Calvin found himself somewhere deep in the night.
The familiar smell of mold as well as the noisy creaking of the bed frame and the whispers of the drug addicts out on the street and the coquettish moans of the whores and strumpets made it clear that Calvin was in the Northern Borough.
He stared right at the ceiling and found that there was no ceiling.
Yes, there was no ceiling.
For above him was the upper bed of the bunk bed where he was laying.
A pair of footsteps rang out...
What followed afterwards was a small click and the gas lamp soon emanated an orange light that illuminated the dimly-lit hut. Calvin turned to look at the source of light, then glanced at Grandma Elsa.
Elsa was asleep with her back turned to Calvin.
Calvin slowly got out of bed and he was greeted by the sight of Charlotte and Cecilia. The little girl was naked at this moment, she was being carefully wrapped by her mother in a yellowish cloth.
"Stop moving so much, Cecilia..." Charlotte scolded.
Upon realizing that Calvin was looking at them, Cecilia's eyes immediately brightened.
"Daddy! You're finally awake! Hehehe, I'm done taking a bath! It's the first bath that I had after mommy took me to the public bathhouse a few weeks ago! Daddy should come with us next time!"
Cecilia rushed up to Calvin and snuggled to his embrace.
Calvin let out a smile, "All right... I'll go with you next time. By the way, does that public bathhouse allow girls and boys to bath together?"
"Girls and boys bath together...?" Cecilia looked up to Calvin in confusion, "No! It doesn't... Girls and boys don't bath together. Mommy told me that it's not good if they bath together. But if daddy wants to bath together with mommy, then I think it's okay!"
Cecilia unknowingly sold out her mother to Calvin.
"You... Cecilia! What are you saying?"
"Hahaha..."
Charlotte immediately flushed red as she rushed at Cecilia and took her from Calvin's embrace, "You need to wear your sleeping clothes now. It's already too late..."
"We will continue studying in the morning. Hmmph, if you still don't know how to count up to a hundred, then you will have those black bread for breakfast!"
"Nooo... I don't want to eat those black bread... I want chicken soup!" Cecilia puffed her cheeks and started pouting.
Charlotte saw the pitiful look on her face and her expression immediately softened, "All right... I'll get you a bowl of chicken soup tomorrow. Just stay here for now. I'll get your clothes outside."
"Yaaay!" Cecilia jumped up in joy.
Charlotte glared at her once more which instantly stifled her excitement. Afterwards, Charlotte then turned around and walked outside of the small hut to fetch Cecilia's clothes that she hung out to dry under the sun early in the morning.
Calvin turned to look at Cecilia and said, "Cecilia, you're being too naughty..."
"Now, I'm wondering as to how your mother remained sane for so long taking care of such a naughty girl like you." He pinched her nose and Cecilia immediately gave her protest, "I'm not being naughty, daddy! Mommy is just too gullible!"
"If you beg her and make a pitiful face like this, she'll immediately give in to your wishes! You should try it too, daddy. If you do it, I think mommy will let you come with us to the bath!" Cecilia even gave a demonstration and assumed her pitiful-looking facade.
Calvin was rendered speechless.
To think that a daughter would deliberately manipulate her mother like this!
He didn't know what to say.
Fortunately, Charlotte came to save the day.
It was an understatement to say that any street in the Northern Borough was dangerous.
Charlotte came out, but she returned in under a minute.
Judging from the look on her face and the glistening sweat on her forehead. It was obvious that she dashed towards the clothesline and made a break for it back to the house.
"Huff... Puff..." Charlotte was still trying to catch her breath.
"Cecilia... Come here, and wear your clothes... You need to sleep now so we can start studying early in the morning."
Cecilia puffed her cheeks, but she still replied, "Mkay..." Cecilia finally obeyed her mother without saying any complaints as she stood up and wore her clothes. Afterwards, she was carried by her mother to the upper bed.
But before Charlotte could tuck in Cecilia so that she could sleep...
Calvin's voice suddenly rang from underneath.
"Tomorrow, get her a bowl of chicken soup and an ice cream."
"What?"
Charlotte uttered in shock.
Cecilia, on the other hand, exclaimed, "Yaaay!"
"Shhh! Keep it down! Granny Elsa is sleeping!"
"Oops..." Cecilia swiftly covered her mouth and surreptitiously glanced at Elsa.
Grandma Elsa may be a kind-hearted grandma, but she was a demon whenever her sleep was interrupted.
