Chapter 228: Amy
The moment Lia confirmed there was no immediate threat, she let out an
involuntary breath of relief.
She froze mid-exhale.
Damn it.
She cursed herself with a cold, internal ferocity. Three days of starvation and
bone-deep exhaustion had led her to commit a rookie mistake. She had relaxed her
respiratory control before being one hundred percent certain of her perimeter.
Sure enough, the small figure across the tunnel snapped her head up.
The flickering light of the oil lamp danced across the girl's face, catching the
moisture in her large, dark eyes. The child stopped her work of scooping slimes
and held the lantern high, squinting into the recessed shadows where Lia was
huddled.
"Is someone there?"
The voice was light, carrying the unadulterated curiosity of a child.
Lia's muscles coiled, every fiber of her being entering a state of high-alert,
ready for a lethal burst of speed. She began a rapid tactical assessment.
Target: Human female. Age: approximately seven or eight. Unarmed. Physical
threat: zero.
Risk Factor: Information leakage.
If this child exited the sewer and reported a scarred stranger to the adults
above, Lia's hideout would be compromised instantly.
Purge required?
Killing a human child of that size would be trivial. She wouldn't even need to
expend a single drop of her remaining Od. A simple snap of the cervical
vertebrae—total elapsed time: less than three seconds. Then, she could drag the
remains into the deeper sluices where the wilder slimes would dissolve every
trace of evidence.
Perfect. Clinical. No loose ends.
Lia's fingers twitched, her hand beginning to rise.
But then, she hesitated.
"Big sister?"
The girl took a few tentative steps forward. The yellow light of the lamp
finally reached Lia's position, illuminating the jagged, silver-white scars that
crisscrossed her face.
Lia braced herself. She expected a shriek, a frantic scramble for the exit, or
at the very least, a mask of pure terror.
Instead, the girl simply tilted her head. She blinked once, twice, and then a
wide, beaming smile broke across her face.
"Do you like slimes too, Big Sister?"
Lia blinked, her lethal momentum stalling. Like slimes? What logic is this?
The child took Lia's silence for a "yes" and hurried over with a skip in her
step. She reached into her cloth bag and pulled out a freshly divided, tiny
slime, holding it up like a trophy.
"Look! This one is perfectly round! I bet I can get a top-tier price for it!"
Lia looked down at the quivering, gelatinous blob in the girl's palm. The
translucent blue body reflected the dim lamplight, shimmering with a faint,
ethereal glow.
Lia tilted her head, her voice raspy and drained of energy. "Sell?"
"Yeah!" The girl nodded vigorously, her twin tails bobbing. "Slimes are worth a
lot of coin! A small one goes for a whole copper!"
She freed her other hand and began counting on her fingers with agonizing focus.
"I caught twelve today. That's twelve coppers! That's enough for several loaves
of rye bread!"
Watching the girl's pure, uncomplicated joy, Lia felt a strange dissonance. She
ignored it and pushed for more data. She needed intelligence on this Empire—on
this world.
"Why do you harvest them?"
"Because slimes are gold, obviously," the girl replied as if explaining that the
sky was blue. "The Arcane Legion in town buys them up. They say they can refine
them into... into... what was it?"
She knit her small brows, rummaging through her limited vocabulary for the
complex term.
"Aha! Mana Solution! The Skeleton Uncles from the Legion said slimes are the
best alchemical catalysts."
"But hardly anyone wants to come down here to get them," she continued, patting
the slime in her hand affectionately. "Everyone says the sewers are dirty and
stinking, and that slimes are gross. I think they're cute!"
She grabbed another handful of rotting vegetable leaves from her basket and
scattered them into the water.
"But we only take the little ones that split off. The big ones have their own
jobs to do cleaning the tunnels. We have to feed them up first, though. They
only split when they're full."
Lia listened in silence, her mind organizing the data.
The Slime Industry Loop.
The Empire had established a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem. They used
kitchen waste to feed slimes, which in turn cleaned the municipal drainage
systems while serving as the raw material for the Arcane Legion's Mana
production.
It solved the waste problem, created jobs, and provided a steady income stream
for the lowest tier of the populace.
The design was... masterful.
It was so efficient it made Lia feel a prickle of unease. In all the planes she
had infiltrated, she had never seen a regime that considered the survival of its
lowest citizens with such clinical precision. Most rulers cared only for taxes
and the strength of their legions; the commoners were a secondary concern.
But this Evernight Empire...
The girl tucked the slime back into her bag and looked up suddenly. "Anyway, are
you hungry, Big Sister?"
The sudden shift to personal welfare caught Lia off guard. Before she could
process a refusal, the girl was already fumbling through her basket. She pulled
out a small bundle wrapped in oil paper, carefully unfolding it to reveal a
piece of bread.
"This is the rye bread I baked this morning. There's half a loaf left. I was
saving it, but..." She held it out toward Lia. "You have those scars on your
face. They must hurt. When I scrape my knee, Mama always says eating something
makes the world feel better."
Lia stared at the bread. It was coarse, filled with unground bran, and the crust
was burnt in places. But under the warm, dim light of the lantern, it radiated a
scent that made her chest feel tight.
Lia's hand started to rise, then stopped.
"I do not require it."
The girl pouted. "Why not?"
Why? Lia didn't have a tactical answer. She just felt that if she accepted the
gift, something fundamental in her would shift. It would make her mission...
complicated.
"I am not hungry," Lia lied.
The child stared at Lia for a few seconds, then burst into a giggle, revealing a
row of white teeth.
"Liar! Your stomach just growled! I heard it!"
Lia felt a localized heat rise to her cheeks. She was an elite spy, yet she had
been caught in a lie by a child because of her own physiological betrayal.
The girl didn't wait for permission. She shoved the bread into Lia's hand.
"Take it! My Mama says that when you see someone who needs help, you reach out.
That's the teaching of the Sovereign of Evernight!"
"Besides," the girl added with a serious nod, "those scars are so big. You must
have run into some really bad guys. It's okay now. The Punishment Legion
protects us. The bad guys will be in the dungeons by sunrise!"
As she spoke, she nimbly scooped another baby slime from the water and dropped
it into her bag.
"By the way, what's your name? I'm Amy. Amy Green."
Lia gripped the bread, her response automatic. "Lia. I am called Lia."
Amy grinned. "Sister Lia! That's a pretty name!"
She squatted back down, returning to her harvest with renewed vigor. "Where did
you come from, Sister Lia? I've never seen you around Orlando before."
Lia paused for a heartbeat. "I... do not remember."
She deployed the script once more.
Amy looked up, her eyes wide with excitement. "Oh! Do you have amnesia? Just
like the heroine in that new book from the Literature Department, Searching for
Lost Echoes!"
"That book is amazing! The girl loses her memory and meets this super-gentle
hero, and they go on an adventure to find her past, and then she finds out she
was actually a—"
Amy rambled on, recounting the plot of her favorite audio-novel with breathless
wonder.
Lia didn't interrupt. She simply stood in the shadows, looking down at the
half-loaf of bread in her palm.
Then, she took a bite.
It was hard. It required effort to chew. It was bitter with the taste of bran
and woodsmoke.
But to Lia, it was the most exquisite thing she had ever tasted in her long,
grey life.
"Sister Lia, do you want to help me catch slimes?" Amy asked suddenly, her eyes
sparkling. "I can teach you! It's easy! You just have to be patient while they
eat."
"We can split the catch fifty-fity! Then you'll have coin of your own to buy
good food! Maybe we can even open our own slime shop together!"
Lia looked at Amy. This child, who relied on the filth of the sewers to scrape
together a living, was willing to share her livelihood with a stranger she had
known for less than ten minutes. Simply because she perceived a need.
Lia didn't understand. She truly, fundamentally did not understand.
In all her training, no one had ever taught her how to process an act of
selfless kindness.
"Another time," Lia said softly. "I have... business. And do not speak of me to
the others."
A flicker of disappointment touched Amy's face, but she nodded dutifully. "Okay.
I understand."
"But be careful, Sister Lia!" Amy warned as she gathered her things. "There are
big rats deeper in the tunnels. Their bite is nasty! Doctor William says they
carry the Rot-Sickness!"
Amy knotted her slime bag and slung it over her shoulder, picking up her
lantern. As she reached the turn in the tunnel, she looked back.
"Sister Lia!"
"When you have time, come find me!"
"I live at the east end of town, right next to Aunt Martha's bakery! You can't
miss it!"
"My Mama's rye bread is the best in the Empire! A hundred times better than
mine!"
With a frantic wave, the girl skipped away. The light of her lamp faded slowly,
reflecting off the damp walls until it vanished around the corner.
The sewer returned to its state of absolute dark and silence.
Lia stood paralyzed in the gloom, only snapping out of her daze when the last of
the bread was gone. She looked down at her empty palms, where a few stray crumbs
remained.
"What... exactly am I doing?" she whispered to the shadows.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you