Westminster Bank

Baron followed behind the little girl, watching as she struggled to climb the wrought-iron gate to open it for him.

After walking through a few more alleys, Baron hesitated for a moment before asking, "Why are you helping me?"

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"You helped me, so I should help you in return."

Julis said cheerfully, a childlike smile on her face. "If you hadn’t helped me sell all my flowers this morning, I’d still be on the streets hawking them."

As she spoke, she expertly scrambled up a high ledge and offered Baron her hand from the top.

Baron froze for a moment, then shook his head to decline.

The girl bit her lip, her expression falling slightly, but the young man’s next move left her stunned once more.

With a powerful leap, Baron vaulted onto the nearly seven-foot-high ledge!

"Let’s go," Baron said to the stunned girl. "I just didn’t think a girl your size could support the weight of a grown man."

"I’m fourteen," Julis retorted sullenly, snapping out of her daze.

"That’s still school age."

"I’ve never been to school."

"No schools on the Inner Side?" Baron asked, curious.

"Inner London only has schools for Wizards and Demon Hunters, and the tuition is very expensive. Besides, I’m a Bloodless. I don’t have the right bloodline to become a Law Enforcer, so it would be a waste of money."

At this, the girl asked curiously, "You’re from the Outer Side, right? Do all the children there get to go to school?"

’How can everyone tell I’m from the Outer Side?’

"Don’t call me ’sir.’ Just call me Constantine."

After saying this, Baron paused, inexplicably thinking of Carmen.

But he quickly pushed the Witch’s case from his mind and explained to Julis, "On the Outer Side, students have a basic education system. The government provides funding for poor students to at least finish high school."

’At least, that’s how it is in a certain great nation in the East,’ Baron thought. He wasn’t sure about Britain, but as a developed country, it should be more or less the same.

"The government funds it for free?"

"Of course," Baron said matter-of-factly. "It’s an obligation for a government chosen by the people."

Julis seemed lost in thought.

"We’re here!"

She stopped before a dilapidated wooden door and used the old-fashioned knocker. Light, shuffling footsteps sounded from within, and then the door creaked open.

Three small children stood there. Their clothes were simple, but their faces were clean and delicate.

"This is Ferdinand, my little brother... Martha, my little sister... and Annie, she’s the youngest... Dad’s at work right now. He’s a carriage driver hired by the Westminster People’s Bank, specifically to look after the Griffins..."

As Julis introduced each one, the child would shyly but kindly give Baron a small bow of respect.

Baron patted them on the head and, as if by magic, produced three Gold Coin Chocolates, pressing one into each child’s palm.

’These were the ones Lawrence said would make a dog bleat like a sheep if it ate one, but were otherwise just normal Gold Coin Chocolate,’ Baron recalled.

Julis clapped her hands, telling her brother and sisters to thank Baron, and the children did so in their small, high voices.

Baron noticed a tall wooden stool beside them. He figured the sound he’d heard earlier had been one of them standing on it to look through the peephole.

They only dared to open the door once they confirmed it was Julis.

’A group of lonely children,’ he thought. ’Not so different from how I was in my past life.’

"Why not go to the Outer Side? You could leave as soon as you save up enough for a subway ticket, right?"

Ferdinand took his Gold Coin Chocolate and went into the west bedroom, while Baron naturally picked up the youngest, Annie, squeezed her little cheek, and sat at the only table in the living room.

It was called a living room, but in reality, it was also a bedroom. Not far from the table stood a wooden box bed, enclosed on three sides and with cabinets built in underneath.

In the Middle Ages, lower-class families in Europe slept in beds like this to stay warmer in the winter and to get more storage space.

Julis brewed a cup of tea for Baron. She sat casually on the box bed and began to comb Martha’s hair. "I can’t bear to," she said.

"You can’t bear to?"

Julis nodded. Clamping the wooden comb between her teeth, she first smoothed out Martha’s hair, then began to weave it into a braid.

"Once a Bloodless leaves the Inner Side, they’re affected by the Law of Oblivion. The longer they stay on the Outer Side, the more they gradually forget their memories of the Inner Side..."

"To remain unaffected by the Law of Oblivion, a Bloodless has to travel between the Outer and Inner Sides once a week, starting from the moment they leave."

’Sure enough,’ Baron thought, ’whether on the Outer Side or the Inner Side, in a world of science or fantasy, the hardest thing for the lower class to escape is poverty.’

"I grew up in Inner London. No matter what it’s like here, it’s still my home."

With Martha’s hair newly braided, Julis admired the fishtail plait, squeezed her sister’s little cheek in satisfaction, and said softly,

"Forgetting the people who are important to you, living alone in another world... even if you found happiness, it would still be lonely, wouldn’t it?"

Baron didn’t reply. It wasn’t that he was unmoved, but that concepts like loneliness and happiness felt very distant to him right now.