"D-Did she woke up?"
"No, it's okay... She's still sleeping... And what did I tell you about making noise so late at night? Keep that up, and I won't give you your bowl of chicken soup and ice cream tomorrow!" Charlotte threatened and Cecilia immediately buckled under the pressure of potentially losing her reward.
She snuggled into Charlotte's embrace and soon, no noise could be heard in the room anymore apart from her soft breathing.
Realizing that Cecilia was now asleep.
Charlotte spoke up in a soft whisper, "Calvin, you're spoiling her too much! A bowl of chicken soup costs two pesos, and an ice cream delivered from the Southern Borough to here costs three pesos including the delivery fee! That's five pesos in just a single meal! That's a week's worth of wage!"
"It's fine, It's fine... Didn't you say that I am her father now? Having been away from her for so long, spoiling her this much shouldn't be that excessive, right?"
"Sigh... Whatever you say... But Cecilia will eat anything, you know?"
"That doesn't mean that we should give her anything. All the food that she must eat from now on must be sufficiently nutritious. Especially, you! You also need nutritious food so get yourself a bowl of chicken soup, including that ice cream too!"
"What?! That's ten pesos!"
"It doesn't matter..."
Calvin shrugged.
He could feel that he was about to earn a lot of money and his intuition never failed him in the past, so it must be true.
He should be about to earn a lot in the near future.
Charlotte let out an annoyed snort.
Afterwards, she then fell asleep.
A few hours later, Calvin still found himself wide awake.
For some reason, he couldn't fall asleep.
Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Poundings on the door awakened Calvin's spirits.
He raised his upper body and saw the glimmer of dawn sneaking past the holes of the dilapidated wooden door.
In a daze, he stood up and walked towards the door.
"Who is it?"
Calvin glanced at Charlotte, Cecilia, and Elsa. He discovered that they were still in deep sleep despite the loud knocking that crashed against the door. Usually, people living in the Nothern Borough were light sleepers.
They evolved to be light sleepers to protect themselves from thieves sneaking into their houses at night as well as from the unscrupulous slave merchants.
But despite being light sleepers, the loud knocking wasn't able to wake them up?
Calvin furrowed his eyebrows.
He felt that there was something strange in his situation.
He could vaguely remember bits and pieces of his memories, but they were too vague for him to peruse.
"Open up... I'm from the Local Police Department."
Calvin opened the door and discovered a brown-eyed police inspector standing in front of him.
"Who are you?"
The police inspector lightly smiled.
"So you have no recollection whatsoever of what happened to you after this night?"
"What are you talking about?"
Calvin was even more confused.
"Nothing..."
"It seems that we're sailing on the wrong boat. You were not the perpetrator, but a mere victim."
"Spiritual Guidance ends..." The police inspector gave a smile that looked more like a smirk. He then turned around and disappeared into the night.
"What a weird person..." Calvin awkwardly scratched his head and closed the doors.
"Who was that?" Charlotte's voice rang out from atop the bunk bed.
"Oh, you woke up? Sorry about that. The police officer from earlier seemed dignified, but to think that he doesn't know about the basics of etiquette! Knocking so loudly on the doors in the middle of the night. Does he really expect that he won't rudely awaken anyone?"
Calvin muttered a complaint.
"A police officer? What does he look like?" Charlotte asked in a weird tone of voice.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Calvin stared warily at Charlotte and realized that Charlotte had already raised her upper body. Her face was blocked by her waist-length hair but in the very next moment...
A mysterious force parted her hair, revealing her face!
"Does he look like me?"
The face revealed underneath the hair was the face of the police inspector from earlier!
"Ah!"
Calvin became flustered.
Everything suddenly transformed into a blur as the world around him spun and he immediately sat down in response.
Wait, sat down?
Calvin looked around in confusion.
"Was that a dream?"
He whispered, through bated breath as he clutched his chest and he could still feel his wildly pounding heart.
"What's the result, Captain?"
An unknown man asked.
The man had a stern and strict look on his face and his expression was cold whenever he glanced at Calvin. It was obvious that he had no positive and friendly emotions for Calvin.
"The results are..."
"Inconclusive..."
"My Spiritual Guidance can't draw out everything..."
"What?" Everyone in the room let out collective gasps.
"Does that mean...?" The sole woman in the room said.
The man who looked to be the leader of this group made a sidelong glance at Calvin as he nodded his head.
"Yeah..."
"We need to contact that master."