Chapter 23: First House

Chapter 23: First House

Garry arrived outside the very first house that was on the left side of the 4th row of the 2nd quadrant of the town. His task was to collect the census for as many houses as he could on this row.

Since the Mayor had ordered a census, the people of a few select rows of the upper two quadrants had been made to stay at home. Because of this, they couldn't stay at home all the time, the Defenders would have to come back again the next week, or some other day they were free.

Garry walked up to the house and walked to the porch to knock on the wooden door. The door opened and a man and woman walked out.

The man wore clean brown trousers and a white tunic, while the woman wore a simple, long gown with long sleeves. She had a small piece of clothes wrapped around her head, and a small piece of metal jewelry around her neck and wrists.

"Hello, I'm here for the Census, do you have some time to spare me?" Garry asked with a bright smile on his face.

The two people greeted Garry and then greeted the ones that were behind him, out of the porch. "Yes, we were waiting for you," the man said.

"I see, would you mind stepping into the porch so we can get started, please call out anyone you have in your house as well," Garry said.

"We're a newlywed couple. We don't have anyone else," the man said.

"Fantastic, let us begin then," Garry said and brought out a piece of paper, which already had rows and columns, all of which were ready to store information for the census.

"Let's start with your name," Garry said and asked the two for their names. The two gave their names one after another, and Garry asked for their spelling as well so he didn't write it incorrectly.

He turned back to the group and said, "remember, always be thorough. Don't assume stuff because you're most likely going to be wrong."

He wrote down their name and then their date of birth. After that, he noted down where they lived. The house numbering system was quite simple. It went Quadrant, Row, and the number of the house from the left side.

In this instance, he wrote down '2-4-1' for the house number.

Stanley was surprised not only because of how quickly Garry was doing his task, but also how well-spoken he was. There was no awkwardness in the way he asked questions or communicated with the couple. Everything felt so natural.

'Did he learn this, or was he always this good?' he wondered. 'Can I be this good if I keep working?'

"Where do you work, sir?" Garry asked.

"I'm a teacher, I teach kids over on the 1st quadrant," the man said.

"Oh, a teacher? You must have only become one recently, right? You're quite young," Garry said.

"Haha, yes. My father was a teacher, so I just followed in his footsteps," the young man said.

"I see, and miss what do you do?" Garry asked as he noted down the man's job.

"I'm a housewife," she said.

"Thank you," Garry said as he finished writing. "Last but not least, would you please tell me what your powers are?"

"Our powers?" the man asked. "Uhh... I can levitate small objects. My wife can see clearly in the dark."

"Oh," Garry said. "Would you mind showing me your power, please? Levitate this pen for me."

"Okay," the man said and put his hands before him. He made a grabbing motion and made a fist, which was his activation ritual. A moment later, the pen slowly levitated, fully under the control of the man.

The man placed it back down on Garry's hand and he wrote down the man's powers. Following that, he also wrote down the woman's powers without asking her to show it to them.

Stanley was a little surprised at that. 'Is it because it's a difficult power to prove?' he thought. 'No, it's just seeing in the dark. We can go in and check.' He looked at the woman and couldn't tell if she was nervous or not. She almost looked relieved that Garry didn't continue.

"Alright, your information has been noted down. Let me repeat what we have written so you can confirm that it is all correct," Garry said. He started mentioning all the information one after, which the man and woman confirmed as correct.

"That is all the information we need from the two of you," Garry said and looked at the two of them. "You are sure that you are the only ones I need information from, right? You're not hiding anyone else? It is a crime to lie on the census."

"Y-yes," the man said. "We are the only ones that live here."

"Please forgive me, but I will have to check for myself to be sure," Garry said and turned around to the 6 that were just watching. "You 6, go in and check every single place someone could be hiding in. Leave no stone unturned."

"What?" Stanley was a little surprised and so was Freddy. The other 4 felt slightly awkward doing what was asked of them as well.

"Brother Garry, isn't... isn't that a little intrusive?" one of them asked. "To just go into their house like that."

"It is, but it's part of the job," Garry said. "If you ever find out that a criminal could be hiding somewhere, would you not enter that place to check just because it is intrusive?"

"I would," the young man answered. "But that's because there would potentially be a criminal hiding inside."

"Evading the census is a crime. So, if there is potentially a person hiding inside the house, then wouldn't that make it the same situation?" Garry asked.

"I... I suppose," the young man said.

"Now, stop wasting time and go in and check," Garry said. "Sir, miss, please go with them and show them around the house so they can check."