’A dying man philosophizing... To hell with that!’

Baron faintly heard shuffling footsteps outside the door and was instantly on alert.

He immediately set Annie down, drained the black tea in his cup, and stored the cup in his Gentiana Pattern Ring. Before Julis could react, he had vaulted out the window in an instant, hanging from the ledge against the uneven wall.

He could only hope that no one in this attic would suddenly open their window for a breath of Inner London’s gray air. Inner London, like Outer London, was a place where every inch of land was precious, so at least he didn’t have to worry about people looking up.

Sure enough, there was a knock at the door. Whoever it was sounded very impatient.

"Demon Hunter Association, Bronze Demon Hunter Bill Frank. We’ve received a report and have reason to suspect you’re harboring a fugitive..."

Before Julis could even open the door, the man outside smashed the lock and burst in, followed by a swarm of men in black.

Baron quickly ducked his head, swinging with ape-like agility to hang beneath the adjacent window.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this must be her father’s bedroom.

But as soon as he peeked into the bedroom, Baron’s heart lurched.

A pair of hazy, gray eyes.

He took a closer look.

A haggard, gaunt-looking middle-aged woman was leaning quietly against the headboard. She gave the sight of Baron hanging from the windowsill a silent glance, then turned her empty, lifeless eyes back to the window.

Even though there was nothing but a gray wall outside.

Baron suddenly understood why Julis hadn’t introduced her mother; she had probably thought this lifeless woman would frighten her guest.

He surveyed the room, his gaze lingering for a moment on a newspaper on the side table to the woman’s left:

BILL FRANK ISSUES PRIVATE BOUNTY! TEN THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD! WANTED: FUGITIVE ESCAPED FROM LONDON PRISON!

The search in the living room must have ended, because the bedroom door was pulled open. Bill barged in, not bothering to hide his disgust at the room’s deathly air. Pinching his nose, he questioned the woman bluntly,

"Lady Cardish, have you seen a young man in a black trench coat? Can’t make out his face, wears a Gentiana Pattern Ring on his middle... or maybe his index finger?"

The woman didn’t speak. Bill glanced at the newspaper on the side table and said coaxingly,

"Lady Cavendish, if I recall correctly, you’re infected with Gray Fog Sickness, aren’t you? The length and cost of treatment for that illness must be quite a burden on your family..."

He picked up the newspaper from the side table. "Ten thousand pounds might not be enough to cure Gray Fog Sickness completely, but it would certainly lighten your family’s burden."

"Mom..." Julis and her younger siblings said nervously.

They had been herded into the bedroom by the Lion Knight who accompanied Bill, an obvious attempt to threaten their mother.

Baron’s heart clenched. The sickly woman was weakly raising her hand, as if to point toward the windowsill where he was hanging.

He switched to hanging by one hand, his other reaching for the shotgun at his waist and flicking off the safety.

"Over there?"

Bill followed the woman’s finger, but he only saw a table with the crumbs of a Gold Coin Chocolate on it.

He frowned, not understanding what she meant.

Lady Cavendish ignored Bill’s stare, smiled at her son Ferdinand, and said weakly, "The chocolate was delicious."

"Are you messing with me?"

Bill was furious. He wanted to resort to physical coercion, as he had on previous cases, but seeing the woman’s frail state, he just stormed back into the living room, slamming the door. He pulled a thick ledger from his coat, flipped to a page, pointed, and said coldly,

"Miss Julis Cavendish, if this ledger is correct, your family is seven months overdue on your fog-clearing fees to the Demon Hunter Association."

He tore the page from the ledger and handed it to Julis. "The total is 607.5 pounds. Now, you can either settle the bill..."

He then had one of his men produce a pre-prepared document. "...or you can voluntarily sign this death-risk waiver and come with us to the interrogation room."

The Demon Hunters’ interrogation room... a place with a mortality rate higher than a hospital’s.

Julis’s face was pale. The three children were terrified, their own small faces ashen and tears welling in their eyes. But remembering what their sister had told them, they held back from crying.

For the children of the poor, it was best to discard something as worthless as tears as early as possible.

"Please cooperate with our investigation."

Bill sneered, moving to cuff Julis. He caressed the girl’s cheek. "So young. I’ve never had one this young before."

Julis bit her lip hard and looked at her brother and sisters. Finally, as if she had come to a decision, she shakily raised her hand and pointed toward the window...

"So I’ve been found out after all."

A young, bold voice called out.

"Who’s there?"

Bill looked toward the source of the voice.

The young man in the trench coat vaulted in through the window, tossed his shotgun to the floor, and raised his hands. "I’m the fugitive you’re looking for."

"Get him."

Bill gave the command as if he had expected this all along. The Demon Hunters pinned Baron to the ground.