist?”
Raimund brushed his bangs up and sighed deeply.
Hold on, Raimund. Hold on. You didn’t come here to fight.
“All right. If you go to the hospital, I’ll cover the medical fees. You might have a concussion. I can’t pay now, but as soon as I get paid, I’ll give you the money.”
“Take my dirty money and use it for my treatment? You’re really trying to make me out as a villain.”
“So what do you want me to do then?”
“This is my home. Though the deed is under the Foundation Union, they acknowledge I’m the real occupant. So—”
The man raised his head.
“Please leave.”
“What?”
“If you didn’t hear me well, I’ll say it again. Leave. I don’t want careless and uncooperative people like you in my space.”
He finished speaking and stood up. Raimund couldn’t move from his seat.
Careless. Uncooperative.
Raimund had never heard such words in his life.
He was used to being called worthless trash with a smile, but uncooperative? Careless?
Who exactly is careless and uncooperative here?
Suddenly something clicked in Raimund’s head.
Without any filter, everything he had been thinking poured out.
“Well, I’ve never seen such a dirty place either, so I wanted to leave. I’ll contact Cozet and ask to move to the vacant house in Sector 4. Better than catching a disease and wasting away here.”
“...What?”
“It’s filthy. The filthiest place I’ve ever seen in my life. Honestly, it feels like I detonated a bomb in the middle of a sewage drain.”
“What?”
“Are you hard of hearing? What do I do? The house is filthy and you haven’t cleaned your ears either. You’ll get sick for real. Actually, seeing the spider eggs in the kitchen cupboard made me realize something. The owner of this house is truly strange, filthy, and has zero hygiene. I should just stay away.”
“Are you done talking?”
“Not yet. I’ve never seen maggots colonizing a sink before! I was shocked, but then I realized from all the papers plastered everywhere that the person living here is crazy!”
Friedrich opened his mouth.
His pale face turned blue, then red again.
But Raimund’s cursed mouth continued ranting without focus.
“They say the house shows its owner, right? Then this owner is a total wreck. Living here, wow. They’d go insane in two days and check themselves into a hospital.”
“Hey!”
“Living in this house for a week, versus swimming in the polluted seawater under the Foundation Union quarantine for a year? I’d choose the latter without hesitation. No thanks necessary. I’m just giving you a heads-up.”
Friedrich shouted.
“This is my house! If you’re going to be rude, get out now!”
Raimund jumped up and shouted back.
“Whether it’s your house or mine, what’s wrong with saying it’s filthy? If you don’t like it, clean it up yourself, you immature brat! Cleaning won’t kill you! No, just die if you think cleaning will kill you!”
Their shouts and insults filled the living room, leaking out through the open window.
Even the thick curtains couldn’t muffle the fight entirely.
After yelling for a long time until their voices gave out,
Outside, street lamps flickered on the darkening streets